jawtheshark's Journal: Poster child of Android tablets'

Galaxy Tab 2 is the poster child of Android tablets out there, right? Well, let's just say that I ain't impressed. Boyfriend of MiL got one, to read his newspaper. Well, we didn't manage to do that, partially, I think due to wort.lu screwing up. Partially, because the default browser just says "downloading" and that's it. What exactly happens after that is unclear and unless you know that a tiny download icon shows the download, and if you swiped away that, where to find the PDF... you ain't gonna go far. Apart from boyfriend of MiL not (wanting) to understand the difference between an app, a website and a PDF, it ended up being an exercise in frustration.

Unable to help on that front, he asked if he could read his email. Naively, I said, of course you can! So, I set up his (national, very standard) ISP email address. Well, I followed the wizard. Big mistake, I ended up on POP3, which of course is a standard that should have been banned years ago. Damn, I hope you didn't have important emails. I set it up again as IMAP. Works fine, really... Except it doesn't show any email. None... I specifically sent email to him. Shows nothing... I assure you, the settings are correct. I used the same as those, I used on his iPhone. Besides, they do show on his iPhone
No way to make it work. On a related note: the POP3 did not delete his email from server. At least that was good.

Then, I want to show him to install apps (Despite me hating the word). Choice between the Samsung App Store, which most likely works but you want the Google store. So, Google Play. Okay, do you have a Google account? No... Ah, no problem, let's set one up. I follow the wizard, up until it asks for a secondary email for "lost password" situations. I could type in whatever I wanted, but the "Next" button never got enabled, stopping me right in the track to create the account.
Yes, I know, I could just go to a computer, create him a Google account and be done with it. Still, isn't this simply a scandalous bug?

So, I try to help and end up having I to explain that tablet browsers are second-class internet citizens (a site he uses failed to work. How do you explain that to a non tech, eh? Nothing I did worked as expected and I'm supposed to know what I do.

Okay, I might simply have become obsolete and have become unable to troubleshoot modern devices. Perhaps it's a hint I should stay in my basement with my servers and "real" computers. I don't know... It must be me. Everyone loves their Android tablets....

yeah

[stoolpigeon]

I get frustrated with my mobile stuff too - but the convenience if you can get it going is so nice. I really didn't want to get into the tablet world, but now that I've had one for a while I've found that I use it all the time. When I'm at home I use it to check email, browse the web, play games, etc. If I need to do any actual work I move to my Fedora machine in the office. But when I'm just kicking around in my off time it is all the tablet now.

At work I bring it to meetings and use it when I speak, do tr

Re:

[jawtheshark]

I agree to the sense that we will find a way. The IMAP issue, by the way: I couldn't solve. It simply is a bad-ass bug. (It did query the folders, so it made connection

The thing is, people like the person I tried to help, will do these things... and the fact that it is obviously untested is, I'm sorry, totally unacceptable for devices in that price category. I asked him whether he had a Google account. He first though I talked about his P&T email, then he thought I meant the iTunes account and fin