I am sooooo confused

[Judy]

In looking at the 10" tablets how in the world does one decide? I'm not wanting an IPad is about all I know. When I look at one like the Samsung Gallaxy the money is virtually same. The Gallaxy gets overall positive reviews, so I get to thinking "okay, this must be the one." Then I browse and see the ones by Acer(much less expensive), Google LePan etc and THEY also get overall positive reviews. HOW DO YOU KNOW? Would like to have one w/camera, but the ones I've mentioned do. So, back to my original statement....I am soooo confused. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

[aforeyego]

Oh, Judy, I've been trying to reply to your thread several times. I used to give up because I cannot help you :=(

There is just my desktop computer DONALD 1353 & my humble self ...

I don't own any other 'device', which the modern world apparently is in need of.

DONALD & I may be old fashioned - but we're happy as we are.

I am writing this, because noone else has replied, yet, to help you out < hint! hint! > of your confusion.

Your Rudie aforeyego/Eve

[DaveM]

My nephew (14) has an iPad and can make it fly, but perhaps only 14 years olds can do that. Am not at all familiar with others. One thing I do see, after dealing with somebody who wanted to get a netbook for their kid, is a lot of cheap equipment that runs on the Android system (basically they took the guts out of a smartphone and put them inside a small laptop). They seem to work okay....but as it's a relatively new operating system I'd have to wonder how long it will be supported, as compared to anything from Apple, which seems to hang in there just about forever.

As someone who learned to computer on an old teletype acoustic-coupled to a mainframe that filled two floors of a building and did less than a Commodore 64, I believe I am hopelessly entrenched in the keyboard fan club. A few years with nothing to write with but an old Underwood Standard didn't help either. If I had a touchpad....I'd probably break it with my "tuned on a manual" keyboard hands.

[richthelandlord]

I use am el-cheapo Chinese Android tablet, and it's just fine for what I want it to do, which is mainly just a bit of web-browsing, watching movies, reading magazines that don't work well in my smaller ebook-reader, the occasional game, and rolling a bit of code.

I have an aftermarket fold-over case that includes a USB keyboard which cost me the princely sum of £10 including shipping, and I can add micro-sd memory cards up to 32 gigs - most times I don't bother with the keyboard though.

There is an open-source derivative of Android out there so if Google pulled the plug it wouldn't be the end of the world... and it's trivially simple to add new apps without needing to use their market either.

Android is easy to fiddle with if you're that way inclined... but if you prefer the safety and idiot-resistance of a walled garden then the iPad may be more suitable for your needs.

[Judy]

Eve, thanks for the nudge. I read massive amounts of tech articles I somewhat understood and decided that the android Samsung Gallaxy was the way to go (for one thing IPad doesn't support Adobe Flash, nor does it have USB / SD ports.) Anyway, we gave them to our "kids" (if you can call 35-40 yr olds that, but they are to us) and they were absolutely wowed by them. They have IPhones and decided they wanted something different and are impressed with the versatility of the Samsung over the Apple apps. As for me, they are just like magic...jumping from growing up with black and white television with 3 channels to this electronic wonder is mind blowing. You can talk into this thing and it will automatically bring up a Google search for what you said.

Anyway, guess we made the right choice for what our folks wanted.

Thanks for input.

[aforeyego]

Hehehe, glad you found what you were searching for, Judy.

"Help" sometimes goes wondrous ways, doesn't it ;)

Eve ~~~