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Post by ellietaylorartist on Feb 20, 2014 5:39:45 GMT
I am reading about a growing problem with the new android 4.4 update. A lot of people are saying it severely limits access to your sd card. Apparently you can't store things from 3rd party apps on your sd card. I know that with 4.0 you could put apps on the sd card, but with 4.1 and 4.2 you couldn't unless your device maker added it back. Samsung added the app to sd capability back on the Galaxy Note 8, but people are saying they won't on their newer devices. Apparently 4.3 has app to sd function, but then Google took it away again in 4.4 and made it really hard to put pictures, movies, and music on the sd card without rooting your tablet. What I do on my tablets with 4.1 and 4.2 is use the File Manager and cut and paste my files to the sd card. I'm not sure if you can still do this with kitkat. On one forum someone said maybe you still could do that. I hope so because if not then the tablet companies need to make devices with more storage. PC's have terabytes of storage on them now and the android tablets need to get bigger if they are going to compete. Since I do a lot of digital painting, I need that extra storage on the sd card. I don't think I want 4.4 until they resolve that issue.
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Post by HertsJoaTMoN on Feb 20, 2014 13:30:24 GMT
The ability to store app data on apps has been reserved for Root users only for a while, but resticting the abibility to copy movie, pictures etc. on to a SD card would seem mad. It would defeat the purpose of having an sd card slot on their devices unless you are getting your movies and music elsewhere and are only reading it, but it seems like that is what they are intending. More information... www.androidpolice.com/2014/02/17/external-blues-google-has-brought-big-changes-to-sd-cards-in-kitkat-and-even-samsung-may-be-implementing-them/Doesnt look like there is going to be a non Root solution having had a quick search over on the XDA forums. It also doesnt seem like something they will fix in future updates. Rooting is not a difficult process though and there are plenty of guides available that can help you with that. It also opens up the posibility of flashing leaner ROMS thus freeing up more memory (RAM) and storage for your favourite apps as well as allowing for over clocking of the CPU and GPU if your fealing particularly brave. Fix forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2617921 |
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Post by HertsJoaTMoN on Feb 20, 2014 13:46:39 GMT
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Post by ellietaylorartist on Feb 20, 2014 16:47:11 GMT
Rooting is definitely something to keep in mind. If android is going down this path, then they better start increasing the storage on their devices to compete. Ipads go all the way up to 128 GBs. Asus does offer 64 GBs on their tablets. Samsung is going to offer 64 GBs on their 12 inch tablet, but I don't understand why Google is deliberately crippling Android like this. Especially since game files are getting bigger and bigger and camera resolution is getting bigger. Cloud storage is not the answer because a lot of times, people don't have access to it. Where I live there is no cell service and wifi is limited to people's houses. Besides just one server failure for the cloud and all your data is lost. This is like android has reverted back to Froyo. Samsung is supposed to be coming out with their own OS and there is one called Sailfish that uses android apps. Kitkat may cause some of these rival Operating Systems to become a viable alternative. I am definitely not updating any of my current tablets to kitkat. I think it is really low class of Google to hide this about kitkat and then spring it on everyone.
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Post by HertsJoaTMoN on Feb 20, 2014 16:55:46 GMT
Over on the Note 8 XDA forum my coment with regards to sd card write limitations got the response "where did you get that nonsence from?". I've posted several links to sources talking about this issue and am waiting for a responce... May be there is an easy fix?! but my feeling is that its more likely that they haven't been keeping tabs on the latest news as it does seem like a crazy move by google.
People love android over IOS because of the customisation and expandability of the platform. I have no bias either way, I own an Iphone and 2 android tablets...
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Post by ellietaylorartist on Feb 20, 2014 17:04:18 GMT
I hope they are right, but I think most of them don't have kitkat yet. I like android because it's cheaper and you don't get locked into itunes plus I am totally sold on the s pen, but my family likes ipads. If ipad came out with an s pen, I might consider it, but I really like Samsung.
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Post by HertsJoaTMoN on Feb 20, 2014 17:40:11 GMT
I bought my Note as I was fed up of carrying a heavy pad of paper and pencil with me on the off chance I felt the urge to sketch, as well as note book and other bits and bobs. The price felt right. I'm finding it hard to adapt to the digital world of drawing though. I'm sure with practice and persistance ill be able to replicate the results in a similar time frame that i get using a pencil on paper but I'm a long way off that yet.
I find it hard to find the inspiration. I get an idea, but when it doesnt pan out as quickly or as good as I'd like I become dishartened.
Rather than do ideas from scratch, I'm going to start copying some of my favourite drawings from other artists for a while so that I can get more comfortable with the medium. Hopefully then I will find the creative process less painful.
In case you dont know, the Spen is built of WACOM digitizer technology. I bring that up as it means you can use any Wacom stylus with the Note series. If you like a chunkier Pen (brush), then there are plenty of options available besides the pens that came with your tablets.
Back to the topic at hand. Not had a response over on XDA but im heading home from work now. I'll keep an eye out in the morning and let you know what I hear.
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Post by ellietaylorartist on Feb 20, 2014 18:29:51 GMT
I started out on budget tablets and I had a 7 inch Coby Kyros with a resistive touch screen which was really good for drawing once I found a pointed stylus, but the screen was just too small and that tablet is not very powerful. So I upgraded to a 9.7 inch Coby Kyros with a capacitive screen, but was severely disappointed while trying to draw with big rubber tipped styluses. However, I found the Dagi styluses that have a sharp metal tip covered by a plastic disk and these work pretty well. I wanted a more powerful tablet so I upgraded to an Asus TF 300T and I painted quite a few things on it with the Dagi stylus. However when the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 got down to the $300 dollar range, I grabbed one and I love the s pen. It is more precise than the Dagi (in fact it is just as good as the resistive screen) and I have bought a Wacom stylus to go with my Note tablets. Like you, I didn't want to carry my 10.1 inch tablet around so I got the 8 inch Note to carry on trips. I really like it.
For practice, I would recommend 'how to draw' books. They are great for practice and they help when you can't think of something to draw. Sometimes I just go through a whole book and draw all the pictures in it. It is good practice and helps you draw better, especially anatomy books. There are books on drawing and painting people, animals, objects, and landscapes for good prices at Amazon and quite a few on Kindle too. There are some how to draw apps, but read the reviews to make sure they are not spy ware.
I still find the creative process painful even after 14 years, especially on big projects, but you just have to keep practicing. Try doing a small drawing everyday and don't worry if it is good or not. Just scribble something down, it can be from a book or just something you see. Draw your hand or your shoe or a smiley face. Pretty soon, it will become a habit and you'll get more comfortable with your tools.
I find these tablets so convenient to draw and paint because it's like having a whole studio with you in a magic box, so I really hope they don't mess them up by destroying the operating system with restrictive parameters in kitkat.
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Post by ellietaylorartist on Feb 21, 2014 18:15:49 GMT
If you read all the comments below on this story at the link you posted, they explain things more in detail (when they are not fighting with each other, lol). I think what has changed is that each app can only use it's own folder and not borrow from another one, so if you delete that app you delete all its folders and whatever is in it like pics. I guess the best policy is to back it all up on a PC which is what I try to do anyway. I'm still not clear on what they've done to the file manager, I need to read further on the comments (there are 300 plus comments). To clarify, this link is what I'm talking about. www.androidpolice.com/2014/02/17/external-blues-google-has-brought-big-changes-to-sd-cards-in-kitkat-and-even-samsung-may-be-implementing-them/ |
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Post by ellietaylorartist on Feb 21, 2014 20:59:18 GMT
Okay, this is what I learned from the comments. Each app can write to its own folder on an sd card and other apps can read the sd content but can't modify the original file. So if you take a photo and it is saved on the sd card then you want to modify it in a different program like Photoshop Touch, the program will make its own copy on the internal storage and leave the original untouched. It kind of does that anyway on my Galaxy Note 10.1 which runs android 4.1. They also said that you could use a 3rd party file manager app in place of the new kitkat manager to move files on to the sd card. Most apps will be able to read the contents of the sd card, but not modify the the original files unless they are in that particular app's folders. So I don't know what this all means for music or movies. It may mean that everything makes a duplicate file on the internal drive and clutters it up even more. Also, you can use your PC to put stuff on the sd card, but that defeats the purpose of a MOBILE device. I agree with the commenters, if you are going to get rid of sd cards, then you better make devices with more storage. There are still devices with 8 GBs and 16 GBs that need expanded storage especially when the device's operating system takes half of the storage. This whole thing is ridiculous. People have always needed extra storage even with PCs.
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