Some news about upcoming Onyx devices

[mdp]

Originally Posted by mdp

For example: the Onyx Monitor application forces video to A2. [...] "normal" mode makes it easier to use the mouse because the cursor is forced to leave a trail!

Hello, I am writing this message from the Max2 used as a monitor through HDMI (I needed light to test). Again confirm it works well, actually.
Now, latency is a potential for problems, so I tried Braid. Looks beautiful, and works well, and it is usable (you can actually play it with some degree of control)! Not sure I would finish the game though. The test is to see the accuracy of the reactions. So, taking Cuphead as a "impossible", Braid looks doable. To those who do not know what the two things are: I do this to verify how well you control an interaction.

The mouse is, in real experience, quite usable. Other tricks I earlier suggested, like the "mouse cursor trail", may enhance the experience (cannot try, I am on Linux) - but they are not required. You just get used to it. The annoyance is (for those who never worked with laggy monitors, typical of remote contexts), precision when pointing to small items, such as the corner of the text edit area in this real time case - but even in these cases, really, it's fully doable.

I can identify three lacks in the current implementation, that as shipped with the device:
- the Monitor software only uses A2 mode (of course A2 with dithering), but Normal mode would be really, really welcome, and there is no use to do without it. It is like in all other situations: A2 is good in case of large moving parts on the screen, normal is good to properly eye details on the screen. The ability to switch to Normal mode should be added.
- The dithering is dynamic: a static screen continuously changes its dots, because a grey bar is rendered with always differently placed dots. It's like a bee swarm. This is why it consumes battery! It does, but there is no need to do it! This must be just an intermediate implementation. If a bar in frame 0 is rendered as "1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0...", that dithering should remain identical in frame 1, frame 2, frame 3 etc. until that bar is modified on the screen (translated, scaled etc.). "Static screen" should imply "identical rendering".
This also gives the effect of a pulsating screen.
- it would be useful, although not strictly necessary, to have a software contrast enhancer in the Monitor application itsefl. Of course, similar settings are also available in the desktop OS, so it's not really needed.

[Randy11]

Originally Posted by mdp

I can identify three lacks in the current implementation, that as shipped with the device:
- the Monitor software only uses A2 mode (of course A2 with dithering), but Normal mode would be really, really welcome, and there is no use to do without it. It is like in all other situations: A2 is good in case of large moving parts on the screen, normal is good to properly eye details on the screen. The ability to switch to Normal mode should be added.
- The dithering is dynamic: a static screen continuously changes its dots, because a grey bar is rendered with always differently placed dots. It's like a bee swarm. This is why it consumes battery! It does, but there is no need to do it! This must be just an intermediate implementation. If a bar in frame 0 is rendered as "1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0...", that dithering should remain identical in frame 1, frame 2, frame 3 etc. until that bar is modified on the screen (translated, scaled etc.). "Static screen" should imply "identical rendering".
This also gives the effect of a pulsating screen.
- it would be useful, although not strictly necessary, to have a software contrast enhancer in the Monitor application itsefl. Of course, similar settings are also available in the desktop OS, so it's not really needed.

I agree with this. In my professional context : no Wifi, bluthooth or USB connexion for a private device ... The SD-Card was a solution but no SD-Card with the MAX2

So, the HDMI port could be the unique solution to READ the professional documentations, but I would read them with the better quality, not with the A2 mode.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Randy11

I agree with this. In my professional context : no Wifi, bluthooth or USB connexion for a private device ... The SD-Card was a solution but no SD-Card with the MAX2

So, the HDMI port could be the unique solution to READ the professional documentations, but I would read them with the better quality, not with the A2 mode.

? I am missing something in your post Randy,
-- you can use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, just disconnect them when you do not need them anymore...
-- USB OTG: I have to try, I will probably do it today
-- portable NAS connected to the device: I'll check in the next few days
-- why would you /require/ HDMI to read the professional documentations? You have
1|shell@Max2:/ $ df
[...]
/data 27.0G 253.9M 26.8G 4096
[...]
- you have plenty of buffer space.

Of course, for the official monitor function (which all things considered left me impressed) features should be added and the work must be completed (the implementation must be improved),
but you probably did not consider that there are other solutions than HDMI ; )
I will try those later.

[Randy11]

Originally Posted by mdp

? I am missing something in your post Randy,
-- you can use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, just disconnect them when you do not need them anymore...
-- USB OTG: I have to try, I will probably do it today
-- portable NAS connected to the device: I'll check in the next few days
-- why would you /require/ HDMI to read the professional documentations? You have
1|shell@Max2:/ $ df
[...]
/data 27.0G 253.9M 26.8G 4096
[...]
- you have plenty of buffer space.

Of course, for the official monitor function (which all things considered left me impressed) features should be added and the work must be completed (the implementation must be improved),
but you probably did not consider that there are other solutions than HDMI ; )
I will try those later.

Hello Mdp,

Yes, you miss something. The security rule forbid Wifi, Bluetooth and USB connexion with a private device. Without a SD-Card, there is no way to transfer professional documents in the MAX2. The solution is to use the MAX like a monitor to read the documents stored in a computer via the HDMI port

Originally Posted by mdp

1|shell@Max2:/ $ df
[...]
/data 27.0G 253.9M 26.8G 4096
[...]

Have you a Linux shell in the MAX2 ?

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Randy11

The security rule forbid Wifi, Bluetooth and USB connexion with a private device.

!?!?!? What's that?
Please be more specific.

For example: USB connection: ADB works (at least)!
And for RNDIS, I had to root the MaxCarta already. (It would be about time that they simply enabled the option in the settings. I am struggling with that right now).

What is it that you tried and did work?

That shell is the internal shell of the device through "Term.apk", or "jackpal.androidterm".
The same would appear using ADB through USB.

EDIT: and the wi-fi - yesterday I tested some browsing and published results here - well the wi-fi was given through a connection on my Android phone, a "private" device...

EDIT2: «The security rule forbid Wifi, Bluetooth and USB connexion with a private device. Without a SD-Card, there is no way to transfer professional documents in the MAX2»
I copied the files I have there through the MTP using a USB cable to my desktop, the standard way...

[Randy11]

Originally Posted by mdp

!?!?!? What's that?
Please be more specific.

In my professional context, I am not allowed to connect a private device by Wifi, USB or Bluetooth. The question is not "what can make the MAX2", but "what I am authorized to do" ... it's a big difference.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Randy11

In my professional context, I am not allowed to connect a private device by Wifi, USB or Bluetooth. The question is not "what can make the MAX2", but "what I am authorized to do" ... it's a big difference.

Ok, now I understand, so you meant - you would have liked to connect the Onyx device at work, but office policy impedes that, right? Probably you would like to read your work-related documentation on the tablet (yes, that's what you wrote earlier).
I am not sure what to suggest (I have a number of ideas), because I do not know the rest of the details of your infrastructure. But probably, you should exchange with your IT dept. to enable your productivity. It is strange, by the way, that they allowed SD-cards, given that they disabled all the rest (it is true that USB has become a nice trojan horse portal). Otherwise, there will surely be ways to move those documents somewhere else, and then upload them on the tablet.

EDIT: for example, can't you upload to a (secured) buffer storage in the cloud, and download that on the device? (If you cannot use Wi-Fi at work, you can use the wi-fi of your mobile phone on the Onyx).
It is surely odd to me to pass through Tokyo when source and destination are within a square meter in Paris - but I swear to God this is what Apple i-things users tell me («You want a cable? I do not have a cable! Put that file in your pocket in the cloud like everybody else»).

[Randy11]

Originally Posted by mdp

Ok, now I understand, so you meant - you would have liked to connect the Onyx device at work, but office policy impedes that, right? Probably you would like to read your work-related documentation on the tablet (yes, that's what you wrote earlier).
I am not sure what to suggest (I have a number of ideas), because I do not know the rest of the details of your infrastructure. But probably, you should exchange with your IT dept. to enable your productivity. It is strange, by the way, that they allowed SD-cards, given that they disabled all the rest (it is true that USB has become a nice trojan horse portal). Otherwise, there will surely be ways to move those documents somewhere else, and then upload them on the tablet.

EDIT: for example, can't you upload to a (secured) buffer storage in the cloud, and download that on the device? (If you cannot use Wi-Fi at work, you can use the wi-fi of your mobile phone on the Onyx).
It is surely odd to me to pass through Tokyo when source and destination are within a square meter in Paris - but I swear to God this is what Apple i-things users tell me («You want a cable? I do not have a cable! Put that file in your pocket in the cloud like everybody else»).

You have understood

A SD-card can be checked for virus, gived to the IT team to load it with my documents, etc.

About the cloud solution Think to use a cloud is FORBIDDEN

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Randy11

A SD-card can be checked for virus, gived to the IT team to load it with my documents, etc.
About the cloud solution Think to use a cloud is FORBIDDEN

I imagined ; ) I just cannot make a sense of their method - the files are kept only in a suboptimal system, less windows than Leibniz... This is getting very specific to your case - but look, I would go to the IT and tell them: "Put the files here".

Again: if the IT closes all doors for you to act, automatically it's their job to enable you through their action.

If you have any exchange interface enabled in your office, post and I can check.

[Randy11]

You understand why the absence of SD-Card support is very sad for me. But, If I want a MAX2, it's not only for the work and the USB port will be fine at home

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Randy11

You understand why the absence of SD-Card support is very sad for me. But, If I want a MAX2, it's not only for the work and the USB port will be fine at home

Couldn't your employer provide a security controlled USB stick that doesn't leave the office? Or are your security rules run by the division of paranoids? (Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with being paranoid when it comes to IT security)

[mdp]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with being paranoid when it comes to IT security

Paranoid ≠ Psychopath (A send a confidential message to B, so just to be sure you kill from C to Z. Ok, I posted for this joke.).

Off topic, but. In my environment, I present it as a "compromise to usability". To solve the opposition, just give the device to the Security people and tell them "I want to read the material here, thanks."

[rogerpiano]

In the meantime, I built a custom cover.

Required materials: 2 document folders and the shockproof material I found in the shipping package ...

[Philippe D.]

What's wrong with the sleeve that comes with the device? I find it rather nice (and I'm not sure your version is significantly better protection in case of, say, a fall).

What bothers me so far is the stylus, which really slides a little too easily through the loop on the device. I'm afraid I'll end up losing it. I hope it's not too hard to replace if it ever happens to me.

[Jayjee]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

What's wrong with the sleeve that comes with the device? I find it rather nice (and I'm not sure your version is significantly better protection in case of, say, a fall).

You can put the custom sleeve on a music stand or a piano, and
a) the power button is not triggered by the device standing on it
b) you can read / play from the boox IN the sleeve in case it slips...

At least, that is my guess and the reason I probably will build something similar.

Best,
Jan