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  • Jethro SC490 / T9 Keyboard for Android

Started by knopper · Jul 07, 2022

I would like to start a general discussion on the Jethro SC490 phone. I have been using it and it has a pretty good T9 keyboard. It's much better than the Kika keyboard installed on a lot of the Alcatel, TCL, Kazuna, Orbic and ANS phones.
The best thing about it compared to the Kika is it has words like "I'm, I'll, and gonna" in the dictionary, plus many other common English words.
I want to share the Keyboard APK on here because maybe someone will be interested in cracking it and make it available for other Android flip phones. It's called NineKeyIme.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hX9GZmz1XXL1Z4NPyPmeK9ZZVVoDbpxC/view?usp=sharing (Google Drive link no longer available)

I pulled this by running:
$ adb shell pm list packages | grep ninekeyime
package:com.gwin.ninekeyime

$ adb shell pm path com.gwin.ninekeyime
package:/system/app/NineKeyIme/NineKeyIme.apk

$ adb pull /system/app/NineKeyIme/NineKeyIme.apk

Also, if anyone knows how to crack the Kika keyboards and add more words to the dictionary or use different dictionaries, that would be amazing.

darth

knopper I dont think the file you uploaded is the full app. In general when pulling installed apps off of a phone Im pretty you need the full folder to get the base.apk and the odex files (in your case: /system/app/NineKeyIme) plus you need the /system/framework so you can put the app back together.

Flippy

knopper Just interesting fact that it seems the Fig phones run the same app for T9....

darth Thank you for explaining that, that is why I included my commands. I am totally new to Android development and just thought I'd offer what I could about this phone.
If you or anyone else reading this are interested in getting this APK, I would appreciate some steps to take in order to get the right files to you.

Flippy So it appears to be similar between Fig, Jethro, and also Snapfon devices. Possibly the same company is behind the software development.

Flippy

knopper Dont think so, at least in regards to Fig. with Fig its is really basic not heavily modified android, with the t9 app installed. As a matter of fact, it actually started off with a different t9 app that was very bad, so once they got a lot of complaints, they updated to this one.

darth

Has anyone been able to pull this apk? (complete deodexed?) I want to try using it on another phone.

Biden2020prez

darth I was curious about it too. By the way, there is a keyboard on github called traditional t9, i haven't had much success with it, but some people told me they have.

knopper Did anyone figure out how to install APKs on the Jethro yet?

Biden2020prez

sappypappy Do you have this phone? We need help getting the t9 keyboard apk?

Biden2020prez I do not but was thinking about it. I know Jose mentioned he thought it was possible to mess around w APKs, but they didn't like giving out the numerical code.

darth

SamFried Does anyone have the built version of that qinpad? I tried using this version of kika-12 key and it has more language options then other kika keyboards but still doesnt have Hebrew.

darth

a-one Thanx for sharing! Where is that from orginally?

a-one

darth I got it from the Xiaomi Qin F21 Pro
someone from Israel had it on his phone
I'm using it on my TCL Flip 2 and it works great

Jumptoheaven

a-one are you able to get the regular T9 app also?