Anyone want to run the Logos Android app on an E-Ink tablet or e-reader?

Mark Nolette
Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭
edited November 21 in English Forum

I have been dreaming of having an E-Ink Android tablet or e-reader that could run the Logos app and other text-intensive apps. Well, the time may be upon us! Check out www.meetearl.com. Earl is an E-ink Android tablet that runs Android 4.1. It has all the usual Android tablet features, including a backlight for the display. But it's also designed for use outdoors, on hikes and such, so it has GPS, maps, a radio, and can give you your weather (including temp, humidity, wind speed and dew point). It's a little more expensive than your average Android tablet or e-reader, at $299, but for all it can do, it's a bargain - especially if you love the outdoors. It's not yet ready for shipping, but may be later this spring. 

Another option, for those who have the Kobo Aura HD, is a hack that allows you to run Android 2.3 off a microSD card. The info is here:http://angor00.blogspot.ru/2014/02/booting-android-from-external-sd-on.html

I believe that Logos and E-Ink would make a great team. E-Ink is easier on the eyes than an LCD or similar display. If neither of the above options appeals to you, encourage other companies, like Nook or Kindle or Kobo, to offer such a device. The Nook e-readers run Android, but 2.1, too "old" for Logos even if you root the device.

Also, if Earl and any other such devices are successful, perhaps Logos could tweak the app to look even better on an E-Ink screen.   

Tagged:
«13

Comments

  • Steve Nicholson
    Steve Nicholson Member Posts: 91

    I would absolutely love to run Logos Android on my Kobo Aura (not HD).

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    Sadly, that hack doesn't work on the Aura, because (correct me if I'm wrong) the Aura lacks a microSD slot. Someone else figured out how to do something similar for the Aura, I believe, but you'd have to open your device and play with the internal SD card. That's pretty chancy.  

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    I found an update on the Earl site. It will run Android 4.4. Even better!  

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

      I am very interested in this also.  Does anyone have any experience other than running it on the nook.  I'm considering the aura hd.

      Here are some others that are out and are coming soon:  

       http://www.prestigioplaza.com/catalogue/Multireaders/PER5364BC

       https://onyx-boox.com/productsinfo/onyx-boox-c65-afterglow/

       https://onyx-boox.com/coming-soon-e-ink-news/onyx-boox-t-68/

    Any thoughts?

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

      Another way I've done it is by running team viewer and project from my computer screen to my nook so I can read from my desktop version.

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    They look promising, but as far as I know, they aren't available in the USA - though you can get the Prestigio in Canada. If I'm wrong, great!

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

      Another way I've done it is by running team viewer and project from my computer screen to my nook so I can read from my desktop version.

    I didn't think you could run the team viewer app on a Nook Simple Touch. Can you? How well does it work? I have an NST, and that would be a good solution.  

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    You can buy it with the above link to the amazon uk.  I went as far as paying for it and it seemed to work fine shipping to me in the U.S.  

    You can also order the onyx boox from the website I gave there.  I think i've also seen that on ebay from time to time.  

    Yes Team Viewer works but in a VERY limited way.  I use it by having team viewer focus on the left side of the screen where I position one of my logos windows.  When I want to read something for a long period of time during my study, rather than a quick glance, I put it in that window and then I read it on the nook.  I have to control everything from my keyboard but I just have to hit the space bar anyway.  

  • Steve Nicholson
    Steve Nicholson Member Posts: 91

    Mark, the Aura (like the Aura HD) has a micro SD card slot.

  • Randy W. Sims
    Randy W. Sims Member Posts: 2,272 ✭✭✭

    Check out www.meetearl.com. Earl is an E-ink Android tablet that runs Android 4.1.

    Thanks for mentioning this. I will definitely keep an eye on it. It may scratch a number of itches.

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    Well, I can now scratch one itch. My new Kobo Aura HD arrived yesterday. Today, I was able to set up Android (Gingerbread, 2.3.4) on an external microSD card and get it to run. The Logos and Verbum apps work! I downloaded a couple of resources and did a Passage Guide. It's a bit slower than a Nexus 7 would be, there is the occasional E-Ink screen refresh, and some of the color schemes don't look as nice on a "black-and-white" E-Ink display, but the app is definitely usable. Yes, reading resources works best of all, as you would expect. You can find the needed files and instructions on mobileread.com (look for the Android on Kobo thread) or look for Angor's blog. Yes, this will work on the Kobo Glo and Touch as well (different image files, of course). They don't seem to have it working on the Aura (non-HD) yet.  

    Non-Logos observations: Some apps work better than others. YMMV. Text in the Nook app looks uneven, like the page was a window with several cracks in it. The Kindle app from XDA, tweaked to look better on E-Ink, works well. The Gingerbread image includes some e-reader apps that were tweaked a bit for E-Ink. Play Store works reasonably well, with an occasional bug. These things aren't a big deal to me, as my main point in this was to see if I can get Logos and some other text-intensive apps on an E-Ink display - and here it is. With Calibre, I can easily take my Nook or Kindle books and put them on the Kobo stock reader. I can report again after a week or so. For now, though, it is promising.  

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    Mark I'm so glad to hear that.  I just ordered my aura hd, maybe I'll try to shoot a video of the install.  Any way to see some video of how logos runs on it?

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    I've never done a video like that. I'll see what I can do. No promises! 

    I like the the way that Logos runs in general. Even though everything is in grayscale and not color, that isn't generally an issue. A passage guide runs well, especially when your resources have been downloaded. It's a little slower than a Nexus 7 would be, but not by much. You may want to adjust text settings to optimize your display for the Aura HD. 

    Installation of the Android image on the microSD card is a three step process. You'll find it on Angor's blog or the mobileread site. You'll need something like WinImage (free) (assuming you have a Windows system) to restore the image to the card. Then you need partitioning software (I use MiniTool, also free) to set the partitions correctly. Make sure you have at least 30 mb of unallocated space in the front of the card, or you won't be able to boot into Android! Then there are two files to download and place on the Aura HD itself. If all goes well, you'll be in Android in 5-10 minutes. Then you may want to change the language in Settings (Angor is Russian), but a post on the blog shows you whee and how. Play Store is a bit glitchy, but that isn't an issue for me. I was able to download and run Logos, and that was all I wanted! 

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    So all these directions at angor's blog are way over my head...any way you can simplify it for me?  I downloaded the two programs you said there.  I am having trouble with the SD card process.

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    Have you ever worked with image or partition software before? If not, then you may need a step-by-step guide for the whole process. The ideal thing is if you know someone who is the local "computer geek" and who could walk you through it all in person. If not, I can write up something for you, though it may be a fairly long post. I could email it to you directly. If all goes well, i could do it later today. If not, it may be a couple of days before I get to it.  

    There is an easier solution, if all you want to do is read your Logos resources on your Aura HD. On your home page, touch the little icon with three horizontal lines that's next to your battery indicator. Touch Settings, then Beta Features, then find Web Browser at the bottom, and touch Start. Then, go to Biblia.com, and log into your account. You can zoom in with the buttons at the bottom of the page. Then you can find and read any of your resources. It can't do passage guides or word studies, though. 

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

      Hi Mark, I have never worked with partition software before...I have followed video directions on rooting my nook simple touch and one of my old android phones.  I understand the concept of partitioning and I am computer literate.  But this seems much more complicated.

      I purchased the aura hd so I could highlight.  That was the major reason I wanted one that ran 2.3.  So the biblia.com wouldn't work well for me.  I am sure the directions would help anyone else who needed help with it too :)

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    Makes sense to me. It's been a busy day, but I'll put something together when I get a chance. Since it's on this board, I won't presume anything, but just do it step-by-step so that anyone who would be using a forum like this should be able to follow it easily. (Well, at least I hope it will be clear!)

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    Thanks!  I will be trying it out in the meantime.  

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    Did you get it working with Disk Utility? I actually just bought a Mac (my very first) a few months ago, but I couldn't get the process to work through Disk Utility. I have access to a Windows PC occasionally, and the instructions I had were for Windows. That occasional access is one thing that slows down the process of me doing up "translated" directions. Another is the time of year, with Holy Week upon us. But I'll get there. 

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    No Disk utility didn't work... So I went back to working on my bootcamp windows.  I downloaded the files from angor's blog.  Here are a few things I may ask quetsions about:

    1.  When i went to write 2014-02-28_Android_Kobo_Aura_HD there was an error but it seemed to still have the files on it.  does this sound right?

    2.  When I opened Minitool partition I saw 5 partitions:  1. 30mb unallocated, 2. 5.5gb Kobo ExTsD (FaT32), 3. 695mb (OTHER), 4.  198mbmb, 5.  8.4gb (Unallocated).

    3.  Am I supposed to drag the folde fix-udev-tgz while the sd card is in?

    Maybe we can start with this...The rest seems pretty simple and straight forward..

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    1) Do you remember what the error was? It may or may not be significant.  

    2) Yes, that is exactly right. In Mini Tool, what you'll want to do is move partition 4 to the back of the card, and then partition 3 right next to it. Then you'll want to use extend partition to lengthen partition 2 to cover all the unallocated space between it and 3. Don't use resize partition for that, because it will expand your partition 2 in BOTH directions! You need that 30 mb unallocated in the front, or you'll never be able to boot from the card. Why that is, I don't know, but that was what happened to me.

    3) Yes. Put the sd card in before you drag or unzip those two other files you downloaded. When you first put the card in, your Aura may take a moment or two to check it out. That's normal. Wait for that to finish and then do the fix file and then the dual boot one. The fix file will do its thing quickly. The dual boot file will create a backup on the sd card. That will take fifteen minutes. Once that is done, you should be able to boot into Android the next time you restart your Aura HD. 

    Feel free to ask more questions, and I'll get back to you when possible!

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    P.S. I tried highlighting and it works fine. Since we're talking grayscale here, you can experiment to see which "color" works best for you!

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    Great, thanks for all the info.  This may be a stupid question...but how do you move the partitions... i figured that's what I needed to do but i can't figure out how to move them.  Click and drag didn't seem to work.

      Right now I am waiting that 15 minutes for it to reset after the first file was to be dragged over.  Do you think it is too late to extend the partition after it is done?

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    Oh and regarding the error.  I went back through and found a program for mac that burns images and it worked that way.  i figured out how to move around the partitions.

      I did all that and then I did the final step of moving the folder but it didn't reset for long like the first one did.  So I held the light button when I turned it on to see if it had android...and it restored the kobo...now I have to start all the way over...

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    You're probably better off doing it all in Windows from start to finish. Chances are, it can be done on a Mac, but I haven't figured that out yet. 

    Here's hoping that it all works the second time around. I thought I had it all done right, and I could not get my Aura HD to boot into Android. I even thought that there might be something wrong with my Aura HD. Turns out, my mistake was filling in that 30 mb in the front. 

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    Ok I got it running.  I am a little disappointed in the speed at which Logos runs.  I also noticed that I cannot swipe to turn the pages I can only touch the right or left side and even that is a little annoying.  I think I had higher hopes.  Maybe if it wasn't installed on the SD card it would run faster?

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    If you ever opened up your Aura HD (not recommended, by the way), you would find that your "hard drive" is, in fact, a microSD card! Not unusual for small tablets and e-readers. In fact, you can replace the internal SD card with Android, but I don't think it would be that much better. And you'd lose the Kobo e-reader capabilities. 

    It is true that Logos will not rum smoothly like you would find on a tablet designed to run Android. But, look at it this way. Your Aura HD is an e-reader. It was not sold with Android in mind. We are trying to run an Android image from a German tablet off an sd card. It's not unlike trying to teach a bear to hop like a rabbit. Bear hops will look less impressive than bunny hops! Considering that the Aura HD is basically an e-reader, albeit an excellent one, the fact that we have what we have in this sd image is pretty amazing. We also are dealing with the assets and the limitations of E-Ink technology. 

    That being said, here are a few suggestions to help you get as much as possible out of this setup. Firstly, the microSD card. People who have run ROMs off sd cards in other devices will tell you that the best card for performance is a SanDisk class 4 card. Not a class 10 card. Counterintuitive, but often true. I have found it to be the best as well. Secondly, install Zeam launcher (not easy to find these days, but free) and choose it instead of the launcher that's already there. Zeam takes up less RAM and so you can squeeze out a little more performance there. Besides this, it's possible that Angor and/or the folks at mobileread will continue to tweak the setup and have revised versions that run better overall. 

    I felt some disappointment at first, but became more impressed as I used Logos on the Aura HD. Page turns are a bit of a nuisance, but I see this as a glass that's at least half-full, not half empty! I can read any of my Logos resources on an E-Ink display, and do passage guides and word searches to boot. Life is good.  God is even better!

  • NYSERVANT
    NYSERVANT Member Posts: 191

    The two finger scroll works!  And u can hold it like a book atill and use both thumbs

  • Mark Nolette
    Mark Nolette Member Posts: 508 ✭✭

    That reminds me - Logos (and Android in general) on the card seem to take a little while to get fully up to speed. Yes, you can scroll. As you use it, you'll find a few quirks or bugs, but also how to adapt to them. It will grow on you in time.