All Things Digital - Latest Comments

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

Manuel Avellan — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:05:45 -0000

It must be nice to have your job and get every gadget from the bleeding edge.

Walt you have been tooting Ipads horn since it came out and keep doing so. You and my brother think that Apple is the last cocacola in the desert, but I beg to differ.

Last summer I purchased an Acer A500 dual core 1000mhz ,1280 x 800 pixels display for $200 + 5 megapixel camera in back I believe 3 in front, +16 gigs of memory and a 32 gig sd card allotment + a full usb entry point + micro HDMI. Every app I downloaded from the App store worked, and worked well, I don't even know which was for phones and which one for apps, they all opened to the full screen and worked great! I sent it to Chile to my family,

I then got an Asus Transformer also $200 pretty much same specs, also sent down to Chile, I then purchased a Motorola Xoom with 32 gigs on board + 3G,4G and pretty much same specs as the other 2 and also only paid $200. I must say I am an original Ipad owner as well, which now a day crashes continually plus I have to put up with Itunes and that " OTHERs" category that steals 2 to 3 gigs of my memory (and that no one in Apple knows what it is or how to wipe it clean).

Meanwhile and very important in my view is that all 3 Android based tables I have had understand almost all video formats (avi, mpeg,mpeg4,mks) music formats (ape,aac,mp3,flack) and best of all it is all Drag and drop, no limiting, moody,Itunes.

My two children (5 and 8) Prefer the Xoom than the Ipad (this is a reversal from just 6 month ago). I prefer the Xoom because of the keyboard is way better than the IOS, the open app tab and the go back tab rule specially for the web and the apps.

So Walt it is nice that you can make a review for the rich but it would be nice that you mention the options for those of us that cannot blow $300 to $800 (You may think that $300 is chump change) on tech as well.

I am pretty sure that by this summer I will be able to get a 7" Nexus for $150.

Ow by the way I do not care if my pad last 10 hours or 8 or 7, I figure that short of being on a plane to Chile for 10 Hours++ everywhere else I can always find a power source, the much tautened 10 hour mark is nothing but a gimmick.

Re: Mossberg: Is Apple the ‘Switzerland of Mobile?’

Manuel Avellan — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:12:24 -0000

Maybe because the apps I have in Android are as good or better than Apples.Furthermore I moved out of Apple Iphone to Android, not to import Apple stuff. Same thing applies to Macs and MS OS and Apps.

Re: New Flipboard: News and Posts Handpicked and Shared

Anthony Beckman — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:29:42 -0000

I dig flipboard. But for those of us who follow blogs that are not particularly image driven - I've found Feedly a great alternative.

Re: New Flipboard: News and Posts Handpicked and Shared

Michael W Martin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:08:42 -0000

http://flipboard.com/
;)

Re: New Flipboard: News and Posts Handpicked and Shared

Antonio Iglesias — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:12:05 -0000

Nice article, thanks for sharing, i am learning a lot.

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

R I — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:00:25 -0000

I think it's pretty specious to say Google Play has fewer tablet optimized apps than Amazon. Firstly, all amazon apps can be installed in any Android tablet through their Android marketplace. Secondly, most of those tend to be available in Google Play itself, and work the same.

Re: When an iPad Isn’t Enough

Sage — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:58:55 -0000

Pretty much at this point Windows Surface Pro tablets are the only ones capable of content creation, since you have full use of the desktop as it uses the same kind of processor as a regular pc. I really don't think the Surface RT products are worth bothering with even if it can't be used for content creation as it uses the same kind of cpu as Android and iOS. Neither iOS or Android are really built for content creation, as they lack in many areas compared to a regular pc. Though Android is slowly becoming better in some aspects, can't say anything for iOS though since I don't have a need for any of Apple's products. If you have programs like from Adobe or somewhere else, definitely look into getting a surface pro as those will most likely be compatible.

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Adam Green — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:45:09 -0000

"Worst ever!" ... is this a Simpsons joke?
Roku is fine.
The columnist is right to answer the gmail question, not embark upon a psychotherapy session about "why" someone would stop using a service or product.
Let's leave it to us, here, in the peanut gallery to pontificate on which crappy email service is the least crappy. : )
As for W7, I got an honest chuckle out of the unspoken endorsement for staying with W7.
As for Windows 8, it's right there in the name: W8 (wait) for the next version. Then W9 (whine) about that one, too. The question is really W10 (when) will there be a next decent version of Windows?
As for finding W7, they're discounted and stacked in boxes in Amazon werehouses. I just got a really impressively powerful Asus box for $900. It's a simple i7 box but romps along as fast or faster than an aging 12 core Xeon Mac Pro. An SSD to boot the OS, a RAID to hold "everything, ever" and a USB3 backup drive. All for about the price of an i5 iMac. Apple is great, but not that great! Windows 7. Not totally horrible.

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Adam Green — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:37:34 -0000

If you've got a Roku, I suggest improving your investment knowledge and learning to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, futures, options for yourself. A curiously named site call tastytrade provides their content in the roku programming. It's the first honest source of investment advice I've encountered in a long many years.

As for gmail, the first step to giving up gmail is to ask why and what are you going to use for free, secure email instead? Yahoo seems to be getting better, but I have both and Yahoo! still isn't worth suffering. The only other thing to do is pay for your own co-lo server and run your own email service. At least then the FBI and CIA will have more trouble spying on your chitchat.

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

DuFeu — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:45:37 -0000

Nexus 7!!!!

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

Cesars Colony — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:21:55 -0000

Mine and my friends too, is an AllWinner, China at £55 GBP or $64 US if you can find it. Its great except for a few hi-tech issues. Cannot add USB devices like usb camera, only USB memory stick or its own ext keyboard. Has no Bluetooth, Some apps allow wifi connex to some devices, but as an engineer its frustrating that the internal kernel wont allow ... Also ext micro memory needed a dodgy patch to an xml file before I could write to it, again a limitation of the delivered firmware. Only one camera, now I see how useful front and back cameras are. But for the money it is marvelous. Have switched to arduino now that I decided that my android will probably never be connected to external gizmos. EXCEPT DeskPets which have their own android app and look absolutely addictive.

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

RobertJGood — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:17:36 -0000

I am liking that Asus! Going to flash Windows 8 on it, so I get all of my XBox/PC movies and music. Thanks for the write up!

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

Jim Evans — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:54:34 -0000

I have to say that my son just got a Nabi 2 tablet for his birthday. This is a full blown Android tablet, NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 Mobile Processor with Quad-Core CPU, 1Gb of RAM (a little weak), and dual cameras. This tablet was $179! You can turn the "Mommy Mode" or in my case, Daddy Mode, on and it's a full Android tablet with USB 3.0. I have to say that this is a great tablet to share with Mommy and the kids!

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

Sagar — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:36:45 -0000

There is also the option of buying used. With users refreshing almost as fast phone upgrade cycles, you can find a last-gen, higher end tablet for a great price. ebay, amazon, glyde, apple itself--lots of options.

Re: iTunes Gets an Upgrade Without Missing a Beat

DCListener — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:27:44 -0000

ITunes 11 is an awful program. I load a CD in and it shows up as 4 different albums! Apple is just getting worse and worse.

Re: Mossberg Reviews Two Low-Cost Tablets

HDTVGuy — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:09:58 -0000

Walt: focus, focus (the camera).

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

rarnedsoum — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:21:26 -0000

Wow.
The worst Mossberg column ever.
Pointing people to the worst answers.
Leave Gmail? Never.
Roku. No.
Windows 7? Good luck finding one without Windows 8. Yuck.

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Jack Gratteau — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:54:40 -0000

gmail is only needed by spys and criminals on craigslist and e-bay. The world would be much safer without it. I'm sure General Petraeus would agree.

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

Guest — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:29:30 -0000

the kindle fire is a great buy under $200 and better than apple's $350! copy!!!

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Richard Mitnick — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:11:40 -0000

Losing Google Reader? Just open Google Blogger and sign in to your Reader account and then take the Blogger assignation. Much better than any other feed reader.

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Christopher Cotton — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:37:36 -0000

you abandoing all email or just gmail? im confused by this frankly never saw a problem with gmail

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Adam Woś — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:11:34 -0000

Google account settings page " found at http://tinyurl.com/bm78c8y. "? Ummm I don't think so. How about https://www.google.com/sett... - here, it's not that hard.

Re: How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

PinoyDROID.Net — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:58:19 -0000

Google Nexus 7 (Asus) is pretty awesome!

Re: Letting Go of Gmail

Getgo — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:59:39 -0000

Getting away from gmail!! Don't find need for it. Now don't make stupid argument like the way Microsoft does in its hatred ad.

Re: How Apple Gets All the Good Apps

mjw149 — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:45:08 -0000

Yes, and soon you can't get Google Reader on iphone. Oh, no, wait.