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Tablets

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danmand

Well-known member
Nov 28, 2003
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I am hesitant to buy a tablet, but it seems the wind is blowingh in that direction. The ones I have looked at have very limited connection options, only a nini usb and no slot for an SD card. My netbook has plenty of usb slots as well as several SD card slots.

Does any of the tablets have more slots??
 
Tablets are being replaced by larger phones imo. The Galaxy note 2 pretty much does what any tablet does.

I used to own a Galaxy tab: no slots.
 
The newer Galaxy tabs do. I think the ASUS ones as well.

What sucks is the shitty bandwidth caps imposed by our providers. This is what is holding cloud computing back.
 
danmand said:
I am hesitant to buy a tablet, but it seems the wind is blowingh in that direction. The ones I have looked at have very limited connection options....
Click to expand...

It's still all marketing hype that works on some.
I play around with tablets but still feel they are too limited and underpowered and any netbook for <$250 will easily outperform them doing real work.....;)
Tablets are nice though and good for just dicking around!.....:eyebrows:
 
One of the reasons I take my netbook on vacations is that I can put the SD card from my camera into irt and look at my pictures.
 
danmand said:
One of the reasons I take my netbook on vacations is that I can put the SD card from my camera into irt and look at my pictures.
Click to expand...

Agreed!
At minimum, SD and usb ports are a must!.....;)
 
The motorola xoom can take an SD card. However that's now well over 18 months old. Not sure if they even sell it anymore. I find it hard to believe there isn't another tablet on the market that can take them.
Failing that, I believe it's possible with a special USB cable (around $15) to connect a USB device, such as memory card reader to some/all?? android based tablets. If you are leaning that way let me know and I'll give you a bit more info about this cable.
 
Intrinsic said:
If you don't need it, put it off for a little while longer. Unless you're in dire need of one. I personally will hold off for a little while longer and I'm personally considering either a DELL XPS 13, Samsung 9 Ultrabook or possibly a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. I prefer a lighter laptop -aka ultrabook- with a physical keyboard over a tablet device. But if I were you, wait another year or so. Again, unless you "need it".
Click to expand...

That is what I am thinking. I managed to find a new AC adapter for my trusty old netbook, which will be able to last another year.
 
^^^Good!
By next year better models will probably be out!.....
thumbsup.gif
 
Sorry about your disappointment danmand, but "tablets" appear to evolve into a new category of devices different from the standard desktop and laptop computers.

It seems that micro SD card has become the stardard format of memory card slot of the Android tablets. This probably stems from the evolution of tablets from smartphones, where the standard SD card is too big. It also seems that one slot per device is the standard.

It also seems that the only standard data port on most Android tablets is the micro USB (not "mini", one size smaller with a flatter connector). This is also the charging port for many new models. The micro USB connection allows the tablet to be detected by PC as an accessory USB device / drive (ie. acting in "slave" mode). However, NOT ALL tablets allow peripheral devices (eg. USB thumb drive, USB card readers) to be detected BY the tablet itself as an accessory device (ie. the tablet working in "host" mode).

This "USB host" or "OTG" (on-the-go) mode is not available in earlier versions of the Android OS - if the tablet has Android 2.3 (nickname "Gingerbread") OS, it MAY OR MAY NOT be activated. Current tablets in the market such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus or Asus Transformer, equipped with Android 3.2 (nickname "Honeycomb") or 4.0 (nickname "Ice Cream Sandwich" or "ICS"), should have this OTG function by default.

Regarding your requirement for viewing pictures on the SD card from your camera:

(1) If the tablet has OTG function, you need to buy a micro USB (male) to standard USB (male) conversion cable, and a mobile USB memory card reader where you plug in your standard SD card. Unfortunately, my experience told me that, for some reason, NOT ALL hardware such as card readers (amongst other things) are compatible with the OTG function. There is no particular brand or model to avoid. Thank goodness card readers are dirt cheap.

(2) You can use micro SD memory cards on your camera - just about all micro SD cards come with a standard SD card adaptor. You can use the micro SD card with the standard card adaptor in your camera. The tablet will be able to read the micro SD card, but it is a tiny little card which is difficult to insert and remove from the slot, and it is easy to lose.

------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. I don't know if you use a D-SLR or not, but the standard picture viewer in Android cannot read RAW files. Typical JPEGs are OK. There are Android apps which can read and convert RAW files. If you don't know what I am talking about, just ignore this addendum because you are fine.
 
Thank you, that is all very useful information.
 
Look at the soon-to-be released Nexus 10. Better than an iPad in every way. One usb port, one hdmi port. No microsd, but so what. Just use an external usb drive.
 
checks said:
Look at the soon-to-be released Nexus 10. Better than an iPad in every way. One usb port, one hdmi port. No microsd, but so what. Just use an external usb drive.
Click to expand...

Re: using external USB drive with tablets

Be careful - unlike laptop or netbook computers, the USB port of most if not all tablets cannot provide enough power to run an external hard drive, unless the external drive has its own AC power adaptor. USB thumb drive is OK. An emerging technology to overcome this is the wifi external drive eg. Seagate GoFlex Satellite.

These are just one of numerous things (limitations) most consumers don't know about, presuming all existing devices and technologies for PC can also be used / applied to tablets.
 
Look at the ASUS tablets if you want the best of both worlds (There maybe more manufacturers using the same design concept).

I have an ASUS Prime which has a tablet that instantly snaps into a keyboard and then closes like net book. The tablet has a micro SD slot allowing you to economically expand the memory. The tablet includes rear camera (with flash) and a front cameras for video conferencing.

The keyboard has an additional battery capable of driving the unit ~ 18 hours (full business travel day without hunting the airport for plugs/chargers). The keyboard includes a standard USB & with a nice keypad that includes a built in touch pad. I use the USB slot with work files I carry on a USB stick. The entire unit is small enough to fit comfortably on the drop down serving tray of your airline seat.

I also load up some movies and upload magazine pdf's in which I remove the tablet from the keyboard and use the tablet on it's own. It is a great combination and I wonder why more manufacturers don't try the same formula. It would seem a perfect fit for Windows 8.

The whole thing fits easily in my binder so I'm not carrying a separate notebook anymore. A photo and link (to those curious) is included below:

asus-transformer-pad-infinity_01.jpg


http://www.asus.com/Tablet/Transformer_Pad/ASUS_Transformer_Pad_TF300T/#specifications
 
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