Anyone use a tablet ?

gavin_axecaster

holnrew said:

I'm tempted to get a kindle tablet because magazines are now included with Amazon Prime and they won't work with anything non Amazon, how's the screen for reading on the cheapy ones?

It's fine - although I must admit that I don't use it for mags. I have used it for graphic novels and find the screen a bit small and have to keep zooming. If I was planning on reading a lot of magazines I'd want a larger screen.
BTW - not all magazines are available on all devices - I tried to download Men's Fitness or something to my Kindle Fire last week and wasn't allowed - I could only download to my regular Kindle, which is next to useless for anything with pictures.

gavin_axecaster

Emp_Fab said:

chillidoggy said:

EMP - Have you thought about buying secondhand? A lot cheaper like that.

Aye - I've been scouring ebay for a few days now.  Trouble is, I want it before I go on holiday Tuesday morning.  I can't rely on anyone getting it to me that quickly on a bank holiday weekend.  Ideally, I'd like to just walk into a shop and get one there and then, but it's proving very difficult to get any of the ones that get good reviews in a real shop.

If the screen is going to be big enough for you you could pick up a Kindle Fire 7" in Argos for £49.99
http://www.argos.co.uk/product/3072499

Axe_meister

chillidoggy said:

Axe_meister said:

chillidoggy said:

I have an iPad, and I think it's really good. But it pisses me off that you cannot plug anything into it, no USB port or any other connection, it's all iTunes, which as we all know is absolutely the worst piece of software ever devised. How a company can produce really good hardware, and make such a monumental cock-up with software is beyond comprehension.

EMP - Have you thought about buying secondhand? A lot cheaper like that.

You can get a USB adapter. I can plug in my Cannon camera directly into it and download the photos

Really? Is that an Apple-certified job, or a knock-off? I had one before, but the iPad refused to recognize it after a couple of goes.

Yep proper apple job, it's also an HDMI adapter

guitarfishbay

I didn't have one for a long time either.

It's one of those things you don't think you need until you get one then you wonder why you didn't use one earlier

monquixote

roberty said:

I got a massive phone (Nexus 6P) and barely use my tablet(s) now

Same here 

If you don't mind having a big phone then I find the combination of 5.7" phone and laptop works very well.

chillidoggy

Axe_meister said:

chillidoggy said:

Axe_meister said:

chillidoggy said:

I have an iPad, and I think it's really good. But it pisses me off that you cannot plug anything into it, no USB port or any other connection, it's all iTunes, which as we all know is absolutely the worst piece of software ever devised. How a company can produce really good hardware, and make such a monumental cock-up with software is beyond comprehension.

EMP - Have you thought about buying secondhand? A lot cheaper like that.

You can get a USB adapter. I can plug in my Cannon camera directly into it and download the photos

Really? Is that an Apple-certified job, or a knock-off? I had one before, but the iPad refused to recognize it after a couple of goes.

Yep proper apple job, it's also an HDMI adapter

Ok, I'll have a search, then. Ta.

Emp_Fab

I've never owned any apple device.  I've actually never even used one for more than a couple of seconds.  I like the idea of the apps being vetted and more polished than the 'anything goes' approach of the Google Play Store, but jeez... the prices!  I can get almost two android tablets for the price of one equivalent iPad.

A second-hand iPad may well be on the cards but as there's no way I can get my hands on one by Monday, I'll grab a new android tablet in Currys over the weekend.  I can always sell it on when I fancy trying the Apple route.

Tavernor

I've had a hudl 2 for ages and think it's great. They don't make them anymore, which is odd as they were best sellers and widely praised. Probably means you can get them pretty cheap now I'd imagine. Has an HDMI out too which is useful.

dindude

randella said:

Not a massive Apple fanboy but I do think, objectively, they make the best tablets.  I bought an iPad 4 the week of its release and come this September it'll be five years old.  It still works fantastically, still holds a decent charge, doesn't exhibit any of the oft-touted 'slowdown'.  Gets a good hammering every day.

It's used for about 95% of my home computing.  It's utterly indispensable.  Not like food or sunlight indispensable, but you get my drift

Bearing all that in mind, a secondhand one mightn't be a bad idea.

Yeah I agree, I almost hate to champion Apple these days because I think they have lost it a bit, but the other tablets (Amazon kindle fire / some Samsung jobbie) I've used have been very frustrating to use, to the point that I wouldn't have adopted them over a laptop. That goes for phones too - my work Nokia windows phone is an absolute travesty of a device.

It's no lnger the case that Apple lead the way, they're just not as shit as everything else.

TTony

Emp_Fab said:

 I can get almost two android tablets for the price of one equivalent iPad.

True.



But neither will be half as good as an iPad.

equalsql

I had to hand back a Google Pixel C tablet after being made redundant​. I really missed it. After alot of research I ended up buying a Lenova Yoga Plus Android tablet.
It's bloody superb for the money. Ultra hd, 3gb ram and 32gb storage. Easily as good as the pixel C and the ergonomic design is great. The build quality is excellent too!

octatonic

Get a Fire tablet.

octatonic

.

axisus

I bought an iPad about 3 years ago and I absolutely love it, I use it every day. It feel so relaxing to browse stuff anywhere in the house with it after a day of using a desktop at work. Also far more relaxing than my laptop.

Philly_Q

I've just bought a Samsung tablet.  I don't like not having a proper keyboard and mouse but it's good for checking your emails when you're on holiday.  Like now.

TheBigDipper

I'm a lost cause to the Applesphere... iPhone, iPad Pro and MacBook Pro.  

On my iPhone and iPad (iOS is the platform) I use the Kindle reader app and prefer it to the Kindle I originally bought several years ago. There is also a Apple reader app called iBooks that comes with the iPad. That's good for downloaded PDFs, etc. 

iOS comes with free and decent versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).  On iOS there are so many great apps for musicians. 

It is more expensive to get into their game, but - in part because it's a closed system, not open-ended like Android - it all just works, is engaging to use and does the job better than the others.

BigMonka

Emp, a word of warning on the apple/android debate... the reason you can get cheap android tablets isn't because of the operating system, it's because there are companies willing to make them with cheap hardware and apple aren't willing to do that. It's not uncommon for people to think that android is a bit rubbish and unresponsive compared to a ipad, but really they're comparing their £50 hardware with the £300 hardware of an ipad - not a fair comparison! 

If you need something quick then have a look for a local CEX, they often have a load of second hand tablets. I would have thought that as a way of reading books you'll find the ipad mini to be the best option as the screen is excellent and it's small and light enough that it's not annoying to hold and read for long periods.

BRISTOL86

Save yourself the hassle and just buy an iPad from the start. 

They're orders of magnitude better than any other tablet I've ever used.

Grunfeld

Super-naive questions (I've never even touched Apple anything, ever) but this thread arrived just as I too was thinking iPad.
1)  Can an iPad connect with an ergonomic keyboard? 
2)  Er, how do you get your data from the iPad onto a USB stick?

Both of those things are essentials but I don't see how you'd do them on an iPad.

EricTheWeary

Grunfeld said:

Super-naive questions (I've never even touched Apple anything, ever) but this thread arrived just as I too was thinking iPad.
1)  Can an iPad connect with an ergonomic keyboard? 
2)  Er, how do you get your data from the iPad onto a USB stick?

Both of those things are essentials but I don't see how you'd do them on an iPad.

There's a whole bunch of keyboards designed to work with iPads.

iPads don't have USB ports. They are essentially a closed system which is limiting but then keeps you virus safe.
You can get an adapter for USB devices but, as I understand it, won't necessarily support everything.

iPads are poor replacements for a computer if you want to do a lot of work on them. Sometimes I've seen people use them for stuff were pen and paper might be better. They are, however, really great at some things and very easy to use ( used a lot in primary schools for example) and simply more convenient than a laptop or computer.