Thanks for all the info, Alex. It sounds complicated, especially the part about streaming Direct TV receiver to the iPad for viewing at bedside. I used to have my Chromebook at my bedside, before I moved it into the living room, and it was wireless. Now, I've got it hooked up with ethernet for better movie viewing without the buffering. We dropped the DSL and went for the Time-Warner 15 MBPS broadband and the Chromecaster to get the Hulu + and I hooked up the Roku box to the big screen TV, with an external HD using the USB. The Chromebook is no iPad, but it sure beats my old handheld remote control. Now I've got all my digital files at my fingertips. Sweet!
"Since switching from my MacBook Air to using a Surface Pro 2 as my primary PC, I set it up to boot to the desktop because all of the software I use runs there anyway. I never even see the tiled Windows 8 Start screen while using my Windows 8.1 PC as a PC." http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/03/19/im-sorry-the-windows-8-hate-just-doesnt-make-sense/?partner=yahootix http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/03/19/im-sorry-the-windows-8-hate-just-doesnt-make-sense/?partner=yahootix ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <j_alexander_stanley@...> wrote : The DirecTV iPad app is great as a channel guide and remote control for the DirecTV receiver. OTOH, the DirecTV app's channel streaming totally sucks, but pumping the DirecTV receiver's audio and component video into a Belkin place-shifting device does a fantastic job of streaming all channels and DVR recordings to the iPad. The iPad in my bedroom is held in a SpiderArm, clamped to my bedside table, that holds it up in front of my face when I'm in bed. In the bedroom, I use it primarily as a TV and for doing the occasional web search or checking the weather. Flat on my back in bed, a tablet is actually the superior computer platform. Like I said, it's a niche product that does certain things very well. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : I've never understood why anyone would even *want* a tablet computer. I can think of only one reason to have one. Anything one can do on the Net I can do with either my laptop or my iPhone. Why would I ever need an iPhone with a bigger screen (which, if you think about it, is kinda the definition of a tablet computer)? The only reason I can think of to own one is that there has actually been a lot of cool educational software developed for the iPads and similar tablets. For a kid, a touchscreen is a plus. For the rest of us, it's an inconvenience. From: Bhairitu <noozguru@...> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 5:14 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] my review of the iPAD Air w/128 GB I went the other way and my new "low end" gadget is a Firefox OS phone which arrived yesterday. It's a ZTE Open and recommended by Mozilla as a test device for developing apps for the OS. Firefox OS apps are HTML5 and mainly written in Javascript. Thing is you can also run these apps on Android and iPhone too and probably a Windows 8 phone. The target market for Firefox phones are emerging countries where they can't even afford Android phones. They are even planning on a $25 smartphone for that market. There are some quirks with the OS so far. Firefox doesn't display Neo properly and the right side of messages are cut off. On Android I look at FFL in Neo with Chrome which handles it fine. In some cases like looking at the Firefox Marketplace the one button to go back just takes you out of the app itself. Good points are the battery life seems good. The phone is also GSM so if I want to try it as a phone I can just use the SIM card from the Android phone. Otherwise it works fine with wifi. Also it comes with built in FM receiver. Yup, most of these devices come with VERY LITTLE documentation. I didn't know for over a year that the control on the earbuds was really a microphone as hands free headset. I also have two Android tablets and an Android Tegra Shield game device. On 03/18/2014 05:48 AM, doctordumbass@... mailto:doctordumbass@... wrote: I bought this thing, yesterday, because it is a superior appliance for learning the guitar, using a specific piece of software - great display, blazingly fast, doesn't crash, has lots of great apps on-line, and is portable. So far, so good. Yet, compared to my PC, even the simplest of tasks - sending email - ranges, from, "big pain in the butt", if I need to set the cursor location, by tapping, to *impossible* -- there is NO WAY to access my Yahoo Biz account email (currently *unsupported*). Also, entering any password, that contains both text and numbers, requires switching between *two* virtual keyboards - only one of which can be on-screen, at a time. The "stroking, swiping and tapping" interface, although elegant, leaves the screen all smudged up, very quickly. Also, the Apps have inconsistent controls, with the option to return to a previous page, performed by, sometimes closing a window, OR tapping in the space behind it, OR pressing the one function button on the side of the unit. It is a hunt and guess, to determine which action to take. The unit comes with no documentation, at all. Overall, it is a great high-end gadget, performing a few functions very well, but if I wasn't so interested in finding the right platform, to run a specific piece of software, I would buy something else.
