Android Honeycomb Tablets

[rockymtnhigh]

When I tethered from the Droid X to the Galaxy Tab, I had identical wi-fi speeds, did not kill the battery, and used no more bandwidth then I would have used on the phone. One of the great things of the 7" tablet. Tethering to the iPad or laptop will use more data, since you are less likely getting mobile sites, but really not a big deal. But never encountered speed drops.

And if a phone call came in, I took it, and was not worried if my data was interrupted. ONE data plan to rule them all, one data plan to bind them; that's what we need.

 

[diogen]

I can see one use even today: virtualization.

And it looks like I'm not alone...
Ubuntu demonstrated running on Galaxy Tab 10.1, summarily dubbed 'Tabuntu' (video) -- Engadget

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Ubunbu, but doing it on top of Android such that the tablet's
native OS is running Linux in the background and then using a VM client to launch the UI.

I want the same on Asus Transformer and Nokia N9...

Diogen.

 

[Steve Mehs]

While not a Honeycomb tablet yet, it will be one day.
I went to Best Buy today and bought myself an HTC Flyer tablet. They had a promo where if you purchased the Flyer by July 2nd you got the Scribe for free. Now I have absolutely zero intent on keeping this thing. This is my trial tablet, I’ll either be returning it in a few days and buying an Evo View or not buying a tablet at all. I want to see how well I can manage using a DOA tablet and see if it will be worth it.

My first impressions of it so far are it’s a giant phone. I have yet to find any apps that are not preloaded with the phone that take advantage of the extra screen real estate besides Google Earth and The Wall Street Journal. ESPN ScoreCenter fills the whole screen but it looks out of whack. I’ll have to try out the WatchESPN app and see how ESPN streams on the bigger screen. Having Gingerbread on the tablet isn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I love having the familiar pure awesomeness of HTC Sense 3.0. That right there almost makes this thing a keeper. Boy does the 7” screen suck though. Video content and web browsing would be a lot better on a 10” screen, 7” is too damn small for anything useful. The HTC Scribe is pretty cool I must admit. Now, I don’t and probably never will have a practical use for it, but it’s cool to play with. And the last thing, not having a data plan with this thing makes it absolutely useless, which is why I’d get it’s brother the Evo View if I decide to jump into the tablet world. Nothing like getting a nice new toy and not being able to set it up until you drive around and find a wifi hotspot.

Overall the thing is pretty slick with it’s 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor, and the screen is pretty sharp too. I haven’t played around with the camera much. Love the rotating buttons! While there’s many things I like about it, there are a few things I don’t and I’ll have to evaluate in the coming days to see if I want the Evo View or not.

Here’s the Flyer next to the Evo 3D (with my HTC lanyard I got a while back at some promotional event).

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Download Spare Parts from the Market, and make sure compatibility mode is turned on. Reboot the tablet. Everything should scale perfectly to 7" running froyo/gingerbread-compatible apps. It worked great with my Galaxy Tab.

There is not a single app I own that does not run full screen and they all look great scaled to 7"

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Not sure what launcher you are using, but maybe try Launcher Pro to increase the number of rows and columns so it doesn't look like a giant phone as you suggest. The clock is taking up WAY TOO MUCH screen space for a tablet. But that's probably a sense thing.

 

[Ronnie-]

And the last thing, not having a data plan with this thing makes it absolutely useless, which is why I’d get it’s brother the Evo View if I decide to jump into the tablet world. Nothing like getting a nice new toy and not being able to set it up until you drive around and find a wifi hotspot.

I know in your mind it is not ideal, but have you ever actually tried using wifi tether through your EVO? You might be pleasantly surprised and save yourself some money in the process.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I use my wi-fi only iPad all the time, and there are very few times and I mean few times, when I wish I had a data plan. But never enough to want to spend $30 on it.

 

[Steve Mehs]

I downloaded Spare Parts (the free version) and went through all the settings, but didn’t see anything about scaling to size. Even if apps filled the screen, that wouldn’t solve my problem with 7” being too small for serious web browsing and streaming video. I tried Launcher Pro a while back on my Evo and didn’t like it, just tried it again on the Flyer and still don’t care for it. I simply cannot use an Android device without the Sense overlay and widgets. Never going to happen, and Launcher Pro inconjunction with Beautiful Widgets is a very poor substitute.

I know in your mind it is not ideal, but have you ever actually tried using wifi tether through your EVO? You might be pleasantly surprised and save yourself some money in the process.

Yes, not with the tablet obviously but with my laptop, and I couldn’t stand it, hence why I got the air card. Not only does the wireless tether feel like a cheap, lame solution, but the speeds were not as good being tethered. Plus I do not want to go back to the days of dial up in the ‘90s when you couldn’t talk and surf at the same time. I have absolutely no issue paying $35/month for 3GB of usage, so long as I can take advantage of it. If I ditch my other cell phone, I’ll be saving $20/month making it a net difference of $15. Big deal.

For me the whole point of smart phones and tablets is for 24/7 data access. It sucked yesterday driving 15 minutes away from Best Buy to a grocery store to use their free wifi, in which I barely got a bar of signal in the parking lot. I have no idea where people get the notion there is free wifi covering the planet, but there is certainly not much of it here and even if there was I wouldn’t use it. I was desperate yesterday, and had no choice, but that’s probably the fifth or sixth time I’ve ever used public wifi in my life, and I felt so dirty for doing do.

Plus in order to get free wireless tethering working you need to be rooted. While my original Evo was rooted, what a huge mistake that was. I have no plans or desire to do any sort of rooting with the new phone when one becomes available. Since the Facebook app was not preinstalled on the phone, I have zero reason to root now.

 

[Ronnie-]

Am I the only one that thinks Sense is totally overrated? Yes, its nice, but give me vanilla and let me do my own thing any day. I am using ADW EX and there are so many themes to use that I get tired just during the search process. lol
Honestly, even among stock skins, I dont think its head and shoulders above any of the others.

 

[Ronnie-]

I use my wi-fi only iPad all the time, and there are very few times and I mean few times, when I wish I had a data plan. But never enough to want to spend $30 on it.

I honestly cant think of a single time that I have wished that I had a Data plan with my Ipad. Not off hand anyway.

 

[Steve Mehs]

Vanilla Android is lame and boring. I played a lot with custom ROMs and different launchers and such, and they all looked half assed and completely blow compared to Sense. The folks at HTC who design Sense are much more talented and have a better eye then I ever will I could ever have and never in my wildest dreams piece bunch of launchers and widgets together and come up with anything that comes close to the smoothness and functionality that HTC has developed. Plus since HTC designed Sense it obviously optimized for the phones. Last thing I want to do is run some crap some 12 year old wannabe developer created and have it degrade the performance of my devices.

 

[Ronnie-]

Vanilla Android is lame and boring. I played a lot with custom ROMs and different launchers and such, and they all looked half assed and completely blow compared to Sense. The folks at HTC who design Sense are much more talented and have a better eye then I ever will I could ever have and never in my wildest dreams piece bunch of launchers and widgets together and come up with anything that comes close to the smoothness and functionality that HTC has developed. Plus since HTC designed Sense it obviously optimized for the phones. Last thing I want to do is run some crap some 12 year old wannabe developer created and have it degrade the performance of my devices.

Matter of opinion.

Personally, I would rather have mine be as I want it (given the choice), not like someone at HTC that doesnt know me wants it. Some people would rather not have to fool with it, and that is who it is made for.

I havent experienced performance issues running other launchers. In fact, I would say that my performance is improved in most (not all) cases when getting away from stock.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I told you, just make sure "compatibility mode" is selected. That is all you have to do. and then all apps will scale to the full size.

I think a seven inch browser works fine for most sites; turn it to landscape mode if you want a wider screen. The ONLY time I was disappointed with it was when I was working with PDFs.

But since you don't like 7", it is unclear why you spent money on a 7" tablet - and with the intent to return it?? Seems kind of like an abuse of a store's return policy.

 

[Ronnie-]

But since you don't like 7", it is unclear why you spent money on a 7" tablet - and with the intent to return it?? Seems kind of like an abuse of a store's return policy.

Agreed.

 

[Steve Mehs]

Personally, I would rather have mine be as I want it (given the choice), not like someone at HTC that doesnt know me wants it. Some people would rather not have to fool with it, and that is who it is made for.

I would agree, if there was something out there better then Sense, and while I have not tried every single custom launcher, widget and overlay out there, I hit most of the major ones, and can honestly say none of them are on the same planet as what HTC has come up with.

As far as performance issues go, I was referring more to custom ROMs then third party launchers. Custom ROMs just plain SUCK! I haven’t found one that doesn’t screw up something.

I told you, just make sure "compatibility mode" is selected. That is all you have to do. and then all apps will scale to the full size.

Yes I did that and it does not work.

But since you don't like 7", it is unclear why you spent money on a 7" tablet - and with the intent to return it?? Seems kind of like an abuse of a store's return policy.

While 7” tablets are retarded, I want a tablet and I want one NOW! It must be an HTC and it must use the Sprint data network. So my options are extremely limited. The Flyer and the Evo View are nearly identical other than the radio for CDMA and wimax in the Evo View. But I want to see if I can put up with the 7” screen before I deal with Sprint. It is much easier and less of a hassle returning something at Best Buy then dealing with Sprint. If you think it’s abusive so be it. Maybe Best Buy should come up with a stricter return policy. I’m hoping I can put up with the 7” screen and maybe in a year there will be a 10” HTC tablet on Sprint and I’ll just upgrade at the unsubsidized price.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Maybe it doesn't work due to Sense; with the Galaxy Tab it worked like a charm. But that was "vanilla" Android with just a few enhancements.

 

[Ronnie-]

While 7” tablets are retarded, I want a tablet and I want one NOW! It must be an HTC and it must use the Sprint data network. So my options are extremely limited.

Id just wait rather than try to put up with something that I wouldnt be happy with.

Any reason you wont try a different brand or network?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

If you think a 7" tablet is retarded, it strikes me as unlikely that you will be happy with it.

 

[Ronnie-]

If you think a 7" tablet is retarded, it strikes me as unlikely that you will be happy with it.

I agree. Perhaps he would be happy with the Ipad or Xoom?

 

[Steve Mehs]

Maybe it doesn't work due to Sense; with the Galaxy Tab it worked like a charm. But that was "vanilla" Android with just a few enhancements.

Didn’t the 7” Galaxy Tab come with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI? I believe it does as I’ve played with all five versions of it. That is far from Vanilla Android. Spare Parts may have an issue with Gingerbread though.

Id just wait rather than try to put up with something that I wouldnt be happy with.

Any reason you wont try a different brand or network?

Who knows how long I’ll be waiting. I waited over 10 years for the perfect laptop, and I sent it back twice because it wasn’t good enough. Hopefully my new one that will arrive on Wednesday will keep me happy. I don’t want to wait that long for a tablet I’ll be happy with and it’s only a few hundred bucks.

What other providers are out there? If there’s one company I hate more than Apple, it’s Verizon. I will never do business with Verizon or VZW. AT&T? That’s a laugh. 16 months using their poor excuse for a cellular network when I had the iPhone was more than enough experience with AT&T for one lifetime. And T-Mobile, while they are the only major wireless provider I have no firsthand experience with, they do have a decent voice network around here, their data network is less than desirable. For manufactures, most of the Android tablet manufactures are no name companies that I do not wish to be a guinea pig for. Motorola, Samsung and HTC are the only manufactures with a reputation

If you think a 7" tablet is retarded, it strikes me as unlikely that you will be happy with it.

Replace the word ‘happy’ with ‘put up with’ and I can justify for a year or so. After all I put up with the iPhone for almost a year and a half. While I did not like the thing and yearned for something better, it did serve a purpose until something better came out. If I force my self to enjoy it I may be able to,