[ale] Cheap tablets?

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

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

>On 6/19/2013 20:58, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>> 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.
>>
>[snip]
>>
>> 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.
>
>
>I already have two monitors on my main machine (plus a couple other 
>monitors above those for other machines) so the tablet would make a 
>virtual mini-display for the desk for the minor things, saving my 
>regular screens for my big tasks.  Actually it would be small enough I 
>could just stick it to the wall behind the desk.  I could control it 
>remotely if I needed to interact with it.
>
>I'd probably just replace the ROM on the unit and install Cyanogenmod. 
>But if it's reasonably stock Android I can side load software onto it, 
>don't really need the play store (although that would be handled if I 
>had Cyanogenmod).  I'm not afraid of tinkering with it, I just didn't 
>want something that was physically falling apart, overheating, or doing
>
>something else that made it completely unusable.  I'm not planning on 
>watching videos with it, just running Firefox or Chrome and some 
>home-screen widgets which is why I figured a rock-bottom priced unit 
>would work.  Big Lots is currently selling a 7 inch 800x600 tablet for 
>$70 with JellyBean, capacitive screen, 1.2 GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and
>a few gig of storage.

You almost tempt me to buy one again.  That sounds like a decent unit.  I didn't test the one I had for any period of time.  Can't speak to issues like overheating and batteries, etc.  A gigahertz and a gigabyte is a good combo.  That should run fairly snappy.  It may be a single core processor, but should work fine even if it is.  They also have cheap cases for around $ 8.

I like to run the Dolphin browser on my tablet, which is a bit more full featured than firefox.  I brought up a similar thread several months ago and there was some discussion about how to use the remote screen as an extension of your main one, but I don't remember the title or the date.  Let us know how it works out if you get one.  I carry my tablet with me where ever I go, so I haven't used it for an aux screen as you're discussing.  One other limit of cheap tablets to keep in mind is memory.  It probably has 4 gb of storage.  You may run out of that quickly if you want to store photos, documents, music, videos, audio books, or podcasts.  I'm probably using 25 GB total on my tablet for some of those purposes.  If it didn't have an sd card slot in addition to the internal memory, I'd be toast for what I use it for.

Sincerely,

Ron



--

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Ron Frazier
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