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No, I'm waiting for the price to drop. I want one for a book reader.MangoMan wrote: Do you have one?
7??? Haven't they only been out since 2010. This is changing pads every 9 months?MediumTex wrote: Why aren't you interested in an iPad?
I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all. I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most. The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.
Five people in my house.1NV35T0R (Greg) wrote:7??? Haven't they only been out since 2010. This is changing pads every 9 months?MediumTex wrote: Why aren't you interested in an iPad?
I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all. I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most. The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.
Hah, I forgot people have families. It's just me and the wife as of the moment. Our minds are shaped based on our realities at times.MediumTex wrote:Five people in my house.1NV35T0R (Greg) wrote:7??? Haven't they only been out since 2010. This is changing pads every 9 months?MediumTex wrote: Why aren't you interested in an iPad?
I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all. I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most. The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.
I bought an iPad 1 when they first came out. I traded it in for cash and applied that to purchase an iPad 3, and then I bought an iPad Mini with Retina after that.
All three kids have had iPad 2s (which was probably the best overall iPad to date in terms of service life) and my oldest now has an iPad Mini like mine.
For the most part, you get what you pay for. I have a 13" MacBook Air that cost about $1,300 IIRC. It's an absolute tank and is as good as when I got it. It's fast, reliable, flexible, very portable, and still gets great battery life (about 7 hours). My wife has an HP laptop she spent $800 on at around the same time I got the Mac and it's a wreck. It's thick, heavy, and clumsy. It's made of flimsy plastic so it's dented and cracked. The USB ports randomly cut out from time to time. It gets barely 4 hours of battery life. Windows 8 is an abortion of an operating system that drives her crazy. A lot of things simply don't work properly. Etc. I will admit that the power cable is much beefier and better-built, though.MangoMan wrote:I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.MediumTex wrote: Why aren't you interested in an iPad?
I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all. I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most. The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.
I have a late 2011 13" MacBook Air and it has easily been the best computer I have ever owned and it still runs like a champ. Given that it is almost four years old and doesn't feel obsolete in any way, whatever Apple premium I paid for it was easily worth it.Pointedstick wrote:For the most part, you get what you pay for. I have a 13" MacBook Air that cost about $1,300 IIRC. It's an absolute tank and is as good as when I got it. It's fast, reliable, flexible, very portable, and still gets great battery life (about 7 hours). My wife has an HP laptop she spent $800 on at around the same time I got the Mac and it's a wreck. It's thick, heavy, and clumsy. It's made of flimsy plastic so it's dented and cracked. The USB ports randomly cut out from time to time. It gets barely 4 hours of battery life. Windows 8 is an abortion of an operating system that drives her crazy. A lot of things simply don't work properly. Etc. I will admit that the power cable is much beefier and better-built, though.MangoMan wrote:I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.MediumTex wrote: Why aren't you interested in an iPad?
I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all. I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most. The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.
It used to be that Apple products cost 2-3x as much as the competition and were no better. That was true maybe 10 or 15 years ago, and it's simply no longer the case IMHO. Apple products are priced in many cases very closely to their competitors in the market segment of actually high-quality products.
It would probably be closer to $400 and you would probably find that you would do a lot more with it that just read the news.MangoMan wrote:I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.MediumTex wrote: Why aren't you interested in an iPad?
I have purchased 7 iPads since they were first introduced and I have enjoyed them all. I think that I like the IPad mini with retina display the most. The lighter weight compared to the larger iPad IMHO more than compensates for the smaller screen.
Okay, no Apple. I don't know what would be good for $200. If I didn't have an iPad I would probably get something similar to a Surface Pro, but that's a lot more than $200.MangoMan wrote:As stated previously, I already have a desktop PC at home and also work that I use for the forum, etc. The tablet would be 99% for reading the news at breakfast. Again, I don't care how great Apple is, I'm just not going to spend more than $200 for a newspaper made of semiconductors.MediumTex wrote:It would probably be closer to $400 and you would probably find that you would do a lot more with it that just read the news.MangoMan wrote: I know many people here are Apple fanboys, but I just can't force myself to drink the kool-aid. Their stuff is so overpriced IMHO. I can't rationalize spending $600 for a tablet to read the news on.
For one thing, you could keep up with things here more easily with a tablet.
I understand the fascination with Apple, but I specifically said in the OP that I refuse to go that route, so I find it kind of frustrating that people keep bringing it up. If anyone has any non-apple advice, I would be happy to take it under advisement.
Stick linux on the XP laptop, use it for a few weeks. If it does what you need get a ex- corporate Lenovo x201 without hardisk off fleabay, stick a cheap small ssd in it, install linux.MangoMan wrote: I finally decided to stop having the newspaper delivered daily [I know, what's a newspaper?] I really like reading the paper at breakfast though, so I was thinking about getting either a Chromebook or an android tablet. I have a desktop computers that I use for running work related Windows programs both at work and home, so the tablet or small notebook [11.6"] would likely be used for reading the paper and other minor internet tasks only.
I also have an old laptop that has WinXP but is very slow now. And it's 'heavy' by today's standards. I could install Linux on it since I would be mostly just using it for the internet. It would not be as nice of an experience as a small lightweight tablet or notebook, but OTOH, it would be free.
Assuming Apple products are not an option, any advice on which way to go?
I borrowed one from the library. It sucked. It in no way shape or form even remotely resembles the experience of a book. I rather just read a real book and use a tablet for the ebook PDF's. There's no point reading books on a blue toxin emitting electronic device in bed anyway.MangoMan wrote: I have a Kindle paperwhite that was around $90 IIRC. Highly recommend. Much better than a cheap tablet. It's just sad you can't do much else with it besides read books.
The Kindle is 6". A tablet is 10" or so. A huge difference. Do you really want to read a newsletter one column at a time constantly zooming in and out and moving around? ePubs and PDF's also have pre-formatted layouts compared to the Kindle wrap-around abortion that looks like the early web circa 1990's. I say there's more fuss and aggravation in trying to use something insufficient for the task compared to reading a real newspaper with a pair of eyes. And as far as I know, none of the tablets come in standard 8.5"x11" paper size format so magazines are still all squished or you only see 1/3rd or less of a page at a time and cannot be read without the annoying scrolling and zooming in and out. Ught.MangoMan wrote: I can't imagine that reading on a tablet with epub or pdf is in any way preferable to a kindle. I have done both and IMHO the kindle experience is vastly superior. To each his own, I guess.
MangoMan wrote: I pulled out the old laptop, and used a puppy linux liveCD to test. I think this might be a reasonable option while I explore alternatives [or not]. I think I need to wipe WindowsXP and install a full version of linux on the HD.
I am not that familiar with the difference between all the distros. Do you recommend xubuntu? Why? Or is there another version that is less buggy or preferable in some other way? I think stable, light, and fast boot are the priorities.
+1Pointedstick wrote: My personal favorite linux Distro is Linux Mint. It's fast, lightweight, clean-looking, and not burdened by all the politics and drama of the Ubuntu crew. It also comes with third-party codecs capable of playing things like Flash that more zealot open-source folks tens to scorn. Basically, it's more practical and less dogmatic.