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sourdough
Apr 30, 2012

tecnocrat posted:

For phones, I'm still Android through and through. But for tablets, Apple just kills it.

Same

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Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

tecnocrat posted:

For phones, I'm still Android through and through. But for tablets, Apple just kills it.

New thread title?

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!

Tablets: budget <=$100 Amazon, >= $250 iPad 12/2019

Maybe it would reduce our carbon footprint to just move the thread to a banner ad

We probably wouldn't even need to use tiny font

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




tecnocrat posted:

Android works better on phones, they aren't making any real "tablet" specific improvements at the OS level, and the fact that there are so few makers and each one is running a bespoke version leads to very few apps that aren't just phone apps scaled up.

It's been said before but it's worth acknowledging: google unofficially totally gave up on Android for tablets years ago and is likely looking forward to a future push for ChromeOS tablets as their official tablet strategy. Their Android tablet support is pretty much perfunctory.

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


Well, reading this page may have already answered my question, but I'll lay it out anyway to be sure.

I'd like to find something that closely approximates the freedom to sketch diagrams and layouts with arbitrary notes that I get from a pad of paper, but with the ability to when necessary use the precision and storage that comes from a computer.

My presumption would be ipad pro with a "pen", but a) I'm slowly moving out of the apple ecosystem, b) £900 buys a lot of A4 notepads and pens, c) maybe there's something else either out already (in the android/amazon space, perhaps) or on the horizon (like an interactive epaper of some kind).

Still ipad?

Wibla
Feb 16, 2011

For e-ink: reMarkable.
For a PC-based platform: Surface Pro

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


Wibla posted:

For e-ink: reMarkable.

Oh yeah this thing. It was in crowdfunding when I last saw it. Or I was waiting for #2 or something.

Edit: From a few bits of info there's a strong suggestion that a ReMarkable 2 is on the way imminently, so I'll likely wait for that.

Jaded Burnout fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Dec 28, 2019

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

The input delay absolutely kills me for e-ink displays. If the 2 has a lot less delay, I'd be into it.

Jaded Burnout
Jul 10, 2004


After a bit more research I'm already turning away from it, since it doesn't even support basic stuff like a rectangle tool, which feels like it fits into their "oh it helps you focus and ideate" spiel but feels like a cop out to me.

But of course the ipad pros are at the end of their cycle..

Branch Nvidian
Nov 29, 2012



I posted in here a while back, but some new stuff has come out since. I really just want something to watch Twitch streams on, stream some shows, read manga on, and maybe use the steam app to play visual novels. I'm going between the Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 but I can't tell if one is more reasonable than the other. FWIW the HD 10 is $120 right now, while the HD 8 is $80.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

Branch Nvidian posted:

I posted in here a while back, but some new stuff has come out since. I really just want something to watch Twitch streams on, stream some shows, read manga on, and maybe use the steam app to play visual novels. I'm going between the Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 but I can't tell if one is more reasonable than the other. FWIW the HD 10 is $120 right now, while the HD 8 is $80.

I have the Fire HD 10 and I use it exclusively for reading comics and streaming stuff. It's pretty great at doing both. I haven't tried the Steam Link app on it, so I can't comment on that, but otherwise, as a media consumption device, it's solid. Here's my take on it from the Android Tablet thread:

teagone posted:

For what it's worth, the Fire HD 10 is what I'd say a "good" Android tablet, and Google Play apps have worked fine for me so far. The display is decent, despite the aforementioned issues I came across in the first couple tablets I received, and it's snappy enough, with 32GB base storage, Wireless AC, and USB type-C for charging.

I use mine mostly to read comics which I think it excels at—the 1900x1200 res and IPS display look great, and the 16:10 aspect ratio makes the shape of the tablet feel similar in size to an actual, physical comic book page. Browsing the forums is fine on the Awful app (which is in the Amazon app store), and ingesting video via Plex, YouTube, Prime Video, HBO GO, etc., also goes over really well with this tablet.

$120 for an HD 10 isn't a bad price for it. Though, I got mine for essentially free after a bunch of promo credits.

Hippie Hedgehog
Feb 19, 2007

Ever cuddled a hedgehog?
What does it say about our society when the words "ingest" or "consume" can be used about video content without irony.


Sorry (not sorry) for going off-topic.

I still didn't get that e-ink reader for sheet music. I have my eyes on getting a used ONYX BOOX MAX 2 at some point but they're bloody expensive even on eBay.

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!

We've been using those words in English for a long time.

People have been "drinking in the view" or other poo poo forever.

You could sit here and think of endless examples of this in English.

Wibla
Feb 16, 2011

English is a bit of a clusterfuck, so... :v:

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!

Wibla posted:

English is a bit of a clusterfuck, so... :v:

By definition and geography it was always going to be (and I guess my point was, that it always has been lol)

On topic , what was wrong with the idea of eInk for sheet music ? Seemed smart to me

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

Hippie Hedgehog posted:

What does it say about our society when the words "ingest" or "consume" can be used about video content without irony.

No worse than like "channel surfing" and "consumer" has been a in use for a long while. "Ingest" is just a variation, and fitting when there's a gluttony of media available to be watched, read, played, etc.

WORDS!!!

mom and dad fight a lot
Sep 21, 2006

If you count them all, this sentence has exactly seventy-two characters.
For anyone considering an Amazon Fire 7 for their kids: yeah they're fine.

I got a couple Fire 7's for my 8-10 year olds, and they're work pretty well. They're not super powerful, but for Youtube, Netflix, Minecraft and internet browsing, they are quite happy with it. The house has been way quieter since I got them!

Pros
  • Cheap (cheaper than the "kids" version, and often on sale)
  • Parental Mode lets you disable many things (particularly: buying things from Amazon)
  • Seldomly slow
  • The bloatware wasn't as bad as I was expecting
  • Minecraft is "awesome"
Cons
  • You need to link an Amazon account
  • Parental Mode disables Alexa (i.e. both can't be enabled simultaneously)
  • You can enable multiple users, but the "kid" type is REALLY watered down. Just let them use a normal user.
I kinda wish you could enable Alexa with Parental Mode, but maybe that's a blessing in disguise. They're still perfectly serviceable tablets, and integrate well with a lot of the online learning stuff they do in school. If there was more room in the house, I would have already set up the PC for them, but this is a great stop-gap until I win that fight with their mother. A+ would buy again.

Hippie Hedgehog
Feb 19, 2007

Ever cuddled a hedgehog?

Statutory Ape posted:

By definition and geography it was always going to be (and I guess my point was, that it always has been lol)

On topic , what was wrong with the idea of eInk for sheet music ? Seemed smart to me

Nothing wrong, I still want to do it, the problem is I need 12" or bigger, in order to be readable on a music stand, and the only e-ink options on the market are almost as pricy as the big iPad Pro.
Also, the Sony one is great except it can ONLY read PDFs. Runs Android but can't run apps. Can't load a sequence of PDFs and quickly page into the next song. It requires you to merge your whole set into one long PDF (presumably on a PC/mac), and upload it using a cable. A friend of mine does this and the only reason it's acceptable is because he has a gig about every 6 months.

Hence I'm looking at the only (?) option that is 13" and runs a real unlimited Android, which is the Onyx Boox Max series. But I guess they will remain a pricy niche product.

Shut up Meg
Jan 8, 2019

You're safe here.
Recommend me a tablet....well maybe.

I dropped my Galaxy Tab 7" T230 and oops:

Looking around, I can buy a new LCD (digitiser seems okay) for about $15 and I don't mind swapping it out myself. However, I can only find it from sketchy china sellers at the price and I am concerned about the quality (one review mentioned uneven backlighting.) Anyone experience of this?

As an alternative, I could just buy a new tablet and screw the environment. The Tab T230 is:

Display Type: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors 7.0 inches,
Resolution: 800 x 1280 pixels (~216 ppi density)
Platform: OS Android 4.4.2 (KitKat); TouchWiz UX UI
Chipset Marvell PXA1088
CPU Quad-core 1.2 GHz
Internal 8GB 1.5GB RAM

and seems to be fine for my use (forums, internet, viewing photos).

Amazon devices are out as I want to use the proper Android apps.

Thoughts on a) replacing the LCD and b) suitable budget options (okay with used from ebay)

Chikimiki
May 14, 2009
That tablet is ancient, I wouldn't bother trying to repair it unless you like DIYing. Replacement screens can be hit or miss, and even if you have a good one it is easy to screw up installing it, or it'll fail a few weeks down the road and you're back to square one.

For the record, you can easily install the Play store on Amazon devices, and use it like any other Android tablet. It's still the best budget option as far as I am aware.

Shut up Meg
Jan 8, 2019

You're safe here.

Chikimiki posted:

That tablet is ancient, I wouldn't bother trying to repair it unless you like DIYing. Replacement screens can be hit or miss, and even if you have a good one it is easy to screw up installing it, or it'll fail a few weeks down the road and you're back to square one.

For the record, you can easily install the Play store on Amazon devices, and use it like any other Android tablet. It's still the best budget option as far as I am aware.

Ah thank you for that.

I did explore the thread's recommendation for a Fire, but the first review said you couldn't sideload Play anymore and I lazily didn't research further.

I'm leaning towards the 7 as it seems to be okay for for my use (which is almost entire SA and websites). Strong case for 32gb instead of 16gb with an SD?

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

As much as I don't like buying an Amazon-branded tablet, they're cheap and dead reliable. We have a couple floating around in drawers from 5 years ago and they all still boot with reasonable battery life

And yeah I think they mostly gave up on the Amazon app store so you can sideload play store now

Branch Nvidian
Nov 29, 2012



The only thing I don't like about the Fire HD 10 I got is the garbage Amazon launcher. Does stuff like Nova launcher work on the tablets too, so I can get a more usable UI?

Chikimiki
May 14, 2009

Shut up Meg posted:

Ah thank you for that.

I did explore the thread's recommendation for a Fire, but the first review said you couldn't sideload Play anymore and I lazily didn't research further.

I'm leaning towards the 7 as it seems to be okay for for my use (which is almost entire SA and websites). Strong case for 32gb instead of 16gb with an SD?

32 gb definitely. With app bloat being a thing, you quickly reach the 16 gb limit, and SD cards won't help you - while you technically can put apps on them, this is very bug-prone and unreliable. Better to keep them for media storage only.

Branch Nvidian posted:

The only thing I don't like about the Fire HD 10 I got is the garbage Amazon launcher. Does stuff like Nova launcher work on the tablets too, so I can get a more usable UI?

I don't have a Fire tablet, but from a google search it seems it is possible, but only by sideloading some stuff. Also it can cease to work if Amazon decides to patch it out.

Shut up Meg
Jan 8, 2019

You're safe here.

Hadlock posted:

As much as I don't like buying an Amazon-branded tablet, they're cheap and dead reliable. We have a couple floating around in drawers from 5 years ago and they all still boot with reasonable battery life

Chikimiki posted:

32 gb definitely. With app bloat being a thing, you quickly reach the 16 gb limit, and SD cards won't help you - while you technically can put apps on them, this is very bug-prone and unreliable. Better to keep them for media storage only.

Thanks for the recommendation and advice.

Cheesus
Oct 17, 2002

Let us retract the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wirebrush of enlightenment.
Yam Slacker
I can confirm you can use an alternate launcher with Fire.

I loved the Windows Phone UI, I use Launcher 10 on both my Pixel 3 and Fire 10. Last year Amazon did do something that blocked it, but it was "fixed" within a few days, I believe due to the Launcher 10 developer renaming it to get out of Amazon's block list.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009
I just got a phantom 4, and whilst it works, ish from my phone it's obvious that a tablet would be a far superior control device. I don't otherwise really have a use for a tablet, hence not having one already, so I just what something as cheap as possible that will run the DJI app. Bonus for being reasonably rugged for outdoor use, I guess.

Cursory googling suggests it is possible to get the DJI app to run on an amazon fire, but maybe requires a bit of loving around. Anyone got any direct experience? I don't really want to spring for an ipad for such a specific use.

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

It’s been a year or so, maybe two, since I messed with Fire Tablets but I had an HD8. Getting Play store apps on it wasn’t a problem at all, but reliably using a different launcher is what hosed with it. You needed to download some random APK off github to get the home button to go to whatever launcher, and it still had a split second of an attempt to launch the amazon launcher so it wasn’t completely seamless on that front. They were also juuuuust locked down enough that you couldn’t actually remove the Amazon apps completely, and getting root access was impossible at the time, maybe different now. A part of me hopes and wishes that Amazon gives up and realizes they’re poo poo at making software for these and completely opens them up, but who knows.

Intel&Sebastian
Oct 20, 2002

colonel...
i'm trying to sneak around
but i'm dummy thicc
and the clap of my ass cheeks
keeps alerting the guards!
Does anyone here know if it's possible to make the kids profile/mode on a Fire tablet not display all the random bullshit and only show the downloaded/tagged/approved content? The default main screen is Amazon Prime Video style where it's just rows of random categories and content.


my son is too young to actually tap around and pick stuff on his own but it's not far off and it'd be nice if I could avoid him getting addicted to some finger family guns down elsa in a spiderman mask level garbage.

Shut up Meg
Jan 8, 2019

You're safe here.

jokes posted:

It’s been a year or so, maybe two, since I messed with Fire Tablets but I had an HD8. Getting Play store apps on it wasn’t a problem at all, but reliably using a different launcher is what hosed with it. You needed to download some random APK off github to get the home button to go to whatever launcher, and it still had a split second of an attempt to launch the amazon launcher so it wasn’t completely seamless on that front. They were also juuuuust locked down enough that you couldn’t actually remove the Amazon apps completely, and getting root access was impossible at the time, maybe different now. A part of me hopes and wishes that Amazon gives up and realizes they’re poo poo at making software for these and completely opens them up, but who knows.

Just got a 32GB Fire 7 and happy with it.

Good value for money, for sure. A few niggles:

Screen is a little low res for something that is being sold as a ebook reader
Big bezel makes the screen look smaller/cheaper than it is
Amazon launcher is messy.
Amazon apps are intrusive and annoying that you can't hide something you don't use.

Lockscreen ads are just bad. I was willing to accept getting ads in exchange for a subsidy, but I foolishly assumed they would be based on my purchasing habits, so at least relevant to me.
It currently shows some shite for coins for the gamestore that I don't use and looks tacky in an off-brand mobile game way.
It actively makes me dislike Amazon, so well-done to their marketing team.

I think I'll try the toolbox utility to kill them
https://forum.xda-developers.com/hd8-hd10/development/official-amazon-fire-toolbox-v1-0-t3889604

sourdough
Apr 30, 2012

Shut up Meg posted:

Just got a 32GB Fire 7 and happy with it.

Good value for money, for sure. A few niggles:

Screen is a little low res for something that is being sold as a ebook reader
Big bezel makes the screen look smaller/cheaper than it is
Amazon launcher is messy.
Amazon apps are intrusive and annoying that you can't hide something you don't use.

Lockscreen ads are just bad. I was willing to accept getting ads in exchange for a subsidy, but I foolishly assumed they would be based on my purchasing habits, so at least relevant to me.
It currently shows some shite for coins for the gamestore that I don't use and looks tacky in an off-brand mobile game way.
It actively makes me dislike Amazon, so well-done to their marketing team.

I think I'll try the toolbox utility to kill them
https://forum.xda-developers.com/hd8-hd10/development/official-amazon-fire-toolbox-v1-0-t3889604

Is it still 1024x600? That's pretty brutal for using in any way but giving to your young kid, imo.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

The big bezel pretty much guarantees that your screen will never crack if/when you drop it

Fawf
Nov 5, 2009

It's Me, It's Me, It's DDD

Re: lockscreen ads, it's ~~~dishonest~~~ but just hop on Amazon support chat and tell them they're lagging your tablet or whatever and they'll remove that poo poo pronto at no cost

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

Fawf posted:

Re: lockscreen ads, it's ~~~dishonest~~~ but just hop on Amazon support chat and tell them they're lagging your tablet or whatever and they'll remove that poo poo pronto at no cost

Pretty messed up to decrease Amazon’s intrusive ad-based revenue.

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

If only Seth would love me like I love him!

Pretty messed up to assume the ads arent genuinely impacting performance.

Also cost you more in electricity.

Totally fine to get them off that way.

Shut up Meg
Jan 8, 2019

You're safe here.

sourdough posted:

Is it still 1024x600? That's pretty brutal for using in any way but giving to your young kid, imo.
It's not terrible, just not very good.
As I said, given that it's sold as an ebook reader, that's a bit disappointing.

Hadlock posted:

The big bezel pretty much guarantees that your screen will never crack if/when you drop it
Also, the 7 with its lower res is only a little more than half the price of the 8 with the better screen, so I can afford to buy these and not care when I inevitably drop them on the bathroom floor.
Hilariously, the official case is 50% the cost of an entire new device.

jokes posted:

Pretty messed up to decrease Amazon’s intrusive ad-based revenue.
To be fair, it's subsidised because of this, I knew it and I do have the option to remove it for a reasonable price

Fawf posted:

Re: lockscreen ads, it's ~~~dishonest~~~ but just hop on Amazon support chat and tell them they're lagging your tablet or whatever and they'll remove that poo poo pronto at no cost
Does this still work?

MorrisBae
Jan 18, 2020

by Athanatos

Shut up Meg posted:

Does this still work?

I think they got rid of the direct chat link to tech support in the Settings, but if you call and are nice about it they should do it for you

Fawf
Nov 5, 2009

It's Me, It's Me, It's DDD

Shut up Meg posted:

Does this still work?

Yes, I just did it last week for my new Fire 10. Went exactly as I described, no fuss

RichterIX
Apr 11, 2003

Sorrowful be the heart
I have tried to get the ads off my Kindle like 4 times and they've never bitten. Maybe I'm too nice so they can clock that they can get away with telling me to gently caress off.

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teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

Fawf posted:

Yes, I just did it last week for my new Fire 10. Went exactly as I described, no fuss

Yup, same. Did it soon as I got my 10.

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