redae102 wrote:One word of warning, though. DO NOT update to the latest firmware if you think there is a possibility you may want to put a custom ROM on it. According to info over at XDA, the latest version locks down the bootloader, making it difficult and maybe even impossible to unlock later.

Not true regarding the latest firmware. The update OTA to 1.2-4349 and you have great options of updating to a custom rom and nothing is locked down. I'm not an expert, but I believe XDA is sticking to 1.1 images. Head to SlateDroid.com they have many 1.2 friendly roms to choose from such as: Brilliant Corners; Mountain Laurel; Century Eyes; TnT 5.0 to name a few.

I bought 2 g-tabs from Woot at different times and each time the original UI was 1.1-3389. As soon as you turn on your wifi, an OTA update to 1.1-3588. This is where I left the one gtab at 3588. The second (first one that came in and I had the longest) went from 1.1-3389; OTA update to 1.1-3588; a few days later OTA update to 1.2-4349.

It is this new 1.2- image that is not compatable with 1.1-based rom versions and many of the hacks associated with 1.1. I don't know the details, but believe XDA decided to stick to development on the 1.1 based image. A developer named roebeet who already was dabbling in 1.2 images went to SlateDroid.com and continued to develop great 1.2 based roms. Honeycomb is closer to 1.2 than 1.1. Additionally, looks like some developers are making great headway to break HC on the 1.2 image.

That said, for some unknown reason ViewSonic pulled the automatic 1.2-4349 OTA a day or so after turing it on. That means that currently, you can only OTA update to 1.1-3588. However, you can do a manual update - the good folks at SlateDroid has the 1.2-4349 image for you to download.

Both stock UI 1.1-3588 and 1.2-4349 are stable and I can access many app stores, watch flash videos, surf net, read books, play games, update word and powerpoint files. It does not have Google Android Market. Again SlateDroid to the rescue (as well as XDA-developers, they give good directions to update to Market without adding a rom (still on stock). It's all about choice, roms are great - new looks and feels of how things work. I decided to hold tight with the stock until I get tired (or they break the HC code).

If you missed this Woot! you can still get this over at Amazon for $269.99 + $5.94 shipping:

Take me to the Amazon

offline999 wrote:If you missed this Woot! you can still get this over at Amazon for $269.99 + $5.94 shipping:

Take me to the Amazon

Is this legit the company has zero feedback?

I own it, and it's really nice tablet, indeed.

But for $100 more, I would love to have this one instead:

ASUS Transformer TF100 10.1" Android Tablet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkhTO4k1Q8&feature=player_embedded

tsymyn wrote:Lack of personalization Android offers? Do you mean iOS? You can change literally EVERYTHING on Android. Look at ADW or Go Launcher EX vs stock or Sense on HTC devices. On iPad you can change what, the background?

That's what I'm saying lol..Android you can personalize to your hearts content, iPad you're stuck with the same ol boring screen.

thepunkesh wrote:I own it, and it's really nice tablet, indeed.

But for $100 more, I would love to have this one instead:

ASUS Transformer TF100 10.1" Android Tablet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkhTO4k1Q8&feature=player_embedded

Me too!

polsmt wrote:Is this legit the company has zero feedback?

Not sure. I'd never dealt with them. They've got Amazon standing behind them with the A-z guarantee, for what that's worth. My credit card company has buyer protection as well so I'm hoping I'm safe.
Mostly I spent all day researching & debating about pulling the trigger on this Woot! and then it sold out right about the time I decided to go for it, so I went looking for an alternate source.

Please! Please! Bring this deal back. In fact, bring like 10,000...I am sure you can sell all. Same price. Or the ASUS EEE Transformer. I am totally late to the game here.

offline999 wrote:Not sure. I'd never dealt with them. They've got Amazon standing behind them with the A-z guarantee, for what that's worth. My credit card company has buyer protection as well so I'm hoping I'm safe.
Mostly I spent all day researching & debating about pulling the trigger on this Woot! and then it sold out right about the time I decided to go for it, so I went looking for an alternate source.

Did you buy one from that Amazon account? I too starting to sell stuff on Amazon, so I understand about the zero rating/feedback. I have done enough research into tablets, I think , and either ASUS or VS for the price. Come on Woot!

thepunkesh wrote:I own it, and it's really nice tablet, indeed.

But for $100 more, I would love to have this one instead:

ASUS Transformer TF100 10.1" Android Tablet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqkhTO4k1Q8&feature=player_embedded

Wow. That's just amazing. I'm speechless.

But we all know that the iPad will blow this out of the water anyway, with basically less features and the same price.

Honestly though, for the price and features that the Viewsonic gTablet has, I'm happy. My happiness would be complete if I could use a mouse with it, but nonetheless I can't wait for it to arrive. Especially consider that on top of the ~$400 price tag for the Asus Transformer, you need to plunk another ~$150 for the nifty dock.

So glad I got it before inventory ran out :p

scyld wrote:Wow. That's just amazing. I'm speechless.

But we all know that the iPad will blow this out of the water anyway, with basically less features and the same price.

Honestly though, for the price and features that the Viewsonic gTablet has, I'm happy. My happiness would be complete if I could use a mouse with it, but nonetheless I can't wait for it to arrive. Especially consider that on top of the ~$400 price tag for the Asus Transformer, you need to plunk another ~$150 for the nifty dock.

So glad I got it before inventory ran out :p

Where did you get your price information from?
You're way off!

I love this tablet. VEGAn 7 RC1 FTW!


It's so cheap I'm not afraid to carry it around with me like I am with my iPad.

Only complaint about it (two now that I thought about it) is the screen is cheap. Usable though. Oh and the speakers have very tiny sound. My phone sounds better I think.

offline999 wrote:If you missed this Woot! you can still get this over at Amazon for $269.99 + $5.94 shipping:

Take me to the Amazon

sold out.

Got one of these on Moofi when it was there, fiddled around with the stock UI, and then jumped in and put vegan Tab Ginger edition on it. So far, so good. I get about a day to a day and a half on the battery depending on usage. The only thing I've run across is that it won't play the video files I've got, but that's merely a software issue with the format they are in, and that I've not found a decent player app yet.

scyld wrote:Wow. That's just amazing. I'm speechless.

But we all know that the iPad will blow this out of the water anyway, with basically less features and the same price.

Honestly though, for the price and features that the Viewsonic gTablet has, I'm happy. My happiness would be complete if I could use a mouse with it, but nonetheless I can't wait for it to arrive. Especially consider that on top of the ~$400 price tag for the Asus Transformer, you need to plunk another ~$150 for the nifty dock.

So glad I got it before inventory ran out :p

A mouse can in fact be used with the gTablet. I am using the firmware 1.2, I was able to download it before Viewsonic pulled it from the OTA servers. It adds mouse, dock and keyboard support.

Another small word of warning about the support for this tablet from Viewsonic. They have a third-party support provider. My tablet's power connector popped (it made a literal "pop" noise when I inserted the connector) after about a month, preventing me from charging the device.

No, it wasn't abuse, and I purchased the thing from Woot's first sale of the tablets, so it isn't a refurb. I called the provider to make a claim under the warranty, and I was flatly denied within seconds. They immediately assumed I was lying, and denied the claim. When I asked how much it would cost to have it repaired through them, the response was $175, plus shipping both ways.

After contemplating a small claims action, I followed a guide on XDA developers to open the device up. I soldered the connector back onto the board. All five tabs were intact.

Still, had I not been lucky with my horrible surface mount soldering technique, I would have had a paperweight.

It is otherwise a great tablet, particularly while running VeganTab Ginger edition, but the horrid customer service left me cold on future Viewsonic purchases.

Hey! Thanks for using my photo of my brother in the tablet. You can find the shirt here if you'd like: http://www.jupmode.com/hipster-t-shirt.html

It's too late now, but the next time you buy something like this, you might try getting a SquareTrade warranty. I had one on my wife's Dell laptop and they paid for a new hard drive with no problems.

benmachine wrote:Another small word of warning about the support for this tablet from Viewsonic. They have a third-party support provider. My tablet's power connector popped (it made a literal "pop" noise when I inserted the connector) after about a month, preventing me from charging the device.

No, it wasn't abuse, and I purchased the thing from Woot's first sale of the tablets, so it isn't a refurb. I called the provider to make a claim under the warranty, and I was flatly denied within seconds. They immediately assumed I was lying, and denied the claim. When I asked how much it would cost to have it repaired through them, the response was $175, plus shipping both ways.

After contemplating a small claims action, I followed a guide on XDA developers to open the device up. I soldered the connector back onto the board. All five tabs were intact.

Still, had I not been lucky with my horrible surface mount soldering technique, I would have had a paperweight.

It is otherwise a great tablet, particularly while running VeganTab Ginger edition, but the horrid customer service left me cold on future Viewsonic purchases.

TiHara wrote:It's too late now, but the next time you buy something like this, you might try getting a SquareTrade warranty. I had one on my wife's Dell laptop and they paid for a new hard drive with no problems.

unless they've changed their policy, i'm pretty sure you have 30 days to get the squaretrade warranty
edit: i was wrong, 30 days if purchased on eBay; 90 days, elsewhere
source: http://is.gd/nHbqKC (click "How long do I have to buy a SquareTrade Care Plan?")

Just got my shipping notification & fedex tracking number, can't wait to get my grubby mitts on this tablet

manichawk wrote:Just got my shipping notification & fedex tracking number, can't wait to get my grubby mitts on this tablet

Got mine too, but it isn't updated yet with any information.

Sweet! Just checked again, should be here on Friday! Family may be at inlaws this weekend. I might actually have time to root this and install the ROM. Think I will put Vegan-Tab ver 5.1 on it. I think that is the version with the most support. Any suggestions?

medved02 wrote:Got mine too, but it isn't updated yet with any information.

Just looked at mine and its updated. In Hutchins, TX.

I just got mine. Brand new in the box. It said in the instructions to charge it till the LED turns greed before turning it on. I'm going ahead and following the directions. I'll post up later how long it took to fully charge.

ewraven wrote:I just got mine. Brand new in the box. It said in the instructions to charge it till the LED turns greed before turning it on. I'm going ahead and following the directions. I'll post up later how long it took to fully charge.

Hope to get mine tomorrow. That is what FedEx has scheduled for arrival. Any plans on rooting it and putting a new ROM on it? If so let me know your experience. I'm probably not going to get to work on mine until Saturday.

medved02 wrote:Hope to get mine tomorrow. That is what FedEx has scheduled for arrival. Any plans on rooting it and putting a new ROM on it? If so let me know your experience. I'm probably not going to get to work on mine until Saturday.

It has been charging for right at two hours now and the LED is still red.

I am on the fence about the rooting thing. I never have rooted my EVO 4g phone and find that it is just fine for my use.

I'm going to try out this gtablet for a while and see if I can live with the factory ROM.

I went on EBAY and got the Malata dock for it. It too came in today. I'm glad I got it. The only way to use the gtablet with HDMI is via the plug on the dock.

I also have the Skinomi TechSkin from Amazon.com on the way. I hope it gets here soon, this gtab is quite the fingerprint magnet.

Well, my gtablet is fully charged. It ended up taking about 3 hours and thirty minutes to charge. I've got it running on my network.

It is running version 1.1-3389 of the Tap UI.

It wants to do an update to version 1.1-3588

The screen is really very very nice looking. I'm definitely going to need the screen protector as the OEM glass kind of sticks to the finger when dragging things around. I can see that being an annoyance over time.

The viewing angle isn't nearly as bad in my opinion as what it was made out to be. I think it is perfect for privacy.

Got mine today. Light will turn green when fully charged. I have found that it has the latest software with the 1.2 ver boot loader. Been trying to downgrade to 1.1 for the xda roms. But, I have found it very hard to find information about getting it to load. The boot loader starts for a second then reboots back into normal mode. I have the lock down version and cannot find the info to get around the lock.

I had said that I don't like the feel of the screen. I was wrong, with some use it has gotten much more slippery feeling. Which is a good thing.

I've used it now for three hours since fully charging it. The battery is only down to 65% as of right now.

ewraven wrote:I had said that I don't like the feel of the screen. I was wrong, with some use it has gotten much more slippery feeling. Which is a good thing.

I've used it now for three hours since fully charging it. The battery is only down to 65% as of right now.

How is the speed/response of the stock UI?

afisboy wrote:How is the speed/response of the stock UI?

It is excellent, I haven't seen any lag when doing anything at all. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Just a heads up for everyone, visit this site to register your gpad when you receive it...
http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet/

It also says on that site that they are anticipating to release an update sometime this month. I also followed those instructions there to install Flash.apk. However it looks like this already had Flash on it.

I've been watching Youtube videos and had flash items working in websites. That is both in the included browser and Opera Mobile browser.

It also came with the YouTube app which I had to add to the home screen.

ewraven wrote:It is excellent, I haven't seen any lag when doing anything at all. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Just a heads up for everyone, visit this site to register your gpad when you receive it...
http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet/

It also says on that site that they are anticipating to release an update sometime this month. I also followed those instructions there to install Flash.apk. However it looks like this already had Flash on it.

I've been watching Youtube videos and had flash items working in websites. That is both in the included browser and Opera Mobile browser.

It also came with the YouTube app which I had to add to the home screen.

Thanks for all the information. Can't wait for mine to get here.

medved02 wrote:Thanks for all the information. Can't wait for mine to get here.

you want more information? here is the link for discussions from the first time woot offered the G-Tab

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4394837

Lots of info, 73 pages worth!

My gTablet arived with no screen covers even though the instructions said it would have one. That makes me wonder if it is a remanufactured item. Anyone else experience this?

rondeann wrote:My gTablet arived with no screen covers even though the instructions said it would have one. That makes me wonder if it is a remanufactured item. Anyone else experience this?

Was the box shrink wrapped? Mine was in a real soft disposable sleave but otherwise did not have a screen cover. My box was shrink wrapped and looked brand new.

ewraven wrote:Was the box shrink wrapped? Mine was in a real soft disposable sleave but otherwise did not have a screen cover. My box was shrink wrapped and looked brand new.

Yes it was shrink wrapped so I guess everything is ok. Thanks for responding.

rondeann wrote:My gTablet arived with no screen covers even though the instructions said it would have one. That makes me wonder if it is a remanufactured item. Anyone else experience this?

FedEx just delivered 30 minutes ago. Charging now. Shrinkwrap . . . I thought the instructions read "may" come with one or two screen protectors. My guess would be the soft packaging bag it came in is now used to protect it during shipment.

Can't wait to see what version comes on this so I can figure out what ROM I want to put on it. I will post mine once I power it up.

Disregard my last post about the 1.2 boot loader. Turns out I was missing a step. I was reading the info on Vegan-Tab Gingerbread edition. Had to search a bit to find out what I was doing wrong. You have to load ClockWorkMod first thing. If you decide to go with the vegan-gingerbread edition, go to this link for a good description of how to install the new software step by step.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=865245

This gives you step by step for ALL of the various replacement software.

Have fun! This thing is awesome for the price!!!!!!!!!

I just saw that Woot offered this again. I posted some really detailed instructions on installing Vegan or TNT Lite on my blog site and during the last Woot deal a lot of people found it useful. I figured I'd share the link again here on this thread to help people get their tabs flashed:

Flashing the GTablet with Vegan ROM 5.11

Flashing the GTablet With TNT Lite 4.40

Note, if you are planning on flashing please do so before taking the latest OTA update from Viewsonic. My instructions are for Tablets that have 3588 or older (the instructions tell you how to check).

Hope this helps, I think you guys will really enjoy your GTablets!

Sean

Hey everyone. Is it just me or do these things look like refurbs to you?

I bought it because it was listed new.

I just got mine in the mail... it was factory sealed in plastic. When I opened it, none of my connectors had plastic wrap and my screen had no factory screen cover on it.

After charging it, I turned it on and found a dead pixel along with

anyone else comment on what was included in your box?

Thanks.