Their partnership with this keylogging software, I mean, keyboard software which you can't uninstall and uploads to their Chinese mothership, made me buy another phone. I won't miss them if they go out of business.

There is one called TouchPal (http://www.touchpal.com/en/downloads.html); I tried it for a bit when it came out, and I didn't like the way it played with the stock touch keyboard. It may be better now, but I'm waiting for Windows 10 personally.

Are you using their default Touchpal keyboard? They probably already have your info anyway and uploaded to their Chinese headquarters: http://www.touchpal.com/privacypolicy.html

Dell Venue 8 Pro is full windows 8.1

You should be able to install Google Earth as a desktop application.

You should also be able to install Chrome browser as a desktop application through which you should be able to use Google Maps and all the other tools as you normally would on a desktop computer.

Alternatively, if you really really want the Android apps, you could try an emulator like BlueStacks which would let you run some Android apps.

Regarding the swype keyboard, a quick google took me to here. If you scroll down that page, you'll find a Windows 8 download of TouchPal which is a swipe like keyboard which works with Windows 8.

Regarding your mouse - what mouse are you using which is causing the device to turn back on? Another commonly used tool which lets your tablet touch screen behave more like a trackpad is called "Touch Mouse Pointer" - you might want to give that a try, you can read more about it here

IMO, it's just not worth using a 3rd party keyboard, especially now that popular apps can get sold without any notice to the user.

In this case, you are sending your keyboard data to some company in China. I bet most users here haven't even read the user agreement.

6. Privacy Statement

> 6.1 TouchPal, as a company that acts responsibly, works hard to make sure that any innovation is balanced with the appropriate level of privacy and security for our users. Our Privacy Principle helps guide decisions we make at our company, and we'll never sell your personal information or share it without your permission, except as described herein and in our Privacy Policy.

> 6.2 In order to offer you a more tailored service; TouchPal will use or collect your usage data while you are using the TouchPal keyboard in accordance with TouchPal’s Privacy Policy. By joining the Customer Experience Improvement Plan, you are agreeing to provide us with your usage data (keyboard usage frequency, settings etc.), which shall be sent back to TouchPal securely. We will only use this information to improve TouchPal keyboard. We may share certain aggregated information about our customers with our Licensors and other third parties, but such information is combined with the information of others and will not identify you personally.

I know the HTC version is supposedly clean, but has this been verified?

I personally would love to see someone log all data these 3rd party keyboards are transmitting, and do a report on it. I think many people will be surprised.

Shit like this is also why I turned off auto-updates on the apps that matter to me, and manually update several days after release (and after verifying reviews sorted by new), since you just can't trust updates anymore.

OP to the rescue!

Background http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/347/1/4/terminal_by_ashm909-d4j1hel.jpg

App http://www.touchpal.com/android/index.html

It takes a bit of tweaking to get the colors, transparency and alignment looking authentic, but man, it sure is cool :3

I replaced my 2012 MBPr with a surface 3. I still have my nexus 7, because as u/plus1zero stated, the surface isnt a quick-use-small-task tablet, so keeping it around is totally worth it for me. Especially for reading ebooks, the surface is just too big for long reading periods.

There is a third party keyboard for windows 8 that you can swipe with, but it really isnt that nice of a keyboard IMO, maybe just cause I am used to the stock keyboard. http://www.touchpal.com/en/downloads.html#win8

I picked up a 128gb sd card for mine to store movies and tv shows on when I went on my honeymoon so the wife and I could be entertained on the plane, and it was awesome, big screen and great battery life, so theres that.

Bad memory and didn't stalk, I use Reddit Enhancement Suite and you can tag users with a note. Sometime in the past I tagged you as 'Thai RM'. I was in Thailand as well.

You should check out the TouchPal X keyboard for your phone. มันสุดยอดจริงๆนะครับบบบบบ It's also free and only takes two taps to switch languages.