[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Worldblender:
Copied and modified from my XDA Assist post

Around last June, my family has gotten a TV box set only providing Chinese content, but boy have I had a hard time with this device! :mad: Although there is an app store for that box, there aren't that many apps that I can download aside for a few games and other productivity apps. From whatever technical information I could get scattered across the software installed, here's what I got:

Android version: 4.4.2 KitKat

Model: S8G40

RAM: ? 1GB

Internal Storage: ? 8GB

Languages installed: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English

Connectivity: HDMI (the main output), microSD card slot, USB 3.0, 3.5mm audio-video plug, Ethernet

Input: Remote control (the menu key is seldom used with the custom software), USB devices

CPU: possibly ARMv7

Power source: 12V DC, 1A

It appears as a black box with rounded corners, similar to the Amazon Fire TV or Apple TV, but with "iTalkBB" engraved on top.

While trying to install the select apps, I did get the popup for local APK installation, which tells me that "allow unknown sources" is turned on. There is also neither the Play Store nor other Google programs installed onto that box by default. The built-in app store did tell me the following:

ADB: closed

Root: closed

Without the stock settings app, ADB can't be turned on from the device.

Some popup dialogs I got indicated the set box software is based on AOSP, but none of that was helpful to my goal of installing any foreign APKs. :( Although some parts got translated when the language was set to "English", not all of the software, especially the custom ones, were so. I still had some parts remain in Chinese.

Moreover, I tried some USB hardware with it, and they work. A USB mouse puts a cursor on a screen, but isn't useful with most of the custom software except the AOSP parts I occasionally saw. A USB keyboard with extra shortcuts worked, with the following buttons working:

Home -> home screen

Volume buttons, including mute

Suspend key -> puts the device to sleep; when powered on again, the full boot cycle is performed

Music -> opens the stock music app, displaying no files even with external storage connected, and the only non-custom app I successfully opened up.

Alt/Meta/Windows key + Tab -> Brings up the 2.x style task switcher. It is not possible for me to close apps with it.

Screenshot keys work; I get a screenshot taken, but it is then impossible to view or delete the screenshot afterwards as they could be stored on the non-accessible internal storage.

USB storage is mounted, and a custom file manager limited to photos, music, and video can be used to access one. This file manager proved useless to me in trying to get outside APKs installed.

USB hubs can attach more than one of these or the following at once to the set box.

I even took the set box apart once, and got to see its hardware (specific hardware can't be listed as there's no way to get an app on there to tell me that info. There seemed to be no hardware button for resetting the device nor a recovery mode. [if needed, I can send images of the hardware]

All in all, that set box IMO is really secure, with JTAG hardware possibly being the only way I can achieve customization and more outside of the intended activities (the set box could also be leased hardware, of which then my family won't own the set box, possibly turning modifications to the set box into forbidden activities). My situation is an obscure one; the company providing the set box is probably not well-known, and that hurts my chances of being able to obtain the ability to customize the device. If nobody can help, I'll simply stay away from such software-limited hardware next time. :(