Lenovo IdeaPad K1 gets Android 4.0 update, casual users may want to steer clear

Joining the drove of Honeycomb tablets that were released in 2011, Lenovo’s IdeaPad K1 became the company’s first foray in the Android tablet market. A year later, it looks like Lenovo is ready to drop support for the K1, but not without first giving away some parting gift.

Lenovo is releasing a basic and non-customized Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the IdeaPad K1, which won’t come with the company’s launcher, pre-installed apps, and even Google Play Store. This might sound like music to the ears of developers and tweakers, but casual customers may not find the idea too thrilling.

Installing the provided ICS firwmare on the IdeaPad K1 will also erase all user data on the tablet. This includes apps, music, pictures, movies, documents, and just about everything else. So if you treasure those pictures you’ve accumulated over the last year, it’s best to start taking advantage of the many cloud storage backup solutions.

And since Lenovo won’t be providing any OTA update, you’ll have to download the file from its website and flash the new ROM yourself. Developers, meanwhile, can look forward to getting the source code from Lenovo very soon.

The good thing is the company has provided a step-by-step instruction on how to carefully upgrade your Honeycomb tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich – complete with screenshots. Download the ICS package here and the installation guide here if you’re up for the challenge.

Lenovo K900 Finally Arriving to China on May 6th

by Andrew Grush, 4 weeks ago

Back at CES 2013 Lenovo unveiled the impressive Lenovo K900, an Intel Clover Trail-powered smartphone that packed plenty of power under the hood. Now its late April and the K900 finally has an official release…

Comments

Jelly Bean

Galaxy Note 8 is too expensive. It cost even more than iPad mini. Sammy need to drop the price to something more reasonable.
- iKnowRight
  
  Samsung is getting way too greedy. They think they’re king!
  - Jusephe
    
    They think they are Apple.
kascollet

2011 : 7″ is the ideal screen size for small tablets
2012 : 7″ is the still ideal, the Nexus 7 is the best small Android tablet yet
October 2012 : iPad Mini exists. It has a 8″ 4:3 screen with a smaller form factor than a 7″ Nexus 7. Sells millions, of course.
2013 : 8″ is the ideal screen size for small tablets

Sad story, isn’t it ?
Are we waiting for Android Tablets OEM to finally understand that wide screen ratio is stupid ?
- androidftw
  
  i believe the question here is are you stupid? the reason the ipad mini sells so much is not the screen ratio, but because ofthe apple name, as well as isheep
  - kascollet
    
    Yes of course. Those million happy customers are brainless animals…
    Seriously man, this kind of assumption is becoming to sound ridiculous.
    - androidftw
      
      yes, yes they are. they dont know a single thing about what smart devices can do, they simply buy it because its mainstream and its “cool”
      - kascollet
        
        Excuse me : I didn’t understand you were being ironic in the first place !
      - androidftw
        
        what are you talking about? im saying theyre brainless animals
      - androidftw
        
        so im guessing youre not answering bc you dont what ironic means or youre just that stumped :)
      - fu androidftw
        
        Then why do studies show that people who use iOS are 40% more likely to attend college than those who use Android. Also, why does everybody assume that because they mentioned that the iPad has a 4:3 aspect ratio that that’s its only selling point. Really?
      - fuckyou
        
        first of all the study is probably fake or wrong. second of all the ipad is more expensive, so rich idiots just buy them
      - kascollet
        
        Clever analysis. Just remarquable expert we have here.
      - fuckyou
        
        thanks for your sarcasm, it shows how much you know about debating. and trust me man im way farther than you will ever be
      - Jusephe
        
        So buy an “cheap” galaxy note 8…
      - fuckyou
        
        were talking about brand recognition as well you know. and secondly im not talking about he note 8, im talking about ipads vs the general android market. lastly i dont get why you ishits are liking the fake statistic, you guys are so freaking gullable
      - http://www.facebook.com/nathan.borup Nate Borup
        
        Where did you get your facts? Have they even conducted a legitimate study on that? Most people i know are in college (I am a college student) and they have android phones
- asdf
  
  ipad, ipad mini… theyre all stupid. the perfect screen ratio for tablets is 16:9 and the perfect screen size is 10-16 inches, you know like laptops. Hence the term tablet COMPUTERS
  - kascollet
    
    16:9 is great for TVs (landscape – huge screen) or phones (portrait – tiny screen), just dumb for other form factors between 5 and 25 inches.
    COMPUTERS aren’t designed to be TVs.
    Wake up.
    - asdf
      
      youre telling me you dont watch videos or movies on a computer…computers are best in 16:9, plain and simple. ask anyone with a brain.
      - kascollet
        
        No, I watch movies on my TV (95% of them at least) and browse the web/create documents/read documents/do my social duty/mail/publish/edit photos… on mobile devices with suited screen ratio (4:3 for small 7 to 10″ devices, 16:10 only for my 24″ computer).
        16:9 is the ratio OEM want you buy… because it cost them less to produce (smaller screen estate for a given diagonal), not because it’s a smart choice.
        Seen the Chromebook Pixel ? Now THAT is a web machine !
      - asdf
        
        youre saying you dont use youtube??? anways browsing and and other thing on a computer is better on a 16:9 screen bc its bigger!!! a 17 inch 4:3 screen produces fonts about as big as 13 inch 16:9 screen, so yep 16:9 is better and if your going with number of pixels argument, why dont they just make a superwide screen, huh? and lastly the chromebook pixel…as much as i love google, that is a big step in the wrong direction, the screen will feel so small
      - What?
        
        ^ This post is full of bull! Given that both tablets are the same size if in portrait then the 4:3 aspect ratio will produce much larger fonts, but if they are in landscape then 16:9 will produce larger font (While not as wide of margin in comparison to portrait). Also, if you’re a landscape person and you’re browsing the web you’ll be able to view more of the web page if your screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio. Another thing, screens with a 4:3 aspect ratio have much more screen real-estate than that of a 16:9.
      - fuckyou
        
        who gives a shit about screen realestate? it matters how you use it you retard and for browsing its obviously landscape mode, which produce larger fonts, and therefore it will feel like the bigger screen. and who the fuck gives a shit if you see more of the page, ever heard of scrolling???
      - kascollet
        
        You have a problem, either with maths or with the sense of “bigger”. The squarish the screen, the bigger screen estate you get (not debatable, it’s bare maths :-) ),
        Just look at the pictures. http://www.blog-nouvelles-technologies.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mwc13-samsung-annonce-la-galaxy-note-8-une-tablette-de-8-pouces-avec-lipad-mini-en-ligne-de-mire-2.jpg
      - asdf
        
        but realestate doesnt mean shit, when you do things inlandscape mode the way your supposed to, the wider screen gives you the bigger fonts and content…retard ;)
      - kascollet
        
        You’re only “supposed to” use your tablet in landscape when the ratio is 16:10 or 16:9. With a 4:3 screen, both orientations make sense.
        Please, don’t use swear words, people would laugh at you.
      - asdf
        
        that doesnt make sense, you just said that wide screens are supposed to be used landscape, but then you pointed out the buttons on the note 8??? so in other words yes they can be used potrait as well, but im not talking about what you can do, im talking about whats common, and comfortable and thats landscape. are you 5? bc the last time i checked retard was never a swear word
      - http://www.facebook.com/nathan.borup Nate Borup
        
        if you don’t want people swearing at you, don’t troll about apple in an android forum. You will not be liked, by anyone. What this all comes down to is preference. i have a nexus 10, and i use it every day. Do i ever use it in portrait? no. Do i want to? no, because i don’t like 4:3 for anything, even documents, web browsing and photo editing. It is all just preference, so stop pushing that your preference is better than anyone else’s. The other thing that is affecting how apple does is because apple DOES have a following. Their following is the type of people that would buy their product even if it were some crappy piece of junk, the type of people that want to be on the “in” crowd. Part of the reason why apple is so successful with this following is their advertising. Apple is all about advertising, and that is how they sell so many devices. They tell people what to think such as “4:3 is the perfect screen ratio.”
        Oh and just so you know Apple has made the same flip flop comments just as Android OEM are making about 7inch being the perfect size, and then changing to 8inch tablets. If you remember before the ipad mini came out, apple said retina is the new “in” thing and you’ll never want to go back. And what did they do with the ipad mini? They made it a non-retina display and said “This tablet is revolutionary, smaller size, first of its kind.” My point is that all OEMs will try to market new products, even apple will, and try to advertise it as the best thing possible so they can make money. If they didn’t do this i would think the OEMs would be somewhat retarded because they wouldn’t seem to make anything worth buying
      - kascollet
        
        I don’t “troll about Apple” Nate. 4:3 screen give more screen estate then 16:10 -> absolute fact. So you prefer having less room and not being able to use portrait mode comfortably ? It’s YOUR choice and you only make it because there is no other option in the Android tablets market. Are you sure you would prefer this movie-only screen ratio if you were given the choice ? Seriously ? I used to be an Android-only user (Galaxy S2 and Iconia Tab 210) and I switched to Apple because of the iPad, which is head and shoulders and knees and toes above the competition. I don’t care about platform fidelity (I mostly use Google’s ecosystem, available on iOS and Android), and I also don’t care about price. Would an Android tablet beat the iPad, I’d switch back in a heartbeat. Seriously, honestly, anti-fanboyism-ly, it’s not there at all and you’re misleading everyone by suggesting the opposite.
      - http://www.facebook.com/nathan.borup Nate Borup
        
        I wasn’t suggesting the opposite, i was saying that is a decision that people will make based on personal preference. I never said the 16:9 was better than 4:3. It is for me, because that is what i like and am comfortable with. What i am suggesting is that OEM’s are not following apple. They are putting out products to try and make a profit, just as apple did with putting out a mini sized tablet after they saw the success of the nexus 7. In case you haven’t noticed, apple is no longer leading the market and hasn’t been since the release of the iphone 4s
      - kascollet
        
        Highly misleading again. Apple still totally drives the mobile market (I don’t say it’s great Nate, it’s just true).
        
        http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/04/18/apples-ios-beating-googles-android-in-mobile-ads-with-75-spend-share
        
        “Among the trends noted by MoPub: monthly ad share grew 12.4 percent for Apple’s iPhone in the quarter, and now accounts for more than half of all ad spend in its marketplace. That’s more than twice the share claimed by Android smartphones.
        
        Add in iPad and iPod touch, and Apple’s iOS platform accounts for “slightly over” 75 percent of ad spend share, despite a quarterly decline among non-iPhone iOS devices.
        
        In contrast, the report notes that “Android tablets have failed to gain traction, accounting for less than 1.0% of ad spend.”
        
        That indicates that Apple has the same roughly 75 percent “lion’s share” of mobile advertising that it also has in mobile hardware profits, mobile software apps sales and mobile content downloads through iTunes.”
      - http://www.facebook.com/nathan.borup Nate Borup
        
        All this article says is the iOS users are more apt to spending money on ads that they encounter on their device, not the popularity of the device itself. Maybe you should read your own article again and find a new one that actually supports your argument
        
        Oh, almost forgot, it is also saying that apple gains more profit per device than google. woo woo, that means that if i wanted to buy apple i would have to pay a premium price, just for apple to stuff the money in their pockets
      - smile
        
        APPLE IS NOT THE LEADER!!! the growth of android revenue is way more than ios, and the increase in iphone sales from one model is minimal. this all means ios and apple are plateau-ing…sell your shares guys XD
      - smile
        
        APPLE IS NOT THE LEADER!!! the growth of android revenue is way more than ios, and the increase in iphone sales from one model is minimal. this all means ios and apple are plateau-ing…sell your shares guys XD
      - smile
        
        edit: one model to the next
- applewillfall
  
  the only sad story is people buying into apples crap, but fortunately thats beginning to end
  - kascollet
    
    Are you talking about Android OEM (which are buying into Apple’s crap by choosing the very same screen sizes) ? It’s not very kind of you.
    - applewillfall
      
      umm you realize theyre using different screen ratios, so no theyre not buying into apples crap
      - What?
        
        Who gives a care about screen ratios, but even if you do care a 4:3 aspect ratio gives you much more screen real-estate than a 16:9 aspect ratio. Also, who wants to use a 10″ 16:9 tablet in portrait mode. 16:9 is only better for movies and tv shows. 4:3 is the best overall.
      - fuckyou
        
        who gives a shit about screen realestate, its about how you use it, and a 16:9 definitely gives a better view in landscape mode bc everythings bigger. and just in case your too stupid to notice, oems use 16:9 bc its much more favourable, no one wants a 4:3 piece of shit unless your an icrapple
guest

All you guys are so immature!!! and apple fans get out of here, i dont go on apple websites and talk shit, alright?

Tip Us!

Lenovo outs vanilla Android 4.0 update for IdeaPad K1, casual users may want to steer clear

Sade

Sade

YOU MIGHT LIKE

Lenovo K900 Finally Arriving to China on May 6th

3 out of every 10 smartphones sold in Q1 2013 was a Samsung

MediaTek-powered Lenovo IdeaTab S6000 stops by the FCC

Will 8-inch Android tablets be the next big thing this year?

categories

popular devices

useful links