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On 27/11/2012 09:30, George Parker wrote:
After the usual months of thinking about it and researching I have got myself an Android tablet running Android 4.1 Jellybean. After so long being able to configure everything to within an inch of it's life on various distros it is very frustrating to be back in a box.Google is nasty and pernicious and very difficult to sidestep. Very controlling. I don't have an Android phone or i anything so I'm having to learn a lot from scratch but in between I'm trying to configure myself out of the traps as far as possible.I've loaded the Firefox android browser to get away from the inbuilt browser that has Google in big letters on every web page you go to. I synchronised with my desktop PC but I can't find my bookmarks on the tablet. Hey ho... The email takes some getting used to and I must get away from Google play.But, after only one day, I quite like the thing and I think it will repay the effort. Even if it's only to let herself sit in bed in a morning with her cup of tea checking the BBC news and emails, leaving me in peace on the desktop.Any tips from other Android users? George
Hi George,I've had an Android tablet for about a year now.. an Acer Iconia Tab A500 bought on Ebay for the stellar price of £220 amid the glut of unwanted Christmas presents sold because 'It's not an iPad' <?!?!?). Originally it had Android 3.0 but it received an OTA update to 4.1 Jellybean a few months ago. I'm not too worried about the Google element as I don't use the Gmail account I use on it for anything else, so it's not as if Google are going to get much mileage out of it in terms of information on me, and I restrict myself to the free apps since there is no way on hell Google are getting my credit card details.
I use it primarily for email, social media (Twitter and very occasionally Facebook) and browsing. I don't have an Android phone either, but I found it intuitive and easy to get to grips with. I would suggest getting an account with www.preyproject.com - in fact I would advise *everyone* with any mobile tech to do so. Prey is anti-theft software and is free to install on up to three devices, and has Windows, iOS and Android apps so covers pretty much every bit of portable tech you can imagine. Obviously it can't physically prevent a theft, but once the theft is discovered it can do the usual, activate the GPS to track the device, turn on the webcam to take pictures of where it is and/or who has it, sound an alarm, and - I think - delete personal data essentially returning it to factory settings, except for itself :) Anyway I don't work for them and this isn't an advert, I just think it's an essential bit of kit for anyone with portable tech :)
One thing I would also suggest with regard to apps on Google Play. always read the extended list of permissions an app is asking for, and if you're not 100% happy don't install it :)
As a final point, since upgrading to Jellybean my tablet has developed a habit of coming on with the WiFi turned off. It's not a major issue to turn it on, but it is a bit of an irritant I could do without.
Kind regards, Julian -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq