My review of the Coby MID7012 and getting Android Marketplace to work..

yuppicide

Member
Dec 6, 2011
43
1
Alright, so I don't really own this.. I bought it as a gift, but wanted to test it out before I sent it to the person. I also wanted to install Android Marketplace and a few apps. I've never used Android before, so I learned in the process and can give this other person a crash course as well.

As of writing this, PC Richard has them on sale for $89.99 + $4.99 shipping:

Coby Kyros 7.0" 4GB Tablet featuring Android 2.3 | P. C. Richard & Son

I picked mine up in store. Beware, though, their receipt says they do not have a return policy on these items! Double check that, but I'm pretty sure I read that on my receipt.. so maybe paying $10 more from a Walgreens is a better option.

- Slow starting up, but not that bad. A minute or so. My desktop computer at home boots up in about 22 seconds flat. Think of this Android if you had a computer that's a few years old. In fact one of my computers at work boots up slower than this thing!

- Started the unit up for the first time and set the time and date.

- On the unit there's 4 buttons to the right of the screen. The top one is a search button. The next one down will bring up settings. This is where you can change your Wallpaper. There's some nice ones that are animated.. such as moving fish in a pond. The next button down is a back button, and last button is home.

- Could not for the life of me figure out how to connect it to my computer via USB. I also didn't read the manual, so if it's in there who knows. I'll save you trouble. Have the unit off. Plug both ends of USB in. Turn unit on and it will ask if you want to Turn On USB Storage or something. It will then show up as a drive letter in My Computer under Windows and you can copy files over to it.

- Unit will not work with my Netgear WNR2000V3 router. I tried a crapload of settings and am asking for help on their forums. I do not believe this a problem with this tablet, as it works instantly when I took it to the library free wifi. I read on the forums here about Netgear problems and people switching to Linksys having no issues. So, if the unit won't connect for you at first try it elsewhere. Unit may not be defective after all.

- Built in YouTube isn't that bad. It's one of the main reasons I wanted it and web browsing. So my Mom's Husband can show videos, or websites from anywhere in the house. He can pull up videos or recipes in the kitchen for my Mom or guests.

- I installed Marketplace just fine. Works great. Off the Marketplace I've got Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, an Amazon Kindle app, Facebook app, and a few others. So far things seem to be running smooth. The recipient of this gift can install additional things if they want. Angry Birds is a bit slow loading, but once it loads it seems to work fine.

- To save battery life turn off discovery of new wireless networks, and lower the screen brightness. I'm guessing animated wallpaper eats more battery, but what the heck it looks damn sexy.

If the above sounds pretty good to you, then you do not need to root the device. Rooting is a way you can delete unnecessary junk that comes installed, or you can overclock the unit. The risk is you can brick the unit. I say if you're fine with the above, just install Android Marketplace. No risk there.

Do you want to know what I did to get the Android Marketplace? Sure there's tutorials, but here's how I did in one easy post with help from the lovely people on this forum. It couldn't have been simpler:

- Copy and paste this into Google "gapps-hdpi-20101114-signed.zip" without quotes. Download that file and unzip it.

- Connect your device to your computer like I mentioned earlier and copy the following files over to your MID7012:
GoogleServicesFramework.apk
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
Gmail.apk (you may be prompted to install the update possibly)
NetworkLocation.apk
Vending.apk (this is the market)
MarketUpdater.apk

I installed those files because the tutorial said to.

- Disconnect the device safely from your computer.

- Go register yourself a Gmail account. I made one specifically for this device such as [email protected].. whatever floats your boat.

- Boot up the MID7012 and go to the desktop. You will see a button with 16 little dots to the right I believe. Hit that and go into APK Installer. Install the first 5 apps listed above.

- Go back to where you found the APK Installer. You will see a Gmail app. Use it to connect to that email account and password you setup earlier.

- Now go install vending and market update.

Bam! Done. Worked for me. You need that Gmail account in order to use marketplace and you also need wifi on. Originally the Android Marketplace closed instantly for me.. know why? It's because the wifi doesn't work at home for me. As soon as I went to the library bam worked.

I love this device and want one for myself. I think it works perfectly for what I want. I can't comment on battery life, because I haven't used it long enough since I'm sending it to someone as a gift.
 

bjy20716

Member
Nov 7, 2011
31
2
I also had a wifi network it would not connect to when I was at a restaurant.

It seems the range is really bad.

Also from what I read this tablet is 802.11 B / G and NOT N.

So if someone is running a N only network you will not be able to connect.
 

ResidentEvil

Member
Nov 6, 2011
87
12
I also had a wifi network it would not connect to when I was at a restaurant.

It seems the range is really bad.

Also from what I read this tablet is 802.11 B / G and NOT N.

So if someone is running a N only network you will not be able to connect.

Wow I never noticed that about the N network.

sent from my Mind to your brain.
 

Pamster

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2011
393
35
Thanks for the review and for taking time to go over the steps you took to set up the device yuppicide! :D
 

yuppicide

Member
Dec 6, 2011
43
1
Fruit Ninja is a little laggy when multiple fruit are on the screen. I really have to stop playing with this as it's not mine. :)

I typed up a three page tutorial on using the device with all the little things I've learned so far.. do you think that's too much for a Christmas gift? How to customize/delete or add things to desktop, etc.
 

kjd2223

Member
Dec 14, 2011
4
0
Can not get:
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
To load.
I try and get the message:Application not installed

I did get Google services framework, and Android market installed

 

Spider

Administrator
Staff member
Mar 24, 2011
15,785
1,813
Thank you for the writeup, it should be helpful to others getting that tablet.
 

yuppicide

Member
Dec 6, 2011
43
1
Yeah, not sure. I copied them to the root directory of the internal memory on the unit and installed them using the APK installer that came with the unit.

Did you try the market once it was installed? Maybe it works for you.

Can not get:
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
To load.
I try and get the message:Application not installed

I did get Google services framework, and Android market installed

 

yuppicide

Member
Dec 6, 2011
43
1
Good enough then I guess you don't need those few other apps for market to work.

Since my MID7012 is a gift, but if I get one for myself in the future I think I'd start compiling a list myself of what games work well.. like my Fruit Ninja example in how it lags a bit.

I might hold out and see how the new Coby with Android 4.0 in them are.
 

bjy20716

Member
Nov 7, 2011
31
2
Can not get:
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk
GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk
To load.
I try and get the message:Application not installed

I did get Google services framework, and Android market installed


Did you use the gapps-hdpi-20101114-signed.zip package?
 

Nebchick

Member
Dec 31, 2011
5
0
I also had a wifi network it would not connect to when I was at a restaurant.

It seems the range is really bad.

Also from what I read this tablet is 802.11 B / G and NOT N.

So if someone is running a N only network you will not be able to connect.

Where do you find if it's B/ G or N??
 

NWteche

Member
Feb 6, 2012
8
1
Just to let y'all know, I too had to figure out how to install the Android Market on my Coby Kyros MID 7012. I ran through a bunch of tutorials without success. I wasn't in the mood to root the tablet either. Finally, I found a method (very similar to yours) that worked! I decided to write up my own tutorial so others wouldn't have to do as much research as I did.

In case anyone wants to take a peek, here's mine. Cheers! :)

Install Android Market on Coby Kyros MID7012 (or most other tablets running Android 2.3.3) | Northwest Tech Experience
 
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