Researching Iconia Tab A500 for purchase

[YeeP]

I am considering buying the Iconia Tab A500. Trying to do as much research as possible, as my step #1 will be rooting. I have been reading reviews and was very surprised to see this: 'The underdog that should not be overlooked' - Acer Iconia Tab A500 user review and rating - CNET Reviews

Where the guy says:

The Iconia works great with USB wireless mouse and keyboards, detects all flash drives or drives (formatted as FAT or FAT32 - limitation of Honeycomb)

WTF? Is this true on a rooted machine? As far as I know Android OS is linux based. If that is true, this makes no sense at all. If I want to play between my home machine and the tablet, I will only be able to move data from the laptop to the tablet, as the laptop HD is mostly ext3 (linux).

Also, I see a lot of comments on here and CNET about charging with the USB. Most of them on this forum are people trying to charge the tablet through the USB port. I assume that is the case over there? I would like to be able to charge other objects using the tablet, through the usb (camera or what have you). This is possible, correct?

Thanks!!

 

[Reese1ar]

You can charge things from the full size USB port. You cannot charge the tablet itself with the smaller USB. I've charged my phone off it no problem.

 

[spexwood]

I am considering buying the Iconia Tab A500. Trying to do as much research as possible, as my step #1 will be rooting. I have been reading reviews and was very surprised to see this: 'The underdog that should not be overlooked' - Acer Iconia Tab A500 user review and rating - CNET Reviews

Where the guy says:


WTF? Is this true on a rooted machine? As far as I know Android OS is linux based. If that is true, this makes no sense at all. If I want to play between my home machine and the tablet, I will only be able to move data from the laptop to the tablet, as the laptop HD is mostly ext3 (linux).

Also, I see a lot of comments on here and CNET about charging with the USB. Most of them on this forum are people trying to charge the tablet through the USB port. I assume that is the case over there? I would like to be able to charge other objects using the tablet, through the usb (camera or what have you). This is possible, correct?

Thanks!!

Not sure if this is answering anything:
1. Yes, about 99% of mice and keyboards, as well as gamepads, work on this tablet without having to install any drivers. You do NOT need to be rooted for this to work.
2. If you plug your tablet into the computer, you can transfer files between it and the tablet no matter what format the drive of the computer is. The computer reads the tablet as an external device. The only issue is that you can only access the internal drive of the tablet through tthe computer. The external SD card must be removed and inserted into the computer with a card reader, but Im sure that Acer is trying to figure out how to make this work.
3. If you plug an external harddrive into the TABLET, it needs to be FAT32 for it to work NATIVELY. Now, if you are rooted, there is a nice little free app on the Market called "Drive Mount" that will allow the tablet to read any drive format (NTFS, ext2,3,4, etc). I use this app and it WORKS, so now you have my word.
4. For some idiotic reason, the microUSB port does not charge the tablet when plugged into something like a computer. The tablet's USB 2.0 port provides power to most external devices though, such as thumb drives and hdds. You can also charge devices like cams or phones, but of course, doing this takes power from the tablet, so depending on what you are trying to charge, you may need to have the tablet plugged in or else you wont have much power left for portability.

Overall though, and I think many people will agree, this is a VERY nice tablet. In my opinion, it is very close to having a laptop. Granted, it is not exactly like a laptop, but I can surf the net, play games, write Microsoft Word formatted papers, work on Microsoft Excel documents, read Microsoft PowerPoint slides, watch movies, and much much more. So, this is a very practical tablet for work/school, but also very fun for entertainment purposes. Plus, for the price, you get a 16GB internal drive (at least in the USA; some places have a 32GB version) with capability of adding up to a 32GB microSD card, but you can also add an external hdd that can hold much much more (I have 1TB). To me at least, its a bargain.
Definitely give this tab a close look.



Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[Icebike]

4. For some idiotic reason, the microUSB port does not charge the tablet when plugged into something like a computer. The tablet's USB 2.0 port provides power to most external devices though, such as thumb drives and hdds. You can also charge devices like cams or phones, but of course, doing this takes power from the tablet, so depending on what you are trying to charge, you may need to have the tablet plugged in or else you wont have much power left for portability.

The idiotic reason is that the tablet is a 12 volt device, and USB can only produce 5 volts.