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All right man, how'd you get it for $20!
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There's a midwest computer retailer called Micro Center that is expanding. (They occupy the niche once held by Computerland, who is now web only.) They opened stores in Brooklyn and Queens in NYC, and a direct mail piece announcing it popped up in my mailbox. It included a coupon to get an
Azpen A727 tablet for $19.95.
Azpen is one of the Asian manufacturers targeting the budget end of the device market. Micro Center is one of their partners, as is Walmart and QVC.
The A727 has a 1.5 ghz dual core CPU, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, and a 7" 800x480 display. A microSD card slot lets you add up to 32GB of additional storage. It runs Android 4.2 Jellybean. I put in a 16GB card my SO got for her Nook Tablet but doesn't use, and started playing.
List price for the A727 is $80. I wouldn't buy one that that price. I
might pay half list. $20 was a no-brainer yes purchase.
What I
want is a 10" tablet with double or quadruple the RAM, much more internal storage, a much higher screen resolution, and an external keyboard. The A727 is a cheap way to learn about android and be better prepared when I get the sort of tablet I really want.
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I'm writng ebooks and have been using Sony Reader Library to proof them, but I've gone Linux, and SRL doesn't work on Linux. For Kindle I've been using KIndle for PC (and now that I'm Linux, the Kindle Cloud Reader), but I've always felt I should have an ereader (and for epubs more than mobis--are there ereaders that read both?), esp. being in MR. lol (I came here to learn about Sigil.) I admit I am seriously clueless about the hardware. (I thought Paperwhite was cutting edge and now I just saw there's a PW3!) So if your $20 Android is a tablet it's an ereader and a computer, right?
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Yes, it's a tablet and an eReader.
There were dire predictions that tablets would kill off the dedicated reader market, but they haven't come true. Many folks prefer the eInk screens readers tend to use, for both the vastly increased battery life, and something they find easier to read. And a lot of folks want a distraction free environment where they can focus on the book.
I need a multi-purpose device, and much of what I do involves color, which isn't an option with eInk, so a dedicated reader doesn't work for me.
As it happens, reading eBooks is a primary use case for the tablet, and would justify the price even if I didn't do anything else with it.
For reading eBooks, I installed the open source
FBReader program. FBReader is cross platform, and I have it under Windows and Linux. There is a port by the author in Java for Android and other devices.
FBreader gets the nod because it handles multiple formats. Among others, it handles FB2, the standard format for Russian eBooks, ePub, and Mobi files. The version written in C for Windows and Linux has the additional win for me of handling documents in the format used by the open source Plucker offline HTML viewer for Palm OS. I've been a Plucker user for many years, and have accumulated about 4,000 Plucker files. It's nice to be able to read them on something other than my TX. The Android version is a port written in Java, It handles ePub, Mobi, FB2, and (via a plugin) PDF. I have volumes in all three formats I want to read on the tablet, and I don't want to do a lot of Calibre format conversions to make it possible. With FBReader, I don't have to.
A sweet bit is that I use Calibre to maintain my eBook library, and add tags and series information to books. I can export the books from Calibre, and the exported volumes will have the metadata I added. FBReader can use it, and display volumes on the tablet by tag or by series. (There doesn't seem to be a way in the current version to add that after the fact on the tablet.)
I make extensive use of Google services, so I installed the various Google apps for Search, Gmail, Google+, Calendar, Maps, Drive, Earth, YouTube, and Docs/Sheets. On my PDA, I use Documents to Go to handle MS Office files like Word docs and Excel spreadsheets. Google bought a competitor called QuickOffice and made their Android app free. It integrates with Google Drive, and I can create/edit docs and spreadsheets stored on my Drive.
I also installed the current betas of the Firefox and Chrome browsers for Android. (Firefox is my production browser on Windows/Linux.)
Thus far, it's coming along nicely.
The next step is rooting it, but that will take a bit of doing. Since it's not a well known brand, the various "one click root" solutions won't work. I found instructions for rooting it, but they require you to get the Google Android SDK which will supply the Android driver for Windows that will recognize the device when it is connected via USB cable. I did so, but Windows won't install the driver from the XP box I'm on at the moment. I have to try from the SO's Win7 tablet.
The big lack is an external keyboard. The tablet FAQ says it can't use one, but I have cautious hopes rooting it will remove that restriction.
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They got another one like that for sale? (Point me to it and I'll buy it. I'll even go as high as $25, no, make that $27. I mean it!)
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Alas, they don't. It was a limited time promotion for the two new outlets, and while there was an online link to the coupon you could use to DL and print it out, you would have had to redeem it at one of the NYC locations.
Poke around on eBay for stuff like this. It's where my SO got her Nook Tablet.
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Dennis