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Help me go to honeycomb

G

Germwise

Android Enthusiast
Here is my situation,

While I loved using a tablet to surf the web, it frankly wasn't enough to justify paying for another device.

My ipad had another use which was to read and annotate PDFs. As a scientist, I read lots of papers in PDF format.

On the iPad, I could use iAnnotate and Goodreader to sync my paper collection from my laptop to the tablet, read, annotate, and sync the PDF back.

Is there anything comparable for honeycomb? I need a program that will somehow sync my pdf files, make them searchable, annotate them and sync them back.

Otherwise, not being able to use it for work, plus no netflix or hulu etc make an android tablet a no go for me.

Thanks for your help guys!
 
I don't know what, if any, pdf editors Android has (Adobe Reader?), but you can always use Dropbox for syncing.
 
Germwise said:
Here is my situation,

While I loved using a tablet to surf the web, it frankly wasn't enough to justify paying for another device.

My ipad had another use which was to read and annotate PDFs. As a scientist, I read lots of papers in PDF format.

On the iPad, I could use iAnnotate and Goodreader to sync my paper collection from my laptop to the tablet, read, annotate, and sync the PDF back.

Is there anything comparable for honeycomb? I need a program that will somehow sync my pdf files, make them searchable, annotate them and sync them back.

Otherwise, not being able to use it for work, plus no netflix or hulu etc make an android tablet a no go for me.

Thanks for your help guys!
Click to expand...

Honeycomb has some catching up to do that is for sure but I strongly support google mobile platforms because they will come out on top. Can you replace an Ipad with a Honycomb tablet right now? No. Everyone has specific things they want to do with a tablet and I would have to say that you will be part of the group that moves to Honeycomb later.

~SC
 
I know DocsToGo and QuickOffice HD sync to your PC as does the Polaris office suite that comes stock on the Transformer.

I think an app called RepliGo Reader might do the trick for annotating. There's also ezpdf reader that should do it as well.
 
I was exactly in your situation. But I was trying to use a felt pen to mark up documents with iAnnotate. It was horrible trying to use that pen. I submitted so many bugs (not just pen related) to the developers that I just gave up.

Yes Repligo can annotate. I was just playing with adding sticky notes on my xoom after you mentioned it. I'm not sure it has all the features you are looking for. It can hilight, crossout, add notes to highlights, draw freehand arrows and simple shapes.

As far as syncing goes there are so many options. You can even set up a samba share on it and browse it from your network like it was a server. But your best best is almost definitely dropbox which works just as well as an ipad, actually better because you can see the go#@$@ moth3er fu#@$@ FILESYSTEM! (One of the biggest design flaws of the ipad.)

Also mendeley works good too. Goodreader was so great on the ipad and you might be missing some features with repligo, but I haven't notcied anything yet. (Most of goodreader's features were built to overcome iOS limitations which are not lacking from honeycomb--using a pdf reader for file managment! Give me a break.)

You motivated me to look into doing some pdf annotation, but nothing beats a nice graphics pad, three monitors and pdfAnnotator. I'm not sure what your workflow is like, but if its for editing papers there has to be 10 better ways to make comments, svn a source, have the author put line numbers in the paper, etc. If you are doing it for notetaking you're going to miss out on Acrobat's export highlights, and it seems to take so long working on a tablet anyways. But if you want to do it on the go, or on the couch then those are your options. Hope you find a great setup!

EDIT: sorry I just reread your post, you REALLY need to experience the benefits of Dropbox (ipad or android) if you are not autosyncing between every device you own without pressing a single button you are doing it wrong ;).
 
rader I think you've convinced me to give this a try.

Are the annotations baked into the pdf? that is to say if I open them in preview or adobe on my computer later will they still be there?

I think the only thing really holding me back now is I want to be able to play with the device before I buy. Anyone know where I can find one near columbus?

I've called 3 different best buys and they don't even seem to know what this is.
 
Germwise said:
rader I think you've convinced me to give this a try.

Are the annotations baked into the pdf? that is to say if I open them in preview or adobe on my computer later will they still be there?

I think the only thing really holding me back now is I want to be able to play with the device before I buy. Anyone know where I can find one near columbus?

I've called 3 different best buys and they don't even seem to know what this is.
Click to expand...



That so funny. I used to live in Columbus (assuming you mean Ohio) working as a physics grad student. If you are just looking to try out honeycomb you should be able to find a place at Easton or Polaris I would think, or probably any Best Buy(?). If you want to try out the Transformer I would say that Microcenter is probably your best bet. I would expect they would have an entire tablet display sooner or later.

I just tried out repligo. Yes the sticky notes are baked in and (as far as I can tell) are fully compatible with Acrobat X, though I didn't test the freehand or shapes.

A few more things to keep in mind:

* You might want to use a stylus with your tablet. Any of the ones that you used for the ipad should work, but realize that just as these pens were good for drawing on the ipad and weren't so great for writing, the same holds here. UNLESS you wait for the htc flyer which should be coming out soon. That stylus should be optimized for it. I'm half considering trading in my xoom for it, but again I'm not sure how much I'll be marking up pdfs. Here's a relevant review:

YouTube - Stylus for Notes and Drawing on the Xoom Honeycomb



* I wanted to be able to sync my contacts with my phone seven years ago (you should have seen the jerry-rigged macros and multiple programs I had going just to try and get my calendar on my phone. Well now it's easy these days. You need to realize that by hoping to use a stylus on a tablet you are pushing what the technology is capable of. It may take a few years before we get to do this really well. So don't try and jump through a bunch of hoops just because it seems like a cool idea--you'll take a big hit in productivity. But then again it may do everything you want; I hope so.

* To that end, make sure you bring your stylus when you want to try out a tablet.
 
Just to chime in on the cross-device file sharing, DocsPics syncs through Google Docs. The first time, you can check all the documents you have on Google Docs, and it will create a local copy of them, which gets updated when you launch the app. As soon as you are done editing a note and save it, it gets uploaded to the Google servers.

Downside is that every month or so you have to 'edit' your account in the app, and re-enter your password. not sure if this is by design or not.
 
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