TubeNet

I picked up a like new TMobile Samsung Tab 7.0+ a few months ago for a great price. I've not used it much lately but every time I do it's so enjoyable and useful. I find it a better device than a smartphone many times- battery life, ease of use with the larger screen, cheaper, ok priced prepaid data (and compatible with AT&T and TMobile), still fairly portable,... It's really replaced my computer. I do wish it didn't have that silly proprietary charging port but at least I've got an mhl/hdmi adapter for it. This is probably my favorite mobile electronic thing, even with all the phones I've got laying around (and need to sell...).

Anyone else get a lot of use out of one?

Tablets are great, but a few general complaints (same goes for phones):

-- Typing is a chore. The iPad is about as good as it gets, and it's still not exactly an enjoyable experience 100% of the time. Sure, there are covers that turn into keyboards, but at that point, I'll just use my laptop.
-- If your hands are too dry they won't control the screen well, and if they are wet, the touch screen goes nuts.
-- The glass screens are too fragile, and if it breaks it can't be repaired. As hard as I may have tried, I've never broken a laptop.

My favorite ( ) thing about tablets is when people use them in place of cameras. Nothing like holding up a gigantic 8 x 10 hunk of metal to take a picture.

My situation may not be typical at all, but here goes...

Compared to some folks here my life is decidedly low-tech and involves a minimal number of different devices. At home, we have one laptop that my wife and I share. We used to have separate laptops, but mine died a fiery death courtesy of a lighting strike (that was about 4 years ago).

I was gifted an ipad 1 a couple of years ago and now use that for everything and never replaced the laptop. For web-browsing and emailing, it is great for me. Typing isn't super fun, but I have access to the shared laptop when I really need to do word processing, so being a 1 computer + ipad house works fine.

However, I don't think I could get by with ONLY an ipad or tablet because there are still definite limitations with tablets. But for a second machine or a portable device for the sole purpose of surfing the web, checking email, and perhaps playing games...the tablet it is.

bloke wrote:and laptops (wow) are microscopically less expensive than some of those new overgrown-phone-with-or-without-a-phone "pad" things.

Let me know when you can find a modern/hi tech/... laptop for less than two hundred dollars (new!).

I played in a quintet for a few years where we talked about using our iPads to keep our entire library on and do program our performances with it. I played a couple gigs from my iPhone (not by choice but because I forgot my music and it was a couple hundred miles away) and honestly I liked having the back lit music. I kept thinking how nice it would have been to have my iPad.... or my binder

The only reason we never got around to touring with our iPads is because only four of us had them. I think it would be interesting to see if someone has a quintet/small ensemble out there where all the members own a tablet and doing a tour using them. Of course, it would always be good to keep your binder with you just in case of battery failure, the tablet breaking, an EMP, etc...

I have an original 1st generation iPad that we just purchased for next to nothing and love it. It is primarily used for travel in place of the laptops, occasional movie entertainment for the little one, and then the learning apps for my little one. With the ability to download any number of pre-school apps for free (or very cheap), we have been able to help increase her learning, while entertaining her with "games" but not increasing the number of bookshelves needed in our small apartment. I love the thing. It won't replace my laptop, but has become a great resource for our family.

I have a Note 10.1 that proved rather usefull for my theory class in which i could take notes and stuff on the screen on top of the PDF of my textbook. I really enjoy it and pretty much only use my laptop for Finale.

I recently received a Nexus 7, and to be honest, I really don't like it that much. The device is smooth and powerful, but I would rather have something just a bit smaller. I don't have small hands, but I feel the thing is still a little too big to hold on to without worrying about dropping it. I also have dry hands, so capacitive touch is not a friend of mine. I miss the days of resistive touch and the stylus. At least with resistive touch, my writing on the screen actually looked like my writing. I plan on replacing my phone at the next upgrade with something like the Galaxy Note 3, and let that replace both the phone and the tablet. Maybe I'll feel differently about it once I get Netflix loaded on it.

***update - 7.14.13***

After changing the launcher to Nova, and spending a good day doing almost everything internet related on it. It's actually not bad. Now all I need to do is find a split keyboard app (free, of course), and I'll be able to thumb type in landscape mode.

the elephant wrote:

bort wrote:My favorite ( ) thing about tablets is when people use them in place of cameras. Nothing like holding up a gigantic 8 x 10 hunk of metal to take a picture.

Because I feel the same way, my iPad's camera has only been used once in order to test it (and I took a photo of the floor).

I've seen "tablet as camera" use referred to on the web as "the new fanny pack." I've used my iPad3 for that purpose just a few times at home. My iPhone is my go to camera for most stuff.

i personally don't have a tablet (musician=poor) but my teacher uses his ipad and has all his tuba method books on there and its a good idea because a ipad is a lot smaller then Arban Complete Method for Tuba