Toshiba Thrive… or My New McKay-blet ;) – Part 2
If you didn’t read the previous entry then you really should stop here, go read the previous post and then come back here.
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Communications Hub – Pt. II
As I was saying (before being interrupted by a known WordPress issue with long posts…), the Toshiba Thrive has taken over as the primary method of my electronic communication.
Where this really shines for me is being able to add in apps that handle all the communications methods I use, from IRC, to AIM (on the rare occasion), to WordPress entries and comments (like this entry) to all points inbetween. One can even torrent and use TOR and the Thrive doesn’t skip a beat or skimp on any of them.
Video chat.. got it, audio chat.. got it… all through Google Talk … or Ventrillo, or Teamspeak, or ..you pick ;) There is no longer any other need for yet another device to handle any of these functions.
Now, to my knowledge, and in the interest of disclosure, I do believe that the Thrive is a wifi only tablet… and while that may be a dealbreaker for some of you up front, be advised that you can tether to your phone or use a netbook usb dongle to interact with the 4G networks, if you like… and in the future, you can simply replace that usb dongle, so in effect, it’ll keep pace with you for a while, despite not having 4G onboard*.
In any case, I don’t want a cell phone on my wifi workstation tablet, so I’m happy with things the way they are.
(* some companies may in fact have a built in cell enabled version of the Thrive.. I leave it to you to check.)
So, The Thrive Is Great, But What Are You Actually Doing With It?
Well, for me the Thrive seemed to be the only tablet on the market to fit the bill for my uses… and that, as an artist, not only did I need a large screen, but I needed plenty of storage capability as well. I also liked to code, so the OS had to let me do that without worry and it had to be fast… no sense getting something awesomely transportable, with all these functions that turned out to be slower than molasses in winter.
The Thrive is fast, very fast, it multi tasks and it does exactly what I want it to do. Never have I had anything slot into my tech needs list so darn well and so quickly.
Thanks to wonderful apps like Sketchbook Mobile (SBM), I can draw, right on the tablet and do everything from storyboards to final line art (and with layers!) that I can then save as a .psd and ship over to photoshop for final colour and post processing. Its painless, and I suspect it’s goiing to save me alot of money on artist notebooks (digital means infinite pages after all).
Couple that with Winamp to handle my music, Gallery to handle my pictures (although Hey, GOOGLE! Three words -SORT BY NAME!-), Youtube to handle how-to and funny videos, a browser to handle my surfing… all I really need is a pair of headphones my can’t won’t chew up and I’m good for 8hr jaunts out into the world, or my living room, ready to focus on my work. And if i need a new full battery charge right now.. I can take off the back and put in a new backup battery (I don’t have one though), or I can simply plugin somewhere and keep on keepin on ;)
So that’s where we are, I have a Java compiler, a text editor, a graphics tablet, communications hub, video conferencing suite, a nice big screen for google maps, calendar, MP3 player/Audio recorder, Video Editor and Compiler…. all that AND its in one device which can expand to cover many more interests.
With luck, maybe the Toshiba Thrive will fit yours too :)
~Lourdes
