Tablet and smart phone discussion thread

[Ga Shooter]

Since everybody on here and probably in the whole world is more technologically advanced than me I could use some help. I will be traveling a few times a year for my business. As such I have need of either a laptop or a tablet. I will be using it at the office and on the road mainly for internet based programs, Excel, Quickbooks, email, a few industry specific windows based programs and of course reading Pistol-Forum.com. I like the idea of a tablet for portability and would use it WI-FI only. I have been looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. I do not have a smart phone and do not plan on getting one anytime soon. Do tablets have a virtual numbers keypad for the numerical entries? What are your thoughts? Thanks for the help.

PS Since this is a personal small business trying to keep the cost down.

[LittleLebowski]

I'd look at the Nexus 7, GA Shooter. The cost and quality cannot be beat.

[RoyGBiv]

Since everybody on here and probably in the whole world is more technologically advanced than me I could use some help. I will be traveling a few times a year for my business. As such I have need of either a laptop or a tablet. I will be using it at the office and on the road mainly for internet based programs, Excel, Quickbooks, email, a few industry specific windows based programs and of course reading Pistol-Forum.com. I like the idea of a tablet for portability and would use it WI-FI only. I have been looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. I do not have a smart phone and do not plan on getting one anytime soon. Do tablets have a virtual numbers keypad for the numerical entries? What are your thoughts? Thanks for the help.

PS Since this is a personal small business trying to keep the cost down.

THE question is...
How certain are you that EVERYTHING you'll need to do on the road can be accomplished within a web browser?

If your answer is 100% certain, YES, then, a good tablet will do the job.
[Yes, it has a virtual keyboard, just like your smartphone and you can download different keyboards to customize the experience to your needs]

But..... If you think there's a good chance that you'll make good use of say, being able to do spreadsheets in the airport or on the airplane, or have a lot of files you'll need to access for presentations, etc, then maybe an inexpensive PC or netbook is a more robust solution.

You can buy a slim, quick laptop for under $400. Here's something from today's FRY's ad, as a quick example.

I love my Galaxy, the wife loves her iPad. But neither of us could work from the road successfully on them. YMMV.

[ToddG]

I am very seriously considering replacing my range diary with a Nexus 7. I was using my iPad for quite a while, but the size is a bit of a hassle. I also use the iPad for other things so half the time it wouldn't be in my range bag when I wanted it.

[LittleLebowski]

I am very seriously considering replacing my range diary with a Nexus 7. I was using my iPad for quite a while, but the size is a bit of a hassle. I also use the iPad for other things so half the time it wouldn't be in my range bag when I wanted it.

Hard to beat a 32gig nexus 7 at Walmart for $250. I don't miss my iPad one bit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[MDS]

Does this thing work? :-) Looks like I've got one more stupid mind game to play on myself during the GoRuck Challenge that starts tonight: if I quit I can go play with my new tablet...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[TCinVA]

Hard to beat a 32gig nexus 7 at Walmart for $250. I don't miss my iPad one bit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

I want to find a way to hook one up to the CANBUS system in my car to replace the in-dash unit I've got.

[Byron]

I want to find a way to hook one up to the CANBUS system in my car to replace the in-dash unit I've got.

Forgive my ignorance, as I don't know what a CANBUS is, but on the RootzWiki forums, there are a number of guys who've done car installs of their Nexus 7 + USB DAC. One developer there has a custom kernel you can flash which will allow the N7 to receive power while simultaneously powering the DAC. This requires a USB-OTG Y cable, of course, but those can be found for a few bucks.

When I'm near a PC again I'll post some links here

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[SeriousStudent]

Keep in mind that the Microsoft tablets use nearly sixteen gigs for the OS and Office out of the box. In other words, nearly half of your 32gig device's storage is already used.

I did find out something interesting today. There's a recovery partition on the Surface Pro that you can delete, and that frees up more 8 GB space. So you have about 98 GB of free space if you do that, and it brings it back into parity with the 128 GB iPad. I never use the factory image on anything, anyway.

Having said all that, I agree that for personal use, the Nexus 7 is the one that sets the bar. LL, you have any rumint on when Google will bestow a upgraded Nexus 7 on us?

[Byron]

Nexus 7 links:

Original discussion that spawned development: Can you charge & USB Host mode simultaneously?

Custom kernel for flashing: Timur's Kernel - USB ROM - USB Host Power Management - USB Audio

Special cable; any of the following links:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-USB-Ho...item23276aeb67
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-USB-Ho...item3a785e3208
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-USB-Ho...item2ec0eee555

Just to reiterate; with the custom kernel installed, and the above cable attached, you can output USB audio from your Nexus 7 to a USB DAC while simultaneously providing it with external power. This allows for permanent (or semi-permanent) car installs with a much higher audio quality*.

Amazing example project: Nexus 7 clean car install with backup cam

With the same kernel you can also accomplish other multitasking, such as charging your N7 while simultaneously hooking a flash drive up to it and/or a hard drive and/or or peripherals... and/or whatevertheheckyouwant.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: while I know what I'm talking about when it comes to kernels and such, I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to audiophile stuff. My understanding of the improvement in audio quality is purely from my reading: I do not own a DAC.