The Kindle Fire ads thing is annoying, but a $15-20 markup to avoid the ads isn't a big deal to me. They're basically just streamlining the way they had the old, non-Fire "ad supported" and "premium" models and building in the discount to the base model. I don't like it, but so far the Fire still looks to win me on tech merits. I'm waffling as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing; Unbox being available is a plus to me, but I'm not crazy about Amazon's control of the ebook market. Intersectionality sucks when it pulls you in different directions.
Having to stop using a device while connected to the charger isn't something I consider ok. That's a breaking point to me, if the Nexus 7 is afflicted by that. HDMI isn't something I really care about, on a tablet, but the Fire does have that (or micro-HDMI, but that's not a distinction I care about with Monoprice.com around to provide good quality cheap cables). Ah, the Fire's USB port is for data transfer and charging only, it won't support connecting to a USB stick or accessory. Drat. That means no storage expandability, that's a big con in my book. I don't particularly care about customized Android builds vs. Google Android builds, as long as I have a decent app store. Amazon's isn't as big as Google's, but most everything I care about is there. The Asus (not Motorola, they do the Xoom/etc) Transformer looks to be another 10" model. The older TF300 series is close enough to the price range (without the dock, that is) that I wouldn't quibble. Looks like the tablet itself is 1.4 pounds, which goes back to the bulkiness of the Xoom, and crosses that off of my list. I'm not looking at iPads just because of the price and lack of ports. I'm sure they're great devices, but I believe I can get an Android device just as good for cheaper, and I don't see the point in spending more money on the Apple ecosystem, especially when I've already bought some Android apps. There's a seeming gap between 7" tablets and 10" tablets, which I don't quite follow. The 8/9" range seems to me like it would be a sweet spot between screen real estate and size/weight considerations. The 10" Xoom was somewhat hard to hold. It was ok to watch video on, propped up on the case, but actually holding it was another matter. Even the 9" Nook HD+ was more comfortable to hold than the Xoom. I suppose I could look at trying to run a native ICS build off the micro-SD card in the Nook HD+, but that has no camera, front or rear, which rules out Skypeing even if I used a Bluetooth headset. -- ~*~ StormeRider ~*~ "Every world needs its heroes [...] They inspire us to be better than we are. And they protect from the darkness that's just around the corner." (from Smallville Season 6x1: "Zod") On why I hate the phrase "that's so lame"... http://bit.ly/Ps3uSS On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:23 PM, Joseph Kern <[email protected]>wrote: > As a rule, I usually only consider the Google branded Android offerings; I > like the vanilla android experience, it's easily upgraded, and I know there > are a bunch of Google engineers that have received the device for their > holiday gift that year, or that it's been given away at Google I/O. > > The only thing about the nexus 7 that may give you pause: it will continue > to use more power than it gains from charging, so in low battery situations > your only option is to stop using it. I do not own one, and have heard this > second hand; can anyone verify or debunk this? > > The Kindle Fire is a nice little tablet, but it's not really what I would > call an "android tablet", lots of ads (I think you can pay to disable > them), and I was never really impressed with their App Store. But that's > purely subjective, and the hardware build is nice. > > One feature that you might look for (and not mentioned); full sized USB > and HDMI ports are nice to have. I believe these can be found on the > Motorola Transformer (but I think that falls outside your price range). > > That Lenovo does look nice though ... can you run vanilla android on it? > > > TL;DR: I like vanilla android on Google branded devices. Or an iPad. :-) > > > On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Morgan Blackthorne < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Like the email thread, this is sysadmin related, though perhaps not as >> intuitively so. >> >> I work from home almost exclusively at this point due to my disability >> (significant rheumatoid arthritis). New meds have gotten it under control, >> to a point, but there are still problems. One of my current coping methods >> is to use my Droid 2 (which is my pager for work) and my Nook Color (which >> I've rooted) to keep up with work when I hurt too much to sit up in bed >> (where I spend most of my time-- my back is usually less likely to complain >> when I'm propped up with pillows vs. sitting in a chair) with my MacBook. >> Since I'm a remote employee, I do spend a lot of time writing emails and >> responding to instant messages. >> >> I am looking to upgrade the phone, as I've found that despite my best >> efforts, the unit simply refuses to stay awake all the time and will drop >> the wifi/3g connection and go to sleep at times. While pages get through, >> as they operate over SMS, people IMing me often does not. I'm currently >> looking at the Kyocera Rise, as it's Android 4.0 based, and has >> significantly better specs than the Droid 2. And the physical keyboard >> definitely helps a lot with responding to emails or SSHing into a node; >> touchscreen typing is often frustrating as I typo all over the place. >> >> The Nook Color is a great e-reader, but really a so-so tablet. The BN >> market is tiny compared to the Play Store or Amazon's App store. And after >> rooting it, many apps will refuse to load onto the device for compatibility >> reasons. A good example of this is the Amazon AWS Console app, which would >> certainly be handy for me. I also tried to use it for watching TV via >> Netflix and Plex, and it just doesn't have the juice to render fast enough. >> Since I work from home and my work is very flexible, I often take breaks >> during the day (especially when meds kick in hard and zombify me for a bit) >> to read a book or watch TV and work at different points throughout the >> entire day instead of working 8+ hours at one or two sittings. This habit >> particularly comes in handy when I am able to do work after the devs leave >> for the day and I can make changes without having to worry about blocking >> them, or doing maintenance at off-peak hours. Needless to say, I sent a lot >> of 1am/2am emails and management loves that, and that demonstrated work >> ethic has earned me a lot of latitude-- especially since we care more about >> results than process. My work is really flexible about a lot of things like >> that (as evidenced from me transitioning from being a full time commuter to >> a full time remote employee gradually over the last three years). >> >> I'm also interested in testing out compatibility for our revamped site on >> the tablet as well, which slightly alters my specs. Here's what I'm looking >> for: >> >> - Capacitive touch-screens only. >> - Bluetooth support preferred, so I can use a headset down the line >> and potentially a keyboard. >> - If Bluetooth is not available, this mandates a microphone. One of >> the things I'll be testing at some point is audio recording on the device. >> I'd prefer this even if it does have Bluetooth, however. >> - Decent display-- somewhere between 7 and 9 inches with a good >> resolution. A former housemate had a Xoom and the 10" tablet was simply >> too >> bulky and too heavy (1.6 pounds). Unwieldy for me. The Nook Color is 7" >> and >> something slightly larger would be preferred. My wife has a Nook HD+ and >> the 9" is a very pretty display without being too heavy. >> - Not too heavy, especially as I'm going to add a protective case to >> it. >> - Android 4.x preferred. If I'm spending enough money on this, I >> don't see any reason to go with an older OS. >> - Access to the Google or Amazon app store natively strongly >> preferred. I'm tech savvy enough to root it if I have to, but I don't want >> to have to, I just want it to work. And I definitely don't want to fight >> compatibility issues after rooting the unit, because neither store ever >> says why it considers the device incompatible, which makes trying to >> troubleshoot it very cumbersome. Again, I feel that if I'm dropping this >> kind of money, I shouldn't have to fight to get it to do what I want. >> - Wifi. I don't intend to pay for a cellular data plan. >> - Expandable memory slot highly preferred. I prefer micro-SD but I'm >> not wedded to that format; the important part to me is the ability to swap >> out storage if I want and to expand the capacity of the unit itself, >> especially if I ever end up using it on say a plane ride and want to watch >> videos. >> - Front camera with decent resolution. I would like to be able to use >> the unit to Skype with. >> - Not a bank breaker. $300 is the most I'd like to spend, but I might >> spend more if I believed I needed to. >> - Good battery life. >> >> Two of the units I've been considering are the Kindle Fire 8.9" and the >> Nexus 7". The Kindle doesn't have micro-SD but does have a USB port; I >> assume I could plug in a USB stick to it (or even USB drive). I also do >> have a bunch of TV and movies purchased off of Amazon Unbox and the only >> tablet that will play that back is the Fire, as they don't make their Unbox >> player available on the Android markets. (Well, I might be able to use >> Flash, but Flash on Android always seems to chug, no matter what device, in >> my experience. Then again, Flash tends to chug period...) >> >> Both units seem to have 1G RAM, a microphone, Bluetooth, and 16 or 32G of >> flash. The Nexus 7 has a Tegra 3 quad-core chip and the Fire has a >> dual-core ARM chip-- I don't know how they rate performance wise since >> they're apples and oranges. The Nexus is smaller, but has Android 4.2 >> instead of 4.0 on the Fire (as far as I can tell online). The Fire is 20oz >> and the Nexus 7 seems to be ~12oz. Smaller but lighter and cheaper might be >> a bonus, but smaller does tend to make typos easier when using the >> touchscreen. On the other hand, I will likely be keeping this for a long >> time, so I'd probably want to invest in a bigger display and look towards >> the Kindle. On the other hand, Amazon has a bit of a stranglehold on the >> ebook market and that's one reason that the wife and I went toward the >> Nooks in the first place. >> >> Any other tablets that I'm not aware of that would fit the bill, please >> let me know. I'm sure there are some that I'm not thinking of, I just >> haven't had time the last few years to keep track of electronics. Looking >> around on Amazon the Idolian Studio 10" (although probably too large, it is >> on the cheaper side...), Galaxy Tab 2 (again, probably too large/heavy at >> 10" and 1.3 pounds), and Lenovo Idea 9.7 look interesting. >> >> Thanks for any help you folks might have. Assistive devices are very, >> very important to me at this point. >> >> -- >> ~*~ StormeRider ~*~ >> >> "Every world needs its heroes [...] They inspire us to be better than we >> are. And they protect from the darkness that's just around the corner." >> >> (from Smallville Season 6x1: "Zod") >> >> On why I hate the phrase "that's so lame"... http://bit.ly/Ps3uSS >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators >> http://lopsa.org/ >> >> > > > -- > Joseph A Kern > [email protected]
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
