Is Little Timmy still enthralled by his Leapfrog tablet? Maybe check he hasn't sideloaded an unrestricted OS onto it
- Reference: 1600161307
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/15/lineageos_port_for_leapfrog_tablet/
- Source link:
As detailed on the [1]XDA Developers forums , the 2015 device proved somewhat complicated to hack due to the encrypted bootloader. This forced the creation of an unlocker tool, which circumvented these restrictions and permitted the flashing of LineageOS 14.1.
[2]Youtube Video
LineageOS 14.1 is based on Android Nougat. Although obsolete, this nonetheless leapfrogs (if you'll pardon the pun) the Android 4.4 KitKat-based system that shipped with the Epic. It also offers an unrestricted Android experience, with access to the internet and proper apps.
According to the developers, basic hardware components (like 2D/3D acceleration, networking, and audio) work well. Nonetheless, the hacked solution has some quirks, with battery life notably worse. High-definition 1080p video also proved sluggish as the device defaulted to software rendering rather than use the built-in hardware rendering support found on the tablet's aged MediaTek processor.
Why would someone go to the trouble? Tinkerers and hackers aren't always concerned with practicalities, and are instead often motivated by naked curiosity. And what's more curious than seeing a kid's toy turned into a proper tablet computer? ®
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[1] https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/rom-lineageos-14-1-leapfrog-epic-t4161311
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLG1mE7IaBg&feature=emb_logo
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
And what is it you have against this device ?
Genuinely curious to know.
The small children I see these days are always hogging their parent's mobile phone. I'd rather they have a simple, locked down environment to play in instead of a computing platform that can do almost everything.
The universe, for any engineer, is divided into to classes of stuff
Things which are broken, and things which have not yet been sufficiently investigated.
Re: The universe, for any engineer, is divided into to classes of stuff
I work with engineers of many, many different (and often, conflicting) stripes.
This is an absolute truism for understanding them...
Ofc, as IT, it's clear the buggers don't understand computers...
God forbid Little Timmy mistakenly gets access to an "open" platform that he can tinker with and.... *gulp*... learn from!
Well, if I bought my offspring a leapfrog, and they managed to root and sideload android onto it, I'd be super impressed and helping steer their path away from the darkside in future but inspiring them to learn more. I've done some mad pointless things, because I could, not because they made logical sense to a onlooker so hats off to the sideloaders.
I gave my son a pc for xmas and he wanted admin on windows & root on the linux side, and I told him he could have them when he could work out how to get them for himself. It shouldn't be too difficult a task as there's more I could have done to stop it than I have, but he's going to have to do some research first, I'll probably regret this when I find the heating controller running doom or something in a few years ;)
Presumably, once you have 14.1 on it, making 17 work should simply be a matter of bumping version numbers in the build system? The technical challenge here is getting anything on to it in the first place?
That said, it is still a LeapFrog device, so I would refuse to buy it or allow it into the house...