ASUS' Transformer Book Duet–Dual Identity

If you are not sure whether you want a tablet or notebook, whether you want to use it with Android or Microsoft Windows then maybe this will help you with that decision. The Asus Transformer Book Duet TD300 is a 13.3 inch PC with dual OS. It is a tablet that comes bundled with a keyboard dock that has its own hard drive and ports. The real interesting thing about this unit is that it will run both Android 4.2 and Windows 8.1 on the fly whether you are in tablet mode or laptop mode.

This is a pretty nice little machine running an Intel Core I7 processor, 4GB RAM, 13.3 inch screen that supports 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, 128GB SSD in the tablet and 1TB hard drive in the keyboard. The unit weighs in at 4.1 pounds which is a little heavy for an UltraBook, and is about half an inch thick. This is very comparable to a Surface Pro 2 in weight but a little thicker. There’s also the usual array of extras, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR, a headphone jack, 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 10/100Mbit/s LAN, an HDMI 1.4 output, and support for MicroSD cards.

The real kicker here is that ability for the unit to instantly switch between Android and Windows 8.1. That’s nice for those of us that need to be able to switch back and forth at a whim but it doesn’t sound like they will include some of the nice features of the Samsung Ativ Q which allows you to pin Android apps to the Windows Start Screen. Starting at $599 this looks like it might be very interesting indeed. There has not been a launch date as of yet but this looks like a nice alternative to having two different devices.

Nexus 2013 7 inch tablet

I was so happy with the fact that Google allowed me to send back my original Nexus 7 inch tablet for credit when for the third time it became a brick. I had to applaud them for standing by their customer, me, and making the purchase of this product right. I must say that the new tablet is much faster, has a camera on the back which I use a lot for things around the office and doing site surveys at customer sites and I have not run into any memory limitations as of yet but I am very picky about what I put onto it. I would have like the option of an SD card slot where I could add additional memory if I wanted but it is not a deal breaker for me obviously. If you make judicious use of the available cloud storage you should be fine. I have thrown all my music up to the Amazon cloud and I am able to access that from any device that use including my phone (Samsung Note II), ASUS TF300T, iPad 1 & 2, and any computer I lay my hands on.

Another surprise I had with the new design is how loud the stereo speakers are on this unit. It makes it nice to set it beside me to listen to audio books while I am working on different things in the house. I also purchased a nice simple case that has a magnet built into the front flap that acts just like the iPad magnetic cover does to turn on and off the unit. This is a quick way for me to turn of the screen display while a sound application is running that helps to cut down battery drain on the unit. When I open the cover it immediately turns on at the sign in screen to prevent unauthorized access.

This has become my go to tablet now for most everything I do. It is small enough to fit in my pocket, fit on the shelf in my car and have a large enough screen to allow me to see a movie, read a book or do some simple notes on a project. With the mail and calendar programs I use it makes it very easy to continue to communicate with the outside world and whenever I need an instant hotspot I can fire up my Verizon hotspot real quick to acquire that capability for any of the devices that I carry. I have no longer included 4G as an option to any of my device except my phone because you normally don’t need it except for short exceptions. It is much simpler to have just one plan for this purpose that I have to manage and take care of all of the machines I own.

This would probably be a good time to go over the list of apps that I use on my tablets. I choose most of them by whether they will do the job for me but I refine that to include those apps that are available on both Android as well as iOS and if possible have a browser or desktop application as well.

For the Office I use: Evernote, OneNote, OnLive Desktop, Dropbox, SkyDrive, Pocket, RingCentral, Keep, Fill and Sign PDF Forms, Lync 2013, Feedly, Adobe Reader, LogMeIn, Instapaper, Outlook Web App, Messaging,  and Skype.

For Personal and Entertainment: Amazon Kindle, Amazon MP3, Audible, BeyondPod, Cozi, Hulu Plus, Pepperplate, Roku, Scrabble, SmugMugMobile, SquareSpace, Xfinity TV, NetFlix, WatchESPN, Plex.

I’ll go into more detail on how I use some of these programs in another posting. I hope this gives you some insight on using a tablet and maybe some detail on the Nexus 7 if this is one of those tablets that you are thinking or purchasing.Let me know how you are using your tablets for work and play, I would really like to know.

Nexus 7 - 2013

My Nexus 7 died again for the third time so Google agreed to refund my money, took about two weeks for the credit to show up, and I used the credit towards buying a newer model of the Nexus 7. The two biggest differences that I have seen so far is the much better screen display and something I really wish the first generation had, a rear-facing camera. The stereo speakers seem a little louder to me and I was very impressed with how easily it moved all of my programs over to it from my Google account. Of course login’s and passwords didn’t come over but the most of the programs that I use did.

There were three models to choose from. The first two are Wi-Fi only and are differentiated by memory (16gb or 32gb) and the third is 32gb, LTE (T-Mobile) and Wi-Fi. I chose the 32gb Wi-Fi only for my updated unit, first I wanted to make sure I had as much room on it as possible and these days I am not getting anything but Wi-Fi since I have both a Verizon hotspot that I carry around with me and my phone (AT&T) will tether as a hotspot as well. While a little more expensive than the generation 1 version the addition of the camera makes a big difference to me and the way that I plan to use it. It is important to me as a work device to help me document site surveys but the absence of the ability to add external memory cards or USB sticks to it is the one thing that would really have liked to see included that was not.

I am impressed with the graphics, everything is much crisper and the sound coming from the stereo speakers seem adequate for personal use. While I haven’t directly timed battery life as of yet, it seems fairly decent. We streamed one of our audio shows for about 4 hours yesterday and at the end it showed about 43% battery life still available. When you consider that was coming over Wi-Fi the whole time and connecting to a Bluetooth speaker for it’s output that seems to be pretty good with that much over the air wireless activity. It feels a little heavier to me and also feels more substantial as compared to the earlier version. I’m sure the battery has something to do with the weight (.64 lbs.) but  it feels like a better quality machine then the first generation.

First impression: You see nothing but smiles from me. I’ll report back with more info as I use it more.

Google’s Nexus 7

Well, I have finally bit the bullet and have placed my order in for the new Nexus 7 tablet. I am really looking forward to its arrival. As you probably have noticed I have been a staunch IOS device user since the iPad was released but I have been thinking about android based tablets for awhile. With all the reports I have seen and the specs of the unit I decided to get my hands on one to try it out. I’ll obviously report more on this once I have it in my hands. I think with the introduction of Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” the Android experience will be a much happier one for me. The only drawback with the Nexus 7 that I see is that it doesn’t have an SD slot for adding more memory. It would have been nice to have that as well but I’ll have to live with storing my stuff in the cloud instead.

With the addition of this new device in my toy box I am going to have to begin entertaining the thought of getting a mobile WiFi device that I can share with all of my devices. I just wish that the data plans weren’t so darn expensive. To help supplement this I will probably discontinue my iPad data subscription and just use the mobile hotspot to get by in areas where I don’t have WiFi access.

ASUS 27 Inch Monitor with Full HD-WebCam

Looking for more screen real-estate?  ASUS might have the product you are looking for. With full HD resolution support (1920 x 1024) the VK278Q has LED-backlit  illumination with dynamic contrast ratio (DCR) of 10,000,000:1, and features a 2.0 megapixel webcam, 2 ms response time and 3W stereo speakers.

While these features are functional, I would have thought that this size monitor would have much better resolution approaching 2560 x 1600 would have been nice. The webcam and speakers are a nice touch but I can’t say that I would recommend this product for those of you that need better resolution. However, if what you want are bigger images because your eyesight is going this could be the right product for you. Look for it at around $369.