ANYbody use a tablet other than ipad

I’ve got an Asus transformer too, it takes a while to realise that it can do almost as much as a laptop. I hardly use my laptop now. Bought a Bluetooth keyboard to make typing a bit quicker and a USB adapter that let’s you plug in USB sticks and portable HDD’s etc. Wouldn’t be without it now!

Galaxy tab is on gingeebread now

I have an Ainol Aurora with the latest fan sourced ROM build in Ice Cream Sandwich. I got it on early bird discount for £120. currently £130

http://gadgetfreakz.co.uk/ainol-novo-7-aurora-android-4-0-7-ips-tablet.html

http://www.slatedroid.com/forum/280-ainol-novo-7-aurora/

bit of an enthusiasts tablet really as it really needs a custom rom. Although I bet gadgetfreakz may even put it on for you if you ask nicely.

Told myself I didn’t want an iPad so got a Motorola Xoom. An expensive lesson learnt!

Now I have an ipad

I had a Toshiba Thrive for a while but it didn’t work with any of my external hard drives as they are all mac formatted. Ended up with an iPad but the Tosh was pretty good if you can put up with the nause of Android.

Stoner which custom rom did you install. I’ve just ordered the ainol based on your recc, so it better be good or I’m coming round to put woodworm in your logs..

😆

£235 for an Archos 80 with 3G stick. Android 4, fantastic video, can plug in a keyboard in the usb port, la, la, la. For the money, it’s really pretty good. The thing I just cannot fathom about ipad/phone/touch is the lack of a card expansion slot. wtf? They also didn’t support Flash – maybe that’s changed. I’m not an Apple-hater, but IMO they are just not worth the dosh, a bit like Terra Nova tents, and anything with Rapha written on it.

BB Playbook is a very nice bit of kit. The smaller size makes it more portable then the ipad. Screen quality is superb, has all the features I wanted. Don’t get me wrong the ipad is the top dog but for £169 for the 16gb playbook has got to be the next best option.

I have an Arnova 10G2 that I got 6 months ago. with the market (google play) update it works well though it’s far from as slick as an ipad. for me, at £150, it’s spot on though it can get laggy if you try to overload it.

I wouldn’t spend ipad money but for the less techically able, I’d definitely recommend the ipad. my mum has one and despite being a complete techno cretin (her words!) she gets on brilliantly with it.

If I ever was going to spend ipad money I’d still go Android though – a galaxy or similar. I used to.have an iPhone but I’m much happier now with android as it can be made to work how I want rather than what apple have decided is the right way (though most of the time apple do get it right)

toys – http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/29280-romics-ecr-essential-clean-rom-v11a-for-novo-7/

the first post docs releases and links to the ROM. If you’ve not flashed before you’ll need to brush up on the methods in the forum.

Shout if stuck.

nice one cheers.

I also have bought one on Stones recommendation. Is there a guide for doing this ROM stuff?

The thing I just cannot fathom about ipad/phone/touch is the lack of a card expansion slot. wtf?

How else would they convince you to but the one with more storage for another £100 when an SD card costs £16

Loving the people who are plugging in Keyboards, guess thats why I still have a laptop.

Stoner – according to your link (and where I bought from) it appears to have a recent ics rom installed by gadgetfreaks? Not that I won’t fiddle but it would be nice if worked well straight out of the box.

Additional Info
– We carry out full QC and also apply our own custom setup (at no additional cost) to provide the very best out of box experience.
– Firmware updated to latest and stable version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
– Skype Installed and working out of the box with video calling.
– BBC iPlayer & TVCatchup.com setup and working out of the box.
– Netflix tested (1/5/12) and working.

the ROM upgrade at gadgetfreakz is the latest factory ROM.

Im running a “fan” rom based upon it.

The flashing things takes a bit of studying to understand what the uber geakz are on about and which method theyre using – livesuite or clockwork orange. But Im not brilliant at this stuff and managed to find all the info I need on the slatedroid forum, googling etc and havent bricked it yet.

You could ask gadgetfreakz directly to install the latest ROM from slatedroid – they do post on the threads – but they might not warranty it.

if I get a chance, Ill post in here with a link to all the info I used to get going. Got to get on pointing mum’s path… 🙁

I’ve got a Touchpad (hp fire sale), and it’s, to be polite, not very good. The OS is nice, but the hardware is slow slow slow slow, even after tweaking & overclocking. Just makes me desire an iPad more!

What does the ROM do? and also is it rooted to start with?

The OS is nice, but the hardware is slow slow slow slow

Not had any problems with the performance of my Touchpad – it seems to be as responsive as an iPad – but the limited range of apps is a bit of an issue and makes you realise how valuable the iOS ecosystem is. I’ve been running Android (ics) on it as well as WebOS so that Mrs R can play Angry Birds Space and find that iOS and WebOS are really well thought through in comparison; maybe Android’s good for phones but it doesn’t cut it yet for a tablet. YMMV if you’re a geek.

If I were starting from scratch I’d stump up the extra cash for an iPad, which is what I’ll probably do when I break the Touchpad.

My aionol has turned up today, so far I am thrilled, wifi is good and easy, browser works fine, screen is awesome, hdmi output to the telly is awesome. Total bargain, and best of all it’s android so I can configure it how I like and not have to rearrange my mind to think like Steve Jobs..

I have a Xoom. Does everything I want a tablet to do very, very well indeed, and notably just uses drag and drop for any files (No MEMEMETunes required)

Two cameras, so good for Skype calls when travelling. Great battery life. As many Apps as I might actually need.

Downsides, well it’s a little heavy and the case it came with is a bit rubbish (Although very robust).

good stuff toys. have a good play around, read up a bit then when you’re ready have a go at custom roms. but dont rush. And read the threads carefully because you may have to check for spec variation (for example I think you have a different screen manufacturer to mine) or you might lose some functionality for example.

Since gettign mine, I have run it with a really fast gingerbread rom that was ace but didnt support google talk. Now i have an ICS build that does, but it doesnt support hardware video decoding – but no matter the software decoding is fine. So there’s usually swings and roundabouts as not all things get fixed in each release.

PS iave found opera mini the fastest browser to install on all the roms. google crhome isnt rigt yet, and dolphin can be a bit slow.

(No MEMEMETunes required)

I’ve had my iPad 3 for three months now and I’ve yet to hook it up to iTunes. Just doesn’t need it anymore.

(I’m not really sure why so many people hate iTunes anyways, but hey ho).

iave found opera mini the fastest browser to install on all the roms

I’m assuming it works the same as Opera Mini on the iPad? i.e. it does all the web-requests through a proxy at Opera which cranks up the compression to make the web faster (but a bit more blurry).

Motorola Xoom in Argos for £250.

yep, that’s it G.

unless you’re paying the extra 2-300 for the power I just find that opera is the only one that renders superfast.

sent from my ainol using opera, in the pub, with a nice pint of pale. 🙂

sent from my ainol

How exactly are you pronouncing that…?

*phggrrrrraaaarrrrrrrrpppppp*

I’ve got a Touchpad (hp fire sale), and it’s, to be polite, not very good. The OS is nice, but the hardware is slow slow slow slow, even after tweaking & overclocking. Just makes me desire an iPad more!

Which is exactly what I did.

Not had any problems with the performance of my Touchpad – it seems to be as responsive as an iPad

So you’ve not used an iPad then?

I had a Touchpad and have an iPad – the difference is night and day. And looking at the screen on the Touchpad after using an iPad is bloody awful.

I have an iPad 2 and picked up a Samsung galaxy tab 10.1 from currys for £169 yesterday. The idea is to give the tab to my parents to replace their ageing laptop.

I’ve been having a play and I’m very impressed with it. Matches the iPad in most respects, battery is better on the iPad and I’d say screen quality is better on Samsung.

The iPad has better app support so prefer it myself but there isn’t much in it at all. Android is far better on tablets than it is in on phones- well my experience of ics on a one x which was woeful

looking at the screen on the Touchpad after using an iPad is bloody awful.

If you’re talking about the retina display then any screen looks awful in comparison.

/Goes away to think about selling a kidney in exchange for a retina MacBook pro[/i]/.

Yes I have an iPad3 with the retina display. Never had one before so don’t know what older ones were like.

But you have to compare new devices really, not new generic tablets against old versions of iPads.

Ohh, and the ‘keyboard’ on the iPad is also much better and more accurate than the Touchpad.

I’d say screen quality is better on Samsung

Compared to an iPad 2, possibly, compared to an iPad 3, not a chance.

I have a Cube U9GT2, I paid £165 delivered and it’s a cracking little machine, It’s not the best in the business, but for reading forums on the move and reading books etc its an ace little device, I tether it to my iphone for internet access and it works just fine.

My kids love using it for playing games, and they arelway passing it around to each other which can be difficult even with a normal laptop.

It’s a toy and I didn’t want to be paying £400 for a toy.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=cube+u9gt2&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Handheld (swedish) Algiz 7 – runs Win7ulimate, has an intel atom 1.6ghz processor, 4gb of fast enough ram, and its >Ip65 rated (waterproof enough to take swimming/scuba diving/kayaking), and repeated drop proof (~2m to concrete), and the screen is bright enough to use outside even in this weird ‘summer’ weather. Does about 8-12hrs on a charge too, double that if you put the big batteries in it (which double as hand warmers!).

Yeah OK, so its a work computer/device/thing of awesome’ness, but don’t really see the point in ‘tablet PC’s as such unless they are rugged as **** and for commercial purposes, or can fit in my pocket and play games 😉
Everything in between I don’t really see the point in.

How else would they convince you to but the one with more storage for another £100 when an SD card costs £16

Always makes me laugh, this one. Would you buy a laptop if it had barely enough room on it for an OS, and had to keep slotting cards in with apps and storage on? I really don’t want to piss around with a bunch of stupid cards when I can have everything I need installed on the pad. If I want to access my maps, I can do it instantly, same with all of my books and photos.
The only reason I use a card reader with my pad is for getting photos off my camera, and that will change soon with a new WiFi SD card that has a slot for MicroSDHC cards, so I just stick a 16 or 32Gb card in the camera then copy them to the pad via wifi. No phaffing. Even a current EyeFi card will send photos direct to an iPad as they’re taken, which is nifty.
I hate the idea of removable media, it’s just corner-cutting to make the device as cheap as possible. Cards are easily lost, or damaged, with all the frustrations that entails. It’s one more unnecessary thing to go wrong.
Still, if that’s how people like to work with a mobile piece of kit, s’up to them, it just seems clunky and inelegant.

“Would you buy a laptop if it had barely enough room on it for an OS, and had to keep slotting cards in with apps and storage on?“

Why would you have to “keep slotting cards in” when the card is as big as the storage in an iPad? Fit and forget, once it’s in it’s just like iPad memory but a whole load cheaper.

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet running ICS, a BB Playbook and an iPad 3.

I bought the Lenovo as I was convinced I did not want an iPad and to be fair it has been ok apart from being a bit heavy. I work it IT and find it very useful for managing systems remotely and like the fact that I can customise the keyboard etc. I did suffer from the well known power button issue but Lenovo fixed it quickly.

I bought the Playbook as I wanted a more portable device. I am very fond of it – the OS is great – and it is ideal for watching videos whilst working away from home. With better marketing, native email and a cheaper initial price it could have been a contender – I cannot believe how badly it was received.

I caved in and bought an iPad for family use – it is a slick device but I hate the lack of flash support and the PITA of using iTunes to transfer content. The display is great though and I can see why it is successful.

I would love Samsung and others to succeed with their kit but their release strategy is appalling. I wanted to buy a Tab 10.1 before I got the Lenovo but it was almost impossible to find out when the version I wanted would be released.

This may be a slightly stupid question…..

When does a phone become a tablet?

I have a phone with a 4.3″ screen and the tasks I do on it are very similar to what I would do on a tablet if I had one. For me that’s sending a few emails, social networking, scanning the newspapers, etc.

One of the reasons I haven’t bought what’s considered a tablet, is because in a way I almost have one and I can’t see what I’d do much different on it.

Is it 5 inch, 7 inch, 9 inch???

“Would you buy a laptop if it had barely enough room on it for an OS, and had to keep slotting cards in with apps and storage on?”

Not my point, why would you make a device that was not expandable? If history teaches you anything it’s that whatever is plenty of storage today is not enough in 12 months – though if your on the Ipad train then it’s just another excuse reason to get the next one.

SD cards prove a nice cheap and easy way of expanding – not a good way to charge a massive amount extra for hard wiring a bigger SD card inside it.

When does a phone become a tablet?… Is it 5 inch, 7 inch, 9 inch???

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-02-23/