tethering tablets, netflix, and navigation

[Puzzlegal]

I am considering buying a tablet. But I'm cheap, and don't want to pay for another data contract. And a lot of the things I can see myself wanting to do with a tablet would happen where I don't have wifi.

For instance, I might want to use it to look up maps or even navigate in a car, or I might want to watch Netflix in a hotel where I didn't pay for the wifi. (Did I mention that I am cheap?)

I am also in the market for a new gadget. I gather that many smart phones can tether one device via a USB cable without needing to root them, and quite possibly without violating my contract with Sprint. So I thought it would be really nice to get a phone and a tablet that could share a dataplan.

Does anyone know if there are phones and tablets I could use this way?

 

[MF4L41]

Check out the Lenovo IdeaPad, it the first tablet with nextflix built inside the OS.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Hmm, and it has USB ports. That might do it.

I thnk I will wait a bit for reviews, though.

 

[nalpakj]

Netflix seems to be working on most of the newer tabs now so I wouldn't let that push you in the direction of one model or another. USB...different story. I've got the GTab and that's one thing it does not have (along with sd storage).

As far as navigation goes...since you're cheap and you don't intend to get a data plan you'll either need to tether your tab to your phone (which can pretty simple to do depending on your phone...not sure about with your Pre) or get a mapping solution that has offline maps. I know google maps just started to support some offline functionality but it's limited...you can only download 10 'tiles' at a time and those get deleted after a month. So it's not ideal yet. The good thing (or bad thing depending on how you look at it) is that you're in that same boat regardless of which tab you choose. None of them will do navigation any better or worse than the other (as long as it has GPS). I was looking a year or so ago for a decent offline mapping solution for my android phone and never found a really great solution...but that might have changed since.

Edit: I used Copilot Live on my WM6 phone a few years ago...and I see they are around for Android with full offline map data. Not cheap but: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.alk.copilot.namarket.premiumusa&feature=related_apps

 

[Puzzlegal]

I'm happy to tether it to the phone, if the Tablet will accept that. The Pre supports simple tethering, but not everything will "listen" to it. I'm also toying with replacing the Pre with some Android phone, I gather many of those also support tethering.

 

[nalpakj]

Yes...some of the carriers are trying to cut into it but there are still plenty of ways to do it. I've got the Incredible (first one) and there's a little tweak you can make to some hidden settings that open up the standard hotspot application for free.

 

[Major]

I believe the Nexus S supports tethering out of the box.