[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] The poor man's ipad. - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Tue, Jun 28 2011 22:13 bradley

The poor man's ipad.

The poor man's ipad.

Take one Viewsonic Gtablet - $290 via Office depot. http://www.officedepot.com/a/browse/tablets/N=5+518425/

Decide you don't want to root the device so you have to install some software directly rather than going through the android marketplace (which only works on Honeycomb devices).

First off connect it to wireless so it will get it's first updates.

Install Touchdown from Nitrodesk -  Download the app from the site http://nitrodesk.com/tddownloads/nitroid-droid.apk and then use the usb cable to move the apk across.   Install. Set up email just like you do on any other activesync device. 

Install Quickoffice - so you can do spreadsheets on the fly.

Install Xtralogic as it supports RDgateway http://www.mobihand.com/product.asp?id=55161&n=Xtralogic-Remote-Desktop-Client  (mind you as the resident license nazi I must officially remind you that should you decide to opt for direct remote desktop via the RDgateway you need TS/RDS cals for each person doing this.

To set up the Xtralogic apps to support rdgateway here's the trick.

In the Remote Desktop settings in the general tab in the address box put in the netbios name of the computer you are intending to connect to.

In the Username put in DOMAIN\User.  Decide if you want to leave the password on the device (OKAY NOT).

On the right hand side of the screen click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down to where it says Gateway.  Ensure that the "Use server credentials for gateway" is not selected.  Click the button to Create a gateway.

In the Gateway settings enter in the url or IP address of the server.

Enter the username as JUST username (no DOMAIN\ this time)

Hit save.  Test the connection.  It should connect to your desktop... unless of course you have been a good paranoid person and have installed Authanvil to protect the fact that if someone knows your server address they can rdp straight to their workstation if they have RWW rights.

But I agree with this blog: The failing of Android as a tablet platform | ZDNet:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/the-failing-of-android-as-a-tablet-platform/3003?tag=mantle_skin;content

It's really geeky to set this up.  It's not polished as it should be. 

http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet/favorite.htm

And figure out after the fact that the Amazon Android store is much easier to buy from and you should have gone there first.

 

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# re: The poor man's ipad.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 1:21 AM by Dean

Pretty soon now:

The failing of Android as a phone platform

# re: The poor man's ipad.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 1:48 AM by Dantv

I'll take the real iPad over this copycat operating system known as Android any day of the week. Google sucks! It's an ad agency masquerading as a tech company.

# re: The poor man's ipad.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 1:53 AM by bradley

In this corner I have the formerly known as monopoly of Microsoft that has no tablet, in this corner I have the advertising agency of Google and in our final corner I have the closed meglomanic world of Apple.

Somehow I feel that we don't have a lot of choices in general.

# No Microsoft tablets?

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 9:31 AM by Joe Raby

Consider this:  you can buy a Windows 7 tablet, dock it with a keyboard, mouse, and maybe a full-sized monitor if that suits you, and instantly you have a full PC.  I'm personally watching out for AMD Fusion tablets for that better-than-an-Atom experience and real HD video.  Gigabyte, MSI, and a few other companies have them available very soon.  ASUS's Core i5 tablet is an interesting beast too.

If you can use RDP with a thin tablet and a full PC sitting in the office, you can use a real Windows tablet too, and you'll probably be saving money and most definitely the headache by not having an additional device to setup and manage.  This is something that I've been looking at lately: What is the cost in managing desktops+thin tablets with RDP vs. more powerful, dockable tablets that will run Windows?  VDI isn't exactly a good play for a small business, so small businesses don't exactly see major cost advantages using RDP, since they require additional client terminal devices/PC's in order to get that capability.  Wouldn't it just make more sense for a single worker to just work off a single PC that can be taken offsite?

I don't even think you can make arguments about security, reliability, redundancy, etc., since all of that still applies regardless of which way you go (if any of these is an issue with a PC, using sync'ed offline files with full hard disk encryption would be the answer).  What I'm talking about is cost and ease-of-management, which IMHO is the only real differentiator.

FYI:  I use an ThinkPad x120e as my main PC.  When I'm at the office, it gets plugged into a 22" HDMI monitor and cordless keyboard and mouse, and I have a separate power cable already plugged in at my desk.  I wouldn't have a hard time switching to a Windows tablet after using RDP on an iPad.  Windows 7's taskbar has those touch-friendly large icons, it already has an on-screen keyboard, and you can use indirect mouse touch by using the screen as a virtual trackpad for the mouse cursor, just like RDP clients for touchscreen.  With a real x86 processor and accessible filesystem, a Windows tablet would become the PC that replaces my laptop.