As a rule, I usually only consider the Google branded Android offerings; I like the vanilla android experience, it's easily upgraded, and I know there are a bunch of Google engineers that have received the device for their holiday gift that year, or that it's been given away at Google I/O.
The only thing about the nexus 7 that may give you pause: it will continue to use more power than it gains from charging, so in low battery situations your only option is to stop using it. I do not own one, and have heard this second hand; can anyone verify or debunk this? The Kindle Fire is a nice little tablet, but it's not really what I would call an "android tablet", lots of ads (I think you can pay to disable them), and I was never really impressed with their App Store. But that's purely subjective, and the hardware build is nice. One feature that you might look for (and not mentioned); full sized USB and HDMI ports are nice to have. I believe these can be found on the Motorola Transformer (but I think that falls outside your price range). That Lenovo does look nice though ... can you run vanilla android on it? TL;DR: I like vanilla android on Google branded devices. Or an iPad. :-) On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 10:43 AM, Morgan Blackthorne <[email protected]>wrote: > Like the email thread, this is sysadmin related, though perhaps not as > intuitively so. > > I work from home almost exclusively at this point due to my disability > (significant rheumatoid arthritis). New meds have gotten it under control, > to a point, but there are still problems. One of my current coping methods > is to use my Droid 2 (which is my pager for work) and my Nook Color (which > I've rooted) to keep up with work when I hurt too much to sit up in bed > (where I spend most of my time-- my back is usually less likely to complain > when I'm propped up with pillows vs. sitting in a chair) with my MacBook. > Since I'm a remote employee, I do spend a lot of time writing emails and > responding to instant messages. > > I am looking to upgrade the phone, as I've found that despite my best > efforts, the unit simply refuses to stay awake all the time and will drop > the wifi/3g connection and go to sleep at times. While pages get through, > as they operate over SMS, people IMing me often does not. I'm currently > looking at the Kyocera Rise, as it's Android 4.0 based, and has > significantly better specs than the Droid 2. And the physical keyboard > definitely helps a lot with responding to emails or SSHing into a node; > touchscreen typing is often frustrating as I typo all over the place. > > The Nook Color is a great e-reader, but really a so-so tablet. The BN > market is tiny compared to the Play Store or Amazon's App store. And after > rooting it, many apps will refuse to load onto the device for compatibility > reasons. A good example of this is the Amazon AWS Console app, which would > certainly be handy for me. I also tried to use it for watching TV via > Netflix and Plex, and it just doesn't have the juice to render fast enough. > Since I work from home and my work is very flexible, I often take breaks > during the day (especially when meds kick in hard and zombify me for a bit) > to read a book or watch TV and work at different points throughout the > entire day instead of working 8+ hours at one or two sittings. This habit > particularly comes in handy when I am able to do work after the devs leave > for the day and I can make changes without having to worry about blocking > them, or doing maintenance at off-peak hours. Needless to say, I sent a lot > of 1am/2am emails and management loves that, and that demonstrated work > ethic has earned me a lot of latitude-- especially since we care more about > results than process. My work is really flexible about a lot of things like > that (as evidenced from me transitioning from being a full time commuter to > a full time remote employee gradually over the last three years). > > I'm also interested in testing out compatibility for our revamped site on > the tablet as well, which slightly alters my specs. Here's what I'm looking > for: > > - Capacitive touch-screens only. > - Bluetooth support preferred, so I can use a headset down the line > and potentially a keyboard. > - If Bluetooth is not available, this mandates a microphone. One of > the things I'll be testing at some point is audio recording on the device. > I'd prefer this even if it does have Bluetooth, however. > - Decent display-- somewhere between 7 and 9 inches with a good > resolution. A former housemate had a Xoom and the 10" tablet was simply too > bulky and too heavy (1.6 pounds). Unwieldy for me. The Nook Color is 7" and > something slightly larger would be preferred. My wife has a Nook HD+ and > the 9" is a very pretty display without being too heavy. > - Not too heavy, especially as I'm going to add a protective case to > it. > - Android 4.x preferred. If I'm spending enough money on this, I don't > see any reason to go with an older OS. > - Access to the Google or Amazon app store natively strongly > preferred. I'm tech savvy enough to root it if I have to, but I don't want > to have to, I just want it to work. And I definitely don't want to fight > compatibility issues after rooting the unit, because neither store ever > says why it considers the device incompatible, which makes trying to > troubleshoot it very cumbersome. Again, I feel that if I'm dropping this > kind of money, I shouldn't have to fight to get it to do what I want. > - Wifi. I don't intend to pay for a cellular data plan. > - Expandable memory slot highly preferred. I prefer micro-SD but I'm > not wedded to that format; the important part to me is the ability to swap > out storage if I want and to expand the capacity of the unit itself, > especially if I ever end up using it on say a plane ride and want to watch > videos. > - Front camera with decent resolution. I would like to be able to use > the unit to Skype with. > - Not a bank breaker. $300 is the most I'd like to spend, but I might > spend more if I believed I needed to. > - Good battery life. > > Two of the units I've been considering are the Kindle Fire 8.9" and the > Nexus 7". The Kindle doesn't have micro-SD but does have a USB port; I > assume I could plug in a USB stick to it (or even USB drive). I also do > have a bunch of TV and movies purchased off of Amazon Unbox and the only > tablet that will play that back is the Fire, as they don't make their Unbox > player available on the Android markets. (Well, I might be able to use > Flash, but Flash on Android always seems to chug, no matter what device, in > my experience. Then again, Flash tends to chug period...) > > Both units seem to have 1G RAM, a microphone, Bluetooth, and 16 or 32G of > flash. The Nexus 7 has a Tegra 3 quad-core chip and the Fire has a > dual-core ARM chip-- I don't know how they rate performance wise since > they're apples and oranges. The Nexus is smaller, but has Android 4.2 > instead of 4.0 on the Fire (as far as I can tell online). The Fire is 20oz > and the Nexus 7 seems to be ~12oz. Smaller but lighter and cheaper might be > a bonus, but smaller does tend to make typos easier when using the > touchscreen. On the other hand, I will likely be keeping this for a long > time, so I'd probably want to invest in a bigger display and look towards > the Kindle. On the other hand, Amazon has a bit of a stranglehold on the > ebook market and that's one reason that the wife and I went toward the > Nooks in the first place. > > Any other tablets that I'm not aware of that would fit the bill, please > let me know. I'm sure there are some that I'm not thinking of, I just > haven't had time the last few years to keep track of electronics. Looking > around on Amazon the Idolian Studio 10" (although probably too large, it is > on the cheaper side...), Galaxy Tab 2 (again, probably too large/heavy at > 10" and 1.3 pounds), and Lenovo Idea 9.7 look interesting. > > Thanks for any help you folks might have. Assistive devices are very, very > important to me at this point. > > -- > ~*~ StormeRider ~*~ > > "Every world needs its heroes [...] They inspire us to be better than we > are. And they protect from the darkness that's just around the corner." > > (from Smallville Season 6x1: "Zod") > > On why I hate the phrase "that's so lame"... http://bit.ly/Ps3uSS > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > > -- Joseph A Kern [email protected]
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