Most of you will already know most of this, but I thought I would post a collection of things I have tried and have found useful on my Transformer, hopefully you will see something you haven't tried or though of.
I will add more as I think of them or find new solutions to problems.
1. Try MultiPicture if you are having problems getting Wallpapers to work on the tablet, it scales the image to fit the screen, so you won’t get your image cropped or distorted. Use a 1280x800, 72dpi image for perfect results. In MultiPicture settings, you can disable the homescreen scrolling so that the image stays still when you flip through your homescreens. You can also use different pictures on each homescreen if you like.
2. Use a static picture as wallpaper, live wallpapers are fun but seem to slow down the home screen transitions slightly in Honeycomb still.
3. Rockplayer, Vplayer and Moboplayer are all great apps that support almost every movie format and codec out there, they allow you to play movie files on the tablet that aren’t supported out of the box. You may have to select the Software decoding option in Rockplayer to get some formats working.
4. If you don’t already have it, install Windows Media Player 11 or higher on your PC and add any folders that you would like to be able to access from the Transformer to the library in WMP. (don’t forget to share them in windows as well by right clicking them and going to the sharing option etc.)
5. Install the app UPnPlay, it will make viewing your shared media much easier. It also allows you to choose the app you want to view media with, so you can choose Rockplayer or Vplayer etc to stream your movies.
6. Plex is another good app for accessing shared media, you have to install a server application on your PC and add any folders you want to be shared to the server application, then run the tablet app. It’s very simple and it adds cover art etc to your movies by searching the files meta data.
7. Install File Manager HD, it’s a great tablet optimised file manager and it can see your network shared files once you add a new W-lan connection. Use 192.168.0.2 (or your PC’s IP address), your Windows log on name and your Windows password.
8. If you are looking for a good news reader for your tablet, try News 360, it has a great interface and works really well. It has the option to show local news as well as national/international.
9. A great Magazine app recently released for Honeycomb is Zinio, try the version from the market, its slightly different to the one on the transformer, I prefer the UI. Zinio has a large and growing selection of magazines, its interface is great and the magazines look amazing on the transformers screen.
10. ACV is a brilliant comic viewer that reads most comic formats, it works well on the tablet.
11. Extended Controls is a brilliant app/widget that lets you add controls for virtually every setting on your tablet to your homescreen, for example WiFi or Bluetooth and even a toggle to force a media scan (useful if you have just transferred files to your tablet and they aren’t showing in the gallery etc.)
12. Plume is the Twitter app I am using, it has a great tablet optimised interface and a brilliant widget.
13. It’s still a bit choppy and laggy sometimes, but try out the website www.m.tvcatchup.com for free to air UK television channels, a huge selection of free channels that play about 5 seconds behind live TV. Wifi recommended but I have had it working on 3G. Some channels work better than others. Try changing your browser agent from android to desktop or even iPhone to get a better result.
14. TV Guide UK is just that, a great TV guide for your tablet, it’s not Honeycomb optimised and runs in portrait mode, but it works well and has a great interface. You can filter the channels in the settings to just show the channels you have or want to see.
CarsnGadgets said:
7. Install File Manager HD, it’s a great tablet optimised file manager and it can see your network shared files once you add a new W-lan connection. Use 192.168.0.2 (or your PC’s IP address), your Windows log on name and your Windows password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for this lol. i never knew that function existed and i've been using it from day one.
EXCELLENT post, thank you! On the News360, I LOVE it, but it doesn't show my local newspapers (Mendocino County in Northwestern California), the nearest it shows are in the San Francisco Bay Area, over 100 miles south of me, maybe I need to shoot off an email to them.
your welcome
Always interested to read TF users tips and some very useful ones here, many thanks
Thanks for this! as a newbie, I needed this
Sorry if this was posted up already but I got an email for the Samsung update but would like to know how big of a difference it makes
+ Most actions feel smoother
+ Browser is much more stable
+ Lag and wonky cursor fixed when typing in web forms
+ Numerous small fixes and improvements throughout
- 720p high profile playback is broken
- New color scheme takes awhile to get used to
The pros outweigh the cons for me, unless a clever developer manages to get 3.2 running on the tab I don't think I'll be going back to stock HC.
I was at my local mall yesterday and saw the touch screen buttons look uglier to me I didn't get to play with there was a long line but everything looks ok but if you say its more stable ill take it I'm getting tired of how it runs slow at certain points
My thoughts: This isn't your Granny's Android tablet any more!
- Printing (but only to Samsung printers )
- Screen Capture button.
- Tilt the tablet to zoom in and out in gallery and browser.
- New notification sound.
- New graphic aesthetics in major system apps, including Settings.
- Hardware shortcut ribbon in bottom-corner pop-up. Wi-Fi, Notifications, GPS, Sound, Auto-rotate, Bluetooth, and Flight Mode.
- Graphic current screen indicator on home pages. Tap on dots to go directly to any page.
- Bottom dock bar, pops up with Task manager, Calendar, World clock, Pen memo, Calculator, and Music Player shortcuts on any screen.
- Connect to Kies via WiFi. (Kies update available)
- Move icons to other pages by tilting the tablet to pan while holding an icon.
- Videos app, Movies in Market, Samsung Apps app, Photo editor, Alarm app, and probably a few more.
Liking it so far
+System video player properly recognizes orientation! This was such an annoyance when using Samsung book cover with tilt!
+Browser annoyances fixed
+Finally an easy to access calculator
-H264 720p high profile broken. Verified in system video player as well as mobo player
-Youtube still does not recognize orientation in full screen playback.
1. More video formats now play in the video player.
2. Good news abou the UI: The GUI is more "fat finger" friendly. Bad News: As a result it's not very pretty. However, I prefer function over form so that's OK.
3. There's a pop-up app button in the bottom ribbon. Unfortunately, the only app there that I find useful is Task Manager. Too bad we can't change the apps to make it more useful.
4. Screen shot is nice. But, really, how often does one need a screen shot?
5. They changed the appearance of the buttons on the bottom left corner of the screen. The back arrow is now an arrow. However, the home button still looks like an upward pointing arrow. Too bad they didn't make that better.
6. The browser does seem snappier.
7. The market now includes Movies. Although I haven't seen anything under $3.99. I'm not going to pay $3.99 to watch something on a 10.1" screen. I'm guessing they're aiming at those who have purchased the HDMI adapter.
8. The "busy" icon is no longer two circles spinning in opposite directions. It's more like an analog clock with a spinning hour hand.
9. There's a File Manager. It's called "My Files." Took me a while to figure that out. It has a polished look. Not sure of all its capabilities yet.
10. I really like the buttons at the top of the UI to get to any 5 screens quickly. However, 5 seems to still be the limit. With direct navigation it would have been nice to have the ability to create more screens ala GO Launcer EX.
11. Calender. They did some horrible things to the calendar. I'm a graphical person. I need to see appointments in a graphical way where a longer appointment takes up more space on a calendar. I detest the Agenda style. They took that away in the week view. Agenda style only there. Daily view shows appointments graphically, but not weekly.
Additionally, the color scheme is abysmal. Violet and white. Who in their right mind chooses such a hideous color scheme without giving us the ability to change it? This just solidifies my choice of using Touchdown instead. So long Calendar.
11. When looking at the Apps screen they've taken away the "ghosted" outline of apps on the right column. That was a cool visual cue that there were more apps on the right. I liked it and could see that it was useful when new users used the Tab.
12. Live wallpapers are still as useless as they were before. It grinds the home pages to a halt. No improvement there.
13. There are more "settings" including a Power Saving panel, a Motion Settings panel, and more details about the Tab.
Anyone know if you can change out the icons/apps on the pop-up dock? There is a better calculator available for example, and I'd prefer to use the Google Music beta app instead of the default one Samsung provided.
So far, in my 10 minutes of using this update, I'm not too happy. More apps I don't use were installed and cannot be removed without rooting (My Files, Pen memo, Memo, Amazon Kindle/MP3, Words, Video). The pop-up task bar has changed. The new buttons to run wifi/gps/etc on and off is neat, but it's ugly and some functionality has been lost from that pop up like clicking on wifi no longer brings you right into wifi settings, which I find extremely annoying. The new calendar app is not as good as the old one, which is important for me. I want the old color scheme back. So far, I'd actually like to roll back. None of these quirks were reported in any reviews of the new TW update I read.
Graphics performance has been improved quite a bit as evidenced in Quadrant and a few games I've tested. The annoying gyro drift I was experiencing in NOVA 2 has also been fixed. The game actually plays quite well now, not as good as ipad2 though
Hoping we'll see an OC Kernel soon, should boost performance a bit more.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
I gotta say that Swype is fantastic. I've tried to use Swype on my phone several times over the last year or so but never could get used to it. Somehow, on the Tab, it's a much better experience. Also, it's nice to be able to move the Swype keyboard to a different position making it easy for both leftys and rightys.
+ MTP protocol improved: you can use the tablet while is connected to the PC
- I'm really dissapointed by the 720p HP ommition
Gix said:
I'm really dissapointed by the 720p HP ommition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Dice Player? 720p MKVs work well with it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.trial&feature=search_result
Topic here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1181938
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
ganiman said:
Have you tried Dice Player? 720p MKVs work well with it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.inisoft.mediaplayer.trial&feature=search_result
Topic here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1181938
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
720p High Profile H264 is broken. There are many variations of H264:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles
MKV is a container that can contain numerous formats of video and audio.
Yes, depending on the 720p H264 file you get, it may work as long as was encoded less then High Profile.
Why would anyone want high profile? It gives the greatest quality per bit of data at the expense of crunching power, which the tegra2 has. Somehow this update disabled high profile recognition for hw decode, no 3rd party player can fix this.
ariel123 said:
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whatttttttt
ariel123 said:
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a TV that is on my network. Curious how that would work. I could see it working if it was running Google TV, but mine is an LG "Smart" tv. It plays videos off my shared network drive, but watching content from the TV on another device isn't something I've ever seen done. Certainly going to mess with it. Will report If I have any success.
ariel123 said:
The rep at the mall told me that there's this new feature that if you have an HDTV connected to the same WiFi as the tab you can watch whatever is on Tue tv on the tab so in case you have to go to the bathrrom or kitchen you can continue watching the movie or tv. I don't know useful that is but if you can watch what's on Tue tab on the tv wirelessly that would he epic
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wut!!!
10char
Gix said:
+ MTP protocol improved: you can use the tablet while is connected to the PC
- I'm really dissapointed by the 720p HP ommition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should we have debugging check or not for connecting via USB to transfer files? I had a problem initially connecting, I had Kies open and it said that it is not supported or cant connect. I then closed Kies, unchecked debugging, then it connected and an expolorer window opened to view files.
I tried connecting again and my tab did not show up in my computer as a drive. Rebooted tab, checked and unchecked debugging and then it worked.
Very strange, so I am not sure what I did wrong or if Kies was the problem.
Lol 4th thoughts on the update thread....
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
4dthinker said:
I've got a TV that is on my network. Curious how that would work. I could see it working if it was running Google TV, but mine is an LG "Smart" tv. It plays videos off my shared network drive, but watching content from the TV on another device isn't something I've ever seen done. Certainly going to mess with it. Will report If I have any success.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very easily done using DLNA. The Galaxy S 1/2 devices have an app called AllShare that enables this functionality. It allows you to watch content on DLNA devices. For example, I can watch video captures on my phone on my DLNA enabled TV and vice versa.
We are still waiting on Samsung to release an AllShare app for the Tab though.
See that
Archos 80/101 G9
Firmware changes
Version 3.2.46 - September 23rd, 2011
Google applications: Google talk is now part of the firmware
Audio/applications: improved volume control (better volume range, less glitches on notifications) leading to faster gaming experience on some 3rd party applications
Wi-Fi: fix low throughput on some access points when using WPA2/AES encryption
Camera: improve camera quality in high and low light condition
Flash: added acceleration support
Archos applications: many enhancements and fixes on Videoplayer, MediaCenter and Mediascrapper
Media center: new elastic and overshoot effect on cover roll edges
File Browser: better action support on multiple selections
Media Scrapper: better handling and cleaning of data base in case of file removal
Photo Frame: Floating Image 3.1.9 is integrated with fixed Picasa support, better background rendering and better memory management
Music player: better protection of music player to avoid to get it killed under low memory condition
Display: better quality SD video upscaling (e.g. on 1080p display)
Video: improve SMI subtitle support
Internationalization: Arabic and Hebrew translations have been integrated and a new specific "Archos keyboard" application has been included for supporting Hebrew and Arabic
Network shares: shortcuts can be created by long press on a remote video folder in Archos media center
Network shares: more robust streaming in case of IP renewal
Memory: smaller memory footprint
3G key: updated APN list
Power off: make sure to clear all alarms when powering off
Hard drive based unit: enhanced power management
Security: apply security fixes from google about DigiNotar CA certificate
http://www.jbmm.fr/2011/10/g9-firmware-3-2-46-en-ligne-mais-attention/
wonder if a new subsection ned to be added, as this new model is completely different hardware speaking.
and as omap4 is the next platform, woulb be nice to start tweaking on archos device as its the first available with honeycomb 3.2 + omap
How to get samsung pc specific apps(like samsung screen recorder, samsung studio plus, samsung live wallpaper, etc.) on non samsung windows pc?
anjusinghal said:
How to get samsung pc specific apps(like samsung screen recorder, samsung studio plus, samsung live wallpaper, etc.) on non samsung windows pc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get Samsung Screen Recorder from the Microsoft Store
Try recording your PC screen quickly and easily with Screen Recorder. - Easy screen recording: Provides recording and screenshot features with one click - Simple recording settings: Provides options such as monitor selection, resolution control and image quality control - Provides screen...
www.microsoft.com
Screen recorder is available on microsoft store. Maybe other sam apps are also available there.
EDIT : Sorry can't use it on any PC except Samsung PC