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I'm not sure anything revolutionary is going to happen with the headphone jack anytime soon since many people are switching to bluetooth anyways.
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Apr 25, 2012 15:21
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Back when I was in college in the early 90's, I had a friend who drove a Chevy Cavalier. He used to describe it as the "I don't need that" car. Anti-lock brakes? "I don't need that." Take off $500. Airbags? CD Player? Power windows? "I don't need those." Take off more money. What you get left with is a basic, but functional car that's dirt cheap and still lets you drive to work. That's the impression I got when I bought a new Polaroid 701i. It's a $99 7-inch tablet you can get at Big Lots. For one Benjamin you get ICS, 512 Mb RAM, 4 Gb storage, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, and that's about it. No Bluetooth, no camera, no GPS. It's also pre-rooted. So far, the responsiveness has been nice considering the price. When I get it home and get it on Wi-Fi I'll put it through it's paces and report back.
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Apr 25, 2012 17:14
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ltugo posted:Back when I was in college in the early 90's, I had a friend who drove a Chevy Cavalier. He used to describe it as the "I don't need that" car. Anti-lock brakes? "I don't need that." Take off $500. Airbags? CD Player? Power windows? "I don't need those." Take off more money. What you get left with is a basic, but functional car that's dirt cheap and still lets you drive to work. Turns out antilock breaks and airbags are awesome though.
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Apr 25, 2012 17:40
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tikan posted:Turns out antilock breaks and airbags are awesome though. Exactly.  is weak. "...still lets you drive to work." What does that equate to in the Android tablet world?I think for one Benjamin you are going to
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Apr 25, 2012 17:48
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My standards are low. Case in point: I still use a dumb flip phone.
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Apr 25, 2012 17:51
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yamdankee posted:Exactly. Netflix
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Apr 25, 2012 18:44
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Frozen-Solid posted:Have you installed all the updates? That was an issue for a week or so right after ICS came out, but has since been fixed. Make sure system update reports that you don't have any updates pending. There is no system updates I'm missing according to the system menu, but I went to the Asus site and it looks like there is new firmware. I'll try that out. Another thing, I've left my tablet in sleep mode without power the last two nights. Both times in the morning I went to turn on the tablet and the battery was drained. It looks like after I flash the new firmware I should get some battery usage data in Settings, but until then does anyone have any other ideas what it could be?
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Apr 25, 2012 21:44
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WhyteRyce posted:There is no system updates I'm missing according to the system menu, but I went to the Asus site and it looks like there is new firmware. I'll try that out. What version does the system menu say you're on? The battery draining while in sleep is an issue related to the inability to wake up from sleep. Both should have been fixed in the same firmware update. It was a few versions ago. The current build number should be 9.4.2.21-20120323. If you're on anything other than that, it would definitely explain some, if not all, of your problems. It's really odd that your system updates check says there aren't any updates, but something newer is on the website. Edit: If you ARE on that version, I would try doing a full factory reset. Backup your apps using the ASUS backup utility, then do a factory reset from the settings menu. If that doesn't fix it, then it's likely a hardware issue, but I really doubt it's hardware from how you describe it. Frozen Peach fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Apr 25, 2012 |
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Apr 25, 2012 22:01
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Frozen-Solid posted:What version does the system menu say you're on? I don't have it in front of me now but I believe the version was 9.4.2.11
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Apr 25, 2012 23:21
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ltugo posted:Back when I was in college in the early 90's, I had a friend who drove a Chevy Cavalier. He used to describe it as the "I don't need that" car. Anti-lock brakes? "I don't need that." Take off $500. Airbags? CD Player? Power windows? "I don't need those." Take off more money. What you get left with is a basic, but functional car that's dirt cheap and still lets you drive to work. This will end badly.
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Apr 26, 2012 04:28
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Bluetooth is pretty close to a universal must... With a bluetooth keyboard I can finally leave my netbook at home. I'm not going to try to fit that into the car analogy.
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Apr 26, 2012 05:00
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A towbar is a must, with a trailer I'm finally able to leave my pickup at home? 
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Apr 26, 2012 08:46
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I'm looking for a tablet and have absolutely zero need of a camera or GPS from it. I would have actually thought very few people would actually use them at all on a tablet (excepting a front camera possibly). I would also think a 7" tablet wouldn't get a great deal of use out of a bluetooth keyboard? YardGlass fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Apr 27, 2012 |
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Apr 26, 2012 11:53
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Reading the A300 review, and I'd say that I wouldn't worry too hard about a reviewer's materials judgment since they don't really throw their review units into walls. I own a phone that received similar comments and dropped it in the street the other week, and was impressed at how well it held up.
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Apr 26, 2012 13:05
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Ok, reporting back. I've bought cheap-rear end tablets before just to experiment with rooting/roms/etc. and I've never been satisfied with them. The Polaroid is the first hundred-dollar tablet I've bought that actually seems worth one hundred dollars. As long as your needs are EXTREMELY limited, it will do fine and I think it establishes the extreme bottom end of what's worth buying. ICS is a plus. Interface lag pops up now and then, but it's not bad. Screen is a bit dim and has poor viewing angles, but it's watchable. You can browse the web on it, you can play Angry Birds and most other games, you can watch stuff on Netflix or Youtube (no flash, though). It has a capacitive touchscreen instead of the resistive that you find on most other rock-bottom tablets. It doesn't come with Google Market/Play, but there's an easy hack to get that functionality. The all-plastic construction is VERY light, so you hardly notice carrying it. Battery life is decent, (5-6 hours of heavy use). It's got a headphone jack, microSD slot, and a non-HDMI video-out port (but no cable). So if you've never used a tablet before and you're uneasy about spending lots of money on something you might not even need, this might be for you. If you've already got a GPS and a camera and you don't need bluetooth for headphones or keyboards or whatever, this might be for you. If you've got bad eyes and dislike the small screen on your phone, this might be for you. It's good for browsing the web, tapping out an occasional email, and playing games. You can give it to your three year-old in a restaurant to keep him entertained until the food comes and you don't have to worry about him breaking something expensive. For the money, it's just fine.
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Apr 26, 2012 14:33
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Probably picking up the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 this weekend. I'm excited. Do they make any type of keyboard dock for it?
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Apr 26, 2012 16:16
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7" is too small for an attached keyboard (though I hear RIM tried it anyway for their tablet), but you should be able to use any Bluetooth keyboard.
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Apr 26, 2012 16:36
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The Gay Bean posted:Bluetooth is pretty close to a universal must... With a bluetooth keyboard I can finally leave my netbook at home. I'm not going to try to fit that into the car analogy. There is no Bluetooth on the Kindle Fire, and that doesn't seem to be holding the device back. The radio is there but I haven't seen anyone figure out how to enable it yet. $100 that ICS tablet sounds perfect for many people I know.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:14
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Stick100 posted:There is no Bluetooth on the Kindle Fire, and that doesn't seem to be holding the device back. The radio is there but I haven't seen anyone figure out how to enable it yet. I believe the BT in the Fire is similar to the Nook Color, which means the range is so bad it is near-useless. People are buying the Fire either for the ecosystem, because it's cheap, or both.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:27
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The TF101 update to address random reboots didn't work for me. Still random rebooting. I'd like to believe I was even remotely surprised when I saw the thing shut down, then fail to properly boot.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:38
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YardGlass posted:I would also thing a 7" tablet wouldn't get a great deal of use out of a bluetooth keyboard? You can use a USB On-The-Go adapter and connect a plain old USB keyboard. I just purchased this for $2 to see how well it works.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:47
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Frozen-Solid posted:What version does the system menu say you're on? Yep, I manually updated the firmware and even factory reset it for good measure. So much better now
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Apr 26, 2012 19:43
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Stick100 posted:$100 that ICS tablet sounds perfect for many people I know.
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Apr 26, 2012 21:16
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I got my Galaxy Tab 2 7" today and it's pretty freakin cool. It's my first tablet but not my first android. The only thing I'm not liking is the not vanilla ICS. I guess it's the Samsung Touchwiz or whatever. It just feels a lot less customizable or something. But other than that, everything runs great and the screen looks really good. The smart remote app is pretty nifty thing.
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Apr 27, 2012 05:19
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Probably picking up the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 this weekend. I'm excited. Do they make any type of keyboard dock for it? They did make a keyboard dock for the 7.0 Plus, I imagine there's probably one for the 2 as well.
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Apr 27, 2012 07:16
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My stores recently got in the Archos 80 G9 "Turbo" As a cheap option. They MSRP at $299, but you can find them online for $250 or less. http://www.archos.com/products/gen9/archos_80g9/index.html?country=us&lang=en ICS, MicroSD, Mini-HDMI, GPS, BT, Dual Core 1.2(or 1.5 depending on production date). 8" 1024x768, 512MB RAM. No rear camera and the front camera isn't great, but so far seems like a pretty nice low-end tablet for someone who doesn't want to mess around with hacking it like a Nook or Touchpad. There is also a slot of an "optional 3G USB modem" that doesnt work in the US, but it happens to be a full size USB slot you can also use. Think I am finally getting one for mom..
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Apr 27, 2012 16:46
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Another round of Transformer Prime giveaways started yesterday, probably still time to enter most of these: androidcentral.com droidgamers.com androidpolice.com droid-life.com androidandme.com androidcommunity.com talkandroid.com slashgear.com
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Apr 27, 2012 17:17
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Is anyone else having issues with their Transformer TF300? It's been remarkably sluggish and unwilling to perform basic functions without some cajoling. I ran all the firmware updates, and that fixed some of the issues, but the GPS and the wireless are pretty bad.
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Apr 27, 2012 17:17
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Mighty Horse posted:My stores recently got in the Archos 80 G9 "Turbo" As a cheap option. For $100 more you can get a refurbished iPad 2 from Apple and you'll never receive a phone call trying to figure out why her tablet is so slow and doesn't work right. She's your mom. eric fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Apr 27, 2012 |
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Apr 27, 2012 17:28
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eric posted:For $100 more you can get a refurbished iPad 2 from Apple and you'll never receive a phone call trying to figure out why her tablet is so slow and doesn't work right. She's your mom. Don't mothers deserve freedom though? Your idea is a bit limiting in respect to that.
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Apr 27, 2012 17:59
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His mother will love the buttery smooth operating system Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich more.
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Apr 27, 2012 18:14
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right arm posted:His mother will love the buttery smooth operating system Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich more. And hooking up the mini-HDMI to her television!
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Apr 27, 2012 19:13
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I hope you buy your mom that tablet and she disowns you. I'm not saying you have to go the iPad route (you should) but don't bargain-bin shop for your mom dude.
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Apr 27, 2012 19:16
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This thread is full of the creepiest paternalists I've ever seen. Look, you should always do well by your mom (unless she put you up for adoption, but even then, she might have had a decent reason) but for some people, that means $250. To get back to the car analogies, how would you feel if you bought your mom an iPad and some piece of poo poo millionaire came by and said, "Don't be cheap, buy your mom a BMW." And for those of you who bought your mom a BMW, just imagine it was some Saudi dude and he said "private island". For some people, spending an extra $150 isn't being cheap, it's just a reality of their budget. And then when the dipshits come out and say, "if $150 is meaningful to you, then you're too poor to buy a tablet, I would suggest you save that money to purchase some beans and perhaps a better bindlestick". That said, I bought my mom the new iPad, because if you can afford it, moms really generally do better with Apple stuff.
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Apr 27, 2012 20:03
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TildeATH posted:This thread is full of the creepiest paternalists I've ever seen. What the hell? People aren't telling him to buy her a loving 64G LTE ipad, they're saying don't spend $250 on a fairly lovely tablet. Archos has NEVER been well regarded in the tablet market. Saving $100 by buying a product that's going to be problematic and frustrating isn't smart. gently caress, buy a refurb Transformer for $275 today at Newegg if you just can't swing it, but it's not paternalistic to tell somebody they're making a bad buying choice.
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Apr 27, 2012 20:23
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Can someone seriously explain the idea of buying cheap tablets with known issues and faults for the purpose of "tinkering?" I seriously don't understand it. I mean people put Linux on computers to tinker with because it's fun For them to explore a technical focused operating system, but in the end if you get bored you can always go back to osx or Windows. With Android tablets, they're designed to be a self contained environment that does one thing - act as a tablet operating system for browsing, buying applications, etc. There's really no need to add any extra technical expertise to the experience. There's also no need to have it designed for a specific purpose because there are computers designed to do specific things like act as a server or media center for a price well under what a tablet designed as an interactive environment can offer. In essence a tablet is a toy, not a computer. Trying to make it something it's not doesn't seem worth it. The idea of people buying low quality, often broken from the manufacturer tablets for purposes of experimentation seems so counter productive that I can't wrap my head around it. I mean you don't buy Walmart brand TVs to turn them into oscilloscopes.
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Apr 27, 2012 20:25
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So I'm trying to decide between the ASUS TF300 and a refurbished iPad 2 (16GB) for my mom. Both come out to about the same price, and have similar features. Are there any major differences between them? She already has an HTC Incredible 2, so she is pretty familiar with Android.
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Apr 27, 2012 20:29
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The ASUS has a sharper screen, the iPad has more tablet-aware apps available (but can't re-use any existing ones she may already have from her Android phone).
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Apr 27, 2012 20:43
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got dat wmd posted:Can someone seriously explain the idea of buying cheap tablets with known issues and faults for the purpose of "tinkering?" I seriously don't understand it. I don't get it either. If you go with something cheap to see if you like the idea of an android tablet, you won't. Buy something that has reviewed well from a B&M store with a decent return policy. Getting a "trial" craplet is a complete waste of money.
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Apr 27, 2012 20:56
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Rastor posted:The ASUS has a sharper screen, the iPad has more tablet-aware apps available (but can't re-use any existing ones she may already have from her Android phone). She hasn't paid for a single app, and hardly uses any extra ones on her phone. Basically the only things this tablet will be used for are viewing pdfs (documents for work), videos, kindle reading, email, and browsing the internet. The only games that will ever be played are when I'm in town using it.
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Apr 27, 2012 21:03
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