Modern Vespa

You are truly a gentleman and scholar. And, a good judge of bad whiskey.

Thanks for the pre-show patter.

Coming to Spain? (Will read your answer in 1 1/2 hours) SHOWTIME!

You guys have really helped me out alot!
I am looking very hard at the Samsung Galaxy 2 7".
I like that it has expandability with the card slot.
Just watched a 17 minute video on it, and looks like what I am after.

I appreciate everyones heart felt input!

Let's not get carried away, Al. "Harsh critic of flash" will suffice. I'm out of the loop. Going to announce something soon?

I was wondering exactly the same thing!

Maria is working on hotels etc for 17 - 28 June. Barcelona and then up into the mountains.

Italy will be first two weeks of Sep and will include the Island of Elba if all goes as desired.

Probably be mid Jan before the web sites are updated

Picos.... yikes!

What year(s) are we talking about here?

Better off getting a used or refurbished name brand. I bought one of those "off brands" with the intention of rooting it. I did research to find out what was the base hardware of the various clones. Picked one that stated it used a common board and chipset that had plenty of distro for rooting. Couldn't get it to work in any configuration except the one shipped which included a bunch of crappy running chinese language stuff that would lock up the device. After I gave up trying to root it I gave it to my security guy who can usually crack anything given him. He got so frustrated he damned near tossed it through a wall. If you want it, I'll see if I can find it and send it to you for the cost of postage that's assuming that someone around here hasn't chucked it out already. (Wouldn't surprise me since nobody here likes it at all.)

Root a Nook, there are not only plenty of instructions around how to do it but at least on the Nook Color there was instruction on the B&N site on how to do it. You should be able to find one of those pretty easily enough in your price range. Heck with the recent release of the Nook 7" for $199 you might be able to find a good pre-christmas sale deal. I know last Black Friday they had Nook Tablet for $129 (regularly $199 or 249 something like that) and Nook Basic (not one you'd root since it is epaper) for $69. Looks like Wal-mart will have the Nook Color 8gb (expandable with mini sd) for $99.

Hmm, looks like there will be quite a few Black Friday deals http://blackfriday.bradsdeals.com/news/black-friday-tablet-deals/

Sorry, this is BS.

I have two ipads and bought a 7" Nexus 7. I replaced all the Ipad apps for less than the $25 Google gave me as a bonus. Most are free and of equal and sometimes better quality than the ipad.

My Nexus 7 is so much more convenient than either of the ipads I grab it all the time. To date, my Nexus hasn't crashed but my iPads crash all the time since IOS 5.

I wasn't sure if this was mentioned about flash. Seemed like there was lots of angry back and forth about the necessity/evils of flash. It seemed to be nearing personal attacks in the level of flames/snark, so I stayed out of it. But whatever. You need to know that flash player may already not be available on whatever device you pick.

No mobile device sold after August 2012 can license or include Flash support. Period. Adobe has abandoned flash on mobile. Not 3 years from now. Not 6 moths from now. It's already happened.

It was removed form the Play store August 15th, 2012 for devices that didn't already have it installed before.

If you get/have an Android 4.1 or 4.2 (aka Jelly Bean) device it will never have been installed to begin with. If you get a 4.0 or earlier device and it isn't already installed you'll need to jump through some hoops to sideload flash player.

So again... not debating the merits or failings of having flash on a mobile device. Simply stating that you will already have difficulty running it.

IMHO tablet choice is all about in what eco system you want your apps and content, or already have. You already know you want a 7".

iTunes? or already have an iPhone/iPod Touch? - iPad mini. Done.
Google Play Store? or already have a large number of purchased apps on an android phone? - Nexus 7, Samsung 7" Galaxy Tab 2
Amazon Videos? - Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD or iPad Mini.

If those don't float your boat or are too much $$ watch for deals on 7"-8" tablets from Acer, Lenovo, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Toshiba. They will be the quality you'll want in a tablet. These often show up on deal sites or go on sale for around $150.

You'll want one with Android 3.x (Gingerbread), 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwitch), or 4.1+ (Jelly Bean). Before 3.x, 4.0, and 4.1+. They were just tablets with a phone interface.

Stay away from Coby and Panera unless you like flushing your money away. There's occasionally one from them that aren't bad, but like chinese scooters, the specs and quality change often and it's hard to stay current on what's "ok more than half of the time" and those models that are pure crap.

2013. Spain conflicts with Amerivespa, but the Sep time slot in Barcelona conflicts with a HUGE medical convention.

So you're doing an Italy trip in September 2013?

For the record, bad judge of good whiskey.

Yes. Pyrenees Mts (Spain) in June, Italy in Sep

|End of hijack

My nephew got the WalMart refurb Galaxy Tab 2 I linked previously and is happy as a clam with it. And, since it's ICS, it should come with [I can't mention] installed. If so, the upgrade to JB should not disturb [I can't mention].

Gah!

I am obligated to attend a wedding in September 2013.

Clearly, the universe is punishing me.

What's wrong with June? Picos are stunning!

Amerivespa.

Mmmok.. but I'l bet the Picos will trump Amerivespa. I'm off to do some wild things in Germany (B500 I think), but that's not until August.

FYI:
I have a Samsung Galaxy III which has Ice Cream Sandwich and it doesn't have flash. Gingerbread was the last one to have Flash.

Amerivespa and my brother's wedding. September I might be able to do but June is already overbooked.

Come on people; stay on topic. This is about gadgets, not scooters

Voodooaddict, thank you very much for that info!
Aviator47, I am going to get me one of those Galaxy tabs.

Does anyone have an HP Touchpad with WebOS? I see those on CL for a pretty good price. It's a shame what HP did with the Palm OS, I think.

Here's some Flash help. Since it's a refurb, may already have Flash installed, as they generally restore original config. If not here's video and text from Adobe Forums on how to install. Do it before any upgrade to Jelly Bean.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4675670#4675670

I have a Nook tablet. With the Nook HD out the price on my tablet has dropped to 150.00. It has been a very reliable machine and has all the features I want hardware wise. Software that is another story.

I liked the Nook interface. It was good for reading books, but the available software from Barnes and Noble was limited. As soon as I was able I rooted it and was able to get Google Play store and run some, not all though, apps for android. When the ability to wipe and install Gingerbread and later ICS Android was made I did it. I currently run Android 4.0.1 with no problems whatsoever. I'm able to still read my books, play games, surf the net, and watch movies. Battery life is good. Overall I am very satisfied

Jeff

Hey Jess, not to hijack the thread more than it already has been, how do you turn off Flash, and keep it off ?

In Safari, I use the ClickToFlash extension.

It's available in the extensions library, and is currently under "Most Popular": https://extensions.apple.com

and for mozilla browsers, there's Flashblock http://flashblock.mozdev.org/

OK OK I read most of the thread, and sometimes I'm thick. But if Flash is dying, pleases hurry I hate you, why do I get these fucking messages...

There are two issues: mobile flash has been discontinued, and flash as a whole is (most likely) mortally wounded by that fact. With mobile flash no longer viable (or possibly having never reached viability) developers can no longer depend on flash as a universal platform, making it a significantly less attractive choice. This means that, effectively, flash's days are numbered, as more and more developers choose different (and IMHO better) methods for animation, interactivity, and video.

Jess-

To be precise, Adobe is no longer "supporting" flash for Android . It is still available for download on Adobe's web site through the latest ICS version. That last release will also "sideload" on most JB devices, and several browsers continue to accept Flash. And in some countries, it is still offered on Google Play for direct install.

"Discontinued" is a bit misleading. That said, Flash's days are numbered, but probably in the high 3 digit range of "numbered" if not higher. Whether or not that is "good" is a horse of a different color.

Flash content remains out there. Right now, Android can still acces it, iOS can't and never would. Again, not tooting any horn, just stating what is.

Cheers from Milano

The thing that made flash attractive to developers in the first place was that it was pre-installed on virtually every browser during a certain era -- the "salad days" of flash.

Now that it isn't, it won't be attractive. Side-loading is certainly an option, but it's not one that any sane developer would count on when making major decisions about implementation. Just the lack of support on iOS alone -- that's well over 300 million devices -- makes flash a nonstarter for almost any developer these days.

Mobile is really important for web developers right now. Flash is largely absent in that population. Now that Android has abandoned flash, it's done. Stick a fork in it.

More specifically, from here on out, flash will only be useful for viewing "legacy" websites -- that is, websites that were implemented in flash, and whose developers have either abandoned the site, don't care about the mobile audience, or are simply too stupid to see the writing on the wall.

Yes. And since there is still a fair amount of content on "legacy" sites, Flash is still handy to have.

It would be nice if it could be just made to seamlessly "go away", but it can't. MS thought they could make Win XP die quickly......

Adobe and Flash are annoying and always have been.

And the NYTimes has a nice article on non-Ipad tablets today.
Personally, I like that the other tablets are less addictive.

I ordered a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 yesterday from newegg.com.
they had a brand new one with a 16gb memory card for $179 delivered.
supposed to get it tomorrow.
I am excited!
A bit more than what I wanted to pay, but after doing more research and listening to the advice of others on this thread, I thought it best to go with a good name brand.

I think that's a bit of an overstatement. I have flash blocked by default, and I rarely (as in almost never) have to unblock something.

It's not entirely unlike some of the factors you describe living a slower lifestyle in Greece. Is your life worse for not having the trappings of a fast-paced life? No. Not at all. And my life isn't impacted by the lack of flash, either. Not even a little bit.

Give up flash, Al. Your life will be better for it. Honest. Just the lack of advertisements alone makes it worthwhile. Pages will load faster, your computer will sing to you, and the evenings will be cooler without the computer spewing heat into your house.

I keep think that Android Tablets are those mints in a tin.

On the subject of flash...
Our ABC has a service called Iview which allows you to catch up on TV shows. Iview is based on flash. So someone wrote a program to let you capture the flash to a file. The ABC says this is highly illegal and have presented the programmer with a take down order. Here's a link to his reponse https://jeremy.visser.name/tag/python-iview/
The program is actually just a front end to rtmpdump. Rtmpdump had to be removed from sourceforge because of a c&d from Adobe.
What a can of worms is flash...

Hollybry enjoy your tablet. There are so many to chose from and so may price points it's like trying to figure out the cereal aisle. I hate the cereal aisle because I get stuck like a bug in amber with all the choices.

For me I'm getting this Wednesday. With 32 GB and 4G LTE Wireless. Mostly because I enjoy Amazon so much and don't hate me I just never got the Apple thing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GFRBBW/ref=fs_jw