Android Tablet

When I bought a cell phone, I went to the store fully intending to get an Android phone. When I looked at the actual phones they had, I didn't like the experience -- for a whole variety of reasons (including stupid ones). I ended up buying an iPhone, which I've had reservations about ever since.

My iPhone has actually been pretty darned good: I've had it for more than a year and its been very reliable. It works as a phone and can do a bunch of other stuff too. But there are particular gaps that have been very frustrating.

With an iPhone, you can't get an Esperanto keyboard. It's stunning to me that in 2012 you can get a device where you can't trivially fix this. The characters are available -- there's just no way to map them onto keys. Someone created an app called "Ĝusta Klavaro" that adds a row of keys above the keyboard and lets you write a message that's copied to the clipboard automatically when you leave the app. Then you can paste it into twitter (or wherever). But, really? Really, Apple!?! I can't just have an Esperanto language keyboard after years and years of waiting. Really?

With an iPhone, I can't find a chat application that supports OTR encryption -- again, after years of waiting: I've been looking for something like that since I first got an iPod Touch. It's just mind-boggling.

I've been thinking about buying a tablet computer for a couple of years, but (let's be honest here) I have been too cheap to buy any of the really full-featured ones. I liked the look of the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet, but decided I didn't want to buy a crippled device. It might be possible to jailbreak something, but I'd rather just buy something that does what I want.

Today, Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 at $250 -- exactly what I've been waiting for. It runs the most recent Android operating system and looked perfect. I drove to Best Buy at opening time and was the first one in the door. I walked to the display, pointed at it, and said "That! I want that!"

I paid the "Geek Squad" extra to put on one of those hideously overpriced clear-plastic screen protectors. The installation alone was $15, but it took the guy at least a half hour and he messed it up the first time and had to go get a second one. I'm sure I'd have gotten a beard hair under it or something. I don't do it often enough (or have anywhere near enough patience) to actually get it right, so it was well worth the money.

So far, it's exactly what I was hoping for. The screen is bright, the performance is snappy, and I've already installed an Esperanto keyboard (AllSoftKeyboard for free) and a chat client that supports OTR (Gibberbot). I've set up most of my accounts (Twitter, Dropbox, email, etc).

A few things are less than perfect. I was slightly disappointed to discover I can't charge it via the USB port on my computer -- that would have been convenient. Its port looks almost exactly the same as my ipod/iphone cable, but the cable doesn't seem to quite fit. That would have been convenient too. So far, I haven't been able to get the MTP application to let me move files onto the device via USB.

Most of all, though, I find the openness of the device refreshing -- it's like a breath of fresh air. I can use Firefox! With NoScript! There's a Tiny Tiny RSS app! On Apple hardware, you increasingly feel like you're in a automat where everything is behind glass and requires a payment to use. Want to use your iPhone as a hotspot? Just $15 a month! I'm waiting for them to start charging a penny to change the volume or nickel for the brightness.

Finally, as an aside about how far, we've come, I got a 32gb Micro-SD card. I remember when I first saw an SD card: a flash memory card the size of a postage stamp and was amazed at how much data you could fit in that tiny space -- I was probably amazed that it could hold megabtyes! And now I have a chip that's smaller than my thumbnail with 32 gigabytes. That's just... wrong. Moore's Law in action. We truly live in wondrous times.