7 in Tablets

[spudtwo0]

Hi, I would like advice on a suitable 7 in Tablet to use , I find the IPad just too big in the cockpit, obviously a back up for navigation, but also flight planning and checklists etc.

[tmmorris]

Rumours of an iPad mini later this year, if you can wait. Nothing from Apple, of course...

Tim

[foxmoth]

Thought you were talking very big medicine.:eek:

[Aspiring Pilot Alex]

"Rumours of an iPad mini later this year, if you can wait. Nothing from Apple, of course..."

An iPhone?

[Genghis the Engineer]

I run a package called "Aviation Tools Free" on my Android Phone, which could potentially be really useful on a larger tablet in the cockpit.

There are also various nav (and even INS) apps for Android, so much potential.

A pdf reader renders any tablet able to read approach plates, etc. downloaded free from various IAPs.

It would be very easy to run a PLOG on a tablet. I have done this on a Sony reader which worked okay, but at the end of the day I preferred paper for the purposes!

G

[martello]

i've developed stuff for iphone ipad and android and of course being a gizmologist watch all developments
I endorse what you say about the ipad though its a well engineered bit of kit -
Android is worth a look - I bought a galaxy 7" tablet a year or so ago and it is just the right size - there is a new 7.7" tablet the 6800 Galaxy I believe - about 470 at expansys.com for the wifi and g3 about £400 on ebay
I havent got one but have had hands on - much slimmer than the 7" but about the same footprint (just the screen is bigger which is what you want) with at least 2.5 times the battery life of the previous 7" which was 2.5hours if you were lucky - so close to iPad -
It has the samsung super amoled screen so should be equal to the apple retina
depends whether you can handle Android - which demands more of the user
a return demands you invest a bit of learning time
but there's loads of interesting apps around for it

for me the 7" even with its pioneer poor performance came close to being the only machine I need - the 7.7" will become that when I get one - I speak as someone who travels with 2 laptops and 2 tablets and 6 smartphones - yes I know sad isnt it ?
but as I discover writing apps everyone has an opinion and one mans meat is another's poison

[peterh337]

As a hardware/software developer myself (since 1978) I hope you pay more attention to debugging your software than you pay to your writing :)

[Jan Olieslagers]

Cheese us! And I thought myself over harsh at times!
Or would such an attitude come naturally from electronics/IT development?

[Genghis the Engineer]

I confess, I'd thought it but Peter said it as well!

From a native English speaker in a working environment where presumably writing documentation is part of the job, the written English could have been a little better!

G

[martello]

Yes Jan it does seem to go with the territory. But this world (whether IT,aviation or just forum hangers) is full of critics just waiting to score a point. I'll be off now and not back- waste of time trying to contribute a little FWIW experience.

[peterh337]

On the contrary; I find that contributors to comp.arch.embedded and sci.electronics.design manage to produce great input which is clearly written.

The problem with web forums seems to be iphone/ipad accessibility. It takes me 3x longer to write something here using an Ipad, and 10x longer if I have to quote other text. Unless one puts a huge amount of effort into the on-screen keyboard, this results in gibberish and, for those who don't want to write gibberish, loads of meaningless one-liners. All pilot forums suffer from this nowadays.

As regards 7" tablets, I have looked at a few at work and it seems you get what you pay for. The £150 Android ones are just rubbish. One I tried exhibited a 2 second delay from typing to the text appearing :)

[bubo]

I have found 8.9 the right size. 7 too small 10 too big

[cct]

I have an Acer A100 7inch tablet, which just upgraded itself to Ice Cream Sandwich. This has external dimensions of about 7 1/2 by 4 1/2 which I find ideal.

Two problems are the battery life - about 4 hours, and the rubbish built in GPS. As a WiFi only model I believe I could get a more reliable fix with a 3 MiFi, but still not good enough, so I have not used it much in the air.

I have Memory Map loaded, with a couple of 1:250,000 maps which are useful even without a GPS.

[flybymike]

which just upgraded itself to Ice Cream Sandwich.
Where the hell do they get these stupid names from. What was it before? a Mars Bar wrapper?
No wonder I just don't understand IT stuff....:rolleyes:

[dublinpilot]

FBM

Gingerbread was before ice cream sandwich.

Google base the names of their android operating system on foods (often desserts apparently) in alphabetical order. So the next one after ice cream sandwich will be Jelly bean, and the next one will begin with the letter K.

[Lone_Ranger]

Kake?......Karrot?.....Korn on the kob?

[The Fenland Flyer]

Key lime pie.

You heard it here first :)

[flybymike]

What happened to H then? (hijacked honey cheese cake?)

[dublinpilot]

H was Honeycombed. I was a special tablet only version.

[flybymike]

Well I was close with honey anyway....;)