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diamonddad 12-09-2011 11:10 PM

Android Tablet
 
1 Attachment(s)
I am rather interested in this Asus Transformer Prime Android tablet.

I want to use it for the web, email and magazine subscriptions.

Does anyone know if its possible to run Outlook, Excel or Word on an Android tablet?

baitkiller 12-10-2011 4:35 AM

Not sure. I use the Asus netbooks at work and they run Windows 7. I just load them with open office and it runs excel fine. i have been looking at these as an alternative with better daylight screens. I use them on boats.
I have to go to Costco today, best buy is right next door. ill check it out at both.

ralph 12-12-2011 10:29 AM

I have my eye on the samsung tab, I have the Galaxy 2S phone and love it so I presume it will be a good fit. I won't by anything Apple out of principal. The phone opens spreadsheets no problem so I guess the tab will be all good too.

wakeworld 12-12-2011 11:01 AM

They do have apps like OfficeSuite or QuickOffice that let you view, edit and create Microsoft Office documents, but I've never used them myself. Maybe I'd use my tablet for more than reading and web surfing if I did! :) They have plenty of email clients that work just like Outlook, so I know that works well.

jinxton 12-13-2011 1:05 PM

I just bought the Samsung Galaxy 7 plus, this little thing rocks. I am using it in Panama without any problems. I did not want one of the 10" tablets i think they are to big, this fits right in my hand. I have plenty of time to figure it out as it is still raining all day down here. I also figured out that Angry Birds makes me angry!

12-14-2011 7:33 AM

darren i have the samsung 7" tablet as well. i love the thing. i take it everywhere due to its size. i couldnt do that with the 10" tablet

12-14-2011 7:33 AM

and like you darren i wont buy anything apple

canucked 12-14-2011 11:04 AM

I can vouch for the Asus, I am a computer jong but I love it.

Mine had Polaris office pre-loaded which seems to open office word docs, haven't really tried anything else (excel etc.)

The only thing frustrating is getting videos on it...bought on itunes...double twist streams all of my music files but DRM movies don't work. A lot of really great movies are avaialble on itunes (especaally ski and wakeboard), I have no problem buying them from wherever, i just want them on the tablet.

suggestions?

asdfgboy 12-16-2011 11:07 PM

I like the keyboard by the way. So thin and lightweight according to the review online. I will buy this if I have extra money this coming Christmas.

diamonddad 12-23-2011 9:34 PM

I saw the Transformer Prime in person yesterday. Wow. It's a beautiful tablet!

jon4pres 12-27-2011 5:39 PM

I have rental property and was wondering about having my new renters sign their contracts on a tablet. I could then either print them a copy or just send it to them via email. It would make things extremely easy on the organizing side of things for me. I could also use it to generate receipts and do my on the spot bookkeeping when collecting rent.

Does anyone know about the capabilities of a tablet for signing contracts?

diamonddad 12-28-2011 12:50 AM

This looked interesting:

http://www.gocanvas.com/content/blog...id-samsung-tab

magic 12-28-2011 7:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon4pres (Post 1723135)
I have rental property and was wondering about having my new renters sign their contracts on a tablet. I could then either print them a copy or just send it to them via email. It would make things extremely easy on the organizing side of things for me. I could also use it to generate receipts and do my on the spot bookkeeping when collecting rent.

Does anyone know about the capabilities of a tablet for signing contracts?

What about DocuSign? I did most of the signing for our last house via DocuSign and was using my smart phone's broswer for it.

jon4pres 12-28-2011 3:08 PM

Looks very possible and very cool.

hatepain 12-28-2011 4:08 PM

Quote:

I have my eye on the samsung tab, I have the Galaxy 2S phone and love it so I presume it will be a good fit. I won't by anything Apple out of principal. The phone opens spreadsheets no problem so I guess the tab will be all good too.
I'm with ya! I will say that Samsung is getting a bit proprietary with their products too though. That said I have the new Galaxy Nexus phone but when I was looking and researching tablets for my wife I landed on the Acer A500 and very happy I did. I got the 16g and threw a 32g micro SD in it that I already had. It has USB, micro USB, HDMI out and it looks damn good. It came with Honeycomb 3.1 but already upgraded to 3.2. If you decide you want a keyboard for it you can get a bluetooth one or use the USB.

jon4pres 12-29-2011 6:02 PM

Does anyone know when the transformer prime goes on sale?

diamonddad 12-29-2011 11:37 PM

Its available now but hard to get. Amazon is sold out.

jon4pres 12-30-2011 9:09 AM

^ and none of them are selling for $499. It doesn't interest me to much at $650.

deuce 01-01-2012 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jon4pres (Post 1723459)
^ and none of them are selling for $499. It doesn't interest me to much at $650.

Agreed..... Wonder when they will actually be available at MSRP. I think I will buy a tablet in the next month or 2, if these become available, I will need to decide if it will be this or the iPad2.

jon4pres 01-01-2012 5:54 PM

I went to best buy tonight to check out what they had and they had sold out of almost every tablet in the store. The salesman recommended that I wait for the Prime without me even mentioning it.

diamonddad 01-04-2012 4:24 PM

Its definitely worth waiting as I am sure supply will exceed demand within a couple of months.

A friend of mine is currently suggesting 1) dumb phone and 2) smart tablet as the way to go.

What do you think? If you have a tablet do you still want a smart phone?

I guess having both is not a problem -- use the phone when you want small and you use the tablet when you want big.

magic 01-05-2012 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamonddad (Post 1724114)
Its definitely worth waiting as I am sure supply will exceed demand within a couple of months.

A friend of mine is currently suggesting 1) dumb phone and 2) smart tablet as the way to go.

What do you think? If you have a tablet do you still want a smart phone?

I guess having both is not a problem -- use the phone when you want small and you use the tablet when you want big.

I've been kinda playing with tablets and phones for a few weeks. I really like having GPS/Nav/Maps on a tablet for car use. Not all tablets have GPS built in. So an option is a cheap phone with GPS and use that phone as a GPS puck (TetherGPS works great for this). I'm currently using my smart phone as a my GPS puck as I get data to the tablet via WiFi tether too. This was very handy while doing some holiday road trips. I'm digging on this set up so much that I have 2 Kindle Fire's, one is slated for car use only. Right now I'm trying to sort out how and where to best mount it. I can also display real time car data via OBD II dongle (car geek fun) and that's cool too.

I'm starting to like the idea of a smart tablet, or a tablet with 3G/4G data connection, bluetooth, and GPS in it. But.... I need a smart phone, I use mine for work way to much. I really don't want to pay for an other data plan for a tablet, so I'll just tether mine. I always have my phone on my anyways.

phatboypimp 01-05-2012 2:57 PM

Something to keep in mind is that Verizon is supposed to offer data plan sharing between devices in 2012.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/07/verizo...y-end-of-2012/

magic 01-05-2012 3:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatboypimp (Post 1724309)
Something to keep in mind is that Verizon is supposed to offer data plan sharing between devices in 2012.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/07/verizo...y-end-of-2012/

Tether with a proxy in the mean time ;)

diamonddad 01-05-2012 11:58 PM

OK. That is cool that a smartphone can provide the cell based DATA connection to the tablet. Is this wired or wireless (bluetooth)?

wakeworld 01-06-2012 9:25 AM

I just figured out how to use my Atrix for tethering for both my laptop and my Xoom tablet using PDAnet. Works as a regular internet connection with the laptop, but it's a little more restrictive with the tablet. Some apps work and some don't see the internet connection. For example, the email client doesn't work, but Gmail does. The browser works, so that's the most important thing.

With the laptop, I'm wired because my computer doesn't have Bluetooth. With the Xoom, I use Bluetooth.

wakeworld 01-06-2012 9:31 AM

My Motorola Atrix has the capability of plugging into the back of their Motorola Atrix laptop so that you can use the phone like a laptop (that runs Android). This seems fairly useless to me. What I'd like to see is a "shell" tablet that allows you to plug your phone into the back and uses your phone as the brain, data connection, etc. That way you share the dataplan, you don't have to sync the two devices, you don't have to carry two devices (because it's really one device when it's plugged in) and you can still do everything you would have been able to do with two separate processors and two separate devices. Am I crazy to think this should already be on the market? Maybe it is.

magic 01-06-2012 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamonddad (Post 1724391)
OK. That is cool that a smartphone can provide the cell based DATA connection to the tablet. Is this wired or wireless (bluetooth)?

many options. you can do USB tethering or wireless. when I do wireless I use WiFi since not all other devices have active bluetooth radios. you basically set the phone up as a wireless access point. you can make it public or lock it down. cool since you can tether many devices to it via WiFi if needed. on my Android phone I rooted the device and installed a ROM with Wifi tethering built in, I'm also messing around with an app called Wifi Tether for this too. simply because it allows me to create the kinda of short cut I want to turn it off and on.

this is easy to do with Android, harder on other OS. carriers don't like it either as they want to charge you an additional fee for tethering.

jon4pres 01-06-2012 12:13 PM

Well I needed mine for work so I just got the old transformer. This thing is great. I am not sure what the prime is going to do better.

I set up my contracts and can fill them out and sign them. It is working great so far.

I can see the need for a wireless plan with one though. You can do anything with them while connected to the internet but without the web they are handicapped with functions.

magic 01-06-2012 5:34 PM

2 Attachment(s)
All this tablet talk got me to move ahead with little project. Finally home-brewed a holder for my Kindle Fire to use in the car.

This one is running a beta ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich). I'm using TetherGPS to my phone's GPS data over to it, and then Google Maps/Nav. Once Bluetooth is sorted out for the KF's, I'll be able to run my car's OBD-II data to it. Do that today on my phone via bluetooth wireless dongle from the OBD-II port. You can get all of the car's senor data, plus lots of trip information. Fun to muck about with on road trips.

I'm still sorting out placement and angles, but this home fab deal works a lot better than the couple of off the shelf holders I've tried.


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