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Shanghai-pad: The Eken M003

June 18, 5:16 p.m. | gadgetry

 

I think I've made it pretty clear that I really am not okay with the closed nature of the Apple model. I could go into the many reasons the App Store bothers me, but really, what's the point? In the end, I always have to admit that The Steve and Co. makes amazingly well designed products that fill a niche no one ever really knew existed. So, what's a person to do if they want to experience the next paradigm of computing? The answer: Probably not buy an iPed.

 

 

The iPed is actually called the Eken M003, but you wouldn't know that from the packaging. The device attempts to mimic the iPad box as much as possible, minus one crucial detail:

 

 

Yes, that's "iPed" not "iPod". While it comes with a good amount of pre-installed software, you won't want to keep that on there for long. A pirated version of Documents to Go, a beta of Skype for Android and a questionable music player aren't worth the amazingly sluggish performance. In fact, the default firmware on the device is pretty much unusable. The first thing anyone should do with the iPed is grab the custom Slatedroid firmware here, customize it to run with the M003 instead of the M001 (instructions on the same forum, but I'll post a detailed how-to later) and reflash the firmware. Slatedroid is a little bit buggy and very much stripped down, but at least it gives you a massive performance boost compared to the default Eken ROM. Here's the device's home screen on the refreshed firmware:

 

 

 

 

Once the device is running Slatedroid, everything is perfectly usable. I installed NewsRob, a great feed reader with Google Reader sync, and a few other apps to get started. Now, about installing apps. Google licenses the Android Market and custom firmwares like this one rarely have it installed. So, instead, expect to get intimately familiar with the art of .apk installs. For the Android beginner, installing .apk files means downloading packages onto a SD card, then installing them on your device using the Apk Manager program. I used to own a Dell Axim X5 that ran a very old version of what is now Windows Mobile, widely regarded to be one of the clunky-ist OSs around. Installing apps on that 2003 device was actually much easier than on the iPed. This is a major headache, but an inevitable one. Hackers are working on getting the market running on the Eken, but so far have had almost no luck. I'm just hoping they figure it out sooner rather than later.

 

If you don't feel like going through the epic headache that is .apk installs, it comes with an app simply called "App Store" that also happens to be terrible. Also, most of the apps are in Chinese. Have fun with that.

 

Setting up email is incredibly easy. Just type in your Gmail address and Android will take care of the rest. In most Android phones, the OS has deep Google account integration; sadly, this is missing on the Eken. I'd love to be able to access my contacts, calendar and Google Talk accounts, but that functionality just isn't there. Once again, we have to rely on the firmware hackers to make this a reality.

 

Browsing is actually a nice experience. It's a little bit slower than my iPhone, but the screen real-estate more than makes up for that. The only real hindrance in the browsing experience is the resistive screen. With the Eken it's 2002 all over again and you'll have to use a stylus if you want to type. The best approach to browsing is to create a home page for yourself with all your most visited links. Other than that little hindrance, the Android browser is a good one. Some slowdowns occur when Google tries to make suggestions as you type in a URL, but if you use the aforementioned homepage, that won't be too horrible for you.

 

 

Battery life is somewhat abysmal. I left it on idle overnight on a full charge and it had 15% when I woke up the next morning. So, when you're not using it, make sure to keep it off. I'd expect to get around 3 hours of usage out of this under normal circumstances, but this is a very unscientific estimate. When I get a feel for battery usage, I'll update this post. The one thing I do know for sure about the battery is that it runs VERY hot. Like, crotch-burningly hot. Be careful you don't keep your iPed next to a stack of papers, or it might go from inexpensive iPad knockoff to very expensive house insurance claim.

 

I'm planning on using the Eken M003 mostly for casual web browsing, email checking and Google Reader-ing. For the 850 RMB (roughly US$125) I paid for it, I'm actually pretty satisfied. The fact that there's a pretty lively hacker community around the Eken at slatedroid.com makes me confident that it'll be at least somewhat supported with future versions of Android. There's talk of Eken releasing a 2.1 update sometime in July too, but that seems like wishful thinking to me. 

 

This is not a magical and revolutionary device. It's made of plastic, it has a very finicky resistive screen and getting apps onto it feels like 2003. It isn't an iPad. It is open source. It also might give Johnny Ive a heart attack if he ever saw it. With that in mind, I'm planning on opening it up soon and doing a tear-down-slash-battery-mod. So keep an eye open for that. Right now, I'm just happy to have this KIRF-y iPad for what it is.