MY new tablet F&U ETB9541 /9" screen

Please look and  buy my book Malaysia 25 years research   http://goo.gl/Pi87gp   . As unemployed by buying this book you can support my family with the neesary income!

 




As you may know I am a fan of Malay music . Except of  hearing my mp3 playlists  , I also like to hear to RTM Sarawak  via  shortwaves. RTM Sarawak on 9835 kHz on the other side  due to propagation could be not received here after mid December , leaving only interference  from the nearby stations. On their other frequency there is a very poor signal from 11665 that due to  the  local noise is really  impossible to be heard.

Listening via computer is a temporary  solution . This idea can help me also for listening  to Warna , my top Malay music station  as well as Procka,  a station that left FM early November last year (13) for  only webcasting . Their  webcasting is very low  just 64kb  and monophonic . Duh ….

There is however a problem . Every day  I devote  4 hours in the office or  nearby computers  for doing computer works . For this reason  I try to use  as less computer in the house as possible. And I use  it  only  on weekends and sparingly in weekdays

MY first  idea was  to look for a internet radio player with the aim  to manually add   mms  (direct radio) links . I have found several models only  from internet sources but mostly from Amazon and eBay. ,None of these models found allow manual adds . All of them are connected to a  server as Vtuner or Tune-in  and collect their database . If you want to add manually a station  you shall become a site user and  then add any links (therefore  if you want to keep the  links in private you can’t !!! ) Their  prices  start from  80 Euros …..(not cheap  neither expensive, but for me whose salary is below 500 Euros per year the money is surely significant! )

Nothing  has been fonud in the local market (for net radios )

In December there were also two  rather significant steps  for me :  There was  an interesting article   on the Dec’s  issue of the local PC-MAG  related to tablets.  This mag is  sold in the newsstands  on early December , but the time i looked for , has been  sold  out.

Following this my interest  turned into a tablet . This is  surely one good idea not to use  my computer in simple computer tasks as  surfing , net TV , net radio , movies , music  or even e.books and photos (another two important uses for me  ) . This leaves computer to be used for any other usages as processing of text video audio and for  printing if something is necessary  etc
And this  makes my 2 year of use  e-book (Me-book) nearly extinct   http://gadgets-zliangas.blogspot.gr/2012/08/mebook-e-reader-review1-text-modes.html)


My interest  is  for a 9”  screen  model  budget  priced not more than 100 Eu but the only I found was a Crypto (OEM importer ) with 800 x 600  in a Greek e-seller

Visiting a  multi chain  store Kotsovolos ( the Greek Dixon's associate  I think ) I found a similar model at a price of 129 Eu with a 1200 x 800 pixel
The next stance  I visited  the  store I bought  it together with a case  (priced at EU 30 ). But the case found to be inappropriate  for the size of the tablet.   The tablet  was  ca 3 x 1.5  cm smaller than the case and could not be stood properly  inside the ribbons ….
I then returned  the case  for a refund! The staff  accepted  the return (as it was inside the 10 days of return policy) for a refund.

I  then found and bought another case – folio from a Chinese seller Internet . Its size is only  one cm  longer than the size of the tablet . The other  side fits OK.The folio has been  received  i ca 3 weeks , earlier than  the seller estimated , but there  were  supposedly 2 incompatible points: Instead of ribbons  there were holders  , one of them adjustable  and 2  holders at other side (see below for a picture ) so that the fourth side is left free  for external connectivity to the tablet. Anyway  I was expected  this design not to work but after using i understand that i WAS wrong as the folio fitted OK !

This is the  new folio /case for the  tablet

And here is how dresses the  tablet ! . As you see the case keeps the tablet from 3 of the four sides  leaving on lt the one sode for  connecting to the 'external world' 

And here is on how the  tablet  can be kept upside. Untill before  i used various things to keep the tablet in this position . three or more times  a very fat ashtray was fallen into the table on the right side making  once damage to a glass of water !!



I had three problems  (?) in the start of using it .

The tablet is not recognized  by Google store / Google market . Fortunately  Slideme application is offered  together with the tablet . Slide me is an alternative  site  for finding and downloading any required applications. (although not all are avaialble there )  On the start and for unknown  reasons  Slide me was as like ‘banned’ to download any apps .
Just little  more thinking  was  necessary: With little  search  several quite  good sites   have been found.   Appsapk team apk  are  some of the  most significant sites found for apps downloading .  I found all of them  very workable  with virus free applications

The  second was my fault .I visited a  site to watch a  streaming video. In windows platform  Mozilla  Firefox opens  two popup  windows (sometimes even if  browser  blocks pop ups ! ) . In this  android based  tablet , the antivirus program  from  Google shown a  message  that a  virus (really a Trojan )has been downloaded (surely from one  hidden page ) that collects  the data from Facebook and sends them back . I was very fortunate that he antivirus blocked connection to Facebook . I immediately  made a reset, changed  my Facebook password from my computer without  syncing to  tablet and  added an Antivirus (avast  the same I use in my computer )

The third was after 1 month when trying to turn from landscape to portrait mode i did broke  a ....glass of water after a thick ashtray, used as older in between the two parts of the folio , dropped on the table and broke the  glass of water This probably caused of a sudden turning an caused a possible damage to the inner gyroscope, or unless  the various programs (as ego youtube app ) used very nervously disoriented the gyroscope . I have given it to the serveice and really  they adjusted the gyro from a program  called Callibri and now the tablet works OK 

a less inportant problem the last days  was the expiration of programs ... Ihad to reinstall them ....

Browsers
-Chrome for tablet (pre installed ) . no comment 
-Dolphin  (by me ): possibly  the standard browser  for mobiles . I tested  the basic edition with lots of nice features as downloader, thumbnails ,gestures special video player and many more  , but it is quite awkward. Many times  it gets timeouts , does not download the full page , loses its tab ,can't  partially zoom  etc . Could be  due to low  internal memory? (just a 1GB)?

Acrobat readers

-Docs  to go (pre): and more generic:   a set of various viewers  including doc , excel , pdf  and others It requires  a paid registration but  still operates well
-Adobe reader for mobile (pre installed ) nice program with also ability to modify a pdf file by adding captions mini text freehand signature etc and keeping a history of the recent opened programs. And also connects to the cloud
- E reader (pre /aternative viewer to adobe )Simpler  than Adobe without  the ablity  to modify files. Possibly better picture quality  than remain

-Foxit   possibly the best (installed by me): offers not only what adobe offers but also connection to the cloud , in 3 services  including dropbox and box  but also shows the full pdf  file tree .There is however a con: if you zoom to a page and then change page , this page is shown in the default zoom (ie full page )
-FBreader  (by me ) to  read  epub  files  to browse their pages.


media players: 
-MX  player  (pre ): simple video player  with very clear picture

-Tested  also VLC  mobile (by me ).I several cases VLC goes better than MX by playing from a fast cache of the watched video but with lower video resolution

 Also :
-Slide me (pre)  : Noticed  above is the application  for searching  for programs . Not all programs required are included but there is a big collection . I found also  several greek dictionaries . Slideme requires  registration or connection with Facebook 

-Facebook (pre) for mobile (pre installed)  good  for most standard operations but the only problem that fills the entire screen with even small pictures while in landscape mode (as shown in )


-Youtube (pre ) : Youtube app  can be used both as landscape or portrait . IN landscape you can watch  the  video in full screen . if there  is a sound played in background its audio is temporarily stopped 

- Google  translate :(by me )Very useful as the  original in web browser with the the ability to save translations and supporting freehand character recognition (very good for chinese or japanese )

Radio players 

-Xiia live (installed by me ): a nice program  for playing radio .Associates  mms etc(direct radio ) links  Supports  MP3 WMA but  not AAC or OGG Supports  favorites and connects to  shoucast and uberstations and had a nice  database sorted  by genre  . This was one of the reasons i bought the tablet . Unfortunately i installed  the pro version that shows a  nag screen several secoinds  after 'tuning' to a station

Here  is apicture of the Xiia while listening to the moon's energy from NASA channel

-PC radio  (installed by me )as alternative to Xiia but the  default database is  smaller tham Xiia's . no ability  to add links


And now back to the  tablet itself  with more technical obsevations : Battery :3.5 Amperhours   As far as  i tested battery  life is  ca 4- 4.5  hours ( calculation as i did nt test  the battery  to drain so far ,
The battery has dropped to 17% from maximum charge  in ca 3.5 hours
There are also two cameras  included  , and is also able to record video . I have not used them so far

 Audio ; Sound is fair , not so good comparing to my mp3s as  it has lower trebles but still with adequate audio

and a awkward  wigth its internal memory : Although  most of the internal Sd memory  was clear . most of the external Sd memory esp photos and videos seem  to be embedded into the internal SD !!! 

As in result i find the tablet quite good for most simple uses 7/10



Update 8/6 : The  tablet  has died  after  in two days of ca 8 hours per day of use shwn two things : 
1- the on button statred  too late 
2- hibernating it seemed as powering down 
2- and finally while my daughter was looking for children videos , the keyboard  stuck 

Then trying to start up  the system  only the logo of android  has been shown for more than 60 secvonds (the normal was  ca 20 secs )


The tablet worked  ca 1000 hours before  dying 

Nice to it  is that  after   given tothe  importer afer  some check they given me a new model