Phone, Laptop, Tablet: All clicked on the same ‘address’ link from Android Australia MeetUp page and the Nexus 4 location is incorrect (Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 opened the link from the Meetup app, while the laptop from the webpage)
When opening the webpage link in Chrome for Android on both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7, they both report the same incorrect place! So the Nexus 7 has changed marker positions…
And now loading the link in the Meetup page on the Nexus 7 goes to the wrong location
This is strange as a couple of months back, I had a similar situation shown below. The weird thing here is that both screenshots taken on Nexus 4s: just different ones (and obviously the one that didn’t work was mine!). Though taking a closer look shows that the non-distinct grey circle indicates the correct location. But why are the views so different? But whatever it is, all I know is that Google Maps has
We managed to get our hands on the HTC Flyer at Yappe Computer, Serusop, and it seems like a good 7" Android Tablet: an alternative to the older Galaxy Tab. It’s selling for B$859 (cash price) / B$886 (credit card price) for the 32GB model.
works in apps that support it otherwise touching the screen takes a screenshot that you can annotate
cannot be used to ‘touch’ all controls / buttons only digitizer palette brought up by touching the icon with the digitizer (not your finger)
requires a single AAAA (yes 4 As) battery which I have not seen in shops
has 2 buttons: 1 highlights text, other erases
Bundled HTC Apps
Notes application syncs to Evernote and allows infinite vertical scrolling. Allows text input, photo embedding, handwriting annotation as well as voice dictation
Reader application is a reading app linked with Kobo for in app purchasing
Watch application allows renting and buying of movies (but doesn’t seem available in Brunei, thus can only watch previews/trailers)
Other Notes
While it is a 7" Gingerbread (2.3) tablet instead of Honeycomb (3.x, which is the tablet optimized version of Android) it seems to be the better choice at the moment as apps will run on it with the only issue may be the way it looks. Currently is only one 7" Honeycomb tablet: the Acer Iconia Tab A100 and it was released yesterday. It is the first device to have Android 3.2 which is supposed to provide better support for 7" tablets compared to the regular bigger 10" Honeycomb tablets. However there seem to be some force close issues and app incompatibilities reported by This Is My Next and ZDnet (i.e. more work for the developer to fix problems).
On the entertainment side it supports 720p video playback, supports quite a few file formats and codecs but there is no HDMI output unless you get the dock to use with the extended microUSB connector on the flyer. The HTC Watch app is a nice feature but not being available here makes it of no use. For office use, there is support for Microsoft Office documents that allows editing with normal text entry and even the stylus (however, not all file formats are editable). Battery life seems a bit mixed with the Engadget review being impressed by it while TechRadar and CNET UK rated it has having bad battery life. BGR and Android Central give it decent battery life with typical use of 2 days per charge.
Summary
While I wished they didn’t remove the calling ability of the device, the usability of the pen to annotate and take notes is pretty appealing. A good alternative to the Galaxy Tab if you don’t plan to use it for calling. Smaller and more portable than an iPad it is made more for mobility. The main reason to get this device is the active digitizer and stylus combo or if you just wish for a tablet faster than the Galaxy Tab whose age is showing. Nice to see HTC innovate with the Flyer and hope to see more with the upcoming Puccini, their shot at the 10" tablet category.
Ever since the iPhone came out there seems to be a resurgence with touch technology and in particular multi-touch technology. From full all-in-one PC systems like the HP TouchSmart that I’ve seen in Netcom and the MSI WindTop to now the Acer T230H Touch Screen Panel monitor (seen at both Concepts and Netcom). Not knowing what Windows 7 with offered in terms of touch features I looked it up and came across “Using touch gestures” on Microsoft’s Windows 7 microsite (“My favorite ways to use Windows Touch” by John Swenson is also a good read for those considering using a touchscreen)
The main features are:
Flicks: basically navigating a page by flicking your finger upwards or downwards as normally seen on iPhones
Press and hold: press and holding down on the screen will act as a right click and it will pop-up the context menu
Windows Touch Gestures: Pan, Zoom, Rotate, Press and Tap. The first 3 are all similar to Apple’s trackpad multi-touch trackpads gestures but the “Press and Tap” gesture seems new and interesting. In order to activate “Press & Tap” you have to “Press the item with one finger, then quickly tap with another finger, while continuing to press the item with the first finger.”: if you just tap the shortcut menu will appear, if you tap and hold it will be treated as a right click. I’m not sure how well this works in usage and how helpful the shortcut menu is but it is something new and worth exploring
The last feature is related to the taskbar: tap the icon in the taskbar and flick upwards and it will show the window menu and jump list
Basically these features aren’t all that great to me, and I feel most of them work on devices with smaller screens and not so much with larger screens. But to all touch enthusiast this should be a good starting point for Windows. Most manufacturers will make their own touch software that runs on top of Windows and provides a more touch friendly experience but they will most likely stick to a multimedia focus or just for goofing around and nothing too productive
The Wheat Field 