Friday, April 11, 2014

Will we really be able to use tablets?

If you have read previous posts here you know that I have been fascinated with my HP Omni 10 tablet, well the honeymoon is coming to a close.

Omni 10I still like the tablet however it does have one severe drawback – as do most devices like this that you really want to use. The best internal storage is 32 GB – not enough.

Problem is that I believe this restriction is the result of mandates made by others.

First you have to think what they have to lose if you really started using the tablet to be productive?. Who is they? HP, Microsoft, Intel, just to name a few. I left out the hard drive manufacturers as well as other members of the, once elite, PC Laptop/Desktop market.

I suspect it goes something like this:

  • “As long as they cannot do too much they will still need a laptop.”
  • “Be sure to focus on entertainment and get away from using the device for productivity.”
  • “We can’t have them buying a $399 device and using it as BYOD. We have to stop that.”

It’s their answer to Wall St. We are doing everything we can to keep them buying big deal laptops. For all I know the backpack people are in on this. Where are those people with conspiracy theories? This should be a hot one. John C. Dvorak are you listening? John you and Adam Curry should look into this for your No Agenda show.

Reality says (to me) that If I can add a 64 GB SD card why can’t I have at least 64 GB of internal storage? Actually the individual at the Microsoft store stated that I could put in a 4 TB card if I wanted to pay for it. I believe he said “Windows can handle up to 4TB”. I know, engineering can’t make it work unless you buy a bigger tablet. Note: HP says the SD card storage is only good to 32 GB however the salesperson at the Microsoft store said whatever you want and I bought a 64 GB card and it is working well.

How have I adjusted you ask? It turns out you can move OneDrive to the SD card as well as limit what folders are synced for off-line use. I have also discovered you can limit what folders to sync with Dropbox – moving Dropbox to the SD card is frowned on by Dropbox (they were most helpful in getting me straight on this. Actually tech support at Dropbox was very good.). I also discovered that I can move Google Drive to the SD card and limit what sync’s. One word of caution; keep everything in folders in your online storage. The syncing will bring over the folders you designate and anything not in a folder.

I am now up to 4.5 GB free in the internal storage.

I have re-directed the camera storage however that did not work as well as the PC Setting’s wanted you to believe. I had a little more to do to make that work completely.

No problem with Windows 8.1 Update – loaded up and ran well. I suspect my biggest problem is the Office 365 subscription that I installed. I could not find a way to limit what was installed. I really did not want Access, Publisher, Outlook, OneNote. If there is a way limit the download Microsoft did not make it obvious, at least to me (the qualifier).

The Office 365 app on the iPad is really great as it is on my Android phone. I was pretty amazed at what I could do on the phone. When Microsoft brings out the Mobile Office app for one of their own I will remove the complete package from the tablet and load the app.

The last thing to consider is that you cannot search for the HP Omni 10 tablet at HP. You have go to the Internet, search for HP Omni 10 tablet and you will get a link to the tablet at www.shopping.hp.com .Hmm….Somehow I think I adopted an orphan.

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