Dear friends at Android tablet hello from Gero in the UK.
Some background and then some questions:
Background: I am a PhD student on a low income and have to buy wisely. I've never used Android but wanted to give it a go. I was using a 2nd-hand Sony Ericsson C902 (cost £65) which for an old phone is pretty smart(!) and has most of the functions and connectivity I need but with a tiny screen. After looking at the smartphones available in the UK, I was going to buy a Samsung Galaxy Note for £479.99 from Amazon.co.uk because I liked the 'phablet' idea of combining a tablet and a phone but I checked on eBay.co.uk and found the Zenithink for £80. I decided to buy the cheaper item to give Android a try before investing lots of money. If Android is this good on a cheap tablet, then I can't imagine why anyone would pay more. When at home I access internet through my home wireless. When out and about I tether my tablet to my mobile phone. I use a bluetooth dongle on the tablet. I have unlimited data from GiffGaff at £10 per month. This means my budget Note alternative saved me £400. It will be less than this if you take off the cost of the dongle (£0.99) and the micro/mini USB converter (£2.45).
Questions: Hardware: The Zenithink has micro USB slots so to connect a standard bluetooth dongle (they all seem to have mini USB connectors) I have to use a micro to mini USB converter. It works but it is ugly. I am trying to find a neat little bluetooth dongle with a micro USB connector that will fit tight to the side of the tablet. Can anyone help? I usually find that if I need some little 'fix it' solution to make things work better that Hong Kong will have someone manufacturing or at least selling them -- I bought a little adapter from Hong Kong to convert my C902 so I could use sennheiser earphones instead of the proprietary Sony Ericsson phones with it (cost £2.99). There's probably someone in China making tiny micro USB bluetooth dongles, it is just a case of finding them. I used to think of China as the place that exported junk but now I am starting to think of China as a place where they 'Can Do' whatever needs doing. I am starting to admire Chinese enterprise and wishing the UK was more like China in that respect (although I prefer the human rights I enjoy under democracy so I am not going to vote for Chinese-style dictatorship any time soon!). If you can recommend a supplier in China or the UK or anywhere I can buy from then please let me know. Thank you. Also, if you can recommend a supplier of TF cards for the Zenithink I would be grateful -- I want to get 32GB which is reliable (not a bogus card that doesn't work or only has 2GB useable memory!). Also I would like to buy a UK-style power adapter for recharging because the power adapter supplied from China looks very unsafe and I want an adapter that meets UK kite-marks for quality to be safe (don't want my tablet to start a fire and burn my flat down).
Questions: Software: I get about five hours of heavy use (video, games, internet) from the Zenithink before having to recharge. This is okay from a budget tablet but can anyone suggest ways of increasing battery time? The tablet has ICS installed (version 4.0.3). I have downloaded and installed these free apps from the Market: 'Easy Task Killer' and 'Juice Defender'. Is there anything more I can do to increase usage? Plus, I have various apps installed by the manufacturer on my tablet e.g. DevTools, Car Home, Latitude which I doubt I will ever use (although I might use DevTools if I get into writing Android apps). When I try uninstalling I am warned doing so might cause the system to crash. Should I believe this? What is it safe to uninstall from Android 4? Final question, BBC iPlayer and Channel 4 Catch-Up do not work. Is this something to do with Android 4 or have I just not installed the right add-ons (I have Flash Player 11.1 installed)?
Many questions! Apologies for long post. If you can help with any of these issues please reply.
Many thanks! Gero
Some background and then some questions:
Background: I am a PhD student on a low income and have to buy wisely. I've never used Android but wanted to give it a go. I was using a 2nd-hand Sony Ericsson C902 (cost £65) which for an old phone is pretty smart(!) and has most of the functions and connectivity I need but with a tiny screen. After looking at the smartphones available in the UK, I was going to buy a Samsung Galaxy Note for £479.99 from Amazon.co.uk because I liked the 'phablet' idea of combining a tablet and a phone but I checked on eBay.co.uk and found the Zenithink for £80. I decided to buy the cheaper item to give Android a try before investing lots of money. If Android is this good on a cheap tablet, then I can't imagine why anyone would pay more. When at home I access internet through my home wireless. When out and about I tether my tablet to my mobile phone. I use a bluetooth dongle on the tablet. I have unlimited data from GiffGaff at £10 per month. This means my budget Note alternative saved me £400. It will be less than this if you take off the cost of the dongle (£0.99) and the micro/mini USB converter (£2.45).
Questions: Hardware: The Zenithink has micro USB slots so to connect a standard bluetooth dongle (they all seem to have mini USB connectors) I have to use a micro to mini USB converter. It works but it is ugly. I am trying to find a neat little bluetooth dongle with a micro USB connector that will fit tight to the side of the tablet. Can anyone help? I usually find that if I need some little 'fix it' solution to make things work better that Hong Kong will have someone manufacturing or at least selling them -- I bought a little adapter from Hong Kong to convert my C902 so I could use sennheiser earphones instead of the proprietary Sony Ericsson phones with it (cost £2.99). There's probably someone in China making tiny micro USB bluetooth dongles, it is just a case of finding them. I used to think of China as the place that exported junk but now I am starting to think of China as a place where they 'Can Do' whatever needs doing. I am starting to admire Chinese enterprise and wishing the UK was more like China in that respect (although I prefer the human rights I enjoy under democracy so I am not going to vote for Chinese-style dictatorship any time soon!). If you can recommend a supplier in China or the UK or anywhere I can buy from then please let me know. Thank you. Also, if you can recommend a supplier of TF cards for the Zenithink I would be grateful -- I want to get 32GB which is reliable (not a bogus card that doesn't work or only has 2GB useable memory!). Also I would like to buy a UK-style power adapter for recharging because the power adapter supplied from China looks very unsafe and I want an adapter that meets UK kite-marks for quality to be safe (don't want my tablet to start a fire and burn my flat down).
Questions: Software: I get about five hours of heavy use (video, games, internet) from the Zenithink before having to recharge. This is okay from a budget tablet but can anyone suggest ways of increasing battery time? The tablet has ICS installed (version 4.0.3). I have downloaded and installed these free apps from the Market: 'Easy Task Killer' and 'Juice Defender'. Is there anything more I can do to increase usage? Plus, I have various apps installed by the manufacturer on my tablet e.g. DevTools, Car Home, Latitude which I doubt I will ever use (although I might use DevTools if I get into writing Android apps). When I try uninstalling I am warned doing so might cause the system to crash. Should I believe this? What is it safe to uninstall from Android 4? Final question, BBC iPlayer and Channel 4 Catch-Up do not work. Is this something to do with Android 4 or have I just not installed the right add-ons (I have Flash Player 11.1 installed)?
Many questions! Apologies for long post. If you can help with any of these issues please reply.
Many thanks! Gero