OK - so for Christmas, I got one, a tablet.  Now I can be "magical", oops, no, that's only with Apple, everything else works on power...

Enough blather, so, why do you need a tablet...hmm...ease of portability.  A tablet takes the ease and portability of a laptop and moves to a more mobile, less powerful platform.  My tablet is one of the few with a USB port.

Good job, Toshiba!  (Anyone not seen "Hancock")

Another rather useful thing for a tablet is it's size.  It's not so big you can't take it around the house rather easily, but it is big enough that the screen is not too small.  trust me, the older I get, the more my eyes relate to this one.

OK - As in all good things - Good things first -

• The Thrive does Flash, sort of.  According to mine, Flash works fine, in the supplied Android browser.  Not in Firefox.  That just feels so wrong.
• The Thrive is one of very few tablets with a USB port
• The screen is big (10 inch tablet)
• The screen cleans easily with a microcloth
• Allows third party apps
• Allows removal of Bloat - Goodbye - Facebook! (too many security issues for me)
• Battery life is excellent - at least 7 hours on a charge
• It's fast - screen change and feel are some of the best I have seen.
• Machine Integration - What I see on my laptop - tablet - phone.  This is one thing I wanted, and so far, I can report very good results!

And now - the not quite what I was expecting -

• There's no magic - shook it, squeezed it, nope, no magic dust, nothing.
• the On - OFF button is very hard to get right.  Well hidden to prevent accidental OFF,too well for my tastes.
• No flash on either cameras.  Good in low light, but no flash seems weird.  Pictures in low light are often grainy.  I have not tried an editor on these.
• It's heavy.  Compared to other tablets.  And it feels heavy.  You notice it when using it as a reader.
• Reader is not as good as a Kindle. but the Kindle doesn't surf (I am talking old-school reader, you know, last year's model).  Still, the reader is good, and when held like my reader, it is easily read and has very nice color pictures.
• Can't run bioware's Digital Human 3D.  Just looks so cool in the ad, one thing I really wanted this for is the new interactive apps.
• Can't run Google Chrome.  Not made for Android!  Doesn't that sound strange?  Gives you an idea just how far from Linux Google has taken Android.  Their own browser isn't supported on their own mobile platform.
• Annoying "I am on" LED.  No purpose I can see.  The I am charged/charging and LAN LED(s) seem very good, but the I am on doesn't seem necessary to me.  Maybe we can further the world by making this a I am off light for Linux based machines, as we rarely need to turn them off.  Something the rest of the world will catch up with...

Ok - now the Nits N Gets - stuff at random - doesn't really matter, and certainly are not deal killers in the slightest.

• Toshiba App Store - Poor at best.  Toshiba would be better off putting some bucks into Amazon App Store - and get some "Client only" apps there.  Their store is small, must take a lot of resources to run and get it right, and doesn't always work.  I suspect very little payback for the investment.
• Amazon App Store - GET!  Free app of the day alone makes it a great place, but to me, user ratings and reviews are the thing that keeps me informed and coming back.  These reviews have saved me from having to try and try and try again.
• Games - mostly seem rather trivial and unprofessional.  The really great professional games out there, and there are some, seem to be entirely ad supported entities.  Just like the ad laden Angry Birds, there is just too much intrusion to the game play.  Games I like on the Thrive - Dabble HD (only free due to the App Store), Darts 3D,
• Apps - Many very nice, free cost, useful apps.  Things I like - Trulia (Real Estate), Lose IT! (diet program), Car Loan calculator, TBS Big Bang Theory Live App, iCookbook, google+, Easytether Pro and Shazam.

The screen navigation is intuitive and easy.  The menu titles changing take a little getting used to.  What may say Apps ont he home screen, shifts to My Apps or Shop on various other screens.  Just a bit confusing, as you look for this stuff to mimic a phone running the same software, but no, it isn't there.

I can still run SPB Shell 3D, which is impressive, but so far I have found the Toshiba default screen app to be just a nice and a change for me, so I trying to adapt.

All in all, a great tablet for around $400 at most retailers.  hat's off to Toshiba!

Surf Safe,

ezsurfer

OK, so about a year ago I wrote about what I though was truly poor practice.  Calling a tablet "magical"

I stand by my observation, magical, hardly.  Small and amazing, yes!

But if a tablet is magical, then what is a SmartPhone?  What's above Magical?

Because it's smaller and almost as powerful.

I got a Toshiba Thrive for Christmas (Note I did not say Holiday - Would sound sort of stupid, there, wouldn't it?)  It is an awesome machine.  Ease of use is what I see, and what I can measure as a solid difference between it and a laptop.  The battery life is superb, but so would a laptop with a active 9" screen.  All that real estate eats batteries.  So, make a much smaller laptop, skip the HD and DVD, cause they consume massive battery life, and you have a laptop which can go for many hours - Magic!

Hope you can laugh, too!

All in all, I really like the new tablet, another place to spend countless hours.  It's a nice cross between a phone and a laptop.  So far, I don't like it much for work.  Keyboard is too small and it's virtual, so if I drag my fingers it's crazy.  But it's text to voice is very good, and I could use it if I didn't like (or have) the laptop at all.  And it should improve some of those blog or immediate issues reports we read ont he web lately, where you just wish someone would turn off autocorrect...

I use the Thrive, an Android 3.2 device right now.  I asked a couple of folks using the iPad what they see.  Same answer each time, ease of access versus a laptop.

So we have a reason.  A rather good one.  And if you don't mind I would like to revisit an area I often go to, This tablet may be just the thing for your needs.  I see the ease of use and the basic dummy down of a tablet as the next great wave for elderly folks that never really took to a PC, and now have to have something to keep up with the grand-kids and great -grandchildren.   Video phone use is a no brainer, and the overall, tablet is on, tablet is available, no 6 months learning curve, is attractive to the elder generation.

In my next blog entry, I'll give you my overall run down of the Thrive, 16GB tablet.

surf safe

ezsurfer

It's becoming commonplace to realize just how far big business has gotten into personal business.  Carrier IQ freaked folks out, just at the idea of personal information transmittal.

Most of us have long practiced the art of search engines on the web, and not realizing just how far these suppliers have gotten into our personal lives and habits.

You don't care, you say?  I have nothing to hide!  Hmmmm, maybe you do!  Recent news articles have shown often your best pricing for things like airline flights and motels and such are that very first search.  After that, it becomes apparent you are shopping around, because all of the transmitted data to the new sites SHOWS you are shopping.  And how about the fact they know you do it, because you've done it so much before!

New to the world, let me tell you you have to check www.duckduckgo.com out!

Here's an excerpt from their privacy policy:

"When you search at DuckDuckGo, we don't know who you are and there is no way to tie your searches together.

When you access DuckDuckGo (or any Web site), your Web browser automatically sends information about your computer, e.g. your User agent and IP address.

Because this information could be used to link you to your searches, we do not log (store) it at all. This is a very unusual practice, but we feel it is an important step to protect your privacy. "

Wow, that's a far cry from where the internet has been for a while.  So paddle on over, and check out duckduckgo.com.  The privacy you don't share may be your own...

Surf Safe,

ezsurfer