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If you haven't heard of it, the APad, is an Android based tablet/pad. Chinas' answer to Apples' iPad, but comes in at about a quarter of the price and in different screen sizes.
There are quite a few versions of the Apad around, the one I went for is a 7 that has the Rockchip 2880 chipset, known as the iRobot, Moonse 7001 and other names.
This being a generic Chinese item I wasn't expecting much, I knew from the beginning what I was likely to be buying into and I have to say....well I was pleasantly surprised. I'd had no experience of Android at all previously but was able to work out what to do with it pretty much out of the box. The screen is responsive, actually a good deal better than my touchscreen phone and the virtual keyboard is fairly easy to use (more of this in a minute) with a minimum of mistakes. There are bad points but so far nothing that would make me sorry I bought it, I'll tell you about these as I come to them.
It has a good heft to it, feels solid and heavy, the casing is silvered plastic and very smooth, so smooth it makes it difficult to hold it comfortably so I'll be adding some kind of grip to the back when I get round to it. The screen is sharp and bright (I've left the plastic cover on it for now till I can source a screen protector)
Size wise It fits easily into a cargo pocket or back pocket (not recommended in case you sit on it).
The screenshot (sorry if the quality is bad) above is the pad set up the way I like it although it's changing all the time as I find new programs to try out. The base system is Android 1.5, this is a pretty early version and so far is not upgradeable, though I'm sure that will change as the modders get to grips with it. There's an Info bar along the top with icons, from left to right - Home, a notification area, WiFi signal strength, battery level, clock, vol up/down, return and finally menu. There are three home screens of which the middle one is default, you swipe your finger along the screen to roll it left or right to the screens on either side which are both empty of icons when you first fire it up, you put what ever programs you like there. There seems to be room for sixteen icons per page, not sure yet if that is adjustable but the lateral spacing looks like it could be better used. On the far right of the screen is a grey band with a small white arrow (on my firmware), this is the main menu pullout and has icons for all the software you have installed including anything you have copied to the home screens. A tap on the white arrow slides it out and another tap slides it back again.
Some bad points, this model comes with a camera, some specs say 3mb but in fact it's 0.3mb and very poor, best forgotten completely as it's unusable.
The volume through the built in speaker is so low it's hardly audible but the headphones supplied work well and are much louder. I can't vouch for sound quality as I'm pretty much tone deaf but music is not one of my passions so I'm not bothered.
The power supply has a very short lead and a dc plug whose thin pin is poorly fitted into the moulded plastic. I'd read a few reports of this pin coming adrift and true enough mine came off today, I've got something better coming from eBay and have superglued this one for now.
Good points, battery life, I've read folk saying they get about 1-2 hours with wifi turned off but my experience is much much better, currently on 4 hours with Wifi on and showing about 40% power left. This may be a result of my flashing a new firmware to it ( I did buy it to play with after all..)
It's very quick, a lot quicker that I had expected, the 2880 chipset has something to do with that, avoid the current Via one if you decide to splash out.
Good/Bad - Setting up WiFi was a doddle, the pad found my network and connected straight away once I'd put the password in. The WiFi range is pitiful though, ok as long as you're in the same room or pretty close but drops out if you get a wall or two between you and the router.
Android Market has a wealth of free and paid for programs for it and is a doddle to use, if you already have a google account you are straight in there. So far I've installed Opera Mini, some games and book readers, all free of charge. I've also bought a couple of others. Since I also intend to try to use the Apad seriously, I've bought Documents2Go from Dataviz (special offer $9.99) for working with office files and pdf's, I've used this software before on my pda and know my way around it well. Also a replacement for the inbuilt keyboard called Better Keyboard for £2.99 and installed a skin for it that gives me black keys with thin white borders, this makes it easier to type.
Opera is by far the fastest browser I think and it works very well, displaying websites properly and at a good size. It does have one problem, when changing from landscape to portrait modes the ability to scroll down disappears.
Book Readers, I've tried quite a few now and some of the offerings are dire, I've got down to three that I like and they are Aldiko, very graphical and a bit slow but once you have a book loaded it's a pleasure to use. WordPlayer, works the way I like a program to work, i.e. with the minimum of fuss and again is a pleasure to use, Documents2Go for reading pdf's, I tried a 65mb 220 page book and it handled it effortlessly.
I've discovered that I can export my Rainlendar calendar to Google and have that displayed on my left home screen which will be handy when head office phone up and say what shift are you on on such'n'such a date?
As you would expect with Android being Googles baby everything about it connects seamlessly, checking your email etc. automatically when you are online and buying from the market is very simple.
I've mentioned audio but not video, this is where the Rockchip version of the Apad comes into it's own, full screen videos play play smoothly although I had to go looking for a better player than the one pre installed on my pad and have not yet worked out what file types are supported. This version will also play youtube videos as well but I've not tried it yet.
My primary uses for the Apad are as a book reader, with simple games and a small amount of proper work, I don't think I'm going to be disappointed.
There are quite a few versions of the Apad around, the one I went for is a 7 that has the Rockchip 2880 chipset, known as the iRobot, Moonse 7001 and other names.
This being a generic Chinese item I wasn't expecting much, I knew from the beginning what I was likely to be buying into and I have to say....well I was pleasantly surprised. I'd had no experience of Android at all previously but was able to work out what to do with it pretty much out of the box. The screen is responsive, actually a good deal better than my touchscreen phone and the virtual keyboard is fairly easy to use (more of this in a minute) with a minimum of mistakes. There are bad points but so far nothing that would make me sorry I bought it, I'll tell you about these as I come to them.
It has a good heft to it, feels solid and heavy, the casing is silvered plastic and very smooth, so smooth it makes it difficult to hold it comfortably so I'll be adding some kind of grip to the back when I get round to it. The screen is sharp and bright (I've left the plastic cover on it for now till I can source a screen protector)
Size wise It fits easily into a cargo pocket or back pocket (not recommended in case you sit on it).
The screenshot (sorry if the quality is bad) above is the pad set up the way I like it although it's changing all the time as I find new programs to try out. The base system is Android 1.5, this is a pretty early version and so far is not upgradeable, though I'm sure that will change as the modders get to grips with it. There's an Info bar along the top with icons, from left to right - Home, a notification area, WiFi signal strength, battery level, clock, vol up/down, return and finally menu. There are three home screens of which the middle one is default, you swipe your finger along the screen to roll it left or right to the screens on either side which are both empty of icons when you first fire it up, you put what ever programs you like there. There seems to be room for sixteen icons per page, not sure yet if that is adjustable but the lateral spacing looks like it could be better used. On the far right of the screen is a grey band with a small white arrow (on my firmware), this is the main menu pullout and has icons for all the software you have installed including anything you have copied to the home screens. A tap on the white arrow slides it out and another tap slides it back again.
Some bad points, this model comes with a camera, some specs say 3mb but in fact it's 0.3mb and very poor, best forgotten completely as it's unusable.
The volume through the built in speaker is so low it's hardly audible but the headphones supplied work well and are much louder. I can't vouch for sound quality as I'm pretty much tone deaf but music is not one of my passions so I'm not bothered.
The power supply has a very short lead and a dc plug whose thin pin is poorly fitted into the moulded plastic. I'd read a few reports of this pin coming adrift and true enough mine came off today, I've got something better coming from eBay and have superglued this one for now.
Good points, battery life, I've read folk saying they get about 1-2 hours with wifi turned off but my experience is much much better, currently on 4 hours with Wifi on and showing about 40% power left. This may be a result of my flashing a new firmware to it ( I did buy it to play with after all..)
It's very quick, a lot quicker that I had expected, the 2880 chipset has something to do with that, avoid the current Via one if you decide to splash out.
Good/Bad - Setting up WiFi was a doddle, the pad found my network and connected straight away once I'd put the password in. The WiFi range is pitiful though, ok as long as you're in the same room or pretty close but drops out if you get a wall or two between you and the router.
Android Market has a wealth of free and paid for programs for it and is a doddle to use, if you already have a google account you are straight in there. So far I've installed Opera Mini, some games and book readers, all free of charge. I've also bought a couple of others. Since I also intend to try to use the Apad seriously, I've bought Documents2Go from Dataviz (special offer $9.99) for working with office files and pdf's, I've used this software before on my pda and know my way around it well. Also a replacement for the inbuilt keyboard called Better Keyboard for £2.99 and installed a skin for it that gives me black keys with thin white borders, this makes it easier to type.
Opera is by far the fastest browser I think and it works very well, displaying websites properly and at a good size. It does have one problem, when changing from landscape to portrait modes the ability to scroll down disappears.
Book Readers, I've tried quite a few now and some of the offerings are dire, I've got down to three that I like and they are Aldiko, very graphical and a bit slow but once you have a book loaded it's a pleasure to use. WordPlayer, works the way I like a program to work, i.e. with the minimum of fuss and again is a pleasure to use, Documents2Go for reading pdf's, I tried a 65mb 220 page book and it handled it effortlessly.
I've discovered that I can export my Rainlendar calendar to Google and have that displayed on my left home screen which will be handy when head office phone up and say what shift are you on on such'n'such a date?
As you would expect with Android being Googles baby everything about it connects seamlessly, checking your email etc. automatically when you are online and buying from the market is very simple.
I've mentioned audio but not video, this is where the Rockchip version of the Apad comes into it's own, full screen videos play play smoothly although I had to go looking for a better player than the one pre installed on my pad and have not yet worked out what file types are supported. This version will also play youtube videos as well but I've not tried it yet.
My primary uses for the Apad are as a book reader, with simple games and a small amount of proper work, I don't think I'm going to be disappointed.
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