The dock is not perfect...

[BacteriaEP]

Just a heads up to those of you looking for a tablet and dock. I managed to pick up both at my local Fry's Electronics this morning much to my delight.

That said, the keyboard has a lot of quirks that just seem to happen at random. Here's what I've noticed thus far:

1. Random clicking off of text fields causing you to lose text and sometimes push a series of commands bringing up menus, etc.

2. Radonomly turning off wi-fi signal. No idea why, but every now and then itll just turn itself off and I'll have to go into the settings and turn it back on.

3. Keyboard becomes entirely useless requiring the complete removal and redocking of the tablet to re-establish connection.

The dock is still nice for the extra battery, protection and when it works right. But these are some pretty serious issues that need to be fixed. If I wasn't an early adopter who is accustom to new tech issues I'd be hugely upset.

Here's hoping for a firmware update soon.

PS I've only been using the dock for a few hours and am already experiencing said issues. These aren't uncommon.

 

[dbpaddler]

You do know they've have firmware updates that are on hold until they sort out the bricking issue. At least they did as of the other day. Also, Asus mentioned updated firmware that addresses the issues you mentioned in response to one of the TF reviews. Forget which one.

 

[rushmore]

This is not Asus fault, but Honeycomb's lack of support in its framework. Both Acer and Asus decided not to wait on Google and bolted their own hardware interfaces on top.

The reason the Xoom pathetically still does not have a working microsd is because they decided to wait for Android team to do it. Jeesh, wonder how long it would take them if the Xoom had a feature dock/keyboard like the Trans? Yikes.

 

[BacteriaEP]

So the issues I mentioned above are mostly fixed so long as you disable the mousepad. Since I've done so I'vve not experienced any of the problems where as before it would happen a few times every hour.

 

[Censore]

Got my Transformer on Thursday and I was lucky and came across a dock at Frys yesterday.

I have had the keyboard becomes unresponsive 2xs and I had to remove the tablet and redock it and it started working again right away. It appears that the tablet came unseated slightly from the dock which caused the keyboard to become unresponsive.

I have not had any other trouble with the dock so far.

 

[LunchBB]

Received my dock today. The who setup now looks like an expensivie purse.

- There is no AC adapter included. The one comes with the TF has a very short USB cord. I'm hoping I can just connect the dock to a seapate AC adapter with a longer cord.

- No DEL key. I found out Fn-Backspace will do the same as DEL.

- I also experienced many times the touch pad lock up

- Weak rubber feet. The dock slides on my desk easily.

- Keys are not 100% size. They are smaller than regular keyboard.

- I don't know if I connect the USB to the dock, will it charges the TF battery as well? Anybody knows?

 

[aleis]

glad i started convincing myself i do not need the keyboard.

 

[Reverence]

Those of you experiencing problems with the Keyboard dock....have you updated the Transformer with Asus's latest update, or not yet? Maybe their update fixes some of these issues.

 

[wynand32]

I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the keyboard dock's build quality. For some reason, I was expecting something a little more plastic-y. And so far it's been performing pretty well--one time the touchpad stopped working but a quick redock fixed it.

Given how Asus has been supporting the TF so far (check out their responsiveness over at the XDA forum), I'm pretty confident they'll resolve any issues with the dock. I'm pretty darn happy with the thing so far.

 

[tehdoughnut]

I've had my dock for a few days now and have been having the problems occur randomly and my TF101 has the updated firmware. The thread over on XDA noticed that it occurs more often as the battery in the dock starts getting weaker, but I haven't had a chance to test this out. Supposedly ASUS knows about the problems and are currently working on another update. The dock problems can get frustrating to use at times.

 

[Gunner]

Supposedly it is the dock firmware itself that needs to be updated. Asus is supposed to be working on fixes for the keyboard disconnect, the wifi drops, and the power drain on standby issue.

 

[rushmore]

Supposedly it is the dock firmware itself that needs to be updated. Asus is supposed to be working on fixes for the keyboard disconnect, the wifi drops, and the power drain on standby issue.

Still will be band-aid fixes until Android team stops being stubborn rubes about supporting external storage and attachments in Honeycomb. The root problem is the framework and also how the ports are polled in relation to the OS operation.

Honeycomb was meant to be a contained Apple-like system and OEMs are going around this with layered add-ons to the Honeycomb.

 

[BacteriaEP]

- There is no scrolling on the touchpad. So to scroll up and down on a page, you still need to use the touch pad, or use the PgUp PgDn keys.

Hmm that's not right. My dock's touch page is able to scroll via the two fingered swiping method. Very intuitive and Appleish actually.

If that's not working for you there must be something wrong.

 

[LunchBB]

I found out about the two fingers scrolling later on. It is same as my other Acer laptop.

 

[dbpaddler]

my only real issue with the dock is there is no recent apps button on it. I still have to touch the screen to multitask. Kinda dumb. I should be able to hit the recent apps button and you the cursor keys or touch pad to switch to an app, not reach to the screen and select on the screen.

Other than that, I didn't like I couldn't scroll with the cursor buttons, it only won't from selection to selection but then discovered the two finger touchpad scroll. So that was nice. Other than that, it's been pretty good. It feels solid. Unlike some, I expected the keyboard not to be full size, yet I touch type just fine on it. And my rubber feet grip my table and other tables just fine. If I had a niggle with that it would be the bumpers on the dock swivel are plastic and not rubber. But I don't have a sliding issue.

My other beef is actually with the onscreen keyboard. The screen is big enough, do I really have to switch keyboards to get punctuation? Plenty of room to fit basic commonly used punctuation without having to toggle keyboards.

And, typed on my TF without a hitch.

 

[mihaelb]

my only real issue with the dock is there is no recent apps button on it. I still have to touch the screen to multitask. Kinda dumb. I should be able to hit the recent apps button and you the cursor keys or touch pad to switch to an app, not reach to the screen and select on the screen.

Other than that, I didn't like I couldn't scroll with the cursor buttons, it only won't from selection to selection but then discovered the two finger touchpad scroll. So that was nice. Other than that, it's been pretty good. It feels solid. Unlike some, I expected the keyboard not to be full size, yet I touch type just fine on it. And my rubber feet grip my table and other tables just fine. If I had a niggle with that it would be the bumpers on the dock swivel are plastic and not rubber. But I don't have a sliding issue.

My other beef is actually with the onscreen keyboard. The screen is big enough, do I really have to switch keyboards to get punctuation? Plenty of room to fit basic commonly used punctuation without having to toggle keyboards.

And, typed on my TF without a hitch.

For on-screen keyboard, try 'thumb keyboard' (on Market). you can configure it for 10" screens (and it adjusts itself in portrait vs. landscape mode). very easy to pick up on. Note: it gives you a notice on the screen to change something the first time you run it (I forget what it is), but read it, as I think you do need to make that change for smooth operation.

 

[dbpaddler]

Think the problem as I mentioned was just choosing a different keyboard. The Transformer didn't like a different one being selected while docked. It told me so and then proceeded to make the dock keyboard rather wonky with major delays going on and the touchpad not being all there. This was post update. I'd be happy with the honeycomb keyboard. Will try selecting it again and seeing if it agrees or not. Maybe it was just a one time thing.

 

[nowires]

Hmm that's not right. My dock's touch page is able to scroll via the two fingered swiping method. Very intuitive and Appleish actually.

If that's not working for you there must be something wrong.

Is your scroll inverted on the touchpad? If I swipe the screen right to left, I move 1 screen to the right. If I swipe the touchpad right to left I move 1 screen to the left. What's up with that?

 

[dbpaddler]

Now think about that. If you were to put your finger on the right side of the screen and swipe to the lft, which way would you expect the screen to go? Not seeing your issue here.

 

[nowires]

Now think about that. If you were to put your finger on the right side of the screen and swipe to the lft, which way would you expect the screen to go? Not seeing your issue here.

My issue is that the screen and the touchpad swipe gesture results are currently opposites. I think you can make a case for the swipe gesture to produce either result, but they should be the same whether I make that gesture on the screen or on the touchpad. That's not the case.

 

[dbpaddler]

But you said you swipe right to left on the touchpad and the screen goes right. That is the same as swiping on the screen.

My touchpad, if I swipe left to right my screen goes to the screen to the right. It is opposite, like you're complaining about, you're just explaining it wrong. And I think it all got reversed with the update because I don't remember it being like that when I first got it.

 

[LunchBB]

I have the same thought at first about the direction of the touch pad. Now I realized they are implemented correctly. swipping on screen nd swipping on keyboard should be in opposit directions. Just look at swipping up and down. Swippig down on screen makes content scroll up. but swipping down on touch pad makes content scroll down. That's the correct implementation of how the touch pad works in all notebooks.

 

[mihaelb]

Has anyone tried to remove the silver sticker from the palm rest? does it remove cleanly?

 

[dbpaddler]

have not, but a little heat from a blow dryer can do wonders for sticker removal. loosens up the adhesive and usually allows to come off cleanly. I usually wait a month or so until I know I'm keeping it. I leave the stickers on in case I'm selling it. Gives the appearance of being newer (as long as the sticker isn't worn).

 

[sfletcher]

I just turned up the edge with my fingernail, peeled it back and it came right up with no residue.