Database Info

[Q] Is your tf300 useless while downloading?

My tab seems to literally only want to do one thing at a time pretty much. For it being a quad core it seems a bit ridiculous for it to freeze up and start throwing the wait or close crap anytime an app or the market is downloading something. Another thing is with the dock, I've noticed it seems that the touch pad is really slow and laggy after waking the tab from sleep. It is fine again after a reboot but once it goes to sleep you wake it up and the problem is back, what's strange is its only slow while on the home screen inside apps it works as normal. Another thing with the dock is it appears that it stops charging the tab after the screen is turned off as in the light on the power button goes out but turns back on and continues to charge if you wake it back up. I do not have it unlocked but it is rooted and EZoverclock is installed running it at 1ghz,1.3ghz and 1.5ghz. Still has the stock rom .29. Also it was doing these things before root and OC. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing these symptoms. Thanks for reading.

Mikehud1984 said:
My tab seems to literally only want to do one thing at a time pretty much. For it being a quad core it seems a bit ridiculous for it to freeze up and start throwing the wait or close crap anytime an app or the market is downloading something. Another thing is with the dock, I've noticed it seems that the touch pad is really slow and laggy after waking the tab from sleep. It is fine again after a reboot but once it goes to sleep you wake it up and the problem is back, what's strange is its only slow while on the home screen inside apps it works as normal. Another thing with the dock is it appears that it stops charging the tab after the screen is turned off as in the light on the power button goes out but turns back on and continues to charge if you wake it back up. I do not have it unlocked but it is rooted and EZoverclock is installed running it at 1ghz,1.3ghz and 1.5ghz. Still has the stock rom .29. Also it was doing these things before root and OC. Just curious if anyone else is experiencing these symptoms. Thanks for reading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never had these problems... It may be the method you rooted it. Try sparkyroot.. I remeber my motorola defy was completely unusable after rooting with an app.

I find my Desire S better capable of downloading webpages in the background while browsing another than the TF300T does.
My TF300T is still unrooted.
I just believe that the quadcore is not put to good use (read: the software is not optimised for it). It feels almost like that hyperthreading hype from Intel many years ago. That design was a complete bust, but they only would admit that when the real multi core processors arrived.

I have the same problem. Just have to do one thing or it is laggy. Just shame for quade to be that slow! I also dont have root.

Same problem with my TF300T
When I am downloading something in the background and try opening another app or browse something, I end up with the Wait messages and my tab almost freezes. I was really surprised that a quad core tablet has such poor performance.
My Samsung Galaxy S2 does a better job of downloading stuff in the background.

rnagam1 said:
When I am downloading something in the background and try opening another app or browse something, I end up with the Wait messages and my tab almost freezes. I was really surprised that a quad core tablet has such poor performance.
My Samsung Galaxy S2 does a better job of downloading stuff in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah my GS2 from att screams I love my phone. What's weird is I actually had the prime but had to return it due to too many defects but it never had any problems multitasking at all. You could have ten downloads running while playing a game without any lag it was a huge difference. I guess ASUS like many other companies have just not got the quality products they used too. Its to bad really. These tablets had a lot of potential. Maybe I should have gotten the Toshiba excite with the tegra instead its only $50 difference. Or perhaps this tab will get fixed in the future? Maybe we should bug the hell out of them until they fix it this is such BS to be misled like this. A quadcore should perform as such and be able to "MULTI" task with its "MULTI" Core CPU.

WIIstpM said:
I never had these problems... It may be the method you rooted it. Try sparkyroot.. I remeber my motorola defy was completely unusable after rooting with an app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did use the sparkyroot method and as my op says it has been like this since taken out of the box before it was rooted. I actually rooted it to remove some of the bloatware and OC it to see if it could perform better. My HP Touchpad with Cyanogen performed better than this paper weight.

The reason for the lag when downloading is because the tegra 3 only had single channel memory. This means all the apps being downloaded fill up the channel even though there are 4 cores. Its really a shame cuz the iPad has quad channel memory and most other chips have dual channel memory. Plus having more cores means more memory consumption.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

I'm having the same problem. I had 21 apps waiting to be updated and the table was completely useless during this period. My a500 performed much better and I sold it to get this device. Looking for an optimized stock rom, but it looks like I will be returning this to amazon. I expected so much more from the tegra 3. Will wait on a better device.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda premium

What are your download speeds?
I connected my tab today to a 25mbs down/up wifi, and I opened MC3 to download the game content. I noticed that I would freeze the download from time to time, sometimes holding there for about 10 secs. I think the main problem here is the speed at which the tablet can write on disk, I have never had any problems with download freezes or lags before on my lousy 3mbs connection at home.
The files were downloading so fast that the tab didn't have time to correctly write them and had to pause the download. This is just a hypothesis, I didn't get the chance to try again. Anyone that has access to a high speed internet connection and a slow speed connection could try this and verify it. Maybe download a torrent and throttle down your down speed to see if you still get the same lags and freezes as you would on your normal speed.

Here's a picture of a cf bench I did on my tab you can see that the write speed is at 511, it seems slow ppl using the prime have reported 800+ speeds
Also check out this post and this other thread
EDIT:
More pics added of bench test using androbench
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2

I use to download youtube videos with Tubemate. When there were multiple downloads, my tab slowed down like anything. I just popped in a 32gb card and chaged the download folder to sd card. Now, with 5 downloads also, no problem with slowing down. The internal memory's RW speed seems to be less i think.

Asus Infinity Vs. Laptop

I first got interested in touch screen technology about 4 or 5 years ago when I started college. I faced with the option of getting a powerful laptop, which I was going to need being a computer major, or get a convertible laptop. I studied the problem for a long time and decided that the technology had not progressed far enough to warrant spending so much money on something that had so little real power under the hood. Fast forward a few years and not only has the technology progressed, but is pervasive to say the least. The Infinity is the first tablet I have owned. I know, I might of kinda tried to kill a mosquito with a cannon, but your sure to hit your mark.
I often find myself in conversation with other people trying to justify the money I spent on the tablet with the inevitable question, "Well, what does it do?" I must admit I find myself at a loss of words. I have so many things run though my mind that it can do, i'm just flabbergasted with all the possibilities. I concluded it would be easier to focus on the things that it can not do. The question I pose to you is this, "What can you do on a laptop that you can not do on an android tablet?" We can just go ahead and assume that we are talking about a rooted and unlocked device, because lets be honest, if you find yourself reading forums on a developers website you are probably not your average consumer of electronic devices. I would like to start a running list on this question as I find it is a question I hear a lot from people looking to buy a tablet. At this point, I would say that the caveats of owning a tablet are as follows:
>The obvious answer is less powerful hardware.
>Lots of software is not compatible with Android, but not necessarily a problem, bc there are a host of other android apps that preform almost on par to their desktop counter parts.
> there are limitations on the peripherals due to lack of drivers. (I bring this up, bc, well, I really want to shoot a nerf canon at my dog wirelessly with my tablet.)
>Android does not support writing to external dvd/cd drives, but they can read.
>I pretty sure you can not boot from USB, limiting your ability to run live versions of various os'. I do network security, so I really want Linux Backtrack, and no the virtualized version just does not seem to cut it for me yet, but they are getting closer.
>No room for hardware upgrade
>Weight, I bring this up as a negative, because where there footprint of my device has diminished, I find myself carrying an onslaught of accessories. Stop me if you heard this one:
-Stylus
-USB adapter
-Micro sd card sleeve
-mini USB Hub
-Bluetooth Keyboard, just had one on hand so did not buy dock.
-Headphones
-Charger
-sometimes the micro hdmi cable.
-Small speaker
-screen cloth ( as another member put it, 10" of OCD glory)
-Grid-it Case to orginize all of it
-oh, and a portable surge protector. Overkill you say. I direct you to previous statement about canon.
>No true multitasking, such as split-screen window with to programs, and yes i know you can do it it with some, but your choices are limited in that respect.
>I will need someone to chime in on the next one, but I think you can not use two bt devices at the same time. Someone verify that pls.
>I for some reason can not get this tablet to communicate with my french press no matter how many times it with my Infinity.
I am intentionally omitting the topic of games because that would require a whole different thread. Let's try to stick to utilities and tools. Feel free to point out any mistakes as the goal is to learn.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

lowki said:
>I will need someone to chime in on the next one, but I think you can not use two bt devices at the same time. Someone verify that pls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you can - for example, I can use my bluetooth mouse while at the same time play music through my Belkin Bluetooth Music receiver.
Also, if you have a keyboard dock, a lot of those accessories aren't needed (USB hub, BT keyboard, Card Reader, charger, etc).
But, most of your points are true. One thing that I've found tough to do on a tablet is use MS-Project files. I do have an app to read them, but it isn't the best (plus, it can't edit them)...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

jtrosky said:
Actually, you can - for example, I can use my bluetooth mouse while at the same time play music through my Belkin Bluetooth Music receiver.
Also, if you have a keyboard dock, a lot of those accessories aren't needed (USB hub, BT keyboard, Card Reader, charger, etc).
But, most of your points are true. One thing that I've found tough to do on a tablet is use MS-Project files. I do have an app to read them, but it isn't the best (plus, it can't edit them)...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try quick office (hd, makes slideshows great)
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T

Midnitte said:
try quick office (hd, makes slideshows great)
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick Office doesn't support MS-Project files...
I think you are thinking of a different Microsoft product...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

Terminal IDE and linux in a chroot

On my laptop I can do serious processing of camera RAW files using Adobe Lightroom (or other processing engines). I have yet to find a true tablet-based equivalent capability.
Dave

No way in recent times can a tablet run like a laptop period.
This is a no brainer...
The latest notebooks are very powerful even in the simplest form.
When it comes to things like; Poser Pro, DAZ Studio, Adobe CS, MS office, Maya, Acrobat, Lightwave, Bryce or whatever you're going to need to lean on a PC or Mac.
Perhaps some day, but not today.
This is all moot

laptop beats it clean.
Heck I was trying to do a simple Google search from the address bar in the Chrome browser on my Infinity tablet. It stalled for a good minute.
In that minute I went over to my PC, launched Chrome, did the exact same action. Boom, it pulled up the results instantly.
I've been wondering how come Chrome works so solid on Windows and lackluster on Google's Android OS until I realized it's likely hardware.
The x86/x64 Intel based CPUs that make of the heart of Windows, Linux, and even MacOS have been in this game for more than a 2 decades and they've been constantly optimizing the CPU for the internet for half of it.
nVidia hasn't, they've making video cards for the majority. I'm starting to think now that had I thought with my old hardware geek mind, I would have never gone with a Android tablet, I should have bought a Windows tablet PC.

Sure, a laptop may be more powerful, but let's see your laptop get over 12 hours of battery life!
For *most* daily tasks, even MS-Office viewing and editing, a tablet can do just fine (at least with a keyboard dock). That's one reason why I bought the Transformer and really won't even consider a tablet without a true keyboard dock option anymore - without the keyboard dock, the device is just too limited for anything other than media consumption.
Add a nice keyboard dock and the tablet can instantly do *so* much more, while still being a great tablet when needed. I just wish there were more options when it came to a tablet with a keyboard dock! It kinda sucks being forced to go with Asus for this type of hybrid device.... But, I think that is slowly changing - it seems more devices with true keyboard docks are on the way. Asus better step up their game in the quality department, that's for sure!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

the_game_master said:
laptop beats it clean.
Heck I was trying to do a simple Google search from the address bar in the Chrome browser on my Infinity tablet. It stalled for a good minute.
In that minute I went over to my PC, launched Chrome, did the exact same action. Boom, it pulled up the results instantly.
I've been wondering how come Chrome works so solid on Windows and lackluster on Google's Android OS until I realized it's likely hardware.
The x86/x64 Intel based CPUs that make of the heart of Windows, Linux, and even MacOS have been in this game for more than a 2 decades and they've been constantly optimizing the CPU for the internet for half of it.
nVidia hasn't, they've making video cards for the majority. I'm starting to think now that had I thought with my old hardware geek mind, I would have never gone with a Android tablet, I should have bought a Windows tablet PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its only bad optimization on the infinity tablet. As the same SoC, only a slower version, it is extremly speedy on the nexus 7 tablet. We just have to hope for the best with the JB update.
And for Windows tablet PCs, the batterylife is nowhere compareable to ultrabooks and the infinity. So you have that downside.

I think this is at the root of many of the complaints from people. It looks like a laptop so why doesn't it perform like one. For basic tasks this is a really fantastic device but lets face it, your are running an OS based for something meant to be on and in your pocket 24/7. Its getting better but will it have the physical ability to do the things that a device with 20+ years of development? Not any time soon.
For me the always on feature is really awsome, touchscreen, small size and low power consumption help too. It replaces my laptop on travel and has opened the doors to media that I rarely used on my Viao. But the Viao still sits in its dock on my desk and splashtop manages to cover the shortcommings.
I think there would be less complaints if people did more research prior to purchase, not just about the device but also about the OS.

Of course the tablet won't take over the laptop in demanding tasks. The hardware for the laptop is a lot better. But the weight, battery life, portability, etc on a tablet is much better. Different devices for different purposes. But the dock is precisely why I like this device so much. It's still not a laptop, but at least for certain tasks I can make it as fast as one (for input). I definitely won't have to buy a laptop any time soon, since I already have a PC to do powerful tasks.
To each his own, I guess.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T

[HOW TO] Play your dvd disc on your tablet using the samsung SE-218

I just bought the samsung dvd writer SE-218 from amazon at the following link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008AJLPYS/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00
It works wonderfully. I've have not found a dvd in my collection I could not play. That said, you have to do the following steps to make it work. Samsung is terrible at giving instructions.
When I first got it and plugged it in, I could not for the life of me get it to work. I tried plugging it into my tf101, prime, sl101, and infinity. None would work. I searched the entire internet to find some kind of info on this and nothing. Can you believe that? Absolutely nada. Not a single soul out there have figured out how to make this baby work. So, after tinkering with it for about 20 minutes, here's how I made it work.
(1) Install mxvideo player on your tablet.
(2) Plug your dvd writer SE-218 into your tablet via usb.
(3) Press the eject button to eject the tray.
(4) While the tray is open, press and hold the eject button until the green light on the tray stays lit. Then release. This brings your dvd drive into av mode.
(5) Close the tray.
(6) Now, eject and open the tray and put in a dvd.
(7) Your tablet will now recognize your dvd as a usb device. Your tablet will appear to be frozen for about 10 seconds. Don't panic! It's just reading the dvd disc. Just leave it alone until it's read it.
(8) Using a file manager, navigate into the usb device and find a vob file that is big, like a couple gigs or so. Play it with your mxplayer.
VOILA! You can now play dvd's on-the-go. Please spread the word. Amazon is only selling this puppy for 34 bucks. Well worth it!
Edit.
I forgot to mention. You will have to eject the tray and long press the button for 3 seconds after every time you plug in the usb. The default mode is pc drive. In order for it to work with android, it will have to be in av mode.
Oh gosh, I can already foresee all the whiners whining about how long pressing the button for 3 seconds after each time they plug the usb cord in is too much trouble. Good god, you people should go get the ipad so that you won't have to worry about playing dvd on your tablet at all.

Nice find! Just ordered one myself!
Any chance that this drive allows the TF700 to read data DVD's as well? I used to be able to do this on ICS, but Jelly Bean doesn't seem to support the "iso9660" filesystem type. I'm hoping that this drive will allow me to read data DVDs as well (but not necessarily expecting it).
Thanks again.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

jtrosky said:
Nice find! Just ordered one myself!
Any chance that this drive allows the TF700 to read data DVD's as well? I used to be able to do this on ICS, but Jelly Bean doesn't seem to support the "iso9660" filesystem type. I'm hoping that this drive will allow me to read data DVDs as well (but not necessarily expecting it).
Thanks again.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it does. Already tried it.

Interesting, is this self powered, and is this the smallest form factor drive that can work? Good work finding this!

wpbear said:
Interesting, is this self powered, and is this the smallest form factor drive that can work? Good work finding this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is powered by the usb. It is the smallest, slimmest dvd writer drive right now.

Guess I'm missing the point here. Why would you want this? Just to avoid ripping dvd to sd card? I got rid of all my dvds two years ago
I do agree it is cool that it works. Maybe there are some uses I am not thinking of.

lafester said:
Guess I'm missing the point here. Why would you want this? Just to avoid ripping dvd to sd card? I got rid of all my dvds two years ago
I do agree it is cool that it works. Maybe there are some uses I am not thinking of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just in case you want to watch a DVD but you don't have access to a laptop or a PC at the moment to rip it out and then transferred to your tablet. In my world, I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Personally, I want it more for the ability to read data DVD's than video DVDs. I just think it would be nice to be able to get files from a data DVD with the TF700... Besides, you could also use it on any of your Windows boxes to actually burn DVDs as well. For $34, it's a very versatile DVD Burner!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

FOR ANY _ READS ......Data/Movies/installs *** GREAT FIND****
lafester said:
Guess I'm missing the point here. Why would you want this? Just to avoid ripping dvd to sd card? I got rid of all my dvds two years ago
I do agree it is cool that it works. Maybe there are some uses I am not thinking of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thanks OP for this find !!! Works greatly on my TF700T + Keyboard (normally with 64GB SD+ 32GB micro + 128GB USB)
Instant HIT for playing kids movies(which i dont want to rip and store on my tablets) ...............on my HOME NETWORKed 'Audio/Video' system - for watching/listerning anything anywhere now> (as I NOT A BIG fan of 'windows 7x home-sharing system) ... works wonders in LINUX NETWORKING !!!
ie - now TF700 is/can be uysed as MEDIA STREAMING/PLAYER !!
Thanks again
Cheers

Ausmike said:
Instant HIT for playing kids movies(which i dont want to rip and store on my tablets)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just ordered one for the same reason. Its going in our car for just that purpose.
Shame about having to hold that button for a few seconds. No big deal for me, but I'll have to train others to get it right when they insert a disk.

Linuxguy1 said:
I just ordered one for the same reason. Its going in our car for just that purpose.
Shame about having to hold that button for a few seconds. No big deal for me, but I'll have to train others to get it right when they insert a disk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
portable dvd player with screen is around $65. I'd rather let the kids play with that.

lafester said:
portable dvd player with screen is around $65. I'd rather let the kids play with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think that the portable DVD player will allow you to read data DVD's on the TF700 as well though!
The point here is convenience - sure you could get a portable DVD player carry it around for DVD viewing, along with bluetooth keyboard, an OTG USB adapter, a portable battery charger of some sort and a bluetooth mouse and some sort of device/case to actually hold the TF700 while trying to connect and use all of this stuff.
But, with a keyboard dock and this portable DVD drive, you can do all of that with one nice package and you'll always have all of that stuff with you with awesome battery life (plus you won't need batteries for the portable DVD player, the bluetooth keyboard, the bluetooth mouse, etc)!
Again, it's all about convenience - that's what the Transformer series is all about - one device to replace many devices - all wrapped up in a nice, portable package with great battery life.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

Just curious how you are using data dvds in a way that is more convenient then sd?
I really do want to find a reason to get one of these

Can you rip audio CDs directly to the transformer with this?

lafester said:
portable dvd player with screen is around $65. I'd rather let the kids play with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The kids aren't going to touch my Infinity or the drive. I'm going to send video and audio to a screen in the back seat. Having the drive and the Infinity in the front seat means I can control their content from the front.
The screens on those cheap, portable players are terrible. If its bright out you can't see the content.

lafester said:
Just curious how you are using data dvds in a way that is more convenient then sd?
I really do want to find a reason to get one of these
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my case, I just want the ability to read data from a DVD if needed, not really as a replacement for memory cards.
It's just nice to be able to read a data DVD if/when needed - I basically use the Transformer devices as a laptop (with a removable touch screen!), so I try to find ways where the Transformer can do most functions that a laptop can do. Along with RDP, it pretty much can do that (need to use RDP for some heave-duty tasks)...
I even have an app that can read MS-Project files for work-related project plans. It's really pretty amazing what these devices are capable of.
With this DVD drive, I'll be able to read just about any type of external media directly on my TF700, except for the good old floppy disk - thankfully, you don't run into those anymore!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

Has anyone tried any other player that MX Player?
I've been using Dice Player as it has covered all my needs so far and would prefer not to install multiple players.

Unibrow said:
Can you rip audio CDs directly to the transformer with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm..the next big thing after OP findings. I would think so based on how Op said files are accessed. Its said to be some huge DVD file or whatever you access to play the movie through mx player or some sort of file explorer. So I see no reason why an audio CD can't be inserted. Then access the files from file explorer LR something since its reading the drive as a USB device. Now I'm not sure if whatever format the CD is in needs to be converted, through an app, in order to be played. Might play natively. Especially of its some kind of mix CD(mp3 or FLAC files).
Now Y interest this same method should work on my note 10.1. Since is has USB host capabilities and all that like infinity pad also. Very good find OP. I might bring this up in the Note 10.1 forum. Even if ripping to SD card or whatever is more practical, its the fact that this is possible as to what makes it so cool. Could also possibly work with my nexus 7 and even SG3(lol).

demandarin said:
Hmmm..the next big thing after OP findings. I would think so based on how Op said files are accessed. Its said to be some huge DVD file or whatever you access to play the movie through mx player or some sort of file explorer. So I see no reason why an audio CD can't be inserted. Then access the files from file explorer LR something since its reading the drive as a USB device. Now I'm not sure if whatever format the CD is in needs to be converted, through an app, in order to be played. Might play natively. Especially of its some kind of mix CD(mp3 or FLAC files).
Now Y interest this same method should work on my note 10.1. Since is has USB host capabilities and all that like infinity pad also. Very good find OP. I might bring this up in the Note 10.1 forum. Even if ripping to SD card or whatever is more practical, its the fact that this is possible as to what makes it so cool. Could also possibly work with my nexus 7 and even SG3(lol).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I received my drive today and it doesn't seem to be able to read audio CD's for some reason...
Can someone else confirm this?
Thanks.
By the way, it's not very good at reading actual DVD's either. It seems that it "converts" the DVD to FAT32 format, so the "big" .vob file is actually broken down into multiple smaller .vob files that are 1gb in size, the the movie is actually broken into multiple 1gb "parts" - not very practical... It is good at reading data DVD's though, which was my main goal anyway...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

jtrosky said:
Actually, I received my drive today and it doesn't seem to be able to read audio CD's for some reason...
Can someone else confirm this?
Thanks.
By the way, it's not very good at reading actual DVD's either. It seems that it "converts" the DVD to FAT32 format, so the "big" .vob file is actually broken down into multiple smaller .vob files that are 1gb in size, the the movie is actually broken into multiple 1gb "parts" - not very practical... It is good at reading data DVD's though, which was my main goal anyway...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, are you for real? That's the way dvd's are. They are made of multiple 1gig vob files and are put together by the dvd programming. You should get an ipad.

Things I would like improved in the ASUS Transformer Infinity (TF700T)

So, I've spent a couple of months with the ASUS TF700T and its keyboard dock. Time to rant about things I don't like.
1) Startup time. Cold boot takes more than a minute. This is truly sad when Windows 8 Ultrabooks and Macbooks boot in seconds. Slower processor based android phones also boot faster. Why ASUS? What are you doing in this minute?
2) Critical Bugs. By that I mean glitches that cause the tablet to hang, randomly reboot or randomly shutdown. It's not hot. It's not being used for hours. It just crashes the kernel. It should NOT do that ASUS. I don't need that. Crash the app if you have to, not the whole tablet! Similarly with hot-plugging the dock sometimes.
3) Non-critical Bugs. That refers to little things that don't really affect productivity with the tablet but are driving me (and many others) insane.
a) What is this graphics card driver / whatever else issue that causes the random black lines to flicker on the screen at random intervals? What are these lines? ASUS, you can definitely reproduce this. This is not found on any other android device that I own (Samsung and HTC phones and tablets mainly). I realise it may not be a big deal (stuff does not crash at least), but this is a £500 tablet. This should not be an issue. Really.
b) What is wrong with the keyboard driver? Why do I need an independent app (External Keyboard Helper) to enjoy my hardware keyboard dock that you charge £100? How can this guy make such a great app, with no issues with dead keys (you know what I mean - greek 'tonos' or accent), and you, ASUS, after breaking this functionality on Jelly Bean, can't find a fix? Buy his keyboard and bundle it with your tablets, that's my answer. Give up on this ridiculous "ASUS Keyboard". It's a joke needing a separate keyboard for every language, particularly one that does not work properly. Use Google's standard. Use Hacker's Keyboard from the market (free!). Use Swype. Whatever.
4) Missing features. You give us a tablet with a hardware keyboard having a USB slot. What do people use USB for? No, it's not to plug in a keyboard. It's probably not to plug in a mouse either. External storage maybe, but less so in this cloud-ridden world where everything is on Dropbox.
Charging their phones is what they will use it for. Their iPhones, Androids and whatever. Why can't we do that with the tablet screen off ASUS? Is Apple smarter and they can code the Macbook Air circuitry better? Is this not something people want? I may not need 18h of tablet time - just a charge for my phone. Why should I need to keep the tablet on for that?
5) A 3G / 4G / whatever model, priced competitively. I know I can tether. I'd like to save myself the trouble, and my phone's battery since it is so damn difficult to charge with the built in dock anyway. It's not that hard, it will let carriers offer your tablet as a bundle, it will make you money. The iPad does it, Samsung does it. The only tablets that don't do it are Amazon's - and there are 3G Kindles out there.
5 things. Can you fix them?
Note that stuff like "my generation 1 iPad browses and reads email faster" and "X phone / tablet costing half as much is on 4.2.2 already" and "why should I need to void my warranty to install custom ROMs" are left out here. I don't particularly care about these.
I think the TF700T is an amazing feat of engineering. An incredible, sharp screen, a great form factor, a good looking set with the dock keyboard. But I'm sorry, I'm a guy who regularly forks out £600 on tablets or gadgets and my next tablet will be an iPad or a Samsung or a Kindle. It's just not worth it. I have no patience anymore, because I know that I can get my work done more efficiently with a 3rd party external keyboard and any other tablet. Heck, I can even get a phone, a keyboard and a HDMI screen for the money, and even run Ubuntu more stably.
PS: I am posting this on every android forum I know, just in case find a solution for some of these problems...

This has to be the worst post i have ever seen on the tf700 thread...

ronniereiff said:
This has to be the worst post i have ever seen on the tf700 thread...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I did however respond to it when posted in Transformer Forums but this person never replied to anything that people have commented on it.
Tylor
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
ROM: Cromi-X 4.3
Kernal: Hundsbuah's V3.0.5 Kernal

giatros said:
So, I've spent a couple of months with the ASUS TF700T and its keyboard dock. Time to rant about things I don't like.
1) Startup time. Cold boot takes more than a minute. This is truly sad when Windows 8 Ultrabooks and Macbooks boot in seconds. Slower processor based android phones also boot faster. Why ASUS? What are you doing in this minute?
2) Critical Bugs. By that I mean glitches that cause the tablet to hang, randomly reboot or randomly shutdown. It's not hot. It's not being used for hours. It just crashes the kernel. It should NOT do that ASUS. I don't need that. Crash the app if you have to, not the whole tablet! Similarly with hot-plugging the dock sometimes.
3) Non-critical Bugs. That refers to little things that don't really affect productivity with the tablet but are driving me (and many others) insane.
a) What is this graphics card driver / whatever else issue that causes the random black lines to flicker on the screen at random intervals? What are these lines? ASUS, you can definitely reproduce this. This is not found on any other android device that I own (Samsung and HTC phones and tablets mainly). I realise it may not be a big deal (stuff does not crash at least), but this is a £500 tablet. This should not be an issue. Really.
b) What is wrong with the keyboard driver? Why do I need an independent app (External Keyboard Helper) to enjoy my hardware keyboard dock that you charge £100? How can this guy make such a great app, with no issues with dead keys (you know what I mean - greek 'tonos' or accent), and you, ASUS, after breaking this functionality on Jelly Bean, can't find a fix? Buy his keyboard and bundle it with your tablets, that's my answer. Give up on this ridiculous "ASUS Keyboard". It's a joke needing a separate keyboard for every language, particularly one that does not work properly. Use Google's standard. Use Hacker's Keyboard from the market (free!). Use Swype. Whatever.
4) Missing features. You give us a tablet with a hardware keyboard having a USB slot. What do people use USB for? No, it's not to plug in a keyboard. It's probably not to plug in a mouse either. External storage maybe, but less so in this cloud-ridden world where everything is on Dropbox.
Charging their phones is what they will use it for. Their iPhones, Androids and whatever. Why can't we do that with the tablet screen off ASUS? Is Apple smarter and they can code the Macbook Air circuitry better? Is this not something people want? I may not need 18h of tablet time - just a charge for my phone. Why should I need to keep the tablet on for that?
5) A 3G / 4G / whatever model, priced competitively. I know I can tether. I'd like to save myself the trouble, and my phone's battery since it is so damn difficult to charge with the built in dock anyway. It's not that hard, it will let carriers offer your tablet as a bundle, it will make you money. The iPad does it, Samsung does it. The only tablets that don't do it are Amazon's - and there are 3G Kindles out there.
5 things. Can you fix them?
Note that stuff like "my generation 1 iPad browses and reads email faster" and "X phone / tablet costing half as much is on 4.2.2 already" and "why should I need to void my warranty to install custom ROMs" are left out here. I don't particularly care about these.
I think the TF700T is an amazing feat of engineering. An incredible, sharp screen, a great form factor, a good looking set with the dock keyboard. But I'm sorry, I'm a guy who regularly forks out £600 on tablets or gadgets and my next tablet will be an iPad or a Samsung or a Kindle. It's just not worth it. I have no patience anymore, because I know that I can get my work done more efficiently with a 3rd party external keyboard and any other tablet. Heck, I can even get a phone, a keyboard and a HDMI screen for the money, and even run Ubuntu more stably.
PS: I am posting this on every android forum I know, just in case find a solution for some of these problems...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1)startup time : i never shutdown my tab unless thete is no battery so i use the startup very few times and my lifespan is long enough (around 80 years) to wait for 1mn for a non-critical device to start
2)critical bugs : i don't have any. My tab nearly never crash (4 times since august). Maybe you have a broken tab (use your warranty to change it) or maybe you installed bad-quality applications and apply some customization and parameters not very clever...
3)non-critical bugs : i have some but they don't drive me insane and most of them are app related, not from the tab or asus. And anyway remember that nothing perfect exists and you also are doing mistakes in your own job...
4)missing features : you complain that there is a usb port ? It's one of the best reason to buy that tab ! You say the cloub is here but people don't alluse the cloud and on it the capacity is small (few Gb while my external disk has 1 Tb). And you can't put your photo to the cloud without a computer like that tab to connect your camera and extract your photos.
5)3G/4G : a 3G model exist TF700TG. 4G does not exist but it's normal as 4G was not ready when that tab was designed and put to stores. And at that time, there was NO tab with 4G (even the ipad, the 4G version arrived few months later)
PS : You post on every forum ? I call that spam and i know that will not answer to most of all the answers you will get in all these forums. Question : why don't you post that to world-wide newspapers, maybe the UN could decide of resolution against asus to ask them to meet your expectations ?
Please buy an ipad or whatever you prefer and don't bother us anymore with your poor man complains.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

Wait did he just criticse the tablet for having a USB port. I use the USB for external storage...

Thanks for all your comments, some have been helpful.
I realise that I wasn't very clear on what I said about the USB port. I really like it. I think it should be there. I have adapters for my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 and my Galaxy Note, (MHL) which I mainly use to connect USB keyboards or thumb drives, or SD readers.
The rant is that there is no constant power to the USB. When the tablet screen locks, USB loses power: thus you can't charge a phone for 10 minutes in your backpack when walking. This is possible with a MacBook Air (that I end up carrying around for this purpose).
Startup time is important, at least to me. It is a major selling point for Mac OS X and Windows 8. People don't want to wait when their gadgets load, that's what I think. Computers do have sleep mode as well (and sadly, they wake up faster from sleep than the Transformer!!!).
I have an iPad as well, generation 1, jailbroken, loaded with 64GB of stuff. The OS must have crashed once or twice in years. Heck, I've even managed to crash a Kindle 3 once in 3 years. I can live with that. But the TF crashes at least once a week. I believe that not that many people experience this issue, so I will RMA mine and hope for the best.
I was not aware there is a 3G version. I have not seen it on sale anywhere. After a lot of googling I realised it's the TF700KL (and it's 4G LTE, which is nice).
Thanks again and sorry if this did not apply to you.

What are you doing to crash it. Even on stock 4.2 I dont remember it crashing?

giatros said:
The rant is that there is no constant power to the USB. When the tablet screen locks, USB loses power: thus you can't charge a phone for 10 minutes in your backpack when walking. This is possible with a MacBook Air (that I end up carrying around for this purpose).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are carrying around a MacBook Air only to charge your phone?
giatros said:
Startup time is important, at least to me. It is a major selling point for Mac OS X and Windows 8. People don't want to wait when their gadgets load, that's what I think. Computers do have sleep mode as well (and sadly, they wake up faster from sleep than the Transformer!!!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only time when startup time is important for me is after it crashed again. Otherwise I leave the tablet in standby mode, and it wakes up in a second whenever I need it.
I agree that all these issues exist and are annoying more or less, but you won't ever find a perfect device - all have their quirks. For me, the only real defect from your 5 points is that it really crashes from time to time.

_that said:
You are carrying around a MacBook Air only to charge your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does work
Standalone batteries are less efficient (plus I forget to charge them)
I have found myself carrying an iPad to tether everything else to sometimes...
_that said:
The only time when startup time is important for me is after it crashed again. Otherwise I leave the tablet in standby mode, and it wakes up in a second whenever I need it.
I agree that all these issues exist and are annoying more or less, but you won't ever find a perfect device - all have their quirks. For me, the only real defect from your 5 points is that it really crashes from time to time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, crashing is the worst. Writing something and losing it is not nice. Even if it's just a paragraph, it's a waste of time.
I have hopes for a perfect device! One that does what I need and is stable enough. I-devices work, most android phones work, Macs work, PCs work, kindles work - why should this be different?

giatros said:
It does work
Standalone batteries are less efficient (plus I forget to charge them)
I have found myself carrying an iPad to tether everything else to sometimes...
Yes, crashing is the worst. Writing something and losing it is not nice. Even if it's just a paragraph, it's a waste of time.
I have hopes for a perfect device! One that does what I need and is stable enough. I-devices work, most android phones work, Macs work, PCs work, kindles work - why should this be different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My tablet only crashes when trying to download torrents. If I dont attempt to download torrents, then I dont have any crashes. Though the beta version of CROMIX I had a game crash once but that is expected on beta and hasnt crashed since.
Tylor
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
ROM: Cromi-X 4.3
Kernal: Hundsbuah's V3.0.5 Kernal

My tab has crashed a very few times and each time it was while playing a game that was heavely using the GPU/CPU. Maybe your tab has a hardware defect but before sending it back with rma, try a factory reset wich will put back your tab to original configuration (it means you loose your data if you don't save them elsewhere).
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

A factory reset is good, but it can ALSO be a system file corrupted, in which I suggest you factory reset, reflash 4.2.1, then another factory reset.
Tylor
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
ROM: Cromi-X 4.3
Kernal: Hundsbuah's V3.0.5 Kernal

While I do not agree with the OP totally but at least for some parts.
What I don't understand is that people keep defending ASUS as if they are not to blame.
Replies like "This is the worst post ever" I assume you are talking about your own post there.
The black lines are a complete no go for me, if you can't make a HD screen to work put in a low resolution screen, I would have skipped it and maybe be even happy with another tablet. Credits for apple's ipad for that, it is possible guys.
The keyboards menu button is only when your in an app, why is that? Why not in a launcher, where you use menu the most?
And then all these benchmarks, twice as fast as a htc one x, give me a break. My one x really blows away my TF700, it's about performance during the day, not just some numbers.
Installing a rom takes 3 times as long as on my one x...
Maybe it is because most asus fan people have an older smartphone with lower specs but owning a one x does not make things better for the infinity. ;0
The reason for me to keep it is because I bought it in NY for $600 that's about 430 euro incl. keyboard.
If I would have bought it here in Holland it would have been 600+ euro and I wouldn't accept this product as it is.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

J_Dutch said:
While I do not agree with the OP totally but at least for some parts.
What I don't understand is that people keep defending ASUS as if they are not to blame.
Replies like "This is the worst post ever" I assume you are talking about your own post there.
The black lines are a complete no go for me, if you can't make a HD screen to work put in a low resolution screen, I would have skipped it and maybe be even happy with another tablet. Credits for apple's ipad for that, it is possible guys.
The keyboards menu button is only when your in an app, why is that? Why not in a launcher, where you use menu the most?
And then all these benchmarks, twice as fast as a htc one x, give me a break. My one x really blows away my TF700, it's about performance during the day, not just some numbers.
Installing a rom takes 3 times as long as on my one x...
Maybe it is because most asus fan people have an older smartphone with lower specs but owning a one x does not make things better for the infinity. ;0
The reason for me to keep it is because I bought it in NY for $600 that's about 430 euro incl. keyboard.
If I would have bought it here in Holland it would have been 600+ euro and I wouldn't accept this product as it is.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The TF700 out of the box is junk which is indeed only my personal preference. Many people have the stock device and are very happy with it. I also suggest people who compare a tablet with a keyboard to another, then type papers of a phone or a regular tablet without a keyboard and see how long it takes you. It is indeed ASUS fault for their bloated ROM, but if you use CromiX or Cyanogen Mod, It will blow any stock device out of the water. The black lines are no big deal, and dont occur when watching movies. I only see that when using Tapatalk or browsing, and it is rare. If you want a device out of the box go for a different device. The TF700 has gotten better with 4.2.1 as it fixed a lot typing application lag and such, but still dont compare to a un-bloated and tweaked ROM.
Tylor
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
ROM: Cromi-X 4.3
Kernal: Hundsbuah's V3.0.5 Kernal

Tylorw1 said:
The TF700 out of the box is junk which is indeed only my personal preference. Many people have the stock device and are very happy with it. I also suggest people who compare a tablet with a keyboard to another, then type papers of a phone or a regular tablet without a keyboard and see how long it takes you. It is indeed ASUS fault for their bloated ROM, but if you use CromiX or Cyanogen Mod, It will blow any stock device out of the water. The black lines are no big deal, and dont occur when watching movies. I only see that when using Tapatalk or browsing, and it is rare. If you want a device out of the box go for a different device. The TF700 has gotten better with 4.2.1 as it fixed a lot typing application lag and such, but still dont compare to a un-bloated and tweaked ROM.
Tylor
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
ROM: Cromi-X 4.3
Kernal: Hundsbuah's V3.0.5 Kernal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right about that, I have tweaked my One X. But on stock sense it's not far behind the tweaked Infinity.
And let's not forget the One X is even more expensive for me, so you get a lot of hardware for the money(at least what I paid for it)
The concept is brilliant, it's more that I'm slightly dissapointed cause if performance was wat is expected this device would have been the best ever, and I'm sure it could have been if asus at least would have done better I/O performance. But then again, will there ever be a perfect device?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

The thing is, I don't think the speed should be an issue. I don't play that many games (certainly not power-hungry ones), I don't download torrents on the TF700T.
I have been flashing custom ROMs on devices since my HTC Prophet - and custom ROMs are usually less stable than the factory ROM (they are faster and with more eye-candy). Why this is not the case here I don't know.
I like the tablet to read papers and books (mainly PDF, some ePub), this is why I wanted the high resolution screen.
Screen tearing when reading is distracting and very disappointing.
I try to write papers on the TF700T. I write some forum posts. But the problems there are
1) Can't use a reference manager - there is no cite as you write, or at least I haven't found one
2) Random crashing or flushing the app from memory causes loss of data
3) When I want to write in Greek, I HAVE to use a non-ASUS keyboard app as the ASUS keyboard does not let you put accents in since 4.2.1
The touchscreen is great for reading stuff, underlining etc. But this tablet is problematic; may be just my device (I hope). It certainly feels like a beta product.
I wanted to reinstall the OS as well, however ASUS seems to have pulled the 10.6.1.14.4 from their download site (I get file not found for http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeePAD/TF700T/TF700T_WW_epaduser_V1061144UpdateLauncher.zip )

I just wanted to say this:
There is a very noticeable issue with the Tegra 3's 4+1 processor setup that some things (recovery for example) do not handle too well and end up using that power saver core as the main core. For example, in TWRP, on my Droid RAZR the little slider to confirm something is very liquid, as is the loading bar's animation, but on the TF700T, it lags immensely.
That is the one issue I have with it. As far as Quadrant scores or benchmarks, mine have been all over the place even on CM10.1. It doesn't matter that on CROMI it can get a 10,000 if you can't switch between two apps in less than 10 seconds.
Sent from my Transformer Infinity

Looks like the MemoPad Smart 10 fixes the slow I/O issues

Looks like the Asus MemoPad Smart 10 fixes the crappy NAND issues.
http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/nexusae0_Screenshot_2013-03-04-15-57-55.jpg
Of course, the real issue with all ASUS tablets up to this point has been the storage read/write speed. Everything may seem to be fine, but when it comes to any write-intensive task – like installing apps, for example – the device slows to a crawl. While I haven't experienced that issue on the MeMO in the same magnitude that I have with other ASUS tablets (most Androbench scores nearly doubled that of the TF300), there was a hint of slowdown while updating apps. It's hard to say whether or not that issue will worsen with time, but it's definitely something to consider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source (Android Police)
And there's storage speed, the bane of Asus' existence. Asus Transformer Android tablets have notoriously slow internal storage. We'd hoped that Asus had improved this, since they generally respond quickly to customer feedback. The good news is that its internal storage is twice as fast as the Asus Transformer Pad TF300. The bad news is that the MeMO Pad Smart 10 benchmarks at less than half the speed of the competing Google Nexus 10 in the AndroBench benchmark that measures storage performance. We no longer see the "wait or force close" dialogs as we did with prior Asus Transformer tablets, but apps like Real Racing 3 that load a significant amount of data from internal storage do take noticeably longer to load when compared to the speedy Nexus 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(Source - MobileTechReview)

Well, they seem to have amended it a bit, but I would not call this "fixing" an issue.
If we fixed the patients like this where I work, we'd be out of a job in months, and if the method had any significant rate of adaptation world-wide, Nature would finally have a change to recuperate in a few years, and we would see a new primary species on our little planet. No more greenhouse effect, no more wars, lots of living space and food for everyone. Just no (interindividual) sex for lack of human company -- hand blistering treatment kits would make you millions of then-worthless $$$.

mr.fast said:
Looks like the Asus MemoPad Smart 10 fixes the crappy NAND issues.
http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/nexusae0_Screenshot_2013-03-04-15-57-55.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any idea why my androbench reads 359MB/s for random write?

sure but the memopad doesn't come with an FullHD display and only a 1.2/1.3ghz clocked Tegra 3.
So it's just a slightly better TF300T without keyboard dock. Or just a bigger Nexus 7.
And also, there is atm no way to unlock the bootloader to install a CFW.

ronniereiff said:
Any idea why my androbench reads 359MB/s for random write?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have disabled fsync and are benchmarking your RAM instead of the storage.

_that said:
You have disabled fsync and are benchmarking your RAM instead of the storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I try to test SD card but it crashes, is it because of fsynce.

test /sdcard not external sd.
better remove your external sdcard to make sure.

is anyone having any audio playback issues with their memo pad?
when streaming HD video from iPlayer or youtube etc, the audio is out of sync for me, which is really annoying!

For me, the ultimate test in this regard is how much lag is created while trying to run a torrent. And as far as i can tell, th MeMo can do just fine there.I'mtesting out store models right now and the MeMO feels snappier by far in Balanced mode than the Transformer 700 on Performance. Which is somewhatunderstandable but areal pity given the specs. Ithought the faster processor onthe TF700 would compensate for sure.