Needing a Tablet

[wpeters]

Thanks guts for the answers. I am going to check into a Windows based tablet. 

[Zerstorer]

I've had a Nexus 7 and I really, really hate it.

The Android operating system insists...insists...on loading and running everything it can possibly find in the background.

Short of "rooting" it, something for experienced techies and re-loading the OS to your liking, that's the only fix.

I wish I had spent the extra money on an iPad, where you can simply flick off the programs running and keep them closed.

I have tried to like the Nexus for a while now.  It has been assigned Netflix, Facebook and some email duties...and kindle.  Netflix pauses a lot and when I check to see what else is running, pretty much everything the device can find is.  You can download apps that manage this....and I have tried, and bought, a few.  But they all ultimately fail.  This is why we no longer use the Garmin program on this device when we fly.  The iPad mini my friend has runs circles around it.

I used to hate Apple and all things Mac  But if you want something that's bulletproof in reliability, function and performance...spend the extra money.

Have to agree. 

I like Android, but only because I am technical and like to customize and have more control over my system.  For someone who just wants it to "work"...iPad is the way to go.  My wife and son are iPhone/iPad/Mac....I'm Windows 7 (games) / Linux & *BSD (work and stuff) / Android. Works well and I only end up doing tech support for MY stuff most of the time.

I've worked with Windows tablets.  I'd avoid like the plague.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I used to hate Apple and all things Mac  But if you want something that's bulletproof in reliability, function and performance...spend the extra money.

I've found out most people hate Apple until they actually give it a try. I used to hate Apple and all things mac simply because they were alien to me and had a price premium. Now after using pretty much every iDevice known to man through work I have reversed my opinion.

[LePaul]

Good point

They require us to come out of our [Windows] comfort zone.  But since Microsoft hosed the user interface shoving Windows 8 /tablet like functionality on us (and taken a pounding in sales for it), that's helped inspire folks to either stay with 7 or check out other options.

From the programming I do with my R2-D2s in Windows, I can really appreciate the Mac model.  Make a device, make them have the identical hardware / hardware profile and that's quite nice to code for.  I have the Adobe Web Suite for the web programming I've been learning over the years.  All the Adobe apps really fly nicely on the Mac platform.  Just about every tutorial and manual shows screenshots from the Mac version!

Someone mentioned viruses....no worse than any other Windows PC.  I invest in Trend Micro Titanium and it covers everything very well.  Avoid the freebies.

[Skuzzy]

We are done with Apple.  After the iPad got bricked by the 8.0 update.  The Wife took it back to Apple and they wanted to charge her to fix it, claiming she must have done something wrong to brick it.

I will not get into the issues she had with it while it was working.  It only took her a week to figure out she bought the wrong product.  I wish she would have gotten rid of it then.

[guncrasher]

I've found out most people hate Apple until they actually give it a try. I used to hate Apple and all things mac simply because they were alien to me and had a price premium. Now after using pretty much every iDevice known to man through work I have reversed my opinion.

I gave an iphone a try.  it was bad.  went back to android and never looked back.  I like the fact I can customize my phone and get rid of apps I dont use and keep the ones i use.  on the other hand apple loves to tell me people what they need as if they knew everybody.



semp

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I gave an iphone a try.  it was bad.  went back to android and never looked back.  I like the fact I can customize my phone and get rid of apps I dont use and keep the ones i use.  on the other hand apple loves to tell me people what they need as if they knew everybody.



semp

I wouldn't touch an Android phone myself. I made the mistake of buying one for my daughter, endless trouble with it. It was buggy and difficult to use and the play store had at that time 30% of apps with malware on them. Play store still has malware apps, now Google just scans them post publishing so not so many people manage to infect their phones before its caught.

Anything open in phones is bad in my book. You want your phone to be as closed as possible and you want to download software only from trusted sources. Your phone (unless it's a prepaid) is an open tap for criminals, they can induce charges to you limitlessly just by placing calls on your device. That can be done silently on Android phones by the way, without the user knowing.

I wouldn't want to have a freedom to install animated backgrounds to my credit card for example unless they came from 100% reliable sources. Would you? Yet you seem to want that freedom to your phone that's directly tapped to your account billing without limit usually. The criminals can induce 5000, 10000USD bills easily by calling their own high cost toll numbers in Uganda. These cases have happened but as with credit card scams the companies suppress the publicity to avoid panic. We just pay the added cost collectively.

[guncrasher]

I wouldn't touch an Android phone myself. I made the mistake of buying one for my daughter, endless trouble with it. It was buggy and difficult to use and the play store had at that time 30% of apps with malware on them. Play store still has malware apps, now Google just scans them post publishing so not so many people manage to infect their phones before its caught.

Anything open in phones is bad in my book. You want your phone to be as closed as possible and you want to download software only from trusted sources. Your phone (unless it's a prepaid) is an open tap for criminals, they can induce charges to you limitlessly just by placing calls on your device. That can be done silently on Android phones by the way, without the user knowing.

I wouldn't want to have a freedom to install animated backgrounds to my credit card for example unless they came from 100% reliable sources. Would you? Yet you seem to want that freedom to your phone that's directly tapped to your account billing without limit usually. The criminals can induce 5000, 10000USD bills easily by calling their own high cost toll numbers in Uganda. These cases have happened but as with credit card scams the companies suppress the publicity to avoid panic. We just pay the added cost collectively.

I have yet to have an prepaid phone.  perhaps the problem is you should teach your kids not to download every single app that looks cool in the market.  and I have yet to have any app call uganda or skandinavia for that matter.  I dont pay for animated backgrounds even if they came for 100% reliable sources, to me it's a waste of money.  and that's the same reason I wont pay for an overpriced iphone.  I do all my banking on my computer and on my phone.  the only check I write is to pay the rent in my apartment. going on several years now with android except when I switched to the iphone and I couldnt wait to get rid of it.  I ended up selling my iphone for less than 1/2 of what I paid.  the guy I sold it to thought he got a bargain.  2 months later he was so frustrated with it he gave it away.

out of 25 or 30 people in my department only 2 have an iphone.

semp

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I have yet to have an prepaid phone.  perhaps the problem is you should teach your kids not to download every single app that looks cool in the market.  and I have yet to have any app call uganda or skandinavia for that matter.  I dont pay for animated backgrounds even if they came for 100% reliable sources, to me it's a waste of money.  and that's the same reason I wont pay for an overpriced iphone.  I do all my banking on my computer and on my phone.  the only check I write is to pay the rent in my apartment. going on several years now with android except when I switched to the iphone and I couldnt wait to get rid of it.  I ended up selling my iphone for less than 1/2 of what I paid.  the guy I sold it to thought he got a bargain.  2 months later he was so frustrated with it he gave it away.

out of 25 or 30 people in my department only 2 have an iphone.

semp

I don't have to teach my kids as they can only download pre-screened and approved apps to their iphones. Much safer and easier that way. Plus I don't really miss the endless android nightmare: Daddy why doesn't this work? Get an iPhone and stuff _will_ work. No matter what Skuzzy says

[Skuzzy]

I never said it would not work.  Well,..it did not work after the 8.0 update bricked it.  I am relaying a customers dissatisfaction with the product.  I never used her iPad.

Personally, I do not care for Apple products, for a couple of reasons.  My reasons are logic based.  The biggest issue, is they do not work well for what I use a computer for.  I have no vested interests in any specific hardware or software.  I use what works best for me.

You will never hear me say one is better than the other, in generic terms.  Never.  However, there are applications which both shine in or one shines better than the other.

[wpeters]

I wish I use a iPad but the program that I use for grade records is a spreadsheet with marcos enabled.  If I could I find a program like that to work like that I would use it.

[guncrasher]

I don't have to teach my kids as they can only download pre-screened and approved apps to their iphones. Much safer and easier that way. Plus I don't really miss the endless android nightmare: Daddy why doesn't this work? Get an iPhone and stuff _will_ work. No matter what Skuzzy says

I dont really understand what you are saying here.  as I have never had this problem with android.  perhaps it's the fact that you live in a different country and get a different version of android tailored to your specific carrier, while iphone are almost all the same.

not trying to get into an argument but can you be more specific as to what or which app doesnt work with android?


semp

[Vulcan]

I wouldn't touch an Android phone myself. I made the mistake of buying one for my daughter, endless trouble with it. It was buggy and difficult to use and the play store had at that time 30% of apps with malware on them. Play store still has malware apps, now Google just scans them post publishing so not so many people manage to infect their phones before its caught.

Anything open in phones is bad in my book. You want your phone to be as closed as possible and you want to download software only from trusted sources. Your phone (unless it's a prepaid) is an open tap for criminals, they can induce charges to you limitlessly just by placing calls on your device. That can be done silently on Android phones by the way, without the user knowing.

I wouldn't want to have a freedom to install animated backgrounds to my credit card for example unless they came from 100% reliable sources. Would you? Yet you seem to want that freedom to your phone that's directly tapped to your account billing without limit usually. The criminals can induce 5000, 10000USD bills easily by calling their own high cost toll numbers in Uganda. These cases have happened but as with credit card scams the companies suppress the publicity to avoid panic. We just pay the added cost collectively.

Sorry, but I entirely disagree with your post. Both iOS and Android are insecure. I don't want to spend tireless hours arguing with an apple fanatic, all I will say my job is in the IT security business. Some of your statements are hyperbole (like the 30% of android apps having malware), and apple has also seen sideloaded malware in apps as well the latest wirelurker threat (not to mention the repeated icloudl breaches and issues).

Remember a time when apple said virus's were just a windows problem - well apple now ships all OS X devices with native antivirus - what does that tell you?

Get the tablet that fits the tasks you need to do.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Sorry, but I entirely disagree with your post. Both iOS and Android are insecure. I don't want to spend tireless hours arguing with an apple fanatic, all I will say my job is in the IT security business. Some of your statements are hyperbole (like the 30% of android apps having malware), and apple has also seen sideloaded malware in apps as well the latest wirelurker threat (not to mention the repeated icloudl breaches and issues).

Remember a time when apple said virus's were just a windows problem - well apple now ships all OS X devices with native antivirus - what does that tell you?

Get the tablet that fits the tasks you need to do.

List active OSX viruses or even unpatched malware that are in the wild today, then let's talk further. There are about a handful of known attacks as we speak and those are being handled by built in protections. So currently finding an OSX virus is about as likely as being hit to the head with a meteorite. Windows use then again is pretty much dodging bullets at a shooting range. The list of windows viruses wouldn't even fit in one post probably

As long as a user doesn't jailbreak the phone, he can only download software from trusted sources which makes iOS devices inherently very secure. The sideloading etc. cases have been mostly due to users loading software from shady Chinese sites (as with the latest iOS attack which requires the user to download compromised and non-approved software from a Chinese site using his personal computer, iOS wouldn't let the user compromise his device).

Oh and btw 30% of Play store apps _did_ contain malware prior to Google pulling the emergency brake and creating the app screen. As we speak the amount of new apps detected and rejected from Play store continues to be around 30% the last time I checked. So one in three new Android apps are coming from a malicious source and the process of Play store allows unlimited amounts of attacks. It's inevitable that something will slip past the detection software as software based scanning is never reliable. After the app screen only a few percent apps had malware anymore (the ones that hadn't been detected yet) and the situation is unaltered today. Play store still lacks proper developer registration process and app prescreening like Apple does. Play store is inherently insecure as anyone can upload their software there and nothing but an automated script reviews the code for safety. So it has the same security problems like a typical windows pc user.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I dont really understand what you are saying here.  as I have never had this problem with android.  perhaps it's the fact that you live in a different country and get a different version of android tailored to your specific carrier, while iphone are almost all the same.

not trying to get into an argument but can you be more specific as to what or which app doesnt work with android?

semp

I bought a Samsung Xcovery to my kid (years ago) because I thought it would be a good 'kid phone' due to its resilience. It turned out to be a bag of trouble. It had a tiny internal memory and 90% of apps found in the play store refused to install on the microSD card. So the end result was that once you installed 3-4 apps your internal memory was full and practically nothing was able to run using the microSD.

This combined to the clunky hard to use Android interface... it was a disaster. From now on I'm buying iPhones only also for the kids. They'll just need to be a bit more careful about dropping them.