I got a favor to ask of a Calkulin user - G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello,
I'm new to Android and a new Viewsonic user.
Anyways, I'm having an issue getting my g tab to work how I'd like to with a specific application.
The application... viewing PDF's. I can view PDF's fine, the issue is with scrolling while viewing PDF's. I'm not sure if the culprit is the software (adobe reader) or the speed of the machine itself.
To eliminate the latter I'd like to send a file to anyone using Calkulin (from what I've read this is the highest performing in terms of speed).
What I am seeing with the current version of tap n tap/adobe is that only the viewable area is loaded, if you scroll 1-2 pages you have a blank page and have to wait 1.5sec for that image to load. My hope was that it'd be more fluid.
With my desktop at work (which is nothing stellar) I'm used to seeing, while scrolling fast, around 75% of the image is viewable instantly and around 2 secs later the entire image is displayed.
My g tab isn't working the same way. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a great product, but for my application it isn't working as I had anticipated. The ability for me to "preview" 75% while scrolling is a must for me. Without it I'm kind of navigating blindly.
If anyone has insight, suggestions, or willing to help me experiment I'd appreciate it greatly.
The ability to view PDF's on the go is my primary reason for purchasing. I'm a service tech, I hoped for this to be a library of parts/service manuals I could navigate easily.
Thanks,
Jim

sure pm me with your details and I would be glad to help you out

I am using Calkulins G-Tab 1.1 ROM and Pershoots 2.6.32.39 Kernel and can't thank them enough for the great work that they have done. I have downloaded several PDF files and viewed with Adobe Reader. I was able to scroll through a 12 page document in what I would say is a quick pace. If you scroll to fast you get a blank page while it catches up. Takes less than a second for it to catch up but that is depedent on fast you are scrolling. For me I think it is quite acceptable. I have been very impressed with this ROM and Kernel and would highly recommend. It has been very fast and stable. I am getting Quadrant scores around 3500 and Smartbench scores around 4200.

webman418 said:
I was able to scroll through a 12 page document in what I would say is a quick pace. If you scroll to fast you get a blank page while it catches up. Takes less than a second for it to catch up but that is depedent on fast you are scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm getting similar to what you are describing... load times are probably longer on my end. The issue is the docs I am viewing can easily go up to 200 pages and with them being completely blank when i scroll to them, it slows me down big time.
If there was some point of reference that was visible instantly I'd be happy, but being that I don't know the manuals well enough to say what comes after the next page and you times that by 200 it becomes tedious.
After reading your post I think my issue is more rooted in adobe than in the speed of the tablet.

Personally, I like to use the e-book reader "aldiko" to read PDF's. I like scrolling control plus I like the brightness control (slide your finger up and down the left side). To annotate PDFs, I like to use Repligo reader.
Just comparing the PDF documents I have in front of me, I would say adobe is the slowest and aldiko and Repligo are the quickest for scrolling.

Thanks Poy, I'll have to try those.

just a quick question... am I wrong in thinking it is more of a software issue than a hardware issue? I know ram is lower than what i have on my desktop... could that be causing my issue?

when I first picked up the gtab, i thought 512K memory was going to be an issue in general but after I downloaded a system monitor, it seems like it is not a big deal. Two related thoughts: the android apps seem to be fairly lightweight (versus PC apps), and if the OS does swapping, the "disk" behind the scenes is flash-based so it should be quick.
If you are at all technically competent, I say "jump into the ROM pool" and try everything out yourself. If you can follow instructions, you shouldn't have any troubles. It has been a fun couple of months.

I got it working, thanks to all the help.
I tried a variety of PDF readers, I ended up going with repligo. For whatever reason I couldn't get aldiko to work.
That and I installed calkukin.
Works good.
My only complaint is with repligo... if I view landscape it shifts the image so 3/4 of the image is outside of the viewing area. To alleviate this I'll just switch to portrait or zoom out.
Thanks again.

Related

[Q] Android Tablet as Sheet Music Viewer?

I have ordered a Zenithink ZT-180-102A and plan to use it to view sheet music for the band I play in, and turn the pages with a USB foot switch that sends a PgDn key to Acrobat Reader.
Has anyone tried this before? Any gotchas?
I would think that the tablet will be (just) big enough to view A4 PDF sheet music at 10.1" (would have preferred slightly bigger)
I'm hoping Adobe Acrobat Reader for Android can go full screen and respond to PgDn messages
Battery life seems a bit light, but figure I can run it from the power adapter if required
Hopefully no outside gigs, as I don't know how well the screen would work in sunlight
If I'm reading the foot switch description right, I can configure the key press via the software on a Windows machine, then plug it directly into the Zenithink as a standard HID device. Anyone tried anything like this?
Zilch said:
I have ordered a Zenithink ZT-180-102A and plan to use it to view sheet music for the band I play in, and turn the pages with a USB foot switch that sends a PgDn key to Acrobat Reader.
Has anyone tried this before? Any gotchas?
I would think that the tablet will be (just) big enough to view A4 PDF sheet music at 10.1" (would have preferred slightly bigger)
I'm hoping Adobe Acrobat Reader for Android can go full screen and respond to PgDn messages
Battery life seems a bit light, but figure I can run it from the power adapter if required
Hopefully no outside gigs, as I don't know how well the screen would work in sunlight
If I'm reading the foot switch description right, I can configure the key press via the software on a Windows machine, then plug it directly into the Zenithink as a standard HID device. Anyone tried anything like this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, did you get this set up yet? I was looking at something similar for my band. Does the ZT180 have usb slot in it for the foot switch?
Yeah - that particular tablet is pretty iffy in build quality and design. I posted some details on it here.
The main limitation is the screen size for displaying A4/Letter. Since it's a 16:9 (or 16:10?) ratio, you get black bars at the top and bottom if you display the full page, so it's more like A5 size. For most of my music that is readable, but not ideal.
In landscape the size is about right, but you can only see half the page at a time.
The Adobe Reader software lets you do Cntl-N to move to the next page (dunno why PgDn doesn't work). The cheap footswitch I got of eBay works fine (you set it up once with some Windows software and then plug it into the USB port of the tablet)
I've ordered a 3 pedal one to try though, (cheaper than the 2 pedal ones strangely) so I can do Forward/Backwards, a maybe some sort of Scroll with the middle switch if I have it in landscape mode.
A proper A4 one would be nice though. I think I would actually take an eInk based one in preference - if I could find a reasonably priced A4 one - as the battery life would be so much better. Or maybe a Windows tablet so I could also run GuitarRig or similar for FX/MIDI stuff at the same time. Still thinking about it though. Let us know how you go.
Any update?
I would love to hear how this is going.
I am planning on getting a tablet for guitar music and would love foot pedal options.
Any suggestions? Tablets, apps, pedals etc...
I haven't used it much to be honest. The screen is a bit small, esp at 16:9 ratio for A4/Letter sheet music. The pedal idea works pretty well though, I'm using on my Thinkpad (sitting on it's side on a a music stand) for now.
I'll revisit when some genius invents a tablet which is greater than 10.2", and when a decent build quality model with Gingerbread is out.
I have to admit I'm slightly tempted with the 14" (?) EEE Windows slate that has come out recently. I think it's an i5 or so, and this would allow me to run guitar rig etc while viewing sheet music.
I purchased a Viewsonic G tablet for this very same purpose. I can read my music using Adobe in the Portrait mode ok but I would like to put it in landscape mode and use my cicada by page flip foot pedal to do a page up and page down. Have you come across anyone who can remap the keyboard to recognize page up and page down or as you have found out control N for page down.
I got my Gtablet a few weeks ago and have been playing with a few apps.
Chord Reader (pretty much just a phone), eSongBook and GuitarTapp
The each have nice features but I really need a combination of the three. I don't own a foot pedal but would like to have that feature and hear how that is working for other people.
Features I would like:
1. Change keys
2. Make setlists
3. Nice, big display
How are people mounting this for a stand? Or do you just set it on a music stand?
Best rig would be with a 13 inch macbook I believe. Check out Modbook http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
New Sheet Music Reader: MobileSheets
For anyone that happens to come to this thread looking for information, I recently released an android sheet music reader app called MobileSheets. It's currently only available for 10'' tablets. The app is designed to let you take images or PDFs you have (either from scanning, taking a picture with the tablet camera, or from files obtained on the internet) and create songs from them. You can organize your library based on album, artist, and genre, and create setlists. It also comes with a built-in metronome, and companion app for your PC. Please check out zubersoft.com/mobilesheets for more information.
One of the best reasons to get a tablet ever! How does the footswitch work?
An update is coming out this Sunday, Dec 4th that's going to add support for any bluetooth pedal for hands-free playback. Examples of supported bluetooth pedals include the Cicada PageFlip and the Airturn BT-105. I'm going to start offering a deal soon where if you buy the Airturn BT-105 through a link on zubersoft.com/mobilesheets, you will be given a free copy of the paid version of MobileSheets.
As for how the pedal works, the previously mentioned devices have two pedals. My app supports multiple modes - the default mode is the left pedal goes back one page, the right pedal advances a page. Another mode is the left pedal scrolls the page while the right advances to the next page (great for landscape mode). Once you try hands-free page turning, you will never want to go back
hmmh... this seems to be just what i was looking for... i am planning on going completely digitla on my students, as in: have 'em watch their sheetmusic on the tablet in lesson (in this case motorola xoom), then afterwards send 'em the sheets for them to print out by themselves. i'm just sick of lugging 10+ kg of sheetmusic around all day actually i was planning on buying an inexpensive printer and hook it up to the zablet via usb, wifi or bluetooth and print the stuff for them on site, but as there's no pc or router nearby and usb doesn't semm to work either, i settled for the paperless approach (which does have it's pros and cons).
one thing i'd like to know about your program though: i've got several realbooks in pdf form that i'd like to use, each containing around 2-300 songs on about as much pages. how would i go about organizing those? simply bookmark each song seperately? or would i have to split the huge single pdf into small, single ones?
[/quote] from blue powder --- one thing i'd like to know about your program though: i've got several realbooks in pdf form that i'd like to use, each containing around 2-300 songs on about as much pages. how would i go about organizing those? simply bookmark each song seperately? or would i have to split the huge single pdf into small, single ones?[/QUOTE]
I use ezPDF viewer. (available on Android Market) It allows me to use my foot switch (cicada page flip) and allows me to mark my .pdf sheets with notes for corrections or whatever. I agree with a previous poster, once you use a foot switch you won't want to go back. I am in a JAM that has about 500 songs. It took two 3 inch binders to carry them every night. Well we have now converted 16 of the 21 members to electronic viewers. It is the only way to go.
As far as organizing my folders I simply created 26 folders labeled "A" to "Z". Then every time I add a new song I simply put it in the appropriate folder. You can leave them all in one giant folder but it takes longer to find the song you want later. I found a little pain up front saved a lot of pain later.
Enjoy
do you mark your pdf's using a pen? if so, which one? if not - how DO you do it? that's one thing i would be missing in a purely digital surrounding, being able to mark up certain things etc. i don't think i'm going to have much need for a footswitch in a teaching situation, though, and as far as gigs are concerned, i play mainly jazz, and most of the leadsheets i get are a page long. if not - tough luck, i'll play better from memory anyway ;-)
the folder a to z folder-approach seems absolutely feasible, i'd probably go even more ballistic and create several mainfolders (like fingerpicking, theory, leadsheets etc), then have the a to z folders inside those. something like that. i'm more worried though that my students will be turned off by not getting physical handouts anymore. may take them a while to get used to it
ezpdf app and boxwave pointing devices
bluepowder said:
do you mark your pdf's using a pen? if so, which one? if not - how DO you do it? that's one thing i would be missing in a purely digital surrounding, being able to mark up certain things etc. i don't think i'm going to have much need for a footswitch in a teaching situation, though, and as far as gigs are concerned, i play mainly jazz, and most of the leadsheets i get are a page long. if not - tough luck, i'll play better from memory anyway ;-)
the folder a to z folder-approach seems absolutely feasible, i'd probably go even more ballistic and create several mainfolders (like fingerpicking, theory, leadsheets etc), then have the a to z folders inside those. something like that. i'm more worried though that my students will be turned off by not getting physical handouts anymore. may take them a while to get used to it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK first I would recommend looking at ezpdf on the android market. The developer has been very quick to make certain changes. I can say that the program has really improved 800 % over the past 4 months I have been using it. The developer updates the product about every 4 days. New features and bug fixes. Granted I don't use all of it's features but I think it is better than Adobe. I tried to embed a copy of the annotations page but I could not so go here "https://market.android.com/details?id=udk.android.reader&hl=en"
Pen - I do use a pen/pointer to write on my pdf's. I use the boxwave products as they were rated the best and most reliable on a capacitive screen. I have bought others but I keep coming back to the boxwave products. I even have one with an actual writing pen on the other side of it so I can take paper notes if I have to.
Folders - I do the same thing with my music folders. I have it broken out to Christmas music A - Z, Our Regular Music A - Z, Then stuff that I am practicing for my self A - Z.
Sheet Music - If you are going to stick to one page and you are young enough to be able to see clearly then forget the foot pedal. It is just one more thing to have to carry. I am 60, the old eyes are not as sharp as they used to be.
Students - I don't know how you are planning on giving them the files or where you teach, ( private classes, class room setting, high school etc) But - Hey when I was learning (still am) I would have loved it if the instructor gave me a downloadable file with all of my music for the semester. Then I could either print it or put it on a tablet. My choice. Most parents today think that if they don't buy their kids the latest gizmo they will be stunted or social outcasts, so I bet most of your students already have tablets.
Another thought - Another thing to keep in mind. My buddy teaches banjo. He was going to get a tablet for himself then we talked and he decided to get a tablet and a notebook and a projector. He then calls up the sheet music on his laptop and projects it on the screen for the class of 6 students. He uses the tablet for private instruction with out the projector.
Hope that helps.
Really take a look at ezpdf
Hello -
My solution to this problem was:
1. Scan in all my sheet music as high resolution files (300 or higher).
2. Use a photoshop technique on each image to eliminate grey and make sure the blacks are black and the white background is white - (there is a great way to do this with the eyedropper tool which you can find on youtube). At this stage I also straighten the image of each page.
3. Use a photoshop action to import the individual scanned image of each page as 'layers' on a single photoshop document --- and then save as a photoshop document.
4. Use a photoshop action to stack each photoshop layer (on a given document from step 4) out in a long continuous sheet of music and then flatten the image and save as a bitmap (so now the image would look like a flat, opened out, long, scroll).
5. Use a photoshop action to set the canvas size the correct dimensions and dpi for your given display/tablet.
6. Manually open each 'scroll' and move around the systems of your music to fit in the window you have made in step 5 ---- and save each window as a high res jpeg. Save the jpeg as the name of the piece followed by the page number.
7. Use a photoshop action to add a text layer of the same value as the file name. Save as a pdf.
8. Combine the individual pdf pages into a single pdf document for each individual piece.
9. All done. I now have 3 hours of music as PDFs that are perfectly viewable in my tablet AND can be searched for using the find feature of the PDF reader (thanks to step 7). What could be easier!
----
The lenovo A4 size tablet is an ugly looking brick - I wouldn't like that compared with this ipad solution
Fakebook
For many of the above reasons my favorite gigging tool is the Fakebook. It does PDF very well (even importing and indexing huge collections like a real book or vocal book), but at the same time it has thousands of built in chord charts (transposable). Nice annotation or scribbling, search, links to YouTube and Spotify performances and great playlist editing.
Best $1.50 spent on my Google Play account! play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skrivarna.fakebook.android
The Adobe Reader software lets you do Cntl-N to move to the next page (dunno why PgDn doesn't work). [/QUOTE said:
Yes. ctrl + n gDn. But what could be the code of PgUp?? If anyone knows the answer, please describe it is very important to me. . And there's a code table of Adobe Reader for Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

The HP Touchpad - The good, the bad, and the ugly

I thought I'd start a review page for the Touchpad. I got my Touchpad on Tuesday and have spent a good bit of time with it. In general, I see a lot of potential. I am disappointed that it took so long and isn't better than it is.
Now I understand most of the poor reviews that the unit has gotten. Comparing a first generation product with a 2nd or 3rd generation product doesn't is not likely to be very positive. But, most of us thought, between HP and Palm, the unit would be a lot further along. Perhaps HP is too big to be creative and responsive enough for a fast moving market like phones and tablets. However, to be fair, the things the unit does well, it does very well. And, what it doesn't do well, it generally doesn't do at all.
First, the weight. Personally, I like the feel of it. A few ounces either way really doesn't make much difference. It has a good balance and feels solid.
Second, the WebOS. I am new to it, but so far, I am impressed. The multitasking is really well done. The setup on the unit was simple and logically organized. There is a somewhat intuitive feel to the interface, even though if I knew more, it might be even better.
I setup my Exchange client with no problems and it works well. I will try to add some more accounts later for testing.
Now for the items I am disappointed with. I know it sounds like I don't like the unit, but I do, and it is so close. But, unfortunately, close only counts in horseshoes and nuclear war.
First, as far as I can tell, whoever designed this either never used an iPad or Android tablet or didn't use it much. They don't understand the first rule of the smart device market: You have to have some key working software. Okay, there is some, but in general, it is a real disappointment. There will be lots of other things needed, but everyone wants video, music, news, and a way to move data around. A lot of people will want a time manager, too. If you missed that in the design, you missed the key items.
It plays MP3s well, but without Pandora, it doesn't really matter much.
The worst thing so far is that the video player is useless. Most of the videos I see and use are AVIs and they don't work at all. And only about half of the MP4's have worked so far. One of the top priorities needs to be a movie player that isn't useless. Something like VitalPlayer for the Android.
You also need a good news reader. If you have an Android you get News360 or Pulse. Where is the comparable product?
Oh, by the way, it isn't terribly easy to find anything in the Appstore. It doesn't give enough granularity. It is hard to find the diamonds amoung the trash.
The other item that is needed is a file manager. Something like ES File Explorer on the Android. It allows you to move files from the LAN to the Local file structure and to move files inside the unit. I know the idea is that WEBOS handles it. But as far as I can tell, I have to hook up to a PC to move files. There is a paid app in the app store, but it doesn't do enough.
I have used Android up to this point. A year ago, it was pretty bad. But, today it is a great competitor. WEBOS can be there, too, but it can't take very long or there won't be a market. If HP is counting on business users only, they are probably DOA. From what I have seen, other than e-mail, business use takes a back seat to personal applications on tablets.
What do you think?
7-25-2011 It is getting better
Today, I downloaded KalemSoft Media Player and Gemini File Manger. They each fill at least part of the gap in the functionality of the Touchpad. The KamelSoft Media Player has added considerable functionality to the media play including additional codecs for AVI, etc. And, the MP4s that didn't work with the built in player seem to work with it. It is a $6.99 item but, so far, it seems to be a good investment. I had to add an app to my Android 2.2 unit to get the same capabilities, so it is makes sense that I will have to do the same for a first generation WEBOS tablet, I guess.
The Gemini File Manager is a valuable addition, because it has a nice two column, full screen, interface and has networking capablities. Currently it only works with Dropbox. But it is a step in the right direction. I had to download a file manager, ES File Manager, with this functionality for my Android also, but it was free. ES File Manager allows local network connection, which is pretty useful. This is pretty inexpensive at $2.99 though.
Last week, I downloaded SpaZ HD Beta Preview 1 to use as a Twitter client. It is worth a look. I have enjoyed learning how to use it.
I have download several news readers, but so far nothing that is as good as Pulse or News 360. NewsRoom is a start, but it is still in the phone format.
Pandora works, but it is in the phone format. And, that doesn't really matter much to the functionality.
So things are coming along. With a few more apps, it will be almost as good as my Android for my daily use. Android and iPad have a lot of apps, but how many are of any real use?
There are a few things missing. A working RDP app is essential for small businesses. A solid time management package that interfaces with Quickbooks would be useful, also.
Agreed, thanks for that review
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
Well, I am wrong about at least one thing. There is a Pandora app. It works, but it is a phone app and takes a little getting used to. But, it seems to work well.
I bought Newroom hoping it will be like Pulse. It is also a phone app and will take some work to get used to. But it might do some of what I want until a better app comes along. I also bought TapNote for Touchpad which I think will be a good tool, and Internalz, so I can get to the file structure. It is a phone app, so it will be a little strange until it is upgraded.
I downloaded TED, which is a source for seminars that seem to be pretty diverse. The first one I watched was great. It showed off the video pretty well.
I'm still impressed.
I prefer to buy the Touchpad than iPad. Because Touchpad is a way better than other tablets but is a bit buggy yet, but with time and devs, all can be solved.
Good luck with devs and with OTAs touch pad FAIL and webOS phones are butt ugly with a nice OS
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
I actually want to buy a touchpad....only if it doesn't become a dead system and gets reasonable support compared to android and iOS from developers
I would have to add that the font rendering is the ugliest since Windows 3.11. Seriously. The UI itself is beautiful, but reading web pages or mails hurts your eyes after a few minutes. The fonts look like they are smudged, like the screen is blurry. It is a huge fail and the biggest downside IMO. Sure, application load times are really bad, and there are no apps. But apps only need to be loaded once, and the number of apps might change. The incredibly distracting font rendering won't go away
Send an email to: Leo Apotheker, Sean Robison & Steve DeWitt. They need to hear from you.
First name.Last [email protected]
Think it's Stephen but will check. No hear back from me then it's that.
Sent from my Sapphire/dream using XDA App
Can only print to HP printers.
-1. My HP laptops can print to my Canon printer
Can't wait for Android on this thing
I bought one of the firesale units and starting playing with it. I have some questions:
1) It don't seem to support ad-hoc wireless networks. Is there any software I can add or configuration change I can make to change this? I have a Windows Mobile cell phone that can share its connection over wifi, but its ad-hoc only.
2) I put some pdfs and an m4v and flv video on the device, organized in folders. I go in acrobat reader and it seems to find the pdfs, but just puts them in a single list, rather than showing the file hierarchy. I would like to be able to browse the file hierarchy and touch a file and have it open in an appropriate player or reader. I have a lot of pdfs to put in the device and they need to be organized, not one big list.
3) Acrobat reader and Quick Office seem to be a little slow to load. I am wondering if there is an app that is quick loading that will show a file hierarchy and show or play pdf files and videos, similar to GoodReader for ipad?
4) Is there anything that will play .flv video files? The m4v video showed up in the photo viewer, but not the .flv
Thanks in advance.
guyandhisdog said:
Can only print to HP printers.
-1. My HP laptops can print to my Canon printer
Can't wait for Android on this thing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So can my Lenovo laptop.
But this isn't a HP laptop.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e
I know its not a HP laptop. Just sayin, one HP product can and one (newer) can't. That = -1
anyone else notice that this thing seems to crash/freeze alot? have to reboot quite often.
treestump said:
anyone else notice that this thing seems to crash/freeze alot? have to reboot quite often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have u updated the pad? i've been playing with mine for 2 days and havent had a hang up or freeze yet.. u might have a faulty model
I haven't gotten my HP Touchpad yet. Heck, still listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon/eCost.
This may be useful for improving performance until we have Android running:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-new-hp-touchpad/3866
hurrpancakes said:
So can my Lenovo laptop.
But this isn't a HP laptop.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read a review that said you can print to other printers but its a bit harder. Don't no the details sorry but at least you can. (supposedly)
starfcker69 said:
I haven't gotten my HP Touchpad yet. Heck, still listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon/eCost.
This may be useful for improving performance until we have Android running:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-new-hp-touchpad/3866
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Picked mine up Saturday morning and found that article yesterday. By all means do what it says, helps a lot. The more I use my touchpad the more I like it. Great little $100 investment IMO. Really wish there was a Wordfeud or Words with Friends app for it though. Preware should be installed on every WebOS device.
starfcker69 said:
I haven't gotten my HP Touchpad yet. Heck, still listed as "shipping soon" from Amazon/eCost.
This may be useful for improving performance until we have Android running:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/how-to-improve-the-performance-of-your-new-hp-touchpad/3866
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for this link! I don't even have my touchpad yet but i look forward to being able to poke around with it and get every ounce of performance possible.
Are there any other good resources for WebOS tweaks or mods? Ultimately i'll probably put android on this thing (once the devs do all the hard work) but in the meantime, i'd like to see just how usable the device is as-is.
my gripes:
browser - not as good as Android's. some pages had minor render issues, some menus didn't work right. some flash videos would not play.
browser - only way to go "back" is the back arrow at the top left corner so you have to keep your thumb near it.. awkward to hold. why no left swipe or something?
lists, any - no scroll bars! i added like 100 bookmarks then it's a pain in the ass to get from top to bottom. have to swipe down like 10 times
camera - no app is included to use it other than skype.
video player - videos files are shown as group of big icons, no way to change that to a list view, and the space allocated for the name does not have enough characters
no way to change the icons on the taskbar?
serious lack of good apps that are designed for touchpad .. maybe a dozen that i ended up keeping.
no included rss reader, calc, notes, etc.
i don't believe the Bing navi app has 3D mapping or live rerouting (for use with tether) and i didn't see any in the market.
no voice to text function ?
doesn't support mkv or avi out of the box (same for Android, iOS) .. have to reencode videos from usenet. there is a (1) paid app that can play these apparently, haven't tried it yet
no video out, rear camera, back / search / menu buttons, low-res screen, heavy... but you know that going in.
App Store - no sorting options (ie, #downloads, #reviews)
.....
things i like:
hardware is solid, battery life is impressive, viewing angles excellent, and the GUI looks polished. OS is reasonably responsive and stable (after ota update). basic functions (wifi, web, email, IM, a/v playback) work as expected.
good deal for $100.
I like my 32GB Touchpad so far, I applied the improvements and it does seem better, I have to try the overclock. It's good for the price I paid, but not for it's starting one. I'd still like to see Android on it and I hope there's more development both on webOS and Android for it.
For your news reading needs you could try the Mosaic app, it's similar to Pulse with its own twist.
os10 said:
my gripes:
no way to change the icons on the taskbar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can by going into the Launcher and touching an app for a few seconds so you can move them around.

[Q] Everything about PDF

I put some pdfs and an m4v and flv video on the device, organized in folders. I go in acrobat reader and it seems to find the pdfs, but just puts them in a single list, rather than showing the file hierarchy.
I would like to be able to browse the file hierarchy and touch a file and have it open. I have a lot of pdfs to put in the device and they need to be organized, not one big list.
Also would like to search for text in PDFs.
Ideally I am looking for something similar to ipad's Goodreader wher you can organize a hieararchy of mixed file types, PDF and video, and view any of them.
Acrobat reader and Quick Office seem to be a little slow to load. I am wondering if there is an app for this that is quick loading.
Any ideas?
Agree that Acrobat reader is one of the worst PDF readers all across the pad platforms. But unfortunately it seems that's the only choice on webos. Hope this wave of TP can bring some new PDF reader to it.
[Q] How to search through a PDF?
please excuse the question but I tried google a few times and couldn't get anything. Can the default adobe PDF viewer even search documents? If it can how the hell can I find the option? Is there anything 3rd party that allows searching through pdfs?
[Q] PDF Reading and Citrix?
To current owners, how is reading pdfs on the TP? Is it snappy like Ipad 2 and how about large pdfs like 100mb or greater? I dont really care about annotations.
Also does Citrix work? I saw an ad showing Citrix working. Thx
For the pdf file it's very fast and snappy,very usable, but only tested with a couple of 50Mo one, if you have bigger to test give me a link.
About citrix, take a look here:
http://forums.precentral.net/webos-development/190779-request-citrix-app.html
And
http://blogs.citrix.com/2011/02/09/...ake-webos-devices-enterprise-ready-at-launch/
Ok, I couldn't resist the temptation and got a Touchpad to play with. The two hospital pages where I use Citrix to access medical records don't work. The demo on Youtube looks so smooth . Adobe Acrobat on the WebOS is just as horrid as on the Android platform. There is no way, I can sit there read the PDFs in this condition. The letters all look fuzzy, and I don't think this is purely an issue with resolution and display. The software doesn't fully render it.
The good part is that flash works really well from the browser. Very well done. Also the cards arrangement of the overall OS is the best I have seen out of all 3 tablet platforms. It's unfortunate. I think it just take a little more work from HP to make it competitive.
1. A better screen. It's listed as IPS display but no where close to the Ipad.
2. Work out the small bugs in the WebOS
This pad desperately needs Alkido.
darkamulet said:
please excuse the question but I tried google a few times and couldn't get anything. Can the default adobe PDF viewer even search documents? If it can how the hell can I find the option? Is there anything 3rd party that allows searching through pdfs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to the best of my knowledge, I've looked through every option and nothing. I also asked this same question about searching PDFs and never got a response. FYI I have a few 40mb+ pdfs w/ schematic drawings and it has the tendency of chugging along or even worse it loses the menu bar uptop where I can select pages from. I'll get stuck on page 230 out of 500 and will have to close the card down and open it up again to get the number list.

What do you use to read PDF's ?

A recent posting got me thinking....
Right out of the box my prime was able to:
- Open PDFs with such brilliant scrolling smoothness and rendering speed, much faster than Gtab (My engineering eBooks).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what do you all recommend for your PDF reading experience on the Prime?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Adobe reader and EZ PDF reader. The latter works really good and loads up everything really fast. Adobe is good also. With those two. I have no problems with any PDF thrown St me. I do have other apps like Quickoffice HD Pro, Polaris, and Office Suite Pro also than can open PDF up. But the best as far as PDF readers only would be the ones I first mentioned.
I'm an EZPDF fan also. Best that I've found for annotating.
2-Page view
The full blown Windows/Linux version of Adobe lets you do a 2-page spread view in full screen. Works quite nice with letter sized PDF files on a 4:3 screen.
How do you do a 2-page view with the Android version of either?
Ez pdf pro....when it was free on amazon lol
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
I use mantano free reader. Seems the most responsive to me
+1 for Mantano.
There's a non-intrusive ad-supported free version that's full featured but I am highly considering purchasing it (around 3 bucks) 'cus it's just that good!
I've tried the stock reader app, Kobo, GoBooks, Adobe, Aldiko, and some office apps but I find Mantano to be the best in terms of features and performance.
demandarin said:
Adobe reader and EZ PDF reader. The latter works really good and loads up everything really fast. Adobe is good also. With those two. I have no problems with any PDF thrown St me. I do have other apps like Quickoffice HD Pro, Polaris, and Office Suite Pro also than can open PDF up. But the best as far as PDF readers only would be the ones I first mentioned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What this guy said. That and I like that it searches all of storage for pdfs. I have a directory for everything project and sometimes it's difficult to track down the right folder. Ezpdf indexes everything. You just have to look at its "bookcase ". Don't gotta search high and low. And for me that's a plus since I hate wasting time.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk
Am I the only one who finds ezpdf frustratingly slow to page around?
EZ PDF has been quite simplistic & pleasant to use thus far, and I've used it for a few months now.
Fact is, not many paid apps offer a feature-rich experience comparable to this one.
Sent from the last remaining Prime; Leader of the Autopads.
5h4d0w said:
Am I the only one who finds ezpdf frustratingly slow to page around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ezpdf works faster if you enable force gpu rendering (in Settings>developer options) and then clear cache (settings>apps>ezpdf reader). You need to do a cold boot to take it into effect.(hold volume down and power button to boot)
FHSPSU67 said:
I'm an EZPDF fan also. Best that I've found for annotating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried annotating for an entire hour straight? it crashes on me without even showing a FC dialog box. Its supposed to autosave but my notes from the last 5 minutes have often disappeared! I use RepliGo reader....i ponied up the cash for it and it's solid for annotating. A bit more of a pain to annotate with but at least it doesn't crash on me. Btw I emailed the ezpdf devs and never got a response. Repligo devs responded w/in 12 hours.
5h4d0w said:
Am I the only one who finds ezpdf frustratingly slow to page around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same thing here! I try opening a 400 page PDF and it takes 30 seconds to load 5 pages in front of and behind where i'm trying to look, which makes browsing page by page impossible! It has a better UI but repligo is the most dependable. by far. (I annotate pdf's for 3-4 hours/day minimum due to class slides)
Hi
that post was made by me.
I use the stock MyLibrary to load my ebooks, thus the whole "right out of the box" experience. It is very smooth for me, specially on force GPU rendering with Normal mode.
Hasan10 said:
Hi
that post was made by me.
I use the stock MyLibrary to load my ebooks, thus the whole "right out of the box" experience. It is very smooth for me, specially on force GPU rendering with Normal mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see Force GPU Rendering in the Developer Options. But where do you get the Normal mode.
Thanks for your input.
Ride525 said:
I see Force GPU Rendering in the Developer Options. But where do you get the Normal mode.
Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Normal" mode is the power mode you select from the asus tool panel. Just tap the clock in the lower right hand corner and the panel would pop up. From there you can select three different modes. Power-saving mode, Normal mode, and Performance mode along with a bunch of toggles.
EDIT: Sorry its called "Balanced" mode not Normal mode.
on my android ive found ebookdroid app to be the best.
but usually use my nook.

[Q] Pdf performance whats the bottleneck?

So don't take this as a complaint thread, I love my Prime! I was searching on the forums for why there is a lag with pdfs. I am only talking about that 1 or 2 second lag while scrolling though a pdf. In no way does it make the tablet unusable for reading pdfs. I was just wondering what do you think is stopping it from being like a computer, I can scroll though a pdf on my computer w/o ever seeing it render. Is it a processor, ram, programming, or storage read time problem?
Processor, I dunno too much about this area. I feel it should be fine.
Ram, maybe the computer is loading the pdf in ram and with the prime w/ only a gig is a little under? If that was true then computers back in the xp days would have lagged.
Programming, far far outside my knowledge. One of the reasons for the post, but you would think that someone would have done this by now.
storage, should be g2g too. I would guess....
I have tried ezpdf (love it but some of my pdfs do not have a font embeded and the rendering is ok, but others do it better), Adobe (current winner for me), Foxit (very nice), apv pdf viewer (was unuseable due to speed and render issues), Areader, Quickoffice, and Documentstogo. I have not tried Repligo but i hear good things.
Searching I read a lot about people having problems with pdfs, or a dicussion on which pdf reader to use, most choose ezpdf, adobe, or foxit. I just want to know whats holding it back from being a completely smooth experience.
Also I have never looked at a pdf less than 20meg most pdfs I read are in the 80-120meg range. Text with graphics.
Thanks for reading!
Repligo is a lot better (the best I've tried so far on Android) but still not as good as reading it on the iPad with iBooks. In my opinion, it's just the apps aren't optimised for the transformer prime hardware. Repligo is getting close to iPad iBooks (looks the same too LOL) but still not as smooth. I would to see someone release a pdf reader that is as smooth as Google's very old Play Books app or one that is as smooth and same animation as the ICS App Drawer (That would be amazing and would pay up to $10 to get something like that).
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD app
EDIT: Maybe we should open a bounty thread for a tegra3 optimised pdf reader? LOL
Just went and tried it, suffers from the render issues with fonts not being embedded. That's a deal breaker for me, try adobe read and let me know what you think. I just don't like the default fond it renders with.
I feel it was just as fast as adobe for ezpdf.
Thanks for the response!
*EDIT
Also tried the pdfs on my wife's ipad, the experience is a little smoother; just a little but noticeable.
For a living, I pretty much have to read PDF research papers all the time. Unfortunately, when I had the TFP, the PDF-reading, annotating, and research paper/organizing/citation experience was sub-par.
It will only get better over time as more Android tablet optimized apps come out.
But it beats me as to why PDF scrolling and zooming was never really that smooth.
Trying going to developer options in your android settings and force GPU rendering and turn both animations off see if that helps....
But the bottle neck is its using the CPU or ninja core to render it to save power
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
Ok, just tried:
Forcing gpu render : on
* animation: off
* transition : 1
Forcing gpu render: on
* animation: 1
* transition: off
Forcing gpu render: on
* animation: off
* transition: off
Forcing gpu render: off
* animation: off
* transition: off
No real diffrence, side note I did root my prime (did it for adbock, host file) and saw the over clock app, easy over clock app. I am assume we can link threads that are already inside the forum, if not let me know and I will remove it. The 1.6 oc is nice, but still not a solve.
@tbns what did you end up using if you don't mind me asking.
I just use Mantano, it works perfect for reading PDFs. There is no page rendering(although, I read relatively small PDFs) and it allows me to scale the PDF to fit the screen. Best of all, it stays scaled after I flip the page. I have never used it to make notes within the PDF, but I believe there is a function for it.
iJoey said:
I just use Mantano, it works perfect for reading PDFs. There is no page rendering(although, I read relatively small PDFs) and it allows me to scale the PDF to fit the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I just tried Mantano and it seems great -- by far the fastest PDF reader I've tried. I wouldn't say there is no rendering though -- I find if I zoom in and scroll around within a page, there is still a split-second delay before text becomes clear. It is not a problem at all, and infinitely better than the other solutions I've tried. If you just flip between pages instead of zooming around within a page, the text instantly appears crystal clear.
Having moved from an iPad to a TP I struggled for a while to find an app that could display PDFs without a lag. The best one, oddly, that I've find so far is the comic viewer Perfect Viewer with the PDF plug-in installed!

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