Need tablet assistance...

[Texan2]

I am looking at getting my wife a tablet. I know nothing about them. She has played with the Kindle Fire, the Ipad2 and thats about it.
Uses it just for email and to browse websites, shopping, travel...regular chick stuff.

Fill my brain with info on these modern marvels.

 

[mikeofcontex]

If she's already familiar with Windows... consider a Windows tablet. Add a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and it's a laptop when placed on your desk. If she's not a "techy" or a quick learner, the new interface or "look and feel" could driver her nuts.

 

[txinvestigator]

My wife is not a techie by any stretch, and she grabbed an Android and took off. For what your wife will do, Texan2, the Kindle Fire will work great. Howevwer, if she wants netflix, pandora and all that I would suggest a Samsun Galaxy 10" tablet.

Mike, does windows come on a true tablet? Completely touch screen without a stylus?

 

[Texan2]

The Fire comes with Netflix if I read correctly.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

My older two just got Kindle Fires for their birthdays (and good grades). They're pretty cool.

Netflix works great on them and they're a hand size. I think I may need to switch to FIOS though, they're hogging all my bandwidth. They have about 5 gigs of storage on board, but you can load up music,etc. to your personal "cloud" and stream it as well.

A couple of key considerations:
- size
- functionality as a pseudo-laptop / editing documents


Add: Facebook, Pandora, Netflix, etc are all available on the fire. I think TXI is referring to what screen size you'd want if watching shows on it.

 

[Texan2]

Anyway, Valentines day is tomorrow, so I just ordered the Fire from Amazon with one day shipping. For $200 I cant go very wrong.

 

[mikeofcontex]

I've held a fire and like everything I see... won't connect through a proxy server and are being returned in droves until that major issue is fixed.

 

[Texan2]

my wife wouldnt know what a proxy server is.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

She'll love it. I've been playing with my kids' and they're pretty slick little devices. My wife and I want a couple for ourselves now.

 

[mikeofcontex]

In answer to above... true tablet w/o stylus... I've only reviewed ads and that question wasn't asked or answered. I think there is some limitation with the native Windows 7 interface. Add on software has been available to enable the ipad type of interface. The soon available Windows 8 beta will answer many questions of this type. Currently, advertised to be available by the end of February.

 

[mikeofcontex]

my wife wouldnt know what a proxy server is.

She probably will learn if she wants to use it in a corporate environment.

 

[txinvestigator]

In answer to above... true tablet w/o stylus... I've only reviewed ads and that question wasn't asked or answered. I think there is some limitation with the native Windows 7 interface. Add on software has been available to enable the ipad type of interface. The soon available Windows 8 beta will answer many questions of this type. Currently, advertised to be available by the end of February.

I would really like a link if you have one. Being familiar with Windows and using a tablet for business I would be interested. However, the windows tablets I have seen all are just normal windows OS with a touch screen. You have to use the bar on the side to scroll up and down web pages, for example, and cannot just touch the screen and move the page up and down. The bar is too narrow in tablet screen format to be able to touch it with any accuracy or consistency. The onscreen keyboard just pops up over the page, making it difficult to know where to type. The keyboard does not integrate like the iPad or Android. Those are just a few of my dislikes regarding what I have seen.

If there is a more touch screen capable windows version I would seriously look at it.

 

[txinvestigator]

She probably will learn if she wants to use it in a corporate environment.

I use my Android in a corporate environment and I have no idea what a "proxy server" is.

 

[mikeofcontex]

The Kindle Fire specifically does NOT support a proxy server. The proxy setup/configuration can be automated and/or it might be "anonymous." You might be using one and not know, but they are pretty common. The KF does not support them at all and, IMO, is a major oversight by Amazon.

I'll see if I get lucky with a search and post an add-on for Windows 7 touch screen interface. It is not there in its native form. We're waiting for the "8" metro interface.

Though... I am a techie, I can't afford much of the new stuff so my knowledge of the new Windows phone interface is lacking.

 

[Texan2]

The wife will use ours in our house, and at Starbucks or other Wifi hotspots. I dont think the proxy issue will be much of an issue. I would hope that eventually they will fix it though.

 

[mikeofcontex]

Frontface... first specific I found...
Windows Tablet Application enhances touchscreen compatibility., mirabyte GmbH Co. K

There are some multiple touch items available in Vista and 7 that I found mentioned. I have no familiarity with those.

 

[txinvestigator]

Frontface... first specific I found...
Windows Tablet Application enhances touchscreen compatibility., mirabyte GmbH Co. K

There are some multiple touch items available in Vista and 7 that I found mentioned. I have no familiarity with those.

That helps. Currently windows does not have a user friendly interface like Apple and Android for it touchscreen tablets, and this third party application only helps some.

Windows is behind the times on this.

 

[RandomHero]

Anyway, Valentines day is tomorrow, so I just ordered the Fire from Amazon with one day shipping. For $200 I cant go very wrong.

excellent choice. Its a little late now, but the b&n tablet could have been one to look at too.

 

[Texan2]

i looked at it as well, but I do lots of business with amazon so it seemed to be a natural choice.

 

[RandomHero]

Especially if you got 1 day gor $200