Database Users

Business uses for Galaxy Tab.

Im curious how business people are using their Tabs daily.
Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Tab

Luckily our business (see my sig) is Google Apps based so there's native support for several email accounts, several calendars. Also I'm the head of IT, so VPN, FTP, SSH, Remote Desktop apps are being used, as for our CEO, mostly memo, and executive assistant (widget & app), thinkfree office, pdf viewver FTP, unified remote (for presentations with laptop and projector)... and of course multiplayer games for the company heads
This is the last week... next week? who knows

Though I'm not technically a "business person" in the conventional sense, I use mine for the following when at the studio:
Google apps, MS Office files, calender, calls, texting, notetaking and whiteboard capturing via camera, and of course something to do in the loo.
Best thing it's doing for me at work is allowing me to use it a big, easy to read and navigate email terminal when I'm at my desk. Can keep up with the steady stream of mail without having to ALT-TAB on my desktop machine, where screen real-estate and CPU cycles are kind of important. What I do on my desktop machine is touchy about losing focus and popping out to check mail in the middle of a task could cost me a lot of time restarting the process.
My smartphone could do email too, obviously, but this is a helluva lot easier, prop it up in landscape, leave screen on, glance, touch, scroll, and most that need a response I can deal with on the Tab, without screwing up what I'm doing on the desktop.

I sold my 3G iPad and got a new Air & a Tab.
ToDo & Calendar - I have my Tab set up with the lock screen disabled so I can see info at a glance (something sorely lacking on the iPad). Thanks to widgets, I have my Remember the Milk to-do list ($25/year) right on my main home screen. The Android implementation of RTM is really the best out there, but it also easily synchs with my iPhone and my desktop so I always have it easily accessible. Likewise, calendar implementation is by far the best on the Tab and thanks to Google, synchs seamlessly with my iPhone and calendar on my mac. I have a large calendar widget on an alternative home screen so a quick swipe to the left shows whats coming up on my calendar.
Square - We offer pickup and drop off services for customers, so a lot of times I'm delivering stuff that needs to be paid for. Square is perfect for this. Its a little reader that plugs into the headphone jack and allows you to swipe credit cards for a reasonable percentage (no monthly fee). Customers sign with their finger and a receipt is e-mailed to them. Really great with the size of the Tab and the customers are always wowed.
Dropbox & Evernote - Cloud computing! Drop box lets me have the same files on all of my devices, 2+ GB free. This is how I get almost all my document and application files onto my Tab. I even have the screencap (on my desktop and laptop) default to a folder in my dropbox, so if I see something on the screen and want to save it quick with formatting, bam its there. Taking that one step further, Evernote lets me clip web pages and synch documents to be accessible on all my devices. The really cool trick of evernote is that everything in it is search-able - even images or PDFs that contain text become search-able once its uploaded to the cloud. Great for signs, menus, business cards, etc...
LogMeIn Ignition - The desktop app is free but Android client is $30. Pretty basic, allows me to remote in to my desktop at work in case I need to do something I can't do on my Android or access something at work. Usually I use it to drag a file into my dropbox that I might need.
Tethering - Yes! Built in, and what makes the monthly fee so much more palatable. With built-in tethering I can hop on with my laptop when I need a bigger screen or to access things not support in Android.
Otherwise, I use the browser for parts look up and to show customers products if we're walking around the showroom floor. The size of the tab lends itself easily to be stuck in my back pocket so I can carry it with me and use it to update my todo list or take notes in evernote. I use Kelley Blue Book as a fast way to look up car values, but thats pretty specific to my industry.

I am looking at purchasing a Tab but I ned to be able to VPN to our network and RDT to my office desktop. So far I am not having success with this using my Droid X. Is this easier with the Tab? What apps or procedures are you using for this?

I use it to place my orders (Chef). I find it alot easier to carry my TAB (touch srcreen) around to check inventory and order what's needed than my netbook (touch pad). It's also connected through Rogers H network and one of my stoarage rooms is in another building so I can just take it with me and no longer have to just take notes then finish ordering when I get back to the kitchen.
I also have my emails on hand from my distributors and msgs from my reps all in the palm of my hand with a screen big enough to actually use comfortably. All that and the instant internet access makes looking up recipe ideas, costing specials and negotiating food prices really easy.

[Q] Local retailer (US) that stocks Lenovo Thinkpad tablet?

I am considering buying one of these but would like to try it out in a store before I buy it. Does anyone know of a US retailer that stocks them?
I am mostly curious about the following things:
1) How good is it for taking notes in college/university classes? Can you rest your palm on the screen while using the stylus?
2) Is there a way to view the notes taken on pdf on a computer?
3) Is it pretty solid feel wise? Or does it feel like it will fall apart after a couple years?
4) How much bloatware comes on it and is it hard to remove via rooting?
5) Does the screen go dark enough for comfortable reading in dimly lit rooms?
Thanks for the info.

the notes are great, I use Quill, as it works nearly perfect, in the app i have turned on pen input only and jot tons and tons of notes all day long.
You can export the notes to various files, while im not sure about PDF there is certainly a format that can be read on your desktop
Like all lenovo products i've had its built to last like an enterprise system should be. as long as you take care of it it will last a long time past EOL
Bloatware isnt too bad, theres still some stuff lenovo managed to get into the system pretty deep (like the status bar wheel widget thing.) but its never bothered me that much as it only comes up at the home screen.
screen brightness works great in dim rooms, i tend to read books by a small lamp in bed most of the time with minimal strain.
I purchased mine from lenovo direct so I dont know about any local retailers.

Thanks for the info. However when I asked about notes on PDFs I should have clarified a bit. I was asking about their PDF viewer that lets you take notes on the PDF document and weather that can be exported to something useful.
Also I thought of one more thing: If I have my notes backed up with something like spideroak, can the notes be converted on a computer? I ask because I am worried about taking a semesters worth of notes on it then having it die and there being no way to read them without getting a new tablet.

FearTheCron said:
Thanks for the info. However when I asked about notes on PDFs I should have clarified a bit. I was asking about their PDF viewer that lets you take notes on the PDF document and weather that can be exported to something useful.
Also I thought of one more thing: If I have my notes backed up with something like spideroak, can the notes be converted on a computer? I ask because I am worried about taking a semesters worth of notes on it then having it die and there being no way to read them without getting a new tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ezPDF allows you to fill out pdf forms, underline, strikeout, and add freehand drawings as well as circles/squares/etc. It should do what you're looking for.
https://market.android.com/details?id=udk.android.reader&feature=search_result
and if you have the file saved as a pdf on your sd card you should be able to open it with any pdf reader (pc or otherwise).
The quill note taking app he mentioned allows you to export your notes to sdcard pdfs

Thanks for the info.
One last thing: has anyone used connect bot or another ssh client on this? I am curious if the keys on the keyboard folio such as escape quotes tild and whatnot all send the proper characters. I had a bluetooth keyboard for my N1 a while back that sent some weird unicode characters for the quotes making terminal usage very difficult.

https://market.android.com/details?id=berserker.android.apps.sshdroid&hl=en
I have used SSH droid with WINSCP worked like a charm, I'm by no means an experienced user with SSH, i just used it to dig around the file system.

SSH droid is a server for the android device, I am asking about using a client on the android device.

My bad, I left my brain at home today... I will test it for you this evening and let you know if the client works with the keymapping

Cool thanks, I look forward to hearing your results.

Update: I just ordered one, so if its too much of a bother don't worry about testing the connect bot thing. My shiny object syndrome overwhelmed my frugal side. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

It works like a charm tested with Moba SSH home 1.22 and connect bot, all the keys from the folio map properly and I haven't seen anything odd at this point, also SSH'd into a couple of Access points over my VPN at work with the TPT to test as well.
Congrats on the TPT! you're gonna love it!

Unfortunately the keys do not map properly, escape is still connected to "back" in the android os and ctrl is connected to "menu". Does anyone know if there is some way to map these to their proper functions?
Thanks
S

[Q] Control Android device with REST service

Hello all,
I am building a system to control an Android tablet using an Android phone. The phone will take a gesture as input, and call a RESTful service, which then has to render the output on the tablet screen. Has anyone done this kind of thing before? Any help would be appreciated.
Specifically, I need to display different views, and be able to launch other applications by making calls from the REST API.
Thanks in advance!
Krishna

kchaitanya said:
I am building a system to control an Android tablet using an Android phone. The phone will take a gesture as input, and call a RESTful service, which then has to render the output on the tablet screen. Has anyone done this kind of thing before? Any help would be appreciated.
Specifically, I need to display different views, and be able to launch other applications by making calls from the REST API.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying you want this RESTful service to run on the tablet, with the phone connecting to it (presumably on local network only)? Or the service called by the phone runs on a publicly accessible server and then the tablet also needs to connect to that server?

Android wear. A notification OS?

I was looking forward to install apps, develop apps and use apps on the android wear. When I installed the android wear sdk, and ran the emulator, it didn't seem very "huge". Not much can be done!
http://developer.android.com/wear/notifications/creating.html
As linked above, Google tells us to that we can add support for wear in a few lines of code. What can be done, is limited to the buttons that can be added when swiping to the right page.
No other documentation suggest that we can make Android Wear specific apps. It's not possible to add controls and widgets (Editabletext, button, spinner etc.) like it's possible in full android. Now i know that the screen is small, and limitations has to apply..
But the limitations are counted. Imagine receiving an email, swipe right, theres a reply button, click on it, voice will be activated, speak your message, and it will send it. That's pretty cool, but not cool enough..
What if i would like to add someone to cc?, not possible using the sdk, what if i would like to add a different signature? not possible.
The idea is fine, and it's awesome to see something new, i could really see it's potential, but as of right now, i am kinda disappointed.

I was noticing this also from the non developer point of view. All the marketing of the product it's based on notifications, at least the Gear was able to support the installation of apk's and i was excited since Android was about to release his own watch it was going to unleash all the real power of the smartwatches, but getting notifications from my mom telling me to buy milk does not sound like very awesome to me.

When Android Wear was first announced, I also heard that it was only for notifications. If that is really the case, I'm not interested and will keep my Gear 2 for now.

I think notifications are one of the obvious benefits, but there's going to be a lot more that we figure out how to do with them.
Sure, the interface is restrictive, but that's kinda the idea. The real benefit will be adding that little extra special sauce to the notifications in the context of whatever else is going on. And notifications don't need to just be a note from Dear Old Mom... geolocation, sensors, and other things may come into play.
After reading most of the AD site I sorta feel like you do when you know in about a hour and and a half you're going to have to have a seat on the pot - I know I've got a potential big idea in there somewhere, but it's just not ready to come out yet.

johdaxx said:
I think notifications are one of the obvious benefits, but there's going to be a lot more that we figure out how to do with them.
Sure, the interface is restrictive, but that's kinda the idea. The real benefit will be adding that little extra special sauce to the notifications in the context of whatever else is going on. And notifications don't need to just be a note from Dear Old Mom... geolocation, sensors, and other things may come into play.
After reading most of the AD site I sorta feel like you do when you know in about a hour and and a half you're going to have to have a seat on the pot - I know I've got a potential big idea in there somewhere, but it's just not ready to come out yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only potential scenario i see working, is having a service, on the phone. That service will have created a notification, showing relevant information, let's say it's showing when sunrise and sunset (depending on the time of the day), if you swipe to the right, you can click on "Show someother info". When you tap that, it will start showing some other information, the service will then have altered the text on the notification.
Thats a potential and very possible scenario. Then again.. Is it really optimal? Apps that need to show this kind of information will take up all the notification space on the phone.

Smart IR control with the Edge

Warning this is a long post grab some tea or coffee.
Coming from a Note 2 the IR capabilities on a phone was a new concept for me. I played around with performing some smart control with peel and a few other apps. Nothing really fit like a professional Universal Remote branded custom programmed remote. Much like a very advanced version of Logitech Harmony. I wanted the WAF (Wife Approval Factor) . This means multiple rooms, devices, scenarios with single button clicks with a remote that changes given its room location and control type. Out Note Edge if you didn't know has an amazing wide spectrum infrared transmitter that can work with a mind blowing array of proprietary devices. Like Xbox and MCE machines to name a few. Its simply needs a powerful app to drive it with a deep code library.
So I stumbled on the app in the play store called "Smart IR Remote - Anymote" . Before I go further I'll point out that I'm not affiliated with any developer and have no benefit to point this app out. I'm just a gadget junkie and a fan of great tech but I digress. This app is not on the cheep side. Its around $6 if I recall. What turned me on to it was its continuous and constant development record, the developer is interacting with users regularly and it met my minimum requirents for experiments.
Setup can be as simple as a Logitech on the basic side or complex as the professional grade. It is your choice . What struck me with aww was the adaptability to create custom remotes WITH full macro or "scene" in the pro world and integrate that in to a one button. Take multiple remotes and combine buttons from all of them to one uber remote. Control WiFi devises along with it. Yup multiple pathway control. Holy cow I was so excited I finally found something to rival some of the most expensive remotes I have ever owned for $6 bucks. It is even equipped with thermostat library's along with some home control capacity. So my brain was tingling with logic layouts and control schemes.
After some serious testing in my house im happy to report only one obscure devise did not have a library entry for its IR codes. One email to the Dev and he was on it. I have set up multiple rooms with a minimum of 3 scenes per room via macro and custom remote setup. My setup works like this . the default remote is the "Home remote" that has buttons labeled per room. Select the room you want to control, Master Bedroom for example and the Master bedroom remote pops up. Then just select one of the action options like "Chrome Cast" turns the TV on pauses and switches the input to the proper location. Then a Chromecast remote pops up with volume and other actions like "Watch Movie". This turns on my HTPC that basicly cone out of sleep, flips the input on the TV to whatever its on and brings up the HTPC remote with all the functions for navigation select and volume. Cool part on this particular scene is if you change it to something else you simply add the sleep option in the macro and the HTPC will go to sleep if you want to change to something else.
It can get far more complex but I used this on my wife's phone that has IR and have had successful WAF !
So play have fun with the infrared on your phone. If anyone is interested I'd be happy to post some examples both simple and complex. Hope this helps someone else and be sure to give a thanks if it did . Cheers.

Reserved

Nice review just some questions, can you use the edge display? It s compatible with logitech squeezebox e logitech link in wifi?
Thank you
Inviato dal mio SM-N910F utilizzando Tapatalk

danilos2k said:
Nice review just some questions, can you use the edge display? It s compatible with logitech squeezebox e logitech link in wifi?
Thank you
Inviato dal mio SM-N910F utilizzando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The edge display is not effected. Works just like with any other app. You can add a app icon in to the edge display as a shortcut. Not app specific but handy for any apps you use regularly.
As for question 2 the short answer is no. I had to lookup the Logitech Squeezebox since I don't have one. It looks like they don't have a library entry for it but I'm sending a message to the Dev team and inviting them to this forum.

Great post! I too tend to find the IR capabilitied that Samsung phones have a very cool feature. It amazes me that so many people dont even take advantage of it, but then again there are so many people that dont tske advantage or know how to use 90% of the features on their phones. I sold my friend a nice Sony LED TV a couple weeks ago and after a few hours he called me asking for the remote because the buttons on the side were a pain to deal with and he didnt have a universal remote.. I was blown away by this because not only had i sold him my Galaxy S5 over a month prior to the TV, he had the Galaxy s4 for probably a year befote the 5, and when i told him to just use his phone its better anyway he had no clue what i was talking about... Anyway, sorry to ramble. Lol Thanks again for the info.

thank you
That's what keeps us, the developers, going. Seeing appreciation like yours makes me want to improve the product, makes me ashamed of the occasional bugs you probably encountered, but all things added, leads to a better product.
By the way, @Cab121, make sure to make a backup of your remotes in Settings -> Backup / Restore. You seem to have put a lot of work into yourself, and only I know how many customers relied on (eventually broken) Helium backups when switching roms, cleared the app data accidentally or not knowing what they were doing, losing precious of their work.
As for some of the other questions in the thread:
- using the Edge - No, right now Smart IR Remote doesn't make use of the Edge feature. It's certainly something we want to add, but we have so much stuff on our platter right now that it might take a while to get on this. Have you seen AnyMote Home ?
- Logitech Squeezebox - yes, that's supported over InfraRed, in our Game / Media Manager category
- Logitech Link - sorry, access to that is closed. We've tried, but no luck.
By the way, if anyone has any support questions (missing devices, bugs, stuff like that..) please email [email protected] - that way you have the highest (guaranteed) chances of getting a reply.
Source: I'm one of the Smart IR Remote - AnyMote devs.