pretty cold again
Wed Feb 10 22:36 EST 2016
Coming home tonight, 29°F/-1.7°C in DC and 23°F/-5°C at home - less urban, higher, and later. But with the wind chill it was 14°F/-10°C when I left work, and most of the trip was into the wind.
I think the new blinker batteries on my bike have done 10 commutes now. One ride they were on part-way into work as well, and one night they were on the whole ride (instead of off for the trail section), so that's more like 11 nights. The old batteries were getting feeble after 4-5 nights. I could still see street signs behind me reflecting back last night.
The Sungale CyberUs tablet arrived this afternoon. It was still on the porch when I got home.
It has Android 4.0.3.
Could not see the WiFi MAC until WiFi was turned on. I don't see that making any sense; WiFi is part of the basic hardware.
It wants a stronger WiFi signal to connect than it gets in my room. ☹
There seem to be a lot of things on it that I had to load on the Kindle. (File manager? Really, Amazon....) But I don't know how much was installed while it was open box. (Do Android tablets come with Angry Birds already installed? Amazon Kindle (app), B&N Nook, Facebook, Gmail, (Google) Talk, (Twitter) Twidroyd, YouTube? Or were the open-box people trying out their favorites, and left them for me?)
Since the Amazon/Kindle App Store is more limited than the Google Play store, I'm assuming that everything I installed on the Kindle will be available for generic Android tablets. (Who (other than Amazon) would write something for only the Kindle?) Do I want to install all those things to make the Sungale more familiar? (Sorry, Sungale is not a familiar company, but "CyberUs" sounds too dorky. "We gotta give it a name...." Yeah, but even "Ralph" would have been a better name than "CyberUs".) How many of those things (file browser, weather, video players, alarm clock) normally come with Android? Do I need FTP and WiFi transport tools when I can connect USB drives and a flash card? (Yes, Amazon made it inconvenient to transfer files to/from the Kindle unless you were buying their entertainment or using their cloud service.)
There's 40 apps on the Sungale, and 42 on the Kindle - 31 I installed.
Friday 01:36
I was not able to install anything from the Google Play store last night. The error looked more like a server problem than a local (tablet) problem.
I was able to install apps tonight. I installed the Panasonic Image app (which is not in the Amazon/Kindle store, which was the whole reason for buying another tablet) and a bunch of things I use on the Kindle:
AppDescriptionComments
Panasonic Image AppRemote WiFi control of some Panasonic still/video cameras
Podcast AddictDownloads and plays audio/video podcastsPodcasts are great for commutes (no radio underground) and road trips (no decent radio)
Equalizer FXGraphic sound equalizerPodcasts particularly benefit from this on noisy transit
VLCExtremely versatile multi-format media playerThe standard player doesn't support Ogg Vorbis!
AmoebaText EditorUsed this a lot at Pennsic. Writing on the Kindle had faster startup/shutdown and used less power than the laptop.
SolitaireSolo card game
ServerauditorDesc
Batterydisplays battery status
SkypeVideo/Chat program
Most of these apps had many more similar competitors in the Google store than the Amazon store, and some of the others may be better, but these are already familiar. I didn't see the various WiFi and FTP transfer programs that I have on the Kindle in the Google store, but there probably isn't any need for them. My laptop can just put files on a USB drive or a microSD card and the Sungale can read it. I can move files between the USB or SD and the 8GB internal memory. This will be far simpler and faster than a WiFi transfer. And you can't do this on the Kindle - a walled garden for apps, and a razor-wire-fenced garden for data. (If you want to read Amazon ebooks and watch Amazon movies and play Amazon albums, you're all set. If you want to read public-domain ebooks or watch videos from your own open-source DVR or play your own audio recordings, Amazon has not made it easy - and I think it will be beyond most people.)
Friday 04:00
The camera-remote app is pretty cool. It's wild seeing your camera's screen on another device. I was able to zoom in/out, change the image ratio (1:1, 16:9 etc), image size (megapix), focus mode, flash mode. There's more, but it will take some exploring.
The app has some rough spots. Just getting the camera and the tablet connected was a challenge. There are 3 wasy to authenticate - NFC (Near-Field Communication - like Bluetooth, except very short range (almost touching)), a QR code, or a password. The tablet doesn't have NFC. The camera's QR code was blurry on the tablet, and I couldn't figure out how to grab it. And there was no keyboard to type in the password. Eventually I got the keyboard; never did capture the QR.
I don't know what the range is. The tablet in my bedroom doesn't even connect to my home WiFi, but that's through several walls and a floor. It's probably fine for group shots in a big room or outdoors. It still might not suffice for a kite.
The camera does need a steady support (e.g. tripod), because that lens comes out a long way on the zoom. The balance shifts radically and it could fall off a table. (And it would probably fall on that extended lens. ☹)
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/798103.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
Coming home tonight, 29°F/-1.7°C in DC and 23°F/-5°C at home - less urban, higher, and later. But with the wind chill it was 14°F/-10°C when I left work, and most of the trip was into the wind.
I think the new blinker batteries on my bike have done 10 commutes now. One ride they were on part-way into work as well, and one night they were on the whole ride (instead of off for the trail section), so that's more like 11 nights. The old batteries were getting feeble after 4-5 nights. I could still see street signs behind me reflecting back last night.
The Sungale CyberUs tablet arrived this afternoon. It was still on the porch when I got home.
It has Android 4.0.3.
Could not see the WiFi MAC until WiFi was turned on. I don't see that making any sense; WiFi is part of the basic hardware.
It wants a stronger WiFi signal to connect than it gets in my room. ☹
There seem to be a lot of things on it that I had to load on the Kindle. (File manager? Really, Amazon....) But I don't know how much was installed while it was open box. (Do Android tablets come with Angry Birds already installed? Amazon Kindle (app), B&N Nook, Facebook, Gmail, (Google) Talk, (Twitter) Twidroyd, YouTube? Or were the open-box people trying out their favorites, and left them for me?)
Since the Amazon/Kindle App Store is more limited than the Google Play store, I'm assuming that everything I installed on the Kindle will be available for generic Android tablets. (Who (other than Amazon) would write something for only the Kindle?) Do I want to install all those things to make the Sungale more familiar? (Sorry, Sungale is not a familiar company, but "CyberUs" sounds too dorky. "We gotta give it a name...." Yeah, but even "Ralph" would have been a better name than "CyberUs".) How many of those things (file browser, weather, video players, alarm clock) normally come with Android? Do I need FTP and WiFi transport tools when I can connect USB drives and a flash card? (Yes, Amazon made it inconvenient to transfer files to/from the Kindle unless you were buying their entertainment or using their cloud service.)
There's 40 apps on the Sungale, and 42 on the Kindle - 31 I installed.
Friday 01:36
I was not able to install anything from the Google Play store last night. The error looked more like a server problem than a local (tablet) problem.
I was able to install apps tonight. I installed the Panasonic Image app (which is not in the Amazon/Kindle store, which was the whole reason for buying another tablet) and a bunch of things I use on the Kindle:
AppDescriptionComments
Panasonic Image AppRemote WiFi control of some Panasonic still/video cameras
Podcast AddictDownloads and plays audio/video podcastsPodcasts are great for commutes (no radio underground) and road trips (no decent radio)
Equalizer FXGraphic sound equalizerPodcasts particularly benefit from this on noisy transit
VLCExtremely versatile multi-format media playerThe standard player doesn't support Ogg Vorbis!
AmoebaText EditorUsed this a lot at Pennsic. Writing on the Kindle had faster startup/shutdown and used less power than the laptop.
SolitaireSolo card game
ServerauditorDesc
Batterydisplays battery status
SkypeVideo/Chat program
Most of these apps had many more similar competitors in the Google store than the Amazon store, and some of the others may be better, but these are already familiar. I didn't see the various WiFi and FTP transfer programs that I have on the Kindle in the Google store, but there probably isn't any need for them. My laptop can just put files on a USB drive or a microSD card and the Sungale can read it. I can move files between the USB or SD and the 8GB internal memory. This will be far simpler and faster than a WiFi transfer. And you can't do this on the Kindle - a walled garden for apps, and a razor-wire-fenced garden for data. (If you want to read Amazon ebooks and watch Amazon movies and play Amazon albums, you're all set. If you want to read public-domain ebooks or watch videos from your own open-source DVR or play your own audio recordings, Amazon has not made it easy - and I think it will be beyond most people.)
Friday 04:00
The camera-remote app is pretty cool. It's wild seeing your camera's screen on another device. I was able to zoom in/out, change the image ratio (1:1, 16:9 etc), image size (megapix), focus mode, flash mode. There's more, but it will take some exploring.
The app has some rough spots. Just getting the camera and the tablet connected was a challenge. There are 3 wasy to authenticate - NFC (Near-Field Communication - like Bluetooth, except very short range (almost touching)), a QR code, or a password. The tablet doesn't have NFC. The camera's QR code was blurry on the tablet, and I couldn't figure out how to grab it. And there was no keyboard to type in the password. Eventually I got the keyboard; never did capture the QR.
I don't know what the range is. The tablet in my bedroom doesn't even connect to my home WiFi, but that's through several walls and a floor. It's probably fine for group shots in a big room or outdoors. It still might not suffice for a kite.
The camera does need a steady support (e.g. tripod), because that lens comes out a long way on the zoom. The balance shifts radically and it could fall off a table. (And it would probably fall on that extended lens. ☹)
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/798103.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]