Android Tablet Thread: Defend Your Other Purchase

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Android Tablet Thread: Defend Your Other Purchase

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

iPad 3 launch, more Tegra 3 tablets, rumored Google Nexus tablet and/or Jellybean release, MWC coming,

long story short it's a bad time to buy.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2012 16:42

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 09:02

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Frozen-Solid posted:

I'm about to test out the app restore feature. The only apps it couldn't back up were Google Earth, Fruit Ninja, and World of Goo. Only World of Goo bothers me because that means I lose all my progress. It seems the WoG developers didn't put the app data in a place you can get to if you're not root.

As of ICS Android has a device backup feature similar to what iTunes can do for iOS devices (includes apps and app data, etc.). Google for "adb backup" for more info.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 18:33

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Maker Of Shoes posted:

If it's anything like how apps are supposed to restore themselves on a fresh install it will work exactly 5% of the time. I CAN'T WAIT.

Actually it really does back up apps and app data, without the apps having to opt into Google Cloud Sync(TM) or whatever it's called that only 5% of apps have chosen to opt into.

Agreed that it's presently an awful ugly command-line-only hack of a feature. Hopefully in the future there will be some kind of syncing to your Google Drive or whatever they're rumored to be working on.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 19:39

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Google lets you upload, for free, up to 20,000 MP3s and an unlimited number of photos up to 2048 pixels along the longest edge. They really seem to want a really huge amount of data in the cloud.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 20:25

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

The Angry Spaniard, I say this as an android fanboy who has a Galaxy Nexus and a Transformer Prime: please stop. I don't even fully comprehend what kind of a discussion you're trying to stir up but I'm absolutely certain it would be a waste of everyone's time.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 01:28

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

feedmegin posted:

2d hardware acceleration (scrolling and stuff for example) is really pretty light on the GPU. If they hit problems, it would show up mostly with 3d games, presumably in the fragment shader area.

As I understand it the problem with the Tegra chips currently popular for Android tablets is limited memory bandwidth, which absolutely will hurt you when flinging huge textures around.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 20:45

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

chocolateTHUNDER posted:

That's just loving terrible. Do people seriously think that is acceptable or something?

That was one guy on the internet, and it was on the charger, not the tablet. It's quite common for AC adapters to get warm but your tablet shouldn't be getting that hot.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2012 05:56

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Some hands-ons with the Transformer Pad 300, AKA "Asus Transformer without a backplate that blocks wireless signals"

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/27/2827588/asus-transformer-pad-infinity-series-and-transformer-pad-300-series
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/27/asus-transformer-pad-300-hands-on/
http://androidcommunity.com/asus-transformer-pad-300-lte-official-hands-on-20120227/

Man, the ruby red version is garish.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 18:05

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Turnquiet posted:

God I hope the iPad 2 gets price cut to $299 or $249 to force some downward pressure on the midrange Android tablets.

Don Lapre posted:

I doubt it, Apple sells as many as they can make at $499+. No reason to cheapen it.

According to rumor, the iPad 3 may come with a price hike. That doesn't bode well for a huge discount on the iPad 2.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2012 20:50

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

There's also the Android games thread and tablified.com.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2012 19:21

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:

The iPad3 is already confirmed to have a 2048x1536 screen. The 16:10 aspect ratio is more of an Android thing, anyway. Where are you reading about 2560x1600 panels?

I think that's referring to the bullshit BGR rumor from back in December.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2012 20:16

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

I didn't cross-post it because they're rabidly anti-Android in that podcast and I didn't want to stir up poo poo and/or risk getting banned.

Really they're anti-Google; they spend several minutes mocking Eric Schmidt, several minutes basically bragging about how they mocked Andy Rubin to his face, talk about how Google only cares about advertising and doesn't do poo poo to advance Android tablets, etc.

Though I admit it does make for interesting listening.

I disagree that Windows 8 is going to crush Android tablets. Certainly not in the next year or so; Intel's mobile processors won't be good enough yet and Windows 8 on ARM won't have any apps. Part of how that particular matchup shakes out may depend on whether the rumored Jellybean Nexus tablet materializes and executes well.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2012 02:50

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

The rom on the OG Droid was built by Google; it's a Nexus in all but name.

McLarenF1 posted:

That's won't take long. I'm pretty sure of one of Microsoft's business principals involves driving dump trucks full of money to people in order to get what they want.

Their problem is they're starting from scratch; WinRT wasn't even unveiled until September 2011. While people perceive the number of Android tablet apps is small, it's at least greater than zero.

As I said, it will depend how Google and Microsoft execute. If Google continues the trend of improved polish and design they showed in Ice Cream Sandwich, and yes, convinces more developers to consider tablet form factors in their app designs, I think Android will climb to significant share in the tablet market. If they have more stumbles (like the Xoom and Honeycomb), then that might leave an opening for Microsoft, or even comedy option Blackberry.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2012 04:55

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Cardboard Box A posted:

I imagine that by "streaming videos off websites" Ghetto means Flash, which Chrome won't help with.

Is Flash still terrible even on the latest most powerful Android Tablet running ICS? That's pretty sad.

Make sure your flash plugin is up to date and you're running in Performance mode (it defaults to Balanced Mode on boot). I've never had an issue on my Transformer Prime, do you have a specific example of a video page that ran poorly? I'll try it out on mine.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2012 16:51

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Ghetto SuperCzar posted:

Just various sports streams like firstrowsports.eu or vipbox.tv. last night official mls streams were wonky too. Doesnt help some of those sites are bloated with ads.

Mother of God, "bloated with ads" isn't quite accurate, is it? Flash ads layered on top of Flash ads layered on top of Flash ads. I think I saw one of the ads bite one of the other ads in the neck and then drag it off into a dark hole.

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and admit performance in this scenario is less than ideal on the Transformer Prime.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2012 20:30

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Kirk posted:

My question is thus: Is the keyboard dock actually worth it?

For me it is. I love this thing, it has replaced my laptop. But then, I can't palm a basketball.

I will say I don't think it can serve ALL your general purpose computing needs at this time; I still have a Windows 7 desktop. The Splashtop HD bundled inside the ASUS tools works great to connect to it.

Edit: it's even better if you've ported your number to Google Voice. It's great getting text notifications in the notification area and replying to them on a real keyboard.

Rastor fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Mar 5, 2012

# ¿ Mar 5, 2012 15:48

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Vykk.Draygo posted:

Does the Transformer Prime with ICS have as big of a problem with random boot-looping that the TF101 does? At least every other day, I'll open up my tablet to find it on the ASUS boot screen with either the spinning loading circle, or the circle will be frozen. The weird thing is it seems to murder my dock battery but not really affect the tablet battery.

I had one or two random reboots in the first week or two after getting ICS but after the third update to the ICS update it's been rock solid, all the issues are gone.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2012 04:54

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Codiusprime posted:

As of right now I think it's either the Infinity or the iPad 3. Nothing else has the DPI you're looking for.

No doubt Samsung will announce something with iPad 3 -ish specs.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2012 20:21

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Google isn't going to dump support for people who didn't opt for the LTE upgrade. They may be "rename Android Market to Play Store" stupid but they aren't THAT stupid.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2012 18:09

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

This argument is loving stupid. There is NO loving WAY some Xooms are going to keep getting updates and others aren't (other than the fact of Verizon devices getting updates later than Wifi devices).

# ¿ Mar 8, 2012 20:28

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

bull3964 posted:

to currently available information we just know that AOSP builds don't work with non-LTE upgraded Xooms so it's not a huge leap to make.

Considering Google has pretty much said gently caress CDMA support in AOSP it's a goddamn Grand Canyon leap to make.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2012 21:10

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Craptacular! posted:

Best Buy sells a "Xoom Family Edition" with lower power hardware that physically looks like the same Xoom and hasn't been getting Honeycomb updates. I doubt it will get ICS.

I'm not talking about the Xoom Family Edition, the Xoom 2, or the Droid Xyboard Waterproof Edition.

I'm talking about the Motorola Xoom, a device for which Google creates the software updates.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2012 23:47

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Yes, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT buy a non-ICS Samsung device.

If you want a 7-incher you are a fool if you don't wait for the 7-inch ASUS (Google Nexus???) tablet. Rumored price range $200-250.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2012 16:01

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

I think the rumors were that Google would take the kind of hardware ASUS was showing and put an unskinned Nexus build on it.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2012 00:07

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

pseudanonymous posted:

I still feel like I'm rolling the dice if I go with a prime.

Is there a particular question/concern you'd like addressed?

# ¿ Mar 11, 2012 16:43

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

explosivo posted:

Well poo poo, my (rooted) Fire definitely has some burn in going on at the bottom of the screen where the ICS notification bar is.

Ethereal posted:

I had burn in problems on stock as well.

Image persistence on an LCD screen is usually fixable.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2012 17:23

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

My Linux Rig you've got over 360 posts in the Android Laugh Factory thread in YOSPOS.

You know despite what YOSPOS thinks we do poo poo on manufacturers for providing crummy products and/or service. It's not all crummy or we wouldn't be here.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2012 03:58

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Great news. How did you solve the problem of needing to fill the whole screen with the image?

# ¿ Mar 16, 2012 06:32

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Had my Transformer Prime since January 5, been loving it the entire time.

If anybody is interested in entering to win one (with the keyboard dock, too), nVidia is giving a bunch away through the various tech news blogs and Android fan sites:

Engadget

Slashgear

Ubergizmo

IntoMobile

Droid Gamers

Phandroid

Android Police

Droid-Life

Android Central

Android And Me

Android Community

# ¿ Mar 16, 2012 17:11

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Hey better odds than the super lotto.

One more here:
http://www.asustechout.com/

# ¿ Mar 16, 2012 19:02

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

If you can bear to wait a bit longer, hang on for the rumored Google Nexus tablet with a $199 (or less?) price tag, probably coming out around the middle of the year (?).

# ¿ Mar 19, 2012 20:52

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

I went from a Xoom to a Transformer Prime, which was a nice step up.

Going to a Samsung Galaxy Tab, you wouldn't be getting any better performance, and you'd be stuck with Samsung's software. Personally I wouldn't find that worth the effort.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2012 19:51

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Also they are delaying (sometimes severely) software update releases while they take time to shovel in their poo poo.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2012 14:17

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

So 80,000 per 2 months = about half a million for the year. Not great but better than the numbers that were rumored for the Xoom.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2012 19:34

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Well yes obviously you can expect the numbers will go down as new models are introduced, and also that they were higher back when it was newly announced...

# ¿ Mar 28, 2012 19:52

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Also you might consider toggling the wifi off if you're not going to be using it for a while.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2012 15:55

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

Are we sure that's not just an old render of the Toshiba Excite X10? The styling and gaudy red background all scream Toshiba to me.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2012 17:03

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

kmcormick9 posted:

I stopped at best buy over the weekend and played with a prime. It's kinda hard to really experience a tablet on a display model but I did note that the gps on it worked well

Indoors? Pardon but I'm a little doubtful. Note that you can't just check your location on Google Maps, since it will get an accurate fix from the Wifi network; to really test the GPS reception you need to use an app such as GPS Test.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2012 03:01

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

I don't understand the people who think there's zero market for a 13" tablet.

Haven't you ever seen someone using a ridiculous laptop with a 20" screen? Sure it's not mainstream but there are people out there who gladly pay money for such things.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2012 19:41

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 09:02

Rastor: Jun 2, 2001

We're in this interesting period right now where the non-Apple manufacturers are trying to figure out how to differentiate themselves. There are attempts to differentiate themselves on both software (manufacturer skins) and on hardware (stylus, non-10" form factors). It's good because it means some needs / niches will be met which otherwise wouldn't be, but it's also bad because too many choices causes customer confusion and it sucks to be an adopter of a variation which fails to sell big and gets abandoned.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2012 00:51

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