7 inch device

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 Mar 2005
Messages
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Location
Buckingham
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
I am slowly coming around to the idea of buying some sort of seven inch computer

I would like to have charts on it

and want it to do a half decent job of films

charged via a usb socket

would be good if it would attach to my three g dongle

any suggestions based upon real experience

Dylan
 
It will cost money

Don't buy a cheap chinese ripoff. It will do the job but it will use Android. The problem with Android is that Google have a monopoly of applications in the UK and will not sell you the apps you want, even though they will work on this kit.

Google have now changed their business model to that of Microsoft and open access is only available to experts.
 
I gave in to an Ipad a few months ago, I say gave in because I felt it was too locked in to Apple.

However I have to say I am impressed I hardly ever boot up my PC now. Now the drawback is that its not really customisable so the user interface is fixed how Apple want it. However by not opening up the API's to everybody Apple have tightly controlled the device and to date I have never seen it crash. Wish I could say that of my PC.

It won't work with a 3g Dongle but if you have a smartphone you can always tether it to that via a personal wifi hotspot.

You can get an adapter to allow you to load movies and photos and I suspect there are apps to manipulate and edit them although havn't looked.

I bought the 16G version but for a lot of films etc you would need the 32G version.

It can charge via a USB socket quite happily although not ecespcially quickly, but battery life is around 10 hours.
 
davidwf said:
I gave in to an Ipad a few months ago, I say gave in because I felt it was too locked in to Apple.

However I have to say I am impressed I hardly ever boot up my PC now. Now the drawback is that its not really customisable so the user interface is fixed how Apple want it. However by not opening up the API's to everybody Apple have tightly controlled the device and to date I have never seen it crash. Wish I could say that of my PC.

It won't work with a 3g Dongle but if you have a smartphone you can always tether it to that via a personal wifi hotspot.

You can get an adapter to allow you to load movies and photos and I suspect there are apps to manipulate and edit them although havn't looked.

I bought the 16G version but for a lot of films etc you would need the 32G version.

It can charge via a USB socket quite happily although not ecespcially quickly, but battery life is around 10 hours.
Click to expand...

+1 Nav and tide apps are brilliant and either free or reasonably cheap. Get a 2A fag lighter socket charger for a fiver off fleabag and it will charge the pad in two hours on the boat. Have a look at wireless pointers for 3G broadband as well.
 
I am using a Samsung Galaxy 7" Tab on board and so far it ticks all the boxes.
It runs the Navionics navigation app for smart-phones with, obviously, the bigger screen. The internal GPS picks up satellites faster than an external GPS aerial for my DCS VHF.
The other saily apps are handy and include Boatie, AIS Live Wind Guru and the Met Office.
I keep all of my technical manuals on its SD card, backed up on a USB stick plus a music library.
Video streaming is ok on wifi but fairly ropey on 3g. Not that I want to watch telly anyway.
The tab lives below at the nav station but I am toying with the idea of acquiring a fork-lift 12v monitor screen to live in the cockpit as a repeater. A winter project, perhaps.
 
I have an iPad and it much better and more useful than I anticipated. No USB port is annoying and a bit arrogant of Apple but you really don't want a vulnerable dongle sticking out of a tablet. A mifi which will accept the sim card from a 3G dongle is much better and will give Internet access to number of devices, you can even haul it up the mast in marginal signal areas.
The other option is just trimming the sim card down and putting directly in the iPad. I think this will work.
 
I'd recommend the Nexus7, though go for the 16Gb at £199. Has a very sharp screen, the best battery life of any tablet and there are some great apps like have been mentioned already.

With a MiFi or wifi tehtering form your phone, you can get 3G and charging off a 12V with a 2Amp usb adpater works great. GPS is built-in to the both the 8Gb and 16Gb versions of the Nexus7 and it is very portable. For external storage, USB storage isn't supported but you can get an external hard disk with wifi built-in for sharing on a network if you need lots of space or have movies stored on a hard disk.
 
RichardPerou said:
Don't buy a cheap chinese ripoff. It will do the job but it will use Android. The problem with Android is that Google have a monopoly of applications in the UK and will not sell you the apps you want, even though they will work on this kit.

Google have now changed their business model to that of Microsoft and open access is only available to experts.
Click to expand...

Have you got this backwards? Apple have a tight control over what apps are available, but Google Android has always been open access. Anyone can put an app on to the play store and you can load apps via other methods as well.
 
Have a look at the different form factors in Comet or PCWorld or Currys etc. I was going to buy the 7" but when I saw how small it actually was, I spent a few extra quid and got the 8.9" Galaxy Tab - which I'm happy with.

The navionics app runs on it very well.
 
markdj said:
I'd recommend the Nexus7, though go for the 16Gb at £199. Has a very sharp screen, the best battery life of any tablet and there are some great apps like have been mentioned already.
Click to expand...

Actually, it has the best battery life of any tablet with a tiny, low resolution screen. If you want a proper screen then the iPad will still give a good battery life.
 
Before anyone can recommend hardware to you I think we need to understand a little bit more about your intended use.

Any decent bit of kit can do email, run sailing apps, browse ex. You can buy anything from a tablet to a pc or mini pc and you can go android, apple or whoever depending on your budget, preferences and religion.

However, the video thing is the big issue. Your choices will be defined by

1. What are you going to shoot on
2. How much editing do you want to do
3. What software you are happy editing on
4. What output formats you want

If you just want to view videos you are get to get a very different answer from the one you will get if you want to do the full KTL video job.

Very much doubt if any 7 incher can handle proper colour grading, rendering etc.
 
My son has got a Nexus 7, and a very nice piece of hardware it is. Its quad core processor certainly beats my iPad 3 hands down in terms of speed and it feels more robust that the iPad too. I understand Google makes little or no profit on them as they're trying to buy a strong presence in the tablet market, so very good value for money at 200 quid.

As for sailing apps, I can't say how good the market is... worth checking.
 
uses

Ex-SolentBoy said:
Before anyone can recommend hardware to you I think we need to understand a little bit more about your intended use.

Any decent bit of kit can do email, run sailing apps, browse ex. You can buy anything from a tablet to a pc or mini pc and you can go android, apple or whoever depending on your budget, preferences and religion.

However, the video thing is the big issue. Your choices will be defined by

1. What are you going to shoot on
2. How much editing do you want to do
3. What software you are happy editing on
4. What output formats you want

If you just want to view videos you are get to get a very different answer from the one you will get if you want to do the full KTL video job.

Very much doubt if any 7 incher can handle proper colour grading, rendering etc.
Click to expand...

watching films, charts and email is all I want it for

D
 
dylanwinter said:
watching films, charts and email is all I want it for

D
Click to expand...

Simple answer then, a tablet if the budget allows.

You will find fanatics for Apple ones and fanatics for Android ones. Both sets of fanatics will give you reasons why the other set of fanatics are a bunch of misguided loonies.

Then someone will come on and tell you how all the others have missed the point.

The simple fact of the matter is that right now either will do the job you want perfectly adequately.

So, how do you decide?

Assuming you do not want to go through this whole selection process again in the near future the smart way is to pick which camp you think will better cope with added technology. This is stuff that you do not yet know about as it might not yet have been invented, but one day you will not want to live without it.

This is the reason why there are camps. I have parked in the Apple one as I am confident that over the medium term they will give me all the functionality, in fact more functionality, than I will need.

Once you have parked you should then spend your time worrying about other things. Or, of you have nothing better to do you can take the Michael out of those who have, in your opinion, made the wrong choice. It's a pointless pursuit though, as they have made a medium term decision and will not admit to being wrong, even if they suspect they might be.
 
Ex-SolentBoy said:
Simple answer then, a tablet if the budget allows.

You will find fanatics for Apple ones and fanatics for Android ones. <snip>

The simple fact of the matter is that right now either will do the job you want perfectly adequately.
Click to expand...

+1

Ex-SolentBoy said:
Assuming you do not want to go through this whole selection process again in the near future the smart way is to pick which camp you think will better cope with added technology. This is stuff that you do not yet know about as it might not yet have been invented, but one day you will not want to live without it.
Click to expand...

This technology is progressing so fast that anything you buy now will be obsolete in 2 years tops - not least because the internal battery will fail and replacing those often isn't worth it.

For that reason, my suggestion is go for cheap but functional (but not so cheap that the quality is suspect) - that's why I suggested something like the Android based Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 above- as I feel that actually the 7 inch tablets are a bit too small.

Once you've got one Dylan - whichever flavour you buy - don't forget the Amazon Kindle app!
 
Most of the 10 inch Android tabs with Ice Cream Sandwich now have USB host capability, with either a full size USB port, or the option of using a micro to full USB adapter. Very useful for plugging in external media like thumbdrives, or for plugging in a keyboard. In some cases, you could plug a camera/camcorder into it and access media on it from the tablet, for processing or storage.

I'm not sure if 7 inch ones do, but its possible in the OS, so technically there is no reason why it's not possible.
 
jamesjeffrey said:
+1



This technology is progressing so fast that anything you buy now will be obsolete in 2 years tops - not least because the internal battery will fail and replacing those often isn't worth it.
Click to expand...

Make that 6 months before you want the next one that is coming along. I am not going to say which "next one" you will want, but once you start down this road, be sure you WILL want the "next one".
 
We have an Archos G9, built in GPS, 3G Dongle for extra £44 (we find lots of free wifi hotspots around) , runs Navionic HD charts and has great HD video. Battery runs all day when using GPS track,on Navionics, screen could be a bit brighter in stong sunlight. Googlemail works a treat and seems to connect even with no apparent wifi !!. Leather protective case for on baord use similar to IPAD available for £12 instead of £70 (Apple are'nt daft)
Got ours for £179 from argos, amazon also do a good deal.

Archos 501840 Gen9 8 inch Tablet (RAM 512MB, Memory 8GB, Android 3.2) - upgradeable to Android 4.0 / Ice Cream Sandwich by Archos

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...vpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_701c1y4t6w_e
 
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