Best Tablet for WinTotal

[NC Appraising]

Here is my take:


Windows tablets are more expensive; therefore I would take RG's advice and wait.

Here are some of the issues, although do not take it as being to negative:

1. Alamode offers many "mobile" products. They are a good start, but in my opine, to much clutter.

Mobile products should be as simple as possible.

- They should reflect the URAR. 90% of appraisers will only use the site section, improvements, sketch and photos.

Mobile asks every single time "do you want to save this pic"? . Yes!!!

They need to have it set up to take pic, after pic, and each pic taken with the tablet to get directly sent to the photo pages. That way when your "pair it" to your desktop, all pics will be in the URAR.

- It needs to be as quick as possible to get to the sketch, to take pics and to get to the improvements section as easy as possible.

[url]http://www.alamode.com/videos/labs/davincirevealed/[/URL]

Therefore, I chose to use the full version of 2013 with my Windows tablet.

As far as tablets, I have the new Helix Thinkpad. Overakill, but a good product. I also have a Disto with a viewfinder. You cannot use blue tooth with 2013. I have the 10" tablet. Anything smaller did not work for me (I'm using the pen.....)

The above links also works similar to 2013 on a tablet....you use a pen to draw.


Pitfalls of using the full version:

- No app or auto upload into the photo pages when using your tablet camera.

-- No voice recognition
- hard to take notes in the field with the pen. I use paint when need be.

Benefits:

- You can have all of your templates for every lender on the tablet...merge and go!!

- All of your custom quicklists. Can easily fill out the improvements section.

- Can easily go back from and to the sketch and improvements section.

- I use a point and shoot. As soon as I shoot my last comp pic, I upload them using the stamp mode.

I then email the report. When I get back to the office, the improvement section is done, pics are in and the sketch is in.

FWIW....no more screwing up the sketch or getting back to the office with missing measurements, etc. This saves me a lot of time.....

PS: Most tablets do not have good cameras, maybe another reason to wait....wide screen, flash, etc.


Sorry for the Grammar.....busy as you know what.

 

[NC Appraising]

Good NC Appraising! However, I'm still on a budget. Yes, they look a little dorky, but sure do come in handy when they're needed. Only on the brightest days do I have trouble.

And where we come from, we typically use something, and patch it when it breaks, till there is no "good" out of it anymore. My RYOBI is still going strong with no issues after over 3 years and thousands upon thousands of measurements. Can't justify an upgrade unless it breaks or I see a marked productivity increase. And the red dot is exactly the same intensity as a DISTO, I fully checked them out prior to buying. I'm trying to see how the Bluetooth feature will work with my convertible laptop that's arriving today.

From my understanding, the battery life on the DISTO with the zoom and view finder features, is much less than standard units, as expected. If it needs recharging every 2-3 days, I can probably live with that. My RYOBI will go 6-8 months without recharging. At least 150-200 inspections. I would imagine you don't have to use it all the time so may affect how it is affected. Since you have one, would you post what your experience is with it?

I started out with a Fatmax!!!!! It got the job done.

I use Enigizer Lithium batteries. They last forever. FWIW, I'm a battery hog. I keep my camera and Disto on throughout the inspection. To the best of my knowledge, Disto's do not have built in batteries. I suppose you could be rechargeable batteries. Battery life has never been an issue. Just keep the screen on the lowest setting.

As for the view finder, I use it on everyother inspection. For example, today I had a 50' length and needed to hit a gutter. Bright and sunny day and could not see the dot. Hit the view finder, zoom...bam. Done.

The other issue with the Fatmax is that it would not take a measurement of <2' most of the time. This was irritating!!!! Also, it would only show one measurement at a time.


Check out my pics.

I have a removable target plate with stick puddy with a ruler.

My point and shoot is built in. My camera is on at all time and I just walk and take pics.

I have flash lights built in for those REO properties.

 

[MoTim]

NC, I remember seeing those a few weeks ago! I thought they were pretty cool! I zoomed in on them to see how you had made them. I actually looked up the lighting system components, I thought that was a great idea. How would you deal with a zoom lense camera with your setup? My Sony opens and closes the lense each time I start it. Not sure how that would work. Would you send me specs on your target? I need one of those in a bad way.

I didn't know that about the DISTO. I'll have to look at them again, that may be a deal killer. My RYOBI has a universal battery from them that fit a lot of different items. I just put the battery pack into its own charger. It truly is a poor man's DISTO, but what appears to be a better battery system.

Have you tried an Eye-FI card? I have one and it works well transferring photos. I shoot 640x480, so they're not that big. With your system it would work well. Your pictures could upload to your tablet while you're taking measurements, that's what I had planned, but forgot the need to turn my camera off. It does eat battery life, but I think I could work around it with a charger in my car. You would have to turn your phone on to be a hotspot/internet connection, but that works to, I've tried it. The pics will upload to a file, just like any other way, just "wirelessly". I had to get 2 different ones, but the last one has lasted several months.

Thanks for the tips, I would like to see some more of your inspection case and target. Also your lighting system. That's just a neat way to go. Thanks!

 

[Pirate]

I too am looking at a DISTO. I want one with bluetooth that will draw over to an Android PAD. Any suggestions?

 

[Randall Garrett]

FWIW, I stand by my recommendation on waiting until Q3/Q4 to get the best bang for the buck. I understand (and agree) with MoTim's perspective that IF going mobile will make you money now, the sooner you do it the better. Having been an appraiser myself for about 20 years and also dealing with hardware/software for about the last 30 years, we appraisers are... ahem... frugal and want to best bang for the buck. My feeling is that if you buy a tablet at the END of a chip cycle - especially given that the next set of chips (Haswell and Bay Trail) bring such SIGNIFICANT benefits, most will end up regretting their early purchase in a very few months. For those reasons, and due to the fact that the prevailing software available today is mainly a desktop program (vs. one with true mobile optimizations), waiting just a (very) few months is prudent. Just my 2¢, and I have no hardware to sell... ;-)


Pirate:
On the DISTO question, it really matters which Android Tablet you have, or are getting. Let me know which one and I can better advise. Basically, though, if it is a current device, more than likely, you'll need the D8. The newer E7500i uses Bluetooth 4 and while some Android devices have exposed (or even still hidden) Bluetooth 4 capability, for the most part they use Bluetooth 3 and earlier. If your Tablet (and the underlying OS) does not have Bluetooth 4, the E7500i will not work. More info in this thread, if you want to pick it out. Happy to answer questions, if needed.

http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=193948


Hope this helps!


-Randall Garrett-
..Apex Software..

/end/

 

[kakarotto]

personally i'm waiting for the Temash tablets (amd processors). i think they are far superior to the atom processors (which are limited to 2 gigs of ram), and are on par with the corei3 processors (or maybe even better). I am not looking to use this for field inspections only, but would love to be able to dock it in at home and at the office. (i do have a gaming computer that dual boots into windows 7 and 8 for work and play). I would like to use the tablet solely for work and surfing, multi-media on my other computers. I am tempted to pick up a lenovo tablet since their lynx tablet is only 350 bucks. i love the screen of my asus tf700, but asus really screwed things up with the storage bottleneck on this one, making it unusable, and the tegra3 is nothing but disappointing.

 

[Randall Garrett]

Consider the Bay Trail devices due Q3/Q4. Removes the 2GB limit, adds better GPU, etc., nd I would expect more device choices due to design wins. I have nothing bad to say about Temash as I've not seen even a prototype or reference design device yet, but I have seen the Bay Trail reference design and I think a lot of appraisers will find them to be more than adequate for their mobile needs. Hoping software types will optimize their offerings for mobile, though. That is the biggest bottleneck to mobile productivity ATM, IMHO. I'd skip the IdeaTab for now...

Just my 2¢...


-Randall Garrett-
*Apex Spftware*

/end/

 

[kakarotto]

two generations of atom and intel has lost me forever. i think amd is severely underrated and i have been a fan of their processors since i was gaming in college. i prefer the radeon graphics over the intel graphics as well. i'm selling my tf700 to get the lynx, i think at 350, it's a way for me to try and use wintotal from a tablet, as the android offering is not good at all.

 

[Randall Garrett]

You realize that the Lynx has an Atom (Z2760) CPU, right? Hence, it will be limited to 2GB of RAM and old Intel graphics, slower storage protocol, etc. How does the program you anticipate using perform with 2GB of RAM? Unless the software is optimized for mobility, you may struggle a bit. The current generation of thin/light Win 8 tablets like the one you are eying are remarkable for what they are, but the big jump happens with the Haswell & Bay Trail devices, the release of Win 8.1 and (hopefully) optimized software. I'm looking at Q3/Q4 for those items to converge. Interested to hear your experiences - we all learn from real world feedback . Please share with the community.

Best wishes!


-Randall Garrett-
*Apex Software*

/end/

 

[kakarotto]

You realize that the Lynx has an Atom (Z2760) CPU, right? Hence, it will be limited to 2GB of RAM and old Intel graphics, slower storage protocol, etc. How does the program you anticipate using perform with 2GB of RAM? Unless the software is optimized for mobility, you may struggle a bit. The current generation of thin/light Win 8 tablets like the one you are eying are remarkable for what they are, but the big jump happens with the Haswell & Bay Trail devices, the release of Win 8.1 and (hopefully) optimized software. I'm looking at Q3/Q4 for those items to converge. Interested to hear your experiences - we all learn from real world feedback . Please share with the community.

Best wishes!


-Randall Garrett-
*Apex Software*

/end/

yes im aware of the hardware that it's got. i only started eyeing it when the price dropped to a palatable 350 hahaha