h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For some time now, my once wonderful Guide stand in, my ASUS Transformer Prime tablet has become nearly unusable because of lag. I've read that this is caused by an issue with the Tegra processor it uses not handling its cache properly. A week and a half ago, I tried a desperate attempt at flashing the ROM, but all the tools I needed had broken links or worse, links that now lead to viruses. Even if I had been successful, I knew that it was only a temporary fix.

So, I gave up and ordered a replacement. I'm going to miss that keyboard and super long battery life.

I ordered a Nexus 10. While it may not have the most amazing specs, it is designed for Android by Google and built by Samsung. I figure this will be the purest stock ROM one can get. I also decide to go ahead and get a Kindle Paperwhite. Since I won't be getting 15+ hours per charge out of the new tablet, I can at least save the battery power I normally use at lunch on a device that won't need to be recharged for like a month.


So, I got my shipment today.

I open up my Nexus and... wait, what's this?

It came with only French instructions and a EuroPlug adapter.

Well, I sent an email to the seller. Hopefully they'll send a North American plug and English instructions. In the meantime, I just happen to have some travel adapters from my recent trip to the UK. This'll do until then.


When I noticed the error, I tried looking up my order on my TF201. It was downloading some pointless updates and was unbearably laggy again. UGH! I give up and go to my laptop. Then a bit later, I was going to check some of my apps on my Transformer, or something and it's still just not responding. So, I give up and press and hold the power button to shut it down, but the shutdown dialogue never pops up. Instead it tries to reboot.

About 15 attempts to reboot later I realize it's done. It's basically, nearly bricked. I couldn't shut it down and it wouldn't properly boot up. I just kept seeing the ASUS splash screen with spinning dots. The only way I eventually made any progress was by accessing the boot options and selecting "Wipe Data".

So, what should I do with this formerly great tablet?

Use it for a smart wall clock?



OH, and just to add to the frustration, while I was composing this message, the website went down (for maintenance I suppose, it is 4:00 in the morning GMT.)

Whipe everything on it... and put a funky opperating system on it? (no idea if that is possible)...

My ancient netbook is simularly dieing a slow death... so* slow, and none of the useual 'fixes' work... : I really really must* have soemthing with a physical keyboard though, and the options on that seem limited now ; the nexus is cool though; was maybe thinking of getting one of them too, with, as you say, hopefully as stock as possible a version of the android OS (I hate all the crap on my samsung phone, which I can't get rid of, as its tied to the phone o opperator Vodafone...) Guess I'm gona halve to end up ditching the tiny netbook form factor, and go back to getting a laptop with some flavour of Windows on it, just for one book streaming bit of software I use, that they don't seem to port onto any other opperating systems <

You might be able to use the ASUS Transformer Book, 2legs. It's got the keyboard dock like my old one, it doesn't use that same Tegra processor. But it runs Windows 8. I don't know if that would mean it would be more or less accessible for you.

I might try to flash the ROM again, but I'll have to find some trustworthy links for the rooting software. That's where I ran into trouble before.

I've been advised against windows 8 if I can avoid it; 7 is meant to be a more accessible option for me (though I'm not quite sure on the details); I'm still languishing about with XP on my netbook, and desktop... But getting 7 or 8 on a new laptop/portable thinggy, makes sense, as I'll need to have some idea how the OS works, just in case* I ever get a job, again, and have to use such ; on the desktop I'm tempted to just keep it on XP, as it works fine, on my recording software for music etc; I could even just make the PC a totally offline PC, just d dedicated for recording and m music stuff on the ASUS Transformer Book, sounds interesting.... I've not kept uptodate with a lot of this stuff though, so I'll have to go read about it... and see how expensive it is too; I've a feeling the laptop route might work out cheaper; don't really need anything meggapowerful; just really for the web on it, and all the actual stuff that reuires processing and memory, etc., is on the desktop for recording music which seems to still run fine must go have a look at the ASUS Transformer Book, though...

Well, the big advantage of a tablet like this over a laptop, especially with the keyboard dock, is the mobility you get from the long battery life. I was getting around 15 hours out of mine.

oo... its got a few quid off it... on Amazon... utterly affordible.... actually less than I was gona set as a limit for a sort of 'bog standard laptop'...

Can I picky your brain a bit, here, as you've had one?

k
keyboard dock?;

Don't forget... I canny see the pic of it, so, I'm sort of trying to guess in my head what it looks/feels like; laptops OK, I know how they look/work/are, I've had dozens, hindge open the lid, vola, a screen, keyboard underneath...

Ipads, which I guess are basically the same as any touch-screen pad/surface thing... just turn it on... there's the screen, which is the touchpad/surface....

So... with the combined doobry, like this?; I sort of I guess, imagined it opened like a laptop, hindged, and the screen was just also a touch-screen/surface, but.... I'm now thinking, I guess not... not if it has a 'dock' for the k keyboard bit so.... I guess, it is inside the screen/touchpad/surface bit, that the 'computer' bits actually are (processor, HD etc... etc...), and the keyboard is just like a seperate bit, that 'clips' or 'docks' into it I assume at more or less a right angle, so you could look at the surface, now just a screen, at the right angle? Actually... wonder if I can find anywhere local which stock em, where I could go have a feel/look, and then go find it cheaper online Its got windows 8; but the main reason or advatage that had over 7, if I recall correctly, were that it works better with the surface/touch screen stuff, than did 7... and, well, 7 looks thin on the ground, on any ready-installed laptop/gizmos... My netbook is just getting so* slow... I think its single core, is slower than each of the four in the quadcore processor on this transformer thinggy

Oh, the one I spotted, was;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/T100TA-DK002H-10-1-inch-Convertible-Processor-Touchscreen/dp/B00G4E60UA/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1404911857&sr=8-15&keywords=ASUS+Transformer+Book%2C

It's basically a small laptop in design except the keyboard section can be removed at the hinge. The actual hinge remains attached to the keyboard section and the tablet section slips into a groove and locks with a slider button. They just refer to the keyboard section as a "keyboard dock", I suppose since it also acts as a reserve battery and it also has a proper USB port built in. The only connection slots my Transformer has is a proprietary slot in the bottom that will receive either the dock or a separate USB/charger cable. This is located at the center of the bottom edge. A few inches to either side of this are two other slots that only accept the guide posts/locks for the keyboard hinge. On the right edge there is an earphone socket and a SD card slot, if I recall correctly and on the left I believe there is a slot for a micro HDMI that I've never used. There is also a Micro SD card on the left side I believe.

You should be able to try one out at a local store as the Transformer Line is very popular. I saw one a couple of weeks ago at a local electronics chain store.

I'm really very tempted.... The one on Amazon is cheaper I think, as its probably been superseeded by a more recent model.... and having done so Googleing, I have found a few forums, where people have been using the same model, of the Transformer book, with the screen reader I use, so clearly it works I'll try having a look online, later, see what stores in town here, oughta have some in stock

Oo... and I'm thinking... maybe I could even use without having the screen bit locked into the dock at all... so long as it'd work like that... just the keyboard and speakers a screen-less gadgid

Do test out the speaker(s). That's one of my complaints about my Transformer Prime is that it only has one small speaker pointed out the back of the tablet. I usually have to cup my hand over it to hear anything reasonably well.

They made some serious design errors when they made the prime that they fixed in later models. For example, the Prime had a very attractive brushed metal case... that also served a second unforeseen duty as a Faraday cage blocking GPS and wireless signals. There was a law suit. I got a GPS dongle that plugs in where the keyboard plugs in (so can't be used at the same time) and a $10 gift card that I forgot about until after it expired. Lawyers

a bit of a design fault!; Its one thing I liked about my Samsung NC10; pretty decent (loud enough anyhow), sound, for a small little thing; mind, if its got which I assume it has, headphone out; I can plug it into the bedroom hifi, when I'm just listening to books, or music etc., on it Not quite sure how much I'd actually use the tablet/touch screen aspect of it... but... at the price, it looks about the same or cheaper than a laptop anyhow, I think... plus the longer battery life on it etc...

Brushed alaminium cases are cool... rahter like the big tower sitting next to me, and, in fact, the tower in the front room, sitting next to the matching brushed alaminium hifi : sadly, the matching brushed alaminium toaster and kettle died years ago, and got replaced with cheaper plastic ones

Well, I think it may be the end of another era. I may have to give up my Ubuntu Linux partition. (Unless someone here can suggest a solution.)

I'm getting update notices (as is normal) but I'm not able to perform the updates. Mostly, I've had issues with the updates for Chrome failing because there isn't enough disk space (which should NOT be an issue unless Ubuntu reserved too little space for the boot sector). Today I also got a notification that there's a new Ubuntu LTS version available, so I tried updating the whole thing hoping it might clear up this space issue. Nope... that didn't work. It didn't complete the update for lack of available disk space and it also warned me that the new version did not support my video hardware.

Well, hell!

So, I guess I can just go back to my Windows 7 partition or buy a new laptop. I'm in no mood to buy a new laptop for the time being so I guess I'll have to put up with all of the things about Windows that annoy me. I'll have to find some way of transferring all my old email between partitions though. Not sure how hard or impossible that may be. I've never had any luck with email between computers or upgrades.

Then there's all the various files, documents, images, and whatnot that I'm sure to forget.