MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Do you have a tablet? Would I like it? Should I wait to buy one? Please Post.

FatDog · 07-17-2011, 07:53 PM

I just got my Viewsonic GTab - 10 inches with USB, microUSB and SD card. $260 from various sites.

A friend rooted it and installed Gingerbread version of Android and Vegan 7.0.0 ROM.

I used the Android Marketplace to add Flash, MoboPlayer for videos, Kindle app and a 8 gig SD card from an old phone.

It is in the other room at the moment with a black carbon-fiber skin drying on it. It looks like a military device now-slightly evil which I kind of like. (I may buy a skin for my Macbook).

Similar to this:

EBOOK TEST

I picked up where I left off with a Kindle book last night. Unlike the Kindle - the main screen shows thumbnails of the covers - fairly cool. In Portraiture mode and shrunk down fonts I see almost twice as much text as I see on the kindle. The Kindle app does NOT support pinch to shrink or enlarge but the menu has good presets as well as White-on-Black, Black-on-White and Sepa settings. I can actually read in the dark.

The screen works OK as long as you look straight at it. I discovered the screen is really reflective to my light above my headboard but since it is back-lit, I turned off that light and I was fine.

I have not tried PDF but am told it works well.

I am planning to DL Alkido for epubs.

My company pays for us to have access to the Oreilly technical bookshelf. My co-workers have iPads but cannot access it because it uses Flash. But I can

VIDEO TEST

After installing Flash I was able to go to ESPN3 and start watching a replay of a Women's World Cup game.

I downloaded some various video files in several resolutions. Some extensions like FLV and MKV are containers for different file formats so I noted what codex they contained.

Note: If MoboPlayer cannot play a file - it prompts you to long-press a file and choose "Soft Decoding" which I assume means a software instead of hardware video playback. When I say "SoftDecoding" below - this was the case.

So far:

AVI 560x432

AVI 720x400

FLV (AVI) 1092x1080

- soft-decoding - played at half speed
MKV (AVI) 1028x720

- soft-decoding - played at half speed
MOV 640x360

MP4 1028x720

- soft-decoding but played fine
MP4 192x1080

- soft-decoding - half speed
MKV 1028x720

- soft-decoding but played slightly jerky
WMV 640x480

WMV 720x480

WMV 1025x720

GAMES

Angry Birds and Stupid Zombies work great. I am told I can buy Gameloft games but have not figured out how to do this yet. (Gameloft makes some great first-person shooters, RPG's for cell phones.)

07-17-2011, 07:53 PM	#20
FatDog Witless protection Agent Posts: 290 Karma: 1002898 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Los Angeles Device: Kindle	I just got my Viewsonic GTab - 10 inches with USB, microUSB and SD card. $260 from various sites. A friend rooted it and installed Gingerbread version of Android and Vegan 7.0.0 ROM. I used the Android Marketplace to add Flash, MoboPlayer for videos, Kindle app and a 8 gig SD card from an old phone. It is in the other room at the moment with a black carbon-fiber skin drying on it. It looks like a military device now-slightly evil which I kind of like. (I may buy a skin for my Macbook). Similar to this: EBOOK TEST I picked up where I left off with a Kindle book last night. Unlike the Kindle - the main screen shows thumbnails of the covers - fairly cool. In Portraiture mode and shrunk down fonts I see almost twice as much text as I see on the kindle. The Kindle app does NOT support pinch to shrink or enlarge but the menu has good presets as well as White-on-Black, Black-on-White and Sepa settings. I can actually read in the dark. The screen works OK as long as you look straight at it. I discovered the screen is really reflective to my light above my headboard but since it is back-lit, I turned off that light and I was fine. I have not tried PDF but am told it works well. I am planning to DL Alkido for epubs. My company pays for us to have access to the Oreilly technical bookshelf. My co-workers have iPads but cannot access it because it uses Flash. But I can VIDEO TEST After installing Flash I was able to go to ESPN3 and start watching a replay of a Women's World Cup game. I downloaded some various video files in several resolutions. Some extensions like FLV and MKV are containers for different file formats so I noted what codex they contained. Note: If MoboPlayer cannot play a file - it prompts you to long-press a file and choose "Soft Decoding" which I assume means a software instead of hardware video playback. When I say "SoftDecoding" below - this was the case. So far: AVI 560x432 AVI 720x400 FLV (AVI) 1092x1080 - soft-decoding - played at half speed MKV (AVI) 1028x720 - soft-decoding - played at half speed MOV 640x360 MP4 1028x720 - soft-decoding but played fine MP4 192x1080 - soft-decoding - half speed MKV 1028x720 - soft-decoding but played slightly jerky WMV 640x480 WMV 720x480 WMV 1025x720 GAMES Angry Birds and Stupid Zombies work great. I am told I can buy Gameloft games but have not figured out how to do this yet. (Gameloft makes some great first-person shooters, RPG's for cell phones.)