Wondermedia 8650 Daughter won from fundraiser HELP

[SciTeach]

Ok, so my daughter who is 9 won this tablet and it came with a charger a 3 page manual (2 pages in different languages) and has about a 2 hour battery life haha.

Android market does not work (as i read on other forums) I have a feeling I will be reading here alot haha.

So, the app market that comes with it is terrible, and i went to slideme and applanet to download their apps for their markets and the little download icon appears up top..the arrow moves down and the bar fills up..but then I dont see it on the screen..cant find it to install it so basically I am stuck. Does anyone know where these apps go to install them. when I touch the little down arrow bar thing it just shows the date lol.

I am pretty much a tablet/android noob and am just trying to help my daughter (who is getting pretty savvy with electronics herself) get some more games and apps and whatnot.

I have a early version pandigital from QVC that I use as a reader, (it wont even run angry birds it is so slow) and i could get slideme to work on that, but on this one..no clue.

Ill keep reading and perhaps find more answers, but at the time this is the most pressing question.

Great informative site by the way. I have a feeling that after a few good reading sessions I wont feel like such a tablet noob. Oh and one more question, has anyone found a Netflix app to work on this? We have it in our house and my daughter would love that.

 

[pbrauer]

Well, congrats to your daughter on her win, and my condolences to you on needing to support it.. Actually that is a pretty good bit of kit with the right tweaks and fixes. It looks like you are already in the right area here at the site, so I will leave it up to the experts on this particular device to provide specific guidance.

In the meantime, welcome to to the forums, and glad to have you here!
Cheers,
Peter

 

[SciTeach]

Thanks for the Welcome!
Ive been reading about these tweaks and fixes, such as Rooting it, Sideloading, Installing a new ROM, like uberdroid.

Ive noticed that alot of posts give information about the tablet.

It is a MID 7 inch screen
Android 2.2
Froyo 2-2 with a bunch of numbers after it (Im assuming this is the ROM)
Green LED, Red when charging, Black audio port
Has flash 10.1 installed and a skype beta

As for those tips and tricks you mentioned. If you could provide some order to them that would be great. i.e The first thing you should do is XXXX, the 2nd thing you should try to do is XXXX etc.
It appears as if updating the ROM provides the best benefits. i.e battery life, installing apps, etc.
And for sideloading using a microSD, you need the .APK file correct?

Goals for this tablet:
Run Android Market
Install Netflix
Some reader apps
Games etc

From what I gather after reading posts for a few hours is that I need to flash the rom to the newer version to run android market. I can probably track that down from the many posts here, and there was another great thread full of apps that a guy listed that he runs on his.

 

[cal67]

You don't need the new ROM to get the market - check the link in my sig. However, the right ROM will speed it up. Just make very sure you have properly identified it so that you don't end up bricking it. Netflix still will not work on Android. Battery life is very poor - I've seen reports of as little as 20 minutes, mine works for about 50 on one charge (if using wireless the whole time). I've had mine apart a few times and the battery is only rated at 1400 mah.

 

[jflora]

Netflix still will not work on Android....

I watch Netflix quite often on my Vizio Tablet and once in a while on my Droid X2 phone.

Sent from my VTAB1008 using Android Tablet Forum