opinions of Toshiba Thrive

OK, did some research and mts is a AVCHD format and used by a lot of HD camcorders and androids can't handle it as of yet. I had to find a converter for mts to mpeg4 that works fine. I will give a link to anyone who PMs me but won't post it because I don't want to suggest it is better than anyone else's converter. It costs 35 bucks, but there is a free demo you can try out on under 5 minute clips.

Too bad VLC player isn't available for Android yet...

And I'll be posting some stuff about this tablet when Woot decides to finally ship out the thing, and then I get to wait for the Smartpost shipping to arrive. So I'm aiming to have some first impressions out there before the end of Winter..
 
OK further research on .mts (AVCHD) and android devices. Turns out Windows Live Movie Maker, included with Windows 7, can read .mts files and if you elect to output the file in their "high resolution display" mode you have a 1920X1080 24000kbps .wmv that works on (at least) a 10" android 3.2 tablet and when compared looks exactly the same as the original viewed on my 15" laptop monitor. Of course if you want to show these files on a phone you can save a whole bunch of space my saving at 800X600 or even 640X480.

Next step is to view the raw footage streamed from the camcorder to a flat screen then view the .wmv streamed from the tablet to the same flat screen.
 
Well I just got mine for my wife in the mail. We immediately put it to use by hookng it up to the TV so our daughter could watch Sesame Street from netflix on it. It worked well overall, although there was some stuttering of video but nothing to detract from the overall experience.

Then I tried to update the firmware, only to find that for whatever reason it wouldn't update. Doing some research I found out that Toshiba installed a corrupt ROM That can't be updated OTA, and that you need to mail it to Toshiba for fixing, OR you can root the device and install a working ROM manually that way. I'm sure you can figure out which option I picked..

If not.. I picked the 2nd option. ;-) Working on it now instead of sleeping because I'm obsessed like that..
 
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That is a common theme for the thrives that have been coming from woot. They were restored to a firmware version that won't update OTA.

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Considering getting a Thrive, mostly thanks to info posted here. However it seems to be disappearing, replaced with the newer Toshiba Excite. Any opinions on that model? Thanks

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Just make sure you're getting the new Excite 10 series and not the Excite 10 LE. The LE is a dual core that was just a stop gap effort Toshiba put out that was slimmer than the Thrive when people complained about the Thrive's thickness.

The main differences between the Excite 10 and Thrive being the Excite 10 is slimmer, comes with ICS, has a quad core Tegra 3 processor instead of dual core, micro hdmi instead of full size hdmi, no full size USB.

The Thrives have been getting cleared out as refurbs on Woot and ebay. If you look around you will find them for $299 down to $229. I bought 2 refurb 32gb Thrives for $259 off ebay and they looked brand new.

I like them and wouldn't have any problem going with an Excite, other than I am in a unique situation in that I have to have a full USB port in order to use a tablet for work. I think Toshiba priced the Excites too high though. A $100 cheaper would be in line with the Samsung tablets, which in my opinion is their competition, not Apple.
 
osu1991:

There's an adapter you can buy from Amazon and other places called an otg (on the go) adapter. Assuming your device supports host mode it will give you full USB functionality. I use it on my phone (Motorola photon) without any issues.

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The biggest take away from owning the Thrive is that Android 3.2 isn't nearly "ready for prime time" and the Thrive's processor is painfully slow compared with a Dell laptop. And Windows 7 is worth what it costs, and Android 3.2 is worth what it costs.

Android on my first two smart phones worked pretty well but on a 10" tablet like Thrive I wanted to do a lot of PC laptop type work and Android is like working with your hands tied behind your back and poking at the screen with your nose.

And Android 3.2 browsers are really sad compared with Firefox or even MS Internet Explorer.


I'm giving some thought to chucking the phone and tablet and going with an Iphone and Ipad but most likely won't unless Android 4 ICS disappoints. I never liked Apple's arrogance and high prices and thought Google's idea of a "peoples free operating system" was great.

There are credible statements from Toshiba that the Thrives will get ICS pretty soon. And it happens my phone is on the ICS list too so I'll wait and give Android another chance. But as 4.0 is a whole number change it implies a major step up (dare I say paradigm shift:eek:) so my expectations are quite high.
 
I never really followed up but I found the Thrive to be rather disappointing, but it's not so much the device's fault as it is Google 3.2. Honeycomb is an embarassment of a mobile OS. Everything is sluggish, there's not a great deal of apps available, and the customization features it touts aren't really that robust. I think Google didn't want to release the source code because they knew how horrible it was. I'd say if you want a good, reputable Android device, look to ASUS because they seem to be the only ones who know what they're doing.
 
These are still for the most part consumption devices. For most intensive computer work a tablet still isn't ready to replace a laptop, but you can do a lot with them, if you recognize their limitations.
 
I'm surprised how slow some companies and devices that I think should be getting ICS are getting rolled out. This includes any tablet with a dual-core CPU.

Quite disappointing IMO -- although I'm lucky in that my Android Tablet is a Transformer Prime, which rolled out about 4 months ago.
 
These are still for the most part consumption devices. For most intensive computer work a tablet still isn't ready to replace a laptop, but you can do a lot with them, if you recognize their limitations.
Buddy, count me out of the folks who agree with that idea.

Rusty scissors can be used to carve a Christmas turkey if you recognize their limitations.

What they are are cheap attempts to double dip from the billfold of early adopters. I've been their before and now I find I am again.
 
steve4810 said:
Buddy, count me out of the folks who agree with that idea.

Rusty scissors can be used to carve a Christmas turkey if you recognize their limitations.

What they are are cheap attempts to double dip from the billfold of early adopters. I've been their before and now I find I am again.

Well we will just have to disagree.

I use mine every day. I do agree the browser sucks, but it is fine for what little surfing I do currently. My Thrive works fine for what I do with insurance claims, accessing my Google docs, dropbox, email, hulu+, streaming my own music or video from my server or wdtv live hub, reading books, etc... The app selection isn't great but android has most of what I use. My bank app is really all I am missing, but it is on my iPhone and access is limited to that device, so I would have to use the browser anyway or take it off my iPhone.

They are not full laptop replacements, but you can do a lot with them. If I want to go thru reports while sitting on my porch in the morning, which I do a lot. Its much easier with the thrive than taking a 17 in laptop out there. If I want to create a presentation or rip a DVD, I'm obviously not going to do that on a tablet. It just comes down to what an individual is looking to use a tablet for. They have many uses for some people, obviously they're not for you yet.

Sent from my Toshiba Thrive
 
osu1991 said:
Just make sure you're getting the new Excite 10 series and not the Excite 10 LE. The LE is a dual core that was just a stop gap effort Toshiba put out that was slimmer than the Thrive when people complained about the Thrive's thickness.

The main differences between the Excite 10 and Thrive being the Excite 10 is slimmer, comes with ICS, has a quad core Tegra 3 processor instead of dual core, micro hdmi instead of full size hdmi, no full size USB.

The Thrives have been getting cleared out as refurbs on Woot and ebay. If you look around you will find them for $299 down to $229. I bought 2 refurb 32gb Thrives for $259 off ebay and they looked brand new.

I like them and wouldn't have any problem going with an Excite, other than I am in a unique situation in that I have to have a full USB port in order to use a tablet for work. I think Toshiba priced the Excites too high though. A $100 cheaper would be in line with the Samsung tablets, which in my opinion is their competition, not Apple.

Thanks very much. I will carefully check specifications.

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Well we will just have to disagree.

I use mine every day
Well I don't and it hacks me off more than a little bit.

Of course what you say is true. They do a lot more than my first desktop machine. My wife takes it to the office to show off her latest nature snaps. And Dish Anywhere works pretty well. And I can manage my investments in real time during market hours

But the actual justifications for purchasing so expensive a device are only half meant.

The battery life is as advertised and a fantastic improvement of my 3 yr old Dell with extra capacity battery. No complaints here.

Wifi and blu tooth(including HiFi stereo) work OK though I haven't tried any speed tests. Again no complaints

The screen and image quality are fine (they were great until The New Ipad)

The touch screen works OK but typing anything beyond "text message" length messages is a trial. (You have my admiration for the length of your preceding post. Do you use a accessory keyboard?). Maybe this is the best a 10" touch device can do but a couple of brief experiences with an Ipad make me doubt this.

A lot of my stock market requirements are meant but the one most important and very severely missed is a specific trading screen from TD Ameritrade called Command Center 2.0. It's a java runtime app which is ironic. TD's own online support people admitted to me no Android browser available today can load it. And I suspect that is because it requires more video processor power than the Android tablets presently available have to operate it. Probably because it provides realtime data flows from the exchanges. Which goes to my complaint that some table will be introduced not far in the future that will have improved performance enough so that folks like me will feel the need to donate their Thrives to charity (or very young family members) and buy a second tablet inside of 3 or 4 years. The industry's second dip into my pocket.

It cannot handle native HD video from my Cannon camcorder and there isn't a conversion app because, as it was explained to me, it would run so slow, if at all, that no one would tolerate it. As a class Android devices are severely processor limited, no doubt a trade off for battery run time.

There are no good mp3 players. What the Android Market calls "good" are those that display album art and let you wipe your way through them and offer shuffle play, neither of which I would ever use. What I call good is Media Monkey for Windows that can level adjust files on the fly or permanently and trim or just skip silent file beginnings and endings, variably cross fade from one song to the next, allow media files to be listed and sorted on any key (and have more than 2 or 3 keys!!), include adequate file management capabilities for library collection and have a configurable sync feature.

And hopefully only temporarily, The Android OS (3.2) has several serious faults: No way to change file permissions, no native networking, no decent file managers. A lot of applications like Dish Remote Access that have non alterable perspectives. All the menus in the Dish app are portrait only and the video landscape is only.

A business app I bought to keep xls spreadsheets up to date (and I believe the only one in existence) could not access the external SD card. After my complaint, and most likely others, they upgraded their app and solved that though it still cannot access network files. Again because of basic shortcomings of its file system.

I'll most likely live but I don't smile as much as I hoped when I bought it.
 
Well how about that. Ice Cream Sandwich for me tonight. :) All of America must be trying to update. 20 minutes on my 15mb service and I'm only 25% thru a 300mb download.

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