Help to choose tablet
 

Hi!
I am a new member of this forum. I would like to get some help to choose an Internet Tablet/Pocket PC/PDA. It would be perfect if any of you can give me some link where several tablets can be compared with respect to their features. For the PDA:

--- I would like: LINUX, Wi-Fi (of course), as large capacity as possible, fast processor, QWERTY (I want to use it for email during travels)
--- I don't care: Camera, webcamera, Cell phone.

The most important thing for me is perhaps the thing to have Linux. I want to use mutt, vi, and my own scripts on it. Perhaps the Nokia N810 would be enough for my needs, but it is not being sold in Brazil, where I live (why??????).

Any advice?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers,
L.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

luis, I am very happy with my Nokia N800 with 16gb of internal memory.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

I would say the 810, but Pandora early 2009 might be an option for you also, if you can wait.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

I second that, waiting could be your best option ;)

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Just buy an used n810 on ebay and get it shipped to brazil.

The n810 offers everything you mentioned and much more.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

there are some tablet pc:s on the umpcportal.

Thanks for the suggestion so far
 

Thanks for the answers so far!

Unfortunately, the delivery to Brazil is out of the question, because Brazil has outrageous import taxes (60%, also over S&H!), and because I need to spend money from a research project, and that has to be with Brazilian firms (silly legislation).

But at least the many suggestions pointing to the N8x0 seem to confirm that it is the best option so far.

Someone pointed the Pandora. Interesting, but too big for me. I need it to carry in a pocket. I need something the size of the N8x0 or so.

I also saw the Archos 5. It looks sweet, but I am not sure how 'dumb' it is as a Pocket PC. But its compact size yet huge screen seem perfect for my use.

I will look at the suggested umpcportal.

Thanks again!
L.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

If you need Linux, the Internet tablets are the best. The other choices would be:

N810 / N800
Android (HTC G1/Dream)
OpenMoko
A Sharp Zaurus (Old...)

Archos are not really Linux, they just run a proprietary user space on TOP of Linux, so you can't really do anything with it..

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Finally the Nokia N800 arrived to Brazil! However, it seems it comes with a 128MB card only. So I have two questions:
1) Your 16GB memory is provided by a card?
2) Which card would you suggest? What about something like this, or would this be too slow:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ss_4_SDHC.html

Thanks!!
L.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Good choice for an SD card, also good price. However, did you notice that they are out of stock?

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Not sure if he's running 1x16GB or 2x8GB; you can do either (the second slot is under the battery cover).
There's some info about where some cards won't go into a low-power state when not writing, and drain the battery in less than 48 hours of idle, but I'm not sure where, search around for it. There's no conclusive table, just some people's reports of which cards worked and didn't for them.

That issue aside, any SD or SDHC card will work. You may want to jump for a Class 6 card instead of that Class 4, but either will work. (Some people say they can't tell the difference from 4 to 6 in actual usage, some say they can; I don't have any Class 4, so I can't say, but my Class 6 cards are much faster than a Class 2 I have, so I think so.)

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

I am not planning to buy from them, just want to know if a Class 4 card would be good enough, or better choose a Class 6.

Thanks,
L.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Wow... now that's bad!

I see. Is there some limit on the card capacity?

Another question (sorry!): I want to use the tablet to clean my camera CF card, sending all the images on the CF card into my 64GB pen drive. So, I should need an adapter (female USB -> male micro USB), first to save the images in the CF into the tablet (I already have a CF -> male USB adapter), and then to save from the tablet to the pen drive. Will this work?

Thanks!!

L.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

I expect the USB ports on the tablets don't provide enough power to run a CompactFlash reader. That's just a guess, but others in the fora have reported difficulty locating SD card readers that sip little enough juice. I can't imagine CF readers use less power than their SD brethren.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

No, any available capacity (up to 32GB, right now) will work, and if any larger SDHC-compatible cards become available, they'll work too.

As sjgadsby said, power is likely to be an issue; if you have a self-powered USB hub, you can probably make it work fine, and even connect them both and copy directly. (This may not actually go faster, but will be easier and not need free space on the tablet.)

Also, depending on your camera, you may be able to hook it up via USB, and read the CF while it's in the camera; if this works, the camera will probably be using its own battery, so you wouldn't have power problems.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Perfect!

For the pen drive, for the CF reader, or for both?

It should be twice as fast, since I will be saving 1 step: CF card --> pen drive instead of CF --> tablet --> pen drive.

Good idea, that will solve the CF issue (but not the pen drive issue).

I wonder why camera manufacturers don't make cameras able to plug a pen drive on them. It shouldn't be that hard.

Thanks,

L.

Re: Help to choose tablet
 

Chiefly the CF, most (but not quite all!) USB drives work fine.
But the tablet still has to handle all the data in and out via USB, and I expect the CPU processing to drive the USB (not the USB bandwidth itself, or the speed of either device) will be the critical factor. All depends on your device speeds, of course, and I don't think I've ever actually tried copying between two USB devices, but that's my guess.