Tablets Android tablets are dead

[nickdalzell1]

Ah, Desk Mate. Flat UI design before it became 'modern' like today. It and early Amiga WorkBench are what I use to prove that Flat UI has been done before and we need not rehash it. They were of their time when hardware limits existed, but attractive? hardly. That's why I can't stand modern flat design, as it reminds me of what I hoped we'd gotten away from. These revisits to the past make my Note II feel like a future device what with its 3-D depth and fancy AMOLED display.

I'm also perfectly happy with my Note 10.1 tablet, with 2GB RAM, 32GB Storage, cellular connectivity, S-pen, expandable storage, IR blaster, headphone jack, front-firing stereo speakers. There ain't a tablet made today with front-firing speakers of any kind. You might get lucky to get four side-firing ones but unless your tablet sits on a counter you're not getting any real stereo out of those.

I did notice that there's still a support page for it on Samsung's site as well:

GALAXY Note 10.1 | Samsung Support HK_EN

GALAXY Note 10.1. Solutions & Tips, Download Manual, Contact Us. Samsung Support HK_EN

www.samsung.com

Everyone says that Play Store exists on Chrome OS, and I've got the latest version on my old Chromebook, but no Play Store, just the Chrome Web Store. Not that it matters since I don't use app stores. I sideload like a pro.

 

[jimimac71]

I think the key word is old. Here's a link for compatibility:
https://sites.google.com/a/chromium...s?visit_id=637847685645368804-3212865032&rd=1
Don't let Tim Cook know you sideload like a pro.
Speaking of Apple, it's becoming news worthy how letting an iPhone or iPad update automatically could mean not getting updates for weeks.
I do everything myself.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Old sure but it has the latest Chrome OS. It never had Play Store when they released it. As I stated, I don't care either way. But I have not seen even a modern Chromebook with it at the walmart either. I've played with some of 'em and they all got Web Store. This myth of having Play Store has been going around since 2016 on Google+ forums then. I do have the Google Assistant and 'Hey Google' support so it's obviously got a modern version, and it has the Android 12-style UI design. There was another myth that Google killed or EOLd the Chrome Web Store but it obviously still works. I didn't force it to work via hacks like I did to get VoLTE on my Note II.

As for Tim Cook's opinion on sideloading, he can shove it up where the sun don't shine. I don't use iOS today. What he cares about has no bearing on my stuff.

 

[twdawson]

As for Tim Cook's opinion on sideloading, he can shove it up where the sun don't shine. I don't use iOS today. What he cares about has no bearing on my stuff.

I am getting that way myself. What really gets me is why do I need a computer to put my own music on my iPad and iPhone.
I have hundreds of CD’s that I have bought dating back to when they first came out, all of them ripped to mp3 and on my external hard drives and SD Cards.

When I had my S20 all I had to do was pop the SD Card in and it was all available in the music app.

If Mr Cook thinks I am going to subscribe to Apple Music or purchase them again through his store then he can think again.

The only reason I got rid of the S20 was I did not like the Samsung interface but that’s just personal preference. The hardware was amazing though.

I will see what WWDC brings this year as iPadOS needs a major update.

 

[jimimac71]

How to enable Google Play Store on Chrome OS:
https://www.google.com/chromebook/howto/enable-google-play-store/
Again, it matters how old the device is. See other link.
For me, it is also annoying how complicated it is to put any files on iPad.
I’m getting to a point where it would be nice to have a keyboard/trackpad instead of a touch screen. Reason for going Chrome OS.
I use Spotify (free w/ads). Paying $10, or even $5 a month goes against everything I believe in.
For some stupid reason, Spotify sometimes takes my Internet down.
Using my iPad today. Hate the stupid keyboard and lacking predictive text.
For some reason, the Google keyboard doesn’t work right, so I removed it.
I must say, there are some apps on the Play Store I would use in Chrome OS.
Then again, some apps don’t rotate. I get where video apps go landscape, but some apps are portrait only. I have one app that is portrait only and is upside down if my tablet is upside down. Both Android and iPad OS.
Did I mention you also can’t manage predictive text (remove items) on the iPad.
People on the other parts of this forum are unkind when I disagree with anything Apple. I have an iPad and it’s more trouble than it’s worth. I can only get away with saying that here.
EDIT: Did I mention already Opera browser for iPad doesn’t have access to bookmarks?

 

[nickdalzell1]

I

I am getting that way myself. What really gets me is why do I need a computer to put my own music on my iPad and iPhone.
I have hundreds of CD’s that I have bought dating back to when they first came out, all of them ripped to mp3 and on my external hard drives and SD Cards.

When I had my S20 all I had to do was pop the SD Card in and it was all available in the music app.

If Mr Cook thinks I am going to subscribe to Apple Music or purchase them again through his store then he can think again.

The only reason I got rid of the S20 was I did not like the Samsung interface but that’s just personal preference. The hardware was amazing though.

I will see what WWDC brings this year as iPadOS needs a major update.

honestly I love and adore the Samsung UI from the beginnings of TouchWiz Nature UX (I love nature, deer, and hiking) to the latest One UI 4.0 today. I have various devices from multiple eras.

I also keep music on my device. Not only because where I go, many areas either drop me down to 3G/1x or no service entirely, so I hate having my music stop, or having music mixed with ads (and paying a subscription to remove them) or relying on services where either the service dies eventually (Samsung Milk Music, Google Play Music, etc) or the music disappears due to licensing issues later on. No thanks. I buy my stuff. I'm no fan of the 'You'll own nothing and be happy' model of the World Economic Forum.

That said, even Google wants folks on subs for life. They stopped allowing you to buy music on the Play Store and push YouTube Music, which they'll no doubt kill one day I'm sure. The only way I can buy music on Android is either via Amazon (which they've made a frustrating ordeal out of now) or via the Android Apple Music app.

 

[Berries-A-Million]

Received my S8 ultra a few days ago, and this thing is a beast. I probably should of gotten the s8 plus because it is a bit hard to hold it and use it with one hand, a little heavy and big. However, when I sit, I prop it on my leg and it works great. Screen is so sharp and bright, and everything so far has worked well. It was part of the deal from Samsung with the S22 Ultra and that as a discount. I am still questioning if I should of gotten the iPAd Pro. I could always sell this I guess. Will see how it does over the next weeks.

 

[nickdalzell1]

If you think the S8 (from 2017) is large, try the S20 FE. That thing is a literal remote control in length. It's a challenge to use gesture navigation without dropping the phone at times. I mostly just rely on my watch and earbuds to do most tasks while out and about. Which often entails music playlists and texting.

EDIT: I'm an idiot. I assumed you meant the Galaxy S8, not the Galaxy Tab S8. I do wish Samsung had a less confusing naming scheme. They're like import cars today, with so many letters, numerals, and acronyms. I miss the names.

 

[Berries-A-Million]

If you think the S8 (from 2017) is large, try the S20 FE. That thing is a literal remote control in length. It's a challenge to use gesture navigation without dropping the phone at times. I mostly just rely on my watch and earbuds to do most tasks while out and about. Which often entails music playlists and texting.

EDIT: I'm an idiot. I assumed you meant the Galaxy S8, not the Galaxy Tab S8. I do wish Samsung had a less confusing naming scheme. They're like import cars today, with so many letters, numerals, and acronyms. I miss the names.

Sorry, I should of added the TAB in there. Tab S8 Ultra.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Well, I should have kept up more with tech. I thought the Tab S6 was literally yesterday at Walmart! I have been less into keeping up with modern times and more into just enjoying what I already have, tap an app, enjoy. Not stressing over the latest and greatest.

But Samsung does have a confusing variety of devices which it's hard to know which is which, which is budget, which is flagship. Just their tablet line consists of:

Tab S-series (which I'm assuming is the top of the line)
Tab A-series (common, and many with odd number schemes which makes it hard to tell which is low budget, mid-range budget, or mid-line)

Tab A-series goes from the A, to the A5, A8, etc. I just stopped trying to figure it out and just use what I have!

Phones are worse. We have:

Galaxy A01, A02, A02s, A03s, A12, A51, A57, etc. What does it all mean?

Galaxy S10, S10e, S20, S20FE, S20FE 5G, S21 FE 5G, S20+, S20 Ultra, heck it's worse than iPhones at this point!

 

[Expos of 1969]

Well, I should have kept up more with tech. I thought the Tab S6 was literally yesterday at Walmart! I have been less into keeping up with modern times and more into just enjoying what I already have, tap an app, enjoy. Not stressing over the latest and greatest.

But Samsung does have a confusing variety of devices which it's hard to know which is which, which is budget, which is flagship. Just their tablet line consists of:

Tab S-series (which I'm assuming is the top of the line)
Tab A-series (common, and many with odd number schemes which makes it hard to tell which is low budget, mid-range budget, or mid-line)

Tab A-series goes from the A, to the A5, A8, etc. I just stopped trying to figure it out and just use what I have!

Phones are worse. We have:

Galaxy A01, A02, A02s, A03s, A12, A51, A57, etc. What does it all mean?

Galaxy S10, S10e, S20, S20FE, S20FE 5G, S21 FE 5G, S20+, S20 Ultra, heck it's worse than iPhones at this point!

You forgot the S10Lite. I agree, the naming of devices is somewhat confusing.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Oh, I was only scratching the surface. The amount of models they have today spans a dictionary! Sadly, unlike when we had names like Core Prime or Epic 4G Touch, it's harder to know what's good and what's cheap garbage. I've tried out various models just for kicks and a higher number (such as A12) isn't always a better phone than a lower number (such as an A01).

Telling the difference was easy when it was the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 2, Tab 3 and so on. How does one know what's the difference between a Tab A8 and a Tab A5? The number doesn't even mean the screen size.

Even Samsung stopped giving two frells about it! Turn on a new Samsung tablet today all you get is 'Samsung Galaxy' instead of 'Samsung Galaxy Tab x'

 

[twdawson]

I bought my wife a Samsung tablet before Xmas, it was the A7.
She didn’t care if it was the latest and greatest, all I know it’s does exactly what she needs it to do and it was on a sale when we got it.

Months later she hasn’t complained once about it.

We don’t need the latest hardware, just look at my signature, the only modern thing I have is the iPad mini 6, the rest is a few years old.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I just got an A8 (well two, one is from 2019, the other from 2022 just to prove my confusion point)

The 10.5" variant is actually very nice to hold. It still suffers from the 'four side-firing speaker' issue of any modern tablet, and I wish they'd go back to dual front-firing speakers like in 2012, but still a nice tablet. 8+ hours of YouTube and never got below 50% battery. 8 hours was all my Note 10.1 could do, then it'd take 24 hours to charge. Once again I'm going modern, only this time I'm attempting it with a full-on Samsung upgrade of everything. Having everything mixed between old and new as a mess, and staying on old for too long you deal with constant app issues you have to find hacks to fix over and over again. Maybe the third time is the charm?

Still can't get used to the gesture navigation and don't want to deal with the on-screen buttons, but that's fixed by using Bixby Routines to open relevant apps by time/place/connected device. That's made using the S20 FE far more bearable. Now I don't go home or inadvertantly trigger Samsung Pay when attempting to gesture to Recent apps or switching between apps. I'm one of those rare folks who got early-onset arthritis at age 25, so it's horrible when everyone is ditching buttons for gestures.

For those who never tried Bixby Routines, do so. It's really neat to have Walmart Pay open when you're checking out, then having your playlist auto-play when you get into your car and connect to the infotainment system, or opening Samsung Health during a workout, or playing nature sounds via Calm when going to bed, all without touching the screen or struggling with gestures.

 

[jimimac71]

I’m at a point now where iPad and I get along.
My Samsung is now just a music player.
Two things are pretty sure.
I will always want an iPad and will only buy refurbished, because I can.
In other words, why not!
Will always want an affordable Android device.
If nothing else, a music player. Guess a phone would be more portable.
For me, products costing hundreds of dollars are stupid.
The iPhone SE is $429 now. That’s crazy to me.
Can’t I get 2 Moto phones for that?
So Android tablets could on life support for me.
I have a flip phone and don’t need to have a computer in my pocket.

 

[twdawson]

My iPad mini 6 is my everyday device, my iPhone 5s is my music player and spare phone in case I need it, it has a new battery.
The iPhone SE 2020 is my phone. I don’t need anything else.

The MacBook is just sitting on my desk and hasn’t been used for weeks now.

 

[jimimac71]

My Samsung tablet must be listening as it has gone all wonky.
I'm thinking the iPad mini 6, iPhone SE 2020 and iPhone 5s are over a $1,000 in cost.
Some of us just can't do that. I am not cheap, just poor.
My Dell PC is going to stay with me until it is dead.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I'm not cheap either, just old fashioned. I keep and use what I love until it stops serving my needs. I don't care about the needs of people on the Internet who think that I'm hurting progress by using a decade old smartphone or a car over 15 years old. I'm a reduce, reuse, recycle in that order guy, focusing mainly on the first two. I'm an 'if it ain't broke don't fix/update/upgrade' guy. Better for the planet, better for the environment, better for my wallet. I don't have a credit score and don't use actual credit cards. I buy everything outright. I despise the 'you'll own nothing and you'll be happy' subscription-to-everything crowd.

I'm sadly finding yet another issue re: modern tech. I forgot what a load on my little $50 router a newer bunch of devices are. The amount of background wifi usage spans gigabytes where my Note 10.1 tablet and Note II smartphone barely broke a couple of megabytes in the background. The little Linksys is now requiring twice-daily reboots since the DHCP keeps crashing and refuses to hand out IPs every few hours. It took over an hour just to stream a purchased show on YouTube via Android TV.

I am not giving up so soon though. Nor am I going to go out and buy a super-expensive mesh wifi set that's gonna give me more headaches...No, I'm going to start daisy chaining a bunch of routers I've collected over time and make a poor man's mesh wifi. I've counted all my currently connected devices including wifi enabled smart bulbs, Nest products, and the like. I'm at well over 87 devices including both DHCP and static IP clients. The LinkSys is only designed to use 50 maximum DHCP devices. I tried setting it to 100 it won't accept more than 50.

 

[twdawson]

My Samsung tablet must be listening as it has gone all wonky.
I'm thinking the iPad mini 6, iPhone SE 2020 and iPhone 5s are over a $1,000 in cost.
Some of us just can't do that. I am not cheap, just poor.
My Dell PC is going to stay with me until it is dead.

I understand what you say, I have to watch what I spend on things as I am not rich or anything. All my devices were purchased over a few years or gifted to me when family upgraded.

I am close to retirement age so these devices will last me a long time.
The 5S is on its 3rd battery and still works fine on IOS 12.

I won’t get rid of the MacBook, so will just keep it and probably run a plex server from it.

The way the world is going with costs of energy getting silly lots of people will have to watch what they do.

 

[jimimac71]

Oh don’t get me started on routers. I rent from Comcast.
There is no robocall removal app for my landline.
So I will have to keep renting from Comcast and switch to their home phone.
My refurbished iPad is my go to device now. I still prefer Android a bit more.
I’m in Northern California where homes just south of me, in the Bay Area, mostly cost a million dollars or more.
I’m retired and turn 65 soon.
I suppose everything costs too much on “the other side of the pond” as well.
Still wish I could be there instead.

 

[twdawson]

Oh don’t get me started on routers. I rent from Comcast.
There is no robocall removal app for my landline.
So I will have to keep renting from Comcast and switch to their home phone.
My refurbished iPad is my go to device now. I still prefer Android a bit more.
I’m in Northern California where homes just south of me, in the Bay Area, mostly cost a million dollars or more.
I’m retired and turn 65 soon.
I suppose everything costs too much on “the other side of the pond” as well.
Still wish I could be there instead.

Trust me it’s no better over here in the UK with everything going up.
Rising fuel prices, gas, electricity, food and our national health insurance increases.

 

[jimimac71]

Trust me it’s no better over here in the UK with everything going up.
Rising fuel prices, gas, electricity, food and our national health insurance increases.

If we traded places, you might want to go back home and I wouldn’t.
I don’t drive, so being on the wrong side of the street wouldn’t bother me.
I could still charge my devices with proper wall plug, right?
I love British accents. It’s all good.
A radio weatherman in the 1960s once joked:
“If we switched to the metric system, what would happen to the dog pound?”

 

[WriteNow]

just old fashioned.

I've counted all my currently connected devices including wifi enabled smart bulbs, Nest products, and the like. I'm at well over 87 devices including both DHCP and static IP clients. The LinkSys is only designed to use 50 maximum DHCP devices. I tried setting it to 100 it won't accept more than 50.

Having 87+ wi-fi devices isn't old fashioned. The old fashioned solution is to avoid that newfangled computer stuff! LOL

 

[WriteNow]

I keep and use what I love until it stops serving my needs.

This makes perfect sense to me. It's what I do.

I held onto System 6/7 level technology for years after the rest of the world had moved on. I got a lot of "interesting" reactions in the 2000s--including one person who said don't tell me you're still using that thing! I took a small, but perverse joy in saying yes. But--even though the reactions of others could be fun--in the end the computer setup served my needs very nicely. I sometimes looked at newer software, and found that it had all the new features, but I didn't need those features. And the software found ways to annoy me. What i liked about the older software was that it stayed out of my way as I worked, which was more than I could say for a lot of newer software.

A bit off topic, but I also continued using vinyl LPs after CD had completely taken over--at least here in the US. A lot of people found that puzzling, too. I remember my father making some crack about people who live in the past. But it was well a reasoned decision that worked well for my particular circumstances.

 

[WriteNow]

I am not cheap, just poor.

I'm not cheap

Well, I am cheap. There may be times I make Jack Benny look like a spendthrift. ?

Although I've had bad financial times, too, which is probably one reason I tend to be frugal.

I remember the early OS X era. I'd half think of getting a new Mac...but the price held me back. I was too close to a period when finances had been dire. That was over, but the memory lingered, and made me more critical of big ticket purchases. And it was hard to justify spending a grand on an iMac. The Mac software I had was working well. I wasn't sure that newer software would work as well. And I'd heard rumbles that suggested that my old software might not work well in Classic.

The one reason for newer hardware was stuff like Internet--but the Mac was more than I needed. Cheap, used PCs with Linux were good enough for Internet.