Tablets and Chromebooks

Interested in doing a little Christmas shopping?  For others in your house, or perhaps yourself?

Getting around to Robbins question... concerning tablets.

I'll come right out and say it, I don't own a tablet, so I'm not an expert on them by any means whatsoever.

However, here is a review from Cnet, which was updated last week, with their "Top 5" Tablets.  iPad is at the top of the list, of course.  But, I don't think Microsoft's surface was considered in this ranking.

Personally, it really comes down to personal preference.  Do you have an iPod?  Do like games, and free Apps?  Do you have a vast and expansive library of things on your iTunes account?  Does using an Apple make you feel superior?  Then you should get an iPad.

Do you want to use it to watch movies on long car rides, and listen to music to?  You should look into the Kindle Fire HD.

It really does depend on what you want it for?  If you are someone like me who is going to use it to check their e-mail and browse the web, the Google Nexus 7 is a fantastic product, at less than half the price of an iPad.

I really like what I've seen and read about the Microsoft surface... looks like a quality competitor to an iPad, but they need to come down in price.

My advice is to Read this article, and make your selection from there.  Lots to consider.


Another thought while you are out there shopping.... ever think of a Chromebook?

Chromebooks are Google's version of the laptop.  And basically, all they are is the chrome browser.  Everything you do in the computer (in theory) is done on the web.  Want to write a paper... do it in google docs.  Want to work with pictures.... Picasa is Google's picture hosting and picture editing software.  Basically everything you would do on a normal computer, you do on a chromebook, but it's done online.

They use a solid state drive, so there is no "hard drive".  No moving parts!  Because of this, it runs cooler, faster, and uses much less battery.  Google claims it will run for 8 hours on one charge.

Did I mention it was fast?  Google claims that you can boot it up the first time, and be online in less than five minutes.... and once the computer is set up... you can go from powered down and off, to working online in less than 30 seconds.

Google also makes many other numerous claims regarding their chromebooks... such as there is no need to run updates at any time... because it does it automatically.  The Chromebook automatically downloads and implements all updates every single time it shuts down.

I actually think they would be a phenomenal classroom tool for the classroom.  Having our students use the Chromebooks instead of the netbooks we use now.  Here is an article on chromebooks being used successfully in education.

With the price of the "High End" chromebook at $250, and the "lower end" chromebook at $200, this type of computing needs to not only be considered, but looked at and researched closely.