All Posts by Paul

Reviewing the Acer Iconia A200 10.1 Tablet!

Paul

Acer Iconia A200!

I found the tablet for me, it is Acer Iconia A200 10.1-Inch Tablet [Affiliate Link]and I must say I am loving this little tablet.   It is far better than some of the others that you might of wanted.   Here are the specs for the tablet:

Screen Size 2.5 inches
Max Screen Resolution 1280 x 800 pixels
Processor 1 GHz Tegra 2.0
RAM 1 GB DDR2
Hard Drive 8 GB
Graphics Coprocessor NVIDIA GeForce GPU
Chipset Brand NVIDIA
Wireless Type 802.11bgn
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 2
Average Battery Life (in hours) 8 hours
Other Technical Details
Brand Name Acer
Series Iconia
Item model number A200-10g08u
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Android Honeycomb 3.2
Item Weight: 1.5 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 10.20 x 6.90 x 0.48 inches
Color Titanium Gray
Processor Brand NVIDIA
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM
Flash Memory Size 8
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA

 

So let’s talk about this little tablet!

It has a very vivid display and lasted approximately 6 hours with me with moderate screen brightness.   I can watch Google shows or Movies thanks to their Google Play Video App.   I also like that I can download movies and shows to the tablet without having to Sync with a Desktop or tablet.   Here are the Pro’s to the tablet that I can think of:

 

  • Comes with Android 3.2.1 but can be upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) with an over the Air update Approximately 260 meg download.
  • The Weight of the Tablet is about the same weight as an IPAD or a 7 inch tablet.  
  • Watch Netflix or Hulu with no problems
  • USB Ports: Can plug in a usb keyboard, Mouse or a barcode scanner [Affiliate Link] and use it the way you want not the way they want you to use it. (I’ve tried all three USB devices and not had any problems)
  • Reading kindle books or web browsing.
  • Emailing people using a Keyboard.
  • Can even watch Amazon Shows and Movies using the Web browser with no major issues.   

 

As you can see this tablet is versatile and can be used for business or pleasure depending on what you need it to be used for and how you intend to use it.   I find the speed of the processor adequate for the size of the tablet and haven’t had any major issues with Ice Scream sandwich and Acer!   I bought this tablet because I have used an Acer Laptop and I have found all Acer products to be durable and stands up to time.

The Cons:

  • Google Video Play Store — They are getting shows and movies that I would buy from them but I would love to have BBC and some other Science Fiction shows to be available there.  They do However Have the Warehouse 13 Series and Mythbusters Series that I like so much but I am hoping I can switch entirely to Google in a few months.  
  • The Screen size is smaller than the Ipad but it isn’t a big deal if you just want to use it for reading or viewing videos.   I found the video playback to be really nice and neat.
  • Default web browser needs to be removed.   I installed  the Dophin Browser because it was much more smoother and faster to run.   
  • No Jelly Bean update — Acer confirms that they will not havew the Jelly Bean on this tablet.  I however will be looking around for a way to do it myself.

I really am not happy they will not have Jelly Bean on this version of the tablet but I am sure someone will make a mod for me to do just that because I believe that it is capable of doing so.   I do think this was a great buy and I as such encourage people to go check out other Acer Tablets or for that matter this one all together.

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate Link

Why I don’t do Authoritative links!

Paul

Authoritative Links What those?

Authoritative links are basically people who are always linking to popular links for example:   Digitimes rumored that their will be a 99$ version of the Google Nexus 7 [Affiliate Link].  I don’t know if I believe that or not but that got so popular in the last few days because everyone was linking to that one article on the internet.  It got so High in the Google Rankings for several days, that most people just  believe it to be true.  It could be true or it could just be rumor but everyone is wanting this so bad that if it doesn’t happen people will be disappointed.   

Not to say Authoritative Links are bad!

I am not going to say that all those types of links are going to be bad but that doesn’t mean that I will believe some of these types of rumors but I am one of those that wants to wait and see and not expect or anticipate that there will be one.   That is just asking for a let down when or if that product or claim is let out of the bag.

Why I don’t do these types links should be obvious!

I probably have talked about it in this post but I prefer to make it really clear why I don’t do these links every post.  I want to have original content and not just look like I am restating what others are already saying about a subject or product.  If you are looking to find other blogs that agree with a rumor than you have no problem with that.   I however want to talk about what is near and dear to my heart.  Usually I don’t even read what people are saying about rumors.  So I try to steer clear of those types of post.

I do sometimes use those when I think it is necessary!

Just like this post, I do use them only when I think it is necessary and not just to get people to come and share these with others.  That is usually why every authoritative blog does that sort of thing so people will share it with their friends and family and they get more readers and more revenue.  

What are your thoughts about this?

Do you want more authoritative links or are you happy with the blog as it is right now.  I’d love to hear your comments about this and others suggest.  You can always reach from the Contact me page or you could also leave a comment and I’ll see it.  Got something you want me to talk about please feel free to drop me a line and let me know!

Paul Sylvester

Amazon Affiliate link

What the Androidpit App can do for you!

Paul

Google Removes Adobe Flash Player 11!

When I do a search for the Adobe flash player 11 in the Google Play store.  It comes up with everything that has Adobe in it but it doesn’t show up how to get the app on Google Play store.  It seems Google has removed it due to Adobe no longer supporting it.  So I went digging around and I found a lovely little site called Androidpit, it is a app that you can help you decide if an App is really going to help in your situtation or if you should not even install it!

Side note — You will have to install a 3rd party application which means you will basically not be installing from the Google Play Store.  It is usually under Settings > Applications > Unkown Sources (Needs to be checked).  It is often called side loading an application.   It is your decision if you want to use this app but it is very useful with a more complete area of reviews for each application.   

It can’t hide from me!

After install the Adroidpit,  I was able to do a search for android adobe flash player with the App and Be able to install Adobe Flash Player 11 to my HTC inspire with little or no effort.   I really do like this little app because I can now keep up to date on any Android news or events as a notification everyday.  This is a great resource for those who are interested in keeping up to date on the Android Platform.   I will be able to review apps and decide if it is going to be worth the money to buy it or try the free version first.  I’ve not had much chance to do any major playing around with this app but I intend to give it a full month and maybe even talk about it some more later on.  

Another Side note — If you intend just to install the android adobe flash player and that is all.  You should uncheck Unkown Sources so your phone or tablet is not at risk of installing something malicious.  It is however your decision how to proceed or to do it all.

Paul Sylvester

Sponsored Post!

The Virgin Mobile Mifi 2200 is Really Usefull!

Paul

For Mobile Data, This is good!

I bought the Virgin Mifi Card in late December, has come into being used again this fall.  I figure it was high time to talk about this little card a little more.  I have been starting to use this again with me working those long hard hours and needing internet on the road and not wanting to hear Straight Talk complaining about me Tethering my HTC inspire or even using their Unlimited Data Plan.  So I thought it was high time to re-activate my Mifi Card and use that.  I say even for paying $50 a month for the service, it has been tremendously helpful with it being always on type internet.  Some of the things you will notice about this compared to tethering you HTC inspire are:

  • Better responses annd better speeds — I haven’t done any Speed testing onn the connections because I went to T-mobile on my phone.  I have notices a better loading of pages with the Mifi Card. 
  • No complaining — Virgin Mobile has been running Pandora almost every day and I haven’t heard any complaints from them yet!
  • Price — The price of the Mifi card is cheaper than buying a phone.  You can always use this with other devices such as the Kindle Fire HD or the Google Nexus 7 up to 5 devices!

As you can tell, I have been nothing but pleased with this Mifi card.  Something that I don’t always like about Straight is the lies and deceit they claim to have unlimited but yet they are constantly complaining.  

Paul Sylvester

Novatel Mifi Card From Amazon [Affiliate Link]

One Tablet to Rule Them All!!

Paul

Tablets Now a Days!

I’ve recently talked about the Kind Fire HD and how I pre-ordered it.  I’ve been really having second thoughts about this because of some of the comments I’ve read on the internet about the original Kindle Fire.  You can bet that you’ve probably heard the stories of how the last Kindle Fire went.  I’m one of those who questions this stuff about some fo the newest reviews on Amazon [Affiliate Link]. I just don’t have a good feeling about buying the Kindle Fire HD.   Some of the things that may be a game changer for me are:

  • No Charger!
  • 15$ dollar charge for no sponsor advertising(Called Special offers).
  • Amazon Market Place only, no Google Play ability.
  • No SD card expansion unlike the Nexus 7 [Affiliate Link].
  • Only 2 core unlike the Nexus 7 [Affiliate Link] with quad core!

Nothing is too compelling after all this to want to buy the Kindle Fire HD.   I just have to say that I am more than likely going to cancel my pre-order of the Kindle in lieu of buying the Google Nexus 7 which I can do more of.  The Only thing that I was truly going want from Amazon was the Amazon Video on Demand and streaming and storing of my videos for offline storage of my shows.  You see I like to be able to have videos to watch offline while doing other such stuff!

In the Coming Weeks!

I will be buying the Google Nexus 7 and since I’ve already have a 8 Gb Micro SD card, I will just use that to expand it to 24 Gb of storage and probably later on probably buy a 32gb micro SD card [Affiliate Link]!  In other words I’d make it almost like 50 gb of storage for offline viewing of my media files.  I basically just want to watch my video offline, I did however find out some interesting stuff about Google Play.   You can download up to 5 devices of videos and thus I thought I could only do it with Amazon Video on Demand.   I just hope Google gets more publishers to come to them and lets me watch my shows offline that I so love.   I will do a full review of the Google Nexus 7 [Affiliate Link]in the coming weeks once I buy it and play around with it.   I am sure I will find this tablet a very useful in the coming months and I see they have some great reviews of it all around.

Paul Sylvester