Lenovo Thinkpad 8

a cable that could make it happan

found a video of a special cable to allow for charge and mount usb at the same time. the guy has hooked up a y-cable and connected to an iphone, usb jump drive, and a wireless mouse receiver to a usb hub, and it is clearly showing that the thinkpad 8 is charging while using the usb hub... omg! i need that cable so bad, but still can't find it anywhere on the web.. wondering if that guy made it himself... i will pay him $100 for that cable if it really works!! cause it is driving me nuts that i can't charge and use the usb at the same time, it is just so ridiculous.. guys, PLEASE let me know if anyone found a way to purchase this exact cable or anything that would work. Thanks!!

Ryou_Concord said:

Can you charge and mount USB at the same time with this thing?

The realization that there's only one USB port on this device made me wonder if it shared this limitation, and from what I've read, it does. Can anybody confirm this? I can't settle for rumors and stringing together nebulous conjectures. Once they appear in my local Best Buy/MicroCenter I'll be testing this myself, of course.

If anybody's got it, I'd really like to know that. That's kind of the deal-breaker for me. It was the biggest reason I didn't get the Venue 8 Pro (that, and lack of reliable video-out). I don't mind carrying a host cable around with me everywhere either, or the spare battery... or even a tiny USB hub. I just want to know that I can use USB and charge at the same time so I can have a very mobile "desktop" experience wherever I decide to bust out my tablet. No more damn Chromecast bugginess, no more damn finnicky MHL connectors.

I know that the Venue 8 Pro simply cannot do two at the same time; I tested this fact in the store by connecting a host cable, a power source (2.1amp rav power backup battery) and a USB thumb drive. Mounts just fine with a USB OTG cable, but will just not mount and charge at the same time.

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---------- Post added at 10:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------

youtube.com/watch?v=phmkFuU4x_k

found this video of a special cable to allow for charge and mount usb at the same time. the guy has hooked up a y-cable and connected to an iphone, usb jump drive, and a wireless mouse receiver to a usb hub, and it is clearly showing that the thinkpad 8 is charging while using the usb hub... omg! i need that cable so bad, but still can't find it anywhere on the web.. wondering if that guy made it himself... i will pay him $100 for that cable if it really works!! cause it is driving me nuts that i can't charge and use the usb at the same time, it is just so ridiculous.. guys, PLEASE let me know if anyone found a way to purchase this exact cable or anything that would work. Thanks!!

Ryou_Concord said:

Can you charge and mount USB at the same time with this thing?

The realization that there's only one USB port on this device made me wonder if it shared this limitation, and from what I've read, it does. Can anybody confirm this? I can't settle for rumors and stringing together nebulous conjectures. Once they appear in my local Best Buy/MicroCenter I'll be testing this myself, of course.

If anybody's got it, I'd really like to know that. That's kind of the deal-breaker for me. It was the biggest reason I didn't get the Venue 8 Pro (that, and lack of reliable video-out). I don't mind carrying a host cable around with me everywhere either, or the spare battery... or even a tiny USB hub. I just want to know that I can use USB and charge at the same time so I can have a very mobile "desktop" experience wherever I decide to bust out my tablet. No more damn Chromecast bugginess, no more damn finnicky MHL connectors.

I know that the Venue 8 Pro simply cannot do two at the same time; I tested this fact in the store by connecting a host cable, a power source (2.1amp rav power backup battery) and a USB thumb drive. Mounts just fine with a USB OTG cable, but will just not mount and charge at the same time.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Micro-Y-Cable-extra-power-supply/dp/B00EJP5XR2

"USB OTG with charging" was my google search term. That was my first result.

I am interested in getting a thinkpad 8, but only if it has GPS so I can use it to navigate, that is a must.
I can't for the life of me find a solid answer if it truely has gps or not, some say yes others say no.

Can any one give me an answer I can trust if it has GPS?
The specific Model# 20BN-000UUS

Edwii said:

I am interested in getting a thinkpad 8, but only if it has GPS so I can use it to navigate, that is a must.
I can't for the life of me find a solid answer if it truely has gps or not, some say yes others say no.

Can any one give me an answer I can trust if it has GPS?
The specific Model# 20BN-000UUS

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Click to collapse

I don't think they do. Neither the webpage for it nor the official datasheet mention it having one and the only wireless chipset they confirm being in the device is a Broadcom BCM43241 which does WiFi, bluetooth and FM but not GPS.

I cannot find any site which definitively says yes it has GPS, nor is there another windows 8 8" tablet with confirmed GPS.


You can run external GPS via either bluetooth or USB, however these units communicate via serial so will add a COM port to windows device manager.
Windows store apps as such cannot interact with these directly, they can only interact with the integral GPS. Windows 7 and 8 added the sensor API, the store apps can only interact with the sensor API and cannot access COM ports directly so are unable to access the external GPS. I have found this program: http://www.turboirc.com/gps7/ This supposedly creates a new windows sensors device and then handles communication with the COM port so may work, but not having an external GPS to hand I must confess that I have not tested it outside of simulation mode and it doesnt seem to be doing the job with metro apps.

Most windows desktop navigation software out there tends to interact with the COM port directly so should be fine with an external GPS, heck, some of the desktop stuff can't interact with the windows sensors based GPS so again need the above software (it is also capable of converting a windows sensors API device to COM port).

SixSixSevenSeven said:

I don't think they do. Neither the webpage for it nor the official datasheet mention it having one and the only wireless chipset they confirm being in the device is a Broadcom BCM43241 which does WiFi, bluetooth and FM but not GPS.

I cannot find any site which definitively says yes it has GPS, nor is there another windows 8 8" tablet with confirmed GPS.

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Click to collapse

Are you saying that the Miix 2 8" also doesn't have gps?

Edwii said:

Are you saying that the Miix 2 8" also doesn't have gps?

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Click to collapse

It doesnt officially, but I did hear that the 3g model does in some markets (but there are alot of people claiming their 3g models didnt have it)

SixSixSevenSeven said:

It doesnt officially, but I did hear that the 3g model does in some markets (but there are alot of people claiming their 3g models didnt have it)

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wow, this is messing me up, i plan on buying off ebay, used, so it's not like I can test it out ether to find out.

SixSixSevenSeven said:

I don't think they do. Neither the webpage for it nor the official datasheet mention it having one and the only wireless chipset they confirm being in the device is a Broadcom BCM43241 which does WiFi, bluetooth and FM but not GPS.

I cannot find any site which definitively says yes it has GPS, nor is there another windows 8 8" tablet with confirmed GPS.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Well, my Asus Vivotab Note 8 (the cheap 32GB version) has a "Broadcom GNSS 4752 Geolocation Sensor" - in other words: it has a built in GPS receiver. And IIRC there is at least one other tablet 8 incher that has the same sensor.
Doesn't work very well with "regular" Windows software due to only making the data available via the Windows Geoloc API. But when you want navigation there is Nokia Here Maps in the STore wich works great and can also download maps

I might be selling my Thinkpad 8, it comes with a bunch of accessories too. PM me if interested.

Hi, hope you must have found a solution. I have. Do let me know if you need it. Very easy.

Sent from my GT-N5100 using XDA Free mobile app

AndroidIA on Thinkpad 8

Did anyone else try to get AndroidIA (Intel Bay Trail version of Android) to work on Thinkpad 8. I wanted to dual boot with Win 8 and Android but couldn't get it to install. Yes, I did turn off secure boot but the UEFI settings seem to be locked?

Thanks,

It is not locked, it's lacking support for legacy boot.
Someone should get the 64bit UEFI "Bios" applied to the 32bit Version,
as Linux only offers 64bit UEFI-Loaders.

Then, or with the 64bit version of the tp8 it should at least boot up.

I would try that with my TPT8 if the 64bit UEFI could boot 32bit Win8.1
Afaik it can't do that.

Those interested in Android on Thinkpad tablets may be interested in this