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I never thought id see the day I'd get rid of my beloved Athena, but yesterday I had an awakening.
Only a few days before i'd had a play on an IPhone and marvelled at its intuitive, smooth and just bloody BRILLIANT interface. it almost shocked me just how crude, ill-thought-out and unsatisfying windows mobile is in comparison. Now please don't baulk at this statement; i'm NOT going to buy an IPhone, it doesn't do enough for me and it's overpriced. But remember, this is Apple's FIRST. need I repeat FIIIIRRRSSST attempt at the mobile os market. how have they got it right so effortlessly while Microsoft, with all their years of experience in the field continue to make such crap?
I have shaken off my bias towards Microsoft and now simply resent their seeming inability to produce a mobile os that works well.
I don't wish this thread to be about the iphone. We all know its only 2g, can't do mms and doesn't have a particularly good camera. what it does do it does WELL though.
The same is true of Nokia's n800 and n810 internet tablets with os2008. they play YOUTUBE with flash 9. they render web pages smoothly and effortlessly. they look and feel nice. my n95 also - its web browser loads up data-heavy web pages PHENOMINALLY quicker than my Athena, despite its processor and ram spec being distinctly inferior.
why am I getting rid of my Ameo?
Put simply: it just doesn't work. it works a hell of a lot BETTER thanks to PK and the developers, but to all intents and purposes, when you really need it to work, it just doesn't. This is true of ALL windows mobile devices.
How often have you needed to use Internet Explorer to check something on the fly and been frustrated by a constant 'connecting' or 'opening' message for no apparent reason? How often has your windows mobile device crashed, frozen or botched up for no reason? I could go on, but I prefer to give my own personal remedy to the situation, and here it is....
dig out my old Hermes, dust off the cobwebs. use this for all my organising, scheduling etc...
install WmWifiRouter so my Hermes acts as a perfect wifi access point when its HSDPA capabilities are required.
buy a shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook for a little under 230 quid.
connect shiny tiny black ASUS eee subnotebook to Hermes access point when internet is required away from home.
sell Athena to anyone who hasn't realised Windows Mobile is crap yet.
it seems to me that Microsoft are about to fall under the shadow of Apple and Nokia quite abruptly. somebody tell me i'm wrong!
p.s. - Athena for sale if anyone wants one
sounds like you either did a bad flash or got a bad batch coz my athena has never crashed once or had any of the problems you described.never the less,how much are you selling it for?is it an x7501 or x7500?
i can see what your on about , but personally i find that my Athena(Ameo) ticks about every box i want it to.
I want an all in one device for browsing, streaming, phoning and texting and running some other apps and the Athena is the only all in one device that ticks all those boxes for me. I like the thought of the Eee PC but only if it can run XP properly but still you need 2 devices which isnt what i want to do.
Hi Leoni1980,
I think its a question of how you configure your device. I agree that WM6 in its native mode is crap. It takes too many strokes to start an applicatio. It does not tell you what applications are active. It is difficult to switch from one to another. Yes, the list could be long.
However, I also find that with WM6 there are so many good third party software to overcome these limitations. While it takes too many clicks to start an application, iLauncher allows me to put every single applications on the today screen. While Wm6 does not tell you what applications are alive, wktask puts every running application on the taskbar and let me switch to anyone easily. WM6 lets me multitask. While pocket IE is crude in its navigation, pieplus makes it all pleasant.
For me, everything works extremely well. Athena is almost perfect in terms of portability, battery life, screen size and connectivity..
However, I agree that internet browsing is too slow. Even comparing it with a dialed up connection on a pc, it is relatively slow, unless I use the "mobile" versions of webpages. With the mobile versions, everything is snappy and instantaneous. Is Nokia not like that? Is Nokia able to let you browse the desktop version of webpages without any response time delay? If it is, microsoft would truly got to wake up and do something about it. Another thing that we have to be careful is not to fall into the trap of thinking grass is greener on the other side. According to Nokia customer support the N800 does not support 802.1X authentication with EAP-TTLS and PAP. Also, despite being a Linux based device the N800 lacks out of the box support for Ogg format media files.
So, Nokia is able to play the desktop version of youtube. I agree that this is a glaring disadvantage of Wm6 at the moment. W don't have the latest version of flash. Why is this the case is hard for me to understand. Why can Nokia have it and not WM6? Now, the only way to watch youtube desktop version is to download the flv files. Would be nice to be able to watch them without having to first download the videos.
You're now carrying two devices. A subnotebook and an old Hermes. This is definitely not a good way for me, because the subnotebook is too big and too battery short for me to carry it with me all the time. Not to mention that now there are two pieces of gear to carry instead of just one.
Having an all in one requires some compromises. You won't have the best digital camera in the world with this arrangement. Similarly, you won't have the biggest screens to go with it. There is always room for improvement, but for now, I still think Athena is the best device available in the market.
if i had to carry the subnotebook about ALL THE TIME i would agree, however i have the hermes for when i'm unfortunate enough to have to use internet explorer mobile.
The EEE is not actually THAT MUCH bigger than the Athena, and has very good battery life- almost twice that of the Shift running Vista. It is also capable of running full Xp. there are lots of videos on the subject and the EEE manual even tells you how to do it. Although on paper the EEE has a poorer battery life it is also far more responsive and thus allows me to do things in a quarter of the time it would on the Athena. As such battery life is not really an issue.
With regard to the N95's ability to display full web pages - I promise you this is the case. I've even found it capable of accessing sites the Athena was not capable of.
I initially wrote this off as perhaps a better 3g transmitter on the N95, but i tested my Athena over wifi for the first time the other day and still it rendered web pages in a painfully sluggish manner, despite our relatively fast broadband connection. The same was true when tested with Opera. This makes me believe that there is an inherent problem with the architecture of windows mobile which even the greatest developer couldn't overcome.
I wholly disagree with shortyboy's bad flash assertion - I've owned windows mobile devices for years and this problem has always existed.
Nor is it a configuration issue. I spend most of my days off tweaking phones to improve their performance. The fact is that no amount of tweaking will make an Athena as good at rendering web pages as a nokia or an iphone. Once microsoft sees this they might (we hope) scrap their plans to release wm7 with (no doubt) its FEW performance tweaks, the cute little flag in the top left-hand corner and the new, hardly-improved I.E. and build a whole new O.S. from scratch which makes the most of modern mobile cpus, doesn't look 10 years old and does everything it should out of the box. That way stupid hybrid devices like the Shift would never get off the ground as there would LITERALLY be no need for them.
Yes the Athena ticks every box in terms of connectivity - unfortunately this fact clouded my judgment of its actual performance - and that of all such devices - yes you can purchase all the third party software under the sun to make windows mobile usable but this software only makes life a little better, it doesn't FIX the problems.
Just have a play on an n810 when it comes out this month and you'll see what I mean -os2008 is so smooth, well-considered and functional. Just try browsing the internet on it, or watching a video on it. It just WORKS and works well. Even OS 2007 outperforms windows mobile.
Cex sell n800s for 200quid. This month they will all be upgradeable to os2008. The pocket gadget side of me is SORELY tempted!!
p.s. its an x7500 t-mobile branded. It has the 4-in-one and lots of other bits.
I agree with many of your points on the Athenas lack of usability.
Mine is used for little more than a wireless access point these days, I'm in prison typing this on my Asus Eee pc running XP, which is much more of a pleasure to use for email and web browsing. (Not in prison as an inmate, I'm an officer...)
This nokia N800. It does not have a GPS, does it?
How about third party software?
I hope to check out on this myself. Anyone knows where in Sydney I could try out this device?
athena project need an athena
Midget_1990 said:
athena project need an athena
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its here if you need it Midget.
eaglesteve - the n800 has no inbuilt GPS receiver, although it is compatible with map software (including gmaps and Nokia Maps) and any bluetooth receivers. Many people prefer separate gps receivers as they can be positioned more effectively in the vehicle. It is pretty much identical in hardware terms to the n810 aside from the built-in keyboard and GPS. processor and ram are the same and it has two SDHC slots as opposed to the single one on the n810.
I think it's a bargain myself.
Took delivery of my black eee pc today and I'm so impressed by its size and performance. Everything works out of the box, from BBC online to divx stage six to youtube. It even picks up and syncs with my Ipod, and you can mod the look of the os to your heart's content.
ALL FOR JUST OVER 200 QUID!
It's bigger than the Athena, sure, but I had to carry the Athena in a bag anyway and the weight/mass difference is negligible in this scenario. The battery life is not technically as good either - but it boots SOOOOOO quick that this almost isn't an issue. I can fire it up and use it when I need it if I'm out, and merrily use my old Hermes for practical pocket pc/telephone duties - even Wifi access point functionality.
I literally don't need the Athena anymore.
I don't like a separate GPS unit. It means I need to carry two devices when I play golf, and can't get the fix prior to entering my car. Also, when I get off the train and walk, I can't use it to tell me direction to my destination as easily as Athena.
I still think Athena is the best for now. But I'm all ready to switch if there is a better product. I don't see such a product yet.
WM6 = WM5
Just think about that and try to realize that Windows Mobile 5 is A LOT OLDER than the OS'es on the iPhone and N800/N810.
WM7 will change a LOT on an HTC. (Different shell, different hardware)
And before you insult HTC, you need to wait on the new OS.
Agree.
WM6 is still based on ce5. Ce6 is about to be released. Looking forward to major major improvements
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
p.s.: how is that i can only insert four smilies?! had to remove three because i typed seven of them, wtf
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
spacecat said:
I saw an Asus Eee today in black.
looks very very nice for the money, the missus said she might buy it 4 me for xmas if I want it
hmm decisions decisions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
heh when i was in the US i had a chance to see the iphone. ... i was probably expecting too much, the crazy hype had me believe it had a truly revolutional interface and lots of amazing animations.
nope.
it was sorely disappointing... just a few ordinary tricks, nothing special or anything that would make the device more usable... for example, i prefer being able to multitask in a way i can see what apps are running without clicking anything, also a way to easily switch.. basically the good old taskbar
...so, i wouldn't be able to live without magicbuttons, or now, without wktask on WM6. yes WM GUI sucks out of the box at least as much as the iphone gui, but at least you can install these wonderful apps!
to be honest i still prefer plain CE because that has all this and more working out of the box - much nearer a real PC than the too much simplified down WM ... as i said only third party apps save WM.
where we disagree is i think the apps do fix most of the issues of WM.
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
...though, i don't see how the iphone has any kind of word processor onboard.
i don't give a damn if it can't do MMS or 3G (i'm fine with gprs when i turn off pictures in the browser and i'm using vodafone's great APN which compresses data), and i don't care for the camera on any mobile phone so far.
what i need is just office and a proper browser and irc client and some more apps, and the iphone has NONE of those. crazy how limited it is.
oh before you start telling me how fabulous the browser is on the iphone ... it is not. it is slow loading pages, and the requirement of zooming in and out drives me crazy. and, the real deal breaker is how i could not open links in a new window at will. i do not mean opening a new empty window, i mean opening a link on an already loaded page, in a new window!! no one so far could show me how so i'm assuming it lacks this basic capability - for me, absolute dealbreaker, i cannot comfortably browse pages without that option.
i'd like to see the n800, though, the OS i hear is sluggish when multitasking. so i'm just curious about the browser.
200 quid.. hmm the 770 is only 100 : ) tempting yes, just no keyboard so that's a bit of an issue to me.
i'm not sure if your athena has no specific issues... i don't have the complaints on mine that you do... mine doesn't crash (except for above mentioned slow down but no reboot is required) and the browser is fast. but, i don't touch pocket internet explorer, i've never ever tried using it on the athena. opera is just so much faster and has none of the quirks of crappy PIE
so no, i don't have this "connecting" or "opening" message problem as i don't touch PIE.
also, opera here is quite fast! not sure what your issue is with it...
though maybe not as fast as the opera on my zaurus C760 pda linux does excel at browser speed options!
all in all... yes WM sucks, and microsoft should fix this, but until then i'm happy with wktask and the amazing hardware of the athena. finally a ppc that has a good enough (large enough) display which looks good in realvga too!! yeah realvga is again third party add on ... sigh! so to be really honest i wouldn't touch WM (except for hacking things! ), and would just use plain CE if it weren't for htc universal / athena (mainly athena!) and some essential third party apps. well CE is made by microsoft too so i don't understand how they got it so wrong with WM.
CE6 will be based on a different memory architecture and improved security (grr for hackers) and many other things, so i'm curious, but for me the GUI is the issue on WM and not really the kernel except for the couple of slow downs i mentioned. other than that WM5 and later seem to be exceptionally stable to me and no slow down just because i'm running several apps at once! i find that great!
so i'm hoping MS gets themselves together and improve on the GUI but please don't imitate the iphone - i like CE better. this is quite a personal view of course.
one last note.. as for the EEE, battery life and size is an issue for me. so sticking to athena (and my universals and my CE devices)
yes the EEE is that much bigger than the athena. :sigh:
also some of the tasks i use my devices for, cannot be done in a shorter time on XP, for example if i want to go online and chat for a few hours...good battery life is a must
ok i'll stop ranting here .. but this is such an interesting subject
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
leoni1980 said:
I didn't deem that a rant. Some very fair points very well put.
I must admit my experience of the Iphone is not as extensive as yours so I'll have to capitulate on that one. Though it seems to ace out windows mobile in terms of user input (on screen keyboard) and generally usability - takes a long while to get used to windows mobile if you've never experienced it.
I never experienced any slowdown on the n800 and i tested it a fair bit. With the os2008 upgrade things should only get better. It's a lot more user-friendly and the new os includes Firefox (which I prefer) instead of Opera.
I appreciate that the EEE is bigger than the Athena. when I said 'not that much' I meant that when carrying the EEE in the supplied case in a bag, compared to carrying the Athena in a bag - which I used to do in preference to cramming the device intpo my pocket - the difference is negligible.
I used to carry a bt keyboard and mouse with it also. Now compared to carrying a separate keyboard and mouse AND an Athena the difference is CERTAINLY negligible.
I can do everything on my old Hermes that I can do on the Athena - yes chatting and PDA stuff - and it has a better battery life. It also fits in my pocket nicely when I'm out and about.
For when I need full browsing, multimedia and office capability I've got the EEE - which is VERY portable, very rugged and even has a webcam if you want to do slightly more advanced chatting!
This is why I'm happy with my current setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
like i said wait till dual comes out. the team had a breakthrough yesturday and a new app will be in dual.. more details when rom comes out.
cmonex said:
@ leoni's posts mainly
my only problem with my athena is how it sometimes slows down if i type a lot on it. then i need to wait about 1 min, maybe close word mobile, then it is back to normal again. i sometimes use the wordpad i got out of platform builder, better in several respects than the sucky word mobile. that one app drives me crazy sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder what your thoughts are on Softmaker office Textmaker, which should be superb on the athena in 96dpi? You may not even get the slowdown that you describe in Word. I use PlanMaker (their spreadsheet) and it works quite well in (96dpi) on my athena.
leoni1980 said:
Got the black one myself on thursday through Ebuyer, though I believe they're out of stock at the mo. I've installed XP on it just to test it and it works perfectly, even the webcam works fine. It boots up in seconds which is unfamiliar territory for me!
I quite like the Linux interface though so I might go back to it eventually. Everything worked out of the box- youtube, stage 6, even Ipods. Only real prob I had with Linux was that I couldn't use Activesync but I liked the amount of tweaking you can do to it.
If you need any pics, comparisons or whatnot I can post them or forward them. I won't be looking back. It's a brillliant bit of kit, especially for the money.
p.s. you can even install mac osx on it, though the procedure is a tad complicated for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my current thinking is to get one and leave it at work, which is where i do most of my 'ATHENAring' ...is that a word !
And use my athena as an HSDPA modem for the Eee with XP installed on it.
I would then keep my Athena for when im out and about and NOT at work, hence keeping the full Athena mobility including the important ability to make calls and send texts.
Im not in a terrible hurry to do this and i understand that Asus are going to bring out upgraded versions of the Eee.
Bigger drives , 10 inch screen etc. Mind you its the small form factor that interests me esp as i may want to carry the Eee at some point.
I am however still well into my Athena and by the rom updates, looking forward to the DUAL rom which sounds exciting but im clueless as to what it can do more than PK3.0
Hey all,
A while ago I've started my hunt for a UMPC. My demands were not simple:
1. Relatively cheap - up to 700$
2. 3.5G connectivity
3. TV-OUT port
4. ~7" screen size
5. Good battery life
6. Keyboard of some kind
7. GPS
I've looked around and couldn't find anything that answered those demands. The biggest issue with UMPCs I've looked at is poor battery life. After a while, I started to think about the Athena as a UMPC alternative. It answers almost all of my demands except the smaller screen and of-course being a WM device its not a fully capable PC. I wanted to ask you Athena owners, if you think that the Athena could be the device for me. Do you feel the need for a more capable OS? Do you wish to replace it with a bigger UMPC? Do some of you have a UMPC and the Athena and feel they complete each other?
Thanks a lot....
EDIT: Just realised that I've posted this in the wrong forum. I'll put a new one in the main Athena forum.
I have owned the Athena for nearly a year now. I also own a Sony Vaio U70 (See info at this site: )
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/sony_vaio_U50.htm
Although both are small, portable, lightweight, same screen size, etc... I find more effective use of the Athena. The main features that make this a plus over the UMPC you have already stated, GPS, a keyboard of sorts, and HSDPA. I can travel for up to a week or so without the need for a laptop computer without compromise in keeping up with e-mails, opening almost every form of attachment, browse the web, connect with Hotel WiFi and have phone capabilities in one device. Carrying one charger is also a benefit. I can (have) connected the Athena to a full size monitor, a full keyboard and added a USB mouse. No reason a Bluetooth mouse shouldn't work as long as you pick your external components wisely.
I don't use the Athena every day as a UMPC replacement, but given the chioce while travelling, carrying it is always better than carrying a phone and the Sony or a phone and an 11 pound (5 kilo) laptop. The perfect UMPC has not yet been created in my view. The HTC Shift is getting closer, but is MUCH LARGER than the Athena and can not serve as a mobile phone. In time, the real UMPC that does it all will come, but when ???? is anybody's guess.
I was in the market for a new phone and laptop, and after getting the Athena I'm not looking for a laptop at this point. As the last poster said, its not perfect, but its close.
I own a Asus R2H UMPC along with my Athena, and i dont think that the athena type devices will replace umpc's or laptops in the near future, I believe that its windows mobile that limits their usefulness,
On my UMPC, i can open multiple windows at the same time, have tabbed browsing, be chatting to 3 of 4 people in messenger and very easily switch between them all.
In theory, my Athena can do all of these things, but in practise, the graphics are way too slow to switch between apps quickly (i believe this is a lack of driver issue though), you cant do tabbed browsing, and msn messenger on the athena is less than useless for me !, everything in WM seems very clunky and slow compared to my UMPC, the 2 do live side by side, but there's too many features that overlap between the 2 devices really, and i will likely be selling my athena soon to get a smaller mobile phone with a gps in it for sat nav (and one that has a graphics driver in it so that my phone can update tomtom at more than 1 frame every 3 seconds !!)
Overall, i think you either need to accept the limitations of the athena and use it as it is, or get a smaller mobile and a decent umpc like the R2H
Mosser said:
I own a Asus R2H UMPC along with my Athena, and i dont think that the athena type devices will replace umpc's or laptops in the near future, I believe that its windows mobile that limits their usefulness,
On my UMPC, i can open multiple windows at the same time, have tabbed browsing, be chatting to 3 of 4 people in messenger and very easily switch between them all.
In theory, my Athena can do all of these things, but in practise, the graphics are way too slow to switch between apps quickly (i believe this is a lack of driver issue though), you cant do tabbed browsing, and msn messenger on the athena is less than useless for me !, everything in WM seems very clunky and slow compared to my UMPC, the 2 do live side by side, but there's too many features that overlap between the 2 devices really, and i will likely be selling my athena soon to get a smaller mobile phone with a gps in it for sat nav (and one that has a graphics driver in it so that my phone can update tomtom at more than 1 frame every 3 seconds !!)
Overall, i think you either need to accept the limitations of the athena and use it as it is, or get a smaller mobile and a decent umpc like the R2H
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera, netfront 3.5 and mozilla all do tabbed browsing on the athena !
Mosser said:
I own a Asus R2H UMPC along with my Athena, and i dont think that the athena type devices will replace umpc's or laptops in the near future, I believe that its windows mobile that limits their usefulness,
On my UMPC, i can open multiple windows at the same time, have tabbed browsing, be chatting to 3 of 4 people in messenger and very easily switch between them all.
In theory, my Athena can do all of these things, but in practise, the graphics are way too slow to switch between apps quickly (i believe this is a lack of driver issue though), you cant do tabbed browsing, and msn messenger on the athena is less than useless for me !, everything in WM seems very clunky and slow compared to my UMPC, the 2 do live side by side, but there's too many features that overlap between the 2 devices really, and i will likely be selling my athena soon to get a smaller mobile phone with a gps in it for sat nav (and one that has a graphics driver in it so that my phone can update tomtom at more than 1 frame every 3 seconds !!)
Overall, i think you either need to accept the limitations of the athena and use it as it is, or get a smaller mobile and a decent umpc like the R2H
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't use MSN for chat. Try IM+ instead. It lets you simultenously chat in Yahoo, google, and eveything else that exist all at the same time.
I've used many UMPC before although they did'nt call it by that name then. The battery last too short, it takes too long to boot up, it is too big to be used as a mobile device and too small as a desktop.
If you tom tom update 1 frame every 3 seconds, something is wrong with your setup. Athena does not have such limitation, and there is no reason to accept such limitation.
eaglesteve said:
Don't use MSN for chat. Try IM+ instead. It lets you simultenously chat in Yahoo, google, and eveything else that exist all at the same time.
I've used many UMPC before although they did'nt call it by that name then. The battery last too short, it takes too long to boot up, it is too big to be used as a mobile device and too small as a desktop.
If you tom tom update 1 frame every 3 seconds, something is wrong with your setup. Athena does not have such limitation, and there is no reason to accept such limitation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second what eaglesteve said about the slow frame rate. Not even when I was running factory ROM it wasn't that slow. I suggest you try backing up and reinstalling the latest ROM for your device. IM+ is the best thing I've seen thus far for the Athena although, I didn't have any issues with msn messenger. I strongly recommend IM+ and just do a little research before the down the device. Plus it packs so much power for such a small device it's worth every penny.
Maybe i just need mine setup better then ?, I've never tried IM+, does it allow you to chat to many people at once ? and can it save your chat history ?, these are the 2 features i must have as i get told a lot of technical information when using messenger which i need to refer back to hours or even days later which is why i use a umpc, and is there an easy way to keep minimise rather than close running programs ?
The battery life on my umpc is fine, but then it goes between car and house and in both those places, i have a power lead for it, so it rarely needs to run on the battery, and i have an additional long run battery for my R2H anyway
tootallk2000 said:
I second what eaglesteve said about the slow frame rate. Not even when I was running factory ROM it wasn't that slow. I suggest you try backing up and reinstalling the latest ROM for your device. IM+ is the best thing I've seen thus far for the Athena although, I didn't have any issues with msn messenger. I strongly recommend IM+ and just do a little research before the down the device. Plus it packs so much power for such a small device it's worth every penny.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What frame rate do you get then ?, i have been watching youtube videos comparing the athena to hp pda's and tomtom running on the ameo is ridiculously slow, i actually miss turnings with mine sometimes because it takes so long to update the screen !
Mosser said:
What frame rate do you get then ?, i have been watching youtube videos comparing the athena to hp pda's and tomtom running on the ameo is ridiculously slow, i actually miss turnings with mine sometimes because it takes so long to update the screen !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use mine all the time, and it is not that bad at all, you would have to be cornering at 80 MPH for the athena not to keep up with you, SERIOUSLY
PS I think you have a GPS fault on your receiver, either that or the port baud speed might be incorrect !
kramerica2 said:
I've looked around and couldn't find anything that answered those demands. The biggest issue with UMPCs I've looked at is poor battery life. After a while, I started to think about the Athena as a UMPC alternative. It answers almost all of my demands except the smaller screen and of-course being a WM device its not a fully capable PC. I wanted to ask you Athena owners, if you think that the Athena could be the device for me. Do you feel the need for a more capable OS? Do you wish to replace it with a bigger UMPC? Do some of you have a UMPC and the Athena and feel they complete each other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Athena is not perfect but a very good device - it is let down by WM which is a poor OS really given that MS have been trying for years on mobile devices and it is now version 6. If the Athena could run a proper OS then I think you would have what you want. For the time being we all put up with WM failings and mostly enjoy our Athena experience.
I don't see a long life UMPC coming too soon that will deliver everything that you asked for ....
In my belief, there can't be a perfect UMPC (or atleast better than athena) in near future ...
When we talk about a laptop or mobile device, we all need small size, good battery life, full connectivity etc etc ... Athena offers all that, except that it does not runs a fully blown windows, though: it may be running a full linux soon, there is a magician sitting and working towards it, his name is Cr2, find him on this forum.
Athena UMPC Features:
1. Emails: Athena can do wonders using Flexmail. I have it set with our IMAP server and with IMAP idle its as good as it can get. You get emails instantly, you get to view all attachments and everything that outlook can do on windows xp.
2. Browsing: Opera 8.5 alone itself is good enough for most of the websites, Netscape 3.5 and Opera 9.5 beta installed can take you 99% close to laptops or windows xp exp. Wait for some months and you won't even see that 1% difference.
3. Document editing: Install Softmaker office 2008. Once installed you will get to work on any document you want, make small changes and save/send them across.
4. For developers: Install Cedit, resco explorer (with ftp add-on) and there you go, you have a programmers editor and ftp support to download/upload pages from your website.
5. For db admins: Download and install PocketSqlMan, this will enable you to administer any mssql server (and you don't need to install anything on the server machine, just install PocketSqlMan on your ppc and connect to any ms sql server).
6. Chat: IM+ is the way to go, simply awesome. Multi chat, quick interface.
7. GPS: Set it right, do a simple search on this forum and you will find the correct settings, i don't remember them of hand.
8. Multimedia: With 8gb storage (and 12 gb minisds already in market) you cannot ask for more here. Install TCPMP, the core pocket media player and you can play almost anything, youtube videos, divx etc etc
9. Games: There are a handfull of games for pocket pcs, i am sure you will find something to keep you busy (while i prefer to keep it light and spend time on solitaire mostly).
10. System admins: There is PocketPutty for Linux admins and Remote desktop installed on the device already.
I mean what else people are looking for in a UMPC ... maybe i am those satisfied types, but do let us know what is missing and probably people developing Pk 4.0 can pick things up from here and make it an even greater ROM release.
...
dheerajjuneja said:
In my belief, there can't be a perfect UMPC (or atleast better than athena) in near future ...
When we talk about a laptop or mobile device, we all need small size, good battery life, full connectivity etc etc ... Athena offers all that, except that it does not runs a fully blown windows, though: it may be running a full linux soon, there is a magician sitting and working towards it, his name is Cr2, find him on this forum.
Athena UMPC Features:
1. Emails: Athena can do wonders using Flexmail. I have it set with our IMAP server and with IMAP idle its as good as it can get. You get emails instantly, you get to view all attachments and everything that outlook can do on windows xp.
2. Browsing: Opera 8.5 alone itself is good enough for most of the websites, Netscape 3.5 and Opera 9.5 beta installed can take you 99% close to laptops or windows xp exp. Wait for some months and you won't even see that 1% difference.
3. Document editing: Install Softmaker office 2008. Once installed you will get to work on any document you want, make small changes and save/send them across.
4. For developers: Install Cedit, resco explorer (with ftp add-on) and there you go, you have a programmers editor and ftp support to download/upload pages from your website.
5. For db admins: Download and install PocketSqlMan, this will enable you to administer any mssql server (and you don't need to install anything on the server machine, just install PocketSqlMan on your ppc and connect to any ms sql server).
6. Chat: IM+ is the way to go, simply awesome. Multi chat, quick interface.
7. GPS: Set it right, do a simple search on this forum and you will find the correct settings, i don't remember them of hand.
8. Multimedia: With 8gb storage (and 12 gb minisds already in market) you cannot ask for more here. Install TCPMP, the core pocket media player and you can play almost anything, youtube videos, divx etc etc
9. Games: There are a handfull of games for pocket pcs, i am sure you will find something to keep you busy (while i prefer to keep it light and spend time on solitaire mostly).
10. System admins: There is PocketPutty for Linux admins and Remote desktop installed on the device already.
I mean what else people are looking for in a UMPC ... maybe i am those satisfied types, but do let us know what is missing and probably people developing Pk 4.0 can pick things up from here and make it an even greater ROM release.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't play pc games on the Athena.
The USB ports are only 1.1 so very limited with respect to copying files over, and even viewing content is a bit laggy.
UMPCs usually have at least 40gb storage out of the box.
For decent, UMPC-style input you need a separate keyboard. The squishy, unlit, and uncomfortably laid-out Athena hardware keyboard is not up to the job - particularly for word processing and extensive emailing - necessitating an external keyboard for decent 'umpc-style' usage.
No p2p or limewire clients. I remember there was winmobile torrent but that wasn't very good and you had to pay for it.
reolution is low compared to many current UMPCs
Photoshop, Premiere, blah-de-blah - all editing suites are infinitely better in windows, particularly with a higher-resolution screen.
Thank you all, I got my x7500 today. Looks good so far.
lucky guy, 2 weeks, and I'll have [another] one of my own
how you finding it? and is it a branded one, or just plain htc... or is even the x7501 :O ? lol
Rory
rorydaredkign said:
lucky guy, 2 weeks, and I'll have [another] one of my own
how you finding it? and is it a branded one, or just plain htc... or is even the x7501 :O ? lol
Rory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far its been pretty good. You can see my thread with questions, so not everything is perfect for me. Its a plain HTC X7500 device.
dheerajjuneja's post looks something i could take note of too.
thanks. ciao!
maybe look into the HTC shift. it's only just released and is MUCH bigger but i think it may meet your needs
The shift IMHO is doomed to be a failure:
1. Battery life is far from sufficient.
2. Quite expensive.
3. The WM is too crippled, and from what I've heard isn't very usable.
Anyway, after almost 1 week with the Athena it seems that I've made the right choice and the size is perfect for me.
Glad to hear that ... yes, you made a very good choice.
If you are coming from linux background, linux is going to come to Athena soon ... our magician Cr2 is working on the drivers (Please confirm Cr2, if you are listening)
Anyways, enjoy your device ...
It's a shame, but I have been visiting this forum for a year or two now and must say - this forum is dead. It's a shame because , looking at new tablet pcs and similar devices entering the market, I think athena still is a good device, offering a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately I know nothing of ROM cooking and all the cooks have left us. Too bad
mietulo said:
It's a shame, but I have been visiting this forum for a year or two now and must say - this forum is dead. It's a shame because , looking at new tablet pcs and similar devices entering the market, I think athena still is a good device, offering a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately I know nothing of ROM cooking and all the cooks have left us. Too bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, this is the way with all devices these days..... I still use my Athena as a backup unit in case I muck up one of my other units....LOL
Later........... B)
I also think the HTCx7500 continues to be a good device. The things that is attractive with the new devices is the advancement of touch screen technology. Cypress true touch technology for example offer not only multi touch but also the ability to do hovering because the screen can sense the finger as soon as the finger is near the screen.
Undeniably Nice to play and might offer conveniences to a certain degree. But unless there is a way to browse the net as fast as a proper laptop or a way to do document processing or powerpoint slides editing 70% as efficiently as a desktop, what the newer device can offer as compared to HTC x7500 is just cosmetics. I can get the same job done with not much of a problem with the Athena as compared to the newer devices.
So, the things that will attract me to newer devices will be
1. Faster internet browsing
2. Document processing / slide editing
3. Looonger battery life
4. Snappiness of the operating system even after installing many programs
5. softwares availability - not specially controlled by a central "market" and all software makers have to pass their work to them and let their work be distributed by one central point where users can download and use free or paid.
Zooming with 2 fingers or 5 fingers is interesting but zooming by just pushing my athena directional buttons up and down isn't such a difficult job either.
Special today's page / Home menus like the ones in Androids or iphones are also not something difficult to reproduce or customized under windows mobile.
Athena still rocks!
Glad I chose to sell mine when I did. It was a device that was ahead of its time. Shame Android never took off on it.
Something different
The prices of these babies have dropped so much that I just bought one recently... after using various newer HTCs, etc, that are all basically the same, this ancient gadget was actually a breath of fresh air. Besides the marginal interior updates, OS versions, and the gradual screen size upgrades, I really can't figure out what's inherently different with almost all smartphones today... although using the athena needs somewhat of a change in mindset (especially of what is a phone), having something different to play with is already a big plus and an actual experience.... please phone makers, lets make the effort of trying to do something different and not just marketing something as different.
I want to browse the internet, do some emailing, write something in my blog, check auction sites, watch youtubes, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - Opera mini, streaming player, etc)
I want to do some word processing, write a novel, edit some documents, and make sure the work can be in sync with my laptop/desktop. Can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - pocketword. document2go, softmaker textmaker, pnotepad)
I want to go through my powerpoint slides and rehearse, re position/re sort the slides, correct a few wordings and make sure i can keep both the slides i have in my desktop and my pocketpc in sync, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - pocket powerpoint, clear vue slides, ...)
I want to enjoy listening to some mp3, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - tcmp player, coreplayer)
I want to watch some movies in avi, wmv, flv, rm, mp4 format, can the HTC x7500 handle that? (YES - tcmp player with the correct codecs)
I want to do some voice recording, can the Athena handle that? (YES - resco audio recorder)
I want to share some photos album with friends sitting together in a restaurant, can the Athena handle that? (YES - resco picture viewer)
I want to connect to internet using 3g/ HSDPDA, because WIFI is unavailable, can the ATHENA handle that? (YES - just make sure 3G services in my data card is active)
I want to transfer file from pc, mobile phone to Anthena or transfer from my athena to my friend's mobile phone without using wires, can the Athena handle that? (YES - bluetooth connections, mocha ftp server, ...)
I wan to play some games, ?? (YES - gba emulator, nes..., playstation 1 emulator, Java, Just games made for pocket pc, etc)
I don't see what the other devices (androids or Ipods) can do that i cannot do with my ATHENA. Yes, I would love it if there is a way to try out putting ANdroids os in my athena but it will be just for fun and to know that there is one more choice of os i can use if i feel like it. Honestly, if there is a 7 inch windows mobile device, I might consider.
One of the MOST important thing that keeps me monitoring the android development is actually BATTERY LIFE (7 hrs with wifi on) and fast zooming.
Many people who try to impress me with android will show me how smooth the screen scrolls here and there with just a flick of the finger. Impressive but when i stop to think over, I realized that i am not going to spend my whole time flicking the screen here and there and just for the thrill to see how the screen can actually change simply by a flick of a finger.
What i will do mostly is click on a program i need to use and start typing or imputing. Scrolling and panning is only useful when i am reading long documents like webpages or ebooks. That is why i like isilo because it allows you to scroll without the need to use the scroll bar.
Fast zooming is another thing that i would like to see on mobile devices. The kind of fast zooming used in opera browsers and netfront browsers are heading in the right direction. FAst zooming is already something that is fast developing even under windows mobile environment.
So, in the end, it comes to a matter of which operating system uses less battery power and will allow longer battery life.
My Athena is going on ebay this weekend because I have one of these now, might be something to look into for the rest of you, as there is an active hacker community too:
http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pandigital_Novel
I only used the Athena as a nightstand emailer/websurfer/weatherchecker, so I have no use for a phone. It worked well enough for that, but the PDN is even better for my needs, and now works with android market. Very cool not to have to activesync to move downloaded cabs to the athena, plus there won't be much activity for winmo anymore since everything is incompatible with wp7 as I understand, while android market is just beginning. Just found a solution that works for my needs, and thought I would share it. Athena was good to me, but it's time for her to move on about her life's work.
Fashion
It does seem a shame that just as big screen devices like this one are coming into fashion this forum has fallen into disuse. It doesn't stop it from still being a very good device, and still very usable in my view. Plus with the amount of ROMS to choose from on this forum there must be one to suit most people. You never know, we may get another cook some time.
regards
Jay
Yes, the Android os is very interesting to look at. If someone created a 7 inch - 10 inch screen tablet with windows mobile 6.1, (or even wm5,6), I would seriously consider but of course the battery life must be good and the processor and ram should have enough power to improve internet experience.
I've used all sorts of devices, from Psion to OQO, Everun, Zaurus, HTC BA etc etc. Recently I bought the Ameo and I can say that after some customisation this little device fits my bill perfectly.
The Ameo has been more flexible (keyboard/Tablet, case, landscape/portrait, 3G/WiFi) than the Archos 5IT it replaced. Sure, Android is nice and iOS is fluid and modern, but the Ameo kills them all with a large 4/3 screen.
I'm using it right now with a Logitech wireless mouse, it's been on all day with a 30% battery drain, browsing with Opera Mobile 10 over 3G.
I wish manufactures would revisit the 4/3 aspect ratio, not everybody wants to watch widescreen films all day, and books look terrible in portrait on thin devices.
Many thanks to the members of these forums for all the tweaks and custom ROMs. this Ameo isn't dead yet.
Last week I bought one of the android tablet made in china. It is called APAD 7 inch styleflying.
The android os has somethings going but I have a number of complains. One of them is why did they do away with "scrollbars." While it is true that Many many people enjoy swiping the screen up and down and feel the screen moving at the command of the finger but it is also true that SCROLLBARS do make sense. Without scrollbars, i believe that many users have experience accidentally opening a program while they were trying to flip the screen up and down. android wants to do things differently I guess but in the process, they took away something very practical and useful. Just my personal opinion. If they want to do something that appears different, they can do what HTC hd2 did. When I look carefully, i realise that in fact, HTC hd2 has a kind of scroll bar on the main screen. It doesn't look like the traditional scrollbar but it does the same job. It allows the user to accurately move from page to page by pushing a slider. And who said programs in Android doesn't crash or hang or stop responding. In my experience, they do.
Anyway, it is a free operating system and it is open source so I hope it will improve in time to come.
Meanwhile, my Athena HTC x7500 rocks! If only I can wake up one morning and find my 5 inch screen Athena grow up and become 7 inch screen! Heh Heh!
5 inch is good size. But i would surely not mind having a 7 inch screen HTC x7500 in my collection.
I am new to the Athena myself by just having bought one for about 200 USD - and it was a great find as it is in perfect shape, looks brand new, no scratches whatsoever!
I sold my Acer F900, as I am through with touchphones, I hate them - it's too bulky and smart for a phone, but too little to do productive work (for me that's office and remote computer administration, mainly). So I decided to scrap the smarthphone, and go back to the roots: buy a small and light cellphone with physical buttons and a PDA.
So I went for the x7500, and I love it! It's 3 years old, and still getting the job done!
My only complaint now is with WiFi: it seems to 'forget' the passwords for APs for some reason...
Btw I use an extra light Taxist WM6.1 ROM (42 Megs), as I have my own proven programs I am using for years, so everything except the OS is unnecessary junk.
it is a shame it is not popular.
I have this device since June. I guess I am getting old, and the little screen of my Polaris was just not fun anymore. The screen of the Athena and the real keyboard were really the 2 attractive points before I touched the beast for real.
So here we go for a search and I found one almost new 5 months ago over the net for 200 Euros.
That's probably the best deal I have done.
I have the device at work and at home, also at customer site. I receive my calls (through Bluetooth), while taking notes or making reports. Even camera pictures are good to fill in reports. WM6.5 works great on this fast device, the only thing I miss is the letter recogniser mode when I have to take notes not seating somewhere. But vocal notes do the trick.
i check my mails both personnals and professionnals, review a presentation in the plane, give free phonecalls to my family while travelling, and finish by a good movie or the news on streaming TV.
It is said to be big, but in fact not bigger than a decent leather covered organizer.
So bad they stopped it...
And so bad there is so few brands believing in this all-in-one concept !!!
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
KukurikU said:
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For dead links to ROMs, the trick is to Google the exact name and see if some kind soul has uploaded them somewhere - try it, it sometimes works.
I am using AGB 3.0 - to be honest, the device is slow by modern standards, and it not really finger-friendly, it takes quite a tap with a finger to get the thing to respond.
However, yesterday, a young American looked impressively at it as I used it in the train, and asked if it was a phone or a tablet - and what OS it ran. I told him it was old, several years old, and ran WM (albeit a new version). OK, he was disappointed - but that is it, this gadget was way ahead of its time, if they did it again, it would succeed with a few tweaks (modern CPU, faster and better battery).
rjstep3
KukurikU said:
does anybody of you have a decent, stable ROM for it?
most of the links here are dead and trying the ROMs i was able to find was a great disappointment...i tried them all, even the Wm 6 ones.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check Michy's sigs in any of his comments - there is a link to all of his ROMs, he removed it from rapidshare.
I recommend his Clear Edition 6 R1 or something version - I found it quite usable as I wasn't able to revert the WM6.5 start menu, found in the AVG 3 rom, to 6.1.
Nah, not dead, still in daily use by many. My Athena was 3 years old last month and I still haven't found a phone that I might want (the HD2 is close, but I got one for my wife and the screen still just feels too small). Still carry it every day.
Me too! I have tested HD2, tested Androids but the Athena is still amazing!
help making it alive agine....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=849080
Many of you might already know about this. But i wanted to find a way to watch movies on my tablet. and i stumbled accross DVD Catalyst. The dev is amazing. If you ever have any problems with anything. He always replys back within the hour, couple hours max. He clams 24 hours. but thats if he is sick or somthing. He sells his software for $9.99. Best ten bucks ive ever spent.
Any Dvds you have laying around the house or can get your hands on. You can easily rip and convert in one process. to any device basically ever made. (he has a couple thousand devices to choose from) So with device choosen, it will automatically format and have correct resolution for specified device.
Theres a bunch of differnt settings to tweak with if you know what you doing. or just keep on default for best results for average user. His website www.tools4movies.com he has guides for just about everything. including how to convert for best quality, low space, best quality with less space, ext
The dev (Mitch) also has a couple apps accross all OS's (android, apple, blackberry, kindle, nook) Where you can stream you movie content on your computer to tablet, cell phone, or any other device online. So you don't have to fill up your tablets memory with movie data. instead you stream your movies from computer from anywhere in the world. (With guides of course, how to set up) Its pretty nifty if you ask me. Thats why i'm sharing this with anyone who wants to be able to watch movies on there tablet. without renting them for 5 bucks on the play store. or downloading them illigaly.
If yo have any questions, check out tools4movies.com
or email him at [email protected]
or reply to this post. and ill try to answer anything to my best knowlege, better to go straight to website for detailed questions.
P.S oh ya the price is a lil cheaper right now. at $8.95 i believe, wont last for long.
Seconded: I've been using DVD Catalyst since back when I owned a Nook Color and have used it to convert hundreds of movies. While I have yet to watch one on my TF300, on my HTC Flyer (which replaced the Nook Color) they play great.
Also, the developer is a real stand-up guy and is very helpful, going to far as to monitor various internet discussion forums answering questions from users of the software.
Another awesome thing about the dev. (Mitch) is on those forums he monitors, I've seen him suggest other things besides his software. So he's not out to get everyone to buy it. Of course he will mention DVD catalyst. But he will also suggest other options to choose from. Hard to find Apple like that these days
But this is the reason why I got a Tegra 3 device. This thing plays everything I throw at it, unlike the sorry Tegra 2.
I would never need to convert file format any longer.
superflysocal said:
But this is the reason why I got a Tegra 3 device. This thing plays everything I throw at it, unlike the sorry Tegra 2.
I would never need to convert file format any longer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You wouldnt convert to a different format. so our tf300 can recognize the file. The whole reason to convert your dvd is so you don't take up as much space as original dvd. which could be 6 to 8 gb. So instead of 6-8gb you would convert it anywhere from 1-3 gb so no you can store a bunch more movies if you have a big collection. like most pple do
also during conversion. it sets file to our screen resolution. the quality you set it at and any other tweaks you do. which theres so many to choose from. but ya you don't convert it to a format so our tab can read it. you can change the format to whatever you want. thats just not the only point of conversations
The Tegra3 is very powerful, and with players like MX and Dice, it is capable of playing a lot of different video formats that it doesn't support out of the box, which is great if you get your videos from the web, but if you have a large collection of DVDs, you still need a way to get those into a format that you can actually transfer over to your tablet.
But aside from that, if you look around other android-forums, there are a lot of people complaining about issues with playing the video files they already have obtained/created.
With a collection that consists of many differently formatted video files, mkv's and avi's created using different settings, some play better in one player, others play better in another player, and for others you need to tweak with the settings in order to get them to work properly.
By converting your movies, you don't run into this. Sure, it takes some time to actually do the conversion, but once you have your files in the proper format, there is no need to fiddle around anymore, and, the files will play fine on less powerful devices (smartphones or eReader tablets) as well thanks to compatibility with hardware decoding (which also saves a bit on battery usage). And the conversion of files isn't such a big hassle if you can just drop a folder with 10-100 video files onto an application, and start the process with 1 click.
Due to my work, I have a large collection of different tablets, including an iPad3, Kindle Fire, NOOK color, Xoom, Playbook etc, and I can play my video files on every single one without having to install a different player or adjust settings. For the ones that have a memorycard slot, I can just take one of my cards from one, and stick it in another, and know that the videos will play fine.
dsf3g said:
Seconded: I've been using DVD Catalyst since back when I owned a Nook Color and have used it to convert hundreds of movies. While I have yet to watch one on my TF300, on my HTC Flyer (which replaced the Nook Color) they play great.
Also, the developer is a real stand-up guy and is very helpful, going to far as to monitor various internet discussion forums answering questions from users of the software.
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+ 1. I have been using Catalyst for a few years now and I think it is the best converter out there. The tech support is top notch.
I am up in the air about getting this tablet i like the fact that its a nexus and i've had previous tablets but never really used them so curious as to what people use them
sincerely a guy trying to justify a need vs a want
The nexus 9 will be my first tablet and this is what I'm going to use it for:
*Reading. Books, newspaper, stuff for school.
*Laptop replacement in school. When I don't have IT Courses, I won't need my Macbook, but I need something to look things up, make notes, calculate and draw plots etc.
*Watching Videos on the couch, in the bed and while traveling.
*Probably playing games
*Surfing and writing in Forums (Tapatalk)
*App Testing maybe, because I'm planning to start programming android Apps.
*etc.
I'm typing this out on my 32gb model, absolutely love this thing so far! Its fast, the screen is amazing, and android L is gorgeous and functional. Can't comment on battery yet of course. WiFi connectivity is stable. Loving the 4:3 form factor. No complaints as of yet.
As for what I use my tablet for:
Reading the news/blogs
Working on Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents
Tapatalk/Instagram/Google+
Media Hub (Play Music/Netflix/TuneIn Radio)
Web Browsing (much easier than grabbing the laptop)
Casual Gaming
Hope this helps
i just got mine before even installing google account i enabled oem unlock in dev options and rebooted to fastboot and fastboot oem unlocked this thing!! cant wait for the fun to begin..!!
also on tablets i mostly game, read news, some media etc.
Yeah it didn't matter on my want vs need I picked mine up and already did OEM unlock
I had an early tablet a couplet of years ago too and sold it since I found I never used it. But I'm getting back on board with the Nexus 9. Software has come a long way in a couple of years. I plan to use my tablet primarily as a replacement for all the books and papers I currently take to meetings and things. (for a geek in the tech bubble, I've been very slow about moving away from physical copies of things...) That's how I justify the purchase. I also plan to tinker with android. Also good for bringing with me while traveling to surf, communicate, and watch TV in bed.
I use mine mainly for clash of clans lol. But ya I unlocked mine first thing as well. Seems to be good so far has a little lag in COC but I am sure it will be worked out in time.
Taking notes, playing snes/ps1 emulators, web surfing, emails for work, neglecting my laptop, remote desktop from toilet, and most importantly Netflix in bed.
same thing i use my phone for lol....social networking, browsing the web, listening to music...that is all
For me gaming a bunch. Also Flipboard, Netflix etc. Speaking of games, anyone tried running Simpsons Tapped out on this baby yet?!
My immediate plans are:
- Testing out Lollipop (of course)
- Testing out USB OTG
- reading comics
- Clash of Clans
- Web surfing
My main interest is to use this as my electronic flight bag and aeronautical navigation platform.
The Ipad has become the defacto platform, but it's expensive...
$600 for the tablet
$200 for Bluetooth GPS addon
$150/yr subscription for nav software.
So the ipad solution is just shy of $1,000 for the first year
With the Nexus 9, I'll pay $500 for a platform that includes a very capable GPS. I use an app called Avare, which is free and more than capable enough for the type of flying I do (which is basically weekend warrior flying.)
I've been using my Nexus 7 2012, but it is showing its age and I'm looking forward to the larger screen.
I also keep all my aviation related references, books, manuals, etc. on the tablet, so it's an all in one solution.