Haipad M701-R +HDMI +Remote

[OffWorld]

Yesterday I received my Haipad M701-R with HDMI output and a remote control.

So far I'm liking it
Screen
The g-sensor works great for changing the screen orientation, the screen is quite responsive and 2-point multi-touch pinching zooms in the browser (haven't noticed it working in any other apps), videos look good.

USB
Mounting it as a USB device to my computer worked flawlessly, USB hosting works, haven't done any firmware stuff yet though.

Extras
The tiny remote control works nicely, HDMI output works for 720p and 1080p videos.

Networking
Connected to my wifi and the public access point at my college without issues, Android Market works, as does YouTube. It says it supports 3G and comes with a huge list of Asian and European services listed for that in the settings, but (as I expected) nothing for the United States since, by all accounts, no US 3G modems will work with any of these Chinapads.

3D Accelerated graphics
I checked the 3D accelerated graphics. Gears reports an average of 100 fps, and I've tried a 3D home screen that works nicely, but I haven't tried any 3D games yet.

As an eReader
It (thankfully) didn't come with any eReader software on it, so for eReader duty I have Kindle and Acrobat Reader installed, both of which work fine.

It's a very nice looking tablet, much thinner than I expected and weighs in at only 350 grams.

Of course there are other things that would be nice:

Higher Screen Resolution
The screen resolution is set rather low - in fact it won't even display the names of files and folder in icon view when using the File Explorer and in list view it's nearly impossible to click on the first entry because the toolbar is so huge it covers it. The desktop looks really claustrophobic too. For a 7" screen the LCD density really needs to be changed to allow more stuff to fit! I gather there is no easy way to do that without rooting the device. I know there is a (pay) app for adjusting that - which still requires root - but it's probably something I'd set once to my liking and leave alone so I'm guessing there's a config file somewhere I could edit and do it for free?

Unmount USB Flash Drive Option
The good news is the USB host works and (with the provided adapter) you can plug a USB flash drive into the tablet. The bad news is there's no simple way to unmount it when you want to unplug it. On some other devices people have put them into "hibernate" to unplug, but there is no Hibernate option (probably because it was problematic, as it is on some devices). So the only options are to either risk data corruption and just unplug it anyway, warnings be damned OR to shut the tablet down and unplug the USB drive.

Menu bar "Back" and "Menu" Buttons
It already has a "Home" button on the menu bar, but it really could use virtual versions of the other buttons as well!

All those things could easily be fixed in a firmware update, but there's one glaring issue that can't:

Recessed MicroSD Card Slot!
Ok, I'd have to open it up and figure out how (or even if) it would be possible to modify things so the Micro SD card seats all the way. It currently sticks out about 5 mm. There may simply be no fix for this and I'll just have to be careful not to break the card.

So, there are my first impressions after having it for about a day

 

[kristeltips66]

Hi
I had one previously X5A from Babiken , which i did not like. For example the wifi stopped working and was unable use bluetooth nor play any videos. When i sent it back Bakiben blamed me and said that it worked. They refused to exchange it and refused to refund me. So I had to pay Babiken the postage to return it me. So i am waiting for it come so that I can sell it.
In the meantime , i have purchased the HAIPAD on Ebay.

Android 2.1 3G Touch 7" ebook Tablet MID PC WiFi 256RAM on eBay (end time 23-Oct-10 07:43:12 BST)
I will keep you posted.

 

[OffWorld]

Ok, so another day of playing with my new tablet and have run across a couple more issues - not unknown, apparently, but it's amazing what you can find when you know what to search for on Google.

Camera is Reversed
This is a problem with Front Facing Cameras that has turned up on a number of Android phones. It is apparently a software issue, I think. There are some camera apps that offer a "mirror mode" that reverses the camera image on purpose (makes it easier for the user when video chatting I guess so your left hand isn't on the right side of the screen), but in this case that's not what's going on. Now, I've seen a fix on SlateDroid for an "upside down" camera using these steps:
1. Run ConnectBot
2. Connect: choose local (enter)
3. Type: setenv camera_rotate 270
4. Type: exit
5. Reboot PAD
But that wouldn't flip the image, so there must be another command? I know some of the phones that had this problem got an update with a "Mirror Mode" setting to fix it. Oh, and I tried downloading a couple different camera apps and it appears the front-facing camera in this tablet is not being detected as one either? I don't really plan to use the camera much, if at all, but it would be nice to fix it if that's possible.

As for ConnectBot, I'm assuming you need root/su access to use it? I'm pretty familiar with how that works on a regular Linux system, but is it possible to get su permissions without rooting the device (i.e., permissions elevations along the lines of how Ubuntu does it?).

G-Sensor Partially Reversed (Sort of)
Now that I've put a couple of games on the tablet I've discovered my g-sensor is half-way reversed. When looking in landscape mode the top and bottom are correct, but the left and right are reversed (or if in portrait mode, left and right are correct and top and bottom are reversed), but this is ONLY in the games! The OS screens, settings screens, web browsers, Market, etc., (pretty much everything BUT games) detect the orientation correctly, except for a couple of non-game apps that will start in portrait mode and get "up" wrong initially, but once you get into the program they orient correctly. Which means if I used the g-sensor fix I also found at SlateDroid the games could be made to orient correctly, but then EVERYTHING ELSE would be wrong. I'm guessing that a lot of the basic apps (like browsers, settings, etc.) query the OS for the sensor data/calibration, but the games seem to have their own calibration setups (which all seem to automatically try to detect the g-sensor orientation, and inevitably get it wrong. Would be much better if you could just TELL them which end is "UP"). So I'm not sure if there is really a g-sensor calibration issue or not, or if it's just a software issue with the games I tried.

I'll reiterate that BOTH of these issues are NOT limited to the Haipad M701-R tablet as both these problems have been seen on various other Android devices. The real question is can they be fixed?

 

[xaueious]

Well here's the rotation and camera fix I heard might be relevant:
[How to] Fix for reverted Gravity sensor or camera

Remember to be root

 

[OffWorld]

Well here's the rotation and camera fix I heard might be relevant:
[How to] Fix for reverted Gravity sensor or camera

Remember to be root

Yep, that's the thread where I got those camera fix instructions I listed. But the problem is the camera ISN'T upside down, it's mirrored. So it rotates correctly with the g-sensor, but if I took a picture with text in it the text would be backwards. I know a couple of the Android phones have had this problem and at least one (the HTC Evo) got an update that added a "Mirror" option in the Camera settings, but it only mirrors the mirrored image so it's correct in portrait mode - in landscape it makes the image display upside down (other apps without that setting display the mirrored image as it is sent natively from the camera). But, unless there is text in the image, you'd never notice it was mirrored - and for photos it's easy enough to flip them with an image editor on the tablet, but I'd have to dump any video to my desktop and reverse it with video editing software.

Also, with the g-sensor fix if I were to swap the values for the narrow ends of the tablet most of the games would be reacting correctly, but then just about everything else would be messed up. I'm not sure how you would go about getting the OS and all the other apps to agree with the games on which end is up (when holding it in portrait). I'm still wondering if this doesn't have something to do with the games all having their own g-sensor calibration systems that are polling the sensor directly, rather than getting the values from the OS as I suspect the other programs are doing?

Oh, and I did find a different Labyrinth game that has options for swapping X, Y, or both X & Y axis so it is at least playable. Guess I'll have to look for more games that have that level of control in their settings.

 

[sherring8290]

How to root! very simply easy instructions, there is a pixel density app too, free, from xda-developers

heres the link to root forum
Rooting your Haipad 701, G10, etc with the latest firmware How-To

Peace

 

[sherring8290]

sorry to keep posting links but i just came across this forum, its in german but if you copy and paste the link in google you can translate it
basically its a how to change the front button to home from sleep on the hardware level, very helpful and worked like a champ too, there is an embedded video too

Gpad G10/11 Home-Button+Multitasking

 

[jmodi]

My HaiPad M701-R has a problem with screen resolution. YouTube plays with sound and image on TV but no image on HaiPad, I can only hear sound on HaiPad. Screen resolution is not good at certain angles, not sure what the problem may be. Some apps from Android market will not play, but a few are working fine. Wifi is awesome on this baby. Should I update the firmware and what is the latest firmware out there? Anybody has a solution to this, other than the image problems for both Youtube, Camera and Camcorder, the unit is a good toy. Is it possible to reset to factory settings?

Joseph

 

[sherring8290]

My HaiPad M701-R has a problem with screen resolution. YouTube plays with sound and image on TV but no image on HaiPad, I can only hear sound on HaiPad. Screen resolution is not good at certain angles, not sure what the problem may be. Some apps from Android market will not play, but a few are working fine. Wifi is awesome on this baby. Should I update the firmware and what is the latest firmware out there? Anybody has a solution to this, other than the image problems for both Youtube, Camera and Camcorder, the unit is a good toy. Is it possible to reset to factory settings?

Joseph

when connecting through HDMI it extends to the tv this will cause the video to only play on the TV its the same as if you were to HDMI your laptop to HDTV, just turn down your pad and turn up the tv.

 

[iamdestruktor]

Hi
I had one previously X5A from Babiken , which i did not like. For example the wifi stopped working and was unable use bluetooth nor play any videos. When i sent it back Bakiben blamed me and said that it worked. They refused to exchange it and refused to refund me. So I had to pay Babiken the postage to return it me. So i am waiting for it come so that I can sell it.
In the meantime , i have purchased the HAIPAD on Ebay.

Android 2.1 3G Touch 7" ebook Tablet MID PC WiFi 256RAM on eBay (end time 23-Oct-10 07:43:12 BST)
I will keep you posted.

You should always take pictures for some kind of evidence that it wasn't working. I had a similar problem. I bought an APAD e7002 through merimobiles.com. The tablet came bricked (screen wasn't working). I took plenty of pictures and sent it back - sadly shipping it back through my own wallet. But they say pictures are worth a thousand words.

Oh, and i'd stay away from EBAY - buyer beware. You'll probably get no support or help whatsoever.

 

[OffWorld]

Barcode Scanning?

Has anyone been able to scan a barcode/QR code with one of these? I've tried four different barcode reader apps and none of them have worked.

First of all it's tricky because it's a front-facing camera, and it takes mirrored pictures which I'm not certain makes any difference (I've found conflicting information about that, since apparently some scanners can compensate if they detect the registration squares are in the wrong positions - like if you were scanning the QR code upside down, but that would only rotate it not sure about flipping it). Even if they are mirrored, I downloaded a couple QR codes, flipped the images in graphics software and then tried to scan them off my 27" flat panel monitor and they still didn't register with any of the scanning apps. I've also noticed that the camera takes over-exposed washed-out pictures, so maybe there just isn't enough contrast for the app to "see" that there is a code there?

Anyway, as of right now, I'd have to say QR/Barcode scanning also doesn't work on this device.

 

[kristeltips66]

I can't wait to get mine

 

[kristeltips66]

Too late, i have already purchased from Ebay because if the tablet goes wrong you can go open a case via Paypal. As for support, i have purchased chinese i9 phones from Ebay and i have had no problems so far.

 

[OffWorld]

Does this one have bluetooth?

No. The only wireless interface it has if for 802.11 b/g wi-fi.

Also, FYI, the settings show a GPS option but it doesn't appear to actually have a GPS in it.

 

[DWhite]

Are there any models like the G10, M701 or M701-R coming out soon that have android 2.2 on them? And when I say soon I mean like some time in November? I would really like to have flash 10.1 for watching things like Hulu.