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Mobility Advice
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Helmut
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May 11, 2012 - 2:12 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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A sleek new Asus tablet sits on my desk. One problem with it, (or any tablet for that matter) is that it can't take pictures of itself.

It's an investment for getting some of the applications I've developed over the years out into the App world. As Tap readers, you all will be forced to buy them, and they wont be cheap. No Steam sales for You!

But I've also looked at some of the apps in the thing. There's a kindle book reader, which isn't very prominently displayed. I actually had to stumble upon it entirely. The main reading app is an Asus Library and it appears to use an ebook store called txtr. Anyone have any experience with these? Kindle requires some form of Amazon account.

I don't have a google account. I think I've read about being unable to erase all forms of personalization on the tablets when you go to sell them. I expect if this works out to have rather a number of these things come and go over the next few years and wonder if it's better to not use real names/information on the things?

There's a bunch of stuff through google. I guess being the company that is trying to scan every book around means you should have a solid position in the e-reading space.

My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude

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Toger
Somewhere, out there...
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May 11, 2012 - 8:53 pm
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I use my tablet (iPad) mainly for surfing the web, email, watching videos (TV and movies) and games.
Favorite apps:
Netflix
Yelp or AroundMe for new restaurants
TV Guide
Kindle app ( which I don't use since I've got a Kindle)
Avadon, Where's my water, Swordingo, LostWinds (games)
Just last week, I rented Adentures of Tintin thru iTunes to watch while flying to a friend's place.

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Yapette
Tangentistan
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May 12, 2012 - 5:51 pm
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Congrats, Helmut. Excellent choice. Especially as the Transformer Prime in Amethyst is the very same android tablet that *I* own. thumb-up smile

Learned Android tablet skillz by hacking a Nook Color with CyanogenMod and fooling with apps and stuff. Pre--ordered the Prime on the day Asus formally announced and lurked at this xda-dev forum since then. Be forewarned, you'll learn about the massive drama associated with this device even before it reached users' hands.

To download from the Play Store (recently renamed from Google Apps Store), I think you need a Google account. I use gmail so for me it wasn't a biggie, but I also go into settings and unlink/disallow/remove/fictionalize/etc all personal info I can. You'll also need to link a credit card (I think), but you don't have to spend a penny.

My fav app is Pulse, a news reader.

Most of my apps are freebies or demos or bought during Google's Tenth Anniversary when for 10 days, 10 apps a day were 10 cents ea.

If you can tolerate Amazon's intrusiveness (wants to run in background so I use an app stopper), installing their app will allow you to download their free app of the day. Again, be advised, Amazon's app version (tweaked for kindle fire I'm assuming) is not the same as the official version on the Play Store so updates must be done by Amazon (not always timely). However, it's a great way to try out full apps for free.

(at this point I'll whisper in teeny text that I also own an ipad3 - purchased when I broke+fractured+tore ligaments in my right wrist and was in danger of losing my sanity. Compared to MD/hospital bills after surgery to put in a plate, an iPad costs pffft! And yes, my sanity was saved...in fact, much to my dismay, I love the iPad, due to superior games/apps)

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Toger
Somewhere, out there...
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May 14, 2012 - 11:17 am
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I should have mentioned that most of the apps I use are free with games usually the exception.

Yap, how was your trip to... um... SE Asia?

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Helmut
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May 14, 2012 - 12:12 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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Thanks y'all. Yap, do you own anything that's in an unmodified state? Do visitors to your house dare touch stuff, like say, put toast in the toaster, or is that home of the death ray?

I'm wondering about pros/cons of the book DRM world. I kind of have a handle on the basics here, but who has the biggest/selection of books available? I'm guessing Amazon/kindle, but (obviously barring apple) then what? 

Netflix Canada offers the shittiest selection, for some reason. A bunch of low value cast off films that must be cheap to license. We had it for two months and then the selection was spent. Haven't signed up for the wallet portion of Google play yet anyway.

I've downloaded a few free games. The thing has a quad core processor, I don't understand how the battery can last 10 hours. Granted, not while playing games, but the device has no active cooling and doesn't heat up. It makes me wonder what exactly the GPU/CPU is doing making all that heat.

I played Temple Run for a short while. This notion of tilting the tablet (and in general, accelerometer sensing) as another form of input is really neat. The difference between the tablet and an emulator is quite striking.

My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude

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Yapette
Tangentistan
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May 14, 2012 - 1:22 pm
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Helmut, if something can be modified, I do. Why leave well enough alone when twiddling offers the chance of even better? (Oh wait, EDIT: in the NC's case, since I was starting from android:zero having no cell phone, smart or otherwise, learning how to install/set-up/use CyanogenMod was actually a senility check....did/do I still have my mental mojo?wink)

Calibre is your friend. Especially if you happen to stumble upon book files in the p2p dimension. Converts book files (like to MOBI so you can read with the kindle app) and also loads 'em into your device if you're so inclined although you can also do that manually via pc/drag'n'drop.

Toger, this last trip nearly did me in (life-wise). Cast removed day before departure, could not pick up a fork let alone haul suitcase and hand luggage with my major hand/arm. 2 hrs @ IAH + 3.5 hrs to LAX + 5 hrs wait + 14 hrs to Taipei + 3 hrs wait + 5 hrs to Kuala Lumpur + 1 hr drive to hotel. Followed by two week in the jungles of Borneo (island of, Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak).

Repeat on way back + adjust to 11 hrs. jet lag. I am too old for this! Next trip might be a COSMOS bus around Florida, no lie. Flight to Orlando & 1 hr. time difference! Besides, only place we haven't been yet in our fav part of the world is Burma....likewise to hell and back far away. We are also trying to muster enthusiasm for Central/South American but failing so far.

Any typos and mistakes please excuse as I am attempting to master a Logitech trackball mouse bought yesterday in despair after two damned months without* gaming. mad I can use a mouse but I figure the swelling & pain after-effects are counter-productive to ever reaching full use of my g-damned mouse hand in this lifetime.  sigh

 

* that is assuming one does not count Hidden Object games on an ipad as "gaming"

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Helmut
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May 14, 2012 - 3:26 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
Forum Posts: 795
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Calibre is a free and open source project. hearts2

 

Installed. Looks awesome. Must digest.

My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude

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Steerpike
Subtropical Southeastern Michigan
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May 14, 2012 - 3:39 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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Glad to have you back Yapette! We missed you. I hope you were able to enjoy your trip. I dislike traveling, people, and warm weather; I could not trot the globe as you do. We'll want a thread with pictures, if that gimpy hand of yours was able to take any! (I tease, I tease)

I'm considering modding my Kindle Fire. The device means well, but was released too early. Constant crashes, unnecessary functional limitations, shortcomings in the touch interface... I think the Fire 2 would be a better investment for those on the fence. Meanwhile, modding mine to run Ice Cream Sandwich would be a fun task.

I'm excited for the upcoming Windows tablets, myself. I had an Asus Eee Slate for a while, and I liked it, but the girth and battery life did me in. I would love a tablet-optimized system capable of running all my usual apps (including the Adobe stuff - doesn't need to run well, but I'd like it to run, just in case) that is small, comparatively lightweight, and offers a day-of-work-with-plenty-of-idle-time battery power.

Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.

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Toger
Somewhere, out there...
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May 14, 2012 - 5:58 pm
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Yap, I cannot believe that you even tried to globe-trot with your major arm/hand just out of a cast! If'n it'd been me, I'd have just crumpled into a ball in the middle of the airport and cried.

Battery life on my iPad is crazy good. Watching streaming videos for several hours barely puts a dent in it. Playing games will eat battery life but not nearly as fast as my phone likes to gobble battery juice. For plane travel, I d/l directly from iTunes and park it on the hard drive thus circumventing the airlines shitty wi-fi.

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Yapette
Tangentistan
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May 14, 2012 - 9:57 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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Helmut, for free moving images check out (apps at the Play Store):

TED

Smithsonian

Discovery Channel (ymmv)

And if seeking really esoteric stuff (not porn), dig through the archives at University of Pennsylvania (not a clue how I discovered this source): http://archive.org/details/UPMAA_films

 

P.S. I found it impossible to pass the humanity test posting on a tablet - icons won't drag & drop

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geggis
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May 17, 2012 - 6:07 am
Member Since: September 26, 2009
Forum Posts: 1435
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You people and your... your FANCY THINGS. The only mobile devices I have are a DS Lite in an old sock and a mobile phone worth £9.95 brand new (it has buttons, a screen and everything).

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Helmut
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May 17, 2012 - 1:39 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
Forum Posts: 795
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It is a fancy thing and I'm ashamed. It is simply astonishing how powerful it is in conjunction with how long the batteries last.

I've been banging around with this physics simulation thing for years and years. To compare, my four year old laptop can crunch through a million iterations of 10 bodies interacting in 8.5 seconds, my i5 760 does the same job in 4.5 seconds and the tablet does the same work in 15 seconds all the while doing animation at 60 fps (the other devices are purely crunching numbers) . I just find that astonishing given that the Intel chip probably runs 240 watts of power and a hair dryer or two of cooling while the tablet generates very very little heat. The battery wont last 10 hours whilst doing simulations, particularly if I were to enhance it to use multiple cores, but the devices economy is wicked.

My Dark Souls single player sensibilities are protected by a +10 GfWL Firewall of Ineptitude

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Yapette
Tangentistan
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May 17, 2012 - 2:10 pm
Member Since: April 10, 2009
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Geggis, ha! My preferred covers for electronics (DS-XL, camera, video cam, MP3 player, etc) are socks! 'Cept mine are new socks from dollar stores. I am forever searching for patterns that strike my fancy - sew pouches from cuffs, sometimes the toe or the whole sock.

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kaythomas
Somewhere in the frozen tundra
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May 30, 2012 - 10:16 pm
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Now I finally know why I feel an affinity for Steerpike beyond the fact that he and Mr Lipid making this whole place happen. 

Steerpike said.........I dislike traveling, people, and warm weather; I could not trot the globe as you do.

Yes, this is me. My brother and sister-in-law have tried so hard to get me to go on their trips.  Africa (3 times), Amazon, India and Nepal,  Machu Pichu (?), Galopogus (?), Borneo.   The only one that tempted me was Antartica but when I called my pulmonary specialist he said,  "Kay, you will not, will not go to Antartica."   That seemed to shut down that idea.

This is not a sad thing.   For 25 years,  I owned a small cabin with my own private lake in Wisconsin in the middle of 65 wooded acres that was surrounded by another 180 wooded acres that was nestled up against a state forest.   I made this my world where I could hike and watch nature being nature and changing.   This was my travels.  I loved it.   It was exactly what I wanted and needed.

Kay

Imagine life with no hypothetical situations. 

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geggis
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June 8, 2012 - 5:47 pm
Member Since: September 26, 2009
Forum Posts: 1435
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kaythomas said
For 25 years,  I owned a small cabin with my own private lake in Wisconsin in the middle of 65 wooded acres that was surrounded by another 180 wooded acres that was nestled up against a state forest.   I made this my world where I could hike and watch nature being nature and changing.   This was my travels.  I loved it.   It was exactly what I wanted and needed.
Kay

 

That sounds amazing. If there's one thing I love it's peace and quiet and distance from people. I was going to say 'distance from throngs of people' but no, just people. wink

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