[PLUG] Android tablets - configurability?

[Mike Cherba]

If you guys are doing a bunch of typing and are looking for wired ethernet
capability, I'd suggest taking a look at the Asus Transformer series.  with
the keyboard dock they effectively become an Android netbook.  Plus last
time I checked they were well supported by the homebrew Android community.


On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 11:32 PM, Larry Brigman <larry.brigman at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 10:57 PM, Eric Wilhelm <enobacon at gmail.com> wrote:
> > # from Keith Lofstrom on Tuesday 12 March 2013:
> >>They look like media vending machines to me,
> >
> > The are.  Out of the box, they are very geared to consuming, not
> > hacking.  They are also very disturbingly skynet-enabled.
> >
> >>The tasks I have in mind are: typing notes for later upload to
> >>a server, looking at downloaded PDFs and documents.  Bonus points
> >>if the device can run local copies of Apache and MoinMoin....CUPS,
> >>Securely, of course.
> >>...All FOSS apps, of course.
> >
> > Finding open source apps for android can be difficult, since the mass-
> > consumer hype around everything android treats free and open as
> > interchangeable, and almost every article about anything involving
> > android includes the words "open source" regardless of which paid app it
> > is advertising.
> >
> > The main thing to realize is that you don't get a standard Linux
> > environment with a shell (you can get a shell with connectbot to see
> > just how crippled it is) and you are not root until you void the
> > warranty.  There is also not a standard bios/bootloader, so you have to
> > do device-specific workarounds to "root" your device.  Then, all of the
> > apps are in java (although it's possible to compile and run binaries on
> > a "rooted" device.)  That said, the touch interface can be pretty handy
> > and the CPU/ram/camera/video capabilities of a sub-$200 7" wifi tablet
> > are pretty impressive.
> >
>
> There are a few tablets out there that are dual boot but not many.
> http://www.pengpod.com/products/pengpod1000
>
> The ubuntu tablet is coming.
>
> I just did a search and found an application that is called terminal IDE.
> It says it has a full android sdk environment Java/c/c++/html + editor and
> other tools.  Don't know how well it works.  I just have a android phone
> which
> is too small to bother with most of these tools.
>
> Connectbot like mentioned previously is the basic ssh shell and the source
> is available. https://code.google.com/p/connectbot/
>
> I haven't tried a 10" tablet but the cheap ones have the same screen
> resolution as the
> 7" tablets.
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"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make
it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is
to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first
method is far more difficult." -- C.A.R.
Hoare<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/266154.C_A_R_Hoare>