I already posted some comments from the first 24 hours, so the observations below are further comments and ruminations as I enter this strange new world of apps and internet connectivity sans laptop. :)
I got my case, stylus, and screen protector on Saturday.
The stylus has been great (and can double as a pen!), though I do manage to click in ways I don’t intend because my coordination is sometimes lacking and I don’t always remember that I can make a webpage bigger rather than trying to click on the tiny links. ;)
The case does help with holding it, yay, and I got one that automatically puts it to sleep when I close the cover, so that helps the battery life.
It took me several tries (and two screen protectors) to get the screen protector on and smoothed out properly, but I appreciate the anti-glare look of the one I chose.
I used my tablet in a meeting, and it was nice. If I’m going to take a lot of notes I’ll probably need a bluetooth keyboard, but for situations where I’m mostly listening, this is great. I was able to pull up a webpage to look at something we were discussing, and I also passed a bit of time with Candy Crush (and finally defeated level 65 after two and a half weeks of trying!!).
I read most of a book on my tablet and I am totally sold on the general convenience of ereading. (Case in point: I couldn’t fall asleep Wednesday night, so I switched to the Night view—white text on black background—and finished my book without having to turn on the lights. Awesome.) I just wish that all of the books I currently have checked out from the library were available in ebook form!
I still haven’t tried doing anything with ebooks via a library (the book I read was public domain so I got it straight from Google). When I do, that will be a post of its own.
The tablet is fantastic for those times when you want to look something up quickly without bothering to turn on your computer (i.e. the weather, when you’re picking out clothes for the next day/the weekend). It’s also great when your computer is otherwise occupied by someone or something else.
It still occasionally locks up/crashes. These instances seem to occur when it’s updating in the background and I’m trying to do something else and I guess it gets the wires crossed or something. Can be annoying, but so far it hasn’t been a terrible inconvenience.
I installed Advanced Task Killer, and it has been fascinating to see what apps will start up without any action on my part (and it’s fun to kill them when they do :-) ).
The lack of arrow keys and the tab key is throwing me off, especially when inputting text. I haven’t gotten the hang of using my finger/the stylus to put the cursor where I want it.
11th May 2013
I decided months ago that I wanted to get a tablet (not an ereader, a tablet), and settled on the Nexus 7 as the best choice for my wants/needs. I finally actually purchased the thing, and it arrived yesterday.
Comments from the first 24 hours:
- It has crashed several times already. I think I know why it did for several of the occasions, but in one or two other instances it just locked up and I’m not sure why.
- I don’t yet have the case I ordered, and I haven’t yet figured out a way to hold the thing without making my hands/wrists complain about it. I’m hoping/expecting the case will help, as will my increased familiarity with it as I use it more. (I also got a stylus, which might help. I’m so old-school, haha.)
- A few apps I might have installed don’t work with my version of Android (having decided to get it via ebay, it seems the Android version on mine is 4.1 rather than 4.2, as required by some apps—didn’t think to check that in advance! I will have to get that updated. Update: my tablet updated itself automatically, apparently, so the problem is presumably that the apps haven’t been updated to be compatible with the most recent Android version. Whew, it’s not a problem on my end!).
- I haven’t yet delved into downloading ebooks, except for a few straight from the Google interface. I figured I should start with the easy stuff—like Facebook and the games I play there ;)—and sit down with the library stuff once I have a better handle on using the device itself. (Especially since I’m still accidentally hitting all sorts of things…)
- The enter/go button on the on-screen keyboard is where I would expect the backspace to be, so I managed to flub my very first tweet from my Nexus. Ah, well, c’est la vie. :)
- Using the on-screen keyboard is giving me a whole new perspective on my passwords. Namely, using numbers for letters doesn’t seem nearly so clever, especially when you have to switch between the letters and the numbers in rapid succession. The idea of using passphrases instead of passwords with specific character requirements (a capital, a lowercase, a certain kind of symbol…) seems wise in this context. I wonder if sites that have specific requirements will begin to change as more people interact using mobile devices of all types?
- I’m looking forward to taking this to meetings—I might finally be able to do paper-free meetings! (From my end, at least.)
- Web browsing on this smaller screen is going to be enlightening, though I haven’t done much of it yet—I’ve been too absorbed in figuring out what apps to install. (I’m especially going to focus on using my library’s resources on this screen to get a better idea of what the students are having to deal with; there may be changes I can make so the process is smoother/easier for them on smaller screens.)
- Apps: THERE ARE SO MANY APPS!! And, surprise surprise, most of the top free ones are games. Considering I installed several games pretty early on (*cough*CandyCrush*cough*), I have no standing to comment on that. :)
- On the subject of apps, it greatly amuses me that I can browse for apps on a computer, choose what to download from there, and the apps get installed on my tablet. It’s like magic. :D (Also, that makes it easy to be messing around with apps without actually having my tablet out where people can see it. But my intent is to use this to aid my work, so they’re going to have to get used to seeing me with it at work…)
- I’m going to be giving Evernote a try for my note-taking needs… maybe I’ll finally see what the fuss is about?
Overall, I’m very excited to finally have a tablet! And can I just say I love my mailman—he managed to get the package into my mailbox so I didn’t have to go to the post office to pick it up. <3
I’ll be posting again about my tablet once I have a chance to experiment with library ebooks—I already know I’ll have comments on that subject. I might also have thoughts on web browsing and library resources once I devote some time to that, but we’ll see.
Notes: 3
When you get a group of readers in a room, nearly every one of them will recount how their reading either started at a library or was fostered by a library. One of the slides from Bowker that I saw at BEA was that for individuals who have adopted a tablet, the number one thing that activities on the tablet have replaced is reading. Tablet adoption is on the rise and by 2015, tablet sales will exceed the number of PCs currently sold. Why is this troublesome for the book market? Because the biggest threat to publishing isn’t Amazon. It’s Angry Birds.
Publishing, whether it is traditional publishers, self publishers, digital first publishers, needs to invest in early reading for two reasons. First, early readers become paying adult readers. Second, early readers become adept adult writers. Both readers and writers are needed for a healthy publishing ecosystem and investment in fostering the love of reading and writing is vital. There is no better place to do this than by investing in libraries.
(Source: twitter.com)
I don’t know if this will be of use anyone but me, but I was trying to go over the Computers in Libraries sessions (both those I attended and those I didn’t) to find what I could of the presentation slides/handouts/blog posts and I was getting bogged down in links and files, so I made these lists of links. If anyone knows of stuff that could be on here that I missed, do let me know (use the ‘ask me anything’ link).
Thursday
As tablet sales surge and put downward pressure on dedicated e-reader ownership growth, publishers are pessimistic that tablets will provide readers with an enticing reading platform.
…
“The devices [tablet computers] are capable of so many more distracting things,” said James L. McQuivey, Ph.D., vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, who conducted the survey. “If you have an iPad and 15 minutes to kill, are you going to do something more cognitively difficult like reading, or something brain-dead simple like going on Facebook or watching a YouTube video?”
Still, crossover devices like the Kindle Fire – not quite a full-sized tablet like the iPad, but with functionality far beyond that of an e-ink reader – may be a boon to publishers. Kindle Fire owners read e-books on the device more than any other activity. A recent survey of 216 Kindle Fire owners by RBC Financial Group found that 71% list reading e-books as one of the two activities they do the most on the device. “Brose the Web” came in distant second at 39%.
(Source: twitter.com)
Last year was widely perceived to be a year of outrageous e-book growth, but some new research suggests otherwise. According to new data from Bowker and the Book Industry Study Group, the number of book buyers who also purchased an e-book increased by 17 percent in 2011, compared to 9 percent in 2010 – well below the 25 to 30 percent growth that some had hoped for.
Near the end is an observation worth noting:
…And beyond those power-buying voracious readers, casual e-reading is at risk: As more people buy tablets, e-reading becomes just one option among many.
(Source: infodocket.com)
Between mid-December and early January, the number of U.S. adult owners of both e-readers and tablet computers each rose from 10% to 19%. Overall, 29% of adults own at least one of them.
From mid-2011 into the autumn there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached, the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted.
Read our new report for more stats on digital reading device ownership here.
Reblogged From pewinternet
In the U.S., Tablets are TV Buddies while eReaders Make Great Bedfellows
The Nielsen Company’s most recent research on mobile connected devices sheds new light on how consumers are using their tablets, eReaders and smartphones – and where they are using them, too. According to Nielsen’s recent survey of nearly 12,000 connected device owners:
- Seventy percent of tablet owners and 68 percent of smartphone owners said they use their devices while watching television, compared to only 35 percent of eReader owners.
- Sixty-one percent of eReader owners use their device in bed, compared to 57 percent of tablet owners and 51 percent of smartphone owners.
» via Nielsen Wire
