This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!  (Read 1470 times)

imurrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 230
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« on: November 28, 2011, 10:58:28 PM »
Over the few years I was using my asus netbook to pull up PDF, online wiki, and xls sheets to assist in gaming. It came in handy  for looking up PDF for a specific rule, or utilizing my xls sheet of my warforged juggernaut attacks (they can get complicated) or even document kills, loot and other note taking in the game.

Well it died a few weeks ago. To replace my laptop I purchased 14 inch HP Pavillion g4-1215dx. Great price for $349. Unfortunately it is bigger than my netbook and the battery life was meh... kinda half of the 6-7  hours I had on my Asus 1000he.

At the same time my son was given an iPad from my parents. For a week I played with it and tried to get the books on it, but it was such a pain I gave up. I really did not like iOS on the tablet. On the phone it works well but the tablet seems too linear for me. I know the iPad has a whole universe of apps and is the king of tablet sales. For those who use the iPad, can you open multiple PDF and shuffle between them with out reopening them?

I broke down and went back to best Buy and purchased an HP Touchpad for $149 (they would only sell it at that price if you had purchased an HP computer).

I played with it for a few days and instantly loved how the OS worked. You can truly multitask with this OS. You can have multiple PDF open, xls files, and what ever. With webOS you can stack cards of open files or programs and then you can slide them around, open them and shuffle between them. Here is a picture of how I have set up (see attached file). One stack is my psychic warrior Dante and the XPH and CPH. Next to it is my Artificer and a Crystal Keep PDF for infusions, and off screen is my Warforged Juggernaut with his XLS sheet to calculate his attacks. If I open other PDF, I can keep them on a separate stack. To open the file you just tap the card and it expands to full screen and hitting the home button or swipe the bottom of the screen goes back to the desktop. If you want to see more about webOS  just hit youtube and see it yourself.

I also took the liberty installing Cyanogen Mod 7 Alpha 2 and 3 on the HP Touchpad. Cool thing is you can dual boot between either OS and they share the same virtual SD card in the device so the PDF files are shared between both OS's I use and Android phone and the mod works well on the Touchpad. You can open multiple files and shuffle between them but I can not open more than one PDF at a time with out using multiple readers, which is silly to do. Android does have lots of apps but for using it for my gaming purpose just did not work.

The one major drawback is that HP has discontinued the Touchpad and the app market is , well meak. So I may just use the webOS for game night and then Android the rest of the week. Hopefully when Icecream Sandwich gets created for the the Touchpad it can do what I want. There is also a glimmer of hope HP may do something right and keep webOS and create a newer version.

The one drawback on webOS is there is no index or table of contents you can manipulate as you can on a PC. So, I have to resort to looking at the index or table of content in the actually PDF.

Well, lets here your experience of what tablet you use and how you use it.
MADE IN THE USA

Kaldric

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • K
  • Posts: 576
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2011, 12:34:38 AM »
I have a WebOS phone, it's an okay OS. I prefer Android, the Asus Transformer for multiple PDFs - the platform is open, the app market is robust. I can tether it to my phone, so it's got 3g when I want it.

Plus, I have the keyboard dock, which extends the battery life to something like 16 hours - and I can type notes on it if I should need to.

I like to use it for maps and stuff, as well - I can plug it into the keyboard to use as a netbook, then just yank it out and slap it down on the table to show illustrations, or move a map around, etc.

imurrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 230
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2011, 01:08:19 AM »
If I were to buy any other tablet, the Transformer would be it. The whole docking station makes it very useful, but it the cost is high.

What program are you using to open multiple PDF at the same time?
MADE IN THE USA

Kaldric

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • K
  • Posts: 576
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2011, 01:44:11 AM »
I generally only need one open at a time - but in the past, I've wanted to have multiples of a single document open at different pages, etc.

I just open it in multiple readers.

I have: Adobe reader, Aldiko, MyLibrary, PDF To Go, Polaris Office - and ezPDF, which is what I use as the default.

I just open them all up, tap the taskbar, flip between them. Eventually, someone will make a tablet pdf reader for android. Probably a bunch of people working on it right now. If it hasn't come out and I just never bothered to find it.

imurrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 230
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2011, 11:36:52 AM »
I just purchased the ezpdf reader pro for $0.10 and it is probably the only pdf in android you can open pdf and switch between multiple ones. It is slow in that regards, but the index does work in it. That is a big plus. One other point it is slower than adobe in either webos or android.
MADE IN THE USA

Blazing Donkey

  • Cheap Sunglasses
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 304
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2011, 09:43:39 PM »
Tablet for gaming? Really?

Since when does anybody need this or a laptop to run/play a game?
----BLAZING Donkey----[/FONT][/size]

Running: Rifts - http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21367

Aos

  • Huge Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7724
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2011, 10:08:00 PM »
Many people use .pdfs in place of physical books.
Really.
You are posting in a troll thread.

Metal Earth

Cosmic Tales- Webcomic

Sacrificial Lamb

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1977
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2011, 01:43:39 AM »
Quote from: Blazing Donkey;495487
Tablet for gaming? Really?

Since when does anybody need this or a laptop to run/play a game?


I never thought I would use a laptop for gaming, but I actually use one now. It can be very convenient, though I still use some of my books...

Kaldric

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • K
  • Posts: 576
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2011, 02:18:45 AM »
It's one book that magically transforms into any book you need. You can magically flip to any book you want, any chapter you want, any phrase or word you want. You can pull up maps, music, sounds, charts, roll dice, auto-generate anything you need, all with a touch of your finger.

I like the smell and feel of books. But at a certain point, I made the jump to the future.

imurrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 230
Best Tablet for gaming is the Touchpad!
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2011, 11:08:25 PM »
Having a tablet is invaluable for reference. I also use it for my character sheets. My wife and children have lost and destroyed character sheets on a regular basis. So having everything on an easy accessible tablet has made my life easy.
MADE IN THE USA