JC, a fellow cow-orker, casually said he was going to throw out an Android tablet [1] as it was garbage. It worked, but apparently was so bad that it wasn't worth keeping. I was curious. So I asked him if I could have it instead.
Wow.
I think I should ask for my money back.
How much of the badness is due to Android and how much of it is due to this being the Mi Traveler^10Q8B I don't know. I think I'm willing to give Android the benefit of a doubt, seeing how it can be modified by the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to fit their needs, so I'm attributing all the badness to the Mi Traveler^10Q8B.
And it's **baaaaaaaaaaad!**
Weight-wise, it's about the same as my iPad, but boy does it feel cheap. The screen is cheap plastic. The case is cheap plastic. It feels like I can pry it apart, although it's a sealed case and extensive probing doesn't reveal any obvious seams. It just feels … cheap!
It took me a bit to figure out how to turn the unit on. There are two switches on one edge (top? Bottom? Hard to say), both identical. One turns the unit on and off. the other one is the “Home” button.
Using it, It seems slugish as I'm using it. I've never been fond of Android (having been spoiled by the iPhone) but this thing is just painful to use. The interface is confusing (and again, I'm not sure how much of this is Android and how much of this is the Mi Traveler changing things up to “add value”) and the tentacles of Google are very much evident here—no I do not want to use the Google [DELETED-Butt-DELETED] Cloud thank you very much. Then there's the YouTube app. Why does it need my contacts, location, use of the camera and microphone and the ability to send an SMS (Short Message Service) [2]? Bad Google! No cookie [3] for you!
And now we get to the camera.
It's bad (I look like a bad cartoon character!) [4]. It's really bad [5].
My iPhone takes better pictures (Yorick is looking a bit jaundiced) [6]. So does the iPad [7].
In fact, to get a picture as bad as the Mi Traveler [8], I had to crank the quality of the image [9] down to 10%, and even then, I still think the picture is better than the one from the Mi Traveler.
It might be fun to hack on though.
Now … where did I put my pick-axe?
[1] https://www.android.com/tablets/
[2] /boston/2018/08/23/permissions.jpg
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie
[4] /boston/2018/08/23/bad-self.jpg
[5] /boston/2018/08/23/bad-desk.jpg
[6] /boston/2018/08/23/good-self.jpg
[7] /boston/2018/08/23/good-desk.jpg
[8] /boston/2018/08/23/gdgb.jpg
[9] https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/30243/what-quality-to-choose-when-converting-to-jpg
![[2] /boston/2018/08/23/permissions.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2018/08/23/permissions.jpg){kind=link}
![[4] /boston/2018/08/23/bad-self.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2018/08/23/bad-self.jpg){kind=link}
![[5] /boston/2018/08/23/bad-desk.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2018/08/23/bad-desk.jpg){kind=link}
![[6] /boston/2018/08/23/good-self.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2018/08/23/good-self.jpg){kind=link}
![[7] /boston/2018/08/23/good-desk.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2018/08/23/good-desk.jpg){kind=link}
![[8] /boston/2018/08/23/gdgb.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2018/08/23/gdgb.jpg){kind=link}