Sunday 17-07-16 Tablet Addict

I bought a new tablet on Friday night. Well, I say "new", of course I mean "used". But it's new to me. I was looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 10.1, but I noticed that the Tab E with a 9.6" display was cheaper. 

I noticed that one chap had listed a Tab E for £79.99, and he claimed it was only a month old. I was sorely tempted, but he ended the auction early and I thought I'd missed out. In fact, he'd relisted it at £99.99, which was too much for me. If I was going to spend that much, I would have bought the Tab A. But there was a further twist: he ended the auction again, and relisted the tablet with an SD card included. By this time I'd decided that if he relisted it at £79.99, I would buy it. Later on Friday evening it disappeared from the listings again, and I followed him as a seller so that I would get notifications if he listed anything else. 

I was heading to bed when I noticed that the tablet had again been relisted, this time without the SD card, but at the original price of £79.99. Considering that these tablets sell for £150 in Currys, I reckoned that if the tablet was only one month old, this had to be a good deal. So I put a bid in at £75, which he didn't respond to, and then I went up to the Buy It Now price of £79.99. Since I'd decided to buy it, I didn't want to lose it. 

I'm hoping that the internal gyroscopes and key entry are more responsive than on this Lenovo Tab 8 (2). I can expand the memory beyond the provided 8gb, which is a bit paltry if I'm honest, but Samsung do have a good reputation when it comes to usable tablets. And although the PPI (pixels per inch) stat is the same on both tablets, I'm hoping that the display on the Tab E will be better. I guess we'll find out on Wednesday, when I'm hoping it'll get delivered.

There'll be another update shortly after that, I expect...

TTFN.

Sunday 17-06-25 Tablet Lust

It's got to that time again, where I am casting around for a new(-ish) tablet. You may be aware that I quite like the Microsoft Surface line, and I actually bought a broken one a couple of weeks ago. It's currently back on sale on eBay here.

But I have decided that the tablet that I would really quite like is this one: the Samsung Tab A 10.1" :



I was watching one of these on eBay again and it eventually sold, at the last minute, for £130. The RRP is £230 for the wi-fi version, or £280 for the 4G model. The trouble was that the seller hadn't included any pictures, or I may have bid on it. Someone got a bargain, I hope.

So I shall save up some money, maybe, and see what I can get. To be honest though, I don't really use my current tablet often enough to warrant spending £230 on a new one. That won't stop me lusting after a new shiny though...!

Saturday 16-11-26 Black Friday

So yesterday was Black Friday. We've not yet imported Thanksgiving into the UK, I don't think we're quite ready for a second turkey-based celebration. But we have imported the celebration of consumerism which is Black Friday, it's kind of Thanksgiving's boxing day. Normally Amazon and Asda use the occasion to sell off their ageing inventories at knockdown prices and try to make it look like they are doing us a favour.
Having said that, a couple of years ago I did buy an Acer Aspire E-15 for a knockdown price off the Tesco website, and to be honest I still don't think I've seen it as cheap, even the newer models.
Yesterday and for the previous few days Amazon have been advertising the Amazon Fire tablet for £29.99 instead of £49.99, which is actually quite a good deal, as far as I can see. £30 for a new and current tablet is very enticing, and it's probably less than I would spend on a big night out. But I managed to restrain myself, and I kept my wallet closed.
I did have a moment of weakness though, and I did buy a tablet. I was browsing eBay and found a tablet which was being sold for spares or repair, and the highest bid was £5. I put in a bid of £7.25, and watched the clock tick down. No-one outbid me, and so it was mine. With the £3p&p, I spent a total of £10.25. I'm kind of hoping that I will be able to repair / reset it, and then I will be able to re-sell it, either on eBay or maybe to CEX or something. Or it can join the hordes of tablets we already own - although I have been trying to rationalise.
I am looking forward to taking delivery of it, and seeing what I can do with it. There may be a further update in the next week or so. Until next time, have a good weekend!
TTFN.

Resetting a CNM 7" Android Tablet

So my daughter, the silly sausage, set a password on her CNM 7" tablet and promptly forgot what it was.
I googled a solution, but was unable to find anything that worked.
First suggestion was to try Google's password recovery service. Tried that, no luck.
Then, link the tablet to a PC using a USB lead, and find the Username in the Play Services downloads.
No dice, tablet didn't link to the PC.

I found one suggestion, that I should turn the tablet off entirely, and then hold the Power and Volume Down button in together for 12 secs, which (the advisor claimed) would put the tablet into reboot menu. As it was, the person seeking advice saw a table of options but in oriental (Chinese?) script.
The next bit of advice was to turn the tablet off, and then hold down the Power and the Volume Up buttons together. I did that and got into the necessary menu - and from there, chose the Factory Reset option.

So if you're looking, the solution is:
1. Power off completely.
2. Hold down the Power and Volume Up buttons at the same time for approx. 15 seconds
3. Choose the Factory Reset option.

This will reset the tablet though, and you will have to reapply any settings and preferences, as well as download again all apps, widgets and wallpapers you had installed. The reset will restore your device to 'factory fresh' condition.