Android Tablets

[J. Landman Gay]

On 2/28/11 2:04 PM, Bob Sneidar wrote:
> I don't think China wants them back, what with all the hidden malware
> and all. Can't risk giving themselves the worm. ;-)

I know you're joking, but to be fair, that was never one of the issues. 
Mainly, the cheapest way to return a unit is to declare it as something 
it isn't (I've forgotten what now) so that the lowest shipping fee is 
$50. For some of these units, that's about a third of the original cost. 
Then it takes weeks to get it back, again because of shipping issues. 
The company seems reliable and responsive, it's just that they are so 
far away.

Other issues included minor problems with synching, cell phone support, 
that sort of thing. Probably some of these are universal across all 
Android devices depending on what other hardware you have. But I didn't 
see as many reports of that for the Archos.

Negatives for Archos are that they won't connect to Android marketplace 
by themselves, but a 1-minute fix enables that. Also, they allow very 
little RAM for installed apps on the device so you need an SD card to 
expand storage. They allow tethering to your cell phone for 3G internet 
access but some phones won't work. I don't care about that part, the 
device is wi-fi enabled and for my use that's enough. Wi-fi is reported 
to work flawlessly.

The positives outweighed the negatives for me, especially since I'm 
getting it primarily as a developer device for LiveCode.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com