Big tablet

Did you ever upgrade your tablet?

I am finally going to break down and buy a tablet. We have multiple Kindles but really only use them for reading. I think I am leaning towards the Samsung Galaxy Pro 10.1". I don't have the disdain that many do for Apple (I do have an iphone) but I hate the idea of not being able to expand the storage. I also like the Samsung has a USB port.

Anybody want to try and convince me to buy something different?

Quote: DRich

Did you ever upgrade your tablet?

I am finally going to break down and buy a tablet. We have multiple Kindles but really only use them for reading. I think I am leaning towards the Samsung Galaxy Pro 10.1". I don't have the disdain that many do for Apple (I do have an iphone) but I hate the idea of not being able to expand the storage. I also like the Samsung has a USB port.

Anybody want to try and convince me to buy something different?

I ignored the whole tablet thing till last year.
I bought a Samsung Galaxy tab2 10.1.
I absolutely love it.
I like it so much, also got a smaller 7 inch version to carry when I leave the house.
A laptop is so bulky when sitting on a plane in coach, and the battery does not last long.
A 7 inch tablet is perfect on a plane in coach, with about 10 hrs battery time, I never worry about running out of juice.

Quote: DRich

Did you ever upgrade your tablet?

You'd still be hearing about it if I had ;)

I decided to wait for 1) Windows "9" and 2) Android "5." Once they're out and I can see them, I may make a choice. I'm also looking at small notebook PCs (not netbook) and ultra books.

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I don't have the disdain that many do for Apple (I do have an iphone)

That's an all too-common handicap...

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but I hate the idea of not being able to expand the storage.

My Nexus 7 Tablet has 32 GB storage and no means to add more. In the time I've had it (close to a year by now), I've come nowhere near close to needing more storage. I should clarify this by saying I don't install hundreds of apps (merely dozens), have exactly NO music files at all, NO video files at all either, and I stream movies and TV from Netflix rather than downloading them from Google Play. I also do not update every app, just the ones I actually use.

I do download photos from Pinterest, but then I upload them to Google Drive and delete them from the tablet. I also download audio books from Audible, but keep only the one I'm reading and a couple more. The rest reside in "the cloud." Lastly I have a few books in the Kindle and Kobo apps. These I never delete. I have a number of podcasts downloaded, but again clean them out from time to time. In fact it is getting hard to keep all the Revolutions podcasts and I've been moving them to the PC instead.

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I also like the Samsung has a USB port.

The iPad inherited the port from the iPod, which can stream music to a speaker. I've no idea how much good that is for a tablet.

Quote: terapined

I ignored the whole tablet thing till last year.
I bought a Samsung Galaxy tab2 10.1.
I absolutely love it.
I like it so much, also got a smaller 7 inch version to carry when I leave the house.
A laptop is so bulky when sitting on a plane in coach, and the battery does not last long.
A 7 inch tablet is perfect on a plane in coach, with about 10 hrs battery time, I never worry about running out of juice.

My dilemma all along has been that I need a Windows box to support most of the software that I have written. Fortunately today most of the software is stable enough that I don't get too many support calls anymore. I have carried a laptop with me everytime that I have left Las Vegas in the past 19 years. i think I am finally ready to break that habit.

As far as screen size, I am having a real hard time deciding between the 8.4" and the 10.1". I think I like the 8,4 better but my wife wants the bigger one.

Quote: DRich

As far as screen size, I am having a real hard time deciding between the 8.4" and the 10.1". I think I like the 8,4 better but my wife wants the bigger one.

Wives always want the bigger screen. They don't worry about it fitting in their purse because they give it to their husband to carry in his briefcase or luggage when it doesn't fit.

Of course, at my age you remember when a portable computer looked like a toaster


Of course, this is what I used when I began


Of course you are really old if you can tell me what the matrix A calculates to
A(i,j)=i/j*j/i for i=1..n and j=1..n

Quote: DRich

My dilemma all along has been that I need a Windows box to support most of the software that I have written.

There are a number of windows tablets out there. I haven't looked at them too closely, but I do know a few things:

1) the Surface tablets by Microsoft are really mini-PCs, which explains why they are so expensive and why they're heftier than others of similar size.
1.1.) Surface RT and Surface 2 are not full Windows tablets. You want the plain Surface if getting the 1st generation, or Surface Pro 2 (or 2 Pro) for the second generation. I'm not clear how the third generation works.

2) Windows 8 and 8.1 have sold poorly. Check beforehand whether the Win tablet you get can be upgraded later to Win9.

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As far as screen size, I am having a real hard time deciding between the 8.4" and the 10.1". I think I like the 8,4 better but my wife wants the bigger one.

Ah, the eternal balance between portability and usability. Good luck!

FWIW, I carried my Nexus 7 (7 means it has a seven-inch screen) all day long in Vegas and was hardly even aware of it. But then I only carried the tablet. Not a charger, a battery charger or even a keyboard.

PacoMartin,

I also started on punch cards programming Fortran 66. The computer I learned on was an IBM 360.




The first "laptop" I used was an Osborne in about 1982.

I got an ASUS EB1033. They are small enough that you can attach them to the back of your TV using four standard 4" apart screw holes and a supplied case. But unlike an all-in-one computer you can replace the monitor. The photo shows two of them (one freestanding and one attached to the monitor). I put an older hard disk in for now, but I can replace with a solid state drive later.

I bought a Toshiba either T-1000 or T-2000 "portable" PC in the early 90s. The plasma screen was rather big, with VGA resolution, but monochromatic (with 16 shades!) in orange. I ran DOS 4.01 on it, and managed to use the internet with a terminal program and a 9,600 baud modem. With some patience I could even surf the early Web with LINX, though a good portion of what there was to see consisted of [IMAGE].

I used that thing a lot. not only to chat on IRC, access email, some web and, with a different program, Bulletin Board Systems, but also for writing and even work from time to time (though my excuse for getting it was to be an emergency backup for the 80286, 1MB RAM PC at work).

My next PC at home was some kind of Compaq running Windows 95.

I'm going to wait til Windows 10 comes out formally and see what MS launches in the way of tablets then. I'm thinking a Surface 3 would be great, if I can get it to plug into a mouse and full-size keyboard (a generic, cheap USB keyboard, not the expensive type-covers). That way I can use it as a PC at home for some things (along with a real monitor), a laptop when I travel, and occasionally even as a tablet.

I also want to see how the new Android 5 works, and I want to see the Nexus 9. Hopefully Lollipop will run on the Nexus 7 when it's released next month. I know you can get the Nexi line to run a keyboard and mouse, given a powered USB port.

I'm leaning towards the Surface, to be frank, given how good Win10 looks. But I'm concerned about whether they'll even have a working desktop. it seems they will, as they're really 2-in-1s rather than tablets, but the touch paradigm would seem too entrenched in some people's minds. We'll see.

The one reason for the Nexus 9 is that Lollipop allegedly lets you hand off tasks between one Android device and another. I don't expect to do any work on the Nexus 7, but if I did, say while on the way to my room in Vegas, it would be nice to hand that off rather than waiting or starting over. Again, we'll see.