tablet

[cellio]

I'm typing this from my new Android tablet -- an ASUS Transformer with keyboard dock. It's quite spiffy! (And a well-timed gift, as I was still cogitating over my dead iBook.)

It works well as a tablet -- nice display, the apps work the way I expect, and it didn't take too long to figure out some of the interface quirks (which may be real or may be signs that I've used an iPad). The on-screen keyboard is "fat"; I don't know how else to describe it, but it works (and, not surprisingly, with better accuracy than my phone). The hardware keyboard is of course smaller than a conventional one, so currently I'm making lots of typos but I'm touch-typing. The keys are closer together than I'm used to and it feels like I'm hitting them harder than I'm used to, particularly the keys toward the edges (that are less likely to be struck "straight on"). I'm still faster with the hardware keyboard than the on-screen one, though, and it doesn't take up half the screen. So, bottom line, when I want to do extensive typing I can slip it into the dock, and otherwise its a nice 10" tablet.

Please feel free to tell me about all your favorite Android apps. I have an Android phone so I know a few, but tablets and phones are different.

Good news: somebody has ported emacs to Android and it's in the store (free). Bad news: it seg-faults for me on start. It's a known problem but the suggested work-around didn't for me. I've contacted the author.

The dock provides a USB port and there's a file-browser app. This is very promising.

How in the world do I get the Google+ web site to let me use the regular, not mobile, site? I know there's an app but I don't like it; the web site is just fine with the real-estate available on a tablet. But when I try to use it it forces me into the mobile version, which isn't as good. (Not as bad as the app, but not as good as it could be.)

The previous paragraph might describe a specific symptom of a more-general problem. General solutions also welcome. :-) (Stack Exchange, by way of contrast, uses the mobile site on my phone but the regular one on the tablet, so it's not as simple as checking for mobile devices.)

There are two browsers pre-installed, "browser" and Chrome. I wonder why. I wonder what "browser" is.

LJ oddity: I'm typing this using the (regular) web site, not an app, and when typing this text is a smaller variable-width font. When focus is elsewhere (like when I typed the tags), it changes to a larger fixed-width font (Courier, I assume). I want that all the time! (This is the HTML editor, not the rich-text one.)

I'm not very good at finger-based cursor placement yet. I wonder what typos Ive introduced while editing. :-)

More to come as I use it more, I'm sure.

Comments

[asim.livejournal.com]

For Google+, there should be a menu option in the Browser to Request Desktop Site. Try that -- the basic issue is that different sites have vastly different ways of detecting "mobile" vs. "desktop" sites, as well as how to handle them, as do different browsers, so there's no easy one-sze-fits-all solution, sadly.

"Browser" is the standard, stock Android browser that's come with the OS since...well, a long time. The recent 4.x versions are pretty fast and awesome. Chrome is a port of Google Chrome, including the blazingly-fast V8 Javascript engine, to Android. You might, depending on proclivities, also like the Firefox versions (I use Firefox Beta), or the Android-only Dolphin Browser.

There are so many apps I love! And so many, like Glympse and TripIt, really only come into their own when travelling. I'd ask you for categories of things you'd like to do on the tablet, but one thing you might want to consider is the vast ecosystem of onscreen keyboard replacements. A top one is Swype, which uses geastures to type (and can be kick-ass fast), or the Hacker's Keyboard, which for an app like emacs might be critical, as it provides keys like Tab which aren't on any of the standard keyboards.

Anyway, hope that helps!

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Opera is my usual Android browser, although any of the other alternatives asim mentioned should also work.

A few other apps I like:

Lookout Security: Provides basic malware scanning (haven't run into any, but you never know) and can be used to locate your device and/or make it sound an alarm (via an account you set up on the Lookout site during install). There's a subscription version with added features (like remotely nuking your data though the account), but I find the free version sufficient.

Office Suite Pro: Allows reading and basic editing of Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents. There are a few alternatives (Documents To Go, QuickOffice) with similar functionality and free read-only versions.

Jota+: A text editor that supports multiple files open at once.

ES File Explorer: A good file manager program, if your tablet doesn't already come with an adequate one. Includes a useful "back up your apps" feature that avoids the need to re-download things if you need to re-install them.

SwiftKey: An improved virtual keyboard with the best predictive-text function I've seen.

Mantano Reader: My preferred reader for (open format) ePubs -- anything with DRM will require its own dedicated app from Amazon/Nook/Kobo/whatever.

VPlayer: My preferred video player.

Power Alarm: The downside is that the programming is power-user level compared to most alarm-clock apps; I use it because it's the only alarm-clock app I've found that can be set with an "every other Friday (or whatever day of the week)" option, which I need for my 9-9-9-9, 9-9-9-9-8 hour biweek schedule.

KeePass Droid: A password manager, compatible with databases from other KeePass versions (though read-only in some cases).

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

somebody has ported emacs to Android and it's in the store (free).

MWA HA HA HAAAA!

I wonder what "browser" is.
Possibility 1: A minimal browser with just enough capability to download firefox.
Possiblity 2: Lynx.

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I've liked everything ASUS I've ever used.

Seconding Hacker's Keyboard; it's what Mr. Fixer and I use.

Seconding Opera as a tablet browser. Make sure you configure it to show an Exit button, though.

SqueezeDroid for using our house music server via wireless. Of course, we aren't invested in iTunes so this may be useless for your needs.

British Library Royal, for browsing their manuscript collection. Great detailed images.

AndFTP.

Android Assistant, a very useful utilities package.

I like the built-in .pdf reader better than Adobe. I also use Moon+ Reader, Reader by Sony, and Go Read. (I like Go Read best but sometimes it's annoyingly hierarchical.)

Currents for managing web subscriptions (e.g., SciAm) and reading some of my favorite news sites/blogs. I like the interface better than Google Reader, but it doesn't do the same things Reader does.

We really like the BBC newsreader interface for phone. Simple, elegant, intuitive.

Plants vs. Zombies is way more fun on a tablet! ;-D

[alienor.livejournal.com]

- (Phone:) grocery list. I've tested out a couple different apps for this but they want to organize my list for me. My paper list is ordered by sequence in the store; I want to preserve that concept. Ideally it will also store common items so I can just indicate "need more X" instead of typing it in again.

We use Cozi for this. It has a calendar and a bunch of other features, but we only use the shopping lists.

The information is sync'ed across multiple devices and multiple people, so I can enter a few groceries on my desktop at work and N can load it on his phone to pick up on his way home.

You can set up multiple shopping lists (say, one for grocery and one for home improvement).

I'm pretty sure that you can drag and drop to reorder stuff on the list, at least on the website (I don't enter data on the phone because I get annoyed at finger typing).

It does save stuff you've typed in before, ish. If you've typed in "Eggs" previously, then when you start to type it'll show you entries that started with E, then EG, etc. You can select your item as soon as you see it appear.

There's a free (paid for by ads) version, and a paid (ad free) version available.

emacs

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

Mr. Fixer laughed and said "segfaults." Then he said to tell you that you can run linux in a chroot and run emacs from there. (That's how he does it.) You can also run emacspeak from there -- which, he says, "she should be running." ;-D