Menards: Polaroid PMID10C 10.1" tablet $129.99: 8GB internal memory, dual cameras 1 GHz

[ronb]

(never mind; I was thinking miniUSB/OTG connection like our earlier tablets; now we have a full-size port.)

[dawieg]

Thanks for all the info, dawieg!

I think the biggest problem finding a keyboard case is the plugs are all on the bottom of the tablet. Looks like other tablets have their plugs on the short side which allows you to access them when the tablet is horizontal in the case.

I think it would be nice if the power cord would be on the short end or if there was a low profile L shaped plug for it so it wouldn't protrude out so far when it is sitting in your lap. :-o

I haven't received it yet (because it has to come from China), but I did find these nifty-looking L-shaped USB adapters on **** (where I'm looking for a Case w/Keyboard):


Since I don't have them yet, I don't know exactly how well they'll fit against the base of the PMID10C, but thought it was worth a try. The listing I bought from is:
http://www.****.com/itm/110978637376...84.m1497.l2649

But there are lots of listings from other sellers of them, too (probably call come from the same warehouse, I'm sure). Some listings are just the right one...or the left one...I wanted to get both and see which one works better because it'll probably either cover up the HDMI port or the charging USB port.

I bought one of these last Saturday for $149. Right after I picked it up an employee put up the new price of $199. I was frustrated at the lack of information online - specifically the manufacturer's own website. I couldn't even find this model listed.

My big issue is battery life. I took the tab out of the box and used it until the battery died. I was impressed by how long that took. I put it on the charger over night and took it off the next morning. The battery was only up to 86% so I turned it off and didn't turn back it on until evening. By then the battery was at 18%. Kind of disappointing. I used it for a few minutes and it was down to 12% so I put it on the charger overnight again but powered it down this time. I took it off the charger at 10:30am the next morning and turned it on at 12:30pm (2 hours later) and it was at 18%. And I wasn't in the same room as the router so had no wireless signal. I was pissed and I decided to return it. The battery lasted long enough for a factory reset before it died.

I see others have the same issue with Wifi but I think mine has a defective battery. And I don't know what's up with the touch sensitivity. I have a Droid X2 that I love. Going from the X2 to this tablet I have to press so hard it feels like I'm going to break it. I figured for $149 it wouldn't be the best tab out there but I hoped the battery would at least take a charge and hold it for more than 2 hours.

It does sound like you might have had a defective battery. Even when I was getting bad battery life with mine, it would still fully charge overnight. If you hadn't returned it yet, I would have been curious to see if you saw any improvement by renaming the Phone.apk file like I mentioned in my long-winded post above. At least with mine, it seemed like it wasted a bunch of battery trying to search for a phone signal that it could never get.

[ronb]

Battery life

About the battery life, I just ran mine for ~3 hours until it reported 2% then ran it another ~3 hours at 2% until it shut down. Anyone else note similar experience?

So the battery gauge is not too accurate/useful, and as for the advice on the first couple charges for running it down and then charging, one probably needs to let it go until it quits, not until the warning at 15% appears.

Now it may either self calibrate and the gauge will work more as expected, or it might be a faulty software algorithm that needs fixing.

[dawieg]

About the battery life, I just ran mine for ~3 hours until it reported 2% then ran it another ~3 hours at 2% until it shut down. Anyone else note similar experience?

So the battery gauge is not too accurate/useful, and as for the advice on the first couple charges for running it down and then charging, one probably needs to let it go until it quits, not until the warning at 15% appears.

Now it may either self calibrate and the gauge will work more as expected, or it might be a faulty software algorithm that needs fixing.

I've only let mine drain completely down 'till it shut itself off once... I'm planning to probably do it again one or two more times. The night I did do it, though, I noticed the same thing you did. I don't remember if it was 2% or 1% or 3% exactly, but it seemed like it lasted forever at that point. I even started playing a TV Show on Netflix at full brightness to try to suck the battery quicker.

I only drained the battery that time to calibrate an app called Battery Left. It lets me put a widget on the homescreen with the "estimated" battery percentage left (versus what the system is reporting), and the estimated time the battery will die (along with other useful info you can configure). So right now, the System Battery Settings say it's at 76% after 3 hours, 47 minutes on battery. But Battery Left is estimating 81% battery based on it's own scale. I'll try to drain the battery again in the next couple days and see if there's any change.

[SingleDad]

I'm losing my wifi signal whenever I move more than 10ft from my router. I have a Westel 327W router that the internet company gave me years ago. As I said in an earlier post, I'm fairly computer literate but tablets are a new ball game for me. And I know nothing about routers other than they provide me signal, lol. Can someone walk me through how to change the channel?

That's about how bad my wifi reception was when i first brought the tablet home and before I knew I was using a congested channel.

To change the channel or other settings on your router/modem you usually need to go to the router's "homepage" where you communicate with it to change settings such as wireless channel etc.

I think on the Westel you would simply enter the following into your internet browsers's address bar:

http://192.168.1.1/

Once there it will likely ask you for a user name and password. If you have no idea what they log in info is try
Username: admin
and a blank password field

or try leaving both username and password blank. (These are usually the two default settings for login and most people never change them).

[SingleDad]

Has anyone found a screen protector that fits this tablet? I see some that are for a Galaxy Note 10.1 inch, but it is hard to find any that list the actual dimensions of the protector, and I don't know if the Galaxy is the same dimensions as this Polaroid or not.

Still waiting on that too! I have some cheap dollar store screen protectors I could trim/make fit...but I'd really like something better in quality.

I'd LOVE something like a skinomi or other high quality self healing protector.

[elektrik]

*deleted*

[PMisYMMV]

Wireless internet through SIM card

I want to give this as a gift to my brother in India who travels a lot. They use SIM card based USB dongles for getting on the net. Are there any apps that are needed for this to be connected to internet without actually tethering with a separate phone/SIM preferably using those USB dongles?

[Guest]

Firmware and Resets / Backups

Thanks for lots of good information here.

Factory Reset:
GrandpaReindeer asked if anyone had done a Factory Reset yet, so I'll say I have. It was maybe half-a-day after I had first unboxed it. I was having problems getting the email app to connect to my email, I was frustrated with the wi-fi performance, and I was just curious as to what would happen since I hadn't done much personalizing with it yet anyway. I had uninstalled some of the pre-installed bloatware (AOL, Moviefone, etc.) and was curious if they would come back (they did. I just uninstalled them again). To do the reset, I just went into Settings, then Backup & Reset, and pressed Factory Data Reset. It gave me the warnings about losing all my personal info & apps, blah, blah, blah. Then it reset...showed the little green Android guy for a while, restarted again and it started up just like the first time out of the box. I didn't time it, but it didn't seem like the whole process took that long...maybe 15 minutes if that.

BTW, I fixed my problems without needed the Factory Reset. Glad yours went well.

Anyone restored from Google yet?
I remember turning on a setting somewhere that said my apps and data would be backedup to Google. It doesn't give you any info on how to restore them, if needed. (I don't need to, just wondering if it really is there.)

Firmware:
I'm not sure if anyone else did this, but after SingleDad mentioned that the factory firmware was posted for download on Southern Telecom's site, I went into Software Update on my PMID10C and it said there was an update! So I installed it and am now running Baseband version 1.4.0.6 (It came with 1.4.0.5). It was a relatively file size, and it claimed to fix some bugs and OTA performance or something. I haven't really noticed much difference, but I saw they took away the Hotspot and Ethernet sections in the Settings menu (which didn't seem to do anything anyway and aren't applicable to this device). So keep in mind that I'm running this updated firmware version as you read the rest of this post.

I haven't tried Gmail yet, mainly because my Gmail bounces to my other email account which is already configured & I don't want to keep getting double email notices on my tablet like I do on my phone. I'll mention Chrome in my next section...

Browsers:
I still sometimes use the built-in browser because it's relatively quick, but I've been using Firefox primarily lately. I like the way it syncs with my other computers/phones so I can easily get webpages from one to the other. Although my preferred browser is currently Chrome (on my other devices, at least), but like ColdGuy mentioned, I also cannot get Chrome to load. I leave it installed, though, hoping that an update will come along that will make it work.

Firmware:
I've been waiting to hear other's experiences with that update before I allowed it. Sounds like it's okay to use.

Gmail: I've been using gmail and like it okay. It's a bit awkward on the tablet and I often have to stretch the screen bigger to check boxes, etc. Clicking on the slow-HTML version gives me an easier to use screen.

Browsers: I'm liking FireFox better than the OEM browser. The Sync is neat, although I can't seem to share/send a tab from my Win-7 PC to the tablet like I can from the tablet to my PC.

Facebook: My OEM Facebook app didn't have share buttons, only like and comment. If I run FB in Firefox, it gives me all features.

[Guest]

Screen Protector

Still waiting on that too! I have some cheap dollar store screen protectors I could trim/make fit...but I'd really like something better in quality.

I'd LOVE something like a skinomi or other high quality self healing protector.

I picked up one at the dollar store, too. I haven't used it yet.
I still have my factory shipping protector on the screen. It works fairly well, but as I mentioned in an earlier thread, I sometimes have to enlarge gmail and other screens to check those tiny boxes. I'm suspecting it's the thick screen protector, but I'm hesitant to take it off, especially with grandchildren in the house. (They don't use it yet, but I'm not sure how long I can keep them away, especially seeing I liked this one so well, their dad's going to find a 7" Polaroid under the tree ).

Would a stylus help? Do the cheap ones work or do they have to be special for the capacitance screen?

[rsri]

Need help trying to get google play

I am a novice regarding tablets - just picked up one from Menards and trying out the steps mentioned in this therad to get google play. When I use ES File Explorer to move vending.apk get msg that that vending.apk cannot be moved. What am I doing wrong. Pls help! thx much in advance

[dawieg]

I am a novice regarding tablets - just picked up one from Menards and trying out the steps mentioned in this therad to get google play. When I use ES File Explorer to move vending.apk get msg that that vending.apk cannot be moved. What am I doing wrong. Pls help! thx much in advance

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. I'll try to walk through what I did step by-step.

1. Download the vending.apk file linked to earlier in this thread...here it is again: http://www.mediafire.com/?31bn3e258jjpj8d (I downloaded that link right on my tablet...it's a lot easier that way then downloading it on a computer and then transferring it).

2. Launch ES File Explorer. Navigate to /sdcard/Download/ (the default place the built-in web browser downloads files to).

3. Long press the Vending.apk file and select Copy from the Operations Menu that pops up.

4. Navigate to /system/app/ and press the Paste button in the top menu bar.
4a. (if you're having trouble getting to the /system/ folder, you may have to enable ES File Explorer's Root Settings. To do this, press the menu button -> select Settings -> scroll down to Root Settings -> check all the boxes for Root Explorer, Up to Root, Mount File System & Backup System App. Then press the Back button until you're back to the main ES File Explorer screen. Now you can press the Up button on the top menu until you get to / then you can see the /system/ folder.

5. With Vending.apk copied into the /system/app/ folder, long press on it, and scroll down the list in the Operations menu that pops up until you can select Properties. Press the Change button next to Permissions in the Properties box. Check or uncheck the boxes so that only the Read and Write boxes are checked for User, and only the Read box is checked for Group and Other. Then press OK on each box until you're back to the main ES File Explorer screen.

6. Press Vending.apk to start the Install process, following the prompts like any other app install.

7. The old Google Market should be installed now. Exit out of ES File Explorer, find Market in your Apps list and run it. Log into it with your Google account and make sure it's working properly.

8. Get the new version of Google Play either from the download linked earlier in this thread (http://www.mediafire.com/?wwcqrlfwt8o1gnv) or from your phone or other Android device (such as the App backup method I described in an earlier post). Install it like any other app to update the older Market version. You should be good to go.

[dawieg]

FYI...Big Lots sent me an email of this week's ad and I saw they have a PMID104 on sale for $139.99. It looks pretty much like the PMID10C, except it only has 4GB built-in memory and doesn't include an HDMI cable: http://www.biglots.com/p/c/as-advert...d-40-10-tablet

When I was at Menard's last week, they still had a bunch of the PMID10Cs left from Black Friday, but they were still $199.99.

Anyone restored from Google yet?
I remember turning on a setting somewhere that said my apps and data would be backedup to Google. It doesn't give you any info on how to restore them, if needed. (I don't need to, just wondering if it really is there.)

I remember enabling that setting before I did my "test" Factory Reset, but since I hadn't done much to personalize my tablet yet, I don't think it did much. I did a Factory Reset on my phone a few weeks after it got the Ice Cream Sandwich update, but I don't really remember what all it restored for me. Wireless networks/settings, I think, contacts obviously, and probably some other stuff. I think the App Data is dependent on the app supporting it. So I lost my progress in Angry Birds after the factory reset, but if another app supported Google's backup, then it would have restored my settings for that app.

Firmware:
I've been waiting to hear other's experiences with that update before I allowed it. Sounds like it's okay to use.

I haven't noticed anything acting worse since the OTA firmware update. I have been getting pretty decent battery life lately, but I credit that to the battery drain cycles mentioned previously in this thread (I've done 3), and renaming the phone.apk file (as I mentioned in an earlier post).

Browsers: I'm liking FireFox better than the OEM browser. The Sync is neat, although I can't seem to share/send a tab from my Win-7 PC to the tablet like I can from the tablet to my PC.

The built-in way to get a tab from your computer to your tablet in Firefox is: Open the tab column (press the number in the top left corner) -> Press the computer icon (next to the +) -> Find your computer (if you have more than one), and select the tab you want from the list.

However, it seems this method is reliant on your Firefox's Sync schedule...so if you need a webpage from your computer to get on your tablet RIGHT NOW, then you probably won't want to wait for it to make it's way through Firefox's cloud and show up in that Sync'd Tab list. If that's the case, you'll probably need to look at a "Chrome-to-Phone"-like Add-on. I love Chrome-to-Phone on Chrome, but haven't been as impressed with the Firefox-compatible alternatives. I've tried:

Send Tab to Device: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...tab-to-device/
Site to Phone: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...site-to-phone/
LinkPush: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...ddon/linkpush/

They each work for the most part, but there still seems to be a slight delay or some other issue that makes me wish the actual Chrome-to-Phone would be ported to Firefox (there's a Chrome-to-Phone equivalent for Opera that works well, so I don't know why Firefox doesn't have a better solution).

Facebook: My OEM Facebook app didn't have share buttons, only like and comment. If I run FB in Firefox, it gives me all features.

Have you used Google Play to update the pre-installed Facebook app? When I got Google Play going, it noticed all the pre-installed apps and let me update the ones that had available updates.

[rsri]

thx much, got google play working!

Thx again - I used Root Explorer free version - and it worked; my problem with ES was I could not see any of the menu bars...not sure y!
Thx again for your detailed response - i am going to see what i did with ES....
PS. this is a great forum - so glad i stumbed onto this. Also, it will be great if ppl can tell me some cool apps - this is my 1st foray into "apping"

[Nitram]

Polaroid PMID10C comments

I purchased the PMID10C a few days ago and have formed the following opinion.
First off it was relatively easy to get going and attach to my wifi. Browsing the web is ok but the web pages build slow. I purchased this tablet with the intention of using skype but I have not been able to do that. I may be missing something here but it looks like the app needed to use skype on this model is not supported. It seems that the wifi range is not very good.
Overall I am leaning towards returning this to Menards, but will test it a couple of more days.