My new Android thingy

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Well, Thursday I came home early from working in too-hot conditions.  My health is not what it was, it seems, and my tolerance for 'teh hot' is not what it was when I was younger*.

But, driving 5 miles in slow traffic with the A/C cranked to high, I cooled off enough to make a quick stop at my local K-mart-- to check on my raincheck. 

No, they did not have any of the items in stock, but they did have a pretty cool E-reader for a measly $100US.  It has an active-matrix TFT color screen aproximately 7" (aprox 180 mm), space for an SD card, a chicklet "keyboard" for notes, and the usual E-book formats supported.   Had I not already purchased a Kindle, I would have jumped on this in a heartbeat.  And a good friend was in the market for an e-reader (our toadfish Aphos) so naturally I called him to let him know about it.

He replies, he had already been to another K-mart (Sand Springs-- town nearby) and purchased the Augen Gentouch 78 Android Tablet device-- and they had some left in stock.

As it turns out, this is the exact item I had my raincheck for-- it was on sale for $150US, but naturally the K-mart nearest to me never had any delivered.  Neither did the other one in Tulsa-- but the nearby small town of Sand Springs had 3... imagine that?

So I quickly opened my G1 (android smart phone), went to the web, keyed into google "kmart sand springs" hit "search" and viola-- due to google's localization feature (which asks the phone where it's at, geographically, and tries to localize your results).  The first entry was a "white pages" and map of the Sand Springs K-mart-- replete with a click-able phone number. Which, naturally, I clicked-- which put that number, including the area code, into my phone's dialer.  Clicking on the ubiquitous green "dial" button called the number.

I'll skip over the issues with the poor phone skills at the SS k-mart, but eventually I got to someone who knew what K-mart was selling, confirmed they had one, and was willing to hold it for an hour or so until I got there....

....

I stopped at the house (not out of the way) to change to my car, and change to cooler clothes-- my car's A/C is a tad better at sub-cooling than my truck's, and I needed to bring my core temps down...

.... anyway, I arrived at the Sand Springs K-mart, and after some not inconsiderable effort, managed to hook up with the most excellent woman who had earlier taken my call (turns out she'd been on a break-- cannot fault her for that).

They had one left-- but still new in the box, so I bought it, together with a $17 4gig microSD card to put in it, and a "universal" cell charger (which turns out not to work with the tablet, but is still useful enough, I'll keep it).   Total, including the incompatable car charger, $200US.

Took it home, charged it fully overnight, and began playing with it.

It's an android tablet, with a resistive touch screen-- hint, by resistive, you can use a stylus (a plus, to me).  The screen is huge, compared to most smart phones, at roughly 7" (180mm).   It has the android-required 4 "hard" buttons on the back (I wish they'd added front-facing labels, as I frequently mix them up-- a fixable problem with my labeling machine).

A dedicated power button is on the side, next to a 2.5mm stereo headphones jack (pity-- the US standard is 3.5mm, but adapters can be had).  Has a mini-USB jack for communications to a PC/Mac, the power input (9v @ 2 amps, uncommon, but possible) and a microSD slot (documentation is inconsistent-- some places indicates 16gig is max, other places allow up to 32gig-- I suspect the "max" is based on what's available, rather than the SD specs they implemented:  anything over 2gig is "SDHC" compatible, meaning it'll take anything currently available so far).

Included is a non-replaceable LiIon rechargeable battery with A/C mains recharger, a pretty nice case (box claims it's leather, and it certainly smells like leather-- which is a mild surprise-- interior lining is soft felt-like cloth.  Strong magnets keep it closed in an overlapping pattern, which expose the end panel, allowing recharging and/or USB while the case is closed).

Two additional cords are included:  a 'standard' mini-USB to male USB cable, suitable for plugging into a PC's usb jack and the device's mini jack, and an odd one:  mini on one end, and female jack on the other, implying the device can act as a USB hoast, i.e. a USB mouse and/or keyboard could be plugged in.  This would be too cool, if true, but I've not tried that.  Most android devices cannot act as a USB host (PC, hub, etc), but always act as a USB device (thumb drive, mouse, etc).

This thing is running on Android OS, 2.1, and updates are promised on the companies' website.

The touch screen is twitchy, and although the manual states you can calibrate it (as you could with my old HTC resistive/stylus screen) following the steps in the manual goes to a dead-end, and I could not start any calibration process-- may look through Google.  But, using a blunt plastic pen (with sharp tip retracted) works quite well, in direct contrast to my capacitive G1's screen).

The first thing I did, was figure out how to connect the device's WiFi to my local secured wireless net-- pretty easy, once I learned how to force the virtual keyboard to pop-up (press and hold the dedicated "menu" key-- a built-in android feature).  Sitting in front of my main PC, with the wireless admin screen on-display, it was simple enough to key in the hash-mess of a password I'd used when setting up my wireless security.   Within seconds, I was surfing on the Gentouch.

Next, I logged in my Gmail account, giving it my Gmail password/account access-- this enabled my Google Market credentials, too-- a nice bonus.

Within seconds, the phone indicated it was syncing my Gmail account, and sure enough, after about a minute, I could see all my Gmail.  Too cool.

At 7" it is large enough to be quite workable even with the non-mobile webpages, and the device's CPU is certainly faster than on my G1.  Both devices side-by-side, both on the same WiFi network, the tablet was noticeably faster at bringing up web graphics than my G1.   Using the plastic pen/stylus was much easier on the tablet, than using the tiny trackball on the G1-- trying to "click" with my blunt finger, on the G1's (relatively) tiny screen is all-but impossible....

The tablet apparently has 256 dynamic ram, and 2gig flash ram for android's internals-- again, more than my G1.

Some issues.  I mentioned the sometimes twitchy nature of the resistive screen, and occasionally "flicking" the screen so it will scroll, instead of "selecting" an item is mildly problematic-- I expect this to settle with practice.

The USB to PC function does not appear to work with Win7.  I'll try it with WinXP, and report back.   The website has a "fix", but that would not install on Win7 64bit.  Have submitted a trouble ticket (my third-- none of which appear to have been opened, but it's only been since Thursday, and I don't expect much progress on a Friday anyhow-- who works on Friday? <smirk>)

The Android Market does not work from my secured WiFi-- will try it later, on an open, unsecured net, just to see if that's what's at issue.  Again, the website indicates they are aware of this issue, and a promised fix will appear in the downloads 'real soon now'.  Actually-- they said "within 48 hours" but that message was posted on the 27th... and it's now the 31st... apparently they use a different version of "hour" than what is standard....

I "side-loaded" my favorite app, Amazon Kindle for Android by searching google for the .APK file, which I copied (using an external microSD reader) onto the SD card, then executing it directly-- it installed just fine, and works amazingly.  Once I had logged into my Kindle app, with my Amazon credentials, I could see all my archived Amazon e-books.  I experimented by downloading the book I was currently reading on my Kindle-1, and sure enough, it Just Worked.  A bit of experimenting, and I was at my current page.  Amazing.   It's screen is bright, clear and quite legible.  I expect no eye-strain for hours of reading.  However, it is an active screen, so bright sunlight or bright lights will simply wash-out to illegible status (just like any active screen). 

Battery life seems good-- I've had this on since Thursday, and on-and-off the charger. It appears to have roughly 3 hours with the screen more or less active.  I set the screen time-out to 10 minutes, but I may change that to a smaller number.  We'll see, as the Kindle can easily override this at need, as can the pre-installed "iReader" (more on that, below).

I'll definitely want a car-charger, though, and I may hand-build a couple-- the power connector is a standard one, roughly 3mm, available at Radio Shack.  9v @ 2 amps is a bit more obscure, but can be done with some finagling.  At issue would be if I wanted genuine regulated or simply "throttled".  Most of the common adaptors handle 0.5 amps, max.  We'll see-- WalMart carries a "universal" charger that can handle the current, but I don't think it includes a 3mm tip-- again, fixable by sacrificing one of the tips I don't need, and a RadShack tip...

While I had the 4gig SD card connected to my PC, I of course went searching for stuff to load it with.  My collection of screen saver photos, of course.  The directory of "my documents" I routinely carry on my smartphone (hundreds of notes and memos I've collected over the years, from my first Palm Pilot days).  And it hit me-- why not copy the entire contents of my Kindle 1?  When I connect my kindle to my PC, the PC "sees" both drives-- so I first copied my kindle to my backup location (badly out of date, of course), then copied the entire thing onto a "documents" folder on the new SD card-- including the DRM'd files-- why not?  The whole thing, several hundred books, was less than 4 megabytes... (*sigh* my entire collection of E-books is less than 1/2 a gig.... I'm not nearly as geeky as I believe I am...    ) .   A few other odds and ends, and I was done for now.

The device's iReader is pretty slick:  it handles most e-book formats quite well.  Page turning is easy enough, and you can program this function pretty much how you like.  A flick of the finger, and the next page is shown.  I disabled all the too-cutsy page-turning animations-- who needs such things?  I'm used to a "blink-blink--new page" anyhow, and I don't even see that anymore.   I set the colors to my preference:  very light grey background, with black-black print.  Just how I like it.  For both "day" and "night" modes-- I cannot stand dark background with light lettering-- headache time!

I opened several of my non-DRM ebooks as a test-- worked flawlessly.  And as an added bonus, I could read all of my hundreds of .TXT notes/memos, too.  Although, I don't think this thing supports editing them, so I'll put on G-Notepad when the android market is fixed.  But for read-only, it Just Works.   I just realized I've not tried any of the kindle-specific books-- I expect it to be garbled-- I'll let you know.  (I have the kindle app for that, anyhow).  But I have roughly a hundred non-DRM e-books I purchased or obtained from various places, and these all work quite well on the built-in iReader app-- as better than, or perhaps superior to the Kindle app, in fact.

Point of fact, I'm going to see if I can download this from the Market, for my G1-- with an 8gig card in my G1, I could easily port all the e-books onto it, as well... something I had never even considered (tiny screen, but better than sitting and staring, or reading 3 year old magazines, while waiting...)

As a picture viewer, it's adequate-- certainly there's nothing wrong with the color, but at only 7", photos are small (compared to my 20" flatscreen, or my 34" TV....).  But it's superior to a classic 3" by 5" snapshot/print, so there you go-- this thing could suffice as a family photo album, if you like.   But at only 800mhz, it takes a while to process the several hundred photos I put on my SD card, but patience is rewarded:  you can see a thumbnail of all your photos, and can select by touching any.  Pity there lacks any meaningful sorting of the photos-- it's strictly sorted by time/date only.  I may have to see if the Market has a fix-- I've painstakingly labeled/named all my photos for proper by name sorting.

I'll report more, as I play with it more-- and I'll let you know how timely they address my 3 (currently) trouble tickets.  So far, nothing. 


Here's a link to a splash/blurb:  http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/26/augens-150-android-tablet-hits-kmart-circular-coming-to-store/

Photo: 

__________________________
_{* Being a recovering colitis victim, I still have a busted "thermostat".  Whereas I have few symptoms in my gut from that condition, I still have the chronic false temperature issue-- most of the time, I run at a core body temp of 94 to 96 deg F -- that's roughly, what?  36 deg C? Something like that.  But, in this heat, my core temp goes to 99 deg or even 100 on occasion-- but I don't feel overly hot, and although I'm sweating -- everyone is sweating -- I'm not feeling feverish.  But extended time at that temp makes for strong fatigue and weak muscles.  Which is how I can tell.  <bleah>}

[Darlica]

Ooooh. Shiny toy!


I hope it will work well for you.

[Sibling DavidH]

Oh wow!  :green-with-envy:

[Aphos]

As Bob said, I have one of these toys, too.

I do have a few gripes.  One is the location of the 4 buttons, which are located on the back and are awkward to get to.  Seems to me that this should have been apparent in development.  They could have moved the buttons about a 1/4 inch and located them along the top edge where they can be seen easily.  But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The second gripe is the manual.  It is almost, but not quite, useless.  Some of the information is contradictory.  Some is unclear.  And a lot of information that SHOULD be there isn't.  It appears to have been written by someone with a fair, but not fluent, grasp of English.

AND I have not been able to get my PC to read my Android like the manual says it should.

The virtual keyboard is awkward to use.  But then, I suspected it would be, so I am not really disappointed.

The primary reason I got it is to read ebooks.  The first thing I did when I got home was go to the library, where they have free WiFi.  I downloaded the Kindle for Android app, got connected with that and downloaded a free version of Homer's Odyssey.  The Kindle works great, so I am very happy.

BTW...Bob is activating the keyboard using the button on the back, but there IS an easier way.  You can just tap the touch screen on the dialog box and the keyboard will open.  If there are several different lines to be filled out on that page, the keyboard will automatically tab to the next one til you are done.  Cool.

All-in-all, I am happy with it, though there are issues which will have to be resolved.  Right now, with the poor quality of the manual, it is a process of experimentation figuring out how things work.

If more of us get these, we will have to start a thread where everyone can ask questions, or disclose what they have discovered.  Right now, it seems the device is too new for there to be a good internet forum about it.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

WANT. I already have an e-reader (which I paid a hell of a lot more for last summer!) but that one looks like something I could use in class for notes 'n stuff.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Update:

Not much new to report.  Alas, while I was out, I forgot to test it with an open WiFi, to see if that was what was hosing the market.  As Aphos reported, his open WiFi at his local library apparently worked.

I did find out that it does not appreciate hot cars-- roughly 40 minutes in a hot car flat-lined the battery and shut it completely off (I'd left in in "sleep" mode).

I also found that WalMart has a 'universal' car-battery adapter that works, and can recharge it-- but the plug is clunky, so I'll be modifying the WalMart thing with more flexable wire, and a smaller handle on the fitting (so as to **not** break my new device's power port).  Cost roughly $16US.

I tried XP mode (my machine has multiple, bootable hard drives) to see if the USB issue was resolved with the drivers they offered.  The drivers installed fine, and XP "saw" the device, and assigned 2 drive letters.  Alas, one was the main memory (roughly 2gig) and I was loathe to write to it-- I did poke about, but XP couldn't see squat-- it appeared empty or all-but.  I suspect there is some propriety formatting going on, hence my reluctance to mess with it other than 'read only'.

The other letter should've been the SD card, but alas XP, like Win7 reports the removable drive has nothing inserted:  it can see the socket, but cannot communicate with the inserted chip-- even though the device itself *can*.  And I followed the colorful PDF instructions to the letter (that came with the driver).

The thing recharges quickly; within an hour, it went from flat to full-charge-- impressive.   

I have learned better how to deal with the touch-issues-- I'm used to the G1's capacitive "finger flick" to move stuff and scroll about.  That's fine for the G1.

Lightly touching the GenTech simply does not work--- firm finger pressure is the key, here.

To "flick" or scroll?  You touch firmly (but not too hard) and this is key-- you touch-and-hold for just a split sec, then you move your finger to scroll.  Not unlike when you "grab" a scroll bar with your mouse-- you move the pointer over the bar, you press-and-hold the mouse button for a split second, then you move the bar.

We all do this without realizing it, and have been since the late 80's, so it's forgotten lore... kindof like breathing... when we were newborns, I suspect there were moments when we said to ourselves: "okay, here it comes again:  breathe in.  Relax, let the air flow out.  Now again:  suck in that air.  Relax."    Why else do you think the doctor has to get our attention shortly after birth?  "Breathe, you little stinker-- breathe!"



Anywho, a firm-press-and-hold-for-a-split is needed, then while holding, you drag your finger up/down as desired.  Obviously, you're now limited to the screen's 'real estate' for the limit of your drag motion-- a shortcoming, but something that can be dealt with.

I'm actively looking for a widget that allows you to "lock" the rotation between portrait and landscape-- it definitely has the capability, because I've seen my unit do it.  I'd likely lock it into portrait mode, rather than landscape, except possibly for text entry... (portrait virtual keyboard isn't very good).

I'm looking to see if I can locate one of those beta Swipe keyboards that run on Android-- a friend has the file, and at first I was "well if they [the developers] want to be stinky about it, I don't want it" but I've changed my mind; if I can get a legit beta of this keyboard, I'll try it out.  Turns out there are several virtual replacements out in the Market [alas, I hope they fix that soon].

Googling for "stuck in download" on Android Market, yields any number of comments about that-- and none of the "fixes" appear to help this device, including logging into Google Talk-- tried it, didn't un-stick the file.  This thing is too new for anyone to have said much, other than "wow" and "neato" and "peachy-keen".    (of course, there are also a few "this is utter crap" comments, which naturally I ignored. )

I suppose I'll have to join one of the Android forums, and start a thread about it myself.  I will likely cut-and-paste these, with suitable edits (privacy of other members).

==================

An added note about the included iReader app:  the one it comes with is the free one available on the market.  There's a paid one, too.  The free one has limited E-book format compatibility, whereas the paid one does not (apparently).  Once the market is working, I'll look at getting the paid one-- as roughly 1/2 of the E-books it can see, it refuses to open because it's not a format supported by the free version. 

The iReader does not even list the Amazon E-books, the ones that are specific to my Kindle, which is fine:  those are copyrighted, and I can easily see them with the Kindle app.  I'll leave them in the folder, though, as a backup-- the DRM on those is **not** specific to my kindle (as I understand it), but is instead specific to me and my Amazon kindle account... in any case, it never hurts to maintain backups of things, especially if they are less than 1/3 a gig...

I spent about 45 minutes reading from this, while I ate lunch, using the Kindle app.  The page turning was elegant:  you touch lightly the edge of the page, and it turns.  It turns so quickly, I was not certain it did turn-- certainly faster than on my kindle device.  Going back is easy, too-- a touch on the left edge of the page, and back it goes.  If you wish to jump ahead fast-- relative to the overall size-- a press at the bottom brings up a slider-bar.  Press-and-hold the slider button, then drag back and forth-- it helpfully displays % as well as a visual bar-graph.  Since I had not synced my kindle, I used this to approximately locate the page I had been reading-- then some back-back-back touches, until I recognzied the text.  One click forward, and I was at my current paragraph.   All told, took a minute or so, to navigate to my last point-- not unlike picking up a book that was closed, and had no bookmark-- one you had to page back and forth a bit, to locate where you left off-- very similar experience.

The text is easily as clear as my kindle's, but the light was typical fluorescent fast-food lighting-- not overly bright.  In bright sun, it suffers like all backlit screens, from solar-washout.  Using the Kindle app's settings, you can vary several settings, including how bright it is, but I left the defaults-- they Just Worked.

Up-Update:   

I simply must point out a bonus:  this thing comes with, installed, the documents-to-go app, including the $15US full version key.   I found this app, once I had the full version, so useful (among other things, it is really slick at looking at PDF files-- a must) I went an purchased it for my G1. I suppose I could have "hacked" the full key from my tablet, but I like to support software companies that make good product, and $15 is almost chump-change as software goes, so I was happy to purchase it anew.

I mainly bought it for the PDF capability, but it's lovely that I can open and edit XML (spreadsheet) files, too.... I have several archived spreadsheets that contain useful, but seldom accessed data in them...  Recommended.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Two quick questions:

Originally google wanted to have a level of control on the hardware side in order to allow the market on a device, and that included not only the GPS and the accelerometer, but the ability to make phone calls. It would be utterly sweet if this thing accepted a SIM card and allow it self to be used as a phone.... 

The second thing, does it support bluetooth? Not only you would be able to do free calls using fring, but potentially you should be able to attach a bluetooth keyboard (the possibilities are endless).
---
Now, you've tempted me to look for the thing (and I recently got a nice netbook with which I'm quite happy BTW).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Two quick questions:

Originally google wanted to have a level of control on the hardware side in order to allow the market on a device, and that included not only the GPS and the accelerometer, but the ability to make phone calls. It would be utterly sweet if this thing accepted a SIM card and allow it self to be used as a phone.... 

Alas, google's foray into the hardware scene was shortlived, and temporary.  This is not a google hardware, but it is google software through-and-through.  In fact, it's actually a version of the phone software, slightly ported to the device.  (there's still many references in the google helpset/menu structure that refer to it as "phone", for instance.  And the cell antenna signal bar, and the 3g signal bars are both visible, even though this has neither piece of hardware-- strictly WiFi).

So, no-- SIM card is completely absent.

The second thing, does it support bluetooth? Not only you would be able to do free calls using fring, but potentially you should be able to attach a bluetooth keyboard (the possibilities are endless).

No bluetooth either-- would have been nice, but as far as I can tell-- that's missing too.  In fact, I know it's missing:  in the settings menu, where the management of bluetooth would be, is blank/absent.  So, no bluetooth headset, no bluetooth mouse and alas, no bluetooth keyboard. 

---

Now, you've tempted me to look for the thing (and I recently got a nice netbook with which I'm quite happy BTW).

Your netbook is more capable, even if it is a crApple or Microsuck device...

I just like the android OS, myself:  linking to my Google account is so very cool-- I may switch the bulk of my e-mail from my COX to the G-mail engine.  Now I can easily see and manage my g-mail from 3 devices:  my phone, my PC and my new Gentouch (so long as the last is within a WiFi envelope, obviously).

I'm hoping we'll see more and more android devices in the future-- this is an excellent first step, IMHO:  releasing it to a major marketplace like K-mart will get android into more and more people's hands, which is good.

It can only help improve all the available OS's, from android to crApple to Microsuck's offerings.  Keep the 2nd pair on their toes, it will-- I hope.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Viola!  I found an Easter-Egg! (or rather a friend did, and gmailed me about it-- he saw it in a review).

As you look at the screen in landscape mode, behind, at the upper-left, are some bumps-- which I thought were strictly decorative.  They're not.

If you push to the left (as you look at the screen) out slides this little plastic stick-- a stylus!   

How about that?

You'd think the manual would've mentioned something as critical as that....

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I have a G1 myself and very happy with the system. The hardware requirements were from google to allow their logo in any piece of hardware with it, so there you go. I've read about some future Android tablets that would allow a SIM card, and despite the fact that it would be the largest phone ever, as long as you have bluetooth it doesn't matter, in fact it makes more sense to consider a tablet with a phone than the opposite.

In any case I'll keep checking...

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I'm in the market for a tablet and usually you can find stuff online for cheaper than from a store, but no so here! Online they were going for $250 a pop! I want one, but how is it for non-eReader tasks? I would like to use it for school notes (in gDocs, I expect) but if it's no good for that, then there's no point.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I have a G1 myself and very happy with the system. The hardware requirements were from google to allow their logo in any piece of hardware with it, so there you go. I've read about some future Android tablets that would allow a SIM card, and despite the fact that it would be the largest phone ever, as long as you have bluetooth it doesn't matter, in fact it makes more sense to consider a tablet with a phone than the opposite.

In any case I'll keep checking...

Google Dell's forthcoming Streak.  I'm looking at it, very hard, even though it's pricy ($500 or so, unlocked-- cheaper with contract, but I refuse to go with AT$T).   It's basically a slightly smaller verson of the tablet I'm running (5" screen vs 7") and has the capacitive touch (as with G1), no physical kb, etc.   Uses SIM card, has bluetooth, etc.  Looks to be a good offering, android tablet/phone combo.  As you noted, who cares the size, if you're using a bluetooth headset anyhow?    Here:   Dell Streak

I'm in the market for a tablet and usually you can find stuff online for cheaper than from a store, but no so here! Online they were going for $250 a pop! I want one, but how is it for non-eReader tasks? I would like to use it for school notes (in gDocs, I expect) but if it's no good for that, then there's no point.

Reading pre-created notes/docs?  Fine.

Writing them?  Not so much-- the virtual keyboard is twitchy and slow.    For example, I sent a gmail from mine, and it took a couple of minutes to compose the short message.  A bit later, I was back on the PC, and from my standard kb, 30 seconds for a message twice as long...  I kept hitting the wrong keys--well, not really, but the thing thought I did... as I said, twitchy.

If you need something cheap, now, go for one of those little "netbook" mini-laptops.  They are cheap enough, and Gentouch has one running Android OS for $99.  That being said-- I looked closely it this-- it's specs are not very good:  400mhz cpu (as compared to 800 on my tablet), 128 RAM (as opposed to 256 on mine), but 2gig flash for main tasks (same as mine), no hard disk, microSD slot, genuine USB port for mice/thumbdrives, a built-in tiny physical keyboard, touchpad for mousing, 7" non-touch color screen.  Again, at K-mart.  If I had spare cash lying about, I'd pick one up just to play with it, but $100 is a bit too steep for a whim.   I'd insist on playing with it before purchase-- Kmart's return policy on electronics is pretty draconian.   

But it *is* android OS, replete with a built-in WiFi radio....

[Aphos]

WANT. I already have an e-reader (which I paid a hell of a lot more for last summer!) but that one looks like something I could use in class for notes 'n stuff.

I don't think it would be too useful for notes and stuff unless you can find an app that would allow you to input with script.  There may be such an app.  I'm a newby to Androids.

However, trying to use the virtual keyboard to take notes would be VERY awkward.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Update:

Well, it appears Augen (the maker) has given up on the official Android Market, but decided to release a hack instead, a sort of pseudo-market "replacement".  That would be fine, if the replacement echoed the functionality of the official one.  Even a little bit.

It does not, alas.  Sure there are apps on it, but nothing I want or need, and apparently none of the latest ones as far as a casual stroll can reveal.  Okay, I did get the free Dolphin browser, which appears to be a bit better than Android's original, but it's also constantly streaming me ads... which, when I clicked on "remove" took me to the non-functional official Android Market... now I am happy to purchase software, especially if I use it, and $4 (or so) is cheap enough.  But I've not seen how to do so with the hack...

On the other hand, there apparently appears alternatives to both-- out in cyberspace, there appears to exist any number of markets, replete with software for sale...

... so I tried The Android Guys' store, just for jollies. 

To keep it simple, I tried a couple of freebies-- an audio book reader application, and the ubiquitous minesweeper.   The audio reader seems to work, but as I had zero books, I could not truly tell... the "try a sample" does not appear to be enabled.  I suppose if I registered at the main site?  Maybe later.

Minesweeper is... what it is.  It's clearly written for a single-screen mode (many older, primitive apps are like this) and it runs in a "letterbox window" on my device.  But it works (not that there's any complexity to the game-- it really is a very silly time-waster.....).

So combined with the dolphin browser, there are alternatives to the hack and the broken official market.  I must try dolphin on the Android Freeware site (the built-in browser does not download properly-- tried that earlier).

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More notes:  Augen's customer "support" seems quite primitive.  I had submitted 4 trouble-tickets, outlining the issues I had so far.  Abruptly, these all vanished--not even so much as a "we fixed these with the update" token e-mail.  *poof* they just vanished.

So I submitted 1 about the missing 4, and so far, bupkiss.

Today I submitted another one about the not-really-functional market-hack:  it supposedly has categories, but that function is broken.  Search appears to work-- sort of.  If you know your exact spelling and maybe you can get the search to return a downloadable example... but not always.  There does not appear to be wildcard functionality within the market-hack search engine... pity.

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I found a great deal of conversation over at XDA developers-- these guys are dedicated to hacking and generally improving various electronic devices, typically smart phones and such.  They are really buzzed about this thing.

One of the first things someone over there released, was the notorious "swipe" android keyboard package.  Downloaded it.  Installed it.  Here's my review of 'swipe':

I cannot possibly imagine for the love of Saint Vincent, why anyone  would think the 'Swipe' keyboard is anything other than an exercise in mental frustration.

I suppose certain practicers of zen might recommend this, to deliberately increase your stress levels to the point of mental collapse, or perhaps certain lawyers looking for a good lawsuit, might as an attempt to induce a brain annurism.

After futzing with the infernal software for an hour or so last night, I disabled it.  I could literally tap-type 3 times faster, and 100% more accurately with my stylus hitting the keys one-at-a-time, than on this nightmarish abomination of cannot-possibly-guess-correctly piece of rubbish.

I suppose if someone was deliberately intending to write gibberish, or perhaps simulate a space-alien who was unfamiliar with written English, it could be of some limited use.

On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest possible usefulness)?  I'd give it a zero.

... yeah, re-reading it?  I still feel that way about the 'swipe' keyboard...