Loving my Asus Transformer plus Aldiko


Technology

Shadow Lodge

I just wanted to say that I'm loving my Asus Transformer with Aldiko to display Pathfinder pdf's. Works great! It's a teeny bit slow on page turns, but that's a platform thing for pdf, and Aldiko isn't super friendly when flipping from book to book. (Use bookmarks!) But I ran a game last Saturday for new players that was paper-free, and it rocked.

Highly recommend it, if you can swing it.


mcbobbo wrote:

I just wanted to say that I'm loving my Asus Transformer with Aldiko to display Pathfinder pdf's. Works great! It's a teeny bit slow on page turns, but that's a platform thing for pdf, and Aldiko isn't super friendly when flipping from book to book. (Use bookmarks!) But I ran a game last Saturday for new players that was paper-free, and it rocked.

Highly recommend it, if you can swing it.

I've been considering this. How quickly does search work as that seems to what I mostly use the PDFs for.

Contributor

Moved thread.

Shadow Lodge

Some call me Tim wrote:
mcbobbo wrote:

I just wanted to say that I'm loving my Asus Transformer with Aldiko to display Pathfinder pdf's. Works great! It's a teeny bit slow on page turns, but that's a platform thing for pdf, and Aldiko isn't super friendly when flipping from book to book. (Use bookmarks!) But I ran a game last Saturday for new players that was paper-free, and it rocked.

Highly recommend it, if you can swing it.

I've been considering this. How quickly does search work as that seems to what I mostly use the PDFs for.

Search is admittedly poor.

The table of contents and index get linked in with Aldiko, though, so I can tap 'go to' and get where I need to be pretty fast. I actually 'raced' a friend with a paper copy and won...

Not so much a search, though.


mcbobbo wrote:
Some call me Tim wrote:
mcbobbo wrote:

I just wanted to say that I'm loving my Asus Transformer with Aldiko to display Pathfinder pdf's. Works great! It's a teeny bit slow on page turns, but that's a platform thing for pdf, and Aldiko isn't super friendly when flipping from book to book. (Use bookmarks!) But I ran a game last Saturday for new players that was paper-free, and it rocked.

Highly recommend it, if you can swing it.

I've been considering this. How quickly does search work as that seems to what I mostly use the PDFs for.

Search is admittedly poor.

The table of contents and index get linked in with Aldiko, though, so I can tap 'go to' and get where I need to be pretty fast. I actually 'raced' a friend with a paper copy and won...

Not so much a search, though.

Been using Aldiko too and it has worked pretty good. I've decided to print out maps and certain other important sheets for some ease of use, but otherwise paper-free as well.

Shadow Lodge

Tangible Delusions wrote:

Been using Aldiko too and it has worked pretty good. I've decided to print out maps and certain other important sheets for some ease of use, but otherwise paper-free as well.

I just wish I could run multiple instances of it. One for each book, to be precise.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

That's kind of why I'm still hesitant on the tablet front. On the one hand, I really want a shiny Transformer, on the other hand I may be better served by a netbook/ new laptop.

Do you use the keyboard dock for your Transformer? Is it handy/ clunky?

Shadow Lodge

carborundum wrote:


Do you use the keyboard dock for your Transformer? Is it handy/ clunky?

That one's on my Christmas list. :)

Also I thought I'd add, my Atom netbook is equally slow in turning pages in those same pdf's. I honestly thought the tablet wasn't up to snuff, and seeing them run about the same speed shocked me a bit. So, I need to soften that 'slow' comment towards anyone who's used them on a netbook...


mcbobbo wrote:
carborundum wrote:


Do you use the keyboard dock for your Transformer? Is it handy/ clunky?

That one's on my Christmas list. :)

Also I thought I'd add, my Atom netbook is equally slow in turning pages in those same pdf's. I honestly thought the tablet wasn't up to snuff, and seeing them run about the same speed shocked me a bit. So, I need to soften that 'slow' comment towards anyone who's used them on a netbook...

The netbook I had was definitely worse. I much prefer my tablet

Shadow Lodge

Tangible Delusions wrote:
The netbook I had was definitely worse. I much prefer my tablet

Makes one wish that our friends at Paizo would consider releasing a version without the multi-meg image in the background of each page...

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Well, I got me a Transformer and keyboard dock. It's a wonderful piece o kit!

Anyone got a list of must-have apps?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
carborundum wrote:

Well, I got me a Transformer and keyboard dock. It's a wonderful piece o kit!

Anyone got a list of must-have apps?

Summoner

Spells
Spellbook -pf
Pathfinder companion

Any office (I use documents to go,though quick office isn't bad)


mcbobbo wrote:
Tangible Delusions wrote:
The netbook I had was definitely worse. I much prefer my tablet
Makes one wish that our friends at Paizo would consider releasing a version without the multi-meg image in the background of each page...

As much as I love the artwork, having an imageless version of all the books would be nice on my netbook and iPod Touch.

Grand Lodge

For Android PDFs the must have app is ezPDFReader, runs most PDFs (including Paizo's) absolutely perfectly.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Do any of the android PDF programs support editing and saving form-fillable pdfs? Such as the modified Neceros character sheet? Looking into getting a tab to replace books and character sheets at the table (but not the dice, never the dice.)


Vanus wrote:
Do any of the android PDF programs support editing and saving form-fillable pdfs? Such as the modified Neceros character sheet? Looking into getting a tab to replace books and character sheets at the table (but not the dice, never the dice.)

ezPDF Reader supports form-fill. It really is the best...heck, with its annotation features you don't even need the forms since you can type right over the PDF!


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
erian_7 wrote:
Vanus wrote:
Do any of the android PDF programs support editing and saving form-fillable pdfs? Such as the modified Neceros character sheet? Looking into getting a tab to replace books and character sheets at the table (but not the dice, never the dice.)
ezPDF Reader supports form-fill. It really is the best...heck, with its annotation features you don't even need the forms since you can type right over the PDF!

Awesome, thanks! Now to wait for actual reviews of the ThinkPad Tablet so I can make my decision on which tablet to get. Heavily leaning towards the thinkpad because of durability and the digitizing layer/pen, but the ASUS is cheaper...

Grand Lodge

I vote for the Acer, built in full size USB port (no need for a dock to get it) FTW.


I just got a Toshiba thrive, almost went with asus, but the ports were better. I hope I don't kick myself in the long run.

The Exchange

I also have a transformer (no dock) and I like it a lot. Thanks a ton to miniaturepeddler for those App suggestions, they look useful.


Jeremy Becker wrote:
I also have a transformer (no dock) and I like it a lot. Thanks a ton to miniaturepeddler for those App suggestions, they look useful.

With the latest change to the PRD I pretty much got rid of all the Pathfinder Apps I had. (Except for the Pathfinder Spellbook one which has filtering options)


I've been pondering getting a tablet, too, and I think I'll go with a EeePad Transformer, too. I'm not sure whether I'll get the 3G version or not, but probably will get the dock.

Even without, the MicroSD should be quite a boon.

I have a few questions:

  • What with the different apps for pdf viewing, is there any where you can properly search the docs without messing things up big time? I'd just go with the PRD/d20pfsrd, but I'm not sure there are off-line versions, and access to the net and/or WLAN isn't always guaranteed.
  • Is there anything even close to a tablet-friendly character sheet app or anything else to put a whole character?

  • Sovereign Court

    KaeYoss wrote:

    I've been pondering getting a tablet, too, and I think I'll go with a EeePad Transformer, too. I'm not sure whether I'll get the 3G version or not, but probably will get the dock.

    Even without, the MicroSD should be quite a boon.

    I have a few questions:

  • What with the different apps for pdf viewing, is there any where you can properly search the docs without messing things up big time? I'd just go with the PRD/d20pfsrd, but I'm not sure there are off-line versions, and access to the net and/or WLAN isn't always guaranteed.
  • Is there anything even close to a tablet-friendly character sheet app or anything else to put a whole character?
  • I'm not happy with my dock. Love the tablet, but typing on the dock is a pain in the ass. It's non responsive, it drops letters, its clunky, the touchpad activates when I type etc... It's very frustrating. It will not replace a netbook. I am mainly using the dock as an expensive battery pack.

    Strongly recommend you test drive the dock (using twitter, paizo etc) before you purchase.


    Robert Hawkshaw wrote:


    I'm not happy with my dock. Love the tablet, but typing on the dock is a pain in the ass. It's non responsive, it drops letters, its clunky, the touchpad activates when I type etc... It's very frustrating. It will not replace a netbook. I am mainly using the dock as an expensive battery pack.

    Strongly recommend you test drive the dock (using twitter, paizo etc) before you purchase.

    Touchpads getting in the way is, I must say, a common thing, at least for me. On my laptop, I usually turn it off (I usually use a mouse and/or the touch screen), and at work I used to have a separate keyboard, anyway (as the work laps didn't have a numpad, and I like the numpad).

    Can't you turn off the touchpad?

    I'm not really looking for a netbook, and neither am I attempting to replace my laptop. I'm mainly interested in the tablet, anyway, and the MicroSD slot is a big plus over the Galaxy. Still, the option of having extra battery power, a keyboard, as well as USB, is a plus in my book.

    I'll have to see if I can find a shop that sells it so I can test-drive it as you have suggested.

    Grand Lodge

    KaeYoss wrote:


    I'm not really looking for a netbook, and neither am I attempting to replace my laptop. I'm mainly interested in the tablet, anyway, and the MicroSD slot is a big plus over the Galaxy. Still, the option of having extra battery power, a keyboard, as well as USB, is a plus in my book.

    I'll have to see if I can find a shop that sells it so I can test-drive it as you have suggested.

    Check out the Acer Iconia A500, microSD card slot and a full size USB port, which if you are will to run the app the will root your device, you can install an app that will allow it to recognize pretty much any filesystem. I plugged a 1TB NTFS external hard drive into mine and it worked awesomely.


    I went with the Asus in the end. Ordered it earlier today, should get here by the end of the week.

    Now I'll just have to go hunt down some nice apps.

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