Tablets are a Waste of Time. Don't Buy One.

[Tacty]

whats not a waste of time. talking on the phone with friends aabout trivial things is a waste of time and energy...but, i have to tell you, tablets are special kind of time waster. bad for eyes and boring after awhile. after couple of months of using ipad i dont know what to do wit it anyway. checking weather? playing games (im over 12)...watching videos? not with 60" tv in my living room...at the end of the day i was using it to check flipboard and zite and thats about it...but im doing it less and less...waste of time and money and my eyes went from bad to worse after only couple of months of tablet use...

and when in the same sentence i hear words tablets and productivity i get some serious urge to slap someone in the face...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Tacty

whats not a waste of time. talking on the phone with friends aabout trivial things is a waste of time and energy...but, i have to tell you, tablets are special kind of time waster. bad for eyes and boring after awhile. after couple of months of using ipad i dont know what to do wit it anyway. checking weather? playing games (im over 12)...watching videos? not with 60" tv in my living room...at the end of the day i was using it to check flipboard and zite and thats about it...but im doing it less and less...waste of time and money and my eyes went from bad to worse after only couple of months of tablet use...

Wonder why it affected you eyes so radically? I use my Kindle Fire and my Kindle K2 (eink) as well as desktop computer screens, printed books and yes a bit of tv (news, specials) and no change in my eyesight before/after the introduction of the Fire (and Xoom which I used extensively before the Fire).

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Wonder why it affected you eyes so radically? I use my Kindle Fire and my Kindle K2 (eink) as well as desktop computer screens, printed books and yes a bit of tv (news, specials) and no change in my eyesight before/after the introduction of the Fire (and Xoom which I used extensively before the Fire).

Possibility because we hold the tablet closer to our eyes? And add the lack of fine control of contrast on the text/black and light causes eyestrain? On my firehd it seems the background vs the text is sometime clashing with each other. (my best way to explain it)

But with all readers we need to take our eyes off the device and look at other things around us and look at things at different distances from us, it helps!

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

Possibility because we hold the tablet closer to our eyes? And add the lack of fine control of contrast on the text/black and light causes eyestrain? On my firehd it seems the background vs the text is sometime clashing with each other. (my best way to explain it)

I've been reading from LCD screens for a very long time. On every single device I used, I changed the background color (including the one of the home screen!) and font colour. People are going on about high contrast being perfect, but in case of dark area reading, you don't want a high contrast. You want gray on black, with just enough contrast to see the words comfortably.

People think if they set the background to black and the letters to white, it'll be ok. But this differs greatly on the person and the surrounding light.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Rizla

What do people use them for? Checking email, consuming digital content (!) and playing games. Great, that's fine. They are entertainment devices, they are time-wasters, they are a waste of time.

Every moment you spend wasting time on a tablet would be better spent reading a book or an ebook*.

*If you counter "But ah! I read on my tablet!" define what percentage of your glued-to-your-tablet time is spent reading.

You are putting so much energy into to your dislike of tablets. Let it go and be happy you have the choice to not ever buy a tablet.

Happy Holidays!

[Blossom]

I have two tablets a Kindle Fire and a 5" device and a I use them sorely for Reading.

I prefer them. I read alot in the dark and a tablet fits my needs for this. I don't watch movies. I don't play games. I may surf but most of the time it's because it's something in the book I need info on because I have no clue what it is or need a visual. I can look up the rest of a series and makes notes or add status updates at Goodreads when I just need to comment about a passage I just read then switch back to my book.

Tablets are just the ultimate reading experience because you have everything at your fingertips in one device.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I've been reading from LCD screens for a very long time. On every single device I used, I changed the background color (including the one of the home screen!) and font colour. People are going on about high contrast being perfect, but in case of dark area reading, you don't want a high contrast. You want gray on black, with just enough contrast to see the words comfortably.

People think if they set the background to black and the letters to white, it'll be ok. But this differs greatly on the person and the surrounding light.

When reading in the dark on my Kindle Fire I use the Sepia theme with the Screen Dim app set to minimum brightness. If I use Mantano I use Grey background with black text. I can't read on a black background. I see slits and on my Fire my face staring back at me. Eek!

I can read a Tablet with no problems as long as I use the Screen Dim app.

[Sydney's Mom]

I bought a bluetooth headset for my tablet. So my husband will plug in headphones, and we can sit on the airplane watching a movie together (if the headphone and the bluetooth will both work. Guess I will find out!)

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

I bought a bluetooth headset for my tablet. So my husband will plug in headphones, and we can sit on the airplane watching a movie together (if the headphone and the bluetooth will both work. Guess I will find out!)

You may have a problem with that, I think the audio is cut off from the jack when the Bluetooth radio is used for audio.

Try it, but you may need to get two pair of regular headphones and a "Y" splitter for the two of you to share.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

Try it, but you may need to get two pair of regular headphones and a "Y" splitter for the two of you to share.

This is what hubby and I use for our TV and it works well. Just make sure they have volume adjustment on the headphones otherwise you both might not be happy with the Volume level. Hubby's a little hard of hearing or so he pretends and I hear everything.

[cromag]

Another vote for the Headphone "splitter" -- the simplest solution.


As far as the rest goes:

My wife uses her Ipad mostly to watch videos, read her email, and Skype with our kids at college. She does a little reading on it, but she's not a big "reader." I think she's wasting her time.

I use my ereader to read just about every day. I read genre fiction most of the time -- mysteries, science fiction, humor -- much of it old enough to be in the public domain. My wife thinks I'm wasting my time.

I do have a "tablet" -- one of the white Pandigital Novels that was going cheap after Christmas two years ago. I use it mostly for a few games ... but it does do a better job with PDFs than my JetBook. That's about all the "reading" I do on it.

Go ahead and waste some time -- it's fun!

[Lemurion]

Even if it is a waste of time; I'm a grown man, it's my time to waste.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

You are putting so much energy into to your dislike of tablets. Let it go and be happy you have the choice to not ever buy a tablet.

Happy Holidays!

Hi Duck! Good to see you again!

Originally Posted by Rizla

What do people use them for? Checking email, consuming digital content (!) and playing games. Great, that's fine. They are entertainment devices, they are time-wasters, they are a waste of time.

Every moment you spend wasting time on a tablet would be better spent reading a book or an ebook*.

*If you counter "But ah! I read on my tablet!" define what percentage of your glued-to-your-tablet time is spent reading.

An arrogant, elitest remark.

Just what we need.....more 'nannies' to tell us what we should and shouldn 't do......... Merry Christmas!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Hi Duck! Good to see you again!



An arrogant, elitest remark.

Just what we need.....more 'nannies' to tell us what we should and shouldn 't do......... Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas DGM!

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Merry Christmas DGM!

back atcha, KC........