Hey.
I'm Donald Bell and this is the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300.
One of my favorite Android tablets and one of the first to run the icecream sandwich version of Android out of the box and now that we have it out of the box, I'm gonna walk you through the setup process and show some tips for optimizing it.
Most of what I'm covering here will apply to any Android Tablet running Android 4.0 or later.
Before we start though, there are a few things you can do ahead of time to make the process super smooth.
Number one, make sure you have a Google account.
Number two, if you wanna buy any apps, set a payment on Google Wallet and for number three, upload your music on music.google.com.
All right.
Now the set appears very common for an Android device.
On the first page here, you've got the welcome screen where you can choose what language you want the device to be set up in.
Here I'm gonna choose United States English.
Start.
On the next page here you got the input method, this is kind of unique for the ASUS Tablet here.
This is really dealing with the keyboard and the system language.
I'm just gonna hit next 'cause I'm using the generic system language for the Tablet.
Next, you've got your Wifi setup page . You wanna make sure you're connected to the internet here so I'm going to choose my local Wifi.
Now, I'm gonna put my password.
Now, we're gonna hit next.
Here we have the screen for setting the date and time.
I'm just gonna have this automatic to set the date and time over the internet but I wanna make sure I've got the right timezone.
Hit next.
Now, here we're gonna enter in our Google account information.
This is where you can really save some time by setting this up ahead of time and sign into my Google account.
First thing I put in my user name and my password.
Now, I'm just gonna wait for this to sign in and then we get a screen here for backup and restore.
This is gonna make sure any settings I have on this tablet are backed up to Google's Cloud.
As you can see, it's gonna take a few minutes for this to complete.
So, for pulling down any apps I may have purchased and making sure that those are gonna be available to me.
There's also this screen here now for using Google's location.
Google wants to keep track of you especially the GPS built into this device.
I wanna be able to use that feature so I'm gonna hit next and set up is complete.
You're all done.
Hit finish.
Okay.
So, we're up and running but we're not out of the woods yet.
Here are few extra sets I can safely recommend to everyone.
First, launch the web browse and follow the prompt to spell the adobe flash player.
This will come in handy for viewing flash content on the web.
Next, while you're in the app store, click on the download tab to manage any automatically downloading apps you may not need and to ensure the updates you do need are being installed.
A lot of these apps I bought for my phone.
I really don't need them on my tablet like this bus stop locator but updates for Gmail and Google Maps, those are gonna be useful.
With icecream sandwich Google finally including their Cloud Connected Music app default but when you open it up, it's blank.
For whatever reason, you actually have to go into the setting and associate this app with your Google account.
Another auto mission is Google's new mobile Chrome browser.
This is one of the best mobile browsers out there and Google made it just for icecream sandwich but you have to search it out and download it from their app store.
Now, this is my personal tablet.
Here are few other quick settings I would tweak.
From here and out, this is just a matter of taste but I figure it's worth sharing.
GPS, kill it.
You can find it in the quick settings here with the tap and a swipe.
If I need it, I know where to find it but I don't wanna hurt my battery life.
The weather widget, gone.
Give it a tap and hold and drag it up to the top.
Takes up space and I already have this feature on my phone.
Same goes with the date and time widget plus I have the same info down here on the bottom.
As a Gmail user, the ASUS e-mail widget on the main screen is also pretty redundant.
In it's place, I'll pull up the Gmail inbox widget from the widget menu, pull it on to the home screen and give us some extra room.
I'm also gonna kick up the font size here in the display settings.
The default size is really intended for phone and the huge setting here seems barley adequate but I'll take it.
The shortcut for the stock browser app, gone.
I can dig it up in the app menu if I ever want to take advantage of the slash compatibility but right now I'm gonna move Chrome in it's place.
I delete the Gmail app shortcuts since the widget does the same thing and since practically every aspect of my life is now connected to my Google account, I'm gonna use a security settings here to put a pin on the lock spring.
Finally, considering I made this huge investment in a Quad Core Tablet, I want a killer app to show it off.
This makes it easy by including the (??) shortcut over here on the last page which highlights the game that really shine on integrity processor like (rip die GP?).
Integrity zone links right into the Google app store 'cause there's no extra setup required.
So, those are all of my recommended tips for setting up the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300.
For more information on this Tablet, check out the full review on Cnet.com.
For more tablet tips and tricks, Heather (??) blog and if you had any other setup ideas you'd like me to know about, reach out to me on Facebook and Twitter.
For Cnet.com, I'm Donald Bell.
