To all Apad iRobot owners,
Regrettably, we are announcing that our Apad iRobot is not upgradable to Android 2.1 or other versions of Android. We know we said that there was an effort to work on an update for July, but that is no longer feasible. In particular, our chipset supplier Rockchip has halted development of Android 2.1 on the RK2808 platform. We are disappointed as well.
We could have kept quiet about this, but we do not want to deceive you and thereby decided to be honest about this.
We still plan to release additional updates for Android 1.5. We believe that the Apad iRobot as a competitive device.
Many devices you see on the market today is a combined development and manufacturing effort by multiple companies. As such, this decision is not completely under our control given our jurisdiction and our resources. However, while we prefer not to go into details, we do play a crucial role in the manufacturing and development of the Apad iRobot. We do ask for your understanding.
In addition to this, we noticed that a lot of customers are inquiring about Moonse. We now clarify that we do not officially support any of Moonse products. We do not assemble the Moonse branded Rockchip tablets, nor do we supply them. We used to supply some non-electronic components to them, but that relationship is now over. We both make the Rockchip based tablet we call the Apad, but our processes are different. In particular, we have would like to warn those Moonse branded batch 1 customers with Hynix flash memory chips to be careful. Moonse Rockchip Apad components are interchangeable with ours, so for those of you who are stuck with Hynix flash memory, or have issues with their touch screens, you can contact us:
Internationally, www.digital3c.com via mail inquiry
Within China, you can use www.kaixin3c.com (开心3C) and leave an online message
Thank you for supporting us and the Apad iRobot. We are planning to release more products too, so keep posted!
Sincerely,
Li Xin
Gmail: chip3c@gmail.com
QQ群3 82042313 国产MID大聚会
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Have them release the SDK then so we can port our own 2.1
Honestly we don’t have a lot of leverage on Rockchip. But there is a 7″ Android tablet based on the Rockchip RK2808 selling in Europe and the US (Amazon.com, and elsewhere). You can help the both of us if you bug that company to release their source code. They are actually under the jurisdiction of the GPL since they sell directly on your shores.
Um, you’re also supposed to comply with the GPL. Of course no one expects a Chinese company to comply with it, which I is insulting yet deserved.
Anyway thank you for keeping us updated. I bought it as a toy so I’m not disappointed either way.
Now about the moonse thing, I didn’t even know that moonse was a different brand. So I suppose “Apad irobot” is the official name for the apad you guys make right?
This will not effect the M16 or M16+, correct?
Sorry, but I don’t even know what units you would be referring to. I beg your pardon?
That was very rude of you to delete my post chip3c.
You linked to a competitor’s product. The link served its purpose, and that was to re-assure chip that the item you were talking about was not theirs.
Which post? We have a spam filter on. Maybe that ate it up.
Edit:
Ya the Akismet ate it Anonmyous. Chinagrabber has been spamming, so the filter automatically identified their comments as spam.
The so called M16 is the Zenithink ZT180 tablet. They probably rebranded it, but their specifications are wrong on many of their pages. We don’t want too many of their links around here. We got your message though. Thanks for taking the time to post it up.
Cool?
The M16, and M16+.
*link removed*
That is the M16. The M16+ has slightly different specs.
Thanks for nothing man.
Thats a real kick in the face I think, these things will just end up in the bin in the near future. Would’nt expect any real support from small foreign companies anyway, but its a safe bet they probably knew it would not happen from the start.
Wish I had waited for a while now, maybe get an S7.
Thank you for being honest but your have deeply deluded us…. At this point I really hope you will target your efforts on the development of firmware capable to support 3G modems/dongles… At this point this is the only real update which could make us a little happier after this news.
yep! we will support some 3g USB modem/dongle . cdma2000 evdo,wcdma,and so on.
will you also concentrate on HUAWEI? I.e. HUAWEI e170?
The M16 is a new tablet sporting 2.1. Here’s a link to someone selling it on Chinagrabber
(link removed)
There is also information on it on the Slatedroid forums and mention of something called the M16+: http://bit.ly/aW9IOQ
how about apad 2.0 android system..is that not possible either ?
How about a newer version of 1.5 we are on a very old and buggy kernal
It’s not just up to us, but we try.
so is could you flash your firmware on to the moonse e7001 with out a problem?
You probably could, but we don’t make those so don’t blame us if anything goes wrong that’s all.
Maybe you can release all the sources you have for the aPad iRobot so that the community can work on it. As it seems to be a dead product now.
We already released the entire package necessary to create the and unpack the update images. That’s the best we could do for now.
thats really too bad,
I have a lot of apps that won’t work on the apad but work fine on my android hero. Kobo reader is one that I really would like to use on the apad but can’t.
This is a real pity, being left behind on 1.5
Do you know if any one else may be able to pick up were rockchip left off in regard to the rom?
I am a developer and write apps for android and iphone/ipad and have one of these devices, and sadly this puts a curve ball in what we can develop to run on this device.
Steaming! This “news” came between me ordering and receiving my Apad iRobot… today!!! I researched carefully and specifically chose this device to ensure I *could* get updates. It has been in my hands less than 5 hours and until I read this post I was impressed. Now I am considering packing it back up and returning it. The “demo” firmware is a mixture of Chinese & English which I expected but also expect to resolve almost straight away with an update. Tell me I haven’t been a fool to buy this thing?
I don’t think you made a bad decision. Without Android 2.1, the device is still similar to the Archos 7 home tablet in terms of features, at a fraction of the price.
Can you tell me about the 7″ Apads that are now running with TCC8902 CPUs? Do you manufacture these and are they better than the rockchip cpu’s? They seem to be able to run version 2.1 android but also they are more expensive.
Your help would be appreciated.
Are you the manufacturer or just a supplier?
We don’t manufacture them, but we are representing their factory as an official wholesale distributor. The units aren’t quite ready yet.
I live in teh Netherlands (europe) and recently received my Apad.
I was aware of the fact that it was android 1.5 and didn’t expect to much, but the device works reasonably well.
There’s just one really annoying thing. That is the fact, that when typing on the keyboard (while in capitals-mode), texts change to chinese charachters, even when the locale settings for language and keyboard are set to english.
Where can I find a fully functional english firmaware update?
0530EN is probably the one you want. Or else there are some custom firmwares floating around.
It’s a strange thing to let people belive there’s a major update comming – just to let them down in the last minute.
For sure this device has many good features, but it also suffers from a lot of bugs and flaws wich makes it: just almost usable.
The firmware is based on a beta software development kit, with this in mind i think users should at least expect a stable 1.0 firmware – or even better a release of the source code to let the community keep this product alive.
This will have a big impact on peoples trust in your future products. “Will it really be updatable or not?”
Hi,
Is there any 3G or 2G USB modem that works with the apad?
Please do let me know.
Thanks in advance.
Yes, we really need to know which Huawei 3G USB modem that works well with APAD. Please let us know which models. And so we need to do anything else beside setting on APN? Thanks
”, so for those of you who are stuck with Hynix flash memory, or have issues with their touch screens, you can contact us:
Internationally, http://www.digital3c.com via mail inquiry” I have hynix memory and stuck with the black screen… I contacted via the mentioned web-site asking for the possibility to reactivate the device but got NO ANSWER…
Digital3c is just our AliExpress. You aren’t going to get a different answer there.
I find it difficult to believe that you did not know that rockchip would not release a 2.1 port. Why even tell customers in the first place. It is better to say nothing then say something. Because you get people’s hopes up buy the product and now they are not happy with it because they are stuck with a useless version of android.
There was development of Android 2.1 on RK2808 before the development focus was shifted to RK2818. We’ve seen ports and we know that it is feasible.
So, what you are basically saying is that we should forget the possibility of any support on any of your products ever. Why build a product if you can’t support it? You must really think that people in the rest of the world are brainless. What is going to happen is that all of the junk Apads made during this generation are going to be tossed in the garbage and it will leave a seriously bad taste in the mouths of consumers everywhere.
Also, I am sorry, but your not being able to support the chip because Rockchip won’t let you is just an utter and total copout!
So you are telling me that somewhere, someone can’t “leak” an upgrade? And someone, who, may not be from your company, can’t set a link to show your customers where and how to upgrade their units? Come on! That’s just ridiculous!
You had a good product for your price point up until now….. but this type of attitude will allow others to leave your product in the dust…. and will prevent your customers from returning in the future. Very bad business practices.
If you see any other Rockchip RK2808 based tablets upgrading to newer versions of Android, we will likely upgrade ours as well. There are much larger companies with this chipset who are in the same boat as us.
[...] Chipset manufacturers aren’t required to release GPL source code to the public, provided they send sources alongside any GPL software that goes to the device manufacturer. VIA has so far chosen this path, stating all sources are released to device manufacturers (although Eken has claimed differently at least once.) In the case of RockChip, manufacturers claim RockChip isn’t even doing that much and are violating GPL themselves (see first comment). [...]
Any chance of an upgrade to fix the screen rotation?
I too was an early adopter and purchased the I-Web Robot (same product APAD), it is a piece of crap for lack of better word. It turns off by itself, it boots really slowly and worst of all, it is not upgradeable. With all the dissatisfied consumers, there ought to be something done to fix this 1.5 monster. There needs to be a way to get the upgrade to at least 2.0. I think this product had a good chance of upstaging the Ipad if it was upgradeable. It doesnt read the micro sd cards well, and it is difficult to take the chinese language out of the keyboard, let alone understand the source for the APK. Video is almost impossible, youtube does not work, it comes with a chinese version of a media player which shows half screen, etc. What a piece of well you know. Has anyone out there been able to get theirs to function properly. It is nice to hold but useless as its functionality is terrrible. The 3g does not work. Well you can tell my frustration.
Len1
Infact I have bought this tablet with android 2.1 from china,
The Processor highest frequency up to 720MHz,and Memory to 256M DDR2.Support 3D games.It’s cool.
http://www.esaleschina.com/7-inch-android-2-1-apad-android-2-1-tablet-pc-with-wifi-2384.htm
Yes, but how many of those satisfied customers are going to remain satisfied and get another product from you when support is not a priority ?
What about the iZiNN CJ-3 smartphone? I understand it’s running 2.1 on a RK2808, how can this be?
Rockchip didn’t tell us anything new on our end.
please we need to update the apad irobot firmware to android 2.0 above.look it is necessary ,this device must not be allowed to just die like that whatsoever is the agreement pls sort it out.i love the device but the firmware 1.5 is not the best.you cannot connect to your wifi for browsing ,you can not use the data modem on this firmware but we are told all these can be done on apad running on 2.0 above.i purposely but my for browsing with the hope of using my phone wifi
to connect.why didi you sell us a product that as not future.pls we need your help
two words ” not happy” this is a major lie to the buyers of this product , I bought mine from a uk seller in a shop , he told me it would be upgradable to 2.1 because it said so on the hiapad site and it really isnt is it , Its this poor guy who is going to have to take this item back
Unless you bought it two months ago then it’s the seller who is the liar as Li posted this that long ago. It’s also not hiapads fault that the chip manufacturer who develops the software did a backflip. The device manufacturer doesn’t do software.
pls release the firmware update on time tech is growing everyday even by the minutes,as you can see there is now andrroid 2.1 running on telechip, a clone of the original apad.there is no more time to wait ,do it now to stop loosing market share to telechip.pls help us not to make a shift
please i need you to reply to my contributions.allot of people are insterested in this product but this update issue is a serious one. i was to buy ipad by apple when i came across apad.immediately dump ipad for apad but ……..but………but……..uh…uh….uh… . ok .pls do something to fix this quick
THERE WILL NOT BE ANY RELEASE OF ANDROID 2.1 FOR THE ROCKCHIP 2808 APAD OR ANY OTHER 2808 BASED TABLET. It just isn’t going to happen, accept it and move on!
I can only assume Rockchip either found another chip they will develop for 2.1 or discovered the 2808 just didn’t have the power to run 2.1. Either way it has nothing to do with HiApad and there is nothing they can do about it.
Rockchip still hasn’t said anything to us. They have had Android 2.1 sample devices in trade shows, but they aren’t giving us any news regarding this either. We are selling this at a lower price point that the TCC8902. In China without the additional shipping costs, the price difference is enough for this product to compete as it is. Unfortunately the price margin is scaled differently after taking shipping costs into effect. We understand the impact this has on the product, but we can’t fix this.
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There are so many people demanding and asking about Huawei 3G modems, but I’ve never seen any of them getting an answer…
Please can you tell us, is it possible to use for example Huawei E222 USB Dongle with the A-PAD?
How to set it up?
And how to set up the APN? Whenever I try to save the settings everything goes blank, and nothing gets saved…
Please make a support for Huawei modems.
We don’t really do brands. The packaging is designed to be generic and easily replaceable so that it can be branded as anything our suppliers wish to call it. We are calling it the Apad iRobot simply because it’s what is printed on our boxes. We used to call it the Apad, but as you may or may not know there are a lot of Android tablets flooding the market now, so we had to differentiate ourselves. But we don’t really consider this a brand either. I guess you might get a feel for what products we have been forced to manufacture to stay competitive by looking at the products on our Taobao.
Whatever is in the Chinese market. We are not just selling the cards, but also the plans. So support for international customers is not really going to be a priority because we have no way of testing.
Thats an interesting business model, is it common?
Yes, it is, you announced that you’re going to support your customers, talk about a mayor OS upgrade to make believe that it’s going to be updated, sell as many units as you can, and after that you abandon the product, build a new one and start again!
The Apad is just a lot of bugs assembled in a box.
We happen to have quite a bit of satisfied customers. Let’s not throw things too out of proportion here.