[ale] Cheap tablets?

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi Alex,

I like the idea you mentioned and have thought similar things.  I bought one of those 7" tablets that big lots had on special for about $ 80 at one point.  As long as you get one with a capacitive touch screen and decent resolution (NOT 640 x 480, etc.), they work well.  I was able to play youtube videos on it and do basic tasks just fine.  I would be inclined to put weather on it, or financial charts, remote temperature monitoring, etc.  I actually returned that unit because, A) it did not have bluetooth, B) did not have a rear facing camera (for qr codes, etc.), C) most important - did not have google programs (play store, maps, gmail, etc.)  I tried to jump through some hoops to add the google stuff, but it never worked well.  If you understand the limitations and don't expect more than the device can do, it can be useful.  Getting a 2nd 23 / 24 inch 1080p monitor is also a good option and putting lots of display windows on it can perform a similar function.  You can get that 2nd monitor for the cost of 2.5 tablets.  I also had the idea to mount one of these tablets by the door in each room to act as a touch control panel and information center, but haven't had the time or money to pursue it.  If I hadn't needed the features that I returned the tablet for the lack of, it would have been a pretty nice machine.

For what it's worth, I've managed (once) to get Mint 13 working with ati cards and drivers with triple monitors with all screens cloned and (at another time) with double monitors with the screens different.  That was not easy, and, when I added another video card, I lost that configuration (screens came up blank) and haven't fixed it.  They're no longer blank, but they're all cloned.

I'm not slamming Mint and Ubuntu (too much), but, Windows flawlessly and instantly recognized my 3 monitor configuration (after loading the ati drivers).  It took me 2 minutes to drag the monitors to their proper order on the screen and select the primary display for menus and icons.  Linux was at least 10 times harder, and was so fragile it didin't survive the addition of another video card.  I had to search blogs for 2 hours to figure out how to ctl-alt-f1 to a terminal and reset the ati driver.  There is NO excuse for this.  This would be well beyond the capabilities of most average users.  This type of thing is exactly why Linux is not my daily driver for my main machine.  (End of mini rant.)

One other minimal reason I returned the tablet is that I didn't want another device to maintain, configure, and backup.  Granted, a tablet doesn't take too much attention, but it's not none.

Sincerely,

Ron




Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:

>Anyone using one of the cheap Android tablets that you can pick up from
>
>Walmart, Big Lots, etc.?  I had a crazy idea, if it was cheap enough,
>to 
>use it as an auxiliary screen for my desktop where I can do things like
>
>run tickers/crawlers, micro web pages that refresh every so often, and 
>that sort of thing.  It wouldn't be a daily driver sort of tablet (I'll
>
>get a Nexus or Galaxy for that; this thing would stay plugged in
>sitting 
>on the desk) but a little 7-inch screen full of crawls would offload 
>that stuff from my main screens.
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--

Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
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Ron Frazier
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