Tablet Pc For A 6 Year Old?

[ProDave]

HELP I've BROKEN IT

.......

I gave it a few minutes charging then started to play with it again. I'm still learning how these things work.

On the "main screen" (wrong terminology, but when it first powers up there are only a few icons on the screen, that's the one I mean) there was a large asterisk looking icon.

I pressed it to see what it did.

The screen turned off.

Now it appears to be running, but with the screen turned off.

If I press and hold the power button it shuts down. As I re start I get the Android icons as it starts up, then the screen goes off.

I can only assume I've turned the screen off accidentally perhaps? But how do I turn it back on when I can't see what I'm doing?

I've got the replacement one today. Delayed a bit by the fact we were out when the postie tried to deliver it, so we had to collect it from the sorting office.

Anyway, before I go and brick this one, here is a screen shot showing the "asterisk" icon that I pressed on the last one that turned the screen off, and seemed to be the start of the troubles with that one.

It's the right hand of the three icons in the black rectangle.

What does it do? unlike windoze, hovering over it does not tell me what it is, and there's no things like right click to find out. So what is it, and why did ONE press on it turn the screen off on the last one?

 

[NozSpark]

Left to right....

WiFi

Sync

Display

I guess that they are on/off buttons rather than links to a menu so personally I'd find a way to get rid of them through te settings

 

[ProDave]

Left to right....

WiFi

Sync

Display

I guess that they are on/off buttons rather than links to a menu so personally I'd find a way to get rid of them through te settings

That's what I'm asking.

I have to say I'm finding this android touch screen interface highly non intuitive. Is there a decent simple "getting started" tutorial anywhere? Searching for "android tutorial" brings up lots of stuff about how to program apps for it, but I just want a bloody simpletons user guide.

For instance once you have opened an app, how the hell do you close it? I can minimise it, but after you let it go to sleep and power it up, it's still there.

We need to learn to use the thing properly before we dare let our daughter loose with it. Mind she will probably figure out how to use it a lot quicker than us geriatrics.

 

[ProDave]

I guess that they are on/off buttons rather than links to a menu so personally I'd find a way to get rid of them through te settings

Yes indeed they are. Pressing the Wi Fi icon turns the wi fi on and off.No I'm not pressing the display icon. Why the hell has this tablet been supplied set up with a "turn the screen off" icon on the main page? that sounds insane. How do I remove it? Settings lets me adjust things like brightness etc but I can't see how to turn these icons on or off.

Help please.

 

[OnOff]

Here you go, I reckon your "dead" one was probably ok...................read this:

http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/637103-help-turning-back-screen-my-tablet.html

 

[ProDave]

Here you go, I reckon your "dead" one was probably ok...................read this:

http://androidforums...-my-tablet.html

you are probably right, but I don't have the hdmi cable / adaptor for it to try that.Anyway, am I the only one that thinks it's totally bonkers to have a button on the main screen by default that lets you turn the screen off?

Anyway, I've found out how to remove it. Aparantly this was a "power bar" or something similar. I've found that to remove it (like any other icon) press and hold it, then after a few seconds a little X will apear at the top of the screen. Drag it to that X and it's been deleted from your screen.

it's still there under Widgets should you be stupid enough to drag it back to your screen.

I can see a purpose for it, if you have an hdmi connection, in which case you add that icon to your screen when you get your hdmi cable. But to have it there by default I still maintain as absolutely 100% bonkers.

I'm still trying to find an idiots guide to the whole touchy feely android user interface, as at the moment I find nothing is intuitive. I'm too stuck in the windoze mentality.

 

[steptoe]

ah, its the windoze thing Dave,

dont get me wrong, its probably ok if you can use it, but for me to have a start button to stop is totally wrong to me. :|

now that Ive been using Linux/Ubuntu for so long I am totally lost when trying to use the wifes lappie for even the simpliest of tasks, [win7/maybe 8 now, for her work]

its not that its wrong, simply different,

now, are you still saying that its intuitive to click start to stop something?

I do agree with you on the , 'its bloody stupid to have the screen shutdown on the home page' thing though,

the problem with Android is that although its a common OS there are so many different variants on it,

Linux is a bit the same I suppose, I just normally use Ubuntu, the idiots version , though I do occasionally delve into the others such as CentOS [thanks canoeboy (?) ] , BackTrack [brilliant if absorbing and yet eye opening] (everyone you be able to see the capabilities of BT against a windoze machine), and Redhat when time permits and I want to try/experiment a little.

 

[ProDave]

ah, its the windoze thing Dave,

I'm the first to agree there are plent of windoze things that are stupid, like the aforementioned start button.I think my main gripe is inflexibility.

With windoze, you can click something with the mouse. Or you can double click it. Or you can right click it and get a whole list of things you can do with or to the selected icon.

Because the android is a mouse less environment, you don't have that range of options. So everything is dependant on how you press or stroke a chosen item, and I'm finding none of it is intuitive and there's certainly a much more limited range of options.

By the way I have the came complaint at a mac. I've not looked at one for years so I don't know if they are still the same, but I could never figure why there was only one button on the mouse. That must limit the range of options somewhat.

I'm still looking for an android idiots guide. It's doing my head in that I cant figure out how to shut down the camera app after using it. Minimise it yes, but shut it down, nope can't find how to do that.

 

[NozSpark]

Android manages itself, you don't shut apps down, the OS does when it knows that the app isn't needed anymore.

 

[NozSpark]

But it is better to exit an app using the back button rather than the home button.

 

[ProDave]

Okay another question.

when web browsing, if you enter the url of a site you want, say www.a_website.com it instead redirects you to m.a_website.com a cut down "mobile" version of the site.

Is there any way to turn that redirect "feature" off, because it's bloody annoying being told what it thinks I want to view, rather than letting me view what I really want.

 

[NozSpark]

Just found this on an Android forum

if you are having the same problem i did, you just go to

menu --> more --> settings --> uncheck mobile view

hope that helps

I guess that is from within the browser

 

[NozSpark]

Maybe try a different browser?

It also said that Dolphin HD has a, setting you can alter