control panel
January 10, 2011 7:56 PM   Subscribe

I 'm thinking of buying a small very cheap Android tablet, and mounting it to a wall, mostly to use as an interface for controlling my music collection. My main hesitation is that I believe that some of the inexpensive Chinese tablets may not come configured to access the US App Market. How big a problem is this?

I live in a small apartment, and have an old laptop (not my desktop or work laptop) that I've hooked up to my stereo system to use as a music server. This laptop runs Logitech's Slimserver and Softsqueeze, which I use to play music through my stereo in the apartment (thanks to this server, I can control what's playing from the desktop in my office, or using an application on my phone, or from the TV that's hooked up to the old laptop/server).

However, I'd like to have a "control pad" for my music that's always easily available (the tablet might also display time/weather, photos, and perhaps my "todo" list), and therefore I've started looking at some of the super-cheap (I'm on a tight budget) Android tablets that have lately been coming out of China, such as those based on the VIA 8505 tablet.

This LY-706 VIA MW8505, for example, looks like a nice candidate, since my wall-mounted tablet won't need processing power or battery life to control the music server that I've got running on my old laptop.

But I do have a couple concerns:

1) I'd assume that there's little if any technical support available to those who buy these tablets. This is a potential problem only because:

2) It seems like some of these tablets come configured to access the Chinese App Market. If that's the case, how hard would it be to reconfigure the table to access the US/English language App Market? (or, alternately: do I even need have access to the App Market? Maybe I can "side load" apps I might find useful onto the tablet or something?)

I don't of course expect Mefites to provide tech support about this particular tablet. What I'd like to know however is: how difficult it will it be to configure a tablet to use the US App Market if it arrives without the ability to do so?

Note: I'm an Android noob, who uses a Palm Pre (although I might end up getting an Android phone before too long). I'm also not a programmer or a technician of any sort.

Aside from wondering whether I'll be able to load new apps onto a cheapo Droid tablet, I'm also curious about any other suggestions you might have about my idea for mounting and using a tablet in this way. Thanks!
posted by washburn to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Generally, wifi-only devices never have access to the Android Market by default -- with only a small handful of exceptions, this doesn't seem to be allowed by Google. However, you can easily sideload apps onto them (by downloading through the browser, copying to SD, using the Android SDK, etc.), including the Market app -- a lot of people have been successful at using it on otherwise unsupported devices that way. Also, a lot of Android developers make their apps available directly or through alternate app markets, because the Market isn't available everywhere.

This is a pretty common thing given how many of those cheap tablets are out there now (not to mention things like the Nook Color), so you should be able to find plenty of help with it when the time comes.
posted by robt at 8:12 PM on January 10, 2011


I'm also curious about any other suggestions you might have about my idea for mounting and using a tablet in this way.

I'm working on a similar arrangement, except mine needs to be hand-holdable and wall-mountable. The biggest concern for me is the docking mechanism but I assumed I'd have to fabricate something myself. I don't personally need access to the Android Market; I wouldn't buy a device that I couldn't root. Once you have root you can install directly from file over SSH or ADB. But then, I code for a living.

Most people are looking at the Nook for this because it's already been rooted. (Check out the comments section—someone even mentions using a rooted Nook as an XBMC gmote client).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:59 AM on January 11, 2011 [1 favorite]


If you do buy a tablet for this reason, please post your results and your impression of the tablet. I've wanted to do the same thing, but I have similar concerns about the Market and I'm a little worried about getting my money's worth even on a cheap tablet.
posted by Tehhund at 4:25 AM on January 11, 2011


I'd have a play with one before you buy. The Android tablets you mention are cheap, yes, but they're really nothing like an iPad in terms of mode of use.
posted by Sutekh at 5:17 AM on January 11, 2011


I have an Archos 32 "tablet". It's really an iPod Touch-like media player (not a phone) running Android Froyo, and it is easy to hack for the Google Marketplace. It is freakin' awesome and cheap (under USD150). The screen is smaller that a Touch, and lower res, but perfectly functional. I use it with VNC as a remote to my media center.

Not so much wall mounted as portable, but maybe an alternative possibility. If you decide to readjust your budget, Archos has larger android tablets too.
posted by quarterframer at 7:18 AM on January 11, 2011


Best answer: FWIW, cheap android tablets have resistive touch screens which aren't idea for finger use. I would shell out a little more for one with a capacitive touch screen.
posted by wongcorgi at 8:29 AM on January 11, 2011


Supposedly the Archos 43 resistive screen is far, far more sensitive than resistive screens of the recent past, so that may not be the end of the world wongcorgi. Try one and see? The price is hard to argue with & supposedly a capacitive screen would add another $50 at least.
posted by pharm at 9:53 AM on January 11, 2011


If all you want to do is control your Squeezecenter, then all you need on the device is a browser, but I've always found the web interface slow. SqueezeCommander on Android works really well, and provides a much better interface, but you will need access to the market as its a paid app.

That looks like a Flytouch clone.
It appears like the folks at slatedroid have an alternative ROM for it that can add the US market:http://www.slatedroid.com/index.php?topic=3763.0
Digging through the forums on slatedroid might give you a better idea on whether that tablet will do what you want.
posted by Runes at 10:06 AM on January 11, 2011


Best answer: During my search for the least awful cheap tablet, I found these three forums to be relatively helpful. I ended up buying this tablet, which arrived able to access the US Android Market. It's been a few months and it still can, though I've read of some tablets losing the ability to do so after a few weeks. I kind of love my tablet, but I'm really going to love the Samsung Galaxy Tab that I'll be buying. I mean, the cheap tablet will probably work fine for what you plan to do with it (I use mine as an e-book & comic book reader), but more than anything, the really awful battery life has made me kind of resent it.

The link for the tablet you're thinking of buying doesn't say what version of Android it's running (someone in the comments mentions 1.7.4, which is not an actual version of Android, but seems to be installed on a lot of these tablets?), which is important even if you're not really going to be using it much.

The resistive screen of these tablets is also semi-annoying, though it doesn't bother me too much. I sometimes use a stylus, but newer resistive screens are actually very responsive. Recently though, a cheap tablet with a capacitive screen has been released called the Wopad, so if you think a resistive screen might annoy you, you might check one of those out. It is a bit more expensive, however.

Oh, and you should be able to sideload apps to your tablet if you can't get Market to work.
posted by eunoia at 1:36 PM on January 11, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the advice. It does seem like an easy-to-use touchscreen is a key consideration for a wall-mounted control pad, and that therefore a low-end tablet with a capacative touchscreen (such as the Wopad mentioned by eunoia) will be the way to go.

I think I'm inclined to wait a little longer (in part because of the impending release of Android 3.0 (designed especially for tablets), which may make possible more attractive and configurable homescreen set-ups), but I'm sure I'll use the forums mentioned in this thread when I finally decide to pick one up.

Many thanks, again.
posted by washburn at 11:53 AM on January 12, 2011


As an aside, this AskMe motivated me to finally get around to switching my mediabeast over to using mpd & installing mpod on the wife's iPhone & MPDroid on my telephonic Android-based device.

All I have to say is: why oh why didn't I do this ages ago!
posted by pharm at 2:07 AM on January 13, 2011


I've got to chip back in to address the comments about resistive touch screens being bad. It's a compromise I suppose, but the current gen. Archos resistive screens are simply fantastic. It would be a mistake to assume that the word "resistive" means poor quality.
posted by quarterframer at 10:33 AM on January 16, 2011


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