OT: Android tablet forum or usenet group?

[dennis]

Isn't that a bit risky while driving? 8-)

[greyridersalso]

If you're still looking, Play.com is selling the horribly named and ghastly coloured, "Maxtouuch 7 inch" for a measly £49.99 with free delivery - de al ends, uhh, Sunday, I think, or when the limited stoks run out. Excellent spec' and a good battery for a starter device though.

[Roger Mills]

I frequently use a proper camera to photograph serial number labels in inaccessible places on bits of equipment, and then read them in a more comfortable position.

[Dave Liquorice]

Isn't the processing delay a bit of a problem?

[Dave Liquorice]

Don't worry presbyopia will catch up with him eventually. Un aided my focus range is about 1/2" at 6", anything else is out.

[The Natural Philosopher]

FSVO 'proper'....

[Tony Bryer]

I need to do this too. I get annoyed by small print websites which don't handle Ctrl+Plus to enlarge the size. Age I guess.

[Roger Mills]

No, it's a digital camera! By 'proper' I meant something purpose-designed as a camera rather than a mobile phone which also happens to take photographs.

Does it need a roll of film to be 'proper' in your view?

[Roger Mills]

When looking at the spec of Android tablets, some claim to have full access to the Google App Store, or somesuch - whilst others just say that they have access to the *device's* App Store.

What gives? What determines how many apps are available for a particular tablet?

[Andy Burns]

Android is (more or less) open source, but if the manufacturer goes it alone and uses *only* the open source parts of Android, without coughing up to Google to use the Play Store, their owners only get access to "other" (generally piss-poor and short-lived) app stores.

Sometimes you can sideload the Play Store app.

[Roger Mills]

Does that mean that I should avoid anything which doesn't explicitly say that it provides access to the full Google Play Store?

Would you care to elaborate? [I have no idea what "sideload" means].

[Andy Burns]

I would avoid it, unless I knew I could install the play store by other means.

Android apps are installed as an APK file (a zip file by another name) usually these are downloaded from an app store, but if your device is tied into a manufacturer's own app store, you can sometimes copy an APK via USB/Bluetooth/WiFi and then install it, this is called sideloading.

Sideloading the Google Play APK breaks your reliance on the manufacturer's app store, I've not even tried it for recent devices and recent versions of the play store, it wouldn't be hard for Google to have clamped down on it.

[newshound]

In a similar vein, the cheap little usb microscopes with 30 x mag or whatever are brilliant for reading the laser etched numbers on ICs. Stuff which I can't read with a magnifying glass is easy to read thanks to the remarkably good illumination.

[Bob Martin]

Surely "sideloading" is installing from PC using adb? I've installed many apps from the sd card using a file manager - that isn't "sideloading".

[Andy Burns]

"sideloading".

Installing by any method the manufacturer doesn't endorse, I'd think, Do the heavily locked down devices even allow adb? Some won't allow you to enable the "install from unknown sources" option.

[John Rumm]

Most will have full access to the play store. However for some makers with another agenda (e.g. Amazon), then there is an strong attraction to tie the device to their own app store, since that is a lucrative revenue stream if you have the infrastructure available to back it up. It also means you can price the device itself more cheaply (even at at loss if required).

[John Rumm]

Most devices can be coerced - although some would need rooting first.

Its not in google's interest to stop you. IIUC,. they don't get fees from vendors devices using the store, they get commission from every sale through the store. So the more the merrier.

[Bob Martin]

"sideloading".

As I have a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 7 I don't have those problems :-)

[Andy Burns]

I have a 1, a 4 and a 7, hence not knowing so much about locked down devices, I did manage to get the Google store (pre-Play days) installed on a colleague's Archos tablet.

[Mark]

"sideloading".

I would guess you may have to root the device first otherwise you probably won't have write access to the relevant directories.