It might not give you a full blown desktop OS, but it surely has to be a lot faster than the current webtop,and a bit more user friendly than installing GenTop.
I haven't used my Lapdock much because its so slow,so I'm looking forward to having something that is actually usable once we get ICS.
I was initially turned off by the fact we wouldn't be running a full version of Ubuntu, but after doing some thinking,I would rather have something thats faster with some limitations than something full featured that runs slow. Running android and only android has to be faster than any other method of the Webtop interface.
Anyone else agree?
I also agree, and I think that if we want a full-featured OS Webtop we would need a quad-core phone. Gentop is nice however isn't user friendly.
There's also HDMI mirroring but the resolution is upscaled and enlarged so when its plugged into a Lapdock it looks LQ.
Plus mirroring is laggy since its outputting to the phone screen and another screen.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA
What's funny is that Ubuntu Webtop isn't even full featured. It's pretty much just Firefox and a file manager. And yet it's still really slow somehow. You have to download a Webtop mod to get true Ubuntu features. Webtop 3.0 will be very welcomed.
I think it's interesting, and going to be pretty useful, but its going to be majorly flawed. I plugged a mouse into my ics tablet to get a sense of how a tablet os works without a touch screen. First impressions were pretty decent, there were a few oddities, like precision zooming, but for the most part, the experience was ok.
Then it hit me, I had been using the scroll wheel a huge amount and on trying to use the device without it, ended up with lists flying everywhere and cramped wrists, similar to using the lapdock*with mobile view..... Unless motorola can add some degree of trackpad scrolling, my lapdock will end up on ebay, or my phone will remain on gingerbread. With my macbook (no multitouch, just two finger scrolling), i have never felt the need to use a mouse for 3 years, sure, arrow keys help, but the single touch lapdock trackpad problem is exasperated by changing to a touch based os.
I just don't see it being practical, i think the concept is great an I think this would be amazing to have, but it would be so much better to have it alongside more of an ubuntu for android type distro for real laptop like flexibility. We also neeeeeed a better scrolling mechanism on the lapdock. Put all of this in place, and I don't think I would need any other laptop!
Give me webtop 3, with its inferior browser (firefox renders better, supports more standards and has real right click operations than chrome beta or the ics browser) and its inability to multitask and show more than one item on the screen and I will be quite disappointed. Having a 16/9 tablet also highlights how ics isn't particularly good for wide screens such as the lapdock as there are several apps that sit in the middle of the display flanked by white space such as the market.
I just really hope we can get a gentop2 port or an ubuntu for android port working if motorola drops the ball and leaves us with a really compromised experience. Potentially they could do a really good job if they can get all apps to work nicely in tablet mode and add side scrolling to the trackpad... please motorola, I'm waiting with both excitement and trepidation.
I agree the touchpad should have had side/two finger scrolling, but the arrow keys/pg up/down makes a half decent substitute.
A couple of concerns I would have:
1. Finding a decent VNC app that works well with the control scheme.
2. Printing from ICS.
When is it coming out??
when we get ICS, Q3 of this year
hopefully the lag go away
webtop is similar to tabletui of cm9?
vespino75 said:
webtop is similar to tabletui of cm9?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Similar, but it only works if you have a dock with your atrix.
essentially, its just like a tablet without the touchscreen if you have a lapdock.
HMZX said:
Similar, but it only works if you have a dock with your atrix.
essentially, its just like a tablet without the touchscreen if you have a lapdock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a look at the webtop 3 video in the ics demo video thread, looks like a dock may no longer be neccessary
Plus, this is better than the current mirroring solutions as it takes the native display resolution of the hdmi device as opposed to stretching the phone resolution.
webtop 3.0
just got the OTA on my RAZR, first thing I did was plug in my lapdock to check out 3.0, and I have to say it is sooo much better than the old version... most of the lag is gone. Its still not perfect, but it is very usable now. Hopefully they won't delay the update for you guys too much longer
naturalharmoniks said:
just got the OTA on my RAZR, first thing I did was plug in my lapdock to check out 3.0, and I have to say it is sooo much better than the old version... most of the lag is gone. Its still not perfect, but it is very usable now. Hopefully they won't delay the update for you guys too much longer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you post few screenshots and the programs that have been added
Sent from Atrix powered by Neutrino
Unfortunately i am on vacation and forgot to put the dock in my bag. As far as programs being added there really isn't anything added they removed more and focused on an Android experience, Firefox is gone, as well as mobile view. Basically it is your phone screen blown up to the size of the monitor... the browser is your browser from your phone as well as the app drawer and everything else... instead of the software running on top of your phone's OS it is your phone's OS magnified. Which makes it a smoother experience and for me more productive. You can switch app display modes from tablet mode to phone more for the ones that don't scale well but I haven't had any issues yet.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda app-developers app
Has anyone tried running a VNC'ed and chrooted linux distro on webtop 3? How does it compare to the gentop2 and other webtop modifications we currently have?
I guess the main question is how well android works as a desktop os and how is the multitasking? I think its great that motorola have removed the provision for the dock and I can see myself using webtop 3 a huge amount hooked up to my TV, but I want a more productive lapdock experience. I wonder how possible an onskreen cornerstone port would be just for webtop or a port of gentop2 to the new ICS ROMs.
I have been using the Overskreen app for a while on my tablet, I think its going to be the first thing I install once we get ICS on the atrix!
Found a lapdock 500 today for $175 so I picked it up lol here are a couple screens
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda app-developers app
I want it on my atrix so, so very much. Web browsing, streaming vids, music all stuff android does awesomely made more awesome by lapdock resolution
Sent from my MB860 using xda app-developers app
Youtube some Webtop 3.0 action and you will see just how night and day the difference is from the Atrix-Webtop 2.0/1.2 experience. My take on it is that it essentially turns your phone interface experience into a tablet+keyboard+mouse experience--meaning that you get to a comparable performance to your phone-mode in tablet-mode, which you can navigate with the keyboard and touchpad in native resolution. ICS has a great deal more flexibility in this department. I watched videos of the RAZR Webtop 3 experience with an eye on the little things like stuttering, delay, touchpad usefulness, keyboard input lag, and other little nitpicks. It's about 85% of what I wish ICS and a lapdock to be capable of. That's a far cry from the 20% I got from the Atrix lapdock and stock (or Gentoo or Ubuntop) experiences I had. It just didn't work at all.
Droid Bionic ROMs were being pulled from the Moto development cloud by the end of June. There's been at least 4 since a couple days ago. The Xyboard something-or-other had it's first the other day. Moto's ICS rollout schedule is so far on track. I feel comfortable conjecturing that we US MB860 users will at the LEAST have a couple flashable development ROMs leaked by the end of July. And those will defffffinitely include Webtop 3.0.
So buck up gents. It's Coming Soon. ICS.
naturalharmoniks said:
Found a lapdock 500 today for $175 so I picked it up lol here are a couple screens
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks nice, the dpi does look about right for the lapdock, everything is small enough to work nice with a mouse. The lapdock 500 has multi touch scrolling doesn't it? How easy is it to use android with the trackpad and is it ergonomic without multi touch? I use a right click and scroll plug in installed on firebox which makes a huge difference with the terrible trackpad on the atrix lapdock but obviously this won't work on Webtop 3.
Looking forward to your answer, im looking foreward to alot of the improvements but the atrix and it's dock was never designed for Webtop 3 so I'm a little bit nervous about how some things will work. I use my lapdock nearly every day and I want it to be as useful as possible!
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
Yes the multi touch scrolling compared to using the ATRIX lapdock I had before is much nicer, before that I typically clicked on the pg up and pg down keys for web pages... for scrolling desktops and app drawer you kind of just click towards the edge of the screen to move over to the next page. The experience in general is much simpler and faster because you don't have to deal with resizing the mobile view or changing between portrait and landscape it is all in one screen now all the time like a regular android device. Windowed mode is no more which makes it feel less like a desktop device but tapping the third button at the bottom left opens a task switcher that works very well.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda app-developers app
Related
Do you guys think that the Atrix webtop environment will improve over time? I have the laptop dock currently and I am wondering about a few things.
Is this the latest version of Firefox available?
Is this the latest version of Flash available?
Do you think Moto will be able to speed up the smoothness of this experience, or is this already pushing the device to its limits? Has anyone heard or would like to speculate about what the possibilities for this environment truly are with the current hardware?
I can't wait to hear some responses. I am worried that if we don't see something within the first 30 days of it's release that significantly improves the experience, that we may be looking at "as good as it gets"
Well how do you feel about it now? I have been seriously thinking about the dock but I'm hooked on the phone itself, and I feel that if I were to get the dock it would take awhile from the overall phone experience.
Is it smooth; fluid? Can you get a lot done on it?
Rooted/ROM Captivate (For Sale)
Rooted Atrix
just bought the dock today
I just returned my motorola xoom for this laptop dock. i feel pretty happy about the decision. the xoom was great and all but after tax is was like 900 bucks, and that is not that great.
in this ridiculous world of extremely priced accessories, the laptop dock just seemed like more bang for the buck.
the most obvious step up from the dock now would be a firmware update with some speed fixes, and then hopefully another update down the road that contains a webtop app store.
I really couldn't stand knowing that there was this whole desktop operating system on my phone that i couldn't access, so i bought the dock to get the most out of my phone.
i really hope someone figures out how to enable the two finger scrolling. When using the mobile view Using it with a mouse with a scroll wheel makes it MUCH easier to use!
Firefox is a little laggy but the entertainment center is REALLY responsive. If they can get the Firefox browser to be at that level, it will be great. Using Android in the virtual window is unnatural when you need to drag with the mouse....like notification bar, etc.
Overall the feel of the laptop dock is good but would be much better with two-finger scrolling.
The software is laggy aside from the entertainment center.
How laggy is it? I haven't seen too many videos showing the speed or quality of the dock.
Does it later when there are a lot of things running or just a little?
Rooted/ROM Captivate (For Sale)
Rooted Atrix
I'm using the webtop environment in a way that is not pushing the system to the max and it is still freezing, locking up, slowing down etc.
I usually just keep one or two tabs open in Firefox with basic webpages and it freezes. It almost feels like a system that doesn't have the correct video drivers installed. This to me is hopeful that over time the Nvidia drivers will get better at hardware acceleration on this webtop OS.
Would any of the Devs be able to tweak this environment?
Returned my G-Tab today, and bought the Xoom. I think I am having 2nd thoughts though.
I love the G-tab's size, and GUI (go figure). But saw the Xoom at Best Buy, and it was too irresistable to pass up. However, the xoom's size reminds me too much of the Ipad, and I just can't seem to get use to the Honeycomb GUI yet.
I guess the Xoom may just take some warming up to.
Anyone else feel my pain?
Guess I am just looking for some support.
nealwheels said:
Returned my G-Tab today, and bought the Xoom. I think I am having 2nd thoughts though.
I love the G-tab's size, and GUI (go figure). But saw the Xoom at Best Buy, and it was too irresistable to pass up. However, the xoom's size reminds me too much of the Ipad, and I just can't seem to get use to the Honeycomb GUI yet.
I guess the Xoom may just take some warming up to.
Anyone else feel my pain?
Guess I am just looking for some support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never had a Galaxy tab and would not want one (at least the current 7" model). I need more screen real estate. I already have an Android phone to cover the smaller screens. I don't like panning and zooming everything.
i love my xoom more and more everyday. I love the hardware accelleration in the browser but I don't like the lack of flash or. Lack of tablet optimized apps at the moment one thing to always remember is updates will always come sooner on a Google eperience device
android_geoff said:
i love my xoom more and more everyday. I love the hardware accelleration in the browser but I don't like the lack of flash or. Lack of tablet optimized apps at the moment one thing to always remember is updates will always come sooner on a Google eperience device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And we already know those are coming, just takes patience. Good point about the Google Experience. Hopefully we will see some updates in the coming weeks.
yes I've seen alot of demos for new apps so I know there on there way. Its weird though if you go to the market and click apps for tablets there's only 16. Half of which are games but if you go to games for tablets section there are more
android_geoff said:
yes I've seen alot of demos for new apps so I know there on there way. Its weird though if you go to the market and click apps for tablets there's only 16. Half of which are games but if you go to games for tablets section there are more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of my wish list items for market improvement.
I had the Tab and it was a neutered Android phone. Xoom is the way to go...give it some time.
ur serously saying that u liked Android 2.2 on a tab more then honeycomb?
I had a Gtab originally. I got rid of it because the service through TMobile was spotty and the screen was too small. I however love my xoom. Especially since I found a good converter program for all my movies. Once we get SD card support ill be golden
nealwheels said:
Returned my G-Tab today, and bought the Xoom. I think I am having 2nd thoughts though.
I love the G-tab's size, and GUI (go figure). But saw the Xoom at Best Buy, and it was too irresistable to pass up. However, the xoom's size reminds me too much of the Ipad, and I just can't seem to get use to the Honeycomb GUI yet.
I guess the Xoom may just take some warming up to.
Anyone else feel my pain?
Guess I am just looking for some support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As an owner of the Tab and the ipad.....I have realized that 10 inches is for home and vacation use. 7 inches is portable and can be taken anywhere. I have an Evo which I thought was huge before I got the Tab....now it seems tiny.
I might buy the wifi Xoom if it is priced right but I already know from experience with 10 inches that it will stay at home.
Sent from my SPH-P100 using XDA Premium App
I sold my Galaxy Tab yesterday, I'm so gald to get rid of it. It was incredibly slow even after overclocking and 2.2 was NOT meant for tablets.
2.2 may not be meant for tabs, but at least it runs flash and all the apps work without being buggy.
mitchweight said:
2.2 may not be meant for tabs, but at least it runs flash and all the apps work without being buggy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ran flash incredibly slowly, and the browser crashed all the time... sure.
Bauxite said:
Ran flash incredibly slowly, and the browser crashed all the time... sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really? I haven't had any problems with Flash or Dolphin. I watch more videos on the Tab than on my iPad (of course...lol).
Haven't rooted the Tab either (but rooted my Evo almost immediately after getting it)....haven't felt a need. The speed is fine for me.
Though I enjoyed the greater screen real estate (versus my EVO), the Galaxy Tab really is (as someone else already mentioned) just a neutered Android phone. After using the Xoom for several days, and using apps designed for Honeycomb, the difference is remarkable (just try Pulse, YouTube, CNN, or any of the games optimized for 3.0).
I do miss flash in my browser a bit, but that will come soon. I definitely do NOT miss the capacitive buttons on the bottom (a requirement for pre-Honeycomb devices)...it was terribly annoying to be enjoying a video or reading a document and having to be careful with the way I held so as not to accidentally press one of those buttons.
Also, the location of the stereo speakers on the Xoom is so much more sensible than the speaker on the G-Tab, where, once again, if you weren't holding it 'just-so' the sound would be muted by the palm of your hand.
**I have yet to significantly miss the SD card or flash. I do wish we could permanently set the UA string on the stock browser though, and I'm looking forward to the Citrix Receiver being updated for Honeycomb**
For me, flash, UA string, and Citrix will make this device a real killer, and it's good to know they will all be coming very soon.
khov07 said:
Though I enjoyed the greater screen real estate (versus my EVO), the Galaxy Tab really is (as someone else already mentioned) just a neutered Android phone. After using the Xoom for several days, and using apps designed for Honeycomb, the difference is remarkable (just try Pulse, YouTube, CNN, or any of the games optimized for 3.0).
I do miss flash in my browser a bit, but that will come soon. I definitely do NOT miss the capacitive buttons on the bottom (a requirement for pre-Honeycomb devices)...it was terribly annoying to be enjoying a video or reading a document and having to be careful with the way I held so as not to accidentally press one of those buttons.
Also, the location of the stereo speakers on the Xoom is so much more sensible than the speaker on the G-Tab, where, once again, if you weren't holding it 'just-so' the sound would be muted by the palm of your hand.
**I have yet to significantly miss the SD card or flash. I do wish we could permanently set the UA string on the stock browser though, and I'm looking forward to the Citrix Receiver being updated for Honeycomb**
For me, flash, UA string, and Citrix will make this device a real killer, and it's good to know they will all be coming very soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. It's definitely a neutered Android phone...but it stills does everything I need it to do for a portable device. I would probably feel different if it was my only tablet and I didn't already have an iPad for the past year that's had Pulse, the new CNN app, plus too many games that I have spent a fortune on!
Is Word with Friends optimized for the Xoom? A friend brought her husband's Xoom in for me to play with and we downloaded it and the letters were cut off. i thought it was under the tablet optimized section.
I am eyeing the wifi Xoom simply because I prefer Android to iOS but not having Netflix, Hulu, and my games might be too much to give up. Hopefully we'll see more advancement with the Android tablets.
so I'm thinking about getting a laptop dock or Android tablet, like a xoom, a500, or galaxy 10.1. Which should I get?
DiamondJay20 said:
so I'm thinking about getting a laptop dock or Android tablet, like a xoom, a500, or galaxy 10.1. Which should I get?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tablet! Not even a question.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Lapdock! Not even a question. But i have one: are you a linux guy? If so, the lapdock is for you. Fan of the ipad? Maybe lapdock then but with the work being done right now to improve webtop, i love it. With gnome or gentoo the skys the limit.
This is made with the assumption that you buy the 200 dollars for refurbished
see thing is I wanna try to minimize how much I spend, but I don't want a piece of junk. The only reason I'm thinking of the laptop dock is that its cheaper than tablets. I think I'm just gonna get a wifi tablet. But is the laptop dock anywhere as fast as a Xoom, a Galaxy 10.1? What is the weight of the laptop dock vs. other android tablets? Thats a big factor, as is general portability.
depends...
If you're looking for cheap, you can definitely get the laptop dock for far cheaper, unless you're looking for a viewpad (i think it's the name) which is also a tegra 2 tablet, but a terrible screen.
Weight is pretty similar I think standalone, but definitely larger with the phone docked.
Speed compared to the xoom or other similar tablets? Unless someone comes along and figures out some way to optimize the laptop dock a bunch, no. But! I'm staying optimistic on this one, since it may be slowed down by the AWN window manager. I personally think (with the power of hindsight) that getting a xoom/galaxy tab may have been a better choice in the long run, but the laptop dock is quite nice for day to day activities, and the modifications the devs have done on the webtop are simply outstanding, and allow for many more opportunities than that of the honeycomb tablets of today.
Transformer
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Ok I got home to my lapdock to write this. I urge you to buy the lapdock for several reasons.
I have never needed to plug the phone in to a charger since I got the dock a month ago. I have never had the battery die since then either. The battery life is superb with the dock, both charging and using the dock full brightness it will last 8 hours. To sum things up, with an easy tethering hack, an extremely easy mechanism to block all ads, and motobloat removed, all of which is easily accomplished using Gingerblur, I am working on a hack to make it into a portable HDMI display, I can use an app like meebo in the background on the phone while working and the integration is flawless and golden, such as having a keyboard and window manager. Using ad blocking, which kills all unnecessary flash ads and crap, flash really flies along as well as browsing: I have made webtop faster, with many more tabs open and quicker than ever before. It's a great platform for viewing HD flash videos, the patches for flash have made it a really capable performer, and it's 1366x768 resolution screen is better than any of the tablets, especially what you can get with the transformer or a ****ty wifi tablet. With the easy tethering hack you can use your unlimited plan like crazy with this thing safely. Its super lightweight, more durable than a tablet, can run linux full easily with keyboard and mouse, is as fast as tab....etc etc!!!!
By the way the 200 dollar refurb is the bomb, its like new
Where did you find this 200 dollar refurb?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
dantes5823 said:
Where did you find this 200 dollar refurb?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AT&T sells them for 175 before tax with free shipping.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
Do you have to switch to the tethering plan to buy the refurbs from AT&T?
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App
Hell no, just some $$$ for the dock no contract changes READ WHAT I WROTE I STILL HAVE UNLIMITED AND TETHER ALL THE TIME, lapdock super safe for 3g browsing
crashingout said:
Ok I got home to my lapdock to write this. I urge you to buy the lapdock for several reasons.
I have never needed to plug the phone in to a charger since I got the dock a month ago. I have never had the battery die since then either. The battery life is superb with the dock, both charging and using the dock full brightness it will last 8 hours. To sum things up, with an easy tethering hack, an extremely easy mechanism to block all ads, and motobloat removed, all of which is easily accomplished using Gingerblur, I am working on a hack to make it into a portable HDMI display, I can use an app like meebo in the background on the phone while working and the integration is flawless and golden, such as having a keyboard and window manager. Using ad blocking, which kills all unnecessary flash ads and crap, flash really flies along as well as browsing: I have made webtop faster, with many more tabs open and quicker than ever before. It's a great platform for viewing HD flash videos, the patches for flash have made it a really capable performer, and it's 1366x768 resolution screen is better than any of the tablets, especially what you can get with the transformer or a ****ty wifi tablet. With the easy tethering hack you can use your unlimited plan like crazy with this thing safely. Its super lightweight, more durable than a tablet, can run linux full easily with keyboard and mouse, is as fast as tab....etc etc!!!!
By the way the 200 dollar refurb is the bomb, its like new
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sounds pretty nice, looking forward to see how this pans out.
Thinking about getting the Atrix or bionic. I wanted to see how pleased people are with the dock? My plan is to use it as my work laptop. Most if my work is browser based, so my first concern is how does the browser compare to a laptop browser. I do know that it is based on firefox, but is it a full browser? Second is how do people handle printing. Thanks in advance.
Sent from my MB855 using XDA App
I used the lapdock at work (I'm a sales consultant for bell), I did many projects and reports on it through google docs. Its ideal, good battery life but I hate the atrix. the keyboard wasn't the best but what its meant for 10/10
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
Scottyedmonds said:
I used the lapdock at work (I'm a sales consultant for bell), I did many projects and reports on it through google docs. Its ideal, good battery life but I hate the atrix. the keyboard wasn't the best but what its meant for 10/10
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious, why do you hate the atrix?
meh ...
If you can find the dock for $100 +/- I'd say give it a try. More than that, I'd recommend skipping it.
...I have the Atrix and love it
...I also got the dock for $340 and regret it.
When docked the response is very laggy and the touchpad is especially sluggish. The firefox experience is prone to pauses and stutters as well. I haven't tried any of the hacks to see if it improves the experience.
Oh ... and AT&T requires a tethering plan to use the dock via 3G.
---Rob
if you are rooted and running GB then you can use the lapdock without tethering pan like I do. I don't print from it so I can't say for sure about that. Lapdock is very thin and convenient and charges the phone while you are surfing. I use a small USB mouse (keychain) and leave the mini dongle in the USB port all the time. Works better than hotspot and laptop imho. You can also receive and send sms with the keyboard as well. I take Bluetooth calls while surfing and use apps like Netflix.....to me it's great. Not sure if you can print from USB mass storage though.
crlowryjr said:
When docked the response is very laggy and the touchpad is especially sluggish. The firefox experience is prone to pauses and stutters as well. I haven't tried any of the hacks to see if it improves the experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The touchpad can be adjusted in the settings so that it's not so slow..but otherwise invest in a Bluetooth mouse and you'll be good to go. I find the browsing to be very good actually..and considering most of the time I use it on 3g rather than wifi..it's still very fast (i've used sub $500 netbooks..and the browsing experience absolutely blows on them..unless you're used to Blackberry browsers )
I picked up an external hard drive and formated it to FAT32 and it works great..but I haven't tried a printer yet. I've got a e-printer that I use so no need for usb cables anymore anyways
The only time I really have noticed any lagginess is when i'm playing an emulator game full screen using my ps3 controller.
I think Atrix with Lapdock is really good. It can instead my pc to work with office software.
u can use openoffice for your daily office work.PPT/Word/Excel and so on.
i can plugin to the lapdock usb memorykey?
I too think ths Atrix and Lapdock combination works great for most people that use their laptops for Web stuff primarily. But even office stuff works great, specially after hacking the webtop so one can run Linux apps like OppenOffice and GIMP for example.
I spent $300 dollars on it and don't regret it. I know that's as much as an entry level laptop or average NetBook, but I really think its thinness and huge battery life more than justifies carrying it instead of my heavy and bulky 15" laptop.
Sent from my Atrix using Tapatalk
I too bought it for 300 dollars, but I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the into experience it awesome, our at least the thought of it. I can run remote desktop for pretty much any pro gram I need. On the other hand, the performance is not add great as you would think. If more ram were allocated to the webtop mode, I think it would be much snappier, along with increased clock speed. I'm going to try using the 1.3ghz kernel later this weekend and see how much faster the dock is.
All that said, I still use it as my daily laptop for classes, and it works fine.
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
I got mine refurb for $180. I think it was a good deal.
Pros:
1. Wifi printing is great if you have a networked printer.
2. Firefox is pretty good with good addon support.
3. File browser is easier to use than the one on the phone.
4. Hackability.
5. Keyboard is pretty good.
6. Battery life is AWESOME.
7. Built in Citrix Receiver. This is super awesome if you use this for any kind of work. It's easier to use my lapdock than my home PC w/VPN.
8. USB mass storage support.
9. Very light and sleek.
10. Geek factor- I get all kinds of questions from people, "What is that? I didn't know Motorola made laptops. Oh, cool!" etc.
Wishes:
1. Keyboard isn't backlit.
2. I wish it had a camera passthrough to a bezel-mounted webcam.
Cons:
1. Touchpad and touchpad buttons BLOW. Get a mouse (bluetooth or USB).
2. Slow sometimes. Use an OC kernel and that helps.
3. Can't install stuff without hacking.
4. Firefox is the only real "app" on the webtop (see #3).
Magnetox said:
Curious, why do you hate the atrix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hate the Astrix because of the email issue we have with it. Find the screen not as responsive as other phones and moto blur is the worst Android over lay of them all
Sent from my Sensation using xda premium
It really depends on what you want to do. I have the ubuntu hack installed, use Citrix to remote access office pc, and got Gnumeric running great to substitute Excel. I'd say it's functional enough to really do some light work on it. For anything serious, I'd be silly to use webtop instead of my core i5 laptop, but I'd bring Atrix+Lapdock to Starbucks for its coolness and geekness
Quoting Scottyedmonds:
Hate the Astrix [sic] because of the email issue we have with it. Find the screen not as responsive as other phones and moto blur is the worst Android over lay of them all
What email issue would that be. I have a rather complicated email configuration that works well for me.
The Bell mobility Atrix had an issue where no email besides gmail was able to send mail. The Motorola blur was at times un responsive and it was easy to accidentally add your email twice and then not be able to send from either.
As for the speed post, the phone is just as fast as any other.
As for the part where I have no idea what I'm talking about? I sell hundreds of these devices every year, when a phone is crap, my customers come back with their problems! When you get to use whatever phone you want and have responsibility of advising people on which phone to sign a 3 year contract with, I might take your douche comment serious, but with that statement you obviously have no idea what you're talking about; don't bother reading my posts then buddy!
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I just bought my laptop dock today for the ATRIX 4G. I got it for 159.99 on buy.com brand new.
Hope its the shiz nit.
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I'm just curious - with tablets as popular as they are - and with nice big screens, do you think there is any chance Android will provide any sort of windowing system in the future (so you can see more than one app at a time)? I think that would be awesome on tablets...
Any thoughts??
There is always that onskreen thing that is being developed... i heard conflicting sides to why it's not available on android, but itsounds like google is trying to displace apple instead of overwhelming it by showing that tablets can be more than entertainment..
Hmm, haven't heard of Onskreen - I just looked it up and it looks awesome! Has any OEM actually used it yet?? It says that it IS for Andorid, from what I read!
Well, there are several reasons why onskreen cornerstone is having a hard time launching. But here are the main reasons.
(1) Onskreen wants to make a lot of money out of this. So, they want to go through the formal route of having google and tablet manufacturers incorporate this in the updates.
(2) Unfortunately for onskreen, google and tablet manufacturers are not convinced that people would want this feature on their tablets.
About #2, look at the success of the ipad and ipad 2. And you couldn't even multitask on the ipad. Yet, apple is selling them by the tens of millions. Google and android tablet manufacturers think people don't want multitasking on their tablets. These mega companies are trying to catch up to the ipad's success by tailing it. And that means copying how ipad works.
Last there was any info on the development of cornerstone, google and some manufacturers were making onskreen take surveys to prove that anyone at all would like this feature on their tablet. It's sad, really, that these mega companies are perfectly happy tailing apple instead of trying something new to beat it.
If my tablet had a twenty inch screen I would want Xmonad, never mind that. At 10.1 inches Android is good enough at multi-tasking. Maybe if Android overtakes Windows PC someday in the next billion years, we'll get windowing.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Spidey01 said:
If my tablet had a twenty inch screen I would want Xmonad, never mind that. At 10.1 inches Android is good enough at multi-tasking. Maybe if Android overtakes Windows PC someday in the next billion years, we'll get windowing.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
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No way... imagine being able to watch a YouTube video while browsing Tapatalk. Or open GTalk while watching a movie. A tiling window manager for our TF would be really awesome. Not to mention I hook my TF up to a 24" monitor or 40+" TV for doing development work on (ConnectBot SSH'd into a VPS running vim), which would really really benefit from this.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Gary13579 said:
No way... imagine being able to watch a YouTube video while browsing Tapatalk. Or open GTalk while watching a movie. A tiling window manager for our TF would be really awesome. Not to mention I hook my TF up to a 24" monitor or 40+" TV for doing development work on (ConnectBot SSH'd into a VPS running vim), which would really really benefit from this.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
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Click to collapse
+1 - my thoughts exactly!
Unfortunately it seems running eMMC Ubuntu is the only solution to this at the moment, and without hardware accel it's definitely not the quickest solution.
That being said, I run a full dev environment (with VPN) on my Transformer and it's incredibly convenient.
Also, battery life in Ubuntu is incredible! Surprisingly so for me anyway..
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
Gary13579 said:
No way... imagine being able to watch a YouTube video while browsing Tapatalk. Or open GTalk while watching a movie. A tiling window manager for our TF would be really awesome. Not to mention I hook my TF up to a 24" monitor or 40+" TV for doing development work on (ConnectBot SSH'd into a VPS running vim), which would really really benefit from this.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
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Click to collapse
I am a _very_ heavy multi tasker and overloader, as in making my laptop want to halt and catch fire kind of multitasking. At a minimal we're talking code compiling, music streaming, and 3+ IM tabs. while surfing the web. If I have a 24" or 40+" to work with, I'll want them each arranged in tiles automatically like XMonad can.
Over the years I have used the following: 15", 19", 22" wide, 10.1" wide, and 15.4" or w/e the wide format is. Resolutions from SVGA to HD. You know what I found when I was using a 10.1" netbook? Most of the time ALT+TAB was more effective with so little screen space. Whether I was reading or writing, watching or chatting, there just wasn't enough screen screen space for more than 1 and 1/3 programs on a 10.1" at 1024x600. I'd rather ALT+TAB than use smaller windows. The TF101's resolution on the 15.x" laptop wasn't so much better, that I would expect the same resolution on 10.1" to be a serious improvement. To be honest I never notied that big a serious gain until I hit 1920x1080 on a 22" wide screen!!!
At work, I run tmux locally (it's like screen) and connect to dtach'd shells on the development server; at home I skip the SSH part. Chrome and Pidgin being the primary GUI needs that matter and corrisponding to Opera Mobile and IMO+jTalk on my TF101.
So I don't really miss adding the 20" Dell on my desktop to it most times. It is a short comming that I can't hook up my TF to my 22" wide at home and have xterm and chrome side by side, the way my netbook and laptop could, and being able to use xrandr to choose if I wanted a mirror or a second screen, or even to make the big screen the only screen. But hey, I can't really complain because most of the time I would just be filling it with a huge ass xterm. For most people that use a tiling wm, probably the same. Regular users have more need of it and regular users are not going to use their TF the way I do.
It was a nice to have feature not a requirement -- because if it was, I wouldn't have been using anything less mobile than my desktop PC to start with! I just don't need that to be productive...maybe if I spent my job in photoshop instead of vim, idk.
edit: if it was to a vote, I'd rather have better access to things like Chrome's debugging tools than multiple windows. Then I wouldn't need my workstation every now and then!
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But remember - as with any windowing system, you would always have the option to run any app in full screen mode.... It would just be nice to have the option to view mutiple apps at once in certain situations... I don't see any drawbacks - just advantages!
The biggest problem I currently have is that when I go back to the home sceeen from some apps, the app actually closes, so there is no way to multitask.... If I had multiple windows on teh screen at once, I wouldn't have that issue...
Currently, I guess it's up to the app to determine if it stays open when going back to the home screen?? It just seems like I don't have the option to multitask all apps....
jtrosky said:
But remember - as with any windowing system, you would always have the option to run any app in full screen mode.... It would just be nice to have the option to view mutiple apps at once in certain situations... I don't see any drawbacks - just advantages!
The biggest problem I currently have is that when I go back to the home sceeen from some apps, the app actually closes, so there is no way to multitask.... If I had multiple windows on teh screen at once, I wouldn't have that issue...
Currently, I guess it's up to the app to determine if it stays open when going back to the home screen?? It just seems like I don't have the option to multitask all apps....
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Get an ipad.
goodintentions said:
Get an ipad.
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Huh? I have an iPad - it's even worse than Android at Mutlitasking!
Back to the question - what determines if an Android app is multitask-able? Is it up to the author of the app?
Thanks!
jtrosky said:
Huh? I have an iPad - it's even worse than Android at Mutlitasking!
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But... but... according to engadget the ipad is perfect at everything. Surely, the best, most powerful tablet in the world (personally created by St. Stephen and distributed by the Holy Apple Church) would be perfect at multitasking.
goodintentions said:
But... but... according to engadget the ipad is perfect at everything. Surely, the best, most powerful tablet in the world (personally created by St. Stephen and distributed by the Holy Apple Church) would be perfect at multitasking.
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Too funny! I would like the option as well to view both programs similar to cascade in windows. The only thing close I have ever seen is the dual browser whcih is ok but obviously only for internet pages. I truly think android needs a couple more software iterations. However I also don't think eclipse would let u do half of a screen for example because they have specific dimensions and sizes built in. Much like compatibility mode, if the app could default to a smaller size then it could be possible but probably wouldn't look natural.
Fascinate CM7 Stable
jtrosky said:
But remember - as with any windowing system, you would always have the option to run any app in full screen mode.... It would just be nice to have the option to view mutiple apps at once in certain situations... I don't see any drawbacks - just advantages!
The biggest problem I currently have is that when I go back to the home sceeen from some apps, the app actually closes, so there is no way to multitask.... If I had multiple windows on teh screen at once, I wouldn't have that issue...
Currently, I guess it's up to the app to determine if it stays open when going back to the home screen?? It just seems like I don't have the option to multitask all apps....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't really see the development efforts and the major headscrew for the user expirerence as being worth it until we have the Android PC where most people have a Dell or an eMachine on a desk. Maybe someday if Windows 8 flops but not today w/o a freaky fork of Android.
A great plus of Android to me, I have almost all the power my BSD and Linux based systems have, everything I need (personally) to be productive, some useful propritary apps I might not get with FreeBSD, plus it is so easy to use that my mother can use Gingerbread and Froyo. We have had computers for nearly 20 years and she has used Windows XP since 2001 ---- and still struggles with multiple windows, copying and pasting, browsing/saving files, etc. Holy crap, I think it took 7 years for her to stop asking me, "Left or right click". Google has done an awesome job IMHO.
That is just an awesome combo, plus I could probably use x forwarding/vnc magic and get a 1280x1080 GNU/Linux desktop on my big screen, and use a local VNC connection when getting up to go. Maybe even resize it after rather than scroll around. So I can technically have it if I wanted or needed it for productivity, just not with Android apps.
@the multitasking part, usually you can use the copy buffer as an accumulator when that happens. I tend to use Home or the "Multitasking" buttons / ALT+Tab depending on what I'm doing, and rarely have a problem unless I take too long to switch back or launch something memory intensive. Also another reason I switched from TexTab to Tablet Talk, hehe. Most apps that I use don't cause me troubles and those that do on occasion (TeamSpeak) wouldn't if designed properly for the life cycle of an Android application. Then there are some where the activity just dies out, like MoboPlayer lol.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Spidey, fact is, I'd get a lot of use out of a tiling wm on Android. I know we can go without it, certainly, that's why I'm still using my TF for development! The TF offers so many advantages over a traditional notebook that the loss is worth it, but that doesn't make it useless. There are many, many uses for it, especially for IM and video. I suppose we could probably get IM working with window fragments... I'll have to look into it for my #1 l33t IM app! Also tiling things like connectbot and the browser would be great, for so many reasons. It may not be perfect on such a small screen, but it would be useful most of the time.
jtrosky said:
Huh? I have an iPad - it's even worse than Android at Mutlitasking!
Back to the question - what determines if an Android app is multitask-able? Is it up to the author of the app?
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
He tells that to everyone that even hints at Android not being perfect.
Android sends a signal to an app when you leave it, telling it that you left. It sits there for a while, and if you don't enter it again for so long, Android sends it a destroy signal, and it's up to the author of the app to save the current state so it can be resumed next time it's opened. If it doesn't behave like this, then yea, it's because of the author of the app (or it's too complicated an app to save/restore the state... eg imagine a 3d game).
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Gary13579 said:
Android sends a signal to an app when you leave it, telling it that you left. It sits there for a while, and if you don't enter it again for so long, Android sends it a destroy signal, and it's up to the author of the app to save the current state so it can be resumed next time it's opened. If it doesn't behave like this, then yea, it's because of the author of the app (or it's too complicated an app to save/restore the state... eg imagine a 3d game).
Sent from my Transformer TF101
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Thanks for the info! What I've been noticing thuough is that when I try to multitask certain apps, they wont even show in my recents list at all (like tthere is NO chance for multitasking...). From what your saying, it sounds like all apps shoudl be able to multitask to some point, but that's not what I'm seeing... I'm wondering if it's just an issue with the custom ROM/kernel I'm using...
Thanks again! Obviously, not a huge deal, but kinda annoying sometimes.
Regardless, I would NEVER even think of switching back to Apple devices (gave the iPad to the wife) - Android really is so much more powerful!
jtrosky said:
Thanks for the info! What I've been noticing thuough is that when I try to multitask certain apps, they wont even show in my recents list at all (like tthere is NO chance for multitasking...). From what your saying, it sounds like all apps shoudl be able to multitask to some point, but that's not what I'm seeing... I'm wondering if it's just an issue with the custom ROM/kernel I'm using...
Thanks again! Obviously, not a huge deal, but kinda annoying sometimes.
Regardless, I would NEVER even think of switching back to Apple devices (gave the iPad to the wife) - Android really is so much more powerful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only time I've seen this happen is because of launching one app from another. eg if you click a web link within an app and it opens the browser, it won't show both the originating app *and* the browser for some reason, it only shows one (I forget which).
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Gary13579 said:
The only time I've seen this happen is because of launching one app from another. eg if you click a web link within an app and it opens the browser, it won't show both the originating app *and* the browser for some reason, it only shows one (I forget which).
Sent from my Transformer TF101
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Ok, thanks for the info. I can't even remember which apps were giving me issues off-hand - I'll have to start paying attention to this again to see if my system is working properly or not.
Thanks again.
Gary13579 said:
Spidey, fact is, I'd get a lot of use out of a tiling wm on Android. I know we can go without it, certainly, that's why I'm still using my TF for development! The TF offers so many advantages over a traditional notebook that the loss is worth it, but that doesn't make it useless. There are many, many uses for it, especially for IM and video. I suppose we could probably get IM working with window fragments... I'll have to look into it for my #1 l33t IM app! Also tiling things like connectbot and the browser would be great, for so many reasons. It may not be perfect on such a small screen, but it would be useful most of the time.
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Click to collapse
I never said it was useless but short of the Android PC on almost everyones desk, I don't see that happening; because I can understand why Google hasn't really done that. And I think we will just get refineme ts on what we already have for multi-tasking by Android 6.x.
jtrosky said:
What I've been noticing thuough is that when I try to multitask certain apps, they wont even show in my recents list at all (like tthere is NO chance for multitasking...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is most probmatic when one activity lauches another, for example openning a PDF in Polaris via Opera. I hope the mukti0tasking button gets better in ICS, since I need the dock to use the okd one.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk