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I waited a long time to buy a tablet, because I had a phone, a netbook, a Kindle, and a laptop. I couldn't figure out where it fit into that equation. But, sin
by SwellJoe 12y ago
I waited a long time to buy a tablet, because I had a phone, a netbook, a Kindle, and a laptop. I couldn't figure out where it fit into that equation.
But, since getting a Nexus 7 on sale (partly because I wanted to tinker with making mobile apps and wanted to have a tablet sized device to test on) I've found a number of use cases that I didn't realize I had.
The best, most useful, thing is that I use it to work on my Spanish language learning. For the first time in my life, I practice my Spanish every day; for a few minutes before sleep, for a few minutes after waking up, and it replaces my Kindle for restroom visits. I've found my reading comprehension is better than it's ever been, even better than when I spent two years in Spanish class in high school and when I spent more than a month traveling deep in Mexico (where nobody speaks English) after just a short time. Duolingo and Memrise are great tools...so great that in a few more months, when I'm confident in my Spanish, I plan to focus on French. You can use both tools on a laptop, but I don't take my laptop to bed or to the restroom. And, the phone is just a little too small to be effective for this purpose, IMHO.
Likewise, I've found more time for doing online classes...the screen is big enough for videos, but switching between tabs or apps is tedious enough that I don't get distracted the way I do on my laptop or desktop. Again, a use case I discovered after getting the tablet.
I am a bit slow to adopt new stuff like this (but an early adopter of other things; I had a pager for years after everyone else has switched to cell phones, but then got a Sidekick very early in the smart phone story, because there was finally a thing I would want to use a phone for: Browsing the Internet and reading mail), so I dunno what that means for the general case, but I really like my tablet. It gets more use than my phone (because I literally hate phone calls, so my tablet does everything the phone does only better, except fit in my pocket and work without wifi).
"Eventually they end up on the nightstand, and used for reading news and looking at pictures in bed at night, before falling asleep"
Which is a pretty good use case, too. I won't buy a new Kindle when my current one dies (if it ever dies...my first Kindle lasted five+ years before I dropped it on the tile bathroom floor one too many times and cracked the screen), because a tablet works just as well for that use case and has many other uses.
- davidw 12y agoI agree with most of what you wrote, but Kindles are way better for just reading. Besides the eInk, which is much easier on one's eyes, it's the lack of distractions that lets you actually lose yourself in a book. No notifications and beeping and "maybe I'll check twitter".
- gambiting 12y agoThat's a problem of character, not a technical problem.
- thaumasiotes 12y agoThe eInk is a technical problem. I'd be sluggish in replacing a tablet, and might not ever; I haven't powered mine on in months. I'd replace my kindle immediately.
- vertex-four 12y agoTechnology solves problems for people. That's kinda what it's for. If it's not solving a problem for people, it's useless.
- gambiting 12y agoYep, but if someone's argument is "tablets are worse than kindle for reading books because I get distracted" then is it really a fault of a tablet that it allows you to do many things at once, or yours that you can't concentrate on one thing? I am not a saint, I get very easily distracted too,but I would not make such an argument.
- davidw 12y agoIt's like the difference between trying to work with your kids running around and working in an office. Theoretically they're both just places. In practice, one is much more conducive to certain activities.
- vertex-four 12y ago> I would not make such an argument Why not? Why wouldn't you choose the device which best counteracts your tendency to get distracted?
- SwellJoe 12y agoI kinda agree about the e-ink, but I've turned off every possible notification on my tablet. My least favorite thing about phones and tablets is how insistent they can be. Facebook chat heads make me wanna burn facebook to the ground so they can do no more harm to the world. So, on the distraction front my tablet is only slightly more difficult to focus with than the Kindle. And, I find it handles books with images much better (travel books, books with maps, art and design books, etc.), tech books with screen shots, etc. I have actually delegated my Kindle and my Nexus 7 to specific roles. The Kindle is for reading literature, exclusively. The Nexus is for everything else. It even helps me distinguish between leisure time and work/study time (kinda like that rule for addressing insomnia of "don't do anything in bed other than sleep and sex").
- lmm 12y agoIt took them a while to get there, but modern phones are converging on the same size as the Nexus 7; a 4" screen was too small for many things but I really don't think there's a lot that you can do on a Nexus 7 that you can't do on a Nexus 6 / Note 4 / Iphone 6+. (I also hate phone calls but you can turn them off if that's really the issue). That inch-or-so difference doesn't seem worth bothering with an extra device for, IMO.