Saturday 1 May 2010

Tablet Pc - tablet pc, irobot


From the top; The tablet was delivered in 8 business days, which I would say for standard shipping, is decent, but not impressive. Once received, a quick inspection revealed the speaker cover was damaged. Other than that, no functionality issues. I've had the pad for a little over a week now, and still no issues so far. The battery life is ok, averaging about 2-3 hours of continuous use. Also, you have to re-enable WI-FI every time you restart the tablet. Note. This tablet does not come equipped with the Android Marketplace. Now, don't let this be a turn off, because there is a simple work around for this issue. This tablet is equipped with a MicroSD card slot. If you save .apk files on the memory card from your computer, the tablet will be able to recognize and open/install them. A quick Google search will reveal many websites in which one can acquire such apps ".apk" files. In this sense, you don't really need the marketplace. I would also highly recommend installing Astro File Manager, to expedite the process. Another issue I ran into was getting the WI-FI to work. The solution, is to go into your router's settings and change the WEP settings to "SHARED" rather than "OPEN". Usually, to access your router you would open your internet browser window and type 192.168.1.1 or something similar, and log in using the user name and password you created to set it up ... "Contact your service provider if you have problems doing this." Now, back on the subject of the tablet, after testing various file types, I have concluded that it open nearly any format that you throw at it. I also strongly recommend downloading Adobe pdf for android, if you plan on viewing .PDF's. The touch screen is actually pretty decent for the price. If you are patient with the tablet, it will function flawlessly. Android is an ever expanding universe of applications. If you are an iphone user, you will quickly find that many of the applications you have grown to love either exists also in android form, or has a similar counterpart for the later. Conclusion, for $240, this tablet is a reasonable deal. The build quality is also decent, for it being equipped with a plastic shell. It is lightweight, sleek, and the 10.2" screen, is large enough to actually enjoy videos, although, the video playback can be a bit choppy at times on high definition videos. I would definitely recommend this product to the people looking for a cheaper alternative to the IPAD. I hope this helps someone. Zenithink 10" Touchscreen Android 2.1 Tablet (ePad)

UPDATE 10/17/2010:

Installed the firmware 1014 - Good news. Android Market is now working for downloads as well. This firmware now includes a few more applications like Contacts and Places. I downloaded and installed the following free apps from the Market. These are highly recommended.

Advanced Task Killer Free, ASTRO (a must), Dictionary.com, Music Downloader Pro, TuneIn Radio.



UPDATE 10/03/2010:

Just installed the 0929 firmware (available from [...] under Company News -> Latest Software).



Good news:

. Wi-Fi now seems more stable.

. Android Market is now included along side with the following apps :

Alarm Clock, Bluetooth, Browser, Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Gmail, DevTools, Email, Gallery, Maps, Market, Music, Navigation, News And Weather, Notepad, IoFile Manager, RealPlayer, Settings, Spare Parts, Superuser, Talk, TaskKiller, You Tube

. Adobe PDF reader is included in the firmware package. You need to install it. There is also another downloadable package with various applications.

. Gmail works fine. Emails are notified when they come to your inbox (without interrupting the current running application).



Bad News:

. Market connects but could not download any apps so far.

. Adobe PDF reader crashes from time to time.



Overall every firmware is getting better and the device becoming more usable. However, I still do not recommend it to the casual user. Good luck.

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I have been using this tablet for almost a week now. Definitely not an iPad replacement and not targeted for a casual user. It does use Android 2.1 OS. (Yes, Android is based on Linux kernel). It is almost unusable out of the box. So I browsed the internet and found a few sites with the latest firmware (0827). (See [...] for instructions). Once I installed the latest firmware, it become much more usable. I did not try installing Android Market, but it can be done.



Pros:

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. Cheap and an OK device for testing Android applications

. It has 2 USB (1 standard and 1 mini) and 1 MicroSD ports

. Easy to install user-developed applications on it if you are using the Android SDK and Eclipse tools.

. Battery life is acceptable (3-5 hours)



Cons:

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. Not much support from the manufacturers. Almost unusable out of the box.

. As another reviewer mentioned - WiFi does not stay on for long. I usually download apps to my PC and transfer them to the tablet using an USB stick.

. The screen is not very responsive and many android apps are not designed for the HD screen. So it is very difficult to scroll up/down without selecting and opening list items.



Let me know if you have any questions. - Tablet - Irobot - Tablet Pc - Touch Screen'


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