- The Hipstreet Vektor appears to be identical to their Nova 2 that they sold in Canada (which is a clear "name FAIL" for Spanish-speaking countries, hence I suspect the need for a name change for Europe).
- It is just an OEM re-brand of the LY-F1 Chinese Tablet from PandaWill (http://www.pandawill.com/lyf1-lite-tablet-pc-7-inch-android-23-new-12ghz-cpu-4gb-2160p-hdmi-black-p54046.html )
- Get "LiveSuit"
- This wasn't too hard to find, and there are a lot of links out there. 1.09 was current when I was working on this.
- Not an intuitive application, and most of the English is a little awkward - It didn’t have a "setup.exe", so I clicked on "LiveSuit.exe", and got an error about drivers not installing/installed; when I launched "LiveSuitPack_version_1.09_20111101.exe", it installed them, then the LiveSuit executable worked fine. Who knows how pwned I am now…
Get ICS and Google Play on your HipStreet Vektor (or
Nova 2, or LY-F1 - whatever you want to call it)
We
saw a Groupon for an Android tablet, and pounced as it was only £100
(about $159). I waited with baited
breath (some might say halitosis) for 5 weeks until it FINALLY got here!! -
then disappointment. The screen was …
OK, performance was acceptable, but I found, much to my chagrin, that it was
running Gingerbread with NO upgrade path from the vendor (support told me I
could upgrade it, but that would "void the warranty" - I told t hem
I'd rather have a fully functional device than a warranty, but now I believed
it was at least possible). Added
bonus: this particular device ISN'T COMPATIBLE WITH GOOGLE PLAY, a double
whammy which kind of pissed me off…
So - the adventure
began. After spending some time digging
around Google and the XDA Developer website, and trying to figure out just
EXACTLY what the hell this thing is, I discovered two useful bits of
information:
The process:
**Standard
disclaimer - I have no relationship to/with HipStreet, and I am not offering
official support. You do this at your
own risk, so don't whine to me if it doesn’t work, or you brick your tablet. I merely wanted to share a process that
worked for me, and made my crappy tired tablet of disappointment [apparently] fully useable.**
Warning: most of the places you go to get the
software for this process seem a little shady (download mirrors, pop-ups,
etc.). I would recommend using a
throw-away Windows machine (or your buddy's computer) for this process versus
using your primary workstation if you can.
- Get a ROM Image. I used the June 26 release at this URL (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1572425 )
- I went to the mirrorcreator link, and then tried different mirror links until I finally found a site that allowed me to just download the file instead of installing some BS downloader - (FileFlyer - was at the bottom of the page, and eventually just gave me a link to a 7z file which worked perfectly)
- Expect tons of popups; if you can do this in a disposable VM, you are probably better off…
- Backup any data you might want to keep
- *Make sure LiveSuit is running*
- Shut down the tablet
- Hold down the volume rocker button on the "-" side (left side if holding the tablet)
- Connect the USB cable
- Tap the power button
- I read "10 or 15 times", but I'm not sure what the magic number is; you will hear Windows recognize your device with a "bah-dink?"
- And then LiveSuit will pop up a dialogue box (video example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2QAyVX1CQw )
- Select "Yes" twice
- Double fist pump - enjoy a fully functional tablet running ICS 4.0.3
About 5 minutes
later, LiveSuit said "successful upgrade", and the table
rebooted. It sat for a LONG time at
this screen with a shimmering android robot, and I worried that it had failed,
but eventually, it came up all the way, and so far - everything is working
perfectly (including Google Play - YAY! We win!!).
