Help Does it HAVE to be an ipad?

[russell]

Thinking of buying Matilda a tablet when she starts secondary school. Does it have to be an Ipad? Which other choices are there? And what exactly does a 'kindle fire' do? Dudes you are all so good at this techy stuff...what would i do without you?

 

[Moriath]

Samsung galaxy note is good my mrs as one and I have an ipad five both just as good the android ones are a bit more flexible IMO. Kindle fire is like a tablet lite from what I see. Nexus 7 or 10 would e good as pure android client tablets.

It doesn't have to be ipad. But find out what she using it for ad if she as to be compatible with anything at school

 

[Madmaxx]

I bought myself and mum a basic android tablet from Tesco (from £35-50) and she's pretty happy with it since you have the google play store with books for free and others she can buy, as well as all the emails, internet features, music, movies etc she needs. Came with an SD card slot to for a 32-64gb memory boost which was pretty good.

For me I can use the free Kingsoft office app to use excel or word documents for small note taking and PDF file viewing of ebooks and teachers notes; I basically use it as a USB stick and phone in one

I agree with moriath though on what you need it for and what your budget is, im quite a tight person anyway so I'm automatically turned away from Apple products which do similar things for 10x the price haha.

 

[Kryten]

You can get some cracking tablets for under £100 but it really depends on what you want to do with it. It still amazes and annoys me that kids are expected to have tablets for school (and it fucking infuriates me to hear schools actually buying 2000 ipads for their kids) when they've not been proven to have any positive effect. One school in London that did it was made a benchmark for other schools to go see by their Academy (as a paperless school) and outside of the scripted marketing, the teachers all say it's an utter pile of shit that's more trouble than it's worth.
If kids are expected to provide their own then that opens up a HUGE torrent of abuse...

Anyway, that's going off topic. If you want a sturdy Android then it's a nexus 7 IMO. I'd say go for something 7" anyway, it's a better fit for pockets and hands alike.

 

[Syri]

I went for a Nexus 7, and I've been very happy with it so far, I'd really recommend it if you are looking for an android tab. It's stock Android, so there's no bloatware like you get with some phones and tablets, and for the price, it's very well featured, you can get cheaper tablets, but they'll be a lot slower and/or have much worse screens. The only problem is a lack of storage expansion (a flaw that the ipad also shares) but at £200 for the 32gb version, there's plenty of room there for apps and games all the same. The screen is very nice, and there's plenty of apps available, even a few office compatible apps, so you can use it for writing, though that is better with a bluetooth keyboard.
Really though it depends on what you need to run. If there's a specific app that is only available on the ipad, and they have to use that app, then the ipad is the only way. If it's a device that can get on the internet, look things up and do some basic document work, then an android tablet will do the job fine for a lot less money.

 

[Edmond]

or you could buy my iPad 2, she has a touch and the new IOS7 will be easy for her to use. Don't worry, i'll do a hard reset on it, they'll be *nothing* on it

(then I can get the new iPad)

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Another vote for a Nexus 7 from me, I love mine.

As far as storage is concerned I think that 32gb is fine. I have a couple of OTG cables {couple of quid from Amazon) which allow a wide selection of USB devices to be plugged into the tablet. Along with an app called Media Importer you can then add one or two videos at a time, watch and delete.

I've found that my Nexus even has enough power to run my 320gb Buffalo Mini station HDD or I can take the SD card out of my Nikon D300 plug it into a card reader and use the tablet to review my photos instantly.

RB

 

[russell]

Thanks guys...as ever- you always deliver

 

[Scouse]

Does it have to be an Ipad?

Firstly, no. I'd go for a nexus, 7 or 10.

Secondly, if it's for school, I'd go for a laptop with windows on it.

 

[Moriath]

or you could buy my iPad 2, she has a touch and the new IOS7 will be easy for her to use. Don't worry, i'll do a hard reset on it, they'll be *nothing* on it

(then I can get the new iPad)

Is ios7 gonna be on the 2 ?

 

[Moriath]

Firstly, no. I'd go for a nexus, 7 or 10.

Secondly, if it's for school, I'd go for a laptop with windows on it.

Why a laptop.

No reason to these days. Just heavier a d easier to break

 

[Scouse]

Why a laptop.

Because:

A) It's the productivity tool of choice for business. If I was hiring and your IT experience had been ipads and android I'd laugh at you.
B) You can do more stuff with windoze.
C) Tablets are for casual users who want to browse the web, play casual games and read books. Computers open more opportunities up than that.

 

[caLLous]

A vote for the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 here.

 

[TdC]

Because:

A) It's the productivity tool of choice for business. If I was hiring and your IT experience had been ipads and android I'd laugh at you.
B) You can do more stuff with windoze.
C) Tablets are for casual users who want to browse the web, play casual games and read books. Computers open more opportunities up than that.

agreeeeeee...BUT!!! I don't think I can resist getting a Surface Pro, which is basically laptop capabilities in tablet form. If I can write code (and run it) on the surface, my delightful Z series Vaio is running a serious risk of becoming redundant.

 

[Moriath]

Because:

A) It's the productivity tool of choice for business. If I was hiring and your IT experience had been ipads and android I'd laugh at you.
B) You can do more stuff with windoze.
C) Tablets are for casual users who want to browse the web, play casual games and read books. Computers open more opportunities up than that.

your talking business not a school

They want to limit what the kids can do

And interface with their curriculum. Nothing to do with a,b or c just who they have decided to go with and how best it meshes in

Which for schools these days is tablet .

Get out of your world and into the world of the question

if you were hiring me i would run away after the interview

 

[soze]

Having owned both I would say yes it needs to be an iPad. Everyone bitches and moans about how locked down an iPad is but for your children it's perfect. Chances are your daughter does not give a toss about installing widgets and flashing roms. I had an iPad 3 which I swapped for a Nexus 7 which lasted 2 months before I got the iPad mini. This thing is just so smooth and easy to use. You don't have to do a list of 5 things to make X work properly it is all there out of the box. But as always with kids find out what all her friends have and copy or she will hate it anyway.

 

[DaGaffer]

Unfortunately I'd suggest you have to go with whatever's mandated by the school. If they've prepped coursework etc. using Apple tools, there's no point fighting the process using Android (and...peer pressure). On the other hand, if its just a general school "we want them to have a tablet, any tablet" initiative, I'd be asking..."why?" NB. The best tablets for doing actual work rather than just consuming media are the Galaxy Note (but its overpriced, especially the new 8 inch one), and the MS Surface. The Pro would be way too expensive but you can get deals on the RT and with the upgrade to Win 8.1 you get something useable.

 

[Hawkwind]

If this is for school is there a need for MS Office? That was a requirement for my son. If so then any of the recent Win 8 tablets would be a good bet. My son has the MS Surface RT - comes with free MS Office and cheaper than an iPad. He does his school work on it all the time. He has a laptop as well at home (my old ASUS RoG) so tends to do homework on that.

I originally bought him a laptop for school but watching him struggle with his bags was not nice. The amount of books and kit they have to carry around is stupid. But adding a laptop and PSU to that was unkind at best.

 

[soze]

I have ofen said M$ could dominate the school market. If they made an agreement with the text book distributors to offer them as a rentable PDF on the Surface and then sold them cheap to students they could corner the market. And then if all these kids have a surface there they will develop apps for it which will help the RT catch up with iOS and Android Market Places.

 

[Scouse]

your talking business not a school

They want to limit what the kids can do

School is there primarily to prepare kids for business, and schools want to expand, not limit, what kids can do.

Get out of your world and into the world of the question

I'd say get out of your tablet-fanboi world and into the world of what's best for kids

Windows is 100% the way to go.

Surface Pro

This. But it ain't cheap.

 

[TdC]

no, not cheap indeed. once again I am raging at the magical pixies going dollah = euro at price point.

 

[DaGaffer]

I don't think an 11 year old needs a Surface Pro. Its probably the one time when the RT actually makes more sense; its cheaper, more locked down, but still has more productivity on board than most other tablets.

 

[TdC]

you're right...but still I can't bring myself to buy a RT both due to requirements and general principals

 

[DaGaffer]

you're right...but still I can't bring myself to buy a RT both due to requirements and general principals

I wouldn't buy one either, but we're talking about an 11 year old.

 

[TdC]

I'm still coming around to a child having a tablet...for school or other reasons. Damn I'm old fashioned 0o

 

[Embattle]

agreeeeeee...BUT!!! I don't think I can resist getting a Surface Pro, which is basically laptop capabilities in tablet form. If I can write code (and run it) on the surface, my delightful Z series Vaio is running a serious risk of becoming redundant.

You would be better waiting for the second generation of the Pro version which will include a Haswell chip.

As for the original question, no it doesn't have to be an ipad but like Scouse I think if this is actually to do school work on rather than as an entertainment device I don't find tablets that practical. I have which is a Asus transformer with keyboard attachment but I still wouldn't use it for doing lots of work since even things like printing are rather cumbersome.

 

[DaGaffer]

I'm still coming around to a child having a tablet...for school or other reasons. Damn I'm old fashioned 0o

I have two kids under 3 who can swipe their way to their photos on my iPhone (the narcissistic little buggers); a friend of mine has a toddler who gets pissed off when he tries to swipe the TV screen and nothing happens. I actually think tablets are the biggest step forward in User interface design...ever. What's the cliche? "So simple a child could do it?" Plus, hopefully by the time my kids are at school they'll be able to use a single device for everything rather than the carry a stack of school books big enough to give permanent curvature of the spine.

 

[TdC]

You would be better waiting for the second generation of the Pro version which will include a Haswell chip.

it's always wait wait wait in computer-land. if I always waited for the next thing I'd never have anything!

I have two kids under 3 who can swipe their way to their photos on my iPhone

yeah I have a mate with a 4yo who loves phones. especially dropping them. I suppose my reticence with regards to kids and tech stems in part from the fact that I don't have any. kids that is, I have plenty of tech.

 

[DaGaffer]

it's always wait wait wait in computer-land. if I always waited for the next thing I'd never have anything!


yeah I have a mate with a 4yo who loves phones. especially dropping them. I suppose my reticence with regards to kids and tech stems in part from the fact that I don't have any. kids that is, I have plenty of tech.

I think I've mentioned my woes with destroyed iPhones before.

There's actually a whole market for kid-friendly Android tabs:

 

[Embattle]

it's always wait wait wait in computer-land. if I always waited for the next thing I'd never have anything!

Normally yes but not in this case since the Haswell chip is out and it is a lot better suited in the Pro.