Ipad vs tablet vs kindle fire

[kellyjo]

My daughter will be 12 next month (I know, I dont look old enough!!;-)) and wants cash for her birthday and xmas because she wants to buy a tablet of some description.
TBH i've tried to talk her out of an ipad because I cant afford the constant downloading from itunes, id rather she had something to download mp3s on because I tend to download via Easynews. She also needs to be able to create and use MS Office docs for her schoolwork so I was tending towards a Galaxy tablet which comes with Quick Office.
However, theres now lots of talk about Amazons Kindle Fire which will be much cheaper.
Apart from needing MS office she just wants the usual stuff - wifi, apps, internet...

Ive done quite a lot of reading but end up getting a bit overloaded with info so wondered what were the opinions of anyone here who uses any of the above.

She'll have up to £400. Looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions, KJ xx

[SoulKiss]

My daughter will be 12 next month (I know, I dont look old enough!!;-)) and wants cash for her birthday and xmas because she wants to buy a tablet of some description.
TBH i've tried to talk her out of an ipad because I cant afford the constant downloading from itunes, id rather she had something to download mp3s on because I tend to download via Easynews. She also needs to be able to create and use MS Office docs for her schoolwork so I was tending towards a Galaxy tablet which comes with Quick Office.
However, theres now lots of talk about Amazons Kindle Fire which will be much cheaper.
Apart from needing MS office she just wants the usual stuff - wifi, apps, internet...

Ive done quite a lot of reading but end up getting a bit overloaded with info so wondered what were the opinions of anyone here who uses any of the above.

She'll have up to £400. Looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions, KJ xx

Any tablet will be useless for MS apps - QuickOffice is pretty rubbish, then there is the issue of using an onscreen Keyboard for writing said Docs.

For that money you can get a pretty decent Laptop.

[kellyjo]

Shes got a laptop, all her friends are getting ipads which is probably why she wants one!! Im happy for her to spend her money on one because it'll be her money, just want to make sure she gets the one most suited to her needs. Thanks for the reply SK.

[wyrdness]

The Amazon Kindle Fire looks interesting, but it's basically a device for consuming content bought from Amazon. So if you don't want her to be purchasing downloads, then the Fire probably isn't the best bet either.

If you need MS Office then you ought to be looking at a laptop, rather than a tablet. Edit: didn't see your comment about her already having a laptop. There's no point in buying a tablet just for the sake of owning one. iPads can play any mp3s btw, not just ones downloaded from iTunes.

[Stuuk1]

If you can hold off (unlikely) Microsoft are releasing 'windows 8' tablet which looks very good!

Which will have all you need for creating documents.

Google it, think its being released some time next year.

Other than that, but a tablet that will retain some value and keep it in good condition so you could sell it.


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[maviczap]

On a similar vien KJ my 13 year old wants an Iphone4s, no chance of that, previous to that it was an Ipod, previous to that it was a Blackberry. Its all what her friends have got or want and we haven't bowed to her wishes yet.

Over my dead body do I want any Apple products, I would rather she has an Android phone that can play Mp3's bought from Amazon or elsewhere. Plus all our music is ripped to MP3's already & I don't want I Tunes

[Stuuk1]

On a similar vien KJ my 13 year old wants an Iphone4s, no chance of that, previous to that it was an Ipod, previous to that it was a Blackberry. Its all what her friends have got or want and we haven't bowed to her wishes yet.

Over my dead body do I want any Apple products, I would rather she has an Android phone that can play Mp3's bought from Amazon or elsewhere. Plus all our music is ripped to MP3's already & I don't want I Tunes

Apple products don't just play .aac files... They do play .mp3 files! You add them through iTunes meaning you can buy music from wherever..


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[wyrdness]

Over my dead body do I want any Apple products, I would rather she has an Android phone that can play Mp3's bought from Amazon or elsewhere. Plus all our music is ripped to MP3's already & I don't want I Tunes

It's good to see that you've checked all of the facts before arriving at that conclusion </sarcasm>

As has been mentioned, iPods can play mp3s bought from elsewhere or ripped yourself. You don't even have to use iTunes as there are alternatives. If you use Spotify then that will sync to iPod too.

[kellyjo]

On a similar vien KJ my 13 year old wants an Iphone4s, no chance of that, previous to that it was an Ipod, previous to that it was a Blackberry. Its all what her friends have got or want and we haven't bowed to her wishes yet.

Over my dead body do I want any Apple products, I would rather she has an Android phone that can play Mp3's bought from Amazon or elsewhere. Plus all our music is ripped to MP3's already & I don't want I Tunes

She has had an itouch for a couple of years which she has mainly used for free apps and then had itunes vouchers for occasional gifts, and she has got her moneysworth out of it. I'l also let her 'earn' downloads for helping out, good reports etc. but they dont get pocket money on a regular basis. She wanted an iphone but got told no. In September when she started to walk to school on her own I added a smartphone onto my contract for £10 a month but she only has it so she can contact me if she wants to go to a friends or needs to contact me for whatever reason. I decided that it was worth £2.50 a week for my peace of mind that she can contact me if she needs to.

I dont really want her to get an ipad, id rather she got a galaxy tab, but im probably biased because I have a galaxy phone and love it.
The Windows 8 tablet sounds ideal but wont be out in time and shes a typical kid and will want to spend the money before its even in her purse!!

I know she should wait, but its the only thing she wants, and I dont want to spend money on stuff she doesnt want and wont use. Shes happy to forego any other presents from all family members to get enough cash together so I feel she should be allowed to spend it on what she wants.

Doesnt seem fair though when my laptops one step up from my old zx spectrum!! :p

I appreciate your replies, thanks guys :p

[Nick762]

I suppose I've got this pleasure to come in eight or nine years :-(

I took my two girls (three and half and twenty one months) to the park this afternoon and as usual it was full of thirteen year olds either sporting the latest Blackberrys or discussing the merits of the 4s vs. the latest Galaxy offering; it was all very depressing. I can understand a laptop or even a tablet but the only reason I can see kids that age needing a smartphone is because all their mates have them! Pity the parents :-( I must be getting old.

Back on track, gotta admit being a bit of a Apple fanboy of late but I'm getting cheesed of with having to wait for jailbreaks to make MY phone do what I want. A jail broken iPad 2 looks even further in the future and at this stage I'd be inclined to go for an Android tablet, looks to me like to have more control over it. Only reason I'm staying with iPhone is because there's a load of apps I use regularly that don't seem to be available under Android and in any case it would cost a couple of hundred quid to replace them anyway. Mind you if the likes of BNF and MIMS are available under Android I could be persuaded.

I agree with Wyrdness re the Kindle although it's about time they came out with their own colour device.

[maviczap]

Apple products don't just play .aac files... They do play .mp3 files! You add them through iTunes meaning you can buy music from wherever..
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Thanks but fully aware the Ipod can play Mp3's, just don't want I tunes on my PC

It's good to see that you've checked all of the facts before arriving at that conclusion </sarcasm>

As has been mentioned, iPods can play mp3s bought from elsewhere or ripped yourself. You don't even have to use iTunes as there are alternatives. If you use Spotify then that will sync to iPod too.

As above but didn't know you can sync with Spotify, so an Ipod could be purchased for her Xmas. Can Media Monkey do the same?

[Stuuk1]

Thanks but fully aware the Ipod can play Mp3's, just don't want I tunes on my PC



As above but didn't know you can sync with Spotify, so an Ipod could be purchased for her Xmas. Can Media Monkey do the same?

Just out of interest, what puts you off iTunes? Lots of people stay away from it, personally I don't see the problem, I think it's great and does exactly what it should do, every time...


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[daveyrach]

Just out of interest, what puts you off iTunes? Lots of people stay away from it, personally I don't see the problem, I think it's great and does exactly what it should do, every time...


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There is a program which installs with Itunes which in called Bonjour which apparently collects data from the logged in user, we have a guy at work who is a huge conspiracy theorist he has an Iphone but will not use I tunes for the reason he thinks they are watching him and the world is out to get him. He has been the subject of many a joke.

Is this your reason? :D

[HoL]

There is a program which installs with Itunes which in called Bonjour which apparently collects data from the logged in user, we have a guy at work who is a huge conspiracy theorist he has an Iphone but will not use I tunes for the reason he thinks they are watching him and the world is out to get him. He has been the subject of many a joke.

Is this your reason? :D

Since you mention conspiracys... i updated by iphone software recently & one of the new features was GPS photos so you could see where you where when you took photos. All this is very nice BUT it also applied it to photos i'd already taken before the update meaning it had been (without my knowledge) tracking where i was. Didn't like that much!

[timwilky]

I have a cheap zt180 based android tablet, it is great for what I use it for and is encouraging me to upgrade to something with a bit more umph. I am leaning towards an Asus transformer. But will probably wait until the tegra 3 quad core ones become available.

In common with many others I would not want iTunes or anything similar anywhere near any of my devices. I want to talk to devices as if they are simple drives, drag and drop my album folders onto my mp3 devices. I will manage my downloads etc. Not itunes.

[wyrdness]

There is a program which installs with Itunes which in called Bonjour which apparently collects data from the logged in user, we have a guy at work who is a huge conspiracy theorist he has an Iphone but will not use I tunes for the reason he thinks they are watching him and the world is out to get him. He has been the subject of many a joke.

Is this your reason? :D

Bonjour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_%28software%29) is just Apple's implementation of Zeroconf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeroconf), which is a network discovery protocol for configuring and connecting to network devices such as printers etc. iTunes uses it to discover wireless speakers and other computers with iTunes for sharing music between them. There's nothing sinister about it. Conspiracy nuts will believe anything. Does he think that crop circles are made by aliens and that the royal family are shape-shifting lizards too?

[wyrdness]

Since you mention conspiracys... i updated by iphone software recently & one of the new features was GPS photos so you could see where you where when you took photos. All this is very nice BUT it also applied it to photos i'd already taken before the update meaning it had been (without my knowledge) tracking where i was. Didn't like that much!

GPS tagging of photos has been a feature of the iPhone for years. Nothing new about that.

[SoulKiss]

My big question really is how has the world come to a point where 12 year olds are running around with £400+ "toys" in their pockets, and are likely to be shunned by their peers if they dont.

[wyrdness]

My big question really is how has the world come to a point where 12 year olds are running around with £400+ "toys" in their pockets, and are likely to be shunned by their peers if they dont.

Yes it does seem a bit mad, but kids these days grow up with technology. Luis could use an iPhone before he was 2, including unlocking it, discovering the folder of toddler apps (without being told where it was) and launching the apps he wanted to use. Now that he's 3, I'm wondering about getting either an iPad or a Kindle Fire for him to use. He's just made his first electrical circuit too, so I may need to start buying simple components for him to connect together.

[maviczap]

My big question really is how has the world come to a point where 12 year olds are running around with £400+ "toys" in their pockets, and are likely to be shunned by their peers if they dont.

Agreed

[Sir Trev]

Any tablet will be useless for MS apps - QuickOffice is pretty rubbish, then there is the issue of using an onscreen Keyboard for writing said Docs.

For that money you can get a pretty decent Laptop.

SK is quite right about this - tablets (and smartphones) are not intended as input devices so are not very good at creating documents. You can get a dock for them of course, with a keyboard/mouse/monitor, but that adds a lot to the price.

Before I say anything else, yes I work for Dell.

Have you considered something like the Inspiron Duo? It has a flip-over touchscreen and can be used like a tablet. Flip the screen over and open it up and it becomes a small form laptop with a proper keyboard.

From the experiences of my own 14 year old daughter I can advise you're not likely to win here with common sense. They will always want what the others have and so such purchases are up to them with whatever money they can scrape together. Being a heartless dad I have so far refused to allow my employee discount to be used...!

[Bluefish]

I blame the parents ;)

[daveyrach]

Yes it does seem a bit mad, but kids these days grow up with technology. Luis could use an iPhone before he was 2, including unlocking it, discovering the folder of toddler apps (without being told where it was) and launching the apps he wanted to use. Now that he's 3, I'm wondering about getting either an iPad or a Kindle Fire for him to use. He's just made his first electrical circuit too, so I may need to start buying simple components for him to connect together.

My daughter is not quite 2 and she can unlock my sisters iphone and open the app she like to use called 'Talking Carl' she thinks it hilarious. I was still stacking wooden blocks at that age or playing with my train set! Scary.

On the other matter of kids running around with expensive toys, my son has an iphone but he is 14 and he bought it himself with money he saved up and it was second hand, I don't agree with kids just being given things, if they are made to work and save themselves for it, it makes it that little bit more theirs and they treat it with more respect. I always had to save up for things when i was a kid.

[HoL]

GPS tagging of photos has been a feature of the iPhone for years. Nothing new about that.

It wasn't a shown feature on the (old) firmware I was running & wasn't an option to turn on or off. Just the idea that you are being monitored without your knowledge makes me wonder what else they are gathering without your consent or knowledge.

[fizzwheel]

My big question really is how has the world come to a point where 12 year olds are running around with £400+ "toys" in their pockets, and are likely to be shunned by their peers if they dont.

Its always been like that. Peer pressure / being shunned because others have something you dont has always been there, just when I was a child it was other things i.e. toys / action man / star wars figures / what model of Raleigh Burner you had... so the cost was alot less.

Technology moves so fast, those expensive £400+ toys wont be £400 in a few years time, but anyway I digress..

I think SK is right, Tablet isnt the way to go for creating office docs and such like...

[flymo]

If I were you I would not force any decision on her. Discuss them with her openly and allow her to make her own choice.

Bias aside, for a tablet you cannot go wrong with the iPad. It is superb at what it does and actually holds it price particularly well. If you bought one and decided it wasnt for you then you'll be able to get rid no problem.

The big issue to focus on in your decision is Office documents. There is no tablet around today that deals with document creation particularly well, especially for Office docs. Sharing and reading docs created elsewhere, no problem.

[SoulKiss]

I guess I am a bit biased - more than just my Anti-Apple stance.

I REALLY cannot see what use a tablet is.

Through work, because we are starting to look at developing for these, I have access to them, and apart from one night I have never borrowed it.

Its usless as an input device for more than SMS length messages.

As a remote web-browser its about useful - but my phone handles that just as well.

Apple's big marketing coup was to convince everyone that they needed one of these things. Well that and getting everyone to "Think Different" by buying the same Computer...

[ThEGr33k]

Aint read all this thread, but skim read and didn't notice this mentioned. Asus Trasformer. Its great because it is a netbook and tablet all in one. Asus are a good company that dominates much of the PC hardware sector so know what they are doing. It runs Android 3.x and will get upgrade to the new 4 so Asus say and quite soon.

The added keyboard means that you can use it for things like writing, it also lets you use the web a little better (much of the internet isnt very touch friendly) with the touch pad and keyboard. You also have USB support, so practically anything you can plug into a computer should work with this, including flash pens, mice, game pads etc etc.

There is the new one coming out soon so the prices might drop soon of the older one. Dont worry about the first one being out of date though as it wont be an issue for a good while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_pcKcgZCVE&feature=related

http://www.ebuyer.com/262116-asus-transformer-tf101-tablet-pc-tf101-1b028a?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

[Steve_God]

Aint read all this thread, but skim read and didn't notice this mentioned. Asus Trasformer. Its great because it is a netbook and tablet all in one. Asus are a good company that dominates much of the PC hardware sector so know what they are doing. It runs Android 3.x and will get upgrade to the new 4 so Asus say and quite soon.

The added keyboard means that you can use it for things like writing, it also lets you use the web a little better (much of the internet isnt very touch friendly) with the touch pad and keyboard. You also have USB support, so practically anything you can plug into a computer should work with this, including flash pens, mice, game pads etc etc.

There is the new one coming out soon so the prices might drop soon of the older one. Dont worry about the first one being out of date though as it wont be an issue for a good while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_pcKcgZCVE&feature=related

http://www.ebuyer.com/262116-asus-transformer-tf101-tablet-pc-tf101-1b028a?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

If she's going to use to show off to her mates, AND be useful for doing work on, get either the Asus eeePad Transformer above, or it's close cousin the 'Slider' (which I personally prefer):
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/ipad-and-tablets/asus-eee-pad-slider-review-50002175/

[kellyjo]

Wow, thanks guys.

She doesnt really want it just to show off, shes not that kind of girl, if she did then she wouldnt be getting it!! She is a good, hardworking kid (top of her year in SATs results) and will get a LOT of use out of it, for school work and for pleasure, which is why im happy for her to have one, and why I want to make sure she gets the one best suited to her needs.

Both Asus Transformer and Slider look like they may be a good compromise between the practicality she needs and the 'style' she wants. I'll take her to look at some and see what she thinks.

Thanks again for your input :-)

[timwilky]

The beauty of the transformer is the clever additional battery that the docking gives. All that extra lifetime for not much extra weight of an external keyboard. As I said, I have a ZT180 based system and the lifetime is pathetic, no way can I use it to browse a book poolside etc. But useful to check my banking etc whilst on holidays etc.

But like I said in my earlier post, wait a few weeks for the Tegra 3 based transformer.

[maxinc]

I guess I am a bit biased - more than just my Anti-Apple stance.I REALLY cannot see what use a tablet is.

Apart from being dragged into the Apple eco-system a few years back, the iPad it really changed my way of life and how I interact with technology.

On the iPad I read the news on 3 networks, scan several website in a 5 minutes, cook, watch Moto GP and F1, check the weather, plan my biking routes, chat with friends, Facetime with family abroad, quickly respond to emails, read books, service the bike with PDFs handy, stream music to the AVR w/o tv, order pizza, check stock for DIY supplies, control my media players and server downloads, play addictive puzzle games ... most of it while serving my coffee and relaxing in the lounge.

My 4 year old daughter has learned to draw all the letters and numbers on the iPad, sign language, how to read words, painting w/o the mess, plays her favourite tunes or streams the to big speakers, she's fascinated with the planets and the solar system, bakes cookies and sometimes falls asleep in the car watching Peppa Pig on long journeys.

Probably also worth mentioning my wife's magazines, favourite shops catalogs, handy tax calculators and calorie counter.

But this is what we tend to do much easier than using a computer, I'm sure there a tons of other uses.

[kellyjo]

Decision finally made and she's decided to opt for the Asus Transformer. She's been sensible about it and whilst she'd love to tell her friends she has an ipad, she understands the Asus with the keypad will give her the most options.

Thanks to you all for taking time to reply, I dont think we'd have come up with the Asus otherwise!!

[beabert]

279.99 at amazon at mo.

[cdtrim]

Just seen this, and if the decision is made then fair enough :)

I'm an apple fan, and I've made a living from them for about 15 years now. If friends or family ask my advice on pc's etc I will always point them in the direction of an apple store. I'm unashamedly biased :)

The iPads can run iWork, a suite of apps Apple make, it's their version of office. They can be bought from the Apple store and used directly on the iPad - Keynote is the same as PowerPoint, Pages is the same as Word and Numbers is the same as Excel. Thy are cross compatible too. There are some things that don't translate too well, such as conditional formatting from Excel, and fonts could be a problem but it would depend how indepth your daughters documents go.

If you're going to spend time looking at the others I would recommend calling in to your local Apple store to speak to them about iWork, you may need to book though.

Hope this helps :)

[NTECUK]

Is the kindle fire available in the UK?
We have the iPad I wants at home but its more than I'm willing to outlay on a present.

[SoulKiss]

Decision finally made and she's decided to opt for the Asus Transformer. She's been sensible about it and whilst she'd love to tell her friends she has an ipad, she understands the Asus with the keypad will give her the most options.

Thanks to you all for taking time to reply, I dont think we'd have come up with the Asus otherwise!!

There IS a new Transformer due out - which may either be a better bet, OR drop the price of the old one - meaning she saves more cash.

There is also the Slider, worth looking at too.