sakupiec wrote:Have both a rooted Nook Color and this Tablet (rooted) the nook has a better (but smaller) screen, a wimpier processor (OMAP 3621), no bluetooth support integrated and no ports other than one USB. The nook requires transcoded video, while this unit is fine with most video straight out the box.

If portability is crucial go with the Nook, if size and processing power are more important grab this. Root either one immediately.]

Perversely, the nook can already run honeycomb.

No windows, no silverlight. Haz DRM (if you are into that kinda stuff) but no Netflix yet.

Actually the NookColor has working Bluetooth with Honeycomb. Chips supports it but B&N decided to leave it disabled.

orijing wrote:Does anyone know whether you can write on this with a stylus, like you can on a tablet laptop?

You can use a capacitive stylus like for the iPad but it isn't nearly as nice as a wacom pressure sensitive stylus.

Give the Woot writer on this writeup a Pulitzer. Yeah, it's that good. Loved the striked text bits too!

promyst wrote:This does have a USB port, and it will work with most external hard drives as a fun fact

I stand corrected. Overlooked the USB on the specs and photos. If this works, might get one for my dad who uses magicjack all the time.

wackyanimation wrote:This is an intel chip.. not ARM, so you should be able to install windows on it. This is not very comparable with the ipad or xoom because of the different architecture, but 1.66 GHz is very comparable to a netbook.

No, this is not an x86 chip, it's an ARM Cortex. This will NOT run Windows (at least until Windows releases a version for ARM.)

matt1976 wrote:How kid resistant are these? I've got a 3 and 4 year old. Will Cheerio crumbs and sippy cup splashes turn it into a smoldering pile of melted plastic?

It seems pretty durable, and has good build quality. Not sure how liquid resistant it is but it seems to be sealed up tight. I installed a screen protector that required spraying a water solution on the screen and it didn't do any damage. The backing is plastic so it will only suffer from moderate scuffs and the screen is fairly scratch resistant. I would pick up a screen protector though.

Skinomi (google it) has pretty good full body skins for this, and a lot of fellow gTablet owners like their products.

http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet/

says this....

Adobe Flash Support

The Viewsonic gTablet hardware fully supports the Adobe Flash Player. An automatic firmware update will offer gTablet users the option to install the Flash Player plug-in, pending Adobe Flash certification, targeted for the end of January, 2011.

In the meantime, advanced users may download and install a beta version of the Flash player available here. Access the download link from your gTablet browser to install directly to the device. For best performance, make sure to fully power down and reboot the system before accessing Flash content.

(Please note that ViewSonic cannot provide technical support for unofficial installations of Flash players. We will fully support the Adobe certified Flash Player when it is released for the gTablet.)

DaZoneRanger wrote:Are there any apps for this thing that will allow it to interact with Apple's Face Time and games like Words With Friends (with iPod/Phone/Pad users)?

There is a words with friends available for Android, and you can play against other android or ios users. No idea on Face Time.

I like how it proudly says "US Merchants" on the back, and then in the lower right hand corner it says.....you guessed it, "Made in China".

What the heck, in for one.

Matthewl0799 wrote:I like how it proudly says "US Merchants" on the back, and then in the lower right hand corner it says.....you guessed it, "Made in China".

Because you would be paying 5-10 times as much were it made in the US.

carolinafern wrote:Not sure if this is what I need for my school work. Can I use excel or open-office's spreadsheet?

Quickoffice lets you do everything you need.

Unlike most people, I don't treat this device as a toy. Since my laptop seems to weigh a ton or so at times, it's nice to have this device going to work. The case I have for it has a keyboard and I have a little mouse. Yes, this device will recognize a keyboard and mouse. If you're clever, you could also take hand written notes with it.

In order to do all of these, you really do need to root and put on a custom rom.

For those who are waiting for honeycomb, here is something to think about. Users of both the gtab with custom rom and the xoom with honeycomb have told me that the xoom is finicky and laggy compared to the gtab with a custom rom. The reason is honeycomb is not really an android OS in the traditional sense. It's the first "android" OS built specifically for a tablet. This means that it really is its own OS and that honeycomb is the first generation of this OS. Many devs have found that honeycomb is still full of bugs waiting to be hammered out.

So, take it for what it's worth. The gtab has all the hardware necessary for us to update to honeycomb and the subsequent later editions of the new tablet OS. And it's cheap. It takes a minimal effort to learn how to root and flash a custom rom.

If you're still not convinced, consider this. The NAND and bootloader are unlocked, which makes the gtab the most hackable device on the market.

I was down to this or a nook color, just couldn't pass this up at this price. Can't wait to root it and see what this puppy can do. I know it doesn't have as nice of a screen as the nook color but, the more I think about it, not being a smartphone user myself, I don't think browsing the internet on anything smaller than a 10 inch tablet could be enjoyable for me.

In for 1!!!

lets not forget that the Gtablet is also the fastest android device on the market via Quadrent tests. a rooted gtablet with SetCPU can hit 2k-2.4k, whereas the Moto Xoom has trouble getting to 2k even.

Honeycomb will be out as soon as google releases official files for it, and kernal packages for overclocking will be out when nvidia releases the files for them to be made.

Overall, this thing is SMOCKING, and is almost $120 more on amazon (which is where i purchased mine in Jan).

Currently running TnT Lite 4.25 (with supplement update) forced at 425mhz-1ghz (no scaling options till a kernal is released.)

sakupiec wrote:-This doesn't run honeycomb YET. But with the very beefy hardware expect a build in a few months.

I think I'll wait (wondering what the price will be when Honeycomb is ready)!

You can get Netflix on this tablet if you use Playon. They now have an android app that seems to work great. This is the best deal going at this moment for a tablet with these specs. As with anything else, tomorrow there will always be something bigger,better,and badder. Having just ventured into the world of android via a cheap Coby tablet, rooting isn't as bad as it sounds . XDA forums is the only way to go for that. My only hesitation on this was the lack of an actual HDMI port but that can be addressed with a little google search for a dock that will work with it. Great tablet and a heck of a deal !

orijing wrote:Does anyone know whether you can write on this with a stylus, like you can on a tablet laptop?

In general, no, Android and iPad tablets do not have handwriting recognition. And that's one reason I'm resistant to buying one. I edit a lot of journal papers and have come to rely on my Fujitsu Windows XP tablet. Although it's 9 years old and uses a 900mhz Pentium M, the handwriting recognition is excellent.

Although these new tablets won't recognize your handwriting, you can no doubt sketch and scribble notes.

I believe Google will release a hanwriting recognition app soon but it's linked to another app.

Anyone try installing WYSE Pocketcloud for Android on this? This seems like it would be ideal for remoting into PC when away from desk or hitting cloud based apps.

So tempting, but I'm really interested in portability... I'd love this if it were closer in size to the Galaxy.

ivioo wrote:
Does the thing have DRM built in? As in if Netflix ever makes an app for Android it will work on this device? I hear if/when Netflix releases an app it probably will not work on older devices because of DRM junks

I'm pretty sure the hardware level DRM will only be installed on android devices manufactured after spring and summer 2011.

It's the only thing pushing me towards an iPad instead of an android tablet.

sakupiec wrote:This is a rebranded Malata ZpadT2 so all the accessories work especially the dock w/ HDMI, extra USB and Ethernet port.

Nice accessory store here

Thanks for the heads-up! I found the dock for $40 here! I ordered one for work and one for home.

Now off to cancel my Notion Ink order that has been "tied up by customs".

BanhiDancer wrote:So my question is, how does this compare to a Pandigital Novel that's been rooted into a tablet? PDF files on the Pandigital are VERY slow, internet DRAGS, and trying organize pictures into photo albums (into the order I want) is near impossible... would this solve my problems?

Yes.

devildan wrote:So tempting, but I'm really interested in portability... I'd love this if it were closer in size to the Galaxy.

You should get a NookColor! Half the price of the Tab and mine is running Honeycomb! HIGHLY recommended!

Always one thing missing in every tablet. On some it is the ram, others have no camera, this one is missing the GPS.
I really wanted to hang this on my dash with google maps displaying my route. Maybe I wouldn't get so lost

gunderstorm wrote:You should get a NookColor! Half the price of the Tab and mine is running Honeycomb! HIGHLY recommended!

I second this statement. Even just rooted stock the Nook is quite nice, though neither it or the gTab are ideal for all uses.

SuperChaos wrote:Always one thing missing in every tablet. On some it is the ram, others have no camera, this one is missing the GPS.
I really wanted to hang this on my dash with google maps displaying my route. Maybe I wouldn't get so lost

If you have an android phone, you can get an app off the market to tether your gps over wifi to the tablet. People use it with rooted nook colors for google maps. The other thing being you're going to need some sort of 'net while you're moving too, or gmaps won't do you much good on the tablet anyway.

How does a "1024x600 resolution" screen display "crystal clear 1080p HD video"?

SuperChaos wrote:Always one thing missing in every tablet. On some it is the ram, others have no camera, this one is missing the GPS.
I really wanted to hang this on my dash with google maps displaying my route. Maybe I wouldn't get so lost

there are apps for smartphones that will allow for that
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.comptonsoft.tgps as an example

Just bought one about 4 days ago lmfao only mine was 349.99 be here thursday :D

SuperChaos wrote:Always one thing missing in every tablet. On some it is the ram, others have no camera, this one is missing the GPS.
I really wanted to hang this on my dash with google maps displaying my route. Maybe I wouldn't get so lost

I have a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate (Android 2.2 phone) I wonder if its possible to connect the 2 via Bluetooth and tether the internet and use the phones GPS.

SuperChaos wrote:Always one thing missing in every tablet. On some it is the ram, others have no camera, this one is missing the GPS.
I really wanted to hang this on my dash with google maps displaying my route. Maybe I wouldn't get so lost

I have a 7" GPS. You don't want a 10" GPS on the dash!

goodintentions wrote:Quickoffice lets you do everything you need.

Unfortunately, it doesn't. Even the well-regarded OpenOffice can't handle my Microsoft Word needs. I'm a medical researcher who collaborate with many co-authors so the Annotations function has to be 100% compatible. Otherwise, our individual edits won't register or format correctly in the collaborative paper. And it doesn't if you use anything other than MS Office. We also do a lot of fancy technical formatting, i.e. lots of mathematical formulas. Fancy stuff formatted in another program don't import well into Word,and vice versa.

sarain wrote:How does a "1024x600 resolution" screen display "crystal clear 1080p HD video"?

I guess via the HDMI connector when you hook it up to a dock

ivioo wrote:I have a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate (Android 2.2 phone) I wonder if its possible to connect the 2 via Bluetooth and tether the internet and use the phones GPS.

Not by bluetooth, no. Over an ad-hoc wifi connection, yes.

Did anyone else notice that step 1 under the Safety Precautions section of the User Guide states: "DO NOT press our touch the LCD screen..." Um, isn't it a touchscreen? :/

Prime Suspect wrote:Pixel count is not nearly as important as lens quality. A 2 megapixel camera with a quality lens can take a much better picture than an 8 megapixel camera with a cheap phone-quality lens.

Partially correct. A good quality lens will always result in better quality pictures than a crappy lens--everything else being equal. However, it also depends upon the quality of the sensor, the size of the sensor, and the quality of the interpretive software.

SuperChaos wrote:Always one thing missing in every tablet. On some it is the ram, others have no camera, this one is missing the GPS.
I really wanted to hang this on my dash with google maps displaying my route. Maybe I wouldn't get so lost

You simulate GPS by triangulating WiFi sources. If you have a lot of publicly-accessible WiFi sources at ground level, it does a pretty good job.

sdc100 wrote:In general, no, Android and iPad tablets do not have handwriting recognition. And that's one reason I'm resistant to buying one. I edit a lot of journal papers and have come to rely on my Fujitsu Windows XP tablet. Although it's 9 years old and uses a 900mhz Pentium M, the handwriting recognition is excellent.

Although these new tablets won't recognize your handwriting, you can no doubt sketch and scribble notes.

I believe Google will release a hanwriting recognition app soon but it's linked to another app.

You can already get an app for the iPad that will do this:
WritePad is a handwriting recognition app created by PhatWare Corp for iPad which allows you to take notes on iPad in your very own handwriting. You can either use your finger or iPad stylus pen to write notes on your large iPad screen. WritePad is an intelligent app for iPad which learns and adapts your writing style, making itself more accurate by improving the recognition quality overtime. Moreover WritePad allows you to record simple gestures to select, cut, copy, paste text and insert special characters.

I am considering between this and a Nook color. After reading various sites, and the comments here, I have come to the following summary:

The Nook color has a better screen and smaller form factor.

The Gtab seems to win almost every other category, including much better processing and video gpu.

They both have to be rooted and custom rom to be fully functional, although the gtab current firmware has an option to use Android 2.2 instead of their 'touch and tap' out of the box, making it a bit more functional out of the box than the Nook color.

Am I leaving anything major out?

I wish I didn't have to pay Texas tax to woot, it brings the price up to $305 total for me, a Nook color costs about $50 less than that locally, making my decision a bit more difficult.

Furthermore, I bet this sells out pretty fast so I am tempted to buy tonight...