Bought 2 for Christmas on a woot. Through 1 away and the other is collecting dust. Slow and limited apps.

Bought two for the kids last Christmas. Both kids are savvy with electronics; I would not say the same for my choice of presents. Neither could do anything with this tablet. Complete waste of money.

It has been said that these are fine for kids but they won't play Angry Birds or Flash....

Pretty much all a kid want to do with a tablet is watch videos and play games...

These are really readers. They do kindle fine, we bought them for our kids for Christmas and after test driving them with our 17 year old realized they are ok for Grandma, but not for kids.

I purchased 2 for my teenage children during last Xmas at this same price from another place. Neither of them will use them as they are too slow. I've rooted them and overclocked, and still too slow. I've considered just making them alarm clocks or maybe one of those digital picture frames. BTW, I have other tablets with no issue.

phlypp wrote:Biggest failing for me is lack of any kind of HDMI port to connect to a TV (Netflix, etc.) but the Nook tablets don't have one either. Depends on your priorities and purposes.

Be careful, just because a tablet, or a phone, has an HDMI port doesn't mean it does screen mirroring.

actually considering buying one. but it may seem like its a bigger version of a chinese android tablet (read slow and unreponsive) The write up on this is distracting nonsense. says nothing about the product at all. the writers should go back on strike.

phlypp wrote:Biggest failing for me is lack of any kind of HDMI port to connect to a TV (Netflix, etc.) but the Nook tablets don't have one either. Depends on your priorities and purposes.

Does NOT do Netflix so lack of HDMI is not the main problem.

I got one of these from Woot for Christmas for my son (it was my first ever woot). Initially it wouldnt even turn on when I got it. I had to use a pin to hit the reset button and then I had power! Thank goodness or that may have prevented me from future woots. Now I knew it wouldnt play angry birds or fruit nunja but I read you could modify it and it would. Well I tried and it installed the apps but was so slow they did not play at all. Wouldnt even load. I still cant get youtube to even load a video. I had to buy him a ipod touch and that was better for my son.
It's not all bad-
I did keep the tablet for myself. Pandora works wonderfully, and you have access to the amazon store for books. Ive installed many books and its a great reader. I used it on a flight to Vegas and it kept me entertained. So I would recommend it for the price but only if you want it as an adult for a reader and pandora. Oh I was also excited I could watch movies on it too but my movies were all purchased/protected by itunes so they did not work on my tablet. I bet an unprotected movie would have worked but I havent tried that option. Just know if the movie was installed through itunes, then you cant watch it on this tablet.

I own one. I have found that even though Amazon or Market say a particular apps won't run on it, lots of them will, like PYKL3. But you will have to sideload them.

The main thing I don't like about it is that I can't get any version of NOOK to run on it although it runs Kindle just fine. And only an older, buggy version of Aldiko will run on it.

What a piece of junk. I bought one that last time Woot offered it. When it works, it's not bad as an MP3 player or e-book reader, but not good for much else. Web browsing is very sluggish, as are other apps.

As I recall, I had to download and install an operating system update before the thing would even start the first time. The e-book reader from the Cruz Market Place wouldn't open any e-books; the solution from Cruz tech support was to download a different one from some other web site. As noted by other reviewers, most Android apps won't work on this unit because it uses a different processor chip.

And it completely died the other day, after less than 6 months of very light use.

My kids think it makes a great paper weight, other than that they dont even use it anymore....

Amazon gold box deal has the Kindle Fire for $139 refurbished with 1 year warranty. MUCH better value for your $.

I bought this last time and it's a great paper weight. No play market, very limited app support, the display is a stretched, and the sound is horrendous.

tljx wrote:Anyone know if this can be rooted and/or are there any custom firmwares available for it? If so, I'm definitely in for one.

Yes this tablet can be rooted. Click here for instructions to root this tablet, remove bloatware, and add Google Apps including the Android Market.

Got this same tablet in November. While definitely not on the same level as iPad or Kindle, works fine for what I needed it for. Grandkids love it. Just make sure you check the gallery before you give it to a child. Mine came pre-loaded with nature films.

thericochet wrote:Is anyone else on board with henceforth calling Velocity Micro "VelCro"?

WHO'S WITH ME?!

I am - only if we can also rename the IPOD to a minIPAD

Last time it was on woot, it was about 50 percent good experiences and 50 percent bad; the consensus from the bad was, if you try it, DON'T GIVE IT AS A GIFT.

See the previous discussion:
http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=4720055

Hoping to use it as a remote control for my home theater system that has simple controller apps for android OS. For $60, I can find another use for it if it can't handle the universal remote job.

Have one and have been unable to get the tablet to act as a image viewer. Unable to set the timeouts through the GUI to make it happen.

Popped open woot and was like "Wow!" then I saw the comments. I am now wondering if it even is an efficient coaster for drinks or frisbee.

$59 for a REFURB VELOCITY?

1st- VELOCITY?
LMAO

2nd-a REFURBED VELOCITY?

LMAO even more.

And for ONLY $59?

LMAO so hard coffee is spurting from my nostrils.

A) You get what you pay for...normally, but even with this deal, you may not.

I doubt this is worth $25.

Is it worth anything?

I mean would it be worth $25 to get it for the kids?

Nope. At least in my opinion. This $59 tablet is likely going to cost you ALOT more in time, frustration and headaches. A GEEK will have problems getting this to work...So a kid or unexperienced user is gonna be screaming in frustration every time they TRY to use this er..um...tablet....

No you tube...No netflix...Well, no flash of course.....Absolutely awful reviews.....It doesnt look like this tablet can do more then be a CHEAP paperweight.

Terrible tablet at any price. People see $59 and say "thats cheap....lets give it a try for only $59"

Weeks later you'll be wishing you gave that $59 to a homeless guy to get some food and a good nights rest...At least your $59 is actually doing some good other then causing you headaches and time worth 10 x's more.

The processor is crap, the RAM is dismal. Devices like these are what gives Android a bad name -> If you insist on getting the cheapest Android tablet there is, then at least get this one (it even has Android 4.0) $115:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0U009E3479&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

itsme1964 wrote:$59 for a REFURB VELOCITY?

1st- VELOCITY?
LMAO

2nd-a REFURBED VELOCITY?

LMAO even more.

And for ONLY $59?

LMAO so hard coffee is spurting from my nostrils.

A) You get what you pay for...normally, but even with this deal, you may not.

I doubt this is worth $25.

Is it worth anything?

I mean would it be worth $25 to get it for the kids?

Nope. At least in my opinion. This $59 tablet is likely going to cost you ALOT more in time, frustration and headaches. A GEEK will have problems getting this to work...So a kid or unexperienced user is gonna be screaming in frustration every time they TRY to use this er..um...tablet....

No you tube...No netflix...Well, no flash of course.....Absolutely awful reviews.....It doesnt look like this tablet can do more then be a CHEAP paperweight.

Terrible tablet at any price. People see $59 and say "thats cheap....lets give it a try for only $59"

Weeks later you'll be wishing you gave that $59 to a homeless guy to get some food and a good nights rest...At least your $59 is actually doing some good other then causing you headaches and time worth 10 x's more.

Well said! Last week I got a refurb Acer Iconia A100 for $189 for my 6 year old for his birthday (turning 7). I did this because I wanted him to be able to experiment, play and not become frustrated with things not working right. Currently he has a rooted Evo that he loves playing with, and he can do everything from video chat,texting ,photos, videos, email, youtube ,games, changing and downloading backgrounds. The Evo is a decent device that can run Apps- todays Velocity Micro is a hunk of junk. You can't give this to a kid because it will frustrate them and they will lose interest.

It is a S L O W, P O S that would be out of place even in a Bunnies Ogling Carrots Too slow and applications crippled even for a 6 and 10 year old.

I have had one for six months Don't waste your money on it. No axcess to the real android market. It takes 30 or more seconds to load a page the 550 mhz processer is much slower than my first smart phone. No blue tooth support. It is not worth the box it comes in.

I bought a refurbed Nook Color and a micro SD card with CM7/Gingerbread. I thought it would be nice to have a reader that could read Kindle and EPUB and have web and apps capabilities and had the all-important card slot. Yeah, sort of. Most of the decent and/or free content is coming from Amazon. Anything from B&N is mostly useless.

So here's my HO. Go get yourself a brand new Samsung Galaxy 2 7" tab and you can put whatever you want on it. It's only $250 with free shipping and you know where to go to get that. I spent around $170 on combination that doesn't always work that well, doesn't have a camera, a mike, Bluetooth and 720p. If I had only known...

paulpnevada wrote:A wise man once told me 'You can't polish a turd'.

Actually, they achieved high gloss on turds in a myth busters episode, so your man was a bit off the mark. Of course, your point with regard to this tablet may still be valid...

BTW: Anybody know if this thing can be used to access Facebook? Would be requisite for my daughter's use...

I bought one one of the previous times woot had one (back pre-thanksgiving).

Note, this is an entirely different tablet than the Cruz Reader. It looks exactly the same, but that tablet has a resistive screen and an ARM processor. This tablet has a MIPS processor and a capacitive screen. The screen ends up being *much* more responsive than the reader.

The stock ROM *is* slow. Fortunately, there is a MIPS developer (as in, works for MIPS) who has posted a cleaned up ROM. His day job keeps him busy, so updates are slow, but this other ROM makes it much snappier.

This is a MIPS processor, not ARM, so many applications will be listed as "not compatible". Many of them only list that way because the developers tagged the package incorrectly (as being ARM-specific even if it isn't). But it's *this* factor that rules out Netflix, since they use native instructions in their application to get it to work.

This bad boy has *amazing* battery life in my experience. I used it as an e-reader on a train trip for 8-9 hours straight, and it only got down to 70% charged. And I finally charged mine last night after probably 5-6 days without charging it. But, it is on the heavy side for a tablet.

My wife got the R101 reader first on woot, and has stopped using it mostly, mainly because of the resistive screen amplifying the slowness. For $60, I've offered to get one of these.

Oh, if you do get one, make sure to check out slatedroid.com for the Tablet forum, so you can find that custom ROM. It makes a large difference.

Nice Docking Station.

I have to back the others who said get a used or refurb'd Nook Color instead... they can be had for around $100 now (possibly less on sites like Craigslist), are made with quality hardware, have an excellent display, and are easy to mod even for someone who isn't tech-savvy. I bought a refurb NC awhile back for my wife, loaded it up with CM7 and overclocked to 1.2GHz... thing runs without a hitch.

I purchased two of these tablets for my kids the last time they were listed on Woot. Unless something dramatic has happened relative to the availability of apps for this device, you're likely to be very disappointed with this product. Beyond one or two "generic" applications I found that were age appropriate, there was no ability to download "Angry Birds", "Fruit Ninja" or anything else kids might like. That being said, I've had them in the drawer since I discovered this just after Christmas, so I might be behind the times on this - I'd be pleasantly surprised if someone told me I was wrong.

Please... tell me I'm wrong.

maxxdout wrote:I bought this tablet a few months ago on here when it was something like $70. I ended up selling it on eBay and making $20 off of it.

Why did I sell it? It's slow and tempermental. Even after rooting and installing Dalvik turbo (supposed to speed it up), the laggyness(word?) was unbearable. I mainly wanted it to watch movies but it even failed at that. At about 5 minutes into any movie, any format, it would freeze the device and I would have to reboot it.

This is a fine device for kids to "play" with without worrying about breaking a $400 Galaxy tab or $600 iPad. Just don't tell them about the whole "not being able to play Angry Birds" issue, they might go mad and kill everyone.

tl;dr: Save up that extra money and get an actual usable tablet.

My experience with dalvik turbo is that it doesn't give you an immediate speedup. It recompiles things you use more and tends to be snappier after a bit of use.

Valone wrote:I have this tablet and it can be rooted however there is no custom firmware for it.

You are getting what you pay for with this tablet, it is incredibly slow and rather frustrating to use but if you really want a tablet then go for it I guess.

Not true about the custom firmware.

http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/27583-rom-t301-sjhill-rom-17-feb-2012-download-link-updated/

How are apps on this? My son loves to download free apps on my iPhone. Would he be able to do that on this?

RUN. Run far, run fast...

I bought this the last go around for my toddler, and it's perfect for him. It's sturdy enough to handle his man(baby?)handling and plays his videos (which is why we got it, so he'd quit stealing my Evo) and many of his baby apps.

Granted, I wish it were faster and used all the apps available, but as a toddler distractor, it does the job. I can slip it in my purse or his diaper bag and it has helped more than once during a particularly long wait or drive.

(I really wish it would take the realPlayer app, so his videos would just play continuously when we're in the car, but that's what teenage siblings are for, right? Also, if he kills it, that's just $60 down the drain. I can live with that)

Honestly, save yourself the money and buy something else.

These tablets are truly lacking!

I got 3 of these on Woot for Christmas gifts ...I was the big hero for about 3 minutes ... until they turned them on. the buggy operation, the sllooww speed and highly limited applications pool make this thing beyond frustrating.

A lot of posters say 'would be great for kids' ... why are buggy, unreliable, almost unusable products always 'great for kids'? Because they're cheap? Because you want to suck the joy out of life for the young? teach 'em the meaning of frustration and disappointment? Of the three I got, 2 died and one is in a drawer somewhere ... when I contacted Woot about the dead ones I was referred to Cruz .. they should have told me to talk to my cat about it ... there is zero chance of getting a resolution from Cruz, at least my cat would have got a little attention out of the deal ...

Why pay $60 for a box of irritation?

Amazon gold box deal of the day has Kindle Fire for $139 with free shipping and 1 year warranty. Refurbished but identical in every aspect to a new one. Even comes in the same box as new and is not marked refurbished. Also free 30 day return policy.