New Tablet

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
My computer has been down and my iPhone went South on me and had to be sent off to be repaired/replaced (I was given some old flip phone) . The wife purchased me a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.8.0 ( I am a huge fanboy of Samsung products ) for Christmas and given it to me early a couple of days ago and I absolutely love that thing . And after adding a 64 gb Micro SD card I have all the memory I need . I would be on it posting now but it needed to be charged up as I am constantly using it . My only complaint is there is no flash for the camera but I almost never use my iPhone camera as I have a very nice digital camera that takes out of this world pictures .

I debated on an iPad or Kindle Fire also but after using my Sister-in-law's iPad and Mother's Fire I knew the Galaxy Tab was the direction I was going .

My next phone will be a Samsung Galaxy .

So , who has a tablet and which one do you own ?
 

devlin

Laus Deo
I have a Toshiba Thrive 7 and LOVE IT! I have it with me at all times. I found so many uses for it I use it from wake to sleep and I am 100% serious. It is my alarm clock to get up, I listen to my podcasts, radio shows, etc, my agenda calendar, mp3 player, kindle reader, portable web browser, camera, free phone when near hotspots, and due to tinitus I fall asleep with an earphone in my ear with a talk show playing quietly so I can get to sleep.... This evening I used it to take notes at our Masters class.

I am preparing for a complete take over by utilizing the bluetooth technology to enable me to utilize an external keyboard and mouse, and us my micro HDMI port to dock with my 42" tv and make it a home PC when needed. I have a computer in our house that is our server that will handle the storage issues..... ;-)

I love my tablet.. on the downside Toshiba discontinued them... the closest thing to it is the Asus MemoPad 7. Note neither the Asus nor my Toshiba has cell capability they are strictly wifi devices...... For the rare times I really need a cell I have a tracfone. I haven't added time since last year....
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
I was wondering about using my Galaxy Tab as a phone (as there is an app for that FREE) when in a hot spot . Does it work well on WiFi ?
 

devlin

Laus Deo
I was wondering about using my Galaxy Tab as a phone (as there is an app for that FREE) when in a hot spot . Does it work well on WiFi ?
Of course it will depend on the wifi network you are on. Some public hotspots restrict the type of traffic. Our local Staples killed the VoIP capability so I can't be there and make a wifi call any more. You wifi calling software can make a big difference as well. I say if it's a free app, go for it and give it a try! I've used mine to get me out of a few jams when my cell was dead. Now I always seek a hotspot if convenient and try my tablet before making a cell call that will cost me. ;-)

p.s. some apps such as mine (GrooVe IP) that utilizes Google Voice will not do incoming calls via wifi.
 

2SONDAD

Husband, father, son, Mason.
iPad mini for myself and my wife and we love it since we both use iPhones. Just got a 5s as my trade in price was almost equal to my purchase price. My boss just bought an iPad Air and loves it, but he switched from a 1st gen ipad.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
I have an iPhone and it serves it's purpose but I really prefer an Android OS over Apple's iOS . I could have went for a Kindle Fire and rooted it to get rid of Amazon's proprietary interface and make it a pure Android but that would have voided the warranty . I hate the Kindle Fire interface .
 
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2SONDAD

Husband, father, son, Mason.
I have been toying with rooting my Fire, which I have as well but they say the battery life is horrible when you do.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
I haven't heard that (not saying it is not true) . I'll ask my lodge brother about his Fire's battery life , he rooted his and loves it .
 

devlin

Laus Deo
I have been toying with rooting my Fire, which I have as well but they say the battery life is horrible when you do.
I suppose it would depend on what you replaced it with. Some OS's or version of OS's are better at power management than others. The netbook I used until March came w/ Windows 7 but we don't use Windows so I loaded Ubuntu 10.4 and was able to get about 4.5 hours out of it, I decided to try Mint Linux and the battery life plummeted.

Keep in mind all Kindle Fire really uses is a modified version of Android OS. I actually use some apps I get from Kindle's app store on my Toshiba Thrive running Android 4.04 a.k.a Ice Cream Sandwich.

Just my 2 cents... your mileage may differ...
 

devlin

Laus Deo
All I know is Groove IP that uses Google Voice does not do incoming calls. I don't know if other apps that use Google Voice can or not. Normally if you have a Google Voice number it is associated with a land line or maybe by now a cell number.

If you call my Google Voice number it will ring my home phone. I had set it up so if my family in PA wanted to call me (in NH) it would be a toll free call for them because the Google voice number was local number for them and it transfered the call to my home land line phone. I imagine if I tinkered with things long enough I could likely write something to bounce the call to my tablet but I've not felt the need to go through the work to try it...... yet.
 

2SONDAD

Husband, father, son, Mason.
I suppose it would depend on what you replaced it with. Some OS's or version of OS's are better at power management than others. The netbook I used until March came w/ Windows 7 but we don't use Windows so I loaded Ubuntu 10.4 and was able to get about 4.5 hours out of it, I decided to try Mint Linux and the battery life plummeted.

Keep in mind all Kindle Fire really uses is a modified version of Android OS. I actually use some apps I get from Kindle's app store on my Toshiba Thrive running Android 4.04 a.k.a Ice Cream Sandwich.

Just my 2 cents... your mileage may differ...

I was referring to rooting it with pure Android. As far as Ubuntu goes, I switched to it from Windows and loved it until they went with the launcher or whatever it was called. I switched to Mint and I am a convert. I noticed zero change in battery usage and Im shocked it didn't improve. Windows being the memory hog that it is. Mint starts in less than 20 secs and shuts down in 4 seconds. The only complaint I have, us the lack of automatic upgrades.
 

devlin

Laus Deo
I was referring to rooting it with pure Android. As far as Ubuntu goes, I switched to it from Windows and loved it until they went with the launcher or whatever it was called. I switched to Mint and I am a convert. I noticed zero change in battery usage and Im shocked it didn't improve. Windows being the memory hog that it is. Mint starts in less than 20 secs and shuts down in 4 seconds. The only complaint I have, us the lack of automatic upgrades.
I put Mint 13 on my wife's (formerly mine) 10.1" Aspire netbook only experiences battery drain but excellent performance (I think I can stop the drain by making it drop the processor speeds to 133Ghz when on battery. I put it on my Lenovo and it would randomly lock it up or shut down like someone pulled the battery when it progressed to doing it multiple times a day I gave up. I figured I could iron it out if I dug into the scripts but I haven't tinkered in that crap for a few years now and since Ubuntu seemed to work fine with the Lenovo I switched back. I killed Unity and went to classic Gnome... I really dislike the Unity desktop on anything but the old 8.9" netbooks and tablets.

When we replace my wife's kindle I am going to root it and play around. I'm interested to see if I can move other OS's on besides Android.... The firmware, I know on my old Archos tablet I was able to get linux on it but the distro was abandoned before it left alpha so I just left it at Gingerbread Android.
 

Windrider

Plus-sized tuxedo model
I play with computers for a living so you would think I would have the latest and greatest of everything. You would be wrong. I am on an old Asus a200 10.2 tablet now. I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. I run Windows xp on most of my computers because of the software I use. My playtime desktop is Ubuntu. I have a couple of Raspberry Pi machines I use for developing an embedded system I'm working on.
 

devlin

Laus Deo
I play with computers for a living so you would think I would have the latest and greatest of everything. You would be wrong. I am on an old Asus a200 10.2 tablet now. I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. I run Windows xp on most of my computers because of the software I use. My playtime desktop is Ubuntu. I have a couple of Raspberry Pi machines I use for developing an embedded system I'm working on.
Hey there! My "hi tech" phone is a Motorola 376g flip phone lol. I have been hoping once I get stable again to grab a couple Raspberry Pi systems to tinker with. I may have a question or two for you once I do. :)
 

Windrider

Plus-sized tuxedo model
Hey there! My "hi tech" phone is a Motorola 376g flip phone lol. I have been hoping once I get stable again to grab a couple Raspberry Pi systems to tinker with. I may have a question or two for you once I do. :)
Well, you still have my phone number, I hope.

I'm using the Raspberry Pi to be the user interface for an atomic clock that's just about to hit the market. It has been a fascinating project. The first problem we had was how to set a clock that's more accurate than anything outside of a lab. The solution was using GPS signals. Since people frown upon drilling holes in upper story office building glass windows, we needed an alternative to GPS so we use NTP as a second choice.

The Pi handles the user interface and the NTP stuff, eventually becoming an NTP server. I

I made the poor little thing a headless server with DNS, dhcp, apache, and a WiFi hotspot. You get near it with your smartphone and see a wireless network, enter the passphrase, and you are brought to a web site that gives you control of all the clock's configuration options (you would be surprised at how many there are).

All this on a $25 computer the size of an Altoids tin. I love Linux :)
 

devlin

Laus Deo
Well, you still have my phone number, I hope.

I'm using the Raspberry Pi to be the user interface for an atomic clock that's just about to hit the market. It has been a fascinating project. The first problem we had was how to set a clock that's more accurate than anything outside of a lab. The solution was using GPS signals. Since people frown upon drilling holes in upper story office building glass windows, we needed an alternative to GPS so we use NTP as a second choice.

The Pi handles the user interface and the NTP stuff, eventually becoming an NTP server. I

I made the poor little thing a headless server with DNS, dhcp, apache, and a WiFi hotspot. You get near it with your smartphone and see a wireless network, enter the passphrase, and you are brought to a web site that gives you control of all the clock's configuration options (you would be surprised at how many there are).

All this on a $25 computer the size of an Altoids tin. I love Linux :)
Yes, defiantly still have your number lol.
Sounds like quite a project you have been working on. Now that I am working once more I am hoping to cap off a few experiments I was hoping to do with long distance wifi. Some how my tablet got broken on day 1 of new job. I left it on the left side of my desk, came back and it was on a shelf in the hutch.... so replacing that will be put a head of a Pi. All in due time.... It will be interesting to see what I can do with one once I get there though :)
 
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