![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pheloniusfriarMy UbiSlate 7Ci arrived today... I am allz teh woot! So, that answers the question about shipping time :).
The instructions (yes, I'm crazy that way and read the quick start guide, which is all it came with in the box) indicated that I needed to charge the battery for 6 to 8 hours before the first use, so I'm doing that right now. In the meantime, I can write about my first impressions.
The boxes are very nice and glossy (not crappy and dull, for instance). The internal cardboard support for the tablet was torn at one side and not folded correctly (tightly) in the middle, and the tablet itself was no longer in the cardboard cradle, but rather on top of the cardboard insert floating around the box at the top. It was in a slick plastic envelope and did not appear damaged in any way. The box also contained an AC to USB wall barnacle, a USB to microUSB cable (for charging and presumably hooking the device up to a computer), a "quick start guide" (capitalization in original), and a warranty card (12 months apparently). The keyboard/case box contained the keyboard/case in a cellophane type plastic bag, and a piece of foam inside as a tablet-analogue to keep it from flumping flat while waiting to be shipped.
The tablet itself looks and feels pretty much like I expected from the images on the website. The only negative is the seam that goes around the front of it (where the display is set into the main back/body of the tablet) is a little sharp for my liking, but it's not "cutting" sharp, it is just more angular than it should be (the only thing that feels cheap about it, it's pretty stylin' otherwise). It has a good weight in the hand, not heavy, but not too light either. Overall it's nice and shiny, ooooo, shiny! :) The tablet also has externally accessible buttons and ports: a microphone, a speaker, a 3.5mm headphone connector, the microUSB port, an AC adapter port, an on/off button, a volume control button (up/down), a microSD card slot, and the webcam on the front (on the same side as the display). The keyboard is flat, but it's a proper QWERTY style with offset keys, and there is sufficient tactile feedback that I think I can use it to take notes and stuff. In fact, that is one of the main tests I want to make with it: can I use it to take notes in class? It would certainly be nicer to take the UbiSlate in than have to haul even my relatively tiny Acer netbook in my backpack. I'll see what else it's capable of doing, of course, and might even try out a few games. If it can play Kingdom of Loathing, I will be thrilled (it's just a matter of screen real-estate, not performance, it's a very undemanding game from a computational perspective). I also hope I can run ConnectBot (an SSH client) effectively on it, that would be sweet!
To put the tablet in the keyboard/case, there is an actual spring-loaded tab at the top that you hook the tablet into and push up against. Once the tab has been pushed far enough up, you slide the tablet in and the spring tab pushes it down into two lower tabs. The spring on the tab was actually more sophistication than I was expecting, so that was nice. The downside is the upper tab partially covers the webcam at the top. This is a shame because the case has a foot in the back that stands the tablet up, which would be perfect for using it for a Skype type call or something. The spring-loaded tab seems to be made from metal, so I think I will be able to modify it with a file or maybe tin snips to cut away some material from its middle and prevent it from blocking the camera. Potentially irritating is the closure (which is magnetic, which is also really slick) creeps back over the top of the case when it is open with the tablet in it (you can see that in the picture below), but I'm hoping it eventually stays behind once I've used it for a while, we shall see...
Okay, here are the money shot for this post (click on the image if you want the full resolution ones, although I can't image why anyone would want to do that, unless it was to check out the other stuff I have in the background of the images to spy on me)...
The tablet inside the keyboard/case. I did not bother to hook in the microUSB port since it was just posing for a picture. Where I set it up, I realized that one of the prints I have on my wall was mostly reflecting in the screen, so I moved things around until you could see the reflection fully (if not terribly clearly). The art is a piece at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris which I saw in person when I lived there. So much amazing artwork, but I didn't know this one until I walked around a corner and came face to ... body? ... with it. The colours and subtlety took my breath away. It's also 1.3 metres high and 2.25m wide. The piece is by Alexandre Cabanel, is called "The Birth of Venus", and was done in 1863 (click the link to go to the museum's web page on that painting). p.s. This post seems to have gone from oooobies to boobies... how did that happen?
And because I've been including music for people who are unmotivated by my techno-weenie posts, here is another Skrillex piece that I really liked... partly for its music, which is awesome, but also for its video... which you absolutely must watch all the way through to get the full effect for (you'll know what I mean when you get to it, heh):
p.p.s. a friend commented to me that she was troubled by the women dancers in this video... in particular, on the surface it seems like they are portrayed in a stereotypical hip hop manner (negative and objectified), but once she had watched the video, she felt as though her initial impressions were wrong and that they were actually portrayed as powerful and with agency. It kind of messed with her brain (in a good way). What do you think?
p.p.p.s. the women dancers were not what I was referring to above when I said "you'll know"...
The instructions (yes, I'm crazy that way and read the quick start guide, which is all it came with in the box) indicated that I needed to charge the battery for 6 to 8 hours before the first use, so I'm doing that right now. In the meantime, I can write about my first impressions.
The boxes are very nice and glossy (not crappy and dull, for instance). The internal cardboard support for the tablet was torn at one side and not folded correctly (tightly) in the middle, and the tablet itself was no longer in the cardboard cradle, but rather on top of the cardboard insert floating around the box at the top. It was in a slick plastic envelope and did not appear damaged in any way. The box also contained an AC to USB wall barnacle, a USB to microUSB cable (for charging and presumably hooking the device up to a computer), a "quick start guide" (capitalization in original), and a warranty card (12 months apparently). The keyboard/case box contained the keyboard/case in a cellophane type plastic bag, and a piece of foam inside as a tablet-analogue to keep it from flumping flat while waiting to be shipped.
The tablet itself looks and feels pretty much like I expected from the images on the website. The only negative is the seam that goes around the front of it (where the display is set into the main back/body of the tablet) is a little sharp for my liking, but it's not "cutting" sharp, it is just more angular than it should be (the only thing that feels cheap about it, it's pretty stylin' otherwise). It has a good weight in the hand, not heavy, but not too light either. Overall it's nice and shiny, ooooo, shiny! :) The tablet also has externally accessible buttons and ports: a microphone, a speaker, a 3.5mm headphone connector, the microUSB port, an AC adapter port, an on/off button, a volume control button (up/down), a microSD card slot, and the webcam on the front (on the same side as the display). The keyboard is flat, but it's a proper QWERTY style with offset keys, and there is sufficient tactile feedback that I think I can use it to take notes and stuff. In fact, that is one of the main tests I want to make with it: can I use it to take notes in class? It would certainly be nicer to take the UbiSlate in than have to haul even my relatively tiny Acer netbook in my backpack. I'll see what else it's capable of doing, of course, and might even try out a few games. If it can play Kingdom of Loathing, I will be thrilled (it's just a matter of screen real-estate, not performance, it's a very undemanding game from a computational perspective). I also hope I can run ConnectBot (an SSH client) effectively on it, that would be sweet!
To put the tablet in the keyboard/case, there is an actual spring-loaded tab at the top that you hook the tablet into and push up against. Once the tab has been pushed far enough up, you slide the tablet in and the spring tab pushes it down into two lower tabs. The spring on the tab was actually more sophistication than I was expecting, so that was nice. The downside is the upper tab partially covers the webcam at the top. This is a shame because the case has a foot in the back that stands the tablet up, which would be perfect for using it for a Skype type call or something. The spring-loaded tab seems to be made from metal, so I think I will be able to modify it with a file or maybe tin snips to cut away some material from its middle and prevent it from blocking the camera. Potentially irritating is the closure (which is magnetic, which is also really slick) creeps back over the top of the case when it is open with the tablet in it (you can see that in the picture below), but I'm hoping it eventually stays behind once I've used it for a while, we shall see...
Okay, here are the money shot for this post (click on the image if you want the full resolution ones, although I can't image why anyone would want to do that, unless it was to check out the other stuff I have in the background of the images to spy on me)...
The tablet inside the keyboard/case. I did not bother to hook in the microUSB port since it was just posing for a picture. Where I set it up, I realized that one of the prints I have on my wall was mostly reflecting in the screen, so I moved things around until you could see the reflection fully (if not terribly clearly). The art is a piece at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris which I saw in person when I lived there. So much amazing artwork, but I didn't know this one until I walked around a corner and came face to ... body? ... with it. The colours and subtlety took my breath away. It's also 1.3 metres high and 2.25m wide. The piece is by Alexandre Cabanel, is called "The Birth of Venus", and was done in 1863 (click the link to go to the museum's web page on that painting). p.s. This post seems to have gone from oooobies to boobies... how did that happen?
And because I've been including music for people who are unmotivated by my techno-weenie posts, here is another Skrillex piece that I really liked... partly for its music, which is awesome, but also for its video... which you absolutely must watch all the way through to get the full effect for (you'll know what I mean when you get to it, heh):
p.p.s. a friend commented to me that she was troubled by the women dancers in this video... in particular, on the surface it seems like they are portrayed in a stereotypical hip hop manner (negative and objectified), but once she had watched the video, she felt as though her initial impressions were wrong and that they were actually portrayed as powerful and with agency. It kind of messed with her brain (in a good way). What do you think?
p.p.p.s. the women dancers were not what I was referring to above when I said "you'll know"...
no subject
Date: 2014-08-09 04:25 pm (UTC)I wonder if there is a version of CyanogenMod for it? Does it support the Google Play Store? I like that it supports both client and server USB! If you get a powered hub, you can plug in both the keyboard and a USB drive!
Nice!
no subject
Date: 2014-08-09 04:38 pm (UTC)http://mobility.forumsee.com/a/m/s/p12-9764-0297374--jelly-bean-for-ubislate-7ci-7c.html
no subject
Date: 2014-08-19 02:40 am (UTC)