Good to know

Good to know, thanks for posting this.

I have used both Android devices and Apple devices and I have standardized on Apple devices after trying both. My experience mirrors yours - you pay a bit more for Apple devices, but they just work. Android is a real mixed bag - some things work well, other things just make you want to pull your hair out.

Kindle Fire & Kindle Fire HD 8.9

I used a Kindle Fire (1st version) for a year before buying a Kindle Fire HD 8.9.  Since Adobe Flash is not supported on Android 4.x, (i.e. the level used for the 8.9 inch Kindle) I use an older version of the Dolphin browser with Adobe flash added and have had no problems with showing videos.  I also have had no problems with text disappearing.

I do use the ezPDF app for reading of pdfs and prefer the portrait view for the MRH publication.  That allows me to easily read each page with no scrolling.

Size wise, the mini and 8.9 are pretty close in size.  I've played with a mini for a short time, but not enough to make any pro or con statements.  I do admit that I love my Kindle.  On the other hand, my wife has an iPad, 1st version, that she carries everywhere.  It is in a case that makes it look like an etch-a-sketch. It is pretty sturdy.  The iPad had survived several falls onto concrete floors from several feel with zero damage to it or the case.

For either device, a case is recommended.  The ability to turn it on by flipping the flap back is a nice feature.

MRH vs.iPad

Google Nexus

After much research last Christmas, we decided to buy my son the Google Nexus 7 with 32MB of memory over the Kindle Fire HD. The Ipad mini was out of our price range so it wasn't considered. I do all my reading of MRH on my desktop PC and would like to get the chance to try the Nexus to do it but I can't pry it out of my son's hands long enough to do so! I thought once the new wore off I might get a shot at it but not so far. Maybe someday I can get hold of it and see how it works out.

Michael

Nexus 7

I have been using the android based Google Nexus 7 to read MRH with great success.  I just had to find the right App to read it with.  The Adobe PDF reader works the best for me.  

Kevin Miller

nexus is good

The kindle fire is not a real android tablet - its been customized by amazon for ebooks and other amazon revenue streams.  A nexus 7 or nexus 10 are pure android.  I've got a nexus 10, and an ipad.  I mostly use the nexus 10.  Both are excellent tablets, but they have different strengths.  The nexus does all the google stuff better - gmail, google drive, google calendar, etc.  It also has the swipe keyboard which is really nice, and seems to do better with an external bluetooth keyboard and mouse.  But if you want to buy apps, the iPad is the clearly the best way to go both for variety and safety.

Mostly my tablet use is confined to gmail, google drive, the browser, and adobe reader, which is why I mostly use the nexus.  I have some apps on the iPad I wouldn't like to do completely without though.

- Ken

Is there an app...

Is there an app that one can use to post blogs on MRH for the iPad? I have BlogPress and it supports quite a few blog engines, but doesn't work with MRH. Has anyone tried an app with success?

Chris Palomarez

Pure Android

Yes, very true, and this was one of several factors that swayed me to choose the Nexus 7 for him. BTW, he is mildly autistic but does very very well with computers and especially well with the tablet. He turned 24 years old today! Makes me feel old!

Michael

Recent study on tablet usage

Here's a chart from the Mequoda Tablet Study that gives you this study's take on the numbers:

Say what you will about the Kindle Fire, these numbers suggest it's the number two tablet type in the market by a long shot.

Nothing against the Kindle Fire but.....

I just decided that the Nexus was more to my liking as far as my sons usage of it. I do believe it has a more powerful processor than the Kindle does. Popularity contest aren't always the best way to judge things. The Kindle had a head start on the Nexus if I'm not mistaken and that could account for some of the difference in popularity.

Ultimately I would have bought him an Apple if I could have afforded it and I'd like to have one too. As it is, I'll be lucky to ever get my own Nexus!

Michael

Thinking About A Tablet

I've been thinking about getting a tablet for a while now. Back in the Dark Ages (1980) I was an Apple Guy. Unfortunately, when they moved from the Apple II to the Apple III, Lisa, and eventually Mac, none of the software I owned, or had written, would port over. I saw that as a HUGE issue. I figured that if I was going to have to do everything over anyway, I'd go with a PC, where software from a prior system still worked on the new system.

So I've been sour on Apple for nearly 30 years.

My brother's girlfriend has an iPad. When they visited my parents in Vegas last month, it didn't take much convincing to get my mom to buy an iPad also. I was over at my brother's during Memorial Weekend, and we called the parents on the iPad using Facetime. After the call, I asked my brother if my dad ever thought he'd be using a video phone in his lifetime.

I am now leaning toward the iPad, but I have some more research to do.

Just to stir things up, has

Just to stir things up, has anybody used the Microsoft Surface yet? Thinking about getting the pro. I like the idea that it is a full PC in tablet form.

"Kindle Fire, these numbers suggest"

  The reason the fire has more users than the other android tablets is that it is marketed as Amazon's path to their huge content closet. The Amazon prime membership looks like a good deal for those who buy very much from Amazon.  I tested a Kindle fire HD and found it ok but compromised by the amazon skin over the android base. Nexus 7 worked a lot better but was a bit small for my tastes. My wife's Ipad mini is just about perfect in size and operating ease, I can't think  of anything I don't like on it, and at the current Walmart price of $299 with charger it's not that much more than a Kindle fire 8.9. If amazon prime was a factor the 8.9 might be a better option but if an easy to use reliable tablet is most important the Ipad mini is worth a look.. .......DaveBranum

Microsoft tablet

I have talked to three different IT guys who get all the latest toys and who support Windows desktops in their organization. All three told me the Windows 8 Surface tablet is DOA (dead-on-arrival), meaning it's a big disappointment. 

Two of the three IT guys took their Surface tablets back for a refund.

The last IT guy still had his tablet, but he said, "Watch this" and he was able to get the Surface to go into a screen image jerking cycle that locked up the device. The only way out was a reboot. He still has his Surface tablet because his job requires he have it for support purposes. His final remarks to me, "It ain't no iPad, not by a long stretch." (He also has an iPad because he's supposed to support it as well.)

The surface is very different...

One of the guys at work has both the original surface and the surface pro.  I haven't seen him use the original much now that he's got the pro.  Anyway, the pro is more of a laptop with a permanently detached keyboard than a tablet.  And that's exactly how he uses it - he docks it at his desk to a big external monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse.  He does bring it to meetings as a tablet, but that doesn't seem to be what its best at.

I'm not convinced its any better than having a real laptop, but its certainly got more coolness points  

- Ken

I guess I will have to take

I guess I will have to take one for a test drive. I have a co worker who has one and loves it.

won't buy an Apple

Considering Apple/Mac's track record of selling inferior products for higher prices, and their bogus patent lawsuit against Samsung for having a rectangular phone with rounded corners, I will never buy a Crapple. Also, their mail program and Safari suck like a Hoover.

Not a bad price for an Ipad mini

Seems to me they were quite a bit more than that at Christmas while we were shopping for my son. His Nexus with 32MB of memory was $250 and that was the top of my budget then.  We also got my 11 year old daughter her first cell phone, a pay as you go type, and now she has informed me that she wants her own tablet for this coming Christmas! As I said, I might never be able to get one for myself!

MIchael

Surprise, surprise - a

the superior OS

I am waiting for a Linux tablet

Joe's Table

Joe,

The chart you presented doesn't provide much information, and without downloading the study and trying to figure out what the chart is referring to, it is a little misleading.  If it is giving a breakdown of what platform users are using, then there is a 120% of tablet users using a tablet. Does that mean people have more than one?

Also, it needs to be broken up better and report the percentages based on OS type, i.e. Apple, Andriod, Windows, Blackberry, and Modified Andriod (like Kindle).  

I have an Asus transformer and am able to post to the forum and view the magazine, but I find working on the laptop to be much easier and quicker.

Only thing I've ever had against Apple....

Is the fact that, as far as I know, I can't build my own  "Apple PC" . I rarely ever buy a pre built PC anymore.  I save loads of money and get what I want exactly by assembling my own. Of course that's not possible with a tablet!

Michael

build your own Apple

YES YOU CAN! and you want  to do so with Snow Leopard, a buddy that I work with (and I work for a BIG .com) builds his own MAC's and he does not like any of the newer OS's that Crapple put out....

It has been a few days with my iPad mini...