OT: Android Tablets

[Bill]

How's this for stupidity? I "helped" a friend get his iPad2 connected to his router and said "But what can you do with the Pad that the laptop can't?",

Then I thought ..... better keep up to date and have a look at Android (all I can afford) with perhaps a view to writing a little program to remote control things over the network. So I have an Android emulator running on a PC and have "run" the first couple of examples of how to write apps.

My mobile phone is primitive, non Android and non-clever, so I'm starting from a happy state of total ignorance. I went onto ebay and invested in a cheap used Chinese 7" tablet. It seems to be one where all the guts are made by Via and it works much better than I expected.

I realise these things are basically toys, but it looks to have some potential if I can get past the poor instruction book. Is anyone using one of these "as it comes" for anything useful and does anyone have any recommendation for a website or even a book that is worth a visit?

[Alan]

In message , Bill wrote

But with a smartphone running Android you not only get the phone but a camera, or two, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Motion sensors.

It's the combination of functionality in a mobile device that makes it a nicer toy.

[Brian Gaff]

Yeah, all we need now is a real keyboaoard so real people can type on the things.

Brian

[Nitro®]

Have you actually tried one Brian? They have speech recognition and text to speech these days. Still not great for the Blind or partially sighted but not entirely inaccessable.

[Andy Burns]

I'd have thought they were as good as inacessible

You need to see the virtual button to pop-up the on-screen keyboard, and to see whether the "press" was successful, then see where the speech recognition "button" is on the keyboard, and whether you pressed that button successfully, and of course to read the sometimes hilarious result of the recognition.

[Nightjar]

Apart from using Bluetooth to link to my car for hands-free use, all I want from a mobile phone is the ability to make and receive phone calls.

Colin Bignell

[The Medway Handyman]

Do you have an android with a headache then?

[Steve Firth]

Or you can just turn on VoiceOver which is well liked by most blind/visually handicapped users. Oh sorry I forgot we were talking of imitation iPads that cost more than iPads for lesser functionality.

[Rob]

I think Voiceover addresses your criticism to a point:

[polygonum]

Almost agreed.

Rumours have it that Apple will launch an iPod Touch with 3G capability. And I might be tempted if they do. All the benefits of a smartphone - but carry on using a cheap-ish ordinary mobile for phone calls. And one very important reason is the much better battery life you usually get. (Never as good as my old Nokia...) And the relative cheapness of a replacement if you drop it or lose it. So long as the connectivity charges don't end up being silly.

The one thing I hate about ordinary mobiles is the awkwardness of sending SMS messages. But sending/receiving is the only other facility I want from a mobile.

[Bill]

In message , polygonum writes

All very interesting, but........

I have no interest in having to carry around, like the children, something like a piece of jewellery. I'm happy with my clamshell phone which can live in my pocket and never rings anyone by mistake when I sit down.

I was asking about an Android 7 inch screen tablet, which appears to be one of the ones where VIA make a chip, mount and sell it, assembled, to a smiling Chinaman who sticks it into a plastic case and sells it to an Englishman for a penny plus £49.99 postage.

I'm trying to work out whether I can make it remote control a PC wirelessly on my local network. It's totally silent - no fan, HD or keyboard noise - so ideal, for example, for controlling an audio recording PC in another room, or able to be thrown in the car with a webcam to use as a display for the solo hooking up of trailers.

There is a design fault - the usb sockets in wobbly adapter are too close to the charger/psu socket - and I'm not yet sure whether Android is, like the heel that killed Beos, difficult to use in a straight local network situation.

That's why I was asking about decent sources of information about Android software and whether others are using this sort of device for anything useful.

[Nightjar]

Looking at my website analytics, around 3% of viewings are on mobile devices and 75% of those use Android.

C P Bignell

[Owain]

Yes.

If your PC has a VNC server then there is a VNC viewer.

Teamviewer is available for Android and Iphone is free for non-commmercial use.

If your PC talks RDP then there is a paid-for RDP client in the Android App store or on Amazon

terminal emulators are also available.

Owain

[Andy Burns]

or paid for if you wish to store details of multiple servers ...

[polygonum]

Or LogMeIn Ignition for Android, if that route would work for you. Does cost, though.

[Devany]

I have an HTC Flyer (an expensive 7" Android Tablet). I don't leave the house without it now. I can just fit it in a pocket.

It's the size of a paperback book, and I keep a load of books in it. Wifi & 3G means the internet is always on etc.

It came with a program called Evernote which I now use to take notes, combine with photos etc.

I just been measuring up some door parts for a bit of work. Photo'd the door, drew a line on the photo, typed in (it's not so hard) the length and width of a couple of parts etc.

All that info is now auto synced to a web site, so when I figure out what to buy, I've got the photos, the measurements etc. all to hand.

It's definitely not a toy.

[Mike Barnes]

Bill :

I bought an iPad cheap on eBay to see what the fuss was about. It quickly became part of the family. It lives in the kitchen and is used for viewing web pages, as and when required. Before the iPad we used a netbook but the iPad is a hundred times better.

I also use the iPad as a remote control for my home media server and audio amplifier. Both of those applications involve a lot of extra expenditure and I guess they wouldn't be of interest.

But just as a mobile domestic web browser, the iPad was worth the price.

[Bob Martin]

One of my Android phones has a slide-out physical keyboard. I also have a bluetooth keyboard (about 2"x4") which works with most Android phones.

[Bill]

In message , Mike Barnes writes

I can see the value as a mobile web browser, and this Android thing has already been used by family members who can't cope or don't want a PC in the lounge.

My son has an iPhone and keeps telling me that the most useful app is the ruler, so I found a free app in Android market called Smart Ruler and installed it. Well, either my tape measure has shrunk or it's broke, and I can't see any setup feature anywhere. Also, sometimes the search works and sometimes not - eg not in Android Market. This, and the difficulty in finding any clear guidance as to how apps are supposed to be set up, is what made me think it's a bit of a toy.

I do appreciate that you get what you pay for and it is about an eighth the price of an iPad.

I'm busy now watching the videos about writing apps for it and lurking in the xda-developers forum.

I'll also look into Teamviewer (I use LogMeIn on the PC's, and assume they can co-exist).

Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions.

[Bob Eager]

Usually you press the menu 'button' and it's there. There's a free Swiss Army Knife app (no knife included!) that has a ruler. That can be calibrated.