Monday Smiles – 1/21/2013
For a techie, I don’t have a lot of state-of-the-art electronic gadgets. Oh, I have a nice (middle of the technical road) Acer desktop computer in my office and a Asus laptop that cost a modest $400 (and is my primary platform for blogging). I have a last generation Samsung Galaxy smartphone and even a last generation e-paper Kindle. When I go to Starbucks or to the Corner Bakery with Muri, I appear reasonably well-equipped as a senior but hopelessly behind the thirty-somethings sporting ultrabooks, tablets and the latest smartphones. I rarely upgrade my electronics unless there is a practical reason to do so and I rarely purchase anything electronic that does not serve a definite need. I don’t buy toys, I say, and tablets are definitely toys. But, for Pete’s sake everybody has one and they all seem to love them. So over the weekend, I decided to buy one, even though I still don’t know what I’ll do with it.
My original intent was to buy a 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HD. The price seemed right and the reviews were good if not stellar. But when I went to Best Buy to look at it, I realized that I don’t want to carry around a full-sized tablet. That brought me into the world of seven inch tablets where the competition is keener. Always at the top of the price list, Apple offers the slightly larger than
seven inch iPad Mini. In spite of the amount of crow I’d have to eat if I ever bought an Apple product, I gave it a serious look. As always, I walked away impressed with the technology and quality but unwilling to play the premium price. The seven inch Kindle HD looks very nice for $199, but it uses Amazon’s own version of the Android operating system, locking you into Amazon’s apps. If I wanted to be locked in, I’d buy an Apple. So I did some web searching, of course, and I found the Google Nexus 7, built for Google by Asus. It uses the pure Android operating system, opening up the entire world of Android apps … plus it was consistently reviewed as the best seven inch tablet, bar none, in the literature. It is even outselling the iPad in Japan. What more could I ask for? The display is not quite up to Retina standards, but the iPad Mini doesn’t use the Retina. And the price for a 32 GB Google Nexus 7 is the same as the 32 GB Kindle and $170 less than the equivalent iPad Mini.
So. Now, I own one. I’ve played with it and loaded some of my music and photos. I’ve added some apps I’m sure I’ll use, including all of the Amazon Kindle and mp3 apps I would have used with a Kindle Fire. I’ve admired the high resolution display and played Mole Word on a seven inch screen. It is a very cool device. It’s Monday and I’m smiling but I have absolutely no idea why.
Tags: computers, curmudgeonly rants, feeling older, Google Nexus 7, humor, Monday smiles, postaday, tablets
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January 21, 2013 at 2:54 pm
I don’t have a tablet or an iPhone, though I did break down and buy a smartphone in August because there was really no value at all in buying something less. I figure these things are redundant. I have a laptop, I have a phone, the phone is a computer. I don’t need a tablet. At some point, as Neil Postman said… we will amuse ourselves to death!
January 22, 2013 at 10:02 am
Right now, it’s my substitute Kindle and a little easier to use to search the web if I’m out. Time will tell whether I actually learn to love it.
January 21, 2013 at 4:20 pm
I am soooo glad you did the research for me. While I love Apple products, I don’t have an iPad, and I didn’t want the giant Kindle either.
Now, I am going to look into that Google Nexus 7. Thanks for the recommendation!
January 22, 2013 at 10:01 am
I know you are an Apple user so I should tell you that my daughter changed to an Android phone and eventually went back to an iPhone. She couldn’t get used to the way Android operates. The Nexus 7 is an Android tablet.
January 24, 2013 at 4:43 pm
I love gadgets of all kinds, but I also don’t seem to have a need for a tablet. I got my hubby a Toshiba Thrive for Christmas last year. I’m considered the techie in this family, thought that’s not saying much. He kept asking me for help with it and I couldn’t understand the Android technology. He’s figured it out enough to browse the internet and watch Netflix, so he’s happy. As for me, I have an Asus laptop, a Nook color and an iPhone 4. With all this, a tablet doesn’t seem necessary. But if I ever change my mind, I’ll follow your lead. I love all things Google and I’m very happy with Asus.
January 27, 2013 at 9:19 am
[...] also a result of Kim’s challenge and Kim might even claim some credit for Bud‘s Monday Smiles, which came about through a sort of domino effect from the Life is [...]