Our Next Meeting: Wednesday 16th November 2016
- Slides and Video Evening - All

This is now our, surely, famous Slide and Video Evening. Please come along for a very relaxing evening watching other folks photographic interests and holidays. Just bring some of your own to display and be happy to talk us through them too.

I'm looking forward to it.

Our Last Meeting: Wednesday 19th October 2016 - Remix OS - Gareth

As Gareth is somewhat busy at present enjoying his honeymoon I am writing this up once more; so I have decided to start by repeating somewhat Gareth's introduction to the meeting as a summary.

Summary

At our last meeting we took a hands-on look at the Android based RemixOS from Chinese developers Jide. Android was initially launched in 2007 for Smartphones, moving into the Tablet space in 2012 with the launch of the Nexus 7. Android has a rich app ecosystem with the PlayStore yet till now was limited to the full-screen one-application-at-a-time nature of the phone/tablet devices.

RemixOS is an attempt to bring Android and its app store to the desktop, with a full windowed desktop environment and multitasking.

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Gareth began by saying he was displaying his talk on an Android Tablet using a Bluetooth connected keyboard with an ARM processor with 2GB Ram, MicroSD slot and some hardware ports. What Jide had done was produce a desktop version running on the Android OS. Gareth had downloaded Remix from the jide website at www.jide.com the screen output was designed for 1920 x 1080 HDMI.

You could buy a Google tablet with access to the Google Play Store but his older machine had Play Store turned off but it could be re-enable from the Remix settings, this has been allowed by Google for this version, but will be disabled if he upgrades. { I think that is right Ed.]

There is also a new product from Remix for Windows PC, but Gareth had not seen that as he has no Windows machine to show it.

All the mobile apps available from the Play Store can be run. It is useful as an always-on Android device. Gareth showed it running BBC iPlayer after a slow start. It was useful for reviewing and backing up photos from his camera.

He also loaded FaceBook. You can use other desktop facilities like snap, for example putting windows aligned to the screen edge. You can print to a network printer but you can only do TV resolutions on the screen. It is still possible to use finger pinch gestures etc. You can use bluetooth for keyboard and mouse. There is a File Manager. Jide want people to download and try it out but later might may want to charge for later versions. Apps still run as mobile apps on the desktop but don't always scale properly.

Gmail, Word and Excel and Open Office for Android are fine. The BBC iPlayer was not quite as successful and wouldn't go full screen. VLC worked too for movies.

Large file transfers can cause it to overheat and then the speed is scaled down as there is no cooling. There is a network view and OS Monitor which shows what is running, which is useful. As on a tablet there are some apps open in the background which were never formally opened. Remix Central is their place to advertise apps and new versions etc. Peter asked if there was a version of Flightradar24, a favourite of his on PC and Mac, although it won't run on his Android tablet. This worked here pretty well though.

Overall Remix is an interesting development and even as a Beta version it was quite useful.

There was also some discussion of Gareth's difficulties in updating his HP server drives.

Peter

ICENI Future programme

ICENI Future programme 2016/2017
2016
November 16th Slide/Video Evening All
December 21st Gadgets and Party Evening All
2017
January 18th Winter Social Evening - The Shepherd , Langham TBA All
February 15th Arduino/Raspberry Pi All
March 15th Mac Evening Peter et al
April 19th AGM + IoT All
May 17th RISCOS Update - New Impression All

Meetings are now on the Third Wednesday of the month unless otherwise stated.

Our meetings are held at the Bourne Vale Social Club, Halifax Road, Ipswich IP2 8RE , for a map and other details please see the website.

http://icenicomputerclub.org.uk

Membership fee currently £10, visitors free.

EAUG News

We are continuing our publicity for EAUG events , however their website has not been updated for a years now. So if you wish to know information please phone one of their contacts.

Meetings are at the Great Baddow Village Hall, on the second Tuesday of the month

opening at 7:30 p.m. for a start at 7:45 - 8:00 p.m.

Their website has not been updated since 2011

http://www.eaug.org.uk/mtg.htm

Special Notice - Insurance

"ICENI does not have any Insurance cover for computers or other equipment so please be advised that you bring machines to the club at your own risk."

However many household insurance policies will include cover away from home often with no increase in premium. (Ed.)

Our Website and Email

Our website URL is

http://icenicomputerclub.org.uk

Email to: iceni@woolridge.org.uk

I am open to suggestions on what people would like to have included in the website. If anyone would like a copy of the CD of our old newsletters this could be arranged.