Hi all, I've had ipads for some time now. I'm addicted to it's utility and frustrated by it's limitations and flakyness (sp). I'd be interested in user comments on other tablets of about the same form factor and battery life. thx Jim Slocomb M/V Sea Otter Friday Harbor
Non-apple tablets
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Skinny
Senior Member
I think it boils down to this:
You would be hard pressed to find something that has the build quality and simplicity of the iPad but...more than likely an Android has the flexibility on the software end that you want. I think Samsung is probably arguably equal or greater in most areas.
I love my Apple products for day to day stuff like email, web, music, etc. but when it comes down to getting something custom done, you need to get out of that platform.
You would be hard pressed to find something that has the build quality and simplicity of the iPad but...more than likely an Android has the flexibility on the software end that you want. I think Samsung is probably arguably equal or greater in most areas.
I love my Apple products for day to day stuff like email, web, music, etc. but when it comes down to getting something custom done, you need to get out of that platform.
klee wyck
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Full disclosure: I am not at all techie but functional when in the presence of my 18 year old who is likewise impressed (see below).
I have an IPad in a Lifeproof, like its recreational potential, and use it for second line of navigation and first line of tides, current, weather, and bouy data. I am not impressed with its computing, file functionality, or software interface.
I was recently assigned a Surface (MS) as part of Board service for a large Seattle based company. I am pleasantly surprised with it excellent PC like functionality which just may be because I operate more in that world. Much better keyboard option. It will be nowhere near as durable as the IPad but a very nice adjunct on the boat. Have not yet done enough research on navigation software for this machine but will definitely use it for one of the 5 pieces of hardware that I can send a wifi signal to from my as yet to be installed AIS transponder.
Perhaps worth looking into.
I have an IPad in a Lifeproof, like its recreational potential, and use it for second line of navigation and first line of tides, current, weather, and bouy data. I am not impressed with its computing, file functionality, or software interface.
I was recently assigned a Surface (MS) as part of Board service for a large Seattle based company. I am pleasantly surprised with it excellent PC like functionality which just may be because I operate more in that world. Much better keyboard option. It will be nowhere near as durable as the IPad but a very nice adjunct on the boat. Have not yet done enough research on navigation software for this machine but will definitely use it for one of the 5 pieces of hardware that I can send a wifi signal to from my as yet to be installed AIS transponder.
Perhaps worth looking into.
Donsan
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My main concern is the security aspects of Android devices and the fact many are released with proprietary extensions to the public domain Android release. I will not buy an Android device due to potential vulnerabilities.
The control Apple maintains over third party iPad software from both a quality, security and privacy standpoint is also a plus. But I have seen apps that do not run well.
The Android hardware I have seen from Samsung is very nice and almost up to snuff with the iPad Air II.
The Surface, with Windows 8.1, is seriously lacking in app support although the hardware is very strong. Unfortunately, Microsoft came to the table with too little, too late.
mbevins
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The Nexus products are owned by Google, the developers of Android. As such the OS is uniquely matched to the hardware. They also have true built in GPS.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler
Diesel Duck
Senior Member
I've been using Apple computers since the SE20 days back in the early 80's. Today, both my cell phone and tablet are Samsung Androids and I wouldn't have it any other way.
BryanF
Senior Member
I keep trying to go to an iphone. And every time I end up back with my samsung droid.
Tablet and phone both work well. But with that said. Each has things that they do way better than the other. So it depends on what you want to do day to day.
I like a custom ring tone for my phone. Mainly because I don't hear very well in the frequency ranges of Detroit Diesel 2 strokes. So I have a loud and obnoxious ring tone. It is a little thing but I can download probably 50 ring tones in the time it will take you to do one on an apple phone. ever wonder why when you are someplace and you hear the stock apple ring tone everyone with an apple phone looks to see if it is theirs? On the flip side- sharing a contact between an iphone and an iphone. touch touch pop done. Send it to me on my droid - I might be a week going through all the steps to get it to go into my contact list. But I digress.
Sam Sung all the way. Rock solid stuff. Android for the things I do with my phone and tablet work well. YMMV and love the apple service.
1/2 the family on samsung droid 1/2 on i phones.
Tablet and phone both work well. But with that said. Each has things that they do way better than the other. So it depends on what you want to do day to day.
I like a custom ring tone for my phone. Mainly because I don't hear very well in the frequency ranges of Detroit Diesel 2 strokes. So I have a loud and obnoxious ring tone. It is a little thing but I can download probably 50 ring tones in the time it will take you to do one on an apple phone. ever wonder why when you are someplace and you hear the stock apple ring tone everyone with an apple phone looks to see if it is theirs? On the flip side- sharing a contact between an iphone and an iphone. touch touch pop done. Send it to me on my droid - I might be a week going through all the steps to get it to go into my contact list. But I digress.
Sam Sung all the way. Rock solid stuff. Android for the things I do with my phone and tablet work well. YMMV and love the apple service.
1/2 the family on samsung droid 1/2 on i phones.
As others have said the Nexus 7 is an (almost) Google product, so its software is always essentially pure Android and up to date. An old (thicker and with supposedly lower resolution than today's) Nexus 7 can be bought for about $150 with 32 gb of memory which is all you will ever need.
It works perfectly as a Kindle reader as well as a decent email reader and internet browser as long as you don't have to type much of a response. Any thing over a dozen characters and I switch to a PC.
I use MxMariner as a backup chartplotter and works with its built in GPS. Works great and has ActiveCaptain data offline.
Google Maps works perfectly and if you zoom over to where you want to go, there is enough memory caching for the map detail to be there off line. It isn't a fully functional road navigation app, but it works in a pinch off line. And you can always pull up to a McDonalds or similar and go online to get more data.
The Nexus 9 has a more iPad Mini form factor if that is what you like.
Being hacked into an Android device is rare.
David
It works perfectly as a Kindle reader as well as a decent email reader and internet browser as long as you don't have to type much of a response. Any thing over a dozen characters and I switch to a PC.
I use MxMariner as a backup chartplotter and works with its built in GPS. Works great and has ActiveCaptain data offline.
Google Maps works perfectly and if you zoom over to where you want to go, there is enough memory caching for the map detail to be there off line. It isn't a fully functional road navigation app, but it works in a pinch off line. And you can always pull up to a McDonalds or similar and go online to get more data.
The Nexus 9 has a more iPad Mini form factor if that is what you like.
Being hacked into an Android device is rare.
David
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Ben
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iPad Air 2 vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
I searched long and hard. The above article lays it out - Samsung vs. iPad Air2.
Samsung Galaxy Tab a little better because of:
Lists for $499, but we got it for $379 on-sale at Costco.
Counting down the days...
I searched long and hard. The above article lays it out - Samsung vs. iPad Air2.
Samsung Galaxy Tab a little better because of:
- SD card slot/expandability.
- Way superior screen. Larger, higher resolution, more colors.
- Multiple Windows open simultaneously.
Lists for $499, but we got it for $379 on-sale at Costco.
Counting down the days...
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Skinny
Senior Member
I hate to say it but unless you are encrypting your voice and sending it over a HAM band, someone is listening. Apple and Android devices transmit a ton of information regarding what you look at, your GPS coordinates, who you dialed, etc. its just that Apple tends to hide it better. I wouldn't let that deter you since it realistically is out of your control. Of course if that worries you, I'd probably stay away from an iPhone 6 with a thumb reader and payment software 
Even a basic flip phone send this information. A SIM card is controlled by the phone company. It talks on the baseband without the phone user even knowing. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but it we truly have no idea what our phones transmit and the cell companies can change it without us even knowing.
Cheers
Even a basic flip phone send this information. A SIM card is controlled by the phone company. It talks on the baseband without the phone user even knowing. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but it we truly have no idea what our phones transmit and the cell companies can change it without us even knowing.
Cheers
Wxx3
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I use a samsung note as cell phone and it also has all my nav programs on it,
Last year I added the samsung tablet and I love it and it has better battery usage than my cell. ANd I really like the big screen (12.2")
My only issue is that it's a bit of overkill at this point.
keb
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And then there was this yesterday...
The bench testing of performance amongst several brands is interesting.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...uide?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
Kevin
Portland, OR
The bench testing of performance amongst several brands is interesting.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...uide?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
Kevin
Portland, OR
Parmenter
Senior Member
I use a Pantech Element when on the water and most of the time at home and on the road.
They are a pretty good tablet, not as fast as some but certainly faster and with a hell of a lot more feastures than a mates ipad mini and screen res is the same.
GPS is great (works on planes) and when rooted it gets glonass as well
It has a 4g sim card slot. (But no data needed for GPS or mapping)
It has a HDMI port to plug straight into a TV for watching movies
It has an expandable memory port, so an extra 32GB card in slot
It has a USB port that reads my 64GB thumb drives
Did I mention its waterproof?
Can overpriced apple do any of the above?
if it can at what cost?
I was impressed enough to get several more of them just in case it died.
Several years on and its still working fine.
Cost less than $200 landed in Australia.
They are a pretty good tablet, not as fast as some but certainly faster and with a hell of a lot more feastures than a mates ipad mini and screen res is the same.
GPS is great (works on planes) and when rooted it gets glonass as well
It has a 4g sim card slot. (But no data needed for GPS or mapping)
It has a HDMI port to plug straight into a TV for watching movies
It has an expandable memory port, so an extra 32GB card in slot
It has a USB port that reads my 64GB thumb drives
Did I mention its waterproof?
Can overpriced apple do any of the above?
if it can at what cost?
I was impressed enough to get several more of them just in case it died.
Several years on and its still working fine.
Cost less than $200 landed in Australia.
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I bought the third original Apple Macintosh 128K sold in Seattle in 1984 to write my first book on. I sas going to go with an IBM PC and Micrsoft Word, but when a friend dragged me to an Apple store to see the new Mac and I saw what it could do I changed my mind.
Trivia for the day--- Did you know that the first mold for the back of the origingl Mac case had the signatures of everyone at Apple who worked on the Mac engraved in the mold surface? So when you open up the computer, the inside of the case has all these raised signatures on it, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Mine has them, but I don't know how long they continued to use this mold..
My employer (Boeing) was anbivelent at first about what kind of desktop computers people had. Some of us had Macs, some had PCs. But eventually, as the company began to do more with its intranet, it was obvious it woudl have to standardize. Not surprisingly, it standardized on PC.
But we have stayed with Apple at home and would not switch for anything. Besides the operating system being more intuitive and the apps more relevant (in my opinion), we have all our devices on the same account. So the desk Mac, my wife's iPhone (I have a company international Blackberry), my two iPads, and her iPad Mini all get the same things. So when she puts an entry into her calendar it immediately appears in all our devices. And if I get an app it appears on all our devices except the desktop Mac, although it gets loaded to the desktop's iTunes.
Now I'm sure the Google devices can do the same thing. And the people I know who have Google-powered Android phones are very happy with them.
I have noticed that the people I meet who are in a creative business--- film, video, graphics, writing, etc.--- tend to use Apple gear. The number-crunchers, finance folks, etc. tend to prefer Android and Windows-powered gear. There are a lot of people here at Boeing. for example, who have company-issued Blackberry phones (the company standard) but who also carry their own iPhone.
Boeing actually carried out a test with iPhones, issuing them to a specific organization to try out. What they found was that while almsot all the users greatly favored the iPhone, Blackberry still has the best network security of all of them. And in this industry, this is very important. So we've stayed with Blackberry.
But as far as Apple vs Android, it's probably six of one, half dozen of the other. They both have their proponents with good reasons for their preferences.
Trivia for the day--- Did you know that the first mold for the back of the origingl Mac case had the signatures of everyone at Apple who worked on the Mac engraved in the mold surface? So when you open up the computer, the inside of the case has all these raised signatures on it, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Mine has them, but I don't know how long they continued to use this mold..
My employer (Boeing) was anbivelent at first about what kind of desktop computers people had. Some of us had Macs, some had PCs. But eventually, as the company began to do more with its intranet, it was obvious it woudl have to standardize. Not surprisingly, it standardized on PC.
But we have stayed with Apple at home and would not switch for anything. Besides the operating system being more intuitive and the apps more relevant (in my opinion), we have all our devices on the same account. So the desk Mac, my wife's iPhone (I have a company international Blackberry), my two iPads, and her iPad Mini all get the same things. So when she puts an entry into her calendar it immediately appears in all our devices. And if I get an app it appears on all our devices except the desktop Mac, although it gets loaded to the desktop's iTunes.
Now I'm sure the Google devices can do the same thing. And the people I know who have Google-powered Android phones are very happy with them.
I have noticed that the people I meet who are in a creative business--- film, video, graphics, writing, etc.--- tend to use Apple gear. The number-crunchers, finance folks, etc. tend to prefer Android and Windows-powered gear. There are a lot of people here at Boeing. for example, who have company-issued Blackberry phones (the company standard) but who also carry their own iPhone.
Boeing actually carried out a test with iPhones, issuing them to a specific organization to try out. What they found was that while almsot all the users greatly favored the iPhone, Blackberry still has the best network security of all of them. And in this industry, this is very important. So we've stayed with Blackberry.
But as far as Apple vs Android, it's probably six of one, half dozen of the other. They both have their proponents with good reasons for their preferences.
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Parmenter
Senior Member
Same same but 6 X the cost
timjet
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Yup, the trash 80, my first computer back in I think '87.
I like my Samsung Note 8. It's always at the helm running Plan 2 Nav and Active Captain, though I use it only for hazards and warnings not for navigation.
I've never had an Apple computer, tablet or phone but am glad they were developed. We would not have our current choice of phones or tablets without them. One more example of why a free market systems works.
Parmenter
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Parmenter
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Donsan
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The Admiral and I both have iPad Air's with AT&T 4G LTE. This is my third iPad and upgrade about every two years or two model revisions. My first iPad was an iPad 1 and at the time, other tablets were mostly crap. But once you get familiar with it, there is a tendency to continue being loyal to the brand as long as they are as good or better than the others.
The first iPad got handed down to the Admiral. When she got her iPad Air, it got handed down to one of her grandkids. We sold my iPad 3. Since we use iPhones, the iPads are a natural fit. The wife also has an iMac so she is all Apple. I plan to buy her one of the new 5K iMacs and I will probably use her 5-6 year old iMac to become more familiar with OSX as I have been a Microsoft guy since MSDOS.
Prior to retirement, I worked in IT security and I know all devices including iPads have had and have vulnerabilities. The popularity of the iPhone and iPad have made them a particular target of hackers just like Microsoft has been because of Windows dominant market share. However, hackers have always found public domain software to be much easier pickings because they can see the code. I recall one commentator stating that because internet software was (and is) developed and placed in the public domain, it created a national treasure of computer hackers.
Rather than say, don't buy an Android device, I just want potential buyers to be aware of the risks. By all accounts Google has taken major steps to improve the security on Android over early releases but it is still public domain.
The first iPad got handed down to the Admiral. When she got her iPad Air, it got handed down to one of her grandkids. We sold my iPad 3. Since we use iPhones, the iPads are a natural fit. The wife also has an iMac so she is all Apple. I plan to buy her one of the new 5K iMacs and I will probably use her 5-6 year old iMac to become more familiar with OSX as I have been a Microsoft guy since MSDOS.
Prior to retirement, I worked in IT security and I know all devices including iPads have had and have vulnerabilities. The popularity of the iPhone and iPad have made them a particular target of hackers just like Microsoft has been because of Windows dominant market share. However, hackers have always found public domain software to be much easier pickings because they can see the code. I recall one commentator stating that because internet software was (and is) developed and placed in the public domain, it created a national treasure of computer hackers.
Rather than say, don't buy an Android device, I just want potential buyers to be aware of the risks. By all accounts Google has taken major steps to improve the security on Android over early releases but it is still public domain.
Was a remarkable machine. Was really the impetus into developing programmers for PC's. There were people who could do amazing things with that computer and it's tiny bit of memory. I believe it is still the all time leader in sales for a single model of computer. It truly launched the PC movement as it proved there was a market out there. What is funny is that even pristine vintage ones have never gained great value as there are so many still around, many still working. Over 200,000 were sold. It was actually introduced in 1977 and in 1980 they were outselling Apple 3 to 1. I was 8 or 9 years old when I got one for Christmas.
Funny thing is that Dell had tablet PC's long ago and they were a dismal failure. Then Surface is introduced and there's a lot of negative talk but suddenly everyone is pushing a tablet PC.
I don't think that outdates tablets though. If I'm using it at a desk or sitting down mostly then the PC feature is great. However, for roaming around I still like the straight tablet. Tablets are also great for controlling equipment and stationing at various locations. Now, if I'm trying to do some work or spreadsheets or something of that nature then absolutely a tablet PC.
Which tablet PC do you use?
Lollygag
Senior Member
We just bought two surface pro 3s for the boat. We each will have a tablet that doubles as a mirror screen for the electronics we install (soon to come.) Apple is good but at this point I don't want to learn a new OS, either apple or android. I can load all the navigation software I need and am used to using. We have enough projects going that learning new operating systems. (That said, I'm having to learn windows 8!)
Speaking of security, the eldest son of one of my videographers was hired a couple of years ago by Google the moment he graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science. He'd developed a fascination for computers when he was five or six, and had been building his own from components since he was ten or so.
Contrary to the apparent plight of many college graduates who cannot find jobs in their field, my friend's son was wooed in his senior year by Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
He chose Google. His specialty is computing security. Google hired him at a starting salary of $100,000 a year with a $70,000 signing bonus.
I asked him recently about the cloud. His description of the cloud (which he does not use for any of his own documents, photos, records, anything) is that it's like the Wild West in terms of security and privacy. It's incredibly easy to hack into and steal stuff off of, according to him, and he feels we've barely seen the tip of the iceberg of massive security breaches and identity theft.
He told me that the cloud is a great idea operationally, but its security is next to nill at this point.
My wife and I had sort of felt this way anyway, but after talking to him we made sure every cloud connection on our wireless devices was switched off. Not that there aren't a bunch of other ways our information can be stolen but we figure one less is a good thing.
Contrary to the apparent plight of many college graduates who cannot find jobs in their field, my friend's son was wooed in his senior year by Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
He chose Google. His specialty is computing security. Google hired him at a starting salary of $100,000 a year with a $70,000 signing bonus.
I asked him recently about the cloud. His description of the cloud (which he does not use for any of his own documents, photos, records, anything) is that it's like the Wild West in terms of security and privacy. It's incredibly easy to hack into and steal stuff off of, according to him, and he feels we've barely seen the tip of the iceberg of massive security breaches and identity theft.
He told me that the cloud is a great idea operationally, but its security is next to nill at this point.
My wife and I had sort of felt this way anyway, but after talking to him we made sure every cloud connection on our wireless devices was switched off. Not that there aren't a bunch of other ways our information can be stolen but we figure one less is a good thing.
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