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I have never owned a tablet before. I never thought I had a use for one. But once the iPad and Android tablets started flooding the market, I kept thinking, "man, those are cool". But I still didn't know what I would use one for.
So now I have a G Tablet, with all of the mods applied, but I still don't know why I need it, or want it. I do most of my computing at my desk. When on the go, I use my Nexus One. Right now my G Tablet is just an expensive Angry Birds console.
So, tell me what you use yours for, before I get bored and return this item.
BTW, This is not a knock on the G Tablet, I am very impressed with the hardware (except for the viewing angles) on this device.
personally i got it for my kitchen to have a laptop like device that isnt so big and bulky like a laptop for internet radio and to access apps and cooking apps for the wifey. plus something to quickly access the web in the kitchen without having to open the laptop or try getting to the browser on my phone.
also use it to control the lights throughout the lights since i have x10 lighting in my house.
I was like you, thinking that the combo of a desktop computer, a laptop, and my Nexus One meant that a tablet would be unnecessary. I'd almost always be on either my laptop or my N1 in the evenings while watching TV, just keeping an eye on e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Plus playing a lot of Angry Birds.
But, since I got my gTab, I've used my laptop maybe twice in five weeks. My phone just sits at my side in case I get an actual call (rare!). I use my tablet *all the time* when I'm on the sofa. It's great to have a much larger screen to look at (instead of my N1) when reading Kindle books or playing Angry Birds or just surfing. I also like typing on it more since I installed Thumb Keyboard, which in landscape mode has a split-keyboard to allow for easy thumb-only typing. I watch more streaming video than I ever would have bothered to on my N1.
And it's ergonomically much more comfortable than dealing with my laptop all evening.
It's also great to have when on the treadmill compared to an N1, again for Kindle or whatever.
I use it for music on the go around my home. I may be in the kitchen doing some cooking, or helping with laundry or cleaning. I do it all with music.
I use it to surf while on the couch watching TV, anything that pops to my mind...something relating to the show, etc.
I use it in the kitchen in the rare occasion I feel like doing something different. My wife is an awesome cook but she gets home at 5 or so, so sometimes I try to do the right thing and cook some dinnah...and sometimes I'm inspired enough to try a recipe from the net.
I use it in bed when I'm winding down to go to sleep. Music or maybe an episode of something; surf the web or read an e-book.
I use it to read...magazines, ebooks, whether I'm in the couch, on the balcony, etc.
So in the end, for me it's a great value. I just wish it worked properly without flashing additional stuff.
It's a really great notebook replacement when all you want to do are the lighter things like listen to music, watch tv, surf the web or read a book/magazine. Can you do these things on your PC or Notebook? Of course you can!, but if you're the type of person who doesn't like to sit behind a PC or under a laptop for 12 hrs then it really works out.
My 2 complaints, 1 major and 1 minor are how crappy the initial software is (major) and how heavy it is (minor)...the weight may be necessary as I suspect the battery to be the culprit, and almost all the Tegra 2 devices releasing currently are this heavy, but a nicer weight would have been 1lb vs. 1.55lbs which becomes weighty in one hand after a while. The Archos 101 is just around 1lb and feels very nice to hold.
Dashboard on my work desk for scrolling news, weather, to do list and email (work station stays on task-monitor my usage to your heart's desire It department!!!!)
Desk top digital picture frame
Surfing web on the couch.
Watching missed TV shows from my bed using Bluetooth headphones after the wife's asleep
Surfing these bulletin boards.
Kindle book reader
I don't social network but I hear twitter and Facebook are popular.
Watching news clips
Trying to figure out away to port my weekly Netflix movies to this for easy viewing while traveling
Thinking of trying to setup a way to get work email and edit spread sheets real quick.
Have yet to really figure out how well some of my ideas will work.
What is wrong with an expensive angry birds console
@allenfx, have you tryed using documents to go app for editing spread sheets
Based on my experience so far:
Aggravation !!!
I used this to play emulators like Tiger Mame and Snes, I watch Justin TV, browse the web, a night clock...etc. The 10.1 screen is great for all of those things especially on long road trips like the one I took with my family last week. My kids were playing and watching videos for most of our trip. I love this thing!!!
They also used this to Vid chat. It was great because they got to say Merry Xmas to their grandparents face to face (sorta).
All of this and the battery was still at 30%+ after a 7 hr drive! That's frickin crazy...I think. Escpecially with the tablet running those tasks.
I like these ideas. Keep them coming.
I normally use my eee pc on the sofa and what not. I can see this is better solution for that, since it plays videos much better.
@dragonfly1113
I am interested in the home automation you mentioned. Can you describe your setup?
Thanks Everyone.
thewayne01 said:
@dragonfly1113
I am interested in the home automation you mentioned. Can you describe your setup?
Thanks Everyone.
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First you gotta look into x10 lighting which is special lighting for your house, the house i bought i was lucky enough it had the lighting in it already i just needed the "base". What happends is you get a "base" which sends signals out to devices lights/appliances/security systems for them to turn on and off. They reach out to modules which you add to a light, for instance you get a wall switch one instead of wiring the wires to a normal light switch you wire them into this x10 module which has dials on them you set the dials to a "channel" and thats how it communicates with the base. it sounds more complicated than it really is, a very easy affordable way to get it is with lamp modules which are the cheapest and they plug right into any wall outlet and have a female end on the other side where you plug in something like say a lamp. If you need anymore info on the actual setup of x10 just research on google x10 lighting and it will give you all the info.
for the app there are many paid apps out there you can get but your best off with the one thats free called autom8 its not on the market but there is a link for it if you search "autom8 android" in google you should be able to find it, it has a video attached to it of the kid doing it on his android phone, i have it on my droid 1 and now on my g tablet in the kitchen so i can turn on the lights before i even walk into the house
dragonfly1113 said:
First you gotta look into x10 lighting which is special lighting for your house, the house i bought i was lucky enough it had the lighting in it already i just needed the "base". What happends is you get a "base" which sends signals out to devices lights/appliances/security systems for them to turn on and off. They reach out to modules which you add to a light, for instance you get a wall switch one instead of wiring the wires to a normal light switch you wire them into this x10 module which has dials on them you set the dials to a "channel" and thats how it communicates with the base. it sounds more complicated than it really is, a very easy affordable way to get it is with lamp modules which are the cheapest and they plug right into any wall outlet and have a female end on the other side where you plug in something like say a lamp. If you need anymore info on the actual setup of x10 just research on google x10 lighting and it will give you all the info.
for the app there are many paid apps out there you can get but your best off with the one thats free called autom8 its not on the market but there is a link for it if you search "autom8 android" in google you should be able to find it, it has a video attached to it of the kid doing it on his android phone, i have it on my droid 1 and now on my g tablet in the kitchen so i can turn on the lights before i even walk into the house
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Click to collapse
That's frickin cool! haha. I didn't know that even existed.
I travel quite a bit for the company I own and I am just flat tired of hauling around a laptop around airports etc. Mostly what I do is keep in touch with email but occasionally have to get into one of the network servers. I tried doing this with my smartphone but it was just too tiny and too limiting that way so I kept on hauling around my laptop.
The tablet allows me to do these without the laptop hassle. If I have to answer an email it is still a minor pain with a screen keyboard but with the tablet its much less of a hassle. During flights I can use it to play games, compose emails for sending later, writing notes or even just reading.
Its a lot less weight to carry. It may not seem like much to some but after carrying around a leather case with a shoulder strap with a six pound laptop and another two pounds of other stuff I would get to my hotels with big red strap marks on my shoulder. Now the weight is reduced by well over half and it "feels" good.
R
This is interesting stuff. First, the autom8 android seems to be an abandoned app. But reading some forums there appear to be other alternatives out there that do the same thing and have an active developer.
The price of the x10 modules are incredibly cheaper when they came out years ago. I hadn't looket at it lately but I did when they first came on the market and I thought that they were crazy expensive and I never looked at them again. Now, you can buy kits that are just about dirt cheap.
Sounds like a fun plaything but I don't see much use for it myself. If I still lived in Los Angeles it would have lots of good uses for security. But, now I live out in the country in rural Kansas and when we went to Europe we forgot to lock the front door. No biggie, didn't worry about it and when we got back all was fine.
R
I am in the same boat not sure why I bought it at the beginning. I have a laptop (very light-weight 4lb + very fast CPU + 14.1 screen), a desktop and a couple of pocket PCs (HP iPAQ). Now, my g-tablet has a "real" purpose.. is to piss off my apple-addicted co-workers (most of my co-workers use Mac laptops + Ipads, Iphones, etc). Even my helpdesk dept does not like Android, linux or windows and they think Apple is the best. Anyways, I brought my G-tablet to work one day and showed them CNN.com with Flash and ran the Quadrant score.. hahahaha.
Fuzzy John said:
Based on my experience so far:
Aggravation !!!
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Click to collapse
Hahahaha!
I know EXACTLY how you feel. You know how I see it? You can buy few other electronics for $350-$400 that are going to pull off what this can. It's a handheld computer - it runs better graphics than I think most netbooks at this price point and the only other electronics you will buy with $400 is maybe a mid end 32" LCD TV which let's face it - you probably already own something bigger/better, in fact maybe even 2 or 3.
So I mean....unless you're willing to WAIT until March/April for the more solid stuff to come with either 2.3 as the base or Honeycomb, at least you can get a few things done in the meantime with the newest stock s/w....and hopefully by the time they become mainstream we'll get an official update that even the devs won't feel necessary to mod too heavily to be workable.
I almost decided to return mine today when the screen became unresponsive and no amount of claimed calibration would work. But I calmed down, did a full wipe and now it's good. I think the hardware is pretty solid, it's just the software that is a total mess and the devs here are doing the best they can with what they have but in the end I think it's the people that sit down in labs and workstations that need to make at least a solid software core for things to be based upon and I don't think that's the case with the tnt software, zpad software or vega software. I think it's all based on some pretty crummy stuff. I still have high hopes for something better when Honeycomb comes, or something written from the ground up by the devs here based on 2.3.
man let me see......what don't you use the gtab for????? lol. I mainly use it while watching tv i can watch football and browse the web. i like the google finance app to check my stocks. its great entertainment when i have company i leave it on the coffe table so guests can play with it or surf the web... yeah i have 2 laptops even an ultra light and thin 11.6" screen 3.5 lbs but i still prefer this as my internet browser while on the couch... sure i can do all that on my iphone 4 but i cant even look at that small screen after getting used to my tab! i tether my phones internet to it so a long ride in the car goes by quick, when others are driving of course. i love the old school nintendo emulators also...again can do all that from my phone but why when i have a ten inch screen.
Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b3 using Tapatalk (while on the couch waiting for MNF to start)
Travelling with less than two pounds... access to my brokerage account and virtually all the investment pages I tend to use... E-mail... news, sports, weather... Twitter feeds I follow... much easier to carry around the house than the laptop. An aside: the WiFi is very sensitive. On an Amtrak train, waiting to leave Chicago's Union Station and then at least for an hour or two heading West to Denver, I had the choice of a dozen or so connections available to me. About half were open networks from hotels and eateries. As the train picked up speed, available connections changed every few minutes. Crazy stuff. The December VS update just before Christmas was wonderful for this stock gTablet. The only fix I want now is video added to Skype capabilities.
Tom
3 movies on one charged battery..... Enough said...
jacindc said:
But, since I got my gTab, I've used my laptop maybe twice in five weeks. My phone just sits at my side in case I get an actual call (rare!). I use my tablet *all the time* when I'm on the sofa. It's great to have a much larger screen to look at (instead of my N1) when reading Kindle books or playing Angry Birds or just surfing.
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Click to collapse
Same here. Chat, read email, browse the web, all on my sofa and much more comfortable. I use my laptop in the morning... to prop up my tablet.
-=Sent from my VS GTablet (VEGAn b4) using Tapatalk=-
I use my g tablet for everything the only time I use my PC was to download the new roms but now I have rom manager working my PC is just a dvr I also use the PC as dual boot 64 bit windows/linux. If I could use Linux on the g tablet my PC would be an expensive dvr only right now I'm using vegan beta4 and its pretty smooth
So I've had the Transformer for about 4-5 months now and too be quiet honest due to the lack of apps I cant really say it was a justified purchase. Sure its cool and all that and its useful when you just want to kick back and browse the web.
I love android been a huge fan of android since the longest time I used to own an iphone but I quickly got rid of it cause i wanted functionality/customization more than i wanted a whole array of apps.
However, somewhat opposite is what it seems I want with the tablet. So though i really like honeycomb and its looks (none too different than ICS) and i love ICS capabilities to fully take advantage of the tablet. Are there any apps that do the same? i mean i came across a couple like Google Catalogues, Books, pretty much mainly google made apps.
Now my question is that do people have any apps that takes advantage of the tablet. not a big fan of gaming on the tablet. But i guess if you guys can post me some names of Apps to check out i'd appreciate it. Also by posting here you guys can share with those who also have a similar problem.
edit: When i say take full advantage of the tablet, not only do i mean that its useful and fully performs the function you desire but also that the presentation of the app is elegant has some depth and quite nice/enjoyable to use.
edit: Thanks everyone for your input some of you guys are correct there is a whole thread for tablet optimized apps here is the link given by woodrube http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032381
also there are two apps you guys can download in the marketplace that i hope will in the near future bring to our attention even more better fully capable elegant apps. They are free downloads called "Tablified Market" and "Tablet Market". I see that many of you guys aren't pointing out Apps but rather are telling me how i can use my tablet lol, thank you for that but i was just having a hard time finding Apps i liked for the tablet and thought you guys may have known a hidden gem or two. But im just going to keep looking through the two apps i mentioned and possibly the thread.
the thread served its purpose for me and i hope for those that had similar thoughts there's some good insight in here for those that aren't to sure how to use the tablet once the "honeymoon" period passes.
How about these.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032381
What do you want it to do? I use mine for just about anything. School work, text books, notes, word documents, taking photos, Netflix, music, for video game hints when I have time to play. I think you have to have a use for it, it won't create functionality out of thin air. I don't have a use for a smart phone, to me they are too small. I can't imagine using a smart phone after having a tablet first. Watching Netflix must be torture on a small screen, office apps and such seem meant for tablets.
Kingsoft office
Ez Pdf reader
PowerAmp
Polaris office
Writepad Stylus
Splashtop HD
Balance my checkbook
Sygic Naviga
I came from a rooted nook color before this, and have never regretted it. It also was not an impulse purchase. I knew with the dock I would get close to 20 hours of battery life, with my laptop I get 4.5 brightness all the way down. I have never been keen on Apple products and for 500 bucks I have a NetBook/32 gb tablet with expandable storage.
I will admit it seems that Apple does have the edge a far as gaming goes, but that edge will diminish with time. I would like to see more graphic intensive games from these devices, like Dead Space, GTA, NOVA, and such. Again, in time we will see this evolution.
Sent from a KRAKD out Tranny
MCRHAZ said:
So I've had the Transformer for about 4-5 months now and too be quiet honest due to the lack of apps I cant really say it was a justified purchase. Sure its cool and all that and its useful when you just want to kick back and browse the web.
I love android been a huge fan of android since the longest time I used to own an iphone but I quickly got rid of it cause i wanted functionality/customization more than i wanted a whole array of apps.
However, somewhat opposite is what it seems I want with the tablet. So though i really like honeycomb and its looks (none too different than ICS) and i love ICS capabilities to fully take advantage of the tablet. Are there any apps that do the same? i mean i came across a couple like Google Catalogues, Books, pretty much mainly google made apps.
Now my question is that do people have any apps that takes advantage of the tablet. not a big fan of gaming on the tablet. But i guess if you guys can post me some names of Apps to check out i'd appreciate it. Also by posting here you guys can share with those who also have a similar problem.
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Click to collapse
I've had the transformer for about 6 months now and I must admit at first I was the same. I was instantly impressed with how much more system level stuff I could do (e.g. download a file and SAVE it somewhere - outrageous) but I couldn't help but resist the thought of "this is like my pc, but a bit crappier"
Something I found quite interesting was that as I bought it with the dock I had the tablet tied to the dock 95% of the time- In my head I was like "more battery, extra ports and a keyboard, heck yes" and as I'd paid extra for the dock it seemed silly to just leave it sitting around. I'm not sure what happened, but one day I evolved to taking it out of the dock. Once I did it became a mobile entertainment system that could follow me around the house, it was fast, powerful sleek and could hang out in the lounge room, go to the ****ter and take to bed.
Once that realisation took hold, I felt alot more able to just use it for whatever I was doing. This was MASSIVELY helped by the android 10 billion download sales where I picked up airtwist (an itunes music syncer), ezpdf reader (great for books) and some cool games. Suddenly I could easily play music that my iphone used to do, read books, write shopping lists, control the dvd player etc. etc. etc.
In a large part my iPhone 4 had cornered this aspect of my life but I soon learned that the tablet did everything better. Now the iphone just feels too restrictive so I'm hanging out for a Galaxy S3 or something similar.
Basically, get the apps that suit your lifestyle, take it out of the dock (if you have one) and just go nuts!
wafflestheclown said:
I've had the transformer for about 6 months now and I must admit at first I was the same. I was instantly impressed with how much more system level stuff I could do (e.g. download a file and SAVE it somewhere - outrageous) but I couldn't help but resist the thought of "this is like my pc, but a bit crappier"
Something I found quite interesting was that as I bought it with the dock I had the tablet tied to the dock 95% of the time- In my head I was like "more battery, extra ports and a keyboard, heck yes" and as I'd paid extra for the dock it seemed silly to just leave it sitting around. I'm not sure what happened, but one day I evolved to taking it out of the dock. Once I did it became a mobile entertainment system that could follow me around the house, it was fast, powerful sleek and could hang out in the lounge room, go to the ****ter and take to bed.
Once that realisation took hold, I felt alot more able to just use it for whatever I was doing. This was MASSIVELY helped by the android 10 billion download sales where I picked up airtwist (an itunes music syncer), ezpdf reader (great for books) and some cool games. Suddenly I could easily play music that my iphone used to do, read books, write shopping lists, control the dvd player etc. etc. etc.
In a large part my iPhone 4 had cornered this aspect of my life but I soon learned that the tablet did everything better. Now the iphone just feels too restrictive so I'm hanging out for a Galaxy S3 or something similar.
Basically, get the apps that suit your lifestyle, take it out of the dock (if you have one) and just go nuts!
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Click to collapse
I appreciate your guys's comments. I'm sorry i should have been more precise in my rant though lol. What I meant to say was that sure the functionality is there and i love that that's great. But I end up not using it because the apps look so ugly lol and rather then just do it on a laptop. So what I do want are those apps that have the functionality there but also the elegance in the app. An example of this would be cooklet or Catalogues these two apps really impressed me in their depth and elegance, not much an actual catalogues type person or a cook (apart from eggs and toast) but i just go into the apps cause they look so good lol. other than that i tried using it as a essay writer as i do have the dock but the keyboard is too small to be comfortable for hours on end of writing. Also, i tried getting into it being a main music/media hub bought hdmi cable and everything but the music player on it is really crap lol for movies its good but again i dont really use it as much as i can just use my ps3. I do see myself using it more and more if there are better and better apps built for it. for starters a better gallary/music/video player youtube is good but would love to have the capability for it to play more than one video at a time. Maybe a nice agenda app? So if you guys know any great apps that may replace the ones currently or in general that have functionality and elegance and beauty let me know. Or show me videos that show how to make apps lool i'd be total game for that once my semester is done.
Woodrube said:
How about these.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1032381
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Thanks dude will be checking these out...there's a lot of em didnt realise it as much. i've had two apps on my tablet that show me tablet apps "tablified market" and "tablet market" but this list seems to surpass those.
There are more than enough practical and useful apps, you just need to figure out what they are for you. For example..i travel and go to college. For traveling, iuse media apps for watching movies and listening to music on the go. Also games for killing time. For school purposes,i use the kindle app and buy ebooks for required reading . Like mentioned above, i use splashtop desktop which is a remote desktop app that i use to connect to my pc at home to access my files and for other tasks. I am also a news junkie so i use the app pulse which allows u to subscribe to many different news sources. You have to find out what works for you. If you absolutely cannot think of anything,then my advice is to spend some time browsing the market for something you can use.
cavsoldier19d said:
There are more than enough practical and useful apps, you just need to figure out what they are for you. For example..i travel and go to college. For traveling, iuse media apps for watching movies and listening to music on the go. Also games for killing time. For school purposes,i use the kindle app and buy ebooks for required reading . Like mentioned above, i use splashtop desktop which is a remote desktop app that i use to connect to my pc at home to access my files and for other tasks. I am also a news junkie so i use the app pulse which allows u to subscribe to many different news sources. You have to find out what works for you. If you absolutely cannot think of anything,then my advice is to spend some time browsing the market for something you can use.
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Click to collapse
...?i know, i stated that i do have the useful apps but there presented in such a way that i don't feel like using them because even though I'm studying to become an accountant I'm an artistic sort of person who likes to see elegance in things because that also shows passion and not just something you whipped up because its useful and will get you many downloads/sales. Maybe you guys don't like that and don't have any aesthetic standards, if i can say without being rude, but me I pay'd a hefty sum, for being a university student, and I would at least want apps that i can enjoy looking at while doing the function I need to. Maybe its too much to ask right now, maybe I have to wait more to find such apps and thank you guys for trying to help i appreciate each comment.
There might be different reasons you got that impression.
First thing is, as you stated, you simply overlooked the good ones. That's pretty easy to happen in the crowded android market, and so that's what this thread is for.
Second possible reason: The apps you are looking for are not that popular, that the developers care to make a special tablet layout. When I think about accounting I think of functionality over design, or simple "boring offices". Maybe that influences the apps tailored to those topics. (Don't get me wrong, don't want to sound rude, I'm a economics student myself, but I never really enjoyed things like accounting )
Third possible reason: The apps are properly designed but the look doesn't appeal to you that much. The overall iOS design is based on buttons that seem to scream "push me, push me" like those buttons on the packaging of electronic child toys. Everything is a bit shiny, a bit glossy and a bit 3D. You can simply enjoy it without thinking about what you're doing. The (current) android design however is a bit more on the techy side. It has a clear and functional layout, with few but important design rules. If you're not sure, which parts of the UI are intended and which are simply bad style please refer to Android Style ( developer.android.com / design / index.html No links due to low post count). Maybe the overall android look is not that appealing to you.
Coming back to the original question: The two apps for finding tablet specific apps are a solid source of tablet apps - I'm using them as well, keep them going!
Another good source for tablet apps is keeping an eye on Androidpolice. There is a loose series of posts called "The n Best Android 3.0+ Apps For Honeycomb Tablets From The Last n Weeks". It doesn't come out on a regular basis, but every now and then, and always provides me with some good hints for good apps.
I haven't got my tablet at hand right now, as I'm in the office, so I can't check whats installed on it to give you tips (might come back later), but I remember the IMDB App having a nice tablet interface. And I love reading my Google Reader feed via the app "feedly" which is a magazine style app, that allows browsing your feeds like some glossy magazine, with a nice gesture based interface.
This was the tips part of my post.
Now to continue the rant I can understand your point, with spending 400$+ for a device and then having few apps available that make use of that extra screen estate. I see myself using apps, that are good, but designed for phone, every day. Compared to the iPad where there are ****loads of tabletoptimized apps available this is kinda sad... BUT I also see myself doing things with my tablet everyday, that an iPad owner can never imagine, like connecting USB drives, sharing URLs and text between apps, manipulating wifi networks, using sd cards or simple things as downloading a file. So for me the price, which is about the same as the iPad's price, is absolutely ok! I'm still happy for every new tablet optimized app that launches, though.
OK, that has been a tl:dr post, but nevermind, happy weekend for everyone!
There is a Tablet Market app here somewhere...either in the development section or the apps/themes section. All the apps in it are supposed to be tablet optimized.
Swyped using my Pinky
Get an ipad.
just received my nyko play pad and very sad to report how poorly it functions.
neither trigger works it's as if they are not even present in any app or game. the left analogue slider constantly drifts upwards even when you aren't touching the controller at al. and the start/select buttons can not actually be mapped in any game because all they do is mimic the menu and back buttons at the bottom of the s4.
anyone who was thinking of getting this for gaming on their s4 i'd say to avoid it. after trying a couple of different controllers now i'm thinking i may have to just admit that all these bluetooth controllers are a waste of time and i'm better off just sticking to my wired ps3 dual shock pad. shame that this can not be wirelessly paired without rooting, as i need a stock/untouched device in order to run sky go app (very much needed).
another one to definitely avoid is anyone on ebay selling wii u controllers as "android os" compatible. I found out the hard way that they are just referring to it's compatibility with some android based apps on the wii, and will not pair with android devices at all.
just a heads up
Just root already
much rather have sky go than root. trust me when you have a 10 hour shift on a sunday with absolutely no custom, you need something to watch
I’ll second the notion to root. I love using my PS3 controller to play Mario 64 on my S4 wirelessly. As far as SkyGo goes, you actually have a couple of options man. I’d try Hide My Root, which looks like a few Galaxy owners verify work to use SkyGo in the review section. Didn’t see an S4 one though. It’s worth a shot. Or I even heard of a working Sky Go repository for XBMC if you’re familiar with that at all. XBMC is kind of a chore to get video playing but some people swear it’s the future.
i tried a whole host of root hiding apps on my xperia s when i had it, and not only did they not work but they required me to totaly restore the entire stock rom before i could get sky go running again.
Ok, so i'm tempted to buy one of these as I have a bunch of vouchers which means i can buy it for £25 instead of £129.
I'm a little concerned about the lack of love of the original Hudl device in terms of custom roms and general hacking , and i kinda understand it since its a UK device. so i'm unsure to go for it because of this. Its an Intel Atom cpu so i would love it if it was able to be installed with windows 8.1/10 eventually.
Anyone else seen the device and have any thoughts on it?
http://www.tesco.com/direct/hudl2-8-wi-fi-tablet/454-7907.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=397-7926
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/391081/hands-on-tesco-hudl2-review
Looks like I've found the right place for my review
I tried posting this in a comment box on Engadget. Suffice to say, it did not fit! I thought there might be a modding forum for the hudl1 over here on xda but to my surprise there is not :-O slightly concerning. I don't understand why it being a British device would be an issue, we make great stuff!
Anyway here goes..
Had a good shot on the hudl2 today. Going in teaco today was like the opening scenes of the Lego movie. Hudl propaganda everywhere. Point of sale cardboards you expect. But I have to admit impressed with the kiosk they've set up. The branding is simple, and hey had all colours of hudl on display, it definitely lures you in. On top of tat, giving the big brother Lego-movir feel, all of the television displays are showing a hudl2 promo vids on loop. 'Were really pleased to announce...' Etc..
The demo units run in obviously a demo mode. Pristine, I think I might have been their first prodder. All the tabs were heleved in landscape view and the first Hong you notice therefore is how wide they look. If you've seen the nexus7, these seem like pretty much the same ratio. The demo mode has a display encouraging you to 'try it', which if you tap, takes you to the android home screen. Naturally it is maiden with blinkbox icons. The home screen to the left features tescos feed. Things like shopping offers, how to get started on blibkbox etc. You can hide then (they appear as cards), but they come back soon enough. The home screen one to the right of the main, is more blink box a centric with more direct links to movies and music etc.
You can choose to ditch blinkbox icons if you wish but long and short, you're not getting rid of these left and right home screens anytime soon. I had a good look through the options and settings, and nowhere did I see the option to remove ho.eacreens.
Neither was I able to enable developer option s, something to note.
Going into settings, apps, I attempted to close/stop any references to Tesco processes running to see if it was possible to 'de-teaco' the homeacreens. And sure, I was able to stop them. But returning to the home screen starts them again and back they appear, as if they never went away.
The homeacreen to.the left incurs the highest lag in all my experience using the tablet. As you scroll left, the background blurs, which is a nice aesthetic touch but I would hedge my bets that is what's causing the lag. As another person has reported, touching the app drawer brings up the app icons very promptly, with only a slight *very very slight* * delay. To the otaku, this will annoy them possibly, but to.most casual users who don't race around phones/tabs as they likely so on desktop PC's, this won't be a problem at all.
Similarly, launching apps was prompt, about th same as the initial 'pressing on app drawer' button.
It feels very much like a smartphone, with a. Bigger screen, which is what most ppl expect.
The screen. The screen is absolutely stand-out feature on this tab. The colours, to my taster are desaturated enough to look natural, I would estimate skin tones in videos would look very nice on this. Photos look absolutely lovely, and using the tab to tweak them with Google Photos was easy, fun and satisfying.
Play store..
Internet wasslow connection in this particular tescos but at least they're connected! A welcome change to a lot of stores/demos. Indeed, these tabs were 'box-fresh' I downloaded Flipboard, which flipped through lagfree, although I can't say 100% for sure about hr speed because the connection was so slow that images weren't displaying yet.
I downloaded flickr, a nice appfor viewing photos on nice screens and it looked wonderful with next to no.lag (aside the net connection ).
Feel in the hand. These things are naturally powered up and connected via mai s as well as a central stem from beneath the desk holding them up. So I wasn't able to feel how theysit in the hand vertically. But I was able to.hold it horizontally and that was indeed very comfy, the rubbery soft touch back is very nice and trippy too.
No accessories were available yet.
I can't comment on the sound, but the screen is just lovely. Again, to echo others, the viewing angles are not fantastic, but its respectably bright and crisp. No such 'cyan oven mode style' colour options in the settings though, if the look isn't to your preference.
This is my first time using an 8inch tablet, its a nice experience. However this like email in landscape could definitely so with a bit of a makeover (everything appears very large), like email for kids . (Gmail I'm talking about).
Goodgle Newsstand, this had had a recent update which makes it quite graphically intense, using the cards style material UI of upcoming Google Android L. Scrolling through the items incurred a bit of lag, I would put in on par with my galaxy S3 (running CyanogenMod 11l. As a news reading experience, this app has a lot of potential, but Aimo It would only be optimal under android L.
Browsing through the play store for music, movies and books requires a fair amount of close-up viewing it on a galaxy s3, not so here. The items on display are pleasant and text metainfo, like price, genre, year etc. Are nicely legible.
Browsing speed..
Now this is the only area where I was not particularly amazed with the hudl 2. I fired up theverge as its quite intense. The chrome.browser held most of the images in place, however a quick scroll from very top to very bottom of the site had images blinking out of view,, then re-appearing. Not a ram issue I don't think. I think (only suspect) this might be a limit of the atom CPU.
I did nothing more strenuous to he tablet, and apart from that, I would say it is very very serviceable. Especially for £129.
Were it not for this potential.nexus9 around the corner with rumoured android L, I would buy this immediately.
would it be possible to put the GEL launcher on this? and thanks for the in depth review^^^^^^^
nice hands-on. sort out the strange spelllings and wording and you could put that on a proper website.
i'll be getting mine tonight (cost me £25 on top of my clubcard vouchers which have been sitting doing nothing for years) so will give some feedback for what its worth. i'm totally wanting to run windows on it though. I can't get my head around why anyone would chose a (presumably more expensive) Intel x64 chipset over an ARM given that Android is optimised for ARM.
SkEvol said:
I tried posting this in a comment box on Engadget. Suffice to say, it did not fit! I thought there might be a modding forum for the hudl1 over here on xda but to my surprise there is not :-O slightly concerning. I don't understand why it being a British device would be an issue, we make great stuff!
Anyway here goes..
Had a good shot on the hudl2 today. Going in teaco today was like the opening scenes of the Lego movie. Hudl propaganda everywhere. Point of sale cardboards you expect. But I have to admit impressed with the kiosk they've set up. The branding is simple, and hey had all colours of hudl on display, it definitely lures you in. On top of tat, giving the big brother Lego-movir feel, all of the television displays are showing a hudl2 promo vids on loop. 'Were really pleased to announce...' Etc..
The demo units run in obviously a demo mode. Pristine, I think I might have been their first prodder. All the tabs were heleved in landscape view and the first Hong you notice therefore is how wide they look. If you've seen the nexus7, these seem like pretty much the same ratio. The demo mode has a display encouraging you to 'try it', which if you tap, takes you to the android home screen. Naturally it is maiden with blinkbox icons. The home screen to the left features tescos feed. Things like shopping offers, how to get started on blibkbox etc. You can hide then (they appear as cards), but they come back soon enough. The home screen one to the right of the main, is more blink box a centric with more direct links to movies and music etc.
You can choose to ditch blinkbox icons if you wish but long and short, you're not getting rid of these left and right home screens anytime soon. I had a good look through the options and settings, and nowhere did I see the option to remove ho.eacreens.
Neither was I able to enable developer option s, something to note.
Going into settings, apps, I attempted to close/stop any references to Tesco processes running to see if it was possible to 'de-teaco' the homeacreens. And sure, I was able to stop them. But returning to the home screen starts them again and back they appear, as if they never went away.
The homeacreen to.the left incurs the highest lag in all my experience using the tablet. As you scroll left, the background blurs, which is a nice aesthetic touch but I would hedge my bets that is what's causing the lag. As another person has reported, touching the app drawer brings up the app icons very promptly, with only a slight *very very slight* * delay. To the otaku, this will annoy them possibly, but to.most casual users who don't race around phones/tabs as they likely so on desktop PC's, this won't be a problem at all.
Similarly, launching apps was prompt, about th same as the initial 'pressing on app drawer' button.
It feels very much like a smartphone, with a. Bigger screen, which is what most ppl expect.
The screen. The screen is absolutely stand-out feature on this tab. The colours, to my taster are desaturated enough to look natural, I would estimate skin tones in videos would look very nice on this. Photos look absolutely lovely, and using the tab to tweak them with Google Photos was easy, fun and satisfying.
Play store..
Internet wasslow connection in this particular tescos but at least they're connected! A welcome change to a lot of stores/demos. Indeed, these tabs were 'box-fresh' I downloaded Flipboard, which flipped through lagfree, although I can't say 100% for sure about hr speed because the connection was so slow that images weren't displaying yet.
I downloaded flickr, a nice appfor viewing photos on nice screens and it looked wonderful with next to no.lag (aside the net connection ).
Feel in the hand. These things are naturally powered up and connected via mai s as well as a central stem from beneath the desk holding them up. So I wasn't able to feel how theysit in the hand vertically. But I was able to.hold it horizontally and that was indeed very comfy, the rubbery soft touch back is very nice and trippy too.
No accessories were available yet.
I can't comment on the sound, but the screen is just lovely. Again, to echo others, the viewing angles are not fantastic, but its respectably bright and crisp. No such 'cyan oven mode style' colour options in the settings though, if the look isn't to your preference.
This is my first time using an 8inch tablet, its a nice experience. However this like email in landscape could definitely so with a bit of a makeover (everything appears very large), like email for kids . (Gmail I'm talking about).
Goodgle Newsstand, this had had a recent update which makes it quite graphically intense, using the cards style material UI of upcoming Google Android L. Scrolling through the items incurred a bit of lag, I would put in on par with my galaxy S3 (running CyanogenMod 11l. As a news reading experience, this app has a lot of potential, but Aimo It would only be optimal under android L.
Browsing through the play store for music, movies and books requires a fair amount of close-up viewing it on a galaxy s3, not so here. The items on display are pleasant and text metainfo, like price, genre, year etc. Are nicely legible.
Browsing speed..
Now this is the only area where I was not particularly amazed with the hudl 2. I fired up theverge as its quite intense. The chrome.browser held most of the images in place, however a quick scroll from very top to very bottom of the site had images blinking out of view,, then re-appearing. Not a ram issue I don't think. I think (only suspect) this might be a limit of the atom CPU.
I did nothing more strenuous to he tablet, and apart from that, I would say it is very very serviceable. Especially for £129.
Were it not for this potential.nexus9 around the corner with rumoured android L, I would buy this immediately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good review - and the web pages thing does seem to be an issue. I thought I would add a couple of points based on 24 hours of ownership of this device....
The first thing I noticed was how laggy the Tesco launcher was - not helped by the boat load of Tesco crapola on left screen. The first thing I did was put Nova on there and it was like night and day - zero lag. I disabled most of the Tesco apps and hid them in the launcher as well which basically left me with, essentially, a stock Android tablet. It also left no visible sign of Tesco on the tablet because Nova can get rid of the search bar (Tesco had moved their Tesco button up here instead of having it on the Navigation bar on Hudl1) The only gripe about performance would be that there is some lag with some live wallpapers.
I stuck Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 on there and there no problems. Both games play really, really well. I also tested the touch responsiveness - an issue on Hudl 1 - by playing CounterSpy and Alone and it seems to be a lot better on Hudl 2. I have not really had a chance to test the speakers yet as I have mainly used it with headphones. I've also not had any issues with app incompatibility caused by the Intel processor yet. Internet speed seems great so far- even large games downloaded quickly both on home and work WiFi.
My biggest gripe is the 9gb of free space - 11 out of 16gb free should be the minimum. First thing I will do when I root it will be to get rid of some of bloat with Titanium.
Overall though - very impressed. As already mentioned, the screen is just fantastic. Huge improvement on the first one and a really, really decent device. For the money its a no-brainer.
Thanks for continuing the discussion! What you've said all sounds very positive!
Have you managed to root it? I note that there sadly didn't seem to be much support for custom rom'ing the hudl1. But those changes you made with the launcher sound like they took care of any lag, this is great!
One thing you did mention.. I thought i would ask you, for clarity.. When you said..
gripweed said:
Good review - and the web pages thing does seem to be an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
--were you referring to your own experience with loading pages? Or were you just echoing the concern i had expressed in my review?
Also, to hear that games work well is also really great!
Took the plunge today used my staff discount didn't use any club card put the google launcher disabled everything other than child and my Tesco which I couldn't do. Tablet is really fast display and size and great feels better the nexus 7
SkEvol said:
Thanks for continuing the discussion! What you've said all sounds very positive!
Have you managed to root it? I note that there sadly didn't seem to be much support for custom rom'ing the hudl1. But those changes you made with the launcher sound like they took care of any lag, this is great!
One thing you did mention.. I thought i would ask you, for clarity.. When you said..
--were you referring to your own experience with loading pages? Or were you just echoing the concern i had expressed in my review?
Also, to hear that games work well is also really great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was more echoing your concerns tbh - noticed it crop up in at least a couple of "hands on" reviews and was wondering if it was an issue. I haven't especially noticed but I will try a few more content heavy web page and see what happens. I should apologise for the lack of clarity on my original reply as I haven't rooted it yet- I rooted the last one and ran exposed and gravity box which did compensate slightly for the lack of custom roms. There was a bit of interest in Hudl modding on Modaco last time, which was where I found the rooting info.
I think Rooting may take a while as this is an Intel Atom Bay trail Z3735D cpu. The Onda V975i has the same CPU and has been rooted so it may be possible to adapt it to work although it is running an older version of android which may raise other problems. Also I would not try any rooting method until a recovery ROM and method are available.
My Hudl 2 on order.
---------- Post added at 11:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 AM ----------
Further From my previous post it appears that these Bay Trial tabs can have a Bios so It will be interesting to see how this tab matures. Windows Anyone!
vermillions said:
Further From my previous post it appears that these Bay Trial tabs can have a Bios so It will be interesting to see how this tab matures. Windows Anyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty cool to think that would be possible.
Windows has a 1000 uses, what would you choose to do? (just curious)
Do you think that Kings might have solution to rooting?
SkEvol said:
Pretty cool to think that would be possible.
Windows has a 1000 uses, what would you choose to do? (just curious)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am the worst person with devices, I like to get them to do more than they were originally intended to do and to tinker and learn as much as poss, then I just end up never using them. But if a Dev overcomes all the obstacles in Boot and Bios and is able to roll all the drivers into a windows rom, I couldn't help myself I would have to test it.
Hudl2 Thread
How do we lobby the XDA Devs to open a section for the Hudl2?
Do we need to raise money to buy one to send it to a dev?
I'd quite like a recovery loader (at the bare minimum) to be able to back up the Hudl2, before asking for some kind dev to port a new Rom to it.
What can we do to make any of the above options happen?
giac0m0 said:
How do we lobby the XDA Devs to open a section for the Hudl2?
Do we need to raise money to buy one to send it to a dev?
I'd quite like a recovery loader (at the bare minimum) to be able to back up the Hudl2, before asking for some kind dev to port a new Rom to it.
What can we do to make any of the above options happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know the answer to any of your questions but I'd be willing to contribute £5 to the cost of finding out how to root it, in whatever form that takes.
Just out of interest has anyone tried Root Genius? it is made by the same people that made Shuame. If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters. All only a guess though.
Hi. Does anyone have an idea of how someone who's not in England can purchase one?
I'm very interest, seems great value for the money.
Thanks.
vermillions said:
Just out of interest has anyone tried Root Genius? it is made by the same people that made Shuame. If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters. All only a guess though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone over in MoDaCo had a similar thought and suggested this may work:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2681783
giac0m0 said:
Someone over in MoDaCo had a similar thought and suggested this may work:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2681783
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it might, my Hudl 2 is not yet delivered so I am unable to test at present. But I think it is worth a shot.
(kicking myself for ordering with delivery and not picking up from store.)
vermillions said:
If not working I suspect root will probably come from installing IntelAndroidDrvSetup and then a flash from Fastboot if we can get into Fastboot. But it will need someone with the correct knowledge to make the flashable update with the right parameters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm impressed! I have no idea now you had the thought process of thinking of doing that! I take it you must have quite a lot of experience with routing. I only ropted my s3 because i needed to. Sometimes i wish i had the insight to be able to suggest something like that. I usually work off of what faq or how-to suggests. I'm quite interested in why this device would require a different method because of it's cpu. Interesting to me.
Has anyone had success playing encoded videos e.g. x264 codec and similar? I used to get decent results using MXplayer or VLC beta on my previous tablet (a cheap Chinese version that should be worse than the Hudl2), but now I suspect that poor x86 support from those players is letting it down. I've downloaded the x86 codec for MX and played with the various performance options, but results range from good to appalling depending on the video, with stuttering or full crashes. I've also tried some other players that claimed x86 support, but no dice.
Any advice gratefully received, as I'm very happy with my Hudl2 apart from this.
Sent from my Hudl 2 using XDA Free mobile app
I held off of getting s smartphone for a long time, because I never could see any decent reason to have one. Finally, considering it would be convenient for playing music on the go, I ended up getting one. I've had one for a year, and it still doesn't feel worthwhile. Granted sometimes it can be nice to use a terrible version of a web-browser without having to have a computer around, but that hardly makes it worthwhile.
When I finally did get one, refusing to get an apple product I went with Android, and haven't been too impressed with it. Can't even change the volume steps, not even custom roms touch that, making it really useless as a music player (and people told me Android is supposed to be customizable). Wanting to make it worthwhile, I asked all my friends what cool apps there are, and consistently got the reply that there really isn't any. I've scoured the Google Play Store and Fdroid countless times with the same result.
I end up with the vast majority of my apps being stuff for my phone like Nova Launcher, Kernel Adiutor, Better Battery Stats, etc, etc. Those help make the phone usable, not worthwhile. I've only found one game ever that I enjoyed playing on a mobile device, which was Quizup (before they ruined it, now there's really nothing). Is there anything entertaining? Is there anything more interesting than a graphic calculator emulator? Is there anything more useful than a flashlight? Or is a smartphone as useless as I had always envisioned it to be? Just a tinker-toy for tech enthusiasts. Is it just a phone with a few interesting but not useful things and garbage battery life in return (despite doing everything in my power to maximize my battery life and put others with the same phone to shame)? I'd prefer the much more massive battery life and better voice quality of my ancient Nokia phone. I don't want to give up on it, but I need help keeping up hope. Even Tasker is sitting around not doing anything particularly useful. At least it can make phone calls unlike a useless Android tablet. Someone please help me make it worthwhile.
Hey, what was that movie with that one guy that was in that other movie with that chick from that TV show?
How far is a league?
Why is a booby trap called a booby trap?
Where the hell am I and how do I get to where I need to go?
Boy, I wish I could hear "Handle With Care" by the Traveling Wilburys right now. I haven't heard that song in ages.
A phone is something you make calls with. A smartphone is the wealth of the world's knowledge at your fingertips.
The problem with that is that a smartphone is a cumbersome device for giving input and getting output. Even with getting as good of a tiny touchscreen keyboard as you can get (which is still bad compared to a real keyboard) and voice input (which is usually even worse in my experience with several Android solutions as well as Apple's), you still have super buggy difficult to navigate watered-down info on a tiny screen that takes more scrolling than the miles of it I've put on my mouse.
I'm never too far from a computer that I've ever had to use or would have liked to use a smartphone to get that information. I've had the world's information at my fingertips, but why would I want to use a smartphone to get it? I've tried using it for convenience, I've tried using it to augment using a computer, but I've quit trying. Maybe it would be useful if I forgot to plan things ahead of time, or forgot to bring a camera or something. But I'm looking for a way for it to be consistently useful, not something that might come in handy one day and cost me hours of charging every day. I'm still not seeing it.