Tablet purchase

[Clipper]

As I sat in the surgery waiting room the other day I saw folks with tablets in hand all over the room. It looked much more convenient than the huge and heavy laptop I was toting with me. I went to Walmart last night and purchased an RCA 10 Viking Pro tablet. It has a 10 inch screen, quad core processor, 32 GB storage, detachable keyboard, dual cameras and battery life up to 6 hours. It has Android Lollipop 5.0 for an operating system. It was only $125. That is reasonable for a device that will do whatever I would want it to do. Thank goodness I am where I am. A guy that worked for me as a staff sergeant at Griffiss in the nineties retired here as a senior master sergeant. He was always my "go to" for computer matters, and I am seeing him tomorrow. I am sure he can help me get the tablet up and running and loaded with whatever I need to have on it. Does it sound as though I made a good purchase? Comments please. I know absolutely nothing about tablets except what my computer tech at home has told me and what the sales person told me last night.

I figured that with the tablet I would be able to download and read e-books, take and send photos, and access the web wherever there is wifi. As Kathy said last night, it is just one more toy that I possess. One more device for good old computer illiterate me to screw up and have to pay to have straightened out. I find it a reasonable alternative to a smart phone. I have no desire to pay the price to access the web from my cell phone. I am happy with my $35, a month, no contract plan for simple voice and text service. I have no desire to join the ranks of those that stumble through life with their eyes glued to their phone every waking hour. Hopefully the tablet will be all that I want it to be, and will do all that I want it to do.

[clarencebunsen]

It sounds like a reasonable purchase. One thing can be guaranteed, no matter what you buy you will soon see something with more features or more memory for less money. Life's too short to worry about things like that. One good thing about the Android operating system is that is infinite number of ways to set it up. One bad thing is that is an overwhelming number of ways to set it up.

Once you have it set up, you will go to the Google Play store and see 1000's of aps and games for free and additional 1000's for $.99 or $1.99. You can be like me and read reviews and try to find the best choice or you can be like my grandkids and down load something, try it and if they don't like it have me uninstall it. Their way is probably more fun.

I find something with a 6 to 9 inch screen handy for reading a book or a magazine much better than my laptop or phone. I think you will enjoy.

[dave]

Hey, they're all fun. And they're all frustrating at times. I don't have a tablet, so I have no comment that would be helpful. I've had a small kindle reader for a few years that charge and take only to dental and medical appointments, never having thought about in between doctors.
Last Christmas my daughter and her husband gave me a Kindle Fire. It has a little
bit larger screen than my old basic kindle, but it's a color screen and it is an emitting device. You don't need to find a light source at night. You needed a lamp to read my old kindle, which was OK with me since I've needed a lamp my entire life to read anything in the dark.

But guess what? I can get the Internet on it using a built in browser called Silk. I don't know if Amazon pays the freight, because I don't pay anything for it. I've only used it twice and it doesn't have the function of a desk top PC. But none of the mobile devices had that.

[chris]

Tablets are so much easier and fun to use and so portable. I take my iPod Touch for purse and my ipad mini at home. Im on them more than my computer these days. I think you will like your tablet Clipper. Enjoy. Adding (downloading is easier than a PC) you just got to the store and pick what you want and it loads. If you don't like it then just delete it very simple. There so many great apps out there....one new one is faceinhole (get the free one) If you are into games I love Word Chums (wnygrl585) if you want to play with me.

[Clipper]

Thank all of you for the input. I am at a standstill right now until I buy a new router for the house. With no wifi here at the house I can't do anything with it. I am going to buy a router shortly but I have had other things I needed more. This week it was a lawn tractor jack that raises the front of the tractor up enough to access the blades and deck without laying in contorted positions on the ground. (a position that has become more and more difficult with age) It was regularly $139. There was a sale at Tractor Supply on Saturday only, listing it for $99. Kathy says it is just one more toy for the big boy, haha. I told her that the alternative was to simply load the tractor on the truck and take it to the shop, using the ramps that I also purchased on sale when my dad was still alive so that we could wheel his wheelchair up into the travel trailer.

[chris]

I have a router here that I am not using. Its a Trendent. The only issue with it is the antennae that is attached to it has a problem. The casing around it is broke so it slips off the part. Not sure if some duck tape would work. Not sure if there is a replacement for that part but your welcome to it. I can snap some photos of it if you like.

[Clipper]

Thank you anyway Chris, but I am going to purchase one here from HH Gregg or Walmart. I will buy a moderately priced, decent quality new one and hope to have it for many years. I appreciate the offer though. You are a thoughtful friend. The other router that I had would work for a while and then get kicked off and have to be reset. I guess that is charter's method to get a person to become frustrated and rent or buy one of THEIR routers. lol We will find out. haha.

[chris]

Clipper I got my router from Frontier. They came over on their own and changed the Trendent. Im not paying anything for it that I am aware of...rental monthly etc.

[Clipper]

I may go ahead and take a rental router from Charter. After we posted to this thread yesterday I found an email from Charter offering high speed wifi service for five bucks a month, including a company furnished router. I can pay that $5 a month for quite a few months before I reach what it will cost for a quality router at a big box store and if the rented router craps the bed I only have to call Charter and tell them that THEIR router is broke. lol. Ten bucks a month seemed a bit steep, but five bucks is not unreasonable if it remains on line and compatible with their high speed cable internet. Their internet service has always been reliable and more than satisfactory in my estimation.

[dave]

If you're having trouble linking from your laptop or PC over the air to your router, make sure your router antenna is vertical. The signals are "vertically polarized,"  and the process doesn't work very well when one antenna (on the router) is not vertically aligned. 

And although people always laugh at this suggestion, I've proved it works, at least at my house. To improve Router reception over the air, slide an ordinary small wisk down over the antenna. Make sure it's all metal, of course. Works great!