Viewsonic gTablet Amazon Gold Box $279 04/14/10 Only

[grumpy3b]

oops it's the gTablet not g-pad. What do I know, sorry.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/dis...R1VZSE2S1CY53W

It's not a bad alternative for a NookColor, Xoom or iPad. Just sort of middle of the road but for under $300 not a bad deal if looking for a hobbyist slate that you can root. I've seen one live and it's not too awful, the iPad look better as does the Nook Color and the Xoom.

Sale runs for 04/14 only. I know Woot had them recently as well. I'm not getting one, still waiting but I am sorely tempted.

[basschick]

this is actually from woot, not amazon.

[grumpy3b]

and yet it is a Gold Box deal so whatever. I know a few folks who like theirs it's the whiners who gave it the 1-star ratings. It's not an iPad BFD..

[TallMomof2]

This is the one that has been on sale at woot.com a couple of times recently. It has excellent hardware and is eminently hackable, just go to xdadevelopers.com and check out the roms available.

[astra]

Some specs are ridiculous.

Hard Drive

Size: 16 GB
Type: ATA100

Instead of light and less power demanding SSD?




Wireless

Wireless Type: 802.11G

No N?

[twobits]

I was tempted, but I saw some sites saying that that newer android versions will not get drivers for the acceleration from nvidia. See http://phandroid.com/2011/04/12/nvid...gra-2-devices/ for instance. Another irritating thing, is that it seems there are now different versions of 'tegra 2' that exist and are not software compatible since they say the newest tegra 2 chips will get supported drivers and not the older ones. I hate when different parts use the same exact same name.

Not been happy with nvidia since they refused to own up to the overheating laptop chips they made a few years ago... really hope some more chipsets get in widespread use on the new tablets soon.

[twobits]

Originally Posted by astra

Some specs are ridiculous.

Hard Drive

Size: 16 GB
Type: ATA100

Instead of light and less power demanding SSD?

ATA is an interface, some ssd drives use it also. It does not mean it is a mechanical harddrive. In this case though I bet it is some type of flash chip.

Wireless

Wireless Type: 802.11G

No N?

Yeah, which means your devices would all slow down to g speeds when it is using your wireless. One of the reasons I run two different routers. One for the slower devices to use.

[basschick]

i felt it was worth mentioning because woot does their own customer service, which doesn't work quite the same way as amazon's policies.

Originally Posted by grumpy3b

and yet it is a Gold Box deal so whatever. I know a few folks who like theirs it's the whiners who gave it the 1-star ratings. It's not an iPad BFD..

[astra]

Originally Posted by twobits

ATA is an interface, some ssd drives use it also. It does not mean it is a mechanical harddrive. In this case though I bet it is some type of flash chip.

ATA100? It is not even funny.
It should be SATA.
If it is some flash and not a real SSD then it is slow like a snail.

[twobits]

Originally Posted by astra

ATA100? It is not even funny.
It should be SATA.
If it is some flash and not a real SSD then it is slow like a snail.

Most SSD drives use flash though.....

Almost all the tablets use flash. SSD is more a form factor & interface question. No need for it when the application is not to replace a hard drive in its existing mounting location and interface.

Compact Flash was defined to use the ATA interface, maybe that is what they are using?


In anycase, this is not the weakest point of this tablet...

[twobits]

Originally Posted by astra

Some specs are ridiculous.

Hard Drive

Size: 16 GB
Type: ATA100

Hmm... was looking at the specs more, and they really are messed up on Amazon it seems...

Product Features
CPU: Nvidia Tegra 2 T20 Dual cortex A9(1Ghz) OS: Android OS 2.2

Then later...

Processor, Memory, and Motherboard
Hardware Platform: PC
Processor: 2.1 GHz Intel Pentium 4

Don't think it has a Pentium 4 in it, nor a hard drive... so who knows what else it wrong about them....



Guess these look more sane ( http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet/spec.htm ), and they even do say it has N

[astra]

Amazon rocks