Rebuilding the Tablet...

So for the last two weeks or so, my Archos tablet has been PAINFULLY slow. The keyboard was taking over one second to come up, apps were taking a long time to load, and the web was just crawling along.

I had tried clearing all of the caches and deleting files. I had tried making sure that nothing was in the resident memory eating up the RAM. I had tried everything, except for that one last resort...

...hitting the "Full Reinitialization" button.

So tonight, I did just that.

I had a goal in mind. Reinitialize and remove everything from the device that had been installed, then move forward with the device ONLY utilizing Amazon's App Store for Android. Remember, the Google Android Market doesn't TRULY work on the Archos Tablet. There was a hack to make it work, which I had done, but it was basically a Band-Aid fix to the problem that offered no permanent solutions. It also required almost constant tinkering to be able to download the newest apps. So, seeing as I haven't used the Google Market since the Amazon App Store was released, I figured I would just go Amazon and see how it went.

But I didn't think of a few things before I did it.

The first, and major SNAFU was that I didn't check to see if some of the Apps that I wanted were available on Amazon...some of the stuff that I have that I really liked on my tablet like my browser, launcher, memory manager, and Gmail client.

Of course, when it got booted back up and I installed the Amazon App Store, there were a few that weren't there. Namely Launcher Pro, Dolphin HD Browser, Switch Pro Widget, and Gmail.

Now, I was easily able to get Launcher Pro. I just searched for the .apk on the web and found that the Launcher Pro site has it available. So a quick download, install, and then product registration (because I paid for Launcher Pro in the past, they will send me the product key whenever I request it) and I had Launcher Pro back on the device.

Dolphin HD I was able to download onto my computer and then send it to the device, so I got that up and running quickly. Same with Switch Pro.

Gmail turned out to be the biggest problem. It wasn't on the Amazon Market, and I couldn't for the life of me find a .apk that would work. So I ended up using the stock Archos client, which I really don't like. I did some searching on Amazon and found a client called "K-9." I did some searching on the web and found out it's a pretty robust (and in many ways better than Gmail) email App, so I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did, it's pretty solid and I definitely find it easier to use than Gmail's App. I will probably be downloading it onto my phone soon, as well.

The ONLY other thing I couldn't get onto the device was the weather widget that I had before...but that's okay, I found one called Fancy Widget Pro on Amazon for $2 that is spectacular.

So now I have the device up and running again...and it's running better than it ever did before. Even when it was brand new it wasn't this crisp and solid. I think that removing all of the wonky Google stuff from the hacked market did a lot of good for the device. I also got rid of a few programs that were memory hogs and replaced them with better ones.

Overall, it was a bit of a pain, but nothing that was too difficult. I also know in the future to make sure I have .apk files for the few programs that I really want to be able to use already downloaded...like Dolphin and Switch Pro. So now, if I ever have to do it again, it'll be even easier.