WikiMind

I downloaded WikiMind lite today to try out this wiki application. It seems to work well. It allows you to select the option of storing your wiki files to your external SD card. The wiki data is stored in plain text files. It uses double square brackets for wiki links, which is what my PC wiki application uses for links. I can save my wiki pages as text files, with the file name being the same as the link name. This should make transferring files between my tablet and PC easier.

One thing to be careful of, is to save your page edits before returning to the previous page. If you use the silver hardware Back button, it warns you: "Do you want to save this page?". If you use the on screen arrow key to return to the previous page, without first saving your page, you will loose the data you just entered. Developer needs to fix that one.

I haven't been able to find where WikiMind is storing my files on the SD card. I have tried both the file manager and looking at the card from my PC.

Docs to Go

I downloaded Docs to Go today on my tablet. It appears to work well and opened the Word and Excel files that I transferred to my tablet. Docs to Go could not find files I put in my /Stuff folder on the SD card. ES File manager could find them and I was able to open the Word and Excel files using ES File manager. Maybe subfollders are included in the full version, which I definitely plan to purchase. Creating and editing Word and Excel files is something I definitely want to be able to do on my tablet.

I've turned the key press sound on my Android keyboard. I want to see if this improves my typing with this keyboard.

Why I bought my Coby Kyros 7015 tablet

I have always wanted a tablet computer. Maybe it goes back to when I was watching Star Trek as a kid. I was excited when PenPoint OS and the Newton came out in the early 1990's. It took another 15 years for tablets to get into the consumer market.

Why do I want a tablet computer? What do I plan to do with it? I've used a Palm for many years and have been waiting for something with more capabilities. I like to keep some basic reference information and reading material with me. I would also like to be able to do some work at times away from my office. My laptop is great, but I'm looking for something lighter, with a longer battery life than 2.5 hours.

The iPad is a marvel of technology but carries a premium price for this technology. I also don't like the fact that it is a closed system, without USB ports. If I had the money, I would have bought a Notion Inc Adam tablet. It has an open Android architecture, is reasonably priced and has several technological firsts.

But I don't have a lot of money, so I researched the low priced Android tablets and the Coby Kyros had the best reviews.

Some of the features that influenced my decision:

• Low price: I bought mine from Walmart for $138
• 7 inch screen which is a good size; anything smaller would be too small and the iPad 10 inch screen is not that much larger. I was never impressed with the Droid phones because the screens were too small to do anything with.
  
• Has accelerometer
• Runs Android 2.1
• Has one of the better resistive touch screens
• Is supposed to have a 5 hour battery life, although I haven't done a time test yet.
  
• Plenty of external memory - supports 16 GB external micro SB card
• 256 meg of RAM
• 4 gig internal memory
• USB port can see 4 gig drive
• Has standby mode of sorts - the screen can be turned off to preserve power
  

Switching keyboards and wikis

Thanks to one of the members of Swype forum who told me how to change on-screen keyboards: on any text input box, I press and hold my finger on the screen. That brings up a Select Input Method window, which lets me choose which keyboard to use. It couldn't be easier! My verdict is still coming on this Swype keyboard - I am having a lot of wrong word suggestions. Hopefully this will diminish over time.

I use a wiki throughout the day to store and organize information. I hope to do this using my tablet as well. So far I have seen 4 wiki products for Android: Ema wiki, NoteEverything, AnyWrite wiki and Wiki Mind.

Ema wiki has both an Android and PC wiki interface, which can be synced up. The problem is, I have only found Ema wiki so far in the Android Market, so I am unable to download it with my tablet. I may email the developer and see if he will send me a copy. I downloaded and installed the PC version; it works well but only has basic wiki functionality.

I have NoteEverything installed and have been playing around with it. If you enable the option, when you type a CamelCase word, NoteEverything will automatically create a new text file with the same name and mark the word as a link. You can press and hold over the link and get the option to follow the link, which is how a normal wiki works. The Back button returns you to the previous page. I need to play with the folder options in NoteEverything so I can store all my wiki text files in one folder.

I need to try out AnyWrite wiki and Wiki Mind as well.

I use wiki on a stick (WOAS) on my PC. It is a single html file with Java script which stores all my wiki information in the html file. This is the reason I have been trying to find an Android browser which will open a html file - so I can use WOAS on my tablet. No luck yet, but the search goes on!

PDF files

I downloaded a pdf viewer and transferred some pdf files to the tablet. The pdf's work fine. I put the Coby user's manual on the tablet for reference. I have a 3 novel trilogy in pdf, so I loaded those onto my tablet for reading material.

I copied a txt file to the tablet. Using the ES File manager, I was able to open and read the text file. When I opened the file, it gave me the option to open it in ES File manager editor or Dolphin viewer. I have NoteEverything on my tablet, but I was not given that program as an option. I know NoteEverything can import existing notes. I'll need to try that soon.

I still haven't figured out how to switch back and forth between the Android keyboard and Swype. I'll look next on the Swype forum. I was fooling with some options on the Android keyboard and I found an option where it puts suggested words on the screen for me to select. I also am experimenting with using the key press sound when typing.

I am experimenting on how to orient the tablet: either in portrait or landscape. In portrait orientation when typing data, I can see more of my document on the screen; I can see the context of what I am typing but the keyboard is smaller. In landscape orientation, the keyboard takes up most of the screen; I see very little of the document I am typing. In portrait orientation, I find using the stylus can be helpful because the keyboard is smaller.

Moving files

I hooked up my tablet to the PC today with the USB cable. I mounted the internal memory of the tablet when prompted and I could see the tablet as a USB device on my computer. I created a directory on the tablet called Dave and copied some jpg, mp3 and html files to the tablet. After ejecting the tablet as a USB device, I disconnected the USB cable. Using the Gallery app I could see my jpg files; the Dave directory also showed up in the Gallery app window. Using the Music app, my Dave directory showed up as an album with my music files inside it; the mp3 files played fine.
My html files are not visible with the 2 file managers that I have downloaded: Advanced File Manager and AndroFile. I either don't know how to use them, or they are junk. I am going to try to download ES File Explorer or ASTRO File Manager next.

Where do the files live?

I was able to download my first webpage from the Dolphin browser to my tablet. It indicated that the file was placed in the /nand directory. I started my file manager and looked for that directory, but couldn't find it. I want to be able to go to a directory and select the html files I saved and open them in a browser. More searching and studying needed on my part.

I still have a love / hate relationship with Swype. It works pretty well when I use the stylus to swype, but gives me extra letters when I use my finger tip. Last night I was trying to enter a URL and every time I pressed the . key, Swype would change the name of the URL to what it thought I meant. Not good. I reverted to the default keyboard to enter my URL. I wonder if there is a way to turn off this feature in Swype? I need to watch more of the Swype tutorial videos.

I tried to download ASTRO file manager using the URL that was emailed to me. Unfortunately it refused to download because this tablet is not rooted and does not have access to the Android market. So I am going to try and find it on some of the alternate sites: slideme.com, getandroidstuff.com, m.getjar.com, givemeapps.com, appbrain.com and freewarelovers.com/android. Hopefully I will have more luck there. I don't want to root my tablet at this point.

Tomorrow I hope to hook up my tablet to my laptop and transfer some files.

Day 2 with my new tablet

I downloaded Dolphin browser from SlideMe last night. It installed smoothly and seems to work well. I still have to download instructions on how to use all it's features. Eventually I want to learn how to download web pages to the tablet for reading them when I am off line.

I also downloaded EZ File manager, but when I tried to install it, the app disappeared from the screen. I'll try a different one tomorrow. I haven't found any file manager on the tablet as shipped.

I finally have Swype keyboard installed and working. It took me 3 tries to install it. A couple of times the tablet rebooted. Learning to use Swype is going to take some time. I need to look at more of the tutorials. The Swype keyboard has numbers and symbols in the upper right corner of each letter key. If I press and hold on the key, Swype will give me that number or symbol. It appears that I was Swyping too slowly, so Swype interpreted some of my letters as numbers.

I am getting the hang of scrolling the screen. The key seems to be to keep my finger pressure on the screen as I scroll. If I lift my finger too soon, the tablet thinks I am selecting an icon or row.

I am also getting the hang of filling out fields on a web page using the screen keyboard. Once I type my info into the first field and I hit the Next key, I can continue entering info into the next field. The problem I was having is that I have to press the Back button to go back to the web page and see what the next field is asking me to enter. I think I've got it now, and more importantly, the tablet knows enough to advance to the next field by itself.

First steps with my tablet

I received my new tablet yesterday. I charged it for 1 hour and then fired it up. I pushed the power button and nothing happened. I then decided to read the manual (I had printed out the manual from a pdf on the Coby site. The enclosed manual has small print, so the pdf that I printed out is much easier on my eyes.) To start the tablet you need to hold the power button in until the screen comes to life. I need to time the boot up time. My tablet started right up to the opening screen, with the animated falling leaves in the background. This is nice but I plan on adding my own background and eliminate the animation. I then went to settings and connected to my Wi-Fi network. This went very smoothly and I was now on line.

I tried the default browser and went to my website. Most of my page showed up fine but when I zoomed in and out, the sidebar on the right side disappeared. Scrolling the web page vertically worked well using my finger tip. I went to FaceBook using the default browser. I had a problem logging in to FB. After I entered my email address, it would not let me continue to enter my password. Maybe I was doing something wrong?

I then went to the AppsLib Store using the app on the main page. It asked me to register, which I tried to do. I don't think I was successful in registering, but it brought me to the AppsLib main page. I found that scrolling through the apps was difficult, because when I tried to swipe down with my finger, it thought I wanted to open info on that app. Maybe I should have pushed the calibrate icon first; I'll try that today. I was able to download and install Note Everything successfully.