|
|
|
| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 26 2013 @ 11:09 PM EDT |
I picked up a playbook when the they dropped the price. I
bought a nexus 7 a few weeks ago It has a great selection
reenactment and a pile of apps for it, most seem to be junk.
I'm writing on the playbook now, the nexus has been on the
shelf for a week.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 27 2013 @ 02:13 PM EDT |
I've heard the Nook color is really nice. Never seen one, most people up
here use iPads.
I'm surprised you had so many problems. Tablet design isn't rocket
science.
Wayne
http://madhatter.ca
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
- Rocket-pad - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 27 2013 @ 04:15 PM EDT
| |
| Authored by: artp on Sunday, April 28 2013 @ 12:36 PM EDT |
I tried a couple of noname tablets first. One had its own
store. No joy there. I returned it.
The problem is that there are a flood of cheap knockoffs
that mostly work but never satisfy. No upgrade path, no
support but cheap prices. And the quality is worse than the
prizes in CrackerJacks boxes.
-----
The Nexus 7 has its weaknesses, too, but are manageable.
According to comments on forums, the early versions out the
door had a bad habit of screens spontaneously cracking.
Makes it kind of useless when part of the screen isn't
responding, especially if it is the status bar on the top.
I lost one Nexus 7 to a crack. It had the ASUS cover on it,
and I kept it in a coat pocket or in a soft-sided briefcase.
I still don't know how or when it cracked. The crack was
very hard to see except in the right light at the right
angle. It made me question my sanity.
I bought a replacement immediately. It is that good. The
screen repair was $230. A new tablet was $250. I hate that I
have landfill, but repair just doesn't make sense at that
price.
I now keep the replacement in a silicone skin AND in a
Pelican hard-sided case. The Pelican for transport and the
skin for use. Yes, I am paranoid.
-----
My Nexus 7 is running Android 4.2.2, which I think is the
absolute latest this week. The only programs that I have not
been able to install are games designed for larger tablets.
I charge it every night. I read a lot of books on it, which
is very comfortable for me, and I get a whole day's use out
of one charge, which is an absolute minimum for me.
I use it just like a bigger version of the Palm that I used
to carry everywhere. I run a calendar, a task manager (to-
do) list, a nice calculator, Aldiko ebook reader to use with
Calibre on my desktop, File Manager HD that gives me access
to system files, planning on starting up a password safe
between tablet and desktop, and a text editor for short
lists. I also use a meditation timer and am trying out
various book, CD and DVD catalog managers. The one I used on
my Samsung Galaxy S works, but I can't get the data
transferred. And the Humble Bundle Android apps all work
just fine. Osmos, Eufloria HD, Waking Mars, World of Goo and
The Room keep me entertained.
I like having access to this information all the time, and
not just when I am at my desktop. The goal is to sync it
with a local server under Linux, and keep control of my life
and my data. Then I can cut the ties to Google and make my
own way.
I have not rooted the device - yet. The one limitation of
the Nexus is that it doesn't give you access to local
storage on flash drives or SDHC cards without root access. I
bought some nice microUSB to female USB adapters, and plan
to hook up some storage for a song fest on long trips (my
attempts at using MP3 players always resulted in a dead
player), and do backups beyond the syncs. For now, I use
AirDroid to transfer files over wireless LAN. It works, in
an awkward sort of way.
Bottom line is that it does what I used to do with my Palm
except handwriting recognition, and it isn't as sturdy as
the Palm was. But it is good enough that when the NOOK
original that I gave my son broke, I bought a Nexus 7 for
the two boys to use. The younger one is now never without it
except when he is on his desktop. When we go somewhere, the
Pelican case is always present.
I had been meaning to write up my experiences with the Nexus
for a while. I hope it helps you, and brings up some points
to consider when you decide which tablet to get. The Nexus 7
is in my price range. It costs less than the last
Palm/Handspring that I bought back in 2001. It has a
beautiful screen, is easy to use for me, and does the job
without complaining. No sign of installing too many apps as
with my Galaxy S. Good luck to you on your search.
---
Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, April 29 2013 @ 05:04 AM EDT |
If you can get the Nexus 7 at the list prices (no idea if
it's officially
sold in your location) then it's the best
value. You get decent hardware at
almost cost, you get
timely updates as it's directly supported by google, and
unlocking and flashing it is as easy as installing the
Android SDK (or
otherwise obtaining the ADB binaries, at
least on Linux) and typing a command
on the command line.
From there you can install 3rd party operating systems on
it, including but not limited to Ubuntu Tablet (It's the
reference hardware
for it). You can also obtain root access
by flashing appropriate superuser
binaries. It has no micro
SD slot, so you'll need an USB OTG adapter or a USB
OTG card
reader (there was one on Kickstarter not so long ago.
My advice,
keep away from no name brands (questionable
quality, specially battery wise,
and no updates nor
bugfixes), from Apple (unless you enjoy the walled garden
and want to pay 50%+ for it) and from Samsung (unless you
want to pay Apple
prices). Nexus devices are the best for
tinkerers IMHO, as you don't have to
resort to exploits to
obtain root access/unlocked booloader, Google offers
factory
images to recover in the case of a screw-up, and they have
direct
updates from Google, with "pure" android, so 3rd
party OSes, such as
CyanogenMod can offer excellent support
for it. Asus is a good brand for
tablets too. I have the
original Transformer and the Nexus 7, and I couldn't be
happier. I have no experience with Acer though.
Specs-wise, decent tablets
will pack very similar
innards. You should get at least a 1280x800 screen for
the
7" form factor. 800x480 is decent on 3"-4" phones, but on a
tablet, it
will be very noticeable. Processor-wise, most
budged tablets will pack Tegra 3
(decent even if old
processor, decently battery efficient), Snapdragon (by
Qualcomm, no current tablet comes to mind at the moment, but
we will see them
in the future) or OMAP (Texas Instruments,
though they are AFAIK leaving the
market) ones (mainly the
Kindle Fire line, though maybe others exist). Ram, you
want
at least 1 GB (again the current standard for budget
tablets), though
more will help, as Android is starting to
suffer from app bloat.
There's a
very nice tablet coming soon (tm) from Asus
that will double as a phone, have
decent specs (the only
questionable thing is that it will pack an Intel CPU,
that
is so far untested in real world scenarios. However, if
you're installing
Linux on it, then you may have an easier
tome finding compatible software), and
will be very
aggressively priced (last time I checked, less than 250€
locally
according to the rumours).
Oh, and if you can wait, there are rumours that
Google
will present the updated Nexus 7 next month, with rumoured
1920x1200
resolution, 2 GB ram and an upgraded CPU (rumours
point strongly to a Qualcomm
one). Even if you don't like a
Nexus device, because of the lack of a microSD
card reader,
it set the new standard for specs.
For a password safe, shared
with your desktop, I
recommend Keepass. FLOSS, and cross platform, with a very
nice even if plain looking Android app [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
| |
| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 02 2013 @ 10:32 PM EDT |
Back again to update you.
One local online store has a cheap Asian tablet at about 10% more than I could
get myself but there is advantage of local warranty. It's price is a bit more
than half previous ones.
Nexus cheapest is twice the price of previous ones for 32Gb. Not in my price
range.
Been looking at Kobo E-Reader but am not sure how well they go as a browser.
The Glo (ideal for night time use) about same price has 6 inch 1024x758 with 16
level grayscale i.e. black & white. I would prefer colour to view photos
and sort them out. The better Arc is nearly twice the price but has 32Gb and is
a full android device. It might be a better device than Nexus.
Still not made up my mind. If I wait a bit longer they will come down in price
again, hopefully. I do miss the ability to just look something up when an idea
or thought occurs.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
|
|
|
