Friday, February 10, 2012

Android Tablets

by Richard Vowles

Last year I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - I was spending a lot of time browsing the news feeds for stuff for the podcasts, being away from a computer and not being able to make use of valuable time. So I decided to grab a Tablet and see how useful it would be. I was also considering one for use by my wife - given the capabilities of Google Docs Drawing, it was pretty awesome in its ability to do something she was paying for Comic Life on her Mac. I really quite like Android 3.1 and it made moving to my Galaxy Nexus easy and familiar.

It turned out way cheaper than I expected and I have very much enjoyed the experience - unfortunately lately the YouTube has been playing up, but other than that its excellent (seems to be a network issue). The cheap $130 APAD 2 I got was totally useless not because of its resistive screen but because the wifi is utterly lousy, even 1 metre away from the wifi and I can't use it.

The problems I now have with it is that to really use it, I need a keyboard - so ideally I'd replace it with a Transformer Prime with a keyboard - in hindsight I should have waited, but I can always get a keyboard for the Galaxy Tab. The lack of a decent Google Docs client for Android continues to make that application wholly useless unfortunately, so if you are looking for one for that reason, don't bother.

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