I have two textbooks for school in Kindle format. Right now I'm just reading them on my laptop. But the laptop is kind of bulky and its battery life isn't that great (3 hours, but tablets usually have more, don't they?)
So I think I'm gonna grab a tablet PC. I wanna go cheap, so no Ipad. I don't think I'll need to go high capacity. I take public transit a lot, so what I'd like to do is put a few books on there if I can, but also I'd like to get all the county's bus schedules on there too. The bus schedules are available in PDF format. So my tablet would have to be able to load and read PDFs.
I'm wavering between a Kindle Fire and a Google Nexus. Both cost about $200. Here are the factors that are making it difficult to make up my mind:
Google Play: The Nexus advertises that you can access your Google Play library from a Nexus. I would assume this is Cloud storage right? You would need either a Wifi signal (free in most places) or a cellular data plan (would cost extra, and it's an extra $100 to get a cellular enabled Nexus) to get your stuff. So maybe I wouldn't be using this very often. The only places where I can access wireless are at home (where my MP3s are all on my desktop anyway), the library, or school (where again I usually have my laptop, but when I'm there I'm studying instead of listening to music anyway so it's a moot point). So maybe this is a non-issue now that I think about it. It'd be nice to have the option open, but it's no deal breaker. What does everyone know about how the Kindle handles MP3s?
Kindle Books: As I said before, I have a few (not many) school textbooks as Kindle Ebooks. I might get some more in the future, but it's more likely that with my textbooks I'll just go with the cheaper option of renting old fashioned paper books. There's also a strong possibility that I'll want to procure more I.T. reference books not required for class. Carrying all these around in one small device in lieu of a bulky stack of books sounds like a real winner. So my big question here: Can a Google Nexus read Kindle Ebooks in any way, shape, or form?
Data Access: I touched upon this in my section about Google Play. How does data access work? If you download a Kindle EBook, is that firmly on the hard drive of your tablet? Could I then read this anywhere? Like if I were in a cave 20 miles below the surface of the Earth where no wireless, cellular, sattelite etc., signal could penetrate, would I be able to read the Ebook? Also.. I guess if I wanted to access my data from an area where there was cellular service (most places in the United States) but no wireless, I would need both a wireless data plan (with a resulting monthly fee and usage limit) and spend more for a cellular enabled tablet. Is this right?
Storage Space: Assuming that all Ebooks are stored on the tablet's internal hard drive,approximately how many books could fit on a 16 Gb tablet?
Any answers the community could provide would be great.
I don't think this will help you any, but I googled "Kindle Fire reviews" and "Google Nexus reviews" since I have 0 experience with either device (can't afford them) and I've never owned a tablet PC or anything with a certain piece of fruit on the back of the device ;).
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Amazon-Tablet/product-reviews/B0051VVOB2
http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/google-nexus-10-1109003/review
Other than that, I wish I could help more.
I've got an original Kindle fire and a Samsung Galaxy Express smartphone so can compare them now. The smartphone can do everything the tablet can do, just has a smaller screen.
There are 2 main differences: on the fire you can access Amazon streaming video, on the tablet it's not that easy (amazon doesn't have a streaming app for android yet). On the tablet you can access the google play store, on the fire you are limited to what amazon has put on their android app store (no access to the google play store).
If you can afford a tablet with an AMOLED screen those use way less power, so battery life is much longer.
For your questions:
Google play is an app store, games or other apps you buy are downloaded to the device to run. If you run out of memory you have to delete apps before you install new ones. Once you buy one in the store it seems like you can install it as many times as you want, so you can uninstall it from your tablet and then install it again later, so if you get a tablet with less memory it's just less convenient to use a lot of apps since you'd have to do a lot of uninstalling. But I think the largest file for a game I've seen was 8MB, so even 8 gig of ram is enough for a lot of games.
To read Kindle books on the Nexus you just need the Kindle app, it's free in the google play store. I'm assuming you have the Kindle for PC program on your laptop, the android app works the same.
For kindle books they are downloaded to the device, so you don't need a live internet connection to read them. To save battery life I usually have the wireless turned off while reading.
I don't think the nexus 10 has 3G or 4G, so no worries about getting a data plan. If you get a tablet with 3G or 4G then yes you do need to sign up with a plan of some type to get internet through the cell phone network. Depending on your ISP you may have access to free wi-fi hotspots, I know I can access all the comcast ones and the ATT ones since my phone is with them. But hotspots are very localized, so good if sitting at a coffee shop but not while traveling (unless the train or plane has wi-fi installed).
You can fit a crapload of ebooks on 16GB, more than you could keep track of. Even a long novel is compressed down to a few hundred kilobytes, books with lots of pictures will be a few MB, high res PDFs will be a little larger.
Might not be exactly what you're looking for, but I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite. It does all of the things you would need it to do. You can read and store all of your kindle books and PDFs, highlight text, and make notes on sections of text. It wouldn't be able to do fancy things like play videos, but it can do the necessities.
Though the things that it can do, it does better than a tablet. Reading on a kindle is much easier on the eyes. The battery lasts forever, you never have to worry about it, even with the light all the way up on the Paperwhite. 3G service is free, you never have to pay a subscription fee, though the 3G models are a little more. And it's small and light, very easy to take with you. I use mine all the time. They are also decently priced. A bare bones kindle without 3G (just wifi) will put you back about $70 bucks, where the Paperwhite (has a backlight) will set you back about $180.
It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that a tablet has, but it excels in all the important areas you mentioned.
I agree reading on eInk is way easier on the eyes, on a tablet I can go max a few hours, reading eInk I've gone 6 to 8.
Only caveat would be for text books you might need color. Probably not for programing texts but for other courses that have lots of graphs and charts color might be needed.
The streaming video and streaming audio I would assume you need an active Internet connection (either WiFi or cellular), correct? You don't download video and audio to the tablet themselves? Files like that take up a lot of space (video in particular, but my entire audio collection takes up about 36 Gb without counting the hundreds of hours of podcasts).
Well, yeah, streaming anything requires a live internet connection.
You can load video onto the tablet and play it, video files sized and compressed properly for a small screen take up way less room than ones for larger screens. I've got a half dozen or so rifftrax shorts on the microSD card in my phone along with about 6GB of music and I still have 20GB free on the card.
If you think you'll be wanting to store a lot of stuff on the device then look for one with a memory card slot. They charge hundreds to add 32GB extra to the device but if it has a microSD slot you can get 32GB cards for $25.
newton mp2100.
Okay I think I'm settled on the Google Nexus 7. It just seems to have more flexibility than the Kindle. It's not likely that I'll listen to a lot of music and video or play a lot of games, but I'd like that ability. I think it was this paragraph by Gromit that really settled it and set me against the Kindle:
QuoteThere are 2 main differences: on the fire you can access Amazon streaming video, on the tablet it's not that easy (amazon doesn't have a streaming app for android yet). On the tablet you can access the google play store, on the fire you are limited to what amazon has put on their android app store (no access to the google play store).
What I want most of all is something I can store books on and something I can store bus schedules on. Since the Kindle and Nexus are equivalent in that regard, I'll concede that the selection of Nexus apps is superior.
Quote from: goflyblind on January 09, 2013, 01:42:24 PM
newton mp2100.
That thing's a piece of junk. I never remembered when it was time to beat up Martin.
but you did eat up martha, right?
Quote from: Thrifty on January 09, 2013, 02:37:37 PM
Okay I think I'm settled on the Google Nexus 7.
Just looked up the specs on that, that should do nicely. If the battery life claims are true that's pretty impressive, 9 hours continuous video, 10 hours continuous web surfing or reading. Eink still blows that away but for a tablet 10 hours is pretty good.
Hopefully Adobe will get their head out of their ass and start supporting android again, not having flash is a pain for a lot of websites. Flash support was a selling point for android vs. the iPad, not any more.
Went to the Gamestop today to get a Nexus. While playing with the display model, I mistakenly linked it to my Google account, thinking that I could just sign out. Guy at the store tells me that he's gotta reformat the thing to de-link me. I was pretty embarrassed about that. Then I went to buy a tablet, but they told me they only sell the $250 32 Gb model there. I didn't want to spend an extra $50 for storage space I won't use, so I declined. Went to two other stores, none of them had the 16 Gb model either.
Brick and mortar shopping sucks.
Quote from: Thrifty on January 10, 2013, 10:33:52 AM
Brick and mortar shopping sucks.
Yup, hard to go back to driving around after you can get whatever you want online...
For stuff I want to get locally now I only use stores that have their inventory online, so I can check if it's in the store before driving there. Once when getting new tires the computer at the store said they were out, showed the guy the printout of the webpage saying they were supposed to have 4 left, he went in the back and found them.
We had a Samsung Galaxy Tab for a little over a month before we decided that it wasn't what we really wanted and returned it for a Chromebook. Even as powerful as they are now compared to where they were, they still seem like toys on the edge of the computer aisle.
I still haven't pulled the trigger on this. I'm really cheap and reluctant to spend money. I didn't just choose this screen name because I like the letters. I'm thinking I'm gonna head up to some of the local electronics stores today or tomorrow and check some models out in person. I think I saw an 8 Gb tablet with micro SD card slot.
I don't need a big and fancy tablet. I really just want something compact that can read Kindle books and store PDFs.
Quote from: RoninFox on January 15, 2013, 09:58:45 PM
We had a Samsung Galaxy Tab for a little over a month before we decided that it wasn't what we really wanted and returned it for a Chromebook. Even as powerful as they are now compared to where they were, they still seem like toys on the edge of the computer aisle.
This is actually what I finally settled on. It's cute and colorful, and I love it. Although I can't figure out how to get rid of all the bloatware on the apps page.
Picked up a reconditioned Amazon Fire 10" tablet for $79.99, paid the extra $15 to have the "Special Offers" (i.e., thousands and thousands of annoying Amazon ads) removed, and $35 bucks for a 256GB micro SD card. Sideloaded the Google Play store (have to install Google services first) and replaced the annoying Amazon specific launcher with Nova to make it look and function like a much more typical Android tablet (didn't root it, as that sometimes messes up some apps like Netflix and the work arounds are a pian). Planning to use it mostly as a streaming device for working out on my treadmill. Been a few years since I've bought an Android tablet and despite this reconditioned tablet being a 7th generation from 2017 (the latest release for the 10" fire), I gotta say I'm pretty impressed with it. Probably would struggle with gaming, but that wasn't my intent with getting it and it streams Netflix, Hulu, Amazon video, Pluto TV, MLB, etc. really well. If I didn't know it was reconditioned, I would have sworn it was new.
I'm going to be DMing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign soon, and I wanted to pick up something that I can have at the table to pull up different references, and keep track of stats and stuff. Wanted something that could multi task with a keyboard, but also function as a tablet i can draw on if I wanted to.
Thought about an iPad Pro, but it felt too limited. Wanted something more flexible. So I bought a Microsoft surface 7. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake. I'll report back once it arrives.
Quote from: Variety of Cells on November 07, 2019, 09:20:19 PM
I'm going to be DMing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign soon, and I wanted to pick up something that I can have at the table to pull up different references, and keep track of stats and stuff. Wanted something that could multi task with a keyboard, but also function as a tablet i can draw on if I wanted to.
Thought about an iPad Pro, but it felt too limited. Wanted something more flexible. So I bought a Microsoft surface 7. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake. I'll report back once it arrives.
It's great, by the way. I love it. Can do most things my normal computer can do. Can even run a bunch of games. I'm a big fan.
Going to get a new laptop this year. Gaming laptop 5 years old and part of the casing warped and is being held together with ducktape. No idea what I'll get yet - want something smaller and latest gaming capabilities not as important to me as they once were. Was considering a Surface Pro 9 for portability but cost and no microsd and usb c only make that a no go - yeah there are adapters and docks but those kind of kill some of the benefits of it's portbility.And most of the other windows tablets out there are really low end. Gonna wait a few months and see what 13th generation imtel and soon to be released AMD 7000 13" laptops come out.
5 year old laptpp cracked hinge getting worse and crack in case getting bigger despite my duck taping - never dropped, so don't know if it's just aging plastic or heat related. So went ahead and made the jump to something new.
As stated in last post really wanted something smaller / 13" this time.
Despite hating the Surface Pro 2 I used to have at a previous job (10" screen was just too small and it was buggy as hell), I had gotten a reconditioned Surface Pro 4 a couple of years ago for travel and loved it for what it was - and it is still being used as my home office TV / media streamer, but it's gotten kind of slow for doing much else.
So was going to go ahead and just get a Surface Pro 9, but pricing one out with decent specs plus having to pay extra for a keyboard cover just put it way over my budget.
Ended up getting an ASUS Windows tablet for about half the price of a similarly speced Surface Pro 9 due to ASUS coming out with an updated version soon and discounting their old inventory.
12th generation i7, 16 GB ram (would have liked 32, but wasn't an option), and a 512 GB SSD. Aluminum case like the Surface Pro.
Where it beats the Surface Pro 9 (in addition to price) is it comes with a keyboard cover (not an extra cost) that is very similar to the Surface Pro keyboard cover, ram is DDR5 instead of 4, in addition to a thunderbolt port and a USB 3.2 C port it also has a USB A port (sucks that it is 2.0, but a USB A 2.0 port is better than no USB A port), it has a microSD card slot, and a Geforce 3050 gpu (not top of the line as far as gpus go, but better than integrated gpu and a step up from my old laptop's 1060).
It's not without it's drawbacks - almost a pound heavier than the Surface Pro and a bit thicker, screen only 1080p (but looks better and brighter than the higher resolution screen on my old Surface Pro 4 and ultra high resolution on a smaller screen just becomes overkill at some point), and battery life supposedly sucks for gaming.
First day with it was annoying due to all the Windows amd driver updates you always go through with a new PC and then getting everything installed and organized in Windows 11 which I'm not as familiar with as I am with 10. But now on Day 3 and starting to become happy with it.