So I called Sam's. We have two in town. The first one I called had them in stock and we happened to be about a block or two away at the time so we went. They had it in and it looked like about a dozen others will be happy folk if they venture in to get it. It was also $3 cheaper woot woot.
Soooo.... After giving her a full charge, I started to play.
Here are a few things that I learned after calling tech support as well as playing on my own...
TWO GMAIL ACCOUNTS, ONLY HAVE ONE AUTO CHECK EMAIL
Say you have two gmail accounts and you only want one of them to check for emails every 15 minutes or whatever time frame...
Open up the gmail app....
Click the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the screen - then click on "setting"
Click on the account that you want to have more or lesss "inactive"
uncheck "priority inbox" and "email notifications"
Look down a little further and under "data usage" click on "gmail sync is ON" click on the account that you want to hibernate and a screen will pop up with sync info. under "gmail", uncheck the box. Now just back out of there until you get to your inbox and it will not check your email unless you click the refresh icon in the upper right of the screen (the two arrows making a sorta circle)
HOW DO I CHANGE MY CENTER HOME SCREEN
Sadly there doesn't seem to be a way to just click on a screen and hold it until it says make screen center. You're going to have to select and drag stuff to where you want it to go.
CAN I USE A MICRO USB CAR CHARGER FROM MY PHONE?
Google doesn't have an official car charger out there and I'm sure I'm not the only one who will grab my tablet and run out the door without thinking, hey, did I charge this last night?
According to the representative I spoke with, yes you can use your micro usb car charger from another device. It will just take a different time to charge - which is the same for all car chargers. They just take a bit longer. That's just the way it is. I'm just happy knowing that if I'm out of juice, at least I have an option because I'm not going to be carrying around my plug in my purse everywhere I go.
Is there a way to get the google play store to recognize all the apps I have installed on my phone already so I don't have to individually redownload them all?
According to their website, the table it suppose to sync in the google play store. You know what. It doesn't. That's just the way it is apparently. Nobody could find a way to do it so I've been downloading all my apps and games and whatnot.
HOW DO I GET IT OUT OF CONSTANTLY IN PORTRAIT MODE AND TO AUTO ROTATE?
Oh yeah. This is a biggie. I have read online that it is strictly in portrait mode. That is so not true. Swipe down from the top of the screen downward to reveal your notifications and whatnot. There is a picture of a lock with two sorta arrows swirling around on either side of it. Click on that. Now you have a picture of a rectangle with two sorta arrows making a sorta circle around it. Now it will auto rotate. Sweet, aye?
SWYPE - Where's my Swype??!!
Swype is not in the google play store (man, I miss when they called it Market instead. Play is a seriously stupid thing to call their store. Butter it up all you want. It's still a store. You can get free samples or buy the real deal...)
If you search for Swype in the google play store, you get two options - neither of which is swype. What gives? I have no idea. I'm sure that will change in the future but for now, this is what we got - TouchPal or SlideIT. I tried TouchPal and it's a poor attempt at swype. It is annoying. It didn't space after words and it doesn't auto capitalize so you have to actually have to capitalize I... very annoying. It went in the trash bin very quickly.
I seriously don't know why it isn't just installed on the tablet like it is on my phone. You'll have to go to Swype's page and sign up to be a beta guinea pig. Enter in an email and password and they'll pretty much instantly email you a super secret code which you can then go and click on the download link they provide and when asked, copy and paste - or just type in - that code and then you'll get the download started.
What do I do next you ask? My tablet keypad is still not swyping?!!
Click on the 6 tiny squares in the circle at the bottom center of your screen....
Click on the settings icon.
Click on Language and input...
click on the box to the left of Swype - a scary warning will come up warning you of the hazards of a third party app... click on OK
Now to test it out.... click on something where you'd have to type... what the heck?!! It's STILL not there! you say.... I feel your pain. I really do.
Look at the keyboard. To the left of the space bar is a picture of a globe or circle or whatever that is. Click on that. Now you finally can swype in peace. Yes, I know it took a lot of jumping through hoops to get it, but at least you got it.
So now that I have had my tablet for a few hours and have been playing with it... here is my review...
I love this tablet. I have played with Kindle Fires and with the Samsung Galaxy tab but this thing is just awesome. It is REALLY fast. Yes, there are some bugs that need to be fixed... and yes, I already contacted them with my two cents...
Here is my dream list of what needs to be taken care of and updated...
1. The internet bookmarks widget does not display a screen shot of the webpage - just a grayed out globe with the text underneath it. When you look at the widget page, it shows screen shots. I'm sure they'll fix that.
2. There is no apps organization feature. In my Droid phone, you can make categories for all those apps you have downloaded or were stuck with when you got your device. I have mine sorted as "games', "phone stuff", "important stuff" and "junk and mystery stuff" Yes, I am very technical with my sorting names but I am a laid back kind of a person.
Okay. It's a short list so far but I've only had it for about 24 hours. Give me time. For now though, it's a pretty awesome tablet. Now, off to Ebay to score me a cover.....