yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows 8 General] spunker88:
I have the Toshiba Encore tablet with built in GPS but it uses the sensors API instead of using a com port. I guess this is how most tablets do GPS now. But it breaks compatibility with any programs need a com port for GPS. So you are probably better off using Bluetooth.
[Windows 8 General] alex2792:
I picked up a DV8P for $220 with tax from office depot, had them price match Microcenter and used a $20 tablet coupon, amazing deal!
[Windows 8 General] tyshone:
Yesterday, I bought two tablets from Newegg. I first bought a LG G Pad 8.3 ($259). It pairs with my LG G2 nicely. But I wanted a mobile solution that would allow me to VPN to multiple customer sites for I.T. related support. I use Google services for all of my company communication needs but Windows for application and product services. After much research, I decided on the Dell Venue 8 Pro. I contacted Newegg and tried to work a deal. I explained to them that I had already purchased a tablet a few hours before and would like to purchase the Dell. Long story short, I was able to purchase the Dell Venue 8 Pro 64GB for $299.90 out the door.

Newegg has a customer for life.
[Windows 8 General] geeknik:
I got a Dell Venue 8 Pro from the Microsoft store this morning for $99. It's super fast, love the responsiveness, scrolling speed puts the new Nexus 7 to shame. What kind of cool things can I do with it?
[Windows 8 General] spunker88:
$99! So that deal was real? Too bad there are no Microsoft stores near me.

USB otg is pretty cool on these since they are x86 windows you can connect almost anything and have drivers. For example I connected a usb tv tuner to mine making it a portable tv.
[Windows 8 General] _MetalHead_:
I set my alarm clock so I could snag that deal but MS's servers wouldn't let me do anything. I had it in my cart at one point and then got an error during checkout. Some bullsh!t. I don't care though, I ordered the 64gb version from Amazon instead for $319 and couldn't be happier. This thing is super cool. It's like my Surface Pro, only shrunken to an actual portable size with all day battery life. Awesome.
[Windows 8 General] voided:
Hey anyone knows if the Venue Pro 8 has vibrating notification?
[Windows 8 General] cmart4:
just got a 32 GB VP8 from MicroCenter in Richardson Texas. Open box for $184; they still have inventory left if anyone is in the area. It's basically flawless; maybe a customer return??
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
No, it does NOT vibrate at all.

The audio volume is low even maxed out
[Windows 8 General] kenvan19:
Just wanted to add in for those that are still considering the DV8P, I've had my device for almost a month and there are a few major issues:

1) There is a WiFi bug that causes the network adapter to fail after sleep. There are several fixes, one of which relates to Windows 8 updates, however for some devices (mine included) this does not work. Sometimes restarting a few times will bring it back, other times a system restore is required.

2) I do not have the pen, but I have heard that even after updates it is still not all that great. There are several issues with quality and with what would seem to be software. All in all, it seems to be a rather large failure.

3) Automatic brightness is far too aggressive. In any type of bright light, the display becomes completely unusable with auto brightness enabled and disabling does reduce battery life by a decently large margin.

4) Advertising that a tablet has 32gb of storage when you only can use 12gb of that space is absolutely false advertising. Every drive will lose some space to the OS, sure, and this runs a full copy of Window 8.1 which is quite large but telling people there are 20 more gigs than are actually available is pushing the bounds of honesty. Once you put a few documents and download a few apps you'll find yourself with a damn near full drive and that hurts performance. Very bad form.

Now, all that said I actually still love the DV8P. I got the 32gb for $199.99 through a friend who works for Microsoft. A fully functional Windows 8.1 computer for $200 is a stupidly amazing deal. And yes, it is fully functional. Nothing short of playing with the device will give you a full idea just how beautiful the display truly is, in spite of its low resolution. While battery life under constant stress is not that great (I've killed the damn thing with brightness set to its lowest playing Microsoft Solitaire Collection after 3 hours) if you use it for light browsing, some light document editing and watching a few videos you'll get some pretty stunning results. Reading news or books gives me about 11 hours of battery which is pretty good. So to sum up; there is a tablet which costs less than a Nexus 7 with a bigger screen, decent battery life, that can run full desktop apps, but has a few issues. Definitely worth while.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I agree. It's not the pen. I don't have the pen either, but I use a capacitive stylus. The issue happens with the non-DELL/Synaptic capacitive pen.

I disagree. I'd prefer you say that manufacturers like DELL should publicly state the remaining capacity at the end of going through the "out of box experience". I got 17GB free on mine out of the box (nothing installed yet) A technically savvy user can create a bootable recovery flash drive then delete the recovery partition and merge the empty space (4+GB). Turning off Hibernation and the swap paging file to squeeze an additional 3+GB. A disk cleanup of all the temp files and other junk will finish the job.

As for me, I bought a 64GB microSD card and changed the environment variables to have Windows store my stuff to the card instead.
[Windows 8 General] SixSixSevenSeven:
I dont think its false advertising at all. It has a 32gb eMMC module internally, therefore has 32gb of storage. The spec isnt how much is usable/non usable, otherwise you could say its false advertising to say the tablet has 2gb of ram when windows wants a good gb of it.
[Windows 8 General] spunker88:
Agreed, this is how the electronics industry has been doing things for years. Perhaps it would be nice for OEMs to show approx space free along with the total.
[Windows 8 General] big_b0sss:
anyone else having the wifi bug issues that kenvan19 posted? i ordered one but im scared :(
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I'm not having the WiFi bug as I did the firmware/driver update the moment I got mine. The one issue I do have though is that sometimes (very rarely) the unit won't resume from sleep, and I may have to press and hold the power button until the screen actually comes on and give me the "slide to power off" message (which I then abort and use the device normally).

Fear not, with this device. You can't lose which ever way you take it. $99-$299 is a good price for a full copy of Window8.1 on such a snappy device. Try getting such many benefits from the latest gen iPad.
[Windows 8 General] gammite:
no WiFi bug here either. this is a steal of a tablet. I haven't put it down since I got it and it is not my first win 8 tablet. this 8 inch form factor really works. the ten inch I have is useful but this 8 inch is far more portable and I find myself using it way more.
[Windows 8 General] big_b0sss:
im in uk so had to get the tablet for £239, bit expensive than us price haven't received mine yet but i used to own a acer w3 i had to admit the display was the worst. so anyone would tell me how is the display on dell venue?
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
If you didn't like the Acer W3 then you will not like the Dell Venue 8Pro's screen either.

It is great for me since it is only an 8inch screen. The capacitive screen will annoy you though, even without the stylus. the cursor will keep jumping around the screen even after the firmware update. For the price, its still worth it.
[Windows 8 General] gammite:
the display is much better than the W3. anyone saying otherwise doesn't know how bad they were.

also after getting a venue 8 pro set up and properly updated the issues are non existent. even the pen issues go away once u get a proper working pen. I love mine. no sleep, WiFi or double tap issues here. but I did all my updates out of the box. eeeeerrrr. except the bios update. I don't want to lose the advanced options..
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
do the BIOS update before you end up with a brick. The advanced options are really not worth it unless you plan on running Linux in the future
[Windows 8 General] gammite:
not seeing to many reports of bricks out here because of tweaking the bios.....
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
No not bricks due to changing settings in the BIOS. I'm referring to the cases where the device fails to recharge if you make the mistake of deep-draining the battery. That's what the A04 BIO upgrade fixes.

I now have an intermittent issue where the unit does not respond to the power button sometimes. I may have to press-and-hold to get the screen to come on and give me the option to shutdown (which I then abort).

I really like my device. It runs smoothly and is more practical than an iPad or Android tablet (in terms of actual productivity).

I'm amazed the battery lasts so long with the abuse I've placed my device through.
[Windows 8 General] fluidj:
Yeap....mine is packed up with a prepaid shipping label prepped for return to Microsoft Store for this very reason. Haven't had the heart to drop it off at the UPS store yet. :(

Ended up with a Nexus 7 2013 to satisfy my Tablet needs....but i'm still on the fence about returning this thing.... I just feel like i'm going to send it back, and two weeks from now Dell is going to issue an update that resolves all the issues for good. That...or they'll issue some sort of financial compensation to early adopters...
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I think it matters the order in which you do your updates so that the bug can be fixed. I'm happy with my device as I use mine like a netbook. I can play actually play PC games on this using my bluetooth mouse and keyboard (in a prone position in bed). I'll warn you that the unit will quickly get hot the moment you do anything graphic intensive. The devices then shuts down once the thermal threshold has been reached. The good news though is that the device will resume from this hibernated state without any data-loss.

This is a wonderful device in my opinion, I think Dell got it right (for a tablet).

In hindsight, I'd have gone with the Dell Venue 11 Pro for the screen size, full USB and the HDMI output.
[Windows 8 General] big_b0sss:
two noob questions. 1.how do you update the bios

2. would the s pen work with this tablet as the stylus is hard to get in uk.

just got the tablet today use to have an acer iconia w3, this tablet is much better than the acer. love it so far but it seems the wifi is kinda week also display is a bit dim.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
1. You update the BIOS by downloading the .EXE file from DELL's Driver&Download support page. Don't worry, the built in Dell utility will assist you with this.

2. Hell NO. It won't work. The S-Pem only works with Wacom tablets (The Venue8 Pro does not have this). The Venue 8 Pro uses a digitizer made by Synaptics, so you are stuck with the ActiveStylus for "precision" work or a normal capacitive stylus for normal use. The issue is with the screen itself, not the stylus. The firmware update doesn't fully fix the issue. Don't waste your money buying the Active Stylus.
[Windows 8 General] big_b0sss:
many thanks for the reply. do you know any alternatives as my hands are quite large so was looking for a pen that would work with this tablet.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I'm looking for an alternative myself. For now, I'm just using a regular capacitive stylus. It isn't precise, but it gets the job done.

Right now, I'm using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo when i need to browse the web or play real PC games
[Windows 8 General] e.mote:
The Asus Vivotab Note 8, announced at CES, will have Wacom digitizer. Price is same as DVP8, at $299 for 32GB and $349 for 64GB. Specs are also similar to DVP8, at 1280x800 and no HDMI-out. Reportedly available in spring.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/06/asus-vivotab-note-8

The Thinkpad 8 Tab has 1080p on its 8.3", but no digitizer, and per the Thinkpad name, will be more expensive. It does have micro-HDMI and micro-USB 3.0 (wonder what the power output of the port is).
[Windows 8 General] big_b0sss:
just wondering guys how many hours of video playback do yous get. i get about 4 and half hours playback is that normal? my adaptive thing is turned off. any advice to maximise battery life on this tablet would be highly appreciated.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I actually get about 6hrs continuous video playback and 4 and 3/4 hours of graphic intensive gaming (Cold Alley). I only run Metro/Modern apps on this, so I literally squeeze 10 hours of battery life browsing the web and playing Youtube videos with Bluetooth and adaptive brightness off (brightness set at 40%)

I love this device. It goes everywhere with me (once there is wireless access).

I'm now a social networking Junkie.

I wish it had GPS, a Wacom screen and LTE and a full sized USB port. This may shorten its battery life, but I think it would be worth it (for me).
[Windows 8 General] big_b0sss:
after updating the drivers if i reset the device do i need to install them again?
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
Reset, meaning a reboot of Windows, then NO, the updates will still be there.

If you mean resetting Windows8 by removing third party apps and downloading the Metro apps, then YES, you would have to re-install.
[Windows 8 General] porzerwolle:
GPS & Android

Hi, I#m from Germany. I bought the Dell Venue8Pro end of December 2013 an it was a lot of work to get this device running for my purposes.....

First of all I got a 64GB microSD card. As much as it is possible, I installed programs on the SD card. It's working.

For all of you who are interested in running GPS navigation: I tried to pair a brand new Navilock GPS bluetooth receiver. It didn't work for what reason ever.

Then I took my old Holux GPSlim 236 and my navigatrion software, "Automapa EU 6.11" is running perfectly. Very fast and very smooth.

The Holux looses the GPS connection after a while cause of the front window in my company's car, a new Volkswagen Passat. Maybe the front and side windows have this special coating. Lying in the trunk, its working perfectly, the same perfection in my private car, an Audi A4.

I ordered a jentro GPS BT device for comparison.

I wanted to habe Android on this device. There is a software named "Genymotion", which allows me to run Android 4.2.2 in an Oracle VM parallel to Windows 8.1.

With a few issues and bugs Android is running smooth. I installed the GApps via ADB, so Gmail, Maps a.s.o are running stable.

I'm very happy to have a nearby dualboot 8" tabet with GPS navigation running.:good:
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
Clarification

Read my post again. I changed the location of the "libraries" so that my Music / Documents / Photos / Videos are stores on my 64GB SD card instead. I didn't touch the storage location of the Metro apps, since I like the raw I/O performance of the internal storage. For large "desktop" apps, I simply point my program files folder form c: to e: to leave internal storage space free.

Changing the location of the Metro apps with a registry edit is a waste of time in my opinion, as the slower I/O performance will become irritating and produce unnecessary wear-leveling on the SD card.
[Windows 8 General] XTCrefugee:
In time there will definitely be other tablets that use the synaptics digitizer so I wouldn't worry, just go capacitive for the moment. Dell is also releasing a revised stylus fairly soon so I'll be waiting to hear whether that fixes the current problems. Just the usual 'early adopter' issues.
[Windows 8 General] Oco:
I found a usb-microusb hub in radioshack brand teraware. It allowed me to plug 1Tb HDD to a Lenovo Miix2 8 so it should work with Dell.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I'm convinced the issue is a digitizer issue and not a stylus issue. I still have the problems in capacitive mode anyway just using my fingers
[Windows 8 General] XTCrefugee:
Hmmm... I can't say I've had any problems with using a capacitive stylus or fingers myself. You also mentioned thermal shutdown in an earlier post on this thread - are you sure your unit isn't faulty?
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
When I play "desktop" games like Need For Speed or Assasin's Creed, the unit heats up really quickly then shuts down during game play.

Since it is an integrated unit, I have no problems with this.
[Windows 8 General] XTCrefugee:
I'm pretty sure I read a review where they ran prime95 to check on the clock speeds (it's supposed to lower them when it really heats up) and although it clocked down pretty drastically (to 300 MHz IIRC) it didn't shut off. I've been playing Blood Bowl and Starcraft 2 on mine for several hours and it's not happened to me. It's up to you of course, but it might be worth a call to Dell to see if thermal shutdown is 'expected' after a time, I've not seen anyone else mentioning it.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
It's not an "issue" for me since I know I'm playing real games that are graphic intensive that are really stressing the device's integrated unit.
[Windows 8 General] Gin110:
Hey there.

I have a problem with my 32GB sd card and maybe someone can confirm it:

It's a Samsung microSDHC 32GB Class 10 (MB-MPBGCEU).

When I try to download a game from Steam for example it stores like 50mb as usually with like 2MB/s and then Steam tells that the drive is busy and then it stops downloading for like 2 mins and then restore the download for like 2 more MBs and then the busy sign again, so its kinda impossible to complete any download to the sd card!
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
This sounds "right" if you also set any of your other environment variables to point to the MicroSD card as well.
[Windows 8 General] Gin110:
so there is no possibility for me to download and install stuff normally on my sd card?
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
Yes you can. This shouldn't be a problem. You have a Class 10 card, so you should be able to "write" 1080p content at those speeds.

I've never tried downloading anything from Steam. Are you sure your WiFi connection itself is good (not dropping packets)? Try another WiFi connection.

What happens when you attempt to download or save anything else on the card? I can torrent stuff to my 64GB Class10 SanDisk card without any issues, so I find your case interesting. I install and run all my "desktop" games from the card while downloading torrents without an issue. I'd suggest reformatting your card to NTFS instead of ExFat if you really want performance (at the expense to increased read/write cycles)
[Windows 8 General] Gin110:
its already formated to NTFS, also I changed the settings in the BIOS for the sd card (there are guides that say it improves sd card speed), but nothing changed.

I could reproduce this issue any time I try to download something directly to it (tryed Hearthstone by Blizzard Launcher, same issue - also downloading something with jDownloader).

I ran a speedtest for wifi and the sd card's speed: 10Mbit/s Wifi with 100k Connection and 2-3MB/s writing on the sd card.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
Oh, so you aren't on the A04 BIOS as yet (that removed the option). What tool did you use to do the benchmark on your device so I can go reproduce better results using your tools. I'm finding it strange that you are even having that issue. I can only think of your WiFi connection being your bottle-neck.

I have the A04 BIOS, no I never took the chance to toggle those options for myself as it relates to the SD card. I do heavy torrenting on my SD card using my 20megabit Wifi connection. "desktop" games load fast from my card, so we would need to troubleshoot your issue.
[Windows 8 General] Gin110:
I used h2testw.exe for the sd card check!

Edit:

Just ran the test again and wrote 1GB data:

Wrote:

1024MB

3:55 Min

4,35 Mbyte/s

but I maybe found the issue:

It said at testing that 1GB there were 600MB data lost and the card might be broken.

I will format the card and run the test on the whole memory, so I can be clear and my issue is found!
[Windows 8 General] XTCrefugee:
It's worth updating to A05 by the way as HS200 is now enabled by default, which improves the speed of the internal SSD considerably in some situations.

Either update to A05 or disable DDR50 in your settings if you're getting corruption or data loss. DDR50 has proven unstable on the DV8P and doesn't result in any performance boost unless you have very specific cards (most UHS-I cards do not seem to support it on the DV8P when they should).
[Windows 8 General] Gin110:
Just flashed the BIOS from A03 to A05 and ran the test again, this time without any errors. But there is still the issue when I try to download something from steam for exampe: 40MB normal download at ~1,5MB/s and then nothing more.
[Windows 8 General] XTCrefugee:
Steam downloads are bad for me too, but they will eventually complete if left alone. I presume it's an issue with the client itself and SD cards as my other downloads aren't affected like that, for example battle.net updates are fine at around 4 MB/s with no stalling.
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
I didn't know there was a A05 update. I had found it and installed it since I had read your post. I hope this has finally fixed the annoying WiFi bug that is plaguing my device. Download and transfer speeds to the SD card is still great as always since the update.
[Windows 8 General] nvyaniv:
This maybe a little bit off topic but just wondering if any one has tried using the dell vneue 8 pro with a samsung multimedia dock..

dell venue micro usb converted into another usb port and one hdmi port.. does this work well??

I basically want a dock which gives me a usb and a hdmi from one microusb... I wanna use a xbox controller and hook it up to a tv to try some simple gaming.. not high end...
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
HDMI is NOT going to work. The Dell Venue8 Pro only supports Miracast which is wireless. The best you can do it get the "Pluggables" solution (I forgot what it was called) or a USB external graphic card.
[Windows 8 General] blackheart2925:
Is there any challenges in syncing contact info saved in Gmail and the windows tablet contact app?

Or is it as easy as just add the Gmail account and then check the contact sync box and done?

Am thinking of getting one of these and I use Gmail as the single source to store my contacts and sync it up and down with my android phone, tablet and MacBook.

Finding an app which syncs contacts between Mac OS contact app and Gmail was a real pain and don't want to go through similar thing again for a windows tablet and Gmail/MacBook
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
STOP right here.

YES, this WILL be a problem for you. You and I are in the same boat.

Since this device runs Windows 8.1, it'll only "import" your Gmail contacts and changes you make (from) Gmail (e-mail, Android, or MacBook) and only replicate a "copy" on the Windows 8.x device. It will not "edit" the Gmail contacts the way you want to.

The only solution you have is to have a full DESKTOP copy of Microsoft Outlook installed on the Venue 8 Pro then synchronize your contacts with that (which then synchronizes with your Microsoft contacts in the Metro interface.

This is too cumbersome for ME to do each time I want to have the information updated on all my devices.

I'd suggest you look elsewhere if you want your GMAIL contacts synchronized the way you do. I love my DV8P otherwise
[Windows 8 General] Arghyadeep:
Can i use usb modem for internet browsing on dvp?
[Windows 8 General] Anonymously_Unknown:
Yes, the DV8P is still a full Windows 8.1 tablet PC. It will power the modem @ 500 mA. The drivers for the modem will work just the same.

I currently use one on my tablet when I'm away from tethering or an available hotspot.
[Windows 8 General] SixSixSevenSeven:
Actually only at 100mA