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Hey All,
I have used these forums as my main resource for android for a while now, and this is my first time having to post a question because everything is usually so well documented.
I bought a nook color a while ago, and have love it. I take college classes at night, and obviously would love to use it during said classes. Getting books, and PDF's for it are easy enough, but i am looking for an app to take notes with. I am not a huge fan of using a touchscreen keyboard to take notes which i have done in the past. Does anyone know of a solid handwriting recognition app that would be useful for class? or any other applications that would be useful for class in general?
Thanks You.
I don't think it may work fine for that purpose at least you have a stylus and a handwriting app cause its kinda annoying to take fast notes in this keyboard wether you use portrait or landscape mode because of the size
Sent from my Nook Color using XDA App
There has to be something a little more intuitive to take notes with than having to type everything... right?
So far, the best I have seen for handwriting recognition on android works like so:
Write a word
Wait
Omfg, it guessed wrong, rewrite word
Rinse, repeat until it gets one word right
Class is over
Do yourself a favor and buy a pen and paper
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
You will be good as gold if bluetooth every gets working... A nice mini keyboard would solve your problem
I hear ya man... that would make my life so much easier the day BT gets up and running.
brandsdragon.com/products/product_26269.htm
Nice cheap little mini keyboard like this one would fix my problem.
I did see an handwriting recognition app that is similar to how the old palm pilots used to do hwr, but i hated using in on the palm, and still hate it on android.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/genial-writing/com.zenpie.genialwriting
This is the best app I've found so far. My biggest problem has actually been the NC's screen. There don't seem to be enough contact points or something to make for accurate enough writing.
Can't wait for the BT day either.
I mostly use my Nook Color as a supplement to my desktop at home in college. We are a big Google Apps school so we share everything over Google Docs. I use quickoffice to access my google docs from my nook and view my presentations and notes no there. I do everything except take notes on there, because its just not possible. Wait for bluetooth and then we might have progress.
Here is a decent, admittedly roundabout set up i've come up with: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10689802#post10689802
Also, I did see (but didn't buy) a stylus made for ipad and other capacitative touch screens (such as nook color screen). It was $14.99 at microcenter in the ipad accessories section. Could work well in combination with a sketchpad type app... not handwriting recognition, but just handwriting.
Thanks for all the input guys, sadly it seems that i will have to wait until we get BT working. I have been paying attention to the progress of some of the people working on enabling BT. Does anyone know if there is a particular BT initiative that has been making more progress over the others?
At the moment there is only one person that I see working on it in the bluetooth thread.
My plan (I will start using my NC for classes tomorrow) is to use an app called blackink. You can have different notebooks for class and either draw notes or type notes. You can also sync to evernote and dropbox. At the very least I will be using evernote, dropbox and a scanner to minimize the files I keep from classes. But yes, if a working BT happens note taking in class will be much easier!
Seriously, what happened to taking notes, then transcribing them later, adding details, revising? For me it helps solidify the information in my WET data storage.
I teach first year English, am a grad student, and I use this thing with taking notes, reading pdfs, etc. The best setup I've gotten really fast with is using Evernote (which syncs between my ios devices and my Macbook) with the SlideIT keyboard. Certainly faster than trying to use handwriting recognition or the few times I've played with the ipad on screen keyboard. I usually ignore errors and clean up the notes later when I'm at my macbook. Almost as fast as writing by hand, for me at least.
Nb I also really push for my students to use Evernote. The Mac version is slightly more full featured than the windows one, but both are good and the android and ios versions are great.
Sent from my Nook Color
I tried a targus stylus made for the ipad and it didn't work out too well at all. I tried it in magic doodle and it can't even draw a straight line or circle consistently. Something about the nc touch screen just don't make a stylus conducive for sketching or note taking, cuz apparently reviewers thought the stylus worked great on the ipad. Can't wait until a tab with integrated wacom is released.
this is an offbeat solution, but in my classes, i have a macbook air (11 inch). i use the tab only when i surf and use it to stay low profile.
I've been using my Nook Color in class for about a week now. I'll share my thoughts.
1. Note-taking is a pain, and you'll only complicate your life by trying to use handwriting recognition or drawing software. I work at our campus computer store, and people have tried for a year or more to use styluses for handwritten data entry on capacitive touch screens. The mushy point on the iPad stylus that allows it to work is much closer to Sharpie thickness than a typical pen or pencil. Unless you want to have hundreds of notes that look like they were written by a kindergarten student, you should go a different route.
2. Evernote is not as useful as I had hoped. I'm used to having the ability to record audio notes with my Droid, and that's impossible with the nook at this point because it doesn't have a microphone. I've seen audio minijack add-ons for the iPod Touch that would record audio despite the lack of native support, but it will be a while before we see that on the Nook, if ever. That said, I've also tried typing on both the default keyboard and SlideIT, the latter of which cannot hold a candle to Swype. My solution? I carry a small notepad and record the audio to Evernote using my phone.
3. eBooks are extremely frustrating at times. I had to pay ~$4 for a copy of the novel My Antonia on Amazon because the free/cheap versions often lack effective ways to navigate. You can flip through a paper book, but, in the Kindle app, trying to navigate to a certain chapter without a Table of Contents is a huge pain. I'm definitely spending less than on print books, but you can't count on finding free options.
4. The native note-taking abilities in the Kindle app are beautiful. I've noticed probably a 300% increase in how much I interact with text when I can touch the text to highlight it rather than having to get a highlighter or sticky note. Being able to see all notes and highlights is also great. Yes, that's more of a Kindle-specific thing, but it looks gorgeous on the screen, and I like that the display is true to the size of a book.
5. Productivity use will remind you how far Android has to come. I've yet to find a clean, simple, and easy-to-use to-do list that can sync to Google Tasks and not look terrible on the screen. Similarly, until moments ago when I saw another post here, I was frustrated that the Calendar didn't work. There have been times in the past week that I've been close to soliciting a developer to create an app that fills the gaps I see.
6. I'm an English major, so a lot of my professors are against having technology in the classroom. I've found that they've all been accepting of ereaders because they assume people won't be using them for Facebook/Twitter/whatever. That's a pretty awesome side, but I'd prefer to use my MBP and MS Office to record my lectures along with markers in the text for going to specific parts of the recording.
I look forward to the day that Bluetooth works on the Nook or when someone creates an iPad/XOOM-style keyboard dock. I know a girl who takes her iPad to class, docks it, and loves the whole experience. I want that, but for half the price and without the walled garden. Still, though, I think the Nook experience would improve dramatically if some skilled developers were given enough motivation/compensation for their efforts.
again, no ipad. macbook air 11. trust me on this u just open and type.
agarber1 said:
5. Productivity use will remind you how far Android has to come. I've yet to find a clean, simple, and easy-to-use to-do list that can sync to Google Tasks and not look terrible on the screen. Similarly, until moments ago when I saw another post here, I was frustrated that the Calendar didn't work. There have been times in the past week that I've been close to soliciting a developer to create an app that fills the gaps I see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jorte looks good and works great for me. Give it a try if you haven't already.
Not too useful for school right now, mostly using it as a document viewer in class. Beats a smartphone for simple note-taking in a pinch. Laptops are much popular in my current school than my old one in the US, so the 'less disruptive' tablet issue doesn't apply.
Hi
I'm a teacher in a secondary school. I've got my eye on a Flyer just because they're the nicest tablet so far and I like the look of the pen.
From experience, can you tell me whether it'd make life easier as a teacher? I'd like to be able to run my lessons on it - that means having a lesson plan document (A4 doc file) open to refer to, take a register (again probably a doc or xls file of names but can create something specifically) and also note things like names I need to speak to or credits I need to give as the lesson goes on, recording grades and marks etc. The grades and marks sheet would be added to constantly through the year as a single document, lesson notes for credits/warnings are fairly temporary.
I'm also thinking it would be good to take notes in meetings, since I tend to make a few notes and lose them or not have a way of keeping them handy. I could scan in any documents I get handed during meetings and keep it all together.
All the docs I create and play with would need to be editable or at least viewable and sharable on mac and pc.
How are you guys getting on with yours and do you think the Flyer can help geekify my lessons and be better than hundreds of bits of paper? Or do you think waiting for the Puccini is worthwhile (I'm liking the portability of the Flyer more)
Also anyone want to write me a register-taking, grade keeping, lesson management app?!
I'm really surprised why everyone doesn't have a flyer by now =)
Well, anyone who takes notes and has to mark things up at least.
The Pucinni, yes - good. If you NEED the screen size, then I really think it's going to be the best bet. OR if you NEED to play all those HD games, then sure - it has a faster processor.
However, if you're just looking to get stuff done and you like even greater portability, then you can't go wrong with a Flyer.
You can get the MHL cable and use HDMI out so you (should) be able to basically turn your Flyer into a really good presentation tool when hooked up to a projector. Think of the pen there as your little pointer/highlighter...Which you can hide with a single tap and show again with another.
Then you can instantly e-mail out any screen you mark up...So while you're presenting and someone wants whatever screen/slide you're on e-mailed to them with all the markings (or not) you can very easily do so.
I think that alone makes the Flyer (and Pucinni) a KILLER device for lectures, presentations, etc. Hands down you can't beat it.
That said...I DID get an MHL cable and I can't quite seem to hook mine up to my monitor with it. I'm not sure why. So a little research into that...But I think it "should" work. I am using an HDMI -> DVI. So that could be why.
Anyway, as far as pen accuracy is concerned - it's quite accurate. I still would love to take more hand written notes, but I have to admit you fit more on the screen when typing...So I just find it faster to type still even on a virtual keyboard.
IF it had some sort of OCR system (like Palm Pilots back in the day or Windows devices) then it would be faster. It would be rock solid.
In my opinion, that is the ONLY thing that's missing from the Flyer. I can live without it, but if it existed, then I think the value of the device would increase even more.
I really don't know about any software for teachers...But check the Android market. Just note that not many (any really) apps are out there yet that take advantage of the pen (HTC Scribe) yet other than those that come with the device.
Yeah, OCR would be awesome though I guess it would slow everything down.
I'm thinking that I'll. use my laptop for presentations etc, this would literally replace my file of paper I have for each class. With an Office app and the pen, I'm pretty sure it'll do anything o need...
!!11oneone said:
Hi
I'm a teacher in a secondary school. I've got my eye on a Flyer just because they're the nicest tablet so far and I like the look of the pen.
From experience, can you tell me whether it'd make life easier as a teacher? I'd like to be able to run my lessons on it - that means having a lesson plan document (A4 doc file) open to refer to, take a register (again probably a doc or xls file of names but can create something specifically) and also note things like names I need to speak to or credits I need to give as the lesson goes on, recording grades and marks etc. The grades and marks sheet would be added to constantly through the year as a single document, lesson notes for credits/warnings are fairly temporary.
I'm also thinking it would be good to take notes in meetings, since I tend to make a few notes and lose them or not have a way of keeping them handy. I could scan in any documents I get handed during meetings and keep it all together.
All the docs I create and play with would need to be editable or at least viewable and sharable on mac and pc.
How are you guys getting on with yours and do you think the Flyer can help geekify my lessons and be better than hundreds of bits of paper? Or do you think waiting for the Puccini is worthwhile (I'm liking the portability of the Flyer more)
Also anyone want to write me a register-taking, grade keeping, lesson management app?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay... well the answer in general would be a "yes" but things to consider:
1) your eyesight: I have o problem reading a full page (letter/A4 size) on the screen but I have had people comment on how I can read something that small. Only two suggestions occur to me here. You can take one of the sheets you want to read on it and shrink it on a copier until the text area is 7" diagonally (ignore the margins, zoom is your friend on a tablet ), or if it's a matter of resolution check out an old netbook and imagine it smaller (older nettbooks have the same screen resolution, just 10" instead of 7", some of the newer ones are higher definition so be careful with that).
Office (excel, etc.) works find and can be saved. So anything requiring those can be seen and edited on the tablet as well as the computer.
The notes app is great in many ways. Yes, you will most likely never write as quickly on it as on a dedicated keyboard but it depends on your note taking style. If you jot down key points (which is made more feasible by the audio record function) then it should present no problems. If you want to transcribe an entire meeting word for word... then it most likely won't do.
Notes in the notes app are infinite in size but they can get laggy from what I've heard when they get really big and obviously office files can be edited and added to without any real limit.
And the Flyer is great for referring to notes when you need to check stuff like credits/warnings. If you include then in your lesson plan you can easily highlight them for an easier referral.
As for the suggestion for projections/presentations. Yes, a laptop might be convenient, but if you get the Flyer working then it should also work well: you can circle, underline, highlight items on the screen and the students can see it. it all depends on the specific presentation and what you'll be doing (and as Tom mentioned you can toggle all your pen markings on and off with a single tap for the "unadulterated" view of the screen.
There are OCR apps on the market though I haven't tried them so no comment (if you have an Android phone you could test them out and adjust the times needed for the OCR process according as the Flyer should be faster than most phones).
Also remember that any picture integrated into the notes app becomes searchable on Evernote. the downside is that pics in the Notes app look really small in the notes app (passable in landscape orientation) even though you can see them full size in Evernote applications as well as the website.
The Flyer can help you become more organized and deal with all those lose little papers you tend to accumulate (it's one of my reasons for getting it) although as always it will depend on how much effort you are willing to put in (although the aforementioned searchability on Evernote and such make life a skosh easier even if you're not generally organized).
WANT!
I don't need to view a whole A4 at once - I'll use it landscape and scroll.
How is it for swapping quickly between documents, i.e. lesson plan, markbook and class list/notes?
Good answer
!!11oneone,
The Flyer is a good tablet for academic people. I just recommended to a friend doing Phd. He is enjoying it.
If you open any .pdf book on the Flyer. I will auto-resize it so that the font is not too big or too small. Plus, like you said you can view in landscape or portrait.
You can also highlight your pdf he books and save it with the highlights. At the same time you can scribble on the same page you highlight and save it along using the PdfViewer provided by HTC. It is just a good tool for people you like reading, making hand written notes, want to quickly sketch an idea for future reference. Or even record voice along with hand written notes.
It is just a great tool.
Notes
I can only comment on the use of the notes feature for, well notes. I haven't used a notebook for recording meeting notes for over two weeks. I must have access to customer meeting notes and the portability of the Flyer alone versus a number of paper notebooks has been fantastic.
The audio recording implementation is good and has enabled me to reduce the volume of written notes to just points I need to take action on.
Knowing that the audio is time stamped (though not as well as a Live Scribe system) means you can also make a note about a discussion worth referring to only if needed in the future. Audio file sizes are surprisingly small.
I do recommend installing the Evernote app as well given it has better note management tools.
My handwriting is shocking, so I suspect an OCR system would fail me!
from my experience
During first days of use of my Flyer I used pen a lot and drove like crazy..but than I noticed 10 scratches on my screen and it is very hard to live with it. Don`t get why they make pen for non scratch resistant screen
Anyway I used to save my notes by default in Evernote account but somebody took my flyer just to look at it and all of my notes were gone. So, there is always risk that your notes, marks, lessons might just disappear.. I suggest you write in some text app like jota text editor or similar.. Still if you want to write it or type it and not worry about losing it, you can always send it to your email as backup..
I also used it for studying, highlighting lessons and stuff but again my screen got all scratched out.. so when I think of selling it cause its too small dont know what price I could get for what is left of it
If you dont plan to use it in subway busses..take some bigger tablet, my eyes hurt sometimes
scrolling gets boring.. I used to use 10 inch tablet and still have my Flyer so that is when I realized how disappointed I was..Couldnt read all you wrote since its 7am here.. but if you have more questions post it and Ill answer..
Has anyone noted any difference in screens between the Flyer and the Evo View? I have read a few posts now about folks scratching their Flyer screens. I have scribbled like nuts on my Evo View screen and its as clean as can be...
have no chance to try View in Serbia
I so envy you sir.. This screen is pissing me off. I thought I study from it and pass some exams but no to small for it.. eyes hurt like I said.
I guess foor students and teachers, if you would like to forget about lap top is something like 10 inch tablet with digital pen and honeycomb.. (second thing I hate about Flyer is Gingerbread..got used to it on my phone so on Flyer it seems so cheap )..
This is going to be my first tablet and I was wanting to hear from the tablet vets what are the best, must have apps and what are the best practices for ownership?
Do you recommend some brand of shields for the screen?
Best cases for the transformer?
Apps that you install before anything else?
What services did you tie in and are their any tricks to using the? For example I use to use dropbox to sync many system pref between the systems by making symbolic links to the Dropbox dir. (yes, that is a very old and not usually needed trick but you get the idea.)
Are their any cases that allow the tablet to dock w/o removing the tablet from the case.
What do you think of the asus drive privacy terms? I will not use amazons cloud drive w/o encrypting the entire contents due to their privacy clause.
Splash top works well on my wife's iPad was planning to use that, then heard of asus's implementation of splash top or is there better for android? Did some searching on it and found asus is using splash top too, is there any reason to buy splashtop hd? Didn't see any solid answer on that with google.
I think that is enough of my ideas just interested in hearing what everyone has found in their own experences.
I did some searching and all I have found is threads about best app and such looking for alittle more that fotm apps. Though I think my search foo is weak, if this has been posted sorry and would appreciate a link pointing me to the right place.
Ah one more from me any brands of shdc cards I need to avoid?
I ordered a skinomi clear skin /screen protector! This will allow It to dock! I would have gotten carbon but the speaker cutout will look weird! Remember that with any case their will be a square cutout for the speaker!
I'm in the same boat as you this will be be my first tablet!
I think you should have made a separate post for the must have tablet apps!
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
I think that if I ask about best apps you would need what type of app you are looking at like
What is the best keyboard app?
What is the best rdp app?
Looking for something alittle more general than that. Like:
I need a battery monitor app/widget, I personally use battery monitor widget the pro version is nices as it allows battery tracking.
Best apps change as they new ones come out or old ones get updates, but the role they fill always needs filling.
Thanks for recommendation on the cover! Googling it now.
Also posters if you see someone recommending and app/case and you know of a flaw or problem with said item please tell us your experience and how you have worked around or solved said problems.
Selutha said:
This is going to be my first tablet and I was wanting to hear from the tablet vets what are the best, must have apps and what are the best practices for ownership?
Do you recommend some brand of shields for the screen?
Best cases for the transformer?
Apps that you install before anything else?
What services did you tie in and are their any tricks to using the? For example I use to use dropbox to sync many system pref between the systems by making symbolic links to the Dropbox dir. (yes, that is a very old and not usually needed trick but you get the idea.)
Are their any cases that allow the tablet to dock w/o removing the tablet from the case.
What do you think of the asus drive privacy terms? I will not use amazons cloud drive w/o encrypting the entire contents due to their privacy clause.
Splash top works well on my wife's iPad was planning to use that, then heard of asus's implementation of splash top or is there better for android? Did some searching on it and found asus is using splash top too, is there any reason to buy splashtop hd? Didn't see any solid answer on that with google.
I think that is enough of my ideas just interested in hearing what everyone has found in their own experences.
I did some searching and all I have found is threads about best app and such looking for alittle more that fotm apps. Though I think my search foo is weak, if this has been posted sorry and would appreciate a link pointing me to the right place.
Ah one more from me any brands of shdc cards I need to avoid?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Less than a handful can actually comment on experience with this tablet as it's not officially out yet. Less than 5 here have it in possession already. There are reads in prime section of forum that basically covers all your sections. You will want spalshtop HD as it works great with Android tablets. As far as accessories and cases goes, check out the thread called Ultimate transformer Prime accessories thread. Also look into accessories sub forum here. There's a lot of people commenting on various cases that would be good for this device. For apps, that depends on what you looking for. Productivity, entertainment, games, research, etc.. Be more specific. Now with memory cards, there's a few threads here in general section that will answer your questions on that.
I know there is a lot of b.s. Preorder threads to sift thru here in general section. But all the answers you looking for are here. They may be a page or two back in this section. I would post links but there are so many. Good luck on your search
I will start flipping back in the pages to see what I can find. Thanks for the search pointers!
Though I do know only a few here have the device but, I was thinking that for most this would not be their first device and I was not looking for experience with "asus transformer prime" but more general knowledge with a leaning on the prime. I though that most here would be more knowledge able about the spec that the asus prime would have and most tablets have hc on them.
Though you make good points and I thank you for your advice. Going into the sub forums, damn there are a lot of pre order threads almost wish there was a temp sub forum called preorder.
I can't see if find if the asus splash top is splash top had or not anyone know?
This list should keep you busy for a while.
Best Free Android Apps 2011
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-android-apps.htm
Top 160 best Android apps 2011
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone...-phones/top-160-best-android-apps-2011-693696
The Best Free Android Apps of 2011 (So Far)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/229323/the_best_free_android_apps_of_2011_so_far.html
The 10 best free android apps of 2011
http://galaxys2apps.net/newsandmagazines/the-10-best-free-android-apps-of-2011/
The 40 Best Free Android Apps for 2011
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366244,00.asp
Results for "best android apps"
http://www.cnet.com/1770-5_1-0.html?query=best+android+apps&searchtype=videos
Ultimate Transformer PRIME TF201 Accessory Guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1377669
Thank you for the links and yes it will keep me busy for some time.
Sorry for my weak search foo
Tablets are pretty fun to use. However, it is rather difficult to bring out a tablet in public as they are quite cumbersome and you look like a pompous asshole with it; trust me. However, the transformer series has the keyboard dock, making you look like a more practical human being.
I used my TF101 in some college classes for note taking. I used Evernote. Worked beautifully. However, I want some faster speed lol.
Selutha said:
I will start flipping back in the pages to see what I can find. Thanks for the search pointers!
Though I do know only a few here have the device but, I was thinking that for most this would not be their first device and I was not looking for experience with "asus transformer prime" but more general knowledge with a leaning on the prime. I though that most here would be more knowledge able about the spec that the asus prime would have and most tablets have hc on them.
Though you make good points and I thank you for your advice. Going into the sub forums, damn there are a lot of pre order threads almost wish there was a temp sub forum called preorder.
I can't see if find if the asus splash top is splash top had or not anyone know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was a thread talking about that splash top. I don't think the one included is the HD one. I think it's the regular one. Splash HD is the one you really want though as it has all features unlocked and better for tablets. All I've heard is great things about it though. I have it on my iPad and Atix4g.
---------- Post added at 01:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 PM ----------
xTRICKYxx said:
Tablets are pretty fun to use. However, it is rather difficult to bring out a tablet in public as they are quite cumbersome and you look like a pompous asshole with it; trust me. However, the transformer series has the keyboard dock, making you look like a more practical human being.
I used my TF101 in some college classes for note taking. I used Evernote. Worked beautifully. However, I want some faster speed lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by cumbersome? Lmao as my iPad is light and very easy to carry around. Now for the pompous comment, I guess some could see it like that. I always get looks n comments like oh look, he has one of those iPad/tablet things. Lol. Like people who have/carry tablets are better than everyone...
Just saw the stylus jot pro it looks like pure sex in the ultimate as stories thread I am ordering one of those.
Thanks for the info on splash top I was hoping that I could use the asus provided on but hd looks good compared to splashtop
demandarin said:
Less than a handful can actually comment on experience with this tablet as it's not officially out yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
90% of what he asked was generic and the Prime's going to run the exact same applications every other HC tablet does exactly the same way (albeit faster). There might be some Teg3 optimized games but, other than that, it's just another tablet from a utilization perspective.
Here's some apps I can't live without:
Plex and Playon for video streaming
With Plex, you can store all your audio and video content on your home PC, NAS, or WHS and play it on your tablet, even over a 3G connection. It does an impressive job of organizing, labeling, and presenting your content and the tablet interface is pretty slick. I have 2TB of video that I stream to my tablet. It does a fantastic job of transcoding so the video quality's great even over sketchy connections.
PlayOn provides access to Hulu, Amazon VOD, and Netflix. It too is excellent at transcoding and actually does a better job in terms of video quality and buffering than the native apps. It's the best way to access Hulu content.
Pulse and News360 for news
Both have great tablet interfaces, sync with their desktop companions to bookmark or save stories, and can be highly personalized.
Zinio, PressReader, and Next Issue for magazines and newspapers
All have great content available and are designed for tablet screens. Next Issue content is free if you already have print subscriptions.
Read it Later for offline web surfing
Great app for finding web stuff to download to your tablet either as you see it or from your desktop PC to read later.
Swiftkey Tablet X & Swype keyboards
Swiftkey is a fantastic keyboard with excellent predicitive word logic and layout. It also has a thumb keyboard setting which is great when you aren't using a physical keyboard.
Swype has a mini-mode which takes up about 1/8 of the screen and is really fast when you're writing longer e-mails or docs.
CoPilot for navigation
Google map caching is hit or miss when you need to deviate and don't have a wireless signal. CoPilot stores all data locally and doesn't require any wireless signal to be fully functional.
TouchDown for e-mail
It's the best e-mail app for contact management and tasks. You almost have to have it if you connect to Exchange. It's got the best widgets of any e-mail program out there.
Worldmate travel companion
If you travel a lot Worldmate stores the details of your future trips on your tablet. As you're traveling it provides alerts for gates and times and any delays or changes to your itinerary. You can check flight status for any airline in real time and look up alternates if you're screwed.
Widgets
There's tons of screen space to fill on a tablet and these are some of the widgets I think are cool looking, useful, or both.
- Google Market
- AP Mobile
- CNBC
- CNN
- Pulse (multiples)
- Touchdown e-mail, calendar, and tasks
- Worldmate (live flight alerts on your home screen)
- Social Hub
- Gallery
- Kobo
- Amazon MP3
Task killers, batter managers, and the like
Tablets are different than phones and they're used differently. Android as an OS manages resources incredibly effectively. While it's a personal choice, adding things that use resources to save resources seems counter intuitive to me and I don't use them.
Half the fun of an Android tablet (vs. iOS) is the ability to make it your own. Enjoy.
Asus already included a big portion of the apps you might need for basic usage.
But here s some apps I use pretty much every day with my transformer, they re almost all optimized for tablet (android 3.0 framework)
Wizz Widget (for social feed)
tTorrent (for downloading)
subloader (for automatic subtitle downloading)
mobo player / bs player (for watching any kind of video)
File manager HD (a file explorer, better than Asus's one)
Newsr (a google reader better than google reader)
Catch note (to take and read note in the cloud, protect by password and synchronised on every device)
Google Current (offline reading of RSS feed with a very nice looking layout)
Beyondpod HD (best podcast apps)
And Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Idea, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Picsay Pro, cause I'm a computer graphist.
Those are the apps I use the most, along which there is some usefull apps like skype, messenger, dropbox, splashtop HD, Facebook and pretty much every google Apps. (chrome to phone, translate, maps, etc etc)
Unless you're a super reckless user, a screen protector isn't going to be necessary (and is sometimes ugly/degrades screen quality). It's really hard to scratch this screen, and other ones like it.
kokusho said:
File manager HD (a file explorer, better than Asus's one)
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I second that.
Newsr (a google reader better than google reader)
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I would reconsider. Newsr is really buggy and slow, crashes a lot and behaves very strange when you start it before WiFi is connected. I didn't find anything better though.
For me most important are also:
- ezPDF - I don't know any better app for PDFs on any system or device (great for taking notes on books or writing answers in exercise books for school).
- Writepad Stylus - for writing (not perfect, but the best I found, if you are buying Adonit Jot, you will find it useful),
The rest for me is mostly games. Cut the Rope is the "must play". Dizzy is the "greatest but probably only appreciated by fans of the original".
hauj0bb said:
Unless you're a super reckless user, a screen protector isn't going to be necessary (and is sometimes ugly/degrades screen quality). It's really hard to scratch this screen, and other ones like it.
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I agree. I've had my Galaxy S (Gorilla Glass screen, like the Prime) in my pocket "unprotected" for about 18 months now, and although I was anxious at first, I haven't noticed any scratching of the screen. Screen protectors might have been recommended for resistive touchscreens, but I don't think they're necessary with capacitive touchscreens, because the glass is tough enough already.
Magnesus said:
I would reconsider. Newsr is really buggy and slow, crashes a lot and behaves very strange when you start it before WiFi is connected. I didn't find anything better though.
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Weird, I don't have any problem at all with newsr. Butter smooth, fast feed load, super stable, not a single crash. Sure if you re offline it doesn't login but that's expected from a RSS reader and nothing strange happen, just a message saying that you need an internet connexion.
I wonder why you seem to have problem with it.
Hi all, I've been thinking about getting an android tablet to play around with, especially now that my laptop's getting less and less portable due to its battery.
It would be nice if I could take the tablet around for notes, word processing and using googledocs - just wondering what people's experiences of using it as a productivity device has been - like is it easy to switch between apps - word processor/pdf/browser (does alt + tab work on the keyboard dock?), does googledocs work okay, is it convenient enough to carry around etc.
Thanks for your time.
gasterfire said:
Hi all, I've been thinking about getting an android tablet to play around with, especially now that my laptop's getting less and less portable due to its battery.
It would be nice if I could take the tablet around for notes, word processing and using googledocs - just wondering what people's experiences of using it as a productivity device has been - like is it easy to switch between apps - word processor/pdf/browser (does alt + tab work on the keyboard dock?), does googledocs work okay, is it convenient enough to carry around etc.
Thanks for your time.
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Yes it is good for all of those things. The form factor is really quite perfect. However there are well documented issues with the Prime which you should take into consideration. Bad I/O and the BT/WiFi issues being my main gripes.
Alt-tab works fine except they put the Alt key on the right which means it takes two hands to actually do it! I solved this simply by editing the key map file to swap the Search and Alt keys, as well as swapping the actual physical keys but really I have no idea what they were thinking.
Hope this helps
I advice getting the Asus Eee pad Infinity (TF700) which should have the issues mentioned above resolved and is the same price ($499 + $150 for dock) and a much better screen, faster memory and slightly faster SoC.
It's an excellent productivity device in my opinion, even stock it's plenty fast to do all the things you'll want. Try different word processors to see which ones you like, and be sure to install CloudON and OnLive Desktop for when you absolutely need MS Office. They're both free and work great with a good connection. I currently use my prime as my primary device and have absolutely no regrets.
Oh! And get a screen protector. Gorilla glass or not, the constant rubbing against the keyboard dock (when closed) leaves some slight marks on the screen. They're not terrible, but noticeable in the right light and when the screen is off.
hi all, in general i'd say the tablet is worth to buy. but for word processing i tried some apps, my opinion on that is, that you can sometimes edit your things quick, but some features are missing in the apps, e.g. marking text via shift + cursor buttons (some apps can, some don't).
especially when editing power point slides i had problems switching between apps. alt+tab worked fine but sometimes when the app or android itself decided to terminate the office app my work was lost. same for browsing, the stock browser does not safe the tabs over sessions and chrome often stops working and you have to restart it.
at all i would say its good for small things but i wouln't be able to work as productive on the tablet as on a PC.
but things are quite different if you flash linux on the prime - even if it is in testing state it work well and working is much more like on PC
If your looking at using google docs then the office functionality on the prime should be fine. As people say, if you want some complicated docs then the tablet can be a bit limiting.
I find using one it's very good for 80% of what you want to do. Then you have to jump back to a PC to complete it. I start word docs while on my travels, manage everything in Evernote, task lists with Toodledo and it's great. All the cloud tech and google drive now makes it so very easy to manage. But I love getting back to a full keyboard and my dual screens
I found that the native Google Docs (now called Google Drive) app sucks for editing documents, especially spreadsheets. However, I really like OfficeSuite Pro, which can connect to your Google Docs account. OfficeSuite Pro has good keyboard shortcuts and a pretty good feature set. I've tried a few different office suites for Android and I like this one the best. And yes, alt-tab works great. You can also plug a USB mouse into the keyboard dock and log into your PC remotely from your tablet. As someone else mentioned, you may want to consider the Infinity tablet at this point. I know I would if I were shopping for a tablet now.
gasterfire said:
Hi all, I've been thinking about getting an android tablet to play around with, especially now that my laptop's getting less and less portable due to its battery.
It would be nice if I could take the tablet around for notes, word processing and using googledocs - just wondering what people's experiences of using it as a productivity device has been - like is it easy to switch between apps - word processor/pdf/browser (does alt + tab work on the keyboard dock?), does googledocs work okay, is it convenient enough to carry around etc.
Thanks for your time.
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Click to collapse
The problem I run into is that when using it in the keyboard dock with my usb trackball attached, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not in Windows and some of my habits from Windows work against me. The Alt key being on the other side of the keyboard is a good example. When I want an Alt-Tab my fingers just automatically go to the place where those keys are located on a Windows machine. Right clicking with my mouse or trackball also doesn't work the same way it does in Windows and the procedure for selecting text is different. All of these sorts of things don't add up to bad however - they are just different. Its just that when I'm sitting there typing and using the mouse, it's very easy to forget that I'm not on Windows and the habits acquired over many years aren't right for this device. But that's just a matter of getting used to the device.
A couple of items I have not seen others mention:
1. The right shift key is only half sized and has the up arrow right next to it. When I'm going for the shift, its very easy to hit the up arrow by accident - guess I will get used to that too.
2. Cntrl-C for copy and Cntrl-V for paste work just like they do in Windows which I find very useful.
Prôductivity wont be good until we have an actual windows like multi tasking system
Hey thanks for the reply guys. And yeah, I was considering the infinity but I'm from the UK and it hasn't been announced there (okay that's not true anymore - it was announced today) and I couldn't find the infinity forum on xda.
So yeah, I'm thinking of either getting the infinity or getting the nexus 7 with a wireless keyboard for a bit cheaper, and then perhaps look into the Surface when it comes out?
What do you think, nexus 7 or the infinity? I don't know how good a 7" screen would be though.
If you decide to go with a Nexus 7 and bluetooth keyboard, you may want to research and make sure that the keyboard will support alt-tab. If not, you can still use the recently used apps icon to pull up a list of apps, but sometimes the keyboard is more efficient than reaching up to the screen to touch that icon. Another thing, at least for me, a 7" tablet would probably be too small to do a lot of productivity work. I'm more comfortable with a 10" tablet for productivity.
I have been looking for a tablet for myself. Mostly, for note/lectures taking and reading. And also for remote connections to Linux machines, when I'm at the beach for example.
When I first saw it, I immediately understood that I had to have it. I bought Android version through Lenovo website. Windows just doesn't make sense to me on this device, it is not powerful enough, and it is a tablet! It is not supposed to replace a laptop. I don't find Windows apps ecosystem as good for mobile devices, as Android.
Waited about a week. Was very excited, when I finally got a package (yeah, I know, I'm a grown-up baby ). And, unfortunately, was disappointed right out of the box. The screen was defective (I even posted it here, lol): uneven color temperature to such level, that I cannot stand. But, I decided to give it a try anyways.
1. Hardware is impressive. Tablet looks fantastic. Sound is very good for the device of this size. I'm still blown away by a case itself. I liked the hinge, and how you can easily transform the tablet.
2. Halo keyboard looks futuristic. And it is OK for typing. I saw many reviews heavily criticizing it, but it is fine. Yes, you cannot type as fast, as on the mechanical keyboard, but it is still much faster than on the on-screen keyboard. Well, touchpad is bad and doesn't support multi-touch (though manual suggests it does), but I actually don't think one needs a touchpad on Android, so I don't complain here.
3. Drawing and note-taking on the Wacom surface is reliable and was a good experience for me. It is a little bit awkward in the beginning to physically write not directly on top of the area where image appears, but it is very easy to get used to. No buttons on the pen though.
4. Atom CPU is more than enough, device felt very responsive overall. However, I did notice it stuttered while charging, probably due to thermal throttling. But on battery I didn't notice any performance issues with the apps I used.
5. Now comes a weak part. Software.
I liked the taskbar, it is nice and useful, but overall, stock software feels like it is a beta version, and it is very basic (to say the least). Especially Lenovo apps (including note-taking). Well, not a real minus, since there are good apps in Google Store. But Lenovo Android customizations definitely need polishing.
Multi-window is almost useless, you cannot resize apps, but only have a smartphone-like size. And in windowed mode apps very often crash (I actually don't remember, when was the last time anything crashed on my Nexus 5, but I root-customized it...).
Some settings simply don't work: no matter what you do, it resets itself back to the default value. For some reason, I couldn't select my Google account as a backup account... Encryption is enabled by default, and you cannot disable it (it actually resulted in a factory reset, see below). Transition animations constantly turned on/off by themselves. And manual is simply inconsistent with the actual software.
I didn't find an easy way to switch Halo keyboard languages.
No customization for note-taking app: every time you switch to Wacom input mode, annoying Lenovo note-taking small window appears, and you have to close it in order to continue drawing in your app.
I had a nasty experience with an update. While updating everything seemed normal, but on the final boot I got a message "Encryption failed. Your tablet will be factory reset". And, yep, I got a completely fresh system, but it was updated. :good: And since there was no option to use my Google account for backup, I had to reinstall and reconfigure everything again. :silly:
Taking all that into account with my initial hardware problem, I just decided to return my YogaBook. I should say, it does feel sad a little bit as it is a very unique device. Honestly, I really wanted to love this device. But it definitely needs polishing, and if you're not a gadget enthusiast, you probably should wait for the next version.
disagree in all points
Gesendet von meinem Lenovo YB1-X90L mit Tapatalk
Hanfried said:
disagree in all points
Gesendet von meinem Lenovo YB1-X90L mit Tapatalk
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Sure. Do you disagree on all points or only on negative ones?
I really wanted to love this device. Well, I'm returning mine anyways because of the screen issue. I went with my YogaBook to BestBuy and compared it to other tablets, and yep, even Samsung Tab A 10.1'' has a better screen than my tablet. This is definitely unacceptable.
I'm not 100% sure though, if I should just return it or actually do an exchange. But I'm returning, because in this case, if I change my mind, I can purchase a new one (hopefully, without screen defects) (effectively do an "exchange").
If you could be so kind, and point out to me how to fix these software glitches, I would really appreciate it.
couldnt agree more. I personally contacted lenovo in order to return the yoga book too. so disappointed. I think they should have installed Chromebook OS
BTW, I also had the problem with the upgrade and I had to reset everything...
Just curious . . . .
Don't you think the problems will be solved with updates? It is a new product after all. :silly:
spmcd said:
Don't you think the problems will be solved with updates? It is a new product after all. :silly:
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Maybe. That's why I say one should wait for another version.
I have bought Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 with S Pen, and this tablet actually performs much better than YogaBook, despite lower specs. Moreover, it actually feels much more comfortable to write directly on the screen.
I just got mine in uae and despite its flaws i really love this device because of the battery life, sound, display and the wacom stylus. Sure the halo keyboard needs some more work but otherwise it works as intended. Just waiting for someone to make a remix os for this.
focus-pocus said:
Maybe. That's why I say one should wait for another version.
I have bought Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 with S Pen, and this tablet actually performs much better than YogaBook, despite lower specs. Moreover, it actually feels much more comfortable to write directly on the screen.
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I pulled the trigger and am going to give it a try. The biggest selling point for me is being able to take notes on paper and pen and then have handwriting recognition do its magic.
Also, there is "Any Pen" support for writing directly on the screen. Though it is not perfect, it should be enough for me.
Admittedly, I am still not 100% convinced and I will let you know how it goes when I get my hands on it.
i picked one up at last friday, i wanted a light decent 10 inch android tablet for mostly browsing, evernote and messing on, the keyboard is a compromise but suits my needs, if im going to do a large amount of typing ill do it on my desktop pc, I personally really like it overall but I just hope they bring Nougat to it so we can atleast have the 2 window option, other than that i lowered the dpi because it was far too high for me, and hopefully we get root soon so i can force chrome to always display desktop sites, as mobile sites on a 10 inch tablet is stupid.
oh i also wish you could scroll easily with the trackpad but i guess thats an Android limitation.
Yeah true that really need that nougat. Has anyone tried installing remix os on their yoga book?
bisharat said:
Yeah true that really need that nougat. Has anyone tried installing remix os on their yoga book?
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I ůove this device so much but i must totaly agree that Lenovo should agree with jide and Remix OS should be preinstalled as the lenovo modified android realy sucks and is inmature... BTW i am intersted in same Did anyone?
I love it, you have to get used to it
Got mine few days ago.
I love it.
It takes some adjusting of workflows, but it is new, it is different, it is astonishing! Those are the reasons I bought it!.
HINGE IS MIND BLOWING!!!
Coming from range of tablets (Samsung 7" once upon a time, 10.1 Samsung, Xperia tablet z...) and many phones from different manufacturers, keeping just glass/glass as lite motiv (iPhone 4,xperia z1, S6 edge, S7 edge) I confirm it is different!
Missing lot of Samsung staf, missing lot of IOS stuff, but who cares. Playstore can provide all needed apps for my life/work stile.
It is little bit havy, looking at you keybd, but it has a keybd. For others I had to buy separate one. Halo is not a PC (Mak) keybd, but tablet is not a PC nor Mak. This just works It would be nice to change halo keybd (what you can see) but I can live with German layout I've got, just installed swift and off we go!
The only thing that is a real problem is waterproofing! I was so happy reading in a hot bath! When Experia started leaking it really hurts!
If someone knows about waterproof light case for yoga, please, pretty please let me know!
Everything else will solve it self out, root, android 7.... Just have some patience. XDA always brought a solution. For doubtful - check HTC HD forums...I forgot about my 2 phones, but development is still kicking!
Just that waterproofing IP 68 anybody?
P.S. You can swipe with mousepad, in android, just not 2 finger like manual is promissing.
I got mine today and I love it, but there are things (mostly software) that are bafflingly annoying... I got this device with the idea I could utilize Netflix's offline downloading feature only to find out it's not compatible... wtf... fail...
I got mine about three weeks ago and I'm quite happy with it. I "forgot" my work laptop in my office before Xmas and I was able to survive with my Yogabook (LTE version) so far. Android MS Office apps work sufficiently well for me. VPN and Citrix Terminal Client do their job. I only use my apps in full window mode because the task bar does the job for me. Yes, it's very basic but ok for me.
I had a lot of stability issues in the beginning. I figured out that most of the apps were installed on the 128 GB sd card by default. After moving all (no exceptions) apps to internal storage, there were no crashes anymore. I already used this solution for another Android device with lots of crashes.
It took a while to get used to the keyboard but it is possible to do 10 finger typing at medium speed after some training. I just had to switch off the word completion feature because it began to drive me crazy.
After watching some Youtube videos from an artist who uses his Yogabook as a professional drawing device, I even became motivated to try it out myself. Before I just used the pen to take some notes in Evernote. It's actually quite some fun to use it for drawing and I had to buy the add-on stuff of the ArtFlow app.
Yes, it's annoying that it is not possible to download stuff to the tablet via the Netflix app. Amazon, Spotify, and Maxdome download content works well, however, in offline mode. The HDMI output to an HD TV or a projector looks good, too. Both for video streaming and Powerpoint presentations.
In summary, I'm quite happy with it ... even as an unplanned replacement for my work laptop ...
the drawing surface work with other apps or just the lenovo drawing app? for example Adobe sketch
dshadow21 said:
the drawing surface work with other apps or just the lenovo drawing app? for example Adobe sketch
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It works great with Sketchbook, Infinite Painter, Layer Paint. However somehow most brushes do not work with Corel painter.
I personally find drawing on Yogabook to be more responsive and less alggy than compared to my Samsung 10.1 2014.
hajkan said:
It works great with Sketchbook, Infinite Painter, Layer Paint. However somehow most brushes do not work with Corel painter.
I personally find drawing on Yogabook to be more responsive and less alggy than compared to my Samsung 10.1 2014.
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I used so far without issues: ArtFlow and ArtRage for Drawing, Evernote and Lenovo Note Taker for handwritten notes, Ez PDF for annotating pdf documents.
For my purposes, the pen is very accurate and responsive. In ArtFlow the pen pressure dependent line thickness and color intensity work very well.
Small addition. It survived nasti drop from table height in the office, rough terrain (PC, table legs, chair legs).
Ugly dent in metal and some scratches. That is a drawback of metal build! Glass glass will shater or survive without evidence.
BUT IT WORKS no problem at all!
Stupid question
How to @ on the Halo keyboard?
Shift + @