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Official Tablet/Pad/Tab/Touchscreen Computing Discussion
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Are you interested in purchasing a tablet style computing device in the next 6 months?
Yes
85%
 85%  [ 17 ]
No
15%
 15%  [ 3 ]
Total Votes : 20

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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5321



PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 2:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote


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drice1234 wrote:
I am keeping an eye on the Archos line of tablets coming out in the next few weeks. They have already been released in Germany and France. Archos already has a history with tablet type devices. The price will range from $100 for the 3" to around $350 for the 10.1" with 16gb memory. They will have SD card slots, usb ports, hdmi out, blue tooth and wifi. I have been reading in the forums and you can tether to a cell phone via usb or blue tooth and can utilize a blue tooth gps device. A few online resellers have been allowing pre orders in the US but I am waiting for them to show up at Best Buy at the end of November to play with one first.

edit: Also forgot to mention a capacitance multi touch screen. There is a large difference between the capacitance and resitance type touch screens and the multi touch allows you to zoom in and out with two fingers similiar to the Ipad.

http://www.archos.com/home.html?country=us&lang=en

Dan


While they do have a great history in large format PMP's and even tablets...I don't know if they have pulled it off successfully yet. In varying degrees I suppose.

I would like to see the 3.2" model go for $99 and give it a try.
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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10273



PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looks like Asus is launching their tablet line of PCs on November 23rd, but with this get any brick and mortar stores to stock them?
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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
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PostLink    Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not to be overlooked in the cheap and crappy tablet market...Maylong enters through Walgreens!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/27/walgreens-now-selling-100-maylong-m-150-android-tablet/

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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
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PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Apparently the Viewsonic G is available in retail at a local Office Depot. I may go check it out, but at $400 it is a far cry from the iPad I bought the wife when you consider its sub-XGA screen resolution. But this shortcoming may be offset due to the USB and micro-SD options not found on the iPad.
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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
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PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok, I was not impressed. Fry's had a $500 'iCan' tablet running Android and it was slow, but had a lot of interface features. I do not know who made this thing, but it had what appeared to be two USB slots, and HDMI output, and a micro-SD slot to begin with. But, the poor performance and the $500 price tag was a clear joke on themselves in the face of Apple.

I then went to see the Viewsonic G, which I wonder if it is a native product or an Archos 101 (10.1) tablet. Unfortunately Office Depot feared too strongly that it would be stolen and the permanent mounting to the end-cap display prevented verification of anything useful. And like the iCan, its slow running Android.

BTW, I happen to be in BB yesterday and they had a display with three tablets, but I refused looking at any of them because they were all handcuffed to 3G wireless service providers. That is right, 1-2 year mandatory contracts at the very expensive data plan rates. This was identical to last holiday season's Netbook condition where they sold $200 Netbooks on-contract with the Devil carriers.

While in Fry's I played with the iPad and once again felt the responsiveness of the product was easily a clear winner, but lacking in the memory-card and video out interface. I think 'maybe' Apple could completely blow the remaining fence-sitters away if they gave in on the iPad 2 design.

Jeez, you'd think I slept with SJ or something.

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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
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PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2010 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you played with the Galaxy Tab? It was pretty responsive but locked to carrier or extremely expensive.

I don't think anyone has argued the iPad isn't a good device...it just isn't a replacement device for a laptop.

And I definitely don't buy into the closed ecosystem.

I did play with the $170 7" Archos and was pretty pleasantly surprised but the BB guy I cornered refused to help me connect it to their wifi...so watching the few clips that were on it and looking at one app I was impressed for $170 but I don't really have a permanent use for one.

My $180 netbook has more capabilities.
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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5321



PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 11:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WanMan wrote:
Ok, I was not impressed. Fry's had a $500 'iCan' tablet running Android and it was slow, but had a lot of interface features. I do not know who made this thing, but it had what appeared to be two USB slots, and HDMI output, and a micro-SD slot to begin with. But, the poor performance and the $500 price tag was a clear joke on themselves in the face of Apple.

I then went to see the Viewsonic G, which I wonder if it is a native product or an Archos 101 (10.1) tablet. Unfortunately Office Depot feared too strongly that it would be stolen and the permanent mounting to the end-cap display prevented verification of anything useful. And like the iCan, its slow running Android.

BTW, I happen to be in BB yesterday and they had a display with three tablets, but I refused looking at any of them because they were all handcuffed to 3G wireless service providers. That is right, 1-2 year mandatory contracts at the very expensive data plan rates. This was identical to last holiday season's Netbook condition where they sold $200 Netbooks on-contract with the Devil carriers.

While in Fry's I played with the iPad and once again felt the responsiveness of the product was easily a clear winner, but lacking in the memory-card and video out interface. I think 'maybe' Apple could completely blow the remaining fence-sitters away if they gave in on the iPad 2 design.

Jeez, you'd think I slept with SJ or something.


Are you sure that was the G Tablet and not the Viewpad?!

The G Tablet has a dual core Tegra and shouldn't be comparable to a generic pad by any means.

Check for the reviews...the dual core Tegra has plenty of power and lots of battery saving abilities.

Of course Viewsonic mucked up the software with a skin overtop of it but it shouldn't prove to hard to get a new fresh rom on there and be off.

It is still a bit expensive for my tastes though.
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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10273



PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It said Viewsonic G. Also, if you go online on their website and locate the product it will make available store availability. I did this and deliberately targeted the store. Its sitting on an endcap. I feel someone in the Open community just needs to make a Linux port for these things and get the hell away from Android.

BTW, these manufacturers and resellers are shooting themselves in the foot. Apple is synonymous with 'expensive'. If you bring your one trick pony to the show to compete against Apple and the iPad at the same $ point then you are a big friggen loser! If I am going to 'settle' for Android on a ~10" tablet its going to be for $300 or less. Asking for $400-500 and delivering what I experienced is a joke as I'll go buy a laptop, or a netbook with a lot of accessories.

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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
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PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm just amazed that with a dual core you thought it was slow. I will have to go check it out.
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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10273



PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 4:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought the dual-core running Android in the manner it was being run in was slow. No accounting for for effort on their part. The processor and OS could be fine, but maybe it was a case of it not being tweaked in that product. Maybe someone will make a better presentation.

BTW, I did sign up for the Google Chrome laptop beta, but I doubt I'll get targeted as a tester.

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Spanky Ham




Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central


PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree Wan. Getting close to Apple's prices for the Ipad is stupid unless you have some unique feature that is a must have.

As for speed, I just installed Meego on one of my laptops and it is blazing. They still have work to do on it, but it would be an alternative to Android.
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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5321



PostLink    Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The good thing with the Android tablets is that they are usually incredibly easy to root and through whatever you want on it...the bad part is...the cost will need to go down to a component cost in order to make all that extra tweaking work enticing to people with the skills.

xda is doing some pretty incredibly things.
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VideoGrabber




Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 933
Location: Michigan


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Spanky Ham wrote:
As for speed, I just installed Meego on one of my laptops and it is blazing. They still have work to do on it, but it would be an alternative to Android.

Let us know what you think about Meego after you've had some time to play with it. I'm curious about it as well.

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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5321



PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Would anyone pick up the Gentouch 7" tablet thingy for $100?

I have a chance to get a brand new one but don't have too much interest in "fixing it" based on the fact that the hardware isn't the greatest to begin with...

What do you think?
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Spanky Ham




Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central


PostLink    Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

VideoGrabber wrote:
Spanky Ham wrote:
As for speed, I just installed Meego on one of my laptops and it is blazing. They still have work to do on it, but it would be an alternative to Android.

Let us know what you think about Meego after you've had some time to play with it. I'm curious about it as well.


I haven't played with it much. I am kind of disappointed that the pen doesn't work. I don't think there is an easy way to get it to work either. One of the main reasons I tried it was I hoped it would be very user friendly for my extreme novice mom. For a basic OS for internet use, it might be one of the best out there. Wireless is as easy to use as Windows and it works. I still have trouble with Ubuntu. Surfing the web with Chrome (default browser) might be faster than my more powerful dual core laptop with better graphics and maybe on par with my desktop Athlon II X3 w/ GT240.

Just for you I checked boot times:
From button push is 29 seconds.
From bios is 21 seconds.

That is considerably faster than Ubuntu. There must be something wrong with TinyXP as it takes like two and a half minutes to boot.

There are a couple of things I don't like. First is the hard drive partition. With an eighty gig HD, it partitioned a 6.6 gb FAT 32bit, 7.3gb NTFS, 4.3gb FAT 16bit and the rest is Meego with swap. I am not sure why I need to waste 18 gb on NTFS and FAT. Second is software. I am not sure what software I can use. Their software catalog looks spartan. I have to look into this some more. Third is its ability to be customized. I think you are pretty much stuck with the default layout. Another thing I need to look into, but this can be both good and bad. I know I am missing something else, but I can't remember.

In the end, it is a nice alternative OS for Atom and Core 2 owners who just need a basic OS for web surfing and general apps. My laptop specs are Celeron P530 1.7g single core, Intel GMA X3100, 80 gig HD, and 1 (Yes, I said 1) gig of RAM. I am going to try to upgrade the CPU and buy a 2 gig RAM stick.
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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10273



PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 2:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Its amusing that B&N will be putting Android 2.2.1 on the Nook Color soon. With the exception of physical interfaces I wonder if someone could turn it into a remote control for the theater.
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VideoGrabber




Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 933
Location: Michigan


PostLink    Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

> Just for you I checked boot times: <

Thanks, Spanky. Those boot times look quite good. I appreciate the other info as well.

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VideoGrabber




Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 933
Location: Michigan


PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WanMan wrote:
I then went to see the Viewsonic G, ..., its slow running Android.

I haven't been able to get a look at this myself yet, but from what I've been reading, it isn't Android or the tablet itself that is slow. While many confirm your opinion on its speed, it seems to be a result of the TNT (Touch N Tap) interface they layered on top. Those who blew that away reported the speed was excellent, as you would expect from a dual-core Tegra2 running at 1 GHz, with 1 GB of RAM.

What did you think of the screen viewing quality, and touch responsiveness? They're $379 at Sears, and ShopDiscover has 10% off there, which would make the price fairly reasonable (~$340).... if the screen is decent.

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greg_mitch




Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5321



PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

VideoGrabber wrote:
WanMan wrote:
I then went to see the Viewsonic G, ..., its slow running Android.

I haven't been able to get a look at this myself yet, but from what I've been reading, it isn't Android or the tablet itself that is slow. While many confirm your opinion on its speed, it seems to be a result of the TNT (Touch N Tap) interface they layered on top. Those who blew that away reported the speed was excellent, as you would expect from a dual-core Tegra2 running at 1 GHz, with 1 GB of RAM.

What did you think of the screen viewing quality, and touch responsiveness? They're $379 at Sears, and ShopDiscover has 10% off there, which would make the price fairly reasonable (~$340).... if the screen is decent.


Be careful because Staples has removed the G Tablet due to "defects".

Not sure what is going on...but likely people returning it complaining about how slow it is.

It is unfortunate to use such great hardware with crappy UI layers overtop.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/18/viewsonic-g-tablet-pulled-from-staples-stores-manufacturing-de/
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WanMan




Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10273



PostLink    Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 10:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not only did they yank it, Greg, then they removed the SKU to act like they never sold it in the first place. WTF? That bothers me as that is what NewEgg did a couple of years ago with a Seagate hard drive and I never bought from them again (had already bought four of the failed drives).
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