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New New toy for J: Archos 80 G9 16 GB 8-inch Android tablet.
http://www.archos.co...ountry=us&lang=en

Just ordered for $280 at B&H.

I had the 250 GB hard drive version in my shopping cart, but it can't charge through the USB port so one has to bring along a power brick. And there's the lack of durability in hard drives... Since there is a Micro SDHC port, one can add lots of additional storage easily. I got a couple of 32 GB Micro SDHC cards, a micro USB cable, and a $30 case and screen protector to go with it.

It can be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.x) so it will be fairly up-to-date.

I wanted to get J something small, light and portable for travel. She still likes her Dell Mini9 Hackintosh, but it can't be used with the latest version of MacOffice (for viewing PPT files, etc., and she's had some corruption issues moving PPT files between MacOffice versions). The Archos 80 is smaller than the Mini9 and our iPad v1, has more storage, is more easily interfaced with other devices, is cheaper, and has at least rudimentary Android PPT and PDF viewers (for conferences).

Plus it'll let me play with Android and see whether it makes sense to consider when I finally replace my Palm phone/PDA. ;-)

Here's hoping that it works at least approximately as well as the specs indicate. :-)

Cheers,
Scott.
New So far it seems pretty good. More in a week or so.
New Seems like the segment is heating up: Samsung GT 2 review.
http://www.techspot....laxy-tab-2-7inch/

$250.

I know that Apple doesn't usually worry about cheaper devices, but I think they should seriously think about the 7-8" form factor. It's pretty nice for many uses.

Cheers,
Scott.
New It seems pretty good.
It works well, so far. The Wifi works well, the apps generally work well, the touch-screen is bright and generally works well. It took a long time to figure out how to get the Micro SDHC cards to be recognized. It turns out that they're only recognized after the display has been cycled off and on via the on/off switch. After that, one sees all 32 GB (FAT32 format).

I've tried a variety of PPT viewers. None are perfect (at least not with J's presentations). The best fidelity with her Mac desktop version is converting the PPT to a PDF and using the genuine Adobe Reader. We were hoping to find a way to time dry runs like in Office slide shows, but the best thing we've found thus far is to start a timer application, then start the PDF reader. The timer will continue running in the background.

Likes: Size, weight, cost, battery life. Angry Birds is fun. Easy to update to ICS via Wifi.

Dislikes: Sometimes the screen is temperamental about responding to some finger presses (especially in Firefox). Sometimes FF and the standard browser locks up for unknown reasons - presumably more usage will delineate the safe working area. Not quite as responsive as our gen-1 iPad (e.g. slower to rotate from portrait to horizontal). The manual isn't very informative (like about the micro SDHC issue above).

I think it's a great choice. J isn't enamored by it yet, but she hasn't spent much time with it. She's got another trip this Friday - maybe she'll use it then.

Recommended, but maybe check out the upcoming competition.

Cheers,
Scott.
New Review at Anandtech.
http://www.anandtech...views-fast-enough

They didn't like it all that much, but I still think it's a pretty good box if you recognize its limitations.

Cheers,
Scott.
     New toy for J: Archos 80 G9 16 GB 8-inch Android tablet. - (Another Scott) - (4)
         So far it seems pretty good. More in a week or so. -NT - (Another Scott)
         Seems like the segment is heating up: Samsung GT 2 review. - (Another Scott)
         It seems pretty good. - (Another Scott)
         Review at Anandtech. - (Another Scott)

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