Well :-) !

[Eric The Viking]

I'm typing this on my Galaxy Note 10.1, connected to the Internet via my new Galaxy S3 mini's built-in WiFi hotspot (and then 3G data service).

It does seem to care hugely about the 3G signal strength, but otherwise it certainly works!

Given this is £6-7 cheaper per month than my old contract (that one with no data at all), and that the phone itself was free, smug-I-am!

8)

E.

Ps: It's T-Mobile instead of Orange. SIM-only, and some other network deals, would've been even cheaper, but I needed the phone, and decent network coverage.

 

[henton49er]

I'm typing this on my four year old Samsung laptop - costs nothing per year.

My phone is a PAYG which in the past two years has cost me just under £15 in call charges. The phone cost nothing as it was my daughter's cast-off.

No mobile reception at home so all these fancy gadgets are just a waste of space for me, I'm afraid.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Ah well it's all part of a project to get rid of the need for a laptop, but cost-effectively.

I'm not there yet as there are still a few niggles with the tablet, the worst thing being that almost all email packages seem to be rubbish. I've used Turnpike for almost two decades (around 1993 I think, before Demon bought the company), and it's brilliant still on XP, but I'll have to change eventually, as it's now officially abandonware. Nothing comes close as far as I know for sophistication and robustness, and it'll be very tough to find a replacement. I haven't so far.

Otherwise I'm surprised how capable a tablet is. The only insurmountable issues so far is that the new 'phone is both twice the size of the old one, and the battery lasts less than a day (so far). I'm desperate to get the old 'phone unlocked so I can continue to use it, and keep the new one for when I have no practical alternative.

The tablet usually does three days or so, depending on how many editions of The Woodwright's Shop I watch at once. That's a bit worse than the iPad 3 my wife has, and a lot worse than the iPad 2, but it's OK. I'm hoping the phone's battery improves over the next week or so. if it doesn't, I'm going to complain.

E.

(edited - can't spell "Woodwright"!)

 

[No skills]

I can get any where between 2-4 days from my galaxy note 2 phone depending on what I'm using it for. you can squeeze more battery life by trashing any apps in task manager as soon as your finished with them and the other thing is the screen time out - set it for as short a time as possible (think mines 15 sec) - it makes a fair difference.

 

[ColeyS1]

Download gsam battery monitor from the play store. It'll tell you exactly whats eating the battery. Im assuming you're using the newest firmware aswell

 

[Charlie Woody]

Ah well it's all part of a project to get rid of the need for a laptop, but cost-effectively.

I'm not there yet as there are still a few niggles with the tablet, the worst thing being that almost all email packages seem to be rubbish. I've used Turnpike for almost two decades (around 1993 I think, before Demon bought the company), and it's brilliant still on XP, but I'll have to change eventually, as it's now officially abandonware. Nothing comes close as far as I know for sophistication and robustness, and it'll be very tough to find a replacement. I haven't so far.

Otherwise I'm surprised how capable a tablet is. The only insurmountable issues so far is that the new 'phone is both twice the size of the old one, and the battery lasts less than a day (so far). I'm desperate to get the old 'phone unlocked so I can continue to use it, and keep the new one for when I have no practical alternative.

The tablet usually does three days or so, depending on how many editions of The Woodwright's Shop I watch at once. That's a bit worse than the iPad 3 my wife has, and a lot worse than the iPad 2, but it's OK. I'm hoping the phone's battery improves over the next week or so. if it doesn't, I'm going to complain.

E.

(edited - can't spell "Woodwright"!)

I did not know that a tablet could replace a laptop! Can you run word docs, excel sheets, Sketchup etc on a tablet?

Why do you need to use the phone with the tablet for internet access? I thought the tablet would have wifi so you could use with your home router ..... that's how my wife runs her Kindle Fire. I've tried it but find the screen a bit small.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Ah well it's all part of a project to get rid of the need for a laptop, but cost-effectively.

I'm not there yet as there are still a few niggles with the tablet, the worst thing being that almost all email packages seem to be rubbish. I've used Turnpike for almost two decades (around 1993 I think, before Demon bought the company), and it's brilliant still on XP, but I'll have to change eventually, as it's now officially abandonware. Nothing comes close as far as I know for sophistication and robustness, and it'll be very tough to find a replacement. I haven't so far.

Otherwise I'm surprised how capable a tablet is. The only insurmountable issues so far is that the new 'phone is both twice the size of the old one, and the battery lasts less than a day (so far). I'm desperate to get the old 'phone unlocked so I can continue to use it, and keep the new one for when I have no practical alternative.

The tablet usually does three days or so, depending on how many editions of The Woodwright's Shop I watch at once. That's a bit worse than the iPad 3 my wife has, and a lot worse than the iPad 2, but it's OK. I'm hoping the phone's battery improves over the next week or so. if it doesn't, I'm going to complain.

E.

(edited - can't spell "Woodwright"!)

I did not know that a tablet could replace a laptop! Can you run word docs, excel sheets, Sketchup etc on a tablet?

Word, yes Excel, yes, free with the Tablet (Polaris Office). Printing utility about £10 download, Sketchup: not sure - I think not as the tablet runs Android operating system. You can connect a full sized keyboard via bluetooth, and a mouse, too, I think. Although I haven't tried the mouse, the keyboard works fine (even works with the phone, which is bizarre.).

Why do you need to use the phone with the tablet for internet access? I thought the tablet would have wifi so you could use with your home router ..... that's how my wife runs her Kindle Fire. I've tried it but find the screen a bit small.

The phone provides 3G data rate when I'm travelling so I'm not tied to expensive wifi in hotels etc. At home it's on our wireless lan segment. I couldn't see any point in paying for a 3G capable tablet when the phone will act as a hub. It works well but it hammers the battery.

E.

 

[lanemaux]

Silly question Eric. My tablet is an android operating system and yet it does not support flash (Woodwright shop uses flash) , did you get some nifty flash emulator , or was your tablet flash ready?

 

[Eric The Viking]

Flash is deprecated because of security problems, BUT you can still get old Android versions from the Adobe site. Sorry, I can't remember exactly where from, but a bit of Googling should reveal it (wot I did originally).

I installed it a while back and it runs fine, although it fails with BBC iPlayer HD, because the BBC is in Apple's pocket and hasn't fixed the bugs in its Android player yet (the Apple iPlayer doesn't use FLash - HTML5 probably - but anyway it works on an iPad but not on the Galaxy Note). It's fine in standard def, and it works with The Woodwright's Shop site (University of Southern Carolina).

I'd also recommend Firefox for Android. Not all the plugins work - notably absent are NoScript and Firebug (there's an online version but it's not as good) - but it's quite a lot faster than the default browser. I haven't checked on memory/battery use yet. neither give you as much control over browsing as a desktop version, but so far they've worked well. Chrome is also available, obviously, but I really dislike Google knowing everything I do.

E.

 

[AndyT]

The best tip I know for improving battery life on an Android phone is to disable anything that uses the GPS capabilities (eg Google Maps or Navigator) - and probably other location-sensitive apps. This makes a huge difference.

 

[petermillard]

.
...I couldn't see any point in paying for a 3G capable tablet when the phone will act as a hub. It works well but it hammers the battery.E.

Surely that's one good point in favour of buying a 3G capable tablet lol! As I may have mentioned before, I virtually run my business on a tablet - an iPad as it happens, but it could easily be any one of the current alternatives, tbh; and as these devices become more capable (I'm thinking next-gen MS Surface Pro here) then even the 'must have MS Office' crowd could be swayed

 

[RogerS]

Do you use a separate keyboard, Peter? I couldn't be doing with picking out words character by character!

 

[Eric The Viking]

I use a separate keyboard. An Apple bluetooth one, actually. It even works on my Android 'phone too.

 

[andersonec]

I'm typing this on my Galaxy Note 10.1, connected to the Internet via my new Galaxy S3 mini's built-in WiFi hotspot (and then 3G data service).

It does seem to care hugely about the 3G signal strength, but otherwise it certainly works!

Given this is £6-7 cheaper per month than my old contract (that one with no data at all), and that the phone itself was free, smug-I-am!

8)

E.

Ps: It's T-Mobile instead of Orange. SIM-only, and some other network deals, would've been even cheaper, but I needed the phone, and decent network coverage.

Translation needed here,,,,,,,,,

I am wondering how I manage to survive without this stuff, how out of date am I still using the phone at home which is plugged into the wall?
My daughter is having an extension built and I watch guys spending at least an hour each day on their mobiles, I just wonder how many hundreds of working days are being lost to these intrusive little gadgets, my grandson spends all his waking day on the damn thing and has now lost the art of communication, his way of speaking is now a shrug of the shoulders without taking his eyes off the phone.

Andy

 

[RogerS]

Andy...so true....so very true. What gets me is their expectation as they walk down the pavement eyes glued to the little device that YOU will get out of their way ! I am also known to be quite vociferous to anyone in a queue in front of me and not having the courtesy to actually complete their transaction for the benefit of everyone else waiting....instead preferring to text/speak/twit on their mobile.

 

[petermillard]

@RogerS - I have a Bluetooth keyboard but rarely use it as I don't do much long-form writing and find the on-screen keyboard perfectly adequate most of the time.

@Andy - where you see gadgets, I see tools. Of course, the usage is down to the individual; you don't *have* to take or make that 'phone call or respond to that email, right there and then - unless, of course, you do, as it's work... As for your grandson, perhaps he's communicating perfectly well (via Twitter, Facebook or whatever the youngsters are using these days) just not with you? As an aside, would you be so concerned if he had his nose in a book constantly? That said, of course, there's no excuse for bad manners, so perhaps he just needs telling to put the phone down and have a conversation with people he can see?

Oh, and yes, FWIW you are hopelessly out of date having a phone that plugs into the wall, lol!

 

[RogerS]

I know what you mean, Pete. I used to have an old laptop in the workshop..my reason aka excuse being to 'research' or place orders....checking emails etc. Spent far too much time on various forums and generally going down the many nooks and crannies of the web as I have a bit of a grass-hopper mind. So I banished it. Now I have my iPod Touch for music and although it has a browser the screen is so small as to make it pointless browsing. Same goes for my smartphone.

But I have harnessed the technology and I have one key client who I like to respond to asap. So I've knocked up a little system that whenever an email comes in from him I get an audible warning on my phone....no-one else..just from him.. which means that I am not tempted to keep checking my emails every five minutes!

 

[andersonec]

@RogerS - I have a Bluetooth keyboard but rarely use it as I don't do much long-form writing and find the on-screen keyboard perfectly adequate most of the time.

@Andy - where you see gadgets, I see tools. Of course, the usage is down to the individual; you don't *have* to take or make that 'phone call or respond to that email, right there and then - unless, of course, you do, as it's work... As for your grandson, perhaps he's communicating perfectly well (via Twitter, Facebook or whatever the youngsters are using these days) just not with you? As an aside, would you be so concerned if he had his nose in a book constantly? That said, of course, there's no excuse for bad manners, so perhaps he just needs telling to put the phone down and have a conversation with people he can see?

Oh, and yes, FWIW you are hopelessly out of date having a phone that plugs into the wall, lol!

Pete, Communicating on facebook is not a substitute for being able to talk to people, do you speak to potential customers or just stare at them blankly? It also depends on what type of book it is and I doubt if he would be walking down the road reading a book and walk out in front of traffic at the lights.

I am not that much out of date really and just to make sure I am ordering one of these.

https://mail.google.com/mail/help/promos/tap/index.html

Andy

 

[RogerS]

Thanks guys for the :idea: moment. You reminded me that I'd bought a Bluetooth keyboard that never managed to pair with my iPad (when I had one) but it pairs with my Samsung Galaxy Ace perfectly!