Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

So  I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 from eBay. It's not like we don't have enough tablets in the house, but this was a proper bargain. The seller described the tablet as 'not working', but in the description she went on to say that the tab was locked because a family member had set a lock code and forgotten what the code was.
Now, you and I know that if you forget your lock code, you can factory reset your device (if it is Android) by pressing a combination of the power key and one or more of the volume keys. So, as the tab was on eBay for less than £20, and the postage was £7 (or £6.95), I put in a bid of £33.75. I knew that would take me over the £40 mark, but I thought that would be an okay price for me. Please remember, I am a skinflint and we already have several tablets in the house, so it was an impulse bid and I would not regret losing the auction if the price went above £40 (incl. postage).

Actually, at this stage let's take a small detour and list the tablets we have / had....
Firstly I started with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, the original. I used it as a phone for a while, because it has 3G capabilities. And while my HOX was being repaired recently, I went back to using it. God, it's cumbersome! But a great little device.
Then when the Blackberry Playbook started tumbling in price, I bought one of those. I think it was £129 for a 64gb 1080p 7" device. It had a very nice screen, and I used to watch TV shows on it while commuting to work. Unfortunately the design flaw in the Playbook was that you could put the USB cable into the socket either way, and if you put it in the wrong way, you could damage the socket. Guess what I did? Unintentionally, of course... Luckily I had taken out insurance from Currys, and so they replaced it with a 1st generation Nexus 7. Then I think we bought a no-brand tablet for Daughter #2 for Christmas.
I also bought a Nook Simple Touch when they were being sold off dirt cheap, and then became interested in the Nook HD 32gb when they were being sold off cheap. I managed to get one of those off eBay for £87 or so (the P&P was unreasonable though :) ).
Next I bought a broken Blackberry Playbook for £21 but couldn't get it to work, so I sold it for £25, and now I bid on the Tab 2 7.0.

So for a while the bid was sitting at £16.70 or so, then it rose to £33, just shy of my limit. I hmmed and hawed and upped my max bid to £38.25. With the postage that would have been just over £45. But as it happened, no one else put a bid in, and so I got it for £33 +£7 postage.

So it turned up yesterday and I spent most of last night trying to reset it, The problem was (and this wasn't mentioned in the eBay description) that even when the power cable was unplugged, the device thought it was charging. When it was plugged in, the red 'x' showed in the battery, but it was charging. When I unplugged it and switched it off, if I pressed the power button the screen showed the charging animation. The state of the phone (that it thought it was charging) was preventing me from booting into Recovery and resetting the tab. But I scored a breakthrough, and realised that if I unplugged the charger from the wall but left it plugged into the tab, it could work... And so it did, I was able to reset the device. So I had a working Tab 2 7.0 for £40 including postage.
Then, unfortunately I noticed that the issue with the battery was persisting; that when I was charging it, the red 'x' was on display, and when it was unplugged it thought it was charging. But I noticed that there was a software update available, which would take the device up to 4.2.2 from 4.1.1; would that fix the issue? I was thinking that if the update didn't fix it, I could always put it back on eBay as 'not working', but aim to make a small profit.
As it was, the update did work, the tab is now running Jelly Bean and the battery issue appears to be fixed. So that is a result - perseverence pays off :) .

Now though, I am in a quandary, as She is expecting me to sell one of the tabs we've got in the house.
I am not losing the Nook 8.9", nor am I losing the Nexus 7. So it's down to either the OG (Original Gangsta) Samsung Tab or the Tab 2 7.0. And to be fair, the Tab 2 7.0 is really nice.
I've hacked around with the OG Tab, it's running 4.2 as well, I believe, but I think I will sell that one. I see that they go for about £100 on eBay, even £75 would be okay I guess. We'll have to wait and see, though. I know that until recently I had kept the box it came in, but I suspect I've thrown it away in the moves in and out of the loft, and so I'll have to take a hit on that. It does have a lovely case though... I'll let you know how it goes.

Fun with Samsung Galaxy Tab

So I installed Titanium Backup on my Tab. Apparently it's called Tibu or TiBu for short. I went into my Apps Drawer afterwards and noted that the stock apps were now displaying in Cyrillic - which was a pain.

I googled this to see if it was a common issue, but answer came there none. So, I went with the tried and tested method - I switched it off and switched it back on. This is also known as recycling. It sounds really basic, I know, and I was one of those who used to disparage the "so-called Helpdesk" for going through their script - Have you tried switching it off and on again? But I now realise that processes can be abended (abnormally ended or broken) or go missing, if systems aren't recycled every once in a while.

So I switched it back on and hotfooted it to my Apps Drawer, and guess what? My stock apps were in English. QED.

TTFN.

Samsung Tab - Restored

Beautiful. 90% perspiration, 10% inspiration. The answers are all on the internet. I managed to find the info I needed and restored my phone. There is one niggle, and that is that Kies won't update my phone - but I can address that later.
My faith in technology, and perseverance, is restored. Hurrah!

Galaxy Tab - Borked II

So, another evening spent hunched over a laptop, frantically searching the web for any kind of clue...

I was thinking I might install another ROM, but realised that still wouldn't solve the GAPPS issue. So I have been mostly focused on getting a non-Market APK installer on to my laptop. Isn't that crazy? A day or two ago, if you'd asked me to describe what an APK installer does, I'd look at you blankly. But now I know the basics and that's just not enough.

I have, this morning, discovered a tutorial on the PDA Developers' website describing how to load up GAPPS through ADB (the Android Developer's Bridge, I think), which I am going to investigate further at lunchtime. I expect it will involve a number of downloads from dodgy sites, so will be blocked by our work firewall. So I'll be forced to leave it. But it will be on my mind all day...

Samsung Tab - Borked

Unfortunately, over the weekend, I decided to walk before I could run. I installed the Gingerbread (Android 2.3) keyboard, and enjoyed it so much I decided to upgrade my O/S to Gingerbread.
Some of you may be aware that Gingerbread is not officially available for the Gtab at the moment, so it is quite tricky and there are a number of steps involved in getting everything running correctly. Unfortunately, I didn't follow those steps involved (at least, not all of them), and so my Gtab is now running at below full capacity.

Basically I have managed to remove the Google APKs which make the device so handy...

I have lost the Android Marketplace app, and I can't sync my contacts or email with Google either. Also, those lovely bought apps (Pocket Informant, Taskos, Poweramp, etc.) are all unreachable.

I have spent a lot of time trying to right this, but with no success so far. Keep on keepin' on.