One thing is for sure, this summer is going to be a “hot” time of the year for tablets in general.  Asus and Acer both have teased everyone at CES this year with their latest and greatest flagship tablets.  There has been speculation that the a700 will not actually be released at least in that model trim, but there is also information that it will – these facts are yet to be confirmed either way.

So far in considering the information we have at this point:

Both tablets have:

• Android ICS
• Full HD screen resolutions – 1920×1200 display
• Tegra 3 chips – 1.3 GHz
• 1 GB of RAM
• micro SD
• micro HDMI

Asus Transformer TF700T advantages:

• The Super IPS display of the TF700T is slightly better than Acer’s LCD display
• The TF700T features an 8.0 megapixel camera in the back while the a700 is 5.0 Megapixels
• The TF700T has a bigger battery than the a700
• From what we know the Transformer TF700T will be cheaper than the a700 from preliminary numbers
• Price – From the preliminary numbers, the Asus models are set to be cheaper
• Has the ability to be mated to a docking station/keyboard to increase battery life and extend funtionality

Acer Iconia a700 Tablet advantages:

• The Iconia a700 isn’t marred by the past few months of problems as the TF700T will be with the TF201 – Consumers will probably be especially cautious before pulling the trigger on the newer and more expensive Prime
• The a700 is said to also be expected to be released in a wifi/3g model called the a701 much as the a501 was – Asus has so far steered away from 3G models with the Transformer series, but it is yet to be seen if they will continue in that direction

Final Thoughts

It appears to be quite a summer lined up for consumers in the tablet/mobile arena.  On top of the above awesome tablets that are set for release, the iPad 3 should also be taking center stage.  It will certainly be a duel of the titans between the flagship Android tablets vs. the IOS monster that Apple is set to unleash.

On page 9 of the thread found here, pictures are posted of the Prime disassembled and pics of the wifi and GPS card as well as confirmation that after external wires were adding “alligator” clipped onto the card, GPS was strong and wifi worked perfectly or at least MUCH better than stock from the factory.  There is also another user who has placed an alligator clip on the GPS pogo and has GPS reception in his HOUSE!  That was impossible before with the stock setup.

This is one of the hottest Asus Transformer Prime threads now on XDA and other users are building up the courage to take their Primes apart and experiment with antenna configurations.  The downside or heartbreaking side really for such a great tablet and so many users who wanted this tablet to be everything that really it is, is that no amount of Firmware fixes can resolve the issues that were definitely uncovered in this thread.  Firmware could make the issues marginally better, but the very flawed antenna design that is no confirmed is hardware.

It will be interesting to see if Asus responds to this finding or if this is actually the original wifi issue that pushed the release of the product back a bit.  We are only speculating here, but Asus may have known this existed in all the Primes and it was just too large scale of a problem to go back and fix every single Prime.

Anyways, this thread is a must follow for Prime owners looking to resolve connectivity issues!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1474391

In launching the trusty wifi analyzer app, we noticed that the tablet was “seeing” the hotspot in the wifi analyzer app, however, there was a little red designation at the end of the hotspot information denoting “ad hoc” and we were not able to connect or even given the option to connect to the hotspot.  In doing some reading on this and finding that in other forums there were many other users saying that after upgrading to ICS they were no longer able to connect to their hotspot, we assumed this was definitely something with ICS.  Officially, Google does not support ad hoc networks in ICS apparently.

However, the upside to all of this is that if you upgrade your wifi tether app to the latest and greatest, which in our case was 3.1 beta 11, we were able to select the option in the wifi profile to be the infrastructure mode as opposed to ad hoc mode for our Samsung Galaxy SII.  After performing the update, and changing the profile to infrastructure, we were once again able to connect our ICS Prime to the wifi tether app.

It is yet to be seen if this is functionality Google is simply not support from this point forward or if this is just an early ICS quirk that will be resolved with a later update.

As skeptical as we were when we first read about this possibly resolving the issue, we gave it a try on our 64G grey unit that we received in a few days ago and we can positively say – THIS HELPED!  As we stated in our post about the wifi issues, our throughput was great when close to the router, however, in just a reasonable distance from the AP, we started seeing tremendous dropoff in our signal strength and Speedtest app runs.  Also, GPS was basically dead on our unit.  Even outside, the Prime completely flat and facing the sky on a clear day, we were unable to get a lock on even a single satellite!

After we tried the fix, we can definitely say both wifi performance and GPS performance were much improved.  We were able to achieve tremendous improvements in our signal strength and throughput at much further distances from the AP than before.  So if you have been having tons of issues with your wifi and GPS on your Prime, this trick is definitely worth a try.

It is obvious that there are definitely software issues still remaining with the Prime but from what we have been able to ascertain from Asus, they are working hard on additional fixes for wifi and GPS.  In combination with a possible trick of “pressing” those contacts in the casing with the fix from MobileTechReview which we have proven to ourselves here at ComputerHowto is a very valid fix.  We will continue to test with our unit here to establish the longevity of this fix and whether or not the connections have a tendency to loosen themselves.

Recently, there have been complaints surfacing about issues with the wifi and GPS connectivity with the device and message boards are filled with mixed opinions and observations from various consumers and enthusiasts with the product.  We wanted to put our observations in the mix with our Asus Transformer Prime 64 GB tablet that we just received in a couple of days ago amid all the rumors and complaints about the wifi and GPS issues.

It has been difficult to place a finger on the exact reason of supposed wifi issues.  However, by far the most common observation and speculation from many is that the metal casing that the device is enclosed in is preventing both a good wifi and GPS signal.  Many have been wondering whether or not this should affect their decision to buy this tablet.

Observations from others

There have been a lot of supposed findings from Prime owners that have posted their results and even YouTube videos showing the wifi performance problems of the prime.  These are the wifi problems that we have seen posted:

• Poor signal strength
• Poor signal throughput
• Signal drop offs

Setup

Asus has been rumored to be working and releasing updates to “fix” both wifi and GPS on the Prime and the latest of those releases happened just a few days ago.  We did confirm under the Settings and “About Tablet” we did have a firmware jump in both the GPS and wifi firmware versions simply in the upgrade from Honeycomb to ICS.

So with that being The first thing we did was unbox our Prime and checked the firmware updates that were available.  The first firmware update we had was the Ice Cream Sandwich update.  The update only took about 5 minutes on our Prime to install and ICS rocks!

As soon as we finished the ICS update we checked and there was a firmware update immediately afterwards for the camera, which downloaded and installed in the background.  So far as of 1.25.2012 these are the only updates we have been prompted to install.

Wifi Observations

As we mentioned in the outset, there have been a lot of people who have said they are having major throughput issues with wifi throughput.  How did this stack up in our Prime?

We did not find this to be the case with our unit.  We are not saying here that some units do not have these issues, however, the 64GB model that we have been testing with runs Speedtest just as fast as our laptops at reasonable distances from the wireless AP.

What did we find with the Prime and wifi?  It does seem that the Prime’s wifi range may be more limited than others.  In moving some 40 to 50 feet away from the router and through walls, the Prime’s wifi started to drop off, however, everything was still very usable with this tablet.  We were on a relatively small 12MB cable connection and at 40 to 50 feet away from an old WRT54G Linksys router we were still getting in the 4-6 MB download range which isn’t bad considering the obstructions we were testing through.  However, the throughput at good wireless strength seems to be on par with other wireless devices on our unit.

The key here is the wireless signal strength.  With our unit the wifi signal strength was the real issue with the device.  So far, the updates that Asus has released for the Prime have not cured the wireless issues, but we are certain to see future updates to address more of the issues.

GPS issues

GPS is another story with the Prime.  We found that GPS performance was severely hindered in our unit.  Even outdoors with a clear sky using GPS Test app we struggled to lock onto any GPS satellites.  While it is doubtful that most would use their Transformer Prime to replace their GPS unit in the car, GPS functionality is also crucial to the performance of certain apps.  In fact many apps simply will not load without a fix on GPS position since by nature they rely on this functionality to work.  Hopefully, again the GPS function will be fixed with a software release in addition to the fix that was released very recently, which does not look to have been successful.  Many have reported that GPS worked better before the fix than after.

At least Asus has recognized there is a problem and continues to try and resolve the issues.  It almost seems like at this point if Asus believes the metal casing is causing the issue, that they would be willing to replace the back of the unit with a plastic cover which would alleviate the issue here.  Apple certainly bit the bullet on the iPhone 4 when the antenna problem caused dropped calls, etc.  They issued free iPhone cases which would rectify the issue along with the software update.

Final Thoughts

The Transformer Prime is an awesome tablet and it is a shame that these issues have hindered this Tegra 3 tablet from achieving the greatness that it deserves.  Hopefully, Asus will be able to come through for Prime owners and get this figured out.

There are a lot of really exciting tablets set to take center stage and Ice Cream Sandwich updates at least should be going into full swing by the middle of the year if not earlier.  The competition between vendors with the Tegra 3 powerhouse tablets is definitely set to take center stage as well with Acer now coming out with a powerhouse tablet of their own with true 1080p HD display in the Iconia a700 and it will already be loaded with ICS out of the box.  It sounds like Acer is trying to do things right with this tablet – no updates, everything ready to go, etc.  Asus’s Transformer Prime has been plagued by an extreme shortage of stock ever since its release and this is still the case with Prime.  Online retailers still show that the Prime is out of stock or on backorder.  Hopefully production will be ramped up on the Prime, so consumers can take advantage of this tablet.  Asus stands to lose a gigantic lead that it had on paper at least when other vendors such as Acer come to market with competing Tegra 3 products.

The trend as we mentioned in the outset is definitely bang for the buck.  Acer has released a budget tablet in the a200 which is basically a redesigned and released version of the Iconia a500  with very similar hardware specs and selling at around the $350 price point as opposed to the $500 price point when the a500 was released.  Another really great looking little heard of tablet is the Le-Pan II and III which are more of an iPad form factor in the 9.7 inch screen.  The Le-Pan II is being released with the Honeycomb 3.2 software with upgrade to the ICS Android and the Le-Pan III is supposed to come with ICS.

Asus is also coming out with a really awesome 7-inch Tegra 3 ICS tablet for a mind boggling $249!  There is one thing for sure, things are definitely going to be in the consumer’s favor this year.  Tablet manufacturers are going to be in a heated competition to win your dollar by innovation, design, and feature sets that are definitely well worth the value/dollar.

Mozy:

Mozy is a backup service available for Cloud users to help maintain information even if the data is lost due to damage or deletions that are not recoverable. Mozy will maintain a company’s files and computer data for a reasonable rate.

Skype:

Skype is a convenient way to talk on a phone or do video conferencing from a computer. It makes connecting to other Skype users easy and even making phone calls requires nothing more than a small charge. Even three way calling or conference calling is available for small businesses.

Box:

Box is a convenient application for Cloud users who have ever left important files at home or needed to send a file that was not readily available. The app is similar to a file folder in that the files are dropped into the box and are then retrieved from any other computer when signed into a Cloud account.

Toggl:

For those who have struggled with keeping track of hours for billing clients or simply keeping up with projects on a timeline, Toggl is the perfect application. This helps keep track of time and projects to make organization easier and calculate hourly rates without losing track of the information or working based on an estimate.

Moo:

Moo is an application for design and printing cards like business cards and postcards. The user can use designs on Moo, import images from a computer or even use social networking sites to create the images.

MailChimp:

MailChimp is designed for businesses that are working on email campaigns. It helps publish the campaigns and then makes it easy to keep track of the campaign’s success through an integrated Google Analytics software.

QuickBooks:

QuickBooks is accounting software used on Cloud to help keep track of a company’s financial situation. It is useful for any business and provides all of the accounting basics a business might need or want.

Evernote:

Evernote is designed with the note-taker in mind. It is an application that provides help in organizing the notes for easier understanding and viewing from any location in the world.

Google Apps:

Google Apps is a convenient tool that helps eliminate added software on the computer. It has everything from word processing and spreadsheet software to a calendar to keep track of project due dates and provide event reminders.

Outright:

Outright is a small business app for Cloud that is perfect for accounting needs. It keeps track of everything from income and expenses to tax information so small businesses and entrepreneurs are able to keep finances in order.

Cloud apps are a convenient way to keep track of company information and maintain the needs of the business from any location. A wide range of applications are available that make running a business simpler and save time when used appropriately. Efficiency is easy with the right tools and applications added to a Cloud account.

Resource Monitor provides a much nicer interface when compared to task manager.  It is more of an MMC formatted app that is easily laid out to provide information about the major components of your computer’s performance including:

• CPU
• Memory
• Disk
• Network

There is also an overview mode which consolidates information panes from each of the above areas into one tab for easy viewing and troubleshooting.

Task manager definitely has its place in providing information about services and users along with running processes and applications, however task manager doesn’t provide information about areas such as disk performance.  Oftentimes, disk I/O problems are at the heart of performance issues.  Being able to pinpoint what application or process is tagging your disk is often the key to troubleshooting performance issues.

In fact, in Windows 7, Resource Monitor is actually available from the task manager “Performance” tab which makes it easy to being troubleshooting from Task Manager and then move on to Resource Monitor if the need be.  However, if you want to get to the application directly, simply type resmon at a run/search menu.

Taking a look at the Disk performance options

In looking at Disk performance, which we are going to key in on here, the default information provided shows information about key disk performance areas such as:

• Image name
• PID
• File location
• Read (B/sec)
• Write (B/sec)
• Total (B/sec)
• I/O Priority
• Response Time

A workaround to this issue is to actually set the Shoretel server itself up as the NTP time source.  Once you have set your Shoretel server as the NTP source, you can then use the NTP options for your Shoretel DHCP scope to set your phones to point to your Shortel server for time.  Below are the steps we used to resolve the time issue.  After setting the NTP source as our Shoretel box, the phones started correcting their display time after refreshing.

Steps to set your Shoretel server as the NTP Source

The below steps need to be performed on the Shoretel server itself.

• Change Server Type to NTP:
  *NOTE* This may already be set to NTP
  Registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\Parameters\\Type
  Modify “Type” to value of NTP, then select OK
• Change AnnounceFlags:*NOTE* This value may be set to “A” change to “5″.
  Registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\Config\\AnnounceFlags
  Modify “AnnounceFlags” to value of 5, then select OK
• Enable NTPServer:
  *NOTE* This value may be set to “0″, this needs changed to “1″. 0=disable, 1=enable
  Registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\TimeProviders\\NtpServer
  Modify “Enabled” to value of 1, then select OK
• Specify Time Source:
  *NOTE* This value may be set to 132.163.4.102,0×8, change this to 192.168.1.1,0×1. (The IP listed is for reference.  Change this to your Shoretel IP address).
  Registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\Parameters
  Modify “NtpServer” to value of 192.168.1.1,0×1, then select OK
• Select Poll Interval:
  *NOTE* This value was set to 604800 – We changed this to 900 (15 minutes).
  Registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\TimeProviders\\NtpClient\\SpecialPollInterval
  Modify “SpecialPollInterval” to value of 900, then select OK
• Configure Time Correction Settings:
  *NOTE* This value was set to 54000 – we changed it to 3600.
  Registry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\Config\\MaxPosPhaseCorrection
  Modify “MaxPosPhaseCorrection” to decimal value of 3600, then select OKRegistry subkey:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\W32Time\\Config\\MaxNegPhaseCorrection
  Modify “MaxNegPhaseCorrection” to decimal value of 3600, then select OK
• Quit Registry Editor
  
• Open Command Prompt (or you could reboot your server)
  At CMD, type “net stop w32time” then Enter
  At CMD, type “net start w32time” then Enter

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, by following the above steps, you can resolve any time issues that may arise in your Shoretel environment if you are experiencing issues.

However, with the release of Untangle 9.1, there have been dramatic changes in the database structure with Untangle and the stored data.  According to Untangle’s description of the 9.1 structure now, large tables in previous versions are now very small and “almost empty.”

We have tested the 9.1 update on a box that we had disk space issues in the past, and after upgrading to 9.1 on a production box, a 500 GB drive that was struggling to have 15GB free, after a few days vacuumed down to almost 495GB free.  Granted, this process on this production box, took several days, but if you are having disk space problems on your Untangle box, the 9.1 upgrade is definitely a worthy upgrade and should be automatically pushed down to your box, unless you have this option turned off.