My iPad gets lonely – Android vs iPad

I have both an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 Android device.  Both are 10” tablets and both are pretty nice.  The iPad has IOS 8.1 and the Samsung has Andrioid Version 4.4.2 (Kit Kat).  I teach free technology classes so I need to have both.

When I just want to look something up or when I leave the house I have a choice of which tablet I will use or take with me and I always choose the Android tablet.  This got me wondering – Why?   The iPad is clearly more popular in the marketplace even though it is more expensive than the equivalent Android tablet – so why do I prefer my Android tablet?

Here are some of the reasons:

1.       Cost

An equivalent Android Tablet is typically less expensive than the iPad.  The iPad Air 2 with 16GB of memory is $499US and a Nexus 9 is $399US.  Although cost is not my main consideration, balancing cost for function is; I prefer to get the most function for the best price.

2.        Widgets

I like Widgets.  I like the fact that all the icons on the screen are not the same size and that some show the data without having to click on the icon and bring up the app.  Some common examples are the Weather, YouTube and News app Widgets.  You can size them and move them on the screen.  They also organize and make the screen look much friendlier.

3.       The Pen

I bought the Galaxy Note with a pen thinking that I would never use it but now I find myself taking notes about all kinds of things - groceries we need, ideas for the blog, measurements of windows so we know what size blinds to get and tons more.

4.        The GPS                             

Every Android tablet I have used recently has a built-in GPS.  Yes, a real GPS.   Unlike an iPad, there is no need to be connected to a cell tower to know where you are.  Somehow, when I get lost I seem to be in an area where there is no cell reception.  A real GPS allows you to download one of the many apps, like Navigator, that will allow you to navigate when you are not connected to the internet or near a cell tower.

5.        A Real File System

I guess it is my Windows background.  I like to group the things I do in file folders.  Here is an example - I was recently on a trip to Europe and I have airline tickets, boarding passes, hotel confirmations, photos, videos, brochures, travel insurance documents, costs and many web links.  I like to have all of these in a folder called “My Trip to Europe.”  I could, for example, use my tablet for my boarding pass for the flight or provide the hotel with my confirmation number at check-in.  Everything is in one place. 

On the iPad, for some reason, everything is stored by the app that runs it, a PDF is stored with the app that can run PDFs, JPGs are with a photo app etc.  I don’t care if my boarding pass is a JPG or a PDF - it’s my boarding pass.  I want it where I can find it.

6.        The SD Card

Probably the most important reason is the SD card.  Every tablet come with a limited amount of memory - say 16GB.  You can purchase a tablet with more memory but that costs about $100 per 16 additional GBs.  This memory has to store all the apps you download as well as all of your books, music, videos and files you need.

Most, not all, Android tablets have an SD or Micro SD card slot that will allow you to store up to an additional 64GB of info on your tablet.  Yesterday, I purchased a 32GB Micro SD card for $16.  Given that a movie can be 1GB or more, 32GB will allow me to keep a few movies, a few thousand songs, a small library of books and a file folder containing my European trip information with me.  I can swap the card out and put a new one very simply.  This allows me to keep the internal storage of the tablet for apps only. 

The best part is that I can put the SD card in my laptop and drag and drop the files, folders, music and video I want to the card.  I then simply place the card back in the tablet and the information is accessible “as is”.  Compare this, with using iTunes to copy your media and data to an iPad. You have to first find the cable that will connect your iPad to your laptop and then figure out how to sync each group of items to it. I find this much more complicated and less intuitive than dragging and dropping items to an SD Card.

There are many other reasons I prefer Android to IOS on the iPad.  I prefer Google Search to Siri, I love Android’s Screen Casting and the ability to attach a thumb drive, just to mention a few, but these are topics for another day.  I hope I have given some good things to think about the next time you’re in the market for a new tablet and some says “Buy an iPad.”

Windows 10 Enhances Snap

Windows 7 and 8  both had "Snap" capability,  Snap allows you to take one window and "Snap" it to the left side of the screen and another to right, splitting the screen into 2 equal pieces. When this first came out with Windows 7, I didn't think I would ever use it but now I use it every single day.  I snap the browser to one side of the screen and Excel or Word to the other.  This allows getting info like stock information or a recipe in a browser and write into the other app while the information is right there in the  browser.

The way you snap a window is hold down the Win key and click either the left or right arrow.

In Windows 10 you can now do that with as many as 4 screens - again, I can't think I will every use that many screens at the same time but I didn't think I would use the 2 screen snap when it was available in earlier versions.

With Windows 10, you drag each window to the corner you would like it snapped to.  Four corners - Four Windows.

First look at Windows 10

First, I have to admit that I am a Windows 8.1 user and that I love Windows 8.  I work with Windows 7 as well and I like it too.

When Windows 10 first booted up - there it was the Windows 7 Start Menu that everyone in the enterprise community was screaming for.  It had the metro like screen attached to the side of it.  This is best described it the picture.  There are a couple of things missing though.  The menu item "Computer" which, in Windows 7, takes you to File Explorer. The other thing that I think the Windows 7 crowd will miss is when you click on the user, at the top of the menu, you no longer go to a screen with "Documents, Picture, Music and Videos."  This is where most people go to get their stuff.  All this is still there though in "File Explorer" but people like enhancements not change.  The "All Programs" item is now changed to "All Apps."  This is not that big a change but the menu system now will include apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store as well as your Windows 7 like Programs.

Windows 8 users (and lovers) will like the fact that Microsoft kept the Start Screen.  You can actually use the new (old Windows 7 like) start screen or chose to you the Windows 8 start screen.  Just right click on the task bar, select "Properties" the "Start Menu" and un-click "Use the Start Menu instead of Start Screen.

When using Windows 10, everything now runs as a task on the desktop - programs and apps side by side.  They can be snapped to the sides and you can reduce the height to show 3 or more at the same time.

There is a new icon on the task bar - the "Task View"  Click this and it will show all the current tasks running on your computer.  You can use choose between things you are working on.  Here is a thing that is taken from Linux that I love to use.  When you click on the Task View you can add another desktop.  You can have a bunch of things that you are working on on

one and you don't have to interrupt it to work on something unrelated.  You can simply switch to another desktop and use it there.

So far Windows 10 looks pretty cool.  By the time it is released, in late 2015, given all the user feed back and maybe the integration of Cortana, it should be pretty awesome.

Installing the Windows 10 Preview

Last night I installed the Windows 10 preview.  Windows 10 won't be available to the general public until the second half of 2015 but Microsoft has allowed the tech community to download and evaluate it.  Hopefully, with customer input they can avoid the controversy they experienced when they released Windows 8.

Installing was relatively easy.  I used my Windows 7, IBM T61 laptop. .It has an Intel Duo Core T7300 processor with 3GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive.  These are way below specs available on new computers today.  My everyday laptop, with Windows 8, has 8GB of memory and an SSD.

The installation took 2 1/2 hours but didn't involve much intervention.  Basically, I registered on the Microsoft site and downloaded the preview loader.  After running it, I rebooted and it brought up the Windows Update screen.  After that it was a couple of hours to download install the nearly 3GBs of updates.  I have a recommendation here - Don't start this at 10:30PM as I did.

Windows 10 is now up and running on my laptop. More info to come.  Stay tuned if this interests you.