Day 10

Watched a lot of youtube today. Looks great!
I also downloaded (or I guess "added" is what one does with an app?) Set, an incredibly nerdy card game, for my upcoming plane trip.

Day 9

Didn't do much today on the tablet. Did do some settings changes in aldiko and made the font much smaller; we'll see how it how it goes. I was getting annoyed at the constant page turning.

I also watched the swype keyboard tutorial. I should have RTFM in the first place; it tips me how to fix a lot of the things I was having troubles with like double letters and spaces. I still don't know how to add my own words. embarrassingly I kept failing that part of the tutorial and because it was a series of "tips", I couldn't get back and read the dang instructions again. Sigh. Bad UI.

Day 8

Today I checked out some ebook readers and downloaded aldiko as my reader of choice after seeing a presentation on it by another librarian today. It crashed right after I imported my first ebook (a Frank Baum collection of short stories from Project Gutenberg) which was not a great sign, but I figured I would give it a shot. Once I got it back up, I like aldiko, but wonder if I would prefer an even more stripped down version. I really don't need to see the cover of my books, especially when the Project Gutenberg books come with an impossible to read text cover. I dearly wish I could take screenshots on this tablet to show you how ugly they are. I also don't see myself taking too manny notes on books (or hondas, as my swipe keyboard keeps writing for books) as I don't on fun reading and rarely have books to read professionally. I do like the interface for reading and the way I can control the brightness of the screen. The page turning motion is ok, but you can also use the volume keys, which is handy. I am amazed at the level and types of customization available on pretty much all the apps I have DLed, even though all are free.

More keyboard fun: it can learn from one instance of a word in a document. Like the first time I swiped "gutenberg," it suggested horng or firebug (i know!). The second time, and subsequently, it did it right. This might make note taking a lot easier! I also figured out how to get to the money symbols keyboard. It is funny how the swipe keyboard makes me confront how my brain works. Apparently as I type words, it takes me a few seconds to connect the beginning and ending of a word. E.g., during swiping "beginning," I got through begi and forgot what letter was next to connect with the ing, and where it was on the keyboard. This probably leads to more errors in the swipe. It sure makes me wonder how i manage to type so fast on a normal keyboard.

I found my stylus after losing it yesterday. I then lost it in my bag on the way home.

Day 7

My neck is killing me today. I am not sure if this is due to hunching over the tablet for the past 6 days or my house-cleaning-frenzy, but I am giving writing on the tablet a day off to let my tendons restretch.

I have been doing a lot of browsing on Dolphin and finding a lot of neat features, like bookmarks, viewing all open tabs, etc. The gesture browsing doesn't always work. I think the gestures track the placement and size of the gesture instead of the shape. It comes with a ^ symbol as the gesture to "go to top." I had reset this to a line and circle at the top (think a drawing of a balloon) and it kept interpreting this as "back" (which looks like a horizontal line with an arrowhead pointing left). I reset my "top of the screen" gesture to a very narrow ^ shape and now it works better. I tried some smaller localized gestures (what if I drew a star in the top right-hand corner of the screen?) but this is hard to use, as the gesture is "locked" to the location you set it at. For example, I am browsing in horizontal mode and set a gesture as the top right hand corner, when I rotate the tab and browse vertically, the same corner is now the top left-hand corner. To use the gesture I have to remember which corner I set it in, and the exact orientation I started drawing the gesture in. See the picture, and pretend the arrow is a vector showing the direction of the swipe:



Definitely understandable from a programming standpoint, but it's kind of annoying for a device which is capable of orienting in many directions.

I also figured out how to access the bookmarks bar. This thing came preloaded with a whole bunch of AT&T bookmarks to stuff I will never, ever use (at&t maps? at&t-owned wireless hotspots locator? at&t cell phone homepage? at&t weather? Sure, those are better than the google versions!) and they were right at the top of the bookmarks list. I figured out how to delete these FINALLY and move my bookmarks around correctly. I wish I could add more bookmark folders but as of yet that had evaded me.

Today I downloaded the QR Droid reader. Weirdly it seems to flip the camera view, so when I move the tablet left, the camera tracks to the right. Makes it a little tough to find QR codes, but the reader is really good at recognizing them, so it all works out.

I also got the Adobe PDF reader. Still no copy-paste (ARRRGH!) but I like the display and navigation better than the Quickoffice PDF viewer.

I am a little confused by the charging/battery life. I have had to charge twice now. Yesterday I had it plugged into my computer for 6 hours and it only chargd up about 80%! Very frustrating, I wonder how this thing will handle battery-wise when I take it to conferences, when I don't always have 6 hours to leave it plugged in.

Day 6

I am typing this with the predictive text tool. You just slide your finger across the keys and it guesses what you meant. It's pretty good, but has trouble with short words like am, you, and, with, who, and words with double letters. It does make typing easier but would still not be fast enough for minutes or notes.

Today I received a case-thank goodness. BTW the predictive text just wrote "hogan" instead of goodness. HUUUULLKK!

The case came with a stylus with an unknown sharp pointy tool. . Does anyone know what it does? I used it to fix a runner in my tights, but I can't imagine that is what the creators intended it for.

Just found out that pressing back on a new tab in dolphin makes it close.

Day 5

Figured out how to add files using the USB cord. It is so handy! I am going to read my upcoming librarian presentation from the tablet, because it's so easy to hold (also, my library will look super-slick if I go all techy while presenting). I can also run my Prezi on it (there's a Prezi app), which will mean I will spend the plane ride to San Francisco practicing my talk! Awesome.

PDFs display really looks nice, but I wish I could select text.

Day 4

I downloaded and installed Epocrates and MedScape today, and compared QR code readers on the marketplace. I don't know which one to use-- do I really want/need to make my own QR codes?

I also discovered how to move icons and delete unused ones from my desktop.

I did solve the tab problem I had with Dolphin: too many tabs being open at once. Still don't know the limit of tabs, but at least I have less frustration.

Discovered the best way to make friends in the subway: bring out the tablet! This was the longest and oddest conversation I've ever had with an LA County Sheriff. They could not believe I was a librarian.

Josh downloaded a drawing program. That might actually be easier to use for notes; you can do cursive with your finger.

Learned how to add home screens today. Apparently this device must have five home screens, no less. I just want three- am I wrong?

I transferred files using the usb cord too. I like how it can recognize what type of file I add and convert it to the droid file format. I do not like the pdf reader- I want to copy and paste events into a calendar, and I cant copy text.

I also learned how to quick scroll through google search image results. (you have to grab and flick in a specific way which I can't do reliably.)