Tablets

sadris said:

What's a good Android alternative to the iPad mini? Apple is pricey for a rarely used device. Something to use in bed mostly

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There really isn't anything at all. Anything in that form factor is also that form factor to make it cheap, so the masses think they are getting something awesome, when in reality it's shitty. It's been mentioned here before, but the Amazon Fire tablets are not terriible, but you have to deal with the Amazon App Store, and not Google Play.

The top of the line Samsung tablets don't have "mini" versions of them.

A little off-topic but, Apple hardware just holds up really well. Not sure if that's because they tailor all their apps to it, so it just works better? I just recently picked up a 3rd gen iPad, so from 2011? The first gen to have the better display, but still on the huge charger adapter. Anyway, I'm fucking impressed by it. Modern apps are not lagging, it looks gorgeous, and while being pretty heavy, for my uses it's freakin' great. This thing is better than the 2015 Samsung tablet I have in the house as well. Wtf?

I've been impressed so much I'm picking up 4th gen iPad, to go along with the iPhone 8 I'm getting later this year.

Yeah I'll probably just get the iPad mini 2

I just bought an iPad4, any known limitations adding bluetooth mice?

Been trying to add an HP mouse and it won't see it. I can add a keyboard and headphones though.

edit: found my answer...not possible and by design

you can sideload the google play store onto any amazon fire tablet (newer), i bought the 7" fire for $35 a few months ago and it works perfectly as a night reader and I put fbreader, kodi and ES explorer and stuff on it so its loaded with a ton of books on its SD card plus all 9 seasons of seinfeld and all 7 seasons of TNG if I ever get trapped in the zombie apocalypse. also have a amazon fire 10" my wife uses as a recipe thing in the kitchen, its too big to try and read with in bed but it is great for looking at comics or videos

Adebisi said:

Was thinking about getting a Surface Pro as my next tablet.

What's everyones opinions of these things in 2017?

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In general I don't think you can a better full windows experience in this form factor. Of course, the windows experience on tablets is not ideal. There are countless of user experience details that just don't work as well on a Surface as they do on an iPad. The pen and type cover help a lot with this though (both are very well done). And of course, you can't get any fucking work done on an iPad. As a laptop the surface does just fine, the only downside is connectivity.

The real bottom line for the surface is how you're going to be using it.

I'm a financial consultant for technical projects and we get them from our company as our main device. The reason is that we alternate between office work (docking station) and on-site/mobile client work a lot during the day. I even have this brace around it with a flap I can fold over my hand. This way I can hold it really well during standup presentations and use it to control slidehows, machinery with a web interface, etc. As such, it's really perfectly suited for my work. However, if you don't really get excited by having a really potent tablet and laptop in one and seamless transitions between the two, it might have little added benefit over an Ultrabook.

It's also quite personal though. Even some of my colleagues, who have exactly the same kind of working context as me, have lobbied for the ability to choose an Ultrabook (succesfully, I believe they got some kind of Dell XPS now). However, I think they are just retarded and blaming the Surface for software issues with our virtual workplace (UI scaling being one, the Surface screen is quite hi res).

If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to message me.

I bought a Fire 7 during the Prime Day sale today. I don't really know what it does, what I'll use it for or why I would want it but it was $32 after tax. They basically forced me to buy it.

slippery said:

This isn't really a tablet question, but it sort of is. I have a Kindle Paperwhite from 2012. I fucking love it, it's the best thing ever. I read a lot, probably 3-4 hours a day. I'm tempted to update to a new one because sometimes mine gets slow to respond to things, after all it is a 5 year old electronic device.

My question is basically is it worth it? Have the new ones really improved? Is it worth getting the Oasis over the Paperwhite? I looked at the Voyage but if I was going to get the voyage and a case I might as well just get the Oasis since it comes with a nice leather one.

I dunno, what do people think? Am I wasting money?

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With that kind of usage is this not a no brainer for you? I too prefer to read on e-ink and use a 5 year old base Kindle. The battery is starting to die on it so I will get another one for sure. I will probably upgrade to at least a Paperwhite because if you are going to spend hours a day using something why not make it as nice as you can? Not personally convinced about the higher end ones as they seem to be trying to make an ereader too much like a tablet imo.

Does the Fire8 run Hearthstone fairly well?

brekk said:

The fire 7 kind of sucks with its low resolution. The Fire 8 is the sweet spot of cheap and decent.

the Amazon App store kind of sucks and is limited in what it has, but on the flipside, they do provide a lot of apps/games for free that are normally cost money. The amazon coins are also a great way to get a discount on in game purchases such as Hearthstone packs.

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I have a Google Nexus 7 from 2012 that I use as a home theater remote, would the Fire 7 be faster than the Nexus? The Nexus used to be fine but somewhere down the line Android forced an update to the OS and clearly pushed code that required more horsepower than the thing puts out, and it is has been a dog ever since.

I got all my remote control apps loaded onto the Fire 7 and configured and working, with the exception of one. There is an app called Remote Launcher that I use to turn on XBMC. It works great, and I was able to load it onto the Fire 7 and it runs it just fine, the issue is that the app has a password. On my old Nexus tablet that is 5 years old, I can see the password field but all that shows up is **** as the password. I took every damn guess that I could about what 4 character password I might have used 5 years ago and it was all a no go.

Here is my question - is there a way to go into some root directory or something on the old Nexus tablet and open up some config file and see in clear text what I would have used as a password back then? Also - this app has not been supported since 2013.

I can't say I know for 100% certainty but that would be the absolute worst password security ever if they just had a YourPassword.txt laying around. I'm sure they store the password as a hash so you probably can't even reverse it.