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rtwilli4
Oct 31, 2011, 10:37 PM
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I am so new to this crap. I don't have a smartphone or anything like that.
We are thinking of getting one of these tablet things for our selves for birthday/Christmas this year and I don't know where to start.
We have an apple laptop so it makes sense to get an iPad but we are concerned about it not having a USB port. I have never been one to pay for music or movies so we don't use I tunes. Ideally I'd like to be able to plug in my portable hard drive and watch movies while on the plane/bus/in bed/etc.
The other main use we will have is internet.
Any recommendations of where/how to start looking at these things? I guess I'll just have to head into the store tomorrow and look at them.
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carabiner96
Oct 31, 2011, 10:47 PM
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Love the iPad. No need for the USB for data at least,myou can just move it over when it's plugged into the computer. I do believe they make an adapter if you were looking to plug in a camera or harddrive or something. You will probably have to use iTunes, since you probably use it anyway to manage your musc on your Mac book. I dont purchase much music either, but it's all managed in iTunes so it's a clean sync.
I think the android tablets still sync better, but while I was skeptical at first, iPad still carries th field. It's awesome to watch movies on, especially with the Netflix and Hulu plus apps.
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rtwilli4
Oct 31, 2011, 11:25 PM
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Thanks. So they do make an adapter that I can use to plug in USB devices? That is important to me, as I carry a portable hard drive w/ me w/ loads of movies and music.
We live in UK so no Hulu or Netflix... but probably apps for LoveFilm and other stuff they have over there.
Anyone know anything about the Samsung Galaxy?
I like Apple stuff because I can just walk into the store and drop it off if something goes wrong. We've had our keyboard replaced twice for free on the laptop. The USB port was the main thing holding me back.
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rtwilli4
Oct 31, 2011, 11:28 PM
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Actually I've just read that the portable hard drives use too much power for the iPad. Does anyone know if this is the case w/ the Samsung Galaxy or other tablets?
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qwert
Nov 1, 2011, 8:01 PM
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Tablets are evil, useless and expensive.
Get a real computer instead.
qwert
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carabiner96
Nov 1, 2011, 8:41 PM
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qwert wrote: Tablets are evil, useless and expensive. Get a real computer instead. qwert
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rtwilli4
Nov 1, 2011, 8:47 PM
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We have a real computer... a nice one actually. But it's a waste to travel with when the only time we use it is on the plane or train. Once we get where we are going, the laptop stays in the hotel/hostel.
We travel once a month, sometimes more, and want it for that. It's so much lighter and easier to pack in a carry on, and if it gets stolen from our room, then we've only lost a tablet, and not our entire hard drive that is on the laptop.
Trust me, you won't see me carrying it around the city, using it to avoid the real world. We just want to have it as entertainment on flights and train rides.
And sure they are expensive... so is everything else these days. But there is nowhere to invest money right now... no where that I'm comfortable with anyways. So instead of getting less than 1% interest in some savings account, why not spend it on things that you can enjoy?
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sungam
Nov 2, 2011, 11:12 AM
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No tablet is going to have a very happy battery life when having to power a HDD. A very large flash drive is less energy hungry, and you can still fit plenty of data on them. I mean, you can get 64gb ones pretty easily now. Plenty of films on one of those, without crushing the soul of your battery. You wouldn't want to watch the movie from the stick, though, better to just move it over then delete when done.
But then again, if you get a large enough capacity tablet, you won't really need a USB stick unless you will be watching more then 10 movies or something per trip.
The REAL reason to get a tablet for traveling is large screen Angry Birds, though. ^^
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rtwilli4
Nov 2, 2011, 2:32 PM
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Thanks Sungam. Yea, I hadn't thought of the battery life w/ a hard drive until I did some research. It seems like the best way to do it is just transfer a few movies onto the pad via our laptop, and not worry about the hd. maybe get a big flash drive if we need one.
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petsfed
Nov 2, 2011, 4:33 PM
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carabiner96 wrote: qwert wrote: Tablets are evil, useless and expensive. Get a real computer instead. qwert That's exactly what I thought, too, until I got one.
Well, they managed to stomp out the affordable tablet laptop market, so I have to wait for everybody to get out of their "Yay iPad!" phase before I can get the piece of equipment that's actually useful. I like being able to write down my notes without typing, but I still need to be able to type on the same machine. That is, I don't want to own a laptop and a tablet if I could've had both in the same unit. And thanks to the stupid iPad revolution, the actual laptop/tablet hybrid (with fully featured windows or linux) has been priced out of my range.
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sungam
Nov 2, 2011, 4:42 PM
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petsfed wrote: carabiner96 wrote: qwert wrote: Tablets are evil, useless and expensive. Get a real computer instead. qwert That's exactly what I thought, too, until I got one. Well, they managed to stomp out the affordable tablet laptop market, so I have to wait for everybody to get out of their "Yay iPad!" phase before I can get the piece of equipment that's actually useful. I like being able to write down my notes without typing, but I still need to be able to type on the same machine. That is, I don't want to own a laptop and a tablet if I could've had both in the same unit. And thanks to the stupid iPad revolution, the actual laptop/tablet hybrid (with fully featured windows or linux) has been priced out of my range.
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donald949
Nov 2, 2011, 5:45 PM
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sungam wrote: petsfed wrote: carabiner96 wrote: qwert wrote: Tablets are evil, useless and expensive. Get a real computer instead. qwert That's exactly what I thought, too, until I got one. Well, they managed to stomp out the affordable tablet laptop market, so I have to wait for everybody to get out of their "Yay iPad!" phase before I can get the piece of equipment that's actually useful. I like being able to write down my notes without typing, but I still need to be able to type on the same machine. That is, I don't want to own a laptop and a tablet if I could've had both in the same unit. And thanks to the stupid iPad revolution, the actual laptop/tablet hybrid (with fully featured windows or linux) has been priced out of my range. My friend has an IBM/Lenova tablet laptop. Sooooo smexy. Wanted to get one, till I saw the price tag... Funny that I ended up with a desktop.
These r knot 2 bad.
http://www.officedepot.com/...s/?cm_cat=2000000351
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qwert
Nov 2, 2011, 6:45 PM
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Registered: Mar 24, 2004
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petsfed wrote: carabiner96 wrote: qwert wrote: Tablets are evil, useless and expensive. Get a real computer instead. qwert That's exactly what I thought, too, until I got one. Well, they managed to stomp out the affordable tablet laptop market, so I have to wait for everybody to get out of their "Yay iPad!" phase before I can get the piece of equipment that's actually useful. I like being able to write down my notes without typing, but I still need to be able to type on the same machine. That is, I don't want to own a laptop and a tablet if I could've had both in the same unit. And thanks to the stupid iPad revolution, the actual laptop/tablet hybrid (with fully featured windows or linux) has been priced out of my range.
Sounds like a bog standart convertible tablet, and those havent increased in price at all (at least not the ones i had looked at) but rather decreased. While they also most likely have decreased the quality, for example the latest thinkpad X series is the cheapest there ever was!
And if those are still too expensive, you could always get the last gen used for significantly under 1000$
qwert
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airscape
Nov 3, 2011, 9:57 AM
Post #14 of 17
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Registered: Feb 26, 2001
Posts: 4240
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rtwilli4 wrote: Wife wants a tablet... help!
Xanax ftw.
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traddad
Nov 3, 2011, 2:41 PM
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carabiner96 wrote: qwert wrote: Tablets are evil, useless and expensive. Get a real computer instead. qwert That's exactly what I thought, too, until I got one.
buh bye...gotta go watch Netflix on my Nook.
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carabiner96
Nov 3, 2011, 2:56 PM
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What about the kindle fire?
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granite_grrl
Nov 4, 2011, 1:23 PM
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Registered: Oct 25, 2002
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I don't have a tablet but I do have an ipod touch, and one thing that I find is a pain in the ass with it is that the built in media player with it only wants movies in .mp4 format. I'm not sure if there is an app for my touch that will allow me to watch .avi's and .mpg's, but what I've done in the past is use an application on my computer to translate these files to a .mp4 format. It's a pain in the ass.
My other complaint that I found on our last trip was the issues with playing .wav files required to listen to my voice mails online. At the time I couldn't find an app that allowed me to listen to them on my ipod.
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