Tabloid update: Part 1

As you may recall, I blogged my purchase and first impressions of the low-cost Tabtech M009s Android 2.2 7" tablet. I am pleased to report that the second tablet is still working and that at the time of writing it is (cue drum roll) the most popular tablet purchase on Amazon UK. This is reflected in an active discussion forum that rectifies some of the deficiencies in the accompanying documentation. At the moment, there appear to be two vendors selling from the same page which is confusing. I got mine from Wendy Lou.

Indeed, it was on the forum that I found the advice to flush the Google Android Market cache in order to see more apps. Having previously been unable to locate Evernote and, from other sites, been told that it was not compatible, I can now report that it does install although it is presently untested. xPressConnect also installs and runs though I still fail to connect to EduRoam.

This is not entirely surprising as many of the Android bells-and-whistles features require hardware and software omitted to keep costs down or inappropriate in a tablet running a phone operating system sans phone. That said, I have found some simple apps that workwell enough.

FeedR, for example, looked to be a nice-enough RSS feed reader with a nice feed discovery search built-in. Sadly the adware version decided to deinstall itself so I'm now looking at Google Reader.

While looking for an Evernote alternative, I happened across AK Notepad. This archives plain text to the freemium Catch.com website. Post-flush I also encountered the more sophisticated Catch Notes app which supports reminders, file attachments, camera snapshots and voice (rather faint on the M009s). It also integrates with the Barcode Scanner app although this failed to run for me so no QR codes as yet. Both AK Notepad and Catch Notes are support the Android Share functionality (sometimes also displayed as Email) so you can very easily send the output from one app (e.g. PubMed Mobile) to AK Notepad and then synch that, perhaps after adding a comment or hashtag, with the Catch website. There is a competing format called SimpleNote that is supported by more apps but most do not use share as far as I can see. It has the advantage, however, of supporting a markup language so text can be formatted after a fashion.

Among more high-profile apps, Dropbox seems to work well enough and I have rediscovered a liking for the Opera web browser.

If you want to move files from a PC to the M009s, it comes with a 30-pin-to-USB connector that seems to work well enough (the phone appears as two new drives on the PC).

I still have not found a means to display the screen but in extremis our lecture theatres are equipped with visualizers.

I guess the question becomes one of "if you have a smartphone, do you need a cut-down tablet?" The surprisingly vibrant sales on Amazon suggest that the answer is "possibly yes". The discussions suggest that the price falls within the realms of a feasible gift and many clearly intend taking the tablet on holiday with them when, presumably, the size, cost and feature set are all considerations. For some the purchase may well be a stepping stone to something more sophisticated or a hedge against the future vagaries of the technology (aka "buy something basic now and see how it goes"). That said, purchasers of the M009s also have to appreciate that they are stuck with the limitations both of the tablet and of the operating system which is unlikely to be significantly upgraded.

There are some interesting data on mobile ownership at the University of Sheffield that show 56% of their students have a smartphone and 25% are thinking of getting one in the coming year. Students often didn't bring laptops to class for reasons of bulk. However, even if they did, many had problems connecting to wireless services and this carried over to smartphone users too. It would seem that my issues with EduRoam are not entirely atypical. Of course, in my case having a 3G dongle obviates the problem somewhat but at significant additional cost.

Given the absence of Flash on iOS, I will most likely focus on web-based development for mobile use with a focus on TiddlyWiki/TiddlySpace rather than app development, though doubtless I will look at that too. In that regard, the M009s is an interesting platform, online or offline.