The column about my Toshiba Thrive from last week generated several intriguing emails.
First, "I am looking for a Tablet PC and want to know if you can tell me more about yours?" Well, I can but I only have so much space in the columns. You can really find all you need online starting at Toshiba.com and Googling for the "Toshiba Thrive." I will, however go on to talk about a couple of things I did not mention last week.
It has an amazing recharging capability. The specifications said it will recharge a totally discharged battery in an hour. Well come on folks! Do I look like I was born yesterday? I am not new to this stuff and I found that pretty hard to believe. So I tested it out. I ran my battery down to less than a 10% charge. I plugged it in for exactly one hour and checked it. The charge was up to 89%. No, that is not 100% but close enough for me. It only took a few more minutes to make it to 100%. Just think about it, your battery is low and you have 20 minutes to spare. Charge it for those 20 minutes and you may have 25% or more of your battery capacity back. That is amazing compared to other charging experiences I have had.
I mentioned the full size USB port last week and someone wanted to know if it would also hold a SD Card. The answer is of course. Yes, there is a slot for one of those also. There is also an HDMI slot (to connect to a video device like TV to deliver digital quality.) You could not ask for much more on a tablet. Oh but wait, there is one more thing you do not find on many other tablet PCs, if any at all. The Thrive has a replaceable battery. That means you can order a new battery if needed and put it in yourself. With others you have to pay a geek to do it and maybe send it away for a few weeks.
The other emails said that I had mentioned, "Swype" and they wanted to know if I had misspelled "Wipes". Swype is a great Android program which allows you to significantly increase your "typing" speed on your phone or any Android device. You simply slide your finger from one letter in a word to another and it predicts the word you are typing. It is amazingly accurate and if you have an Android device and you want to try it out this free app, go to Swype.com.
The last item for today is Skype (Skype.com) and no, I have not just misspelled Swype. They are two totally different programs. The really basic description of Skype is that it allows you to call phones and other computers via the internet. It also has the built-in capability to have video along with your audio. That allows you to talk to and see the boyfriend, girlfriend, kids, grand kids, etc. no matter where they may be located on the globe. It is a free computer-to-computer service but for phone calls check out the rules on their site.
Have fun computing this week and keep those emails coming! I love to hear from all of my readers and answer your great questions.
