MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Questions for A81/W1060, SmartQ 7, and SmartQ V7 owners

bryanzs · 04-01-2010, 08:06 PM

I received my A81 today, but to be honest I've been a little disappointed with some of my results. Can any current A81/W1060 owners tell me what I'm doing wrong?
1. Cannot charge via USB - I've tried with the unit on and off, with a powered hub, and with a direct connect to the PC. In no case does the 'charging' LED come on, nor does the 'settings' screen indicate that I'm getting any power;
2. Cannot connect as USB Mass Storage Device - Although I can use ActiveSynch to connect with my Vista machine (a pleasant surprise!), on both the Vista and an XP system, it fails to connect as a USB Mass Storage device. The A81 is seen by the PC, and it says it's installing, but then I get an error indicating it was unable to complete;
3. No TF (miniSD) card - Although JTShop was supposed to be putting the Android version on the A81 for me, there's no sign of it - nor of the 2GB TF card that appears to be a standard part of the product. I'm hoping it just got "forgotten" somewhere, but I don't know how much luck I'll have getting JTShop to send it to me;
4. PDF reading problems - I've yet to find a PDF reader program that really works well. I've tried AlReader (but that just appears to open PDF documents as 'text'), and the included app (JetCet?) didn't display anything useful. The "sample" FoxIt PDF viewer didn't seem to have enough functionality to read the PDFs properly (or maybe I just didn't know how to make it behave right), either;
5. Bluetooth connectivity - As others have reported, it doesn't seem to be "all there". I can turn it on, and I can have the A81 and my Vista machine see each other (in fact, I can even have the A81 "trust" the Vista machine, so I know they're communicating), but I get another one of those Device Manager error messages when it attempts to install the Bluetooth Peripheral Device software. So they still can't actually "talk" together.

On the plus side, there are many things I do like about the device, including:
1. Unlike many early reviewers, I didn't find the included IE to be too bad (for the limited browsing I've done). My device also appears to include "IE embedded" in addition to regular IE - it's got a different look to it...
2. Connecting via ActiveSynch, and via wireless ethernet, to my existing network worked well, and so I can browse and copy items to and from the A81;
3. Downloading some ebooks direct from Fictionwise (wirelessly using IE), in "mobi" format, allows me to use mobipocket for nicely-displayed output;
4. The various other media players seem to work pretty well (though, if/when I get a "TF" (miniSD) card, I'll probably install some other apps, including VLC (if it's available) for more flexibility in formats)

So, in the first 4 hours of playing with it, it's a mixed bag; I _think_ the A81 will be able to do what I want, but I sure hope I can get answers to the questions above...

04-01-2010, 08:06 PM	#18
bryanzs Zealot Posts: 119 Karma: 122 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Gilbert, AZ Device: Nook HD+, Nook ST Glow, PocketBook 360, Nook Color	It's Here! I received my A81 today, but to be honest I've been a little disappointed with some of my results. Can any current A81/W1060 owners tell me what I'm doing wrong? 1. Cannot charge via USB - I've tried with the unit on and off, with a powered hub, and with a direct connect to the PC. In no case does the 'charging' LED come on, nor does the 'settings' screen indicate that I'm getting any power; 2. Cannot connect as USB Mass Storage Device - Although I can use ActiveSynch to connect with my Vista machine (a pleasant surprise!), on both the Vista and an XP system, it fails to connect as a USB Mass Storage device. The A81 is seen by the PC, and it says it's installing, but then I get an error indicating it was unable to complete; 3. No TF (miniSD) card - Although JTShop was supposed to be putting the Android version on the A81 for me, there's no sign of it - nor of the 2GB TF card that appears to be a standard part of the product. I'm hoping it just got "forgotten" somewhere, but I don't know how much luck I'll have getting JTShop to send it to me; 4. PDF reading problems - I've yet to find a PDF reader program that really works well. I've tried AlReader (but that just appears to open PDF documents as 'text'), and the included app (JetCet?) didn't display anything useful. The "sample" FoxIt PDF viewer didn't seem to have enough functionality to read the PDFs properly (or maybe I just didn't know how to make it behave right), either; 5. Bluetooth connectivity - As others have reported, it doesn't seem to be "all there". I can turn it on, and I can have the A81 and my Vista machine see each other (in fact, I can even have the A81 "trust" the Vista machine, so I know they're communicating), but I get another one of those Device Manager error messages when it attempts to install the Bluetooth Peripheral Device software. So they still can't actually "talk" together. On the plus side, there are many things I do like about the device, including: 1. Unlike many early reviewers, I didn't find the included IE to be too bad (for the limited browsing I've done). My device also appears to include "IE embedded" in addition to regular IE - it's got a different look to it... 2. Connecting via ActiveSynch, and via wireless ethernet, to my existing network worked well, and so I can browse and copy items to and from the A81; 3. Downloading some ebooks direct from Fictionwise (wirelessly using IE), in "mobi" format, allows me to use mobipocket for nicely-displayed output; 4. The various other media players seem to work pretty well (though, if/when I get a "TF" (miniSD) card, I'll probably install some other apps, including VLC (if it's available) for more flexibility in formats) So, in the first 4 hours of playing with it, it's a mixed bag; I _think_ the A81 will be able to do what I want, but I sure hope I can get answers to the questions above...