ivanivanovich wrote:And it's a survival tool! Take the battery out, connect its two terminals with some very thin wire (like some of that steel wool you brought along to clean the cookpots), and it should get hot enough to set lightweight, fluffy tinder to glowing. Put that under kindling, add careful blowing, and you're well on your way to a life-saving campfire!

Nice ...
But I'm guessing that even an 1.5V AA or AAA battery can create a spark. You can certainly do it with a cellphone battery since there have been multiple reports of explosions at gas stations caused by cellphones. Apparently, coins in the pocket shorted the cellphone which ignited the gasoline fumes. Since solar (and handcranked) cellphone chargers are readily available, I'd rather expend my cellphone battery during a disaster than my previous tablet battery!

kfhassan wrote:I am really tempted by this. I wanted to buy a Xoom the last time it was offered here but was too late. Any idea on how it compares with a Xoom?

Here's a review

Or a bunch more

sullydog101 wrote:I have one of these and it is great. I use it to look at Powerpoints and pdfs for medical school. It is way better than carrying around a ton of books. The full size hdmi port is awesome. It projects to the tv really well. I've got a 32 GB sd card in mine cause the 16gb is a little bit small. It even recognizes my usb game controller so i can play all sorts of n64 and playstation emulated games on it.

I also have a bunch of medical references, although I use epub rather than pdf. I use pdf, however, for journal articles. When I was in school, I also used one to record lectures. Since medical classes rely a lot of visuals -- i.e. slide shows, procedures, radiologic scans, etc -- being able to record movies is a huge advantage over plain audio.

I don't have one but in looking at the images, this doesn't appear to have many hard buttons. That's a big negative for me because I've been spoiled by the Entourage Edge's Menu, Back, etc buttons. With this, you have to use virtual buttons which can get annoying. It surprises me that Toshiba would include a seldomly used Accelerometer On/Off button, but not have much more useful Menu/Home or Back buttons.

Look like good price, with the specs to boot. The only reservation is the tegra 2 chip itself with movies. Specifically it can only handle baseline h264 spec line, and not hi profile h264 spec line. H264 is the defacto compression standard for HD content.

http://niallohiggins.com/2011/03/07/3-surprising-things-about-video-on-android-tablets/

http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2010/07/h264-video.html

So what it basically means if if you download any HD content over the net, most likely it will be in Hi profile h264 thus this tablet won't play it unless you re-encode it to baseline, which can be a time consuming process.

It might not be a big deal to some, but is a dealbreaker for others, so research a little before pulling the trigger.

sdc100 wrote:I don't have one but in looking at the images, this doesn't appear to have many hard buttons. That's a big negative for me because I've been spoiled by the Entourage Edge's Menu, Back, etc buttons. With this, you have to use virtual buttons which can get annoying. It surprises me that Toshiba would include a seldomly used Accelerometer On/Off button, but not have much more useful Menu/Home or Back buttons.

This is a standard for Android 3+ tablets. You're supposed to like the cleaner interface since it's more iPad like.

I just bought the Acer Iconia that Secondipity.com offered through deals.woot a few days ago for $249 but would rather have this Thrive. Just bought the Thrive and going to return the Iconia via their 30 day return policy.

Bought an 8gig on sale at the Best Buy for $315.00 with tax! I know I know, don't every buy your electronics at Best Buy, but the deal was actually deece for once. BB had to ship it because their 8 gigs were out of stock; they may as well have shipped it to their store instead of my place because that's right where that $315.00 8gig is going! Hah!

I actually searched the Toshiba Outlets for a good deal on refurbs, and Toshiba bundles crappy warranty and accessories with their purchase to jack up the outlet price to the MSRP price.

This is the best deal I've found for the Thrive in a while! Thanks Woot!! =DDD

psm321 wrote:I was shopping all day yesterday for a tablet and hoping maybe Woot would have a decent deal. I really wish they'd put up the Iconia though, I don't really trust Toshiba's build quality so I'm reluctant to buy a refurb Toshiba.

Your wish is answered!
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Acer+-+Refurbished+Iconia+Tablet+with+16GB+Memory+-+Silver/2971069.p?id=1218370121932&skuId=2971069

scubalab wrote:Another VERY nice feature is the orientation lock... meaning by throwing a switch, you can disable the automatic orientation switching (via gravity) to turn pictures, read while lying down, etc.

Didn't know it had this until a sales rep showed me. Haven't seen another tablet with this feature...

The Acer A500 has orientation lock.

Wanted a tab for some time, great timing, I am sure I will love this thanks Woot and Merry Christmas to you and to All.

Ok I missed the last deal a few weeks ago..so I've been waiting for this thrive to come back. I purchased one new for my son for $379 and fell in love with it..wish tbere was expedited shipping though but great deal !!!

michaelmidwest wrote:Playbook has it, and I think the TouchPad does too, but cannot recall nor want to walk over to my other room to confirm.

yes, the touchpad has that. I wasn't too lazy to walk across the room.

can these be used similar to the "nook" or the kindle

I was wondering if you can watch hulu on it, either via browser or via an app that allows free hulu viewing (an ipad only allows a free hulu app that you can use only of I signed up for the paid hulu service )

Thanks so much

Santa brought me one of these a few weeks ago and this little jimmy really is the cat's meow.

genzoid wrote:I was wondering if you can watch hulu on it, either via browser or via an app that allows free hulu viewing (an ipad only allows a free hulu app that you can use only of I signed up for the paid hulu service )

Thanks so much

I haven't been able to get hulu to play on mine. The thrive should be plenty powerful enough, but hulu won't play to an android version of flash. I have heard that you can install a custom flash apk that tricks hulu into thinking it isn't an android, but I haven't had the time to try it out.

Good advice.
It is also probably the largest Android tablet, and one of the heaviest too. I had one and returned for this reason and because I didn't need the extra ports. Otherwise it is one of the better Honeycomb tablets.

sdc100 wrote:Same for NY, but you can use coupon code "TAXSUCKS" to get $5 off, which basically means free s/h. For cheap items $40-$60, we taxpayers actually pay less total than Wooters who don't pay sales tax.

taxsucks doesn't work for me. work for anyone else?

zizzybaloobah wrote:I own one of these ... it's not for everybody, and it has its issues. We also have a XOOM in our house, so I do have something to compare it to.

On the up side you get a removable battery along with full-size ports (incl. HDMI) and SD card slot. This is the main reason I bought it (the other being a great price via a retailer coupon), because I can pop the card out of my DSLR and put it right into the tablet and review my photos and video. I can also connect it to my HDTV without buying a special cable.

On the down side. You get:

Bloatware. Kaspersky antivirus (or malware as I'm wont to call it), along with games, and other apps that can't be removed. You can't even get rid of the registration app after you register your device. You also get the Toshiba App Market, where just about everything is a subscription vs. one-time purchase.

Crippled Android Market. It doesn't support Google Music purchases, even though the tablet was recently updated to Honeycomb 3.2. Toshiba has to update the Market to support Music, but hasn't said when this will happen. App updates frequently hang or crash and don't function as smoothly as I've seen w/other Android phones or tablets.

Crippled Wi-Fi. Cannot connect to Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi. This means you can't tether your Thrive to your Android phone or other devices that support Ad-hoc connections. Also blue-tooth tethering is no dice as well. So much for taking this thing with you in the car.

And while just about everyone else has promised Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) for their dual-core tablets, Toshiba has been tight-lipped about this. If ICS is a big deal for you, I'd be cautious about going with Toshiba.

Great Review! Agree with this totally. The bloatware alone is really annoying. Especially because it's so unnecessary. It's only value seems to be to aggravate Thrive owners.

zizzybaloobah wrote:I own one of these ... it's not for everybody, and it has its issues. We also have a XOOM in our house, so I do have something to compare it to.

On the up side you get a removable battery along with full-size ports (incl. HDMI) and SD card slot. This is the main reason I bought it (the other being a great price via a retailer coupon), because I can pop the card out of my DSLR and put it right into the tablet and review my photos and video. I can also connect it to my HDTV without buying a special cable.

On the down side. You get:

Bloatware. Kaspersky antivirus (or malware as I'm wont to call it), along with games, and other apps that can't be removed. You can't even get rid of the registration app after you register your device. You also get the Toshiba App Market, where just about everything is a subscription vs. one-time purchase.

Crippled Android Market. It doesn't support Google Music purchases, even though the tablet was recently updated to Honeycomb 3.2. Toshiba has to update the Market to support Music, but hasn't said when this will happen. App updates frequently hang or crash and don't function as smoothly as I've seen w/other Android phones or tablets.

Crippled Wi-Fi. Cannot connect to Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi. This means you can't tether your Thrive to your Android phone or other devices that support Ad-hoc connections. Also blue-tooth tethering is no dice as well. So much for taking this thing with you in the car.

And while just about everyone else has promised Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) for their dual-core tablets, Toshiba has been tight-lipped about this. If ICS is a big deal for you, I'd be cautious about going with Toshiba.

Actually just about everything you said is easily fixable by rooting the tablet. I have none of the bloatware you speak of on mine since i rooted it. After you root you can also do ad-hoc tethering through an android phone. You can get google music purchases through it you just have to install the newest marketplace .apk file. I have done this and can confirm it works. The new marketplace also fixes all the bugs with updating apps. Also as far as ICS goes, yes Toshiba has been tight liped about if they are rolling out the update to it. But there is a nice Dev community at www.thriveforums.org and i know there is a Dev there working on ICS for the thrive right now.

aolshove wrote:I don't see any GPS support but still looks like a good price for a Honeycomb tab.

It has full GPS support. The description did not mention this, but the review did.

I bought the Thrive a while ago and do not regret it at all. The full external ports for USB and HDMI alone make it worth the purchase. I actually remote into my Win7 server when I need to do work that Android can't handle (like QuickBooks). I also use it as a media remote control to my computer (which is hooked up to my big screen).

I look forward to when Toshiba brings the ICS to it next year. I would buy three more of these if I didn't already buy presents for my entire family.

Can you upgrade this to ICS?

How does this deal compare to Acer a500 at $249 sold last week here on Woot??

Owned one for about 6 weeks now and absolutely love it. Comes with a file manager which allows me to instantly move files from an SD card or USB flash drive to the internal memory and vice versa. I have a 32GB SD card full of videos that I can take with me anywhere to watch them. Only beef is the always on LED lights on the front which are always visible showing power on, wifi and battery charging. No deal breaker though. Highly recommended.

I picked this exact model up NEW at NewEgg the week before Thanksgiving for $299 + $0 S/H, and an extra (blue) back for it for free.

Search deals.woot.com for the post by pxb006 for the NewEgg deal (RIP'ed).

Kinda makes this one "Meh" for a Refurb, $5 shipping and no extra back.

It's a great unit though. The one complaint that I have is that the USB connection doesn't automatically get detected with Linux like most tablets do.

kind os nervous re: refurb. and only 90 day warranty - any comments?

This is a great tablet. The only issue I had with it was the thickness, but there's a price to be paid for having a high capacity removable battery and full size ports.

I did a lot of research before scooping one of these up - at a decent deal at the time (still $100 more than this deal). Not as sleek & sexy as the iPad, but I'm no fan of the Apple price. The full size USB, full size HDMI, external expansion (memory) slot and user-replaceable battery all sold me. I'd stream Pandora while getting my WWF (words) fix and/or browse the Web. The first one started freezing up on me - so I questioned Toshiba products as I had to ship it back for warranty service. Repair, however, was quick and I'm happy with it. It's protected in the folio case and I swapped out the stock black back for blue. The file manager is great and the camera is decent enough. No need to spend 2x the price for an Apple product IMHO.

Have the 32gb version. Love it. Just ordered this for my son for Christmas.
SD slot and replacaeable battery are killer features for me. Toshiba has been good with updates so far (have had mine for about 5 months)

Honeycomb tablets like this are perfect for web surfing, ebooks, email. Don't use my laptop anymore. If you have Android phones, when you put in your Google ID, all the apps on the phone get installed.

Battery life is good. Screen is great. System is stable.

I've got one and the GPS works OK. Sometimes when I enter a new route in I have to go into settings and turn GPS off and back on. Guidance is nice though. Navfree has USA maps and a nice interface. Overall I love the connectivity features, but it could be a little more responsive. Sometimes the icons on my home screens take 10-20 seconds before they appear when I press the home button.

Babydoc123 wrote:Can you upgrade this to ICS?

No ICS port yet, but I don't think Toshiba will play in the tablet market without getting it on their tablets. They just released the 7" version of this a couple of weeks ago, so I expect to see ICS soon.

I have one of the Toshiba Thirve tablets and my whole family loves it. My wife loves it for Facebook and my kids enjoy Angry Birds on the large screen. I use it for reading both eBooks and large PDFs (mostly books for RPGs). The 1ghz processor and 1gb of ram help reduce the load time on the large files.

I own this, purchased for $279 = tax from my local Radio Shack. The owner is a personal friend, so you wouldn't get the same deal.

Three words: I love it.

Now more words as to why.

First, it is not a laptop. I have three of them too and this is not one of them. This is a toy for surfing and playing angry bird and typing notes and upkeeping facebook and reddit.

I carry this with me almost everywhere and especially when on the road. I can slave it to my droid for internet and am not out of touch. It has four different browsers on it now for four different email addresses which I use for my business. Everything syncs up easily and I have not had one problem with it in the three months I've used it.

It's not a desktop computer either, but it's a damn sight better than the desktops I suffered with seven years ago, so there is that.

My tablet is the 21st Century's answer to the Franklin Planner. I keep notes and dates and reminders all the time.

I can also play chess and poker against other people on it, get driving directions, Google Satellite to get a bird's eye view of places I'm going, updated weather information and radar, all the cool stuff I used to have to open my laptop to retrieve.

This sits in it's custom made sleeve I made from an old bathrobe, on the front seat of my truck and when I pull into a rest area to recycle the coffee I drink too much of, I pull this out too to play with.

Wait, allow me to rephrase that.

After finishing my business at the rest area, I can use the Thrive to get back up to date on my schedule and check mail.

With it I Skype my boy in Norway and in Hungary. The video is good and clean and I can't say enough nice things about it.

It is well worth the purchase, and make the iPad and iPad2 look like high-priced marketing ploys.

zizzybaloobah wrote:

And while just about everyone else has promised Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) for their dual-core tablets, Toshiba has been tight-lipped about this. If ICS is a big deal for you, I'd be cautious about going with Toshiba.

Thanks. That sort of tears it for me.

Great timing! I've wanted to grab one of these for work... to perform inventories on the move with a hand-held USB scanner. Gorilla Glass would have made it just about perfect.

I'm soooo weak. Solid CNET review (one step forward), great reviews on Amazon (another step), can't beat it price (I stepped over the edge screaming and landed on the "I want one" button).

I own the 8GB version:

It has gps, but is *very* spotty. I wouldn't bet expect to use it for navigating roads.

It is pretty awesome:

Full-size HDMI means you can plug in to pretty much any new TV or projector out there. This is very helpful if you do any sort of presentations. The full-size is a big advantage, because you don't need an adapter, which means you won't forget an adapter.

Full-size USB is also a big bonus, since you can plug in a wireless mouse & keyboard to it and get some serious work done. I sometimes plug mine into my monitor and do work that way.

Full-size SD means you're probably going to need an adapter if you want to pull something from your cell phone, but if you have a digital camera, you can copy images over directly.

I wouldn't replace my laptop with it, since its dual-core 1GHz processor isn't nearly as fast as an i5 and I still need Windows capability, but for $289, I'm almost thinking I may want to get another one for a gift.