Advice on android "epad" from matricom...

[aand]

I just saw these on eBay and the company's website and I'm wondering if anyone has heard of them. All I want right now is a small pad that I can mount (and unmount) to the fridge or a wall in the kitchen where my kids can easily access their chore lists (scheduled via google calendar) and email without having to turn on the computer and log in etc. and where I can pull up a recipe (wifi) while I'm cooking. And occasional ebook reading/video, maybe.

Anyone have experience or info about the device and/or company?? I vaguely remember this being announced a while back, but it was called something else.

Google Android ePad Internet Tablet Netbook 1GHz/WebCam - eBay (item 220590272485 end time Apr-18-10 13:53:27 PDT)

 

[aand]

here's another example of the same device, different name:

Google Android 7" Netbook Tablet PC UMPC MID notebook - eBay (item 110521007266 end time Apr-24-10 09:21:00 PDT)

 

[MauiDude]

I was looking at those too. Has anybody seen a review of em? They look kool but kinda skimpy on the RAM there. Is there anyone that actually has one??

 

[aand]

I'm thinking I'll sell the virtually useless kindle I have and be a guinea pig for this one. Can't be any worse!

 

[phone*guy]

I'm thinking I'll sell the virtually useless kindle I have and be a guinea pig for this one. Can't be any worse!

I'd hang on if I were you...I bid on one today and won the auction...Seller quickly made contact and I paid via PayPal...They've since accepted the $$$ but are saying they need me to "send it again". Their phone number thats registered with PayPal comes back to a church.....

I'll repost when I have further info......

 

[aand]

Which seller did you get one from? There's Matricom7 and fadichi1969 that I see so far. The second listing I posted the link to is now gone, too. I'll wait to see how yours turns out! Thanks for the info!

 

[phone*guy]

Matricom7

 

[aand]

Just ordered one from this guy: Google Android 7" Netbook Tablet PC UMPC MID 600mhz - eBay (item 270568578890 end time Apr-28-10 16:41:30 PDT)

He emailed and said he'd take $150 and $30 shipping if you made a best offer. Has them in stock and will ship out Monday. No problems paying with Paypal, he replied immediately and was nice enough to cancel my bid on another of the same item.

He did a youtube video of the device, too, so I'm hopeful. YouTube - Google Android 7" Netbook Tablet PC UMPC MID 600mhz

I'll report again next week for anyone who's thinking about one.

 

[kenliu2610]

The seller sells this very expensive!! It is a copy cat of the iPad running Android OS, and you will see some unknown apps like QQ China on this device, the selling price here in Hong Kong is only about USD$256!!

I will definitely not getting this one from an unknown branded pad from China!!

If anyone interested to get one from this guy, no need to do so, it is selling at half price in Hong Kong only...I'd suggest to wait for the coming Dell Streak instead.

 

[skunky]

I don't see where the ebay posting from aand above shows that it comes with the 2gb memory that the Matrixx7 one has. Anyhow, I'm HOPEFULLY going to get mine in soon, and I'll post my review of it here.

 

[skunky]

Eken homepage; but no new info...
EKEN(HK) Electronic Co.ltd

 

[pcSirk]

I got two of these things. I bought one directly from china but it was broken when I got it. They said it was shipping issues but they said they would replace it if i shipped it back. Thats expensive to do BTW so its really inconvenient. So i bought one from the matricom.net website and got it yesterday. It came with no problems, works great. I see they have a video on youtube for theirs (search matricom?). It looks about the same at the one I got that was broken, except it has a better chassis than the one from China and appears sturdier. There seems to be different manufacturers making these. If anybody has any from China that worked good let me know? I have had nothing but bad experiences with chinese places every time I get something. Sometimes stuff never even makes it to me because of customs. Im done with that!

thanks.
Jeff

 

[aand]

Update...got the device today. It's an EKEN branded device, built pretty cheap. The power adapter is not US compatible. There are several things I can't use because the language is Chinese??Mandarin??. There are NO google apps and there is NO marketplace. So, using it as a family calendar/scheduling device is pretty much out unless we want to use the web browser and even that is some obsure browser that doesn't do well with gmail or google calendar. I don't know what this thing is intended for but it won't do anything I need it to.

I have asked to send it back to the seller and we'll see how that goes.

I wouldn't recommend this product for anyone used to using actual Android devices that integrate with google. The casing is also cheap and clicky and the screen is not as responsive as the videos show.

Pretty much a 2 on a scale of 1-10.

 

[aand]

Jeff...I got the white cheaper one. Does the black one you got (ipad clone) have all the google apps like they show on the screen? Does it use your google account (calendar, gmail, contacts, etc)???

 

[androidmid]

I purchased one of the tablets from a vendor on ebay, at first I thought it was going to be what I was looking for, an inexpensive droid based tablet. It is android based, it does have pretty good wifi conn. in the house, and it does download SOME apps. It doesn't have a long battery life, it doesn't have a good selection of apps it will download, it won't play the mp3s on the micro sd card, and it does not have a way of clearing the browser history. The Android version that it shows on the bootup screen is 1.7.4, which I have been told is not even an accurate version. I have contacted the seller and now am being told that I need to download a .rar file and re-flash the os. For now, I would recommend anyone looking at these on ebay, save your money. They may get the bugs worked out, but it is a bit of a headache currently.
If anyone else has a way of fixing this so it works correctly, plese let me know.

 

[ari-free]

Why can't people just wait for tablets from normal companies?

 

[sweetiekat57]

I think people don't sometimes want to wait on "normal" companies because of the allure of a cheaper price, as well as people are in the "give it to me now" frame of mind and are stuck on instant (or near-instant) gratification.

I came searching information in this epad because I haven't heard of them before and I think now I know I won't be buying one. I've been watching the iPad, the IPhone, the ITouch, etc. and other droid items for more than a year, trying to decide what I'd like to do. Forums like these are helpful.