Posted on 27/12/2012, 5:00 pm, by Colin Charles, under
General.
About two weeks ago, I ditched my iPad. I backed it up, did a clean reset, and gave the iPad to my mother. My primary tablet now is the Google Nexus 7.
I like the 7″ form factor better. It is also much lighter. The battery life compared to the iPad isn’t nearly as great, but I’ll just have to make do.
Why not an iPad Mini? Quite simply because I bought the Nexus 7 first and cannot justify carrying 2 7″-like tablets. I realized I didn’t use that much software, regularly, on my iPad so the migration process wasn’t too difficult.
My mother is enjoying playing tonnes of games on it. The only game she’s purchased is PvZ HD which is on sale now for $0.99. Everything else is free.
Me? I’m getting used to the Nexus 7 as my primary device. What do I use on it mostly? Web browser (Chrome). Kindle to read books. NYTimes application, though I hate that I have to see ads even though I’m a paying user. Evernote for little snippets of notes here & there.
Beyond that, I’m now on a trip and have no inclination to miss my iPad. Weird feeling, huh?
Posted on 1/12/2012, 6:49 pm, by Colin Charles, under
General.
In my continuing quest to see how my tablet strategy is going to be going forward, I walked into an Apple reseller yesterday, in Singapore. I typed on the retina iPad, and realised that I was using only about four-fingers. This tells you that even before in landscape mode, I was never typing like I do with a keyboard. Or maybe I never really type that way, who knows? :)
I then tried typing on the iPad Mini. I found that I could reliably, in landscape mode add text, without much ado. It goes back to dimensions. The iPad Mini isn’t really a 7″ tablet, its almost an 8″ tablet.
Typing is not a good idea on the Nexus 7. I’ve tried to do so in Evernote today, and the keyboard takes up about half the screen. Its error prone, and I end up always going back to portrait mode for typing.
Asking the retail assistant if they had the iPad Mini in stock, they said they did. But it was only the 64GB version. This is how I bought my first iPad on the day/second day after it was released in the USA – it was the only available sized model. Never again will I make such a decision. 16GB or 32GB is all I’m after at best (probably the former).
All in, I decided to go home, and give the Nexus 7 a fighting chance. I’m going to load up all the software I use regularly or find equivalents. This means paying for an equivalent of Instapaper. This means finding an alternative to GoodReader whom have no plans to make an Android version. But what about those travel apps that I use infrequently, but are invaluable when I visit a place?
Its these “what if” applications that make iOS popular. Most people are happy with a small number of apps, but there are scenarios where you need more.
Posted on 28/11/2012, 4:08 am, by Colin Charles, under
General.
I wrote this post entirely using my Nexus 7 (a 7″ tablet). I found that I couldn’t type well using it. I had to use it in portrait mode, and use my thumbs to type, which meant that it was utterly slow to generate a post.
On my 10″ iPad, I can comfortably type using the virtual/on-screen keyboard in landscape mode. In portrait mode it is nigh impossible.
In either situation, I’m naturally faster using a regular keyboard, and I do have an Apple Wireless Bluetooth keyboard
for this purpose.
I’m now toying with the idea of getting a new iPad (retina display, 4th gen) or an iPad Mini. I’m enjoying consuming content on my Nexus 7. I wonder if I can justify creating more content on the iPad retina? Or do I just satisfy myself with a low-res iPad Mini, which will get updated to a retina display in a year or so?
Others have written about the typing situation: typing on iPad mini, John Gruber hunts & pecks.
