Julien Vehent on 6 Jul 2012 06:26:19 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] Linux friendly tablet?


On 2012-07-06 1:16, JP Vossen wrote:
As many of you know I'm more of a tool guy (e.g. swiss army knife) than
gadget guy, but it seems like it might finally be time for a tablet.

I refuse to have any iDevices in the house, so that basically leaves Android,
AFAIK.  While in theory devices build on top of Linux should be Linux
friendly, not everything is (see TomTom).

So what is a good, inexpensive Linux friendly tablet? Use cases as follows:


I got one for those LePan 2 a couple months back, and I'm very happy with it:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0381568

It runs Android 3.2 so well I didn't feel like rooting up and installing cyanogen (yet).

* Stay-at-home Mom, for email, web surfing, simple apps, etc. (WiFi only is fine, we're not doing any kind of data plan, if that even applies to tablets)
* Kid friendly (6 & 8), preferably edutainment-type stuff
* Angry Birds is apparently a requirement (hey, that teaches ballistics,
right?)
* Cut the rope, ditto


Yeah, it does all that. The latest angry bird is pretty cool on it. I also enjoy the astronomy apps that let you point at the sky and shows you what stars you're supposed to find. Works nicely, when the GPS isn't freaking out :)

Related, recommended apps?

* Astronomy, ideally including satellite info

Ha, well, I just mentionned that. Sky Map is cool.

* Video creator (hate to admit it, but iMovie is pretty awesome)

On a tablet ? Haven't tried. Video creation is usually something I want horsepower for.

* eBook reader (but won't work well in direct sun, right?)

Aldiko. Readable in full sun (not as well as a regular book), and you can dim it enough at night to not end up looking like one of those big eyed fish :)

* Movie player

MX player. Does the job.

* Netflix?  (Optional, we have the DVD-only plan now)

Yes. But it won't take DVDs :p

* What else don't I know about?

Open Street Map. Downloadable locally via Osman to go on trips. 3D google earth. dropbox. k-9 mail. Firefox. IMDB. sketch n draw. amazon Kindle app. Hell, it even has Skype !



- Julien
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