I broke down and got a tablet

[Cazzie]

I have been shopping for about three months, read reviews, played with them all, and just had to go with the Toshiba Android Thrive 3.1 (upgraded to 3.2). The iPad2 is fine, if all one wants is a bigger smart phone, ditto the Samsung Galaxy. But Toshiba got it all right, rubberized backing, thick enough for a man to handle, the iPad2 and Galaxy are too thin for my big hands and once one feels the Galaxy, it feels cheap. Toshiba made the Thrive thicker for a purpose too, unlike all the other tablets on the market, which depend on Cloud technology to store photos, Toshiba went a few steps beyond by having ports for a mini-USB 2.0, a standard USB 2.0, an SDXD camera card, and an HDMI for porting HD movies from Netflix (or other video media) to any non-internet HDTV. And it costs $100.00 less than either the iPad2 or the Galaxy. The battery is replaceable too, charges twice as fast as the iPad2's and has longer service when using the battery by nearly two hours.

I am hooked, can now take books or movies to bed, anywhere, I am not stuck in a computer chair! My two boys have iPad2s and having used both, I can tell you the WiFi in this Thrive and its user friendly nature will put the iPad2 to shame. Photoshop has a real nice ap for Android os tablets too for a cheap $9.99, that allows me to take photos on the road and edit them in an instant for the web, even a Photobucket ap for me to upload to my account. Oh, the Thrive supports Flash Player too, try that with an iPad

If any of you are in the market for a tablet, I can highly recommend the Toshiba Thrive, I'll never take a laptop on the road with me again. It has a 5mp camera in the rear and a 2mp camera in the front, sadly neither have a flash capability though. But I prefer to take photos with my DSLR anyhow.

Caz

 

[Lateral-G]

Nice that Toshiba added the USB ports. One thing sadly lacking on the ipad.

As a side note my step-daughter has an itouch (an iphone without the phone) and because of apple's proprietary way of doing things it's a real PITA to restore to a 'new' condition and be able to use. Just another reason why I really dislike apple products.....

 

[hey_moe]

Caz, you will like it better than a laptop. It is light weight,easy to hold and carry around with you. I brought the Ipad a while back and use it at work every day.

 

[Cazzie]

Caz, you will like it better than a laptop. It is light weight,easy to hold and carry around with you. I brought the Ipad a while back and use it at work every day.

Oh, I already prefer it to a laptop Mike, by far. The keypad is easier to use than a keyboard, the touch screen is so much easier to use for me than a touch pad on a laptop. The Thrive is maybe 0.4-lb heavier than either iPad2 or Galaxy, the Thrive weighing in at 1.6-lb vs. the others 1.2-lb. The iPad2 has a much more quality feel than the Galaxy, but the Thrive has that quality feel and look too. And being Japanese, it is not made in China.

Watching a Netflix movie while relaxing is the bee's knees.

Caz

 

[Navy Chief]

I bought a Kindle Fire a few weeks ago. Hard to beat the $200 price tag, considering all it does. Granted, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a Ipad, but then again, it costs a fraction of one.

I use it to read books, do email. Can even watch Netflix on it.

NC

 

[n4gix]

Thanks for the positive review. I was somewhat "excited" until I saw that it has a 7" screen. I really need a 10.1" screen because of my poor eyesight.

While Galaxy Tab is nice, the complete lack of a Micro SD slot, HDMI or USB connection are huge negatives from my POV.

I almost pulled the trigger on a Lenovo (IBM) last week to take advantage of a Tiger Direct sale, even going as far as transferring money from my savings account to checking/debit account...

...but, having taken a few more minutes of thought realized that I would be investing a very large amount of money into a product that I may well not use all that much. After all, I bought a really nice i7 laptop last year that I've probably used less than 10 hours altogether!

 

[kilo delta]

Congrats on your purchase,Cazzie.

I bought a HP Touchpad in last weeks fire sale for $99. I should have it delivered tomorrow (had to use a mail forwarding service). Plan is to dual boot the native WebOS and Android.

 

[CWOJackson]

While Galaxy Tab is nice, the complete lack of a Micro SD slot, HDMI or USB connection are huge negatives from my POV.

My wife gave me a 10.1 for our anniversary; I picked up a USB port attachment at Best Buy for around $20.

I'm enjoying it.

 

[Cazzie]

Thanks for the positive review. I was somewhat "excited" until I saw that it has a 7" screen. I really need a 10.1" screen because of my poor eyesight.

While Galaxy Tab is nice, the complete lack of a Micro SD slot, HDMI or USB connection are huge negatives from my POV.

I almost pulled the trigger on a Lenovo (IBM) last week to take advantage of a Tiger Direct sale, even going as far as transferring money from my savings account to checking/debit account...

...but, having taken a few more minutes of thought realized that I would be investing a very large amount of money into a product that I may well not use all that much. After all, I bought a really nice i7 laptop last year that I've probably used less than 10 hours altogether!

Nay hark, the Toshiba Thrive has a 10.1-in. screen, at least the one I have does. I am currently re-enjoying Ken Burns' "Baseball".

Caz

 

[n4gix]

Nay hark, the Toshiba Thrive has a 10.1-in. screen, at least the one I have does. I am currently re-enjoying Ken Burns' "Baseball".

Caz

Oh, I guess Tiger Direct doesn't carry the 10.1" models. What specifically did you buy. I see about a dozen different versions of the 10.1" Toshiba Thrive at Amazon.com and elsewhere...

Nevermind. I broke down and ordered:

[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]"Toshiba Thrive 10.1-Inch 32 GB Android Tablet AT105-T1032 Black"[/SIZE][/FONT]
and
[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1]"Toshiba Thrive Multi-Dock with HDMI for 10.1-Inch Tablet (PA3934U-1PRP)"[/SIZE][/FONT]

from Amazon.com. With 2 day shipping the total came to $538.62

 

[aeronca1]

Congrats on your purchase,Cazzie.

I bought a HP Touchpad in last weeks fire sale for $99. I should have it delivered tomorrow (had to use a mail forwarding service). Plan is to dual boot the native WebOS and Android.

A friend has one of these. Has Android been "ported" to it already? What version and where do you get it?

 

[kilo delta]

A friend has one of these. Has Android been "ported" to it already? What version and where do you get it?

Android Gingerbread at the moment, though Ice Cream Sandwich has reportedly been already ported, but this build will not be released just yet until the developers have ironed out some of the porting issues. Also, HP have released the WebOS operating system as open source, which can only be a good step for tablet owners not wishing to run either Apple's IOS or Google's Android.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4231255/Android-4-0-ported-to-HP-TouchPad-

 

[aeronca1]

Thanks! Looks like they are making great progress. It's also very interesting to see that WebOS is going open source. Things are looking rosy for mobile devices in the near future!

 

[n4gix]

Nevermind. I broke down and ordered:

[SIZE=-1]"Toshiba Thrive 10.1-Inch 32 GB Android Tablet AT105-T1032 Black"[/SIZE]
and
[SIZE=-1]"Toshiba Thrive Multi-Dock with HDMI for 10.1-Inch Tablet (PA3934U-1PRP)"[/SIZE]

from Amazon.com. With 2 day shipping the total came to $538.62

So much for 2 day shipping...

The Multi-Dock arrived via UPS yesterday.
The Tablet was shipped via Fedex, and won't arrive until (maybe) Dec. 30th...

 

[Trans_23]

So much for 2 day shipping...

The Multi-Dock arrived via UPS yesterday.
The Tablet was shipped via Fedex, and won't arrive until (maybe) Dec. 30th...

Hopefully the FedEx guy is more careful with your package....

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