Possible Palm replacements

[Bob Roberts]

I thought you all might find this interesting, as I think we are all looking for ways to replace the functionality of our Palm devices.

I have a small HP 7" tablet running Win10 that I will try some of these ideas on.

ARTICLE........................

Using Windows 10 as an iPad replacement

By Lincoln Spector on February 24, 2016 in Best Practices, Top Story

Tablets are convenient, but their operating systems have significant limitations. So can a Win10 machine replace an Apple iPad — with no compromises?

Based on personal experience, I can give a qualified yes — and the qualifications are relatively small.

Sometime around the end of last year, I stopped using my iPad. It wasn’t really a conscious decision; it’s just that when I wanted to use something bigger than a smartphone but lighter than a PC, I found that I increasingly picked up a small, lightweight, Win10 laptop-tablet hybrid (laplet) I own. Over time, I discovered that I preferred the small Windows machine to the iPad in almost every way.

To be fair, my iPad is far from top of the line. It’s an old iPad 2 that doesn’t support Siri, and its power button is wearing out.

But my laplet isn’t exactly top of the line either; it’s an ASUS Transformer Book T100 (more info) I bought in 2013 — largely because it was cheap and had a touchscreen. With 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 32-bit OS, it just might be the least powerful computer ever sold with Windows 8.

Figure 1. The ASUS Transformer Book T100 is a hybrid laptop/tablet. Source: ASUS

Looking for a do-everything personal computer

The ASUS T100 is effectively a Windows tablet with a detachable keyboard. It came originally with Win8.0; it was then upgraded to Version 8.1 and then to Windows 10.

Two years ago, as an experiment, I used the T100 in place of both my primary PC and my iPad, over a 30-day period. As I wrote in an April 2, 2014, Best Practices article, “I could live with a Windows 8 computer. But every time I used the laplet as a standalone tablet — in place of my iPad — I wanted the 30 days to be over.”

I had a worse experience this past August when I tried to do a similar 30-day experiment with the T100 and the then-new Windows 10. The title of my article sums it up: “Thirty-day Win10 experiment lasts only a week.”

Updates to Win10 and other programs over the next few months have solved almost all of T100’s problems, and I can easily work around the few that remain.

For example, unlike Microsoft’s Surface, the T100 doesn’t automatically go into Tablet mode when you remove the keyboard — or back to Desktop mode when you reattach it. Annoyingly, you have to change modes manually. (As you might expect, I generally prefer Tablet mode when the keyboard is off and Desktop when it’s on.)

Moreover, the T100’s sleep mode is not nearly as efficient as the iPad’s. If I let it sleep for 24 hours, I’ll need to recharge the battery.

Having full-time access to real Windows apps

As small, light, and underpowered as it is, the T100 is a real Windows computer. And that’s its biggest advantage over the iPad.

I don’t use a tablet purely for fun. Soon after I bought my iPad, I augmented it with a lightweight Bluetooth keyboard, so I could use it as an exceptionally easy-to-carry laptop.

But iOS productivity apps don’t come close to the common Windows versions. For work, I generally live in MS Word and OneNote. Yes, Microsoft offers Word and OneNote editions for iOS (and Android), but they’re far less capable than their Windows counterparts.

For instance, the iOS version of Word doesn’t support my personally-configured Quick Access Toolbar, my custom templates, and the macros I rely on. But my T100 supports the full suite of Word tools (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Running Word on the T100 and Windows gives access to the full suite of productivity tools — even in tablet mode.

Also, not all iOS productivity apps I use support Dropbox. With Windows, that’s not an issue; files stored in Dropbox — or OneDrive, Google Drive, iDrive, and so on — reside in common folders on the T100’s solid-state drive.

Assessing the essential apps for work and play

Along with work applications, I often used my iPad for personal reading, socializing, and other entertainments — usually without a keyboard or touchpad. And that generally means finding capable programs that work easily with screen touches.

Unfortunately, Windows’ touch-centric, Modern/Metro apps still don’t come close to what’s available for iOS or Android. Luckily, there’s usually a workaround.

Here are some apps I used regularly on my iPad — and how I’ve replaced them on the T100.

Twitter: The Win10 application offered on the Microsoft Store (page) works just fine — no complaints.

Facebook: You can download an edition from the MS Store (page), but I don’t care for it. The type is small and uncomfortable to read, and there’s no way to enlarge it. It also asks for your name and password almost every time you launch it.

I find it easier to access Facebook from within a standard browser (see Figure 3). It works like a charm, even without a keyboard or touchpad.

Figure 3. Facebook has a Windows-native app, but it looks better viewed in a standard browser

Gmail: Google hasn’t seen fit to write native Windows apps, and the third-party offerings I looked at are all disappointing. But in a browser, the default Gmail webpage isn’t touch friendly. So on the laplet, I use the Mobile Gmail site.

If you use Chrome, a similar workaround is to install the Mobile Browser Emulator add-in (Chrome web store). When you click the add-in icon, Chrome opens a new window with the mobile version of your current page.

Keepass: My favorite password manager is an old-fashioned, desktop-Windows program (see Figure 4). But its format isn’t really touchscreen friendly (though I work with it anyway).

Figure 4. Keepass has an intuitive interface but doesn't work well with touchscreen input.

Fortunately, Keepass is open-source; anyone with the right skills can create a Keepass-compatible app. A touch-friendly alternative to the program is PassKeep (Figure 5; MS Storepage). With its white-on-black scheme, PassKeep is visually ugly. But folder and password icons are big and easy to tap.

Figure 5. PassKeep's barebones interface is easier to use with touchscreens.

On the other hand, it lacks Keepass’s Autotype feature, which allows you to insert a website’s sign-in and password together with a single click.

Book readers: I’m allergic to digital rights management (DRM); I tend to prefer ebooks in unprotected EPub files (see the Aug. 28, 2014, Digital Entertainment article for more on the subject). But during my failed 30-day experiment, I couldn’t find a single EPub reader app I could recommend.

Now I can. Bookviser Reader (MS Store page), the best of a bad lot back in August, now works fine — it no longer cuts off the bottom-right corner of every page.

While using my iPad, I broke my own rules and bought a few books from Apple and Google, which has a reader for iOS. Now I can’t access those from Apple; the company’s iBooks app isn’t available on anything that’s not Apple.

Google is a little better. It has an iOS app; it also has a Google Play Books, a Chrome add-on that works on Windows. But I found it slow and unreliable — especially when the Internet wasn’t available.

Exercise: I work out with a subscription-based, online service called Daily Burn. (Hey; it’s cheaper and less embarrassing than a gym membership.) There’s an app for my iPad, and there’s even an app for my Roku. But there’s no app for Windows.

My solution? As with Facebook, I just use the Daily Burn website.

Converging computing: At some point, the difference between a personal computer and a mobile device should be only about ergonomics. If you need a big monitor and a full-sized keyboard, you plug them in. Even with the underpowered Transformer Book T100, it looks like we’re getting there.

= Paid content

All Windows Secrets articles posted on 2016-02-24:

• BEST PRACTICESUsing Windows 10 as an iPad replacement
• PATCH WATCHRecalled Office fix and another ‘Get Win10″
• WACKY WEB WEEKTechnology that baffles young and old
•  Show all articles on a single page

About Lincoln Spector

Lincoln Spector writes about computers, home theater, and film and maintains two blogs: Answer Line at PCWorld.com and Bayflicks.net. His articles have appeared in CNET, InfoWorld, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other publications.

View all posts by Lincoln Spector →

[Bert Latamore]

Bob,

Thanks, that is an interesting article. I do almost everything on my Surface 2 Pro, which I had my tech person upgrade to Win 10 as part of a major refresh last fall. Here are my notes:

The bad: Microsoft Edge crashes if you open too many windows in it. As a result, I use Edge only for one client (ISG/Saugatuck Tech) that runs on the Microsoft cloud & uses Microsoft e-mail. I use Chrome for everything else, including live streaming of theCUBE covering conferences. This works pretty well.

Last week I had two Win 10 crashes. In 18 months of heavy use I never experienced a Win 8.1 crash. I also get an error window (black window) briefly a couple of times a day that says something about not being able to access update files. It comes & goes too fast for me to read it. Haven't had a chance to take the tablet back in for this yet. Overall, I miss Win 8.1.

I always run in desktop mode, even when using the Surface in tablet mode. In Win 10 I can access Metro apps by clicking on the Windows icon in the corner of the task bar. I can open the metro app I want directly from there. This is faster than switching modes. In Win 8 I would switch modes by tapping the physical Windows icon on the bottom of the Surface's frame. That no longer works in Win 10 (something else I miss).

I access Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and G+ through Chrome on my tablet, rather than using special apps. I do use the apps on my Samsung S6 Android smart phone. I find the browser access to be more convenient. Also the Windows Facebook app gave me some problems when I did use it undr Win 8.1. 

I do read books, The Washington Post & several magazines in the Nook Metro software. This works pretty well. I plan to install the reader recommended in the article for free books, but I have a large library of as yet unread e-books in the Nook, going back to the Palm days.

The Surface comes with a special electronic pen. This is indispensable in tablet mode. Basically it replaces a mouse for several actions, including highlighting text in a document and moving/deleting. It makes the Surface in tablet mode a great editing platform -- actually I just finished editing a white paper for a client in Germany on it a few minutes ago. 

I find it is a good idea to restart Win 10 daily, if I don't remember to shut the tablet down at the end of the day before. I didn't have to do that nearly as often with 8.1.

Overall I like my combination of a Windows tablet and Android phone. Android has some advantages and Windows others. I do write personal things in Word on the phone and find it adequate for simple documents. I will sometimes move documents between the tablet and phone via the Microsoft cloud. I also sometimes read my newspaper and magazines on the phone, although it is impossible to read the comics in the paper on the small screen.

I find I don't carry the tablet with me often when I go out of the house. The phone is adequate for what I need when mobile most of the time. I do keep Pimlical in my phone. 

I use the cloud-based SplashID as my password store and access it mainly through my phone, although I can have it on my tablet as well. This was originally a Palm app that was totally upgraded and lives in the cloud, which works beautifully.

All the best, Bert

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Writing On Your Palm" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to woyp+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to wo...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/woyp.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Bert Latamore

(703) 340-8396
Freelance Writer covering the intersection between IT and business

I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.