Thinking of a tablet to help my studies

Hi everyone,

I wanted to get some opinions and see if anyone else is doing something similar. I've been thinking for a while now about getting some type of e-reader or tablet. I think it would help me study more. Reason being, I tend to read most of my study materials in the form of PDFs. It is quite tiring to sit at my computer for hours at a time. I do not have a laptop at the moment either.

I was thinking originally about an e-reader because I've read the e-ink is suppose to be really easy on the eyes which I would like because my eyes get so tired staring at a screen.

But, I spend a lot of time doing research online when studying so I would really like to have something that can browse the web as well.

Any one else using a tablet or e-reader to do most of their studying? If so what are you using or what would you recommend.

Thanks!

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Comments

shaqazoolu

I really wanted a Xoom for a long time but I think I'm over the urge. If I got any such device it would likely be a Kindle...mostly because with the way the truly mobile devices are now, any tablet you buy is going to be outdated inside of 10 months and ~$600+ is a lot to be spending that often. It's just not worth it over the long term IMO.

tbgree00

I use an iPad in my studying. It replaced books with PDFs and essentially is my personal computer. It's also good for remoting in with rdp to check out whatever I'm reading about.

MosGuy

I have a 1st gen Kindle DX that I use for all my study guides, PDF's. It does have basic text web browser capabilities. But the keyboard isn't ideal, so I don't use it much I normally stick to my laptops for 'net use. I really like the e-reader, e-ink a welcome rest from staring at an LCD for hours. I haven't looked at tablets so I can't comment on them. If you want a compromise, they might be the way to go. For pure reading & occasional net, you can't beat an e-reader with e-ink. The benefit to my DX over say an iPad is a single battery charge lasts me two weeks with occasional wifi use.

Tackle

I have a Viewsonic G-tablet. It's really a nice tab. Look up the specs and then look at the price and you will be suprised. Right now you can find it for less then $350 new, and has the same specs as the Xoom, plus a functional USB port which is missing with the Xoom.

The only complaint I have read is that the viewing angles are not as good as the Xoom or Ipad. But after having mine for over a month I have yet to have a time when I went "Dang, I wish I could lay this down flat and look at it from eye level".

The Gtab is worth every penny. There are e-book apps you can install as well. It's a 10 inch.

demonfurbie

im saving and waiting on

http://www.samsung.com/us/news/newsRead.do?news_seq=19779

unless i can find a cheap 7in android one with 3.0 os for around 200~250

themagicone

Has anyone looked at the new Asus eee tablet? Newegg.com - ASUS Eee Pad (Eee Slate) EP121-1A010M Tablet PC Intel Core i5 470UM(1.33GHz) 12.1" Wide SVGA 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 64GB SSD HDD Intel HD Graphics

That thing just looks cool. The size of an IPad but it's a full blown pc. Runs windows, is upgradeable and compact. I am very tempted to get one.

demonfurbie

themagicone wrote: »

Has anyone looked at the new Asus eee tablet? Newegg.com - ASUS Eee Pad (Eee Slate) EP121-1A010M Tablet PC Intel Core i5 470UM(1.33GHz) 12.1" Wide SVGA 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 64GB SSD HDD Intel HD Graphics

That thing just looks cool. The size of an IPad but it's a full blown pc. Runs windows, is upgradeable and compact. I am very tempted to get one.

yea ive seen it it does indeed look cool

i just cant justify the price of that over say a new netbook

that samgsung i linked is similar to the eee slate but it has the keyboard build in to the screen

shaqazoolu

Apparently the new Samsung Galaxy tabs are going to be decently priced as of this morning. $499 for the 16GB 10.1" WiFi version to be exact. The 8.9" 16GB version is supposed to be $469 and both should be running Honeycomb as well. They are supposed to be released on June 8th. I think I'm interested in a tablet again. Curse you technology.

demonfurbie

shaqazoolu wrote: »

Apparently the new Samsung Galaxy tabs are going to be decently priced as of this morning. $499 for the 16GB 10.1" WiFi version to be exact. The 8.9" 16GB version is supposed to be $469 and both should be running Honeycomb as well. They are supposed to be released on June 8th. I think I'm interested in a tablet again. Curse you technology.

same here im always looking but i cant seam to find the perfect one for me

i know i dont want the 10 in one (just to big for me to carry around if i wanted some thing like that i may as well get a netbook)

i know i do want android 3.0

basically i want a galaxy tab but i cant seam to justify the price ... maybe if they made a lower end one with a single core and less storage for like 250 id get one

thehourman

Where do you guys buy your PDF ebooks?

demonfurbie

thehourman wrote: »

Where do you guys buy your PDF ebooks?

kindle and often in the back of the print book there is a cd with a copy on it

and sometimes for school they have some in something called flashpaper (flash book)

varelg

I own Nook Classic and bought it on the similar premise like the starter of this topic. Bunch of free but very usefull material is offered for the subjects of my study, almost all of them in PDF format of varying complexity. So instead of printing them out after downloading them, I thought it would be straightforward to transfer them to my e-reader and read them on the eye-friendly eInk screen. NookClassic displays pdf's decently until the first table or bullet point list. That's where everything breaks down and text becomes mangled mess. Very dissapointed. Unfortunately other eInk readers don't fare much better with pdf's and it is kinda difficult to understand why are they on the market if none of them is capable of displaying the most popular format correctly.
I am on the fence for a tablet as well and am waiting to see what RIM has to offer and then maybe choose one.
Some that hacked NookColor regard it as a full blown android tablet (after rooting it of course) and it is $250 (if you buy used, costs even less) so maybe we already got the tablet of choice on the market.
P.S. While visiting the Sony store the other day, I noticed they offered an eReader with pearl screen (similar to kindle's) for $50. So if your pdf's are mostly plain text you don't have to shell out $100+ for a full blown one.

mattlee09

I'm also thinking along the same lines as OP regarding purchasing a tablet for studies.

For me personally, it's honestly more of an excuse to buy an iPad than a reason. I don't think it would improve my studies. I find that the only times I'm truly on-the-go, where I'd prefer to use the tablet + PDF's rather than a hardcopy book, are times at where I should be accomplishing the task at hand so I can get home and study.

If I had a morning/evening commute on local transit, it would probably the easiest purchase I'd ever make.

For times when I want to read PDFs/whitepapers, or browse the web and forums, I have an 11in Macbook Air and a laptop tray that slides above my futon. I almost purchased an iPad, but figured I'd get tired of holding it while lying on the couch, and the Air has worked out great so far.

If you think consuming the content on a tablet would promote more studies, I'd say its definitely worth the investment then. Especially as some mentioned 'pure' e-readers can be had for little to nothing, less than the cost of two books.

In that respect - theoretically, since most ebooks/PDFs are cheaper than their paper counterparts, if you replaced most of your hardcopy purchases with digital stuff, the device would "pay for itself", which is nice to think about.

chrisone

I have an iPad and i love it however i feel handicapped using it. I do not have the same joy surfing the internet on the iPad as i do with my laptop.

Now, i know surfing is not what you are using it for, but lets be honest, you will do research while you are studying. So being limited in what sites you can visit is a HUGE _____ "<-enter sad face here." This is mainly due to the Flash war.

I do not know how other tablets favor here, but i honestly feel handicapped using the iPad.

There is also the issue of holding with one or two hand while you type, surf, watch videos, read pdfs. Mmmm to be honest with you i have a better time sitting down at a desk and reading a real book or a pdf on a laptop. Typing gets annoying holding with one hand and typing with the other.

Something just doesnt seem right and the more i use a tablet, iPad the more i feel handicapped using it. It seems somewhat counter productive, or like a step backwards.

I bought a device somewhere in between my dell XPS laptop and the iPad.....I just bought an Apple Macbook AIR 11inc. This is the best purchase i could have made! the best of both worlds without the limitations of a tablet!

So i see where one user is waiting for that new samsung tablet/laptop. It makes more sense. However i would prefer the Macbook AIR. The basic one runs 999 and is so powerful it plays all modern video games! Its an amazing piece of hardware!

Apple - MacBook Air - Technical specifications of the 11-inch.

Pash

It is a fair point of view to say that the IPAD does handicap you when it comes to viewing flash websites. However, there are ways to remedy that handicap (eg. Cloud Browse for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store)

I use the IPAD mainly for pdf/video viewing and it has been my most useful asset at the start of this year.

cnfuzzd

Somwhat topical (I think) today's woot is a tablet.

tpatt100

I use my iPad for studies because it's portable, light and battery life is good. But I use it for reading,research, studying and adding notes in PDF files and or highlighting. But a tablet is a media consumption device not like a laptop so you need to realize that ahead of time.

I like some of the Android tablets also but if I were to buy one I would have to go with one that is the most popular. I have too many devices in the past that lose support because of end of life cycle or poor sales. At least with my iPad I know it's a widely adapted same model "standard" .

Qord

I recently got an Archos 7 for $99 from TigerDirect. It's the bottom of the line Archos tablet, but it does exactly what I wanted, which is read my ebooks, watch my cbt and ts videos, and it browses the web decently. I looked into a Nook or Kindle, but I really wanted something that does more than just books. Since it's not e-ink, I can't read for too long without taking breaks, but it works for me. I definitely feel like I got my moneys worth.

thehourman

Speaking of Macbook, do they have the Goodreader available for Mac?
I can see your point because I have an iPad (v1) and sometimes it is hard to do some stuff.
I use Goodreader on my iPad and planning to get a MBP 15" soon. It will be my first 2nd Apple product.

mikej412

WAYLON wrote: »

Please suggest me how I may find it at low price as $350.

A search on Google for viewsonic gtablet found Amazon.com, buy.com, tigerdirect.com, eBay, OfficeMax, etc.

gorebrush

I have an iPad, as my Kindle didn't cut it for the Cisco PDF's

nerdydad

I use the iPad, great for pdf's, training videos, for flash i remote desktop to my server at home, I can also use my cisco home lab remotely using remote desktop.

mattlee09

So I spent a little while earlier searching for an iPad 2. Probably 30 minutes calling Wal-Marts and Best Buys.

I had a similar availability issue with my iPhone 4. I only needed a 16 GB, but the only thing in stock (1 store out of probably 100 w/ iPhone 4) in 75 miles was a 32 GB. So I ended up with it.

Anyways - I realized there would be no chance of getting a 16 GB wi-fi only (either color). After calling 16 stores, there are absolutely no version of the iPad 2 anywhere. I wouldn't even really mind buying a Verizon one, even though I'm an ATT customer. But nope, lol, nothing.

okplaya

Xoom seems pretty cool.

demonfurbie

nerdydad wrote: »

I use the iPad, great for pdf's, training videos, for flash i remote desktop to my server at home, I can also use my cisco home lab remotely using remote desktop.

skyfire.com

it fixes the flash issue

petedude

Snagged me a generic 7" Android tablet, as it can read all the majors' eBooks-- Amazon, BN, Borders and PDF. It can play music and surf the web decently. Only thing it's poor at is video, but I really don't need it for that. For a bit more I could have gotten a faster CPU for the video, but couldn't justify the extra expenditure at the moment.

I would say any cheap Android tablet that costs you less than an eBook reader would probably be worthwhile, as long as you go in knowing what the limitations are . . . and you buy it primarily for eBooks.

nerdydad

demonfurbie wrote: »

skyfire.com

it fixes the flash issue

That's true, but the flash site I access the most is the Cisco Networking Academy, I'm not real keen on sending my username and password to some anonymous proxy. It's probably fine, but since I use remote desktop for my labs and packet tracer, it works just as well for the flash sites.

demonfurbie

nerdydad wrote: »

That's true, but the flash site I access the most is the Cisco Networking Academy, I'm not real keen on sending my username and password to some anonymous proxy. It's probably fine, but since I use remote desktop for my labs and packet tracer, it works just as well for the flash sites.

true, i was thinking more like flash vids on other non log in pages

QHalo

I managed to pry a first gen iPad off a guy at work for $200 and it's been a worthy investment. Nothing like being able to study during mandatory hour lunch time, during the train ride and on the pooper.

Nobylspoon

Xoom users:

How does the Xoom feel in portrait mode for PDFs? I read some reviews that said it felt awkward to hold in portrait due to the weight distribution. I am trying to decide between this or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wifi versions)