Showing posts with label Galaxy S4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Galaxy S4. Show all posts

Thursday, May 23, 2013

My iPad 2 – One Year On


One year ago today, I bought a 64Gb iPad 2. I purchased the device in preparation for the three month visit I subsequently made to America between August and October, 2012.

I had two main purposes in mind when I bought it: one was that it made it easier to leave my 15 inch Toshiba laptop behind, and thereby reduce the amount of weight I was carrying; and the other was my desire to use the iPad as an eBook reader.

I have said it before, and I don’t mind saying it again―buying the iPad was the best pre-travel gift I have ever given myself. The convenience it offered in terms of size, weight, and functionality has proved its worth over and over again.

A year after my initial purchase, the device is rarely out of my sight or out of reach. The word I keep coming back to when I talk about the iPad is convenience. Couple convenience with ease of use, and you have a device that has helped to revolutionize the way we use technology to connect with each other, and tap into the vast resources of the internet. Making use of a basic WiFi service, I find I am forever reaching for my iPad to look for information online, research some small item of interest using Wikipedia, or translate a couple of lines of French or Latin that I have encountered in one of the many eBooks I now have saved to my iBooks app.

I maintain a daily journal with Pages, track my daily spending with Numbers, and keep in touch with family and friends via Facebook. Using a free app supplied by my bank I can move money between accounts, and to the delight of my creditors I can pay bills on time with Bpay. I have far more apps than I need or use on a daily basis, but then why not? Most of them were free to download, and if I need the space for more important or useful applications, they can be deleted with a couple of taps.

I have written before about my favorite iPad apps here… and here… so I won’t repeat myself in this entry, however, I do have plans to write about some other favorite applications not reviewed already.

After twelve months my iPad continues to work flawlessly, and I am more than happy with the physical size of the device, as well as its 64Gb capacity. The quality of the images I can get with the camera is one of my biggest frustrations, although video footage is actually quite good―as long as you are shooting in plenty of light. Although I have WordPress and Blogger apps, I prefer to use my laptop to write for and maintain The Compleat Traveller. Even though I have bought a keyboard to use with the iPad, I find writing with my laptop to be easier, faster, and generally more accurate. Personally, I find the iPad’s virtual keyboard good for short journal entries, and minor text entry work for things like email, Facebook, and other such tasks, but for long periods of typing it just doesn’t suit me.

Quite frankly, apart from my complaint with the camera and virtual keyboard, I am struggling to think of any other issue that has been the cause of major―or even minor concern. The biggest frustrations are caused by badly designed apps, not the iPad itself. Recently, I exchanged my old iPhone 3GS for a new Galaxy S4, and I remain very happy with that decision. However, I can’t see myself swapping my iPad for a rival tablet device any time soon.

I realise I have not written anything about using the iPad as an eReader, but I will leave that topic for another post. In conclusion, if you have been thinking about getting an iPad, or similar tablet device, I am more than happy to recommend this amazing technology to you. It is hard to believe that tablet devices were almost unheard of five years ago, given the way they have become pretty much ubiquitous today. They can only get better, faster and more ubiquitous over the next five years.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5?


Way back in June 2011, in a piece called My Smartphone – My Life (about the uptake and use of smart phones like the iPhone, Blackberry and other devices), I mentioned some of the problems I had been having with my iPhone 3GS unit.

Despite its many limitations―that have only grown worse after each major iOS update―I still have that phone. I have been ‘making do’ with it for the past two years while I waited to see how the device, and its many imitators would evolve.

Yesterday, I finally made the move to replace the iPhone 3GS. But instead of purchasing the latest iteration of this groundbreaking Apple device, I made the move to the latest Galaxy S4.

Yes, dear reader, I am officially over the iPhone. There, I said it. And the sky didn’t fall in.

I have had the Galaxy less than twenty-four hours, so don’t expect an in depth review of the phone here. However, I will certainly write more about the device once I familiarise myself with its design, user interface and standard applications.

While I have moved on from the iPhone (at least for the next two years), I am still firmly attached to my iPad 2. I have looked at Samsung’s flagship tablet device, the 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab 2, and see no reason to upgrade to either that or the latest iPad. At least, not yet. As someone who is not wedded to one particular company and their products, it will be fascinating to watch how tablet devices evolve over the next couple of years.

In my final paragraph for My Smartphone – My Life, I wrote, “…these are the early days of smart phone development and use, and I for one, am quite sure that these ubiquitous devices will only get smaller, faster, cheaper and more powerful over the next five years. I am also sure that … there is no turning back to the ‘old days’ to embrace anything less than state of the art, when it comes to modern phone technology.”

Today, I feel like I have embraced what I consider to be the latest ‘state of the art’ smart phone technology with my purchase of the Galaxy S4. Only time and practical experience will confirm whether I have made the right choice. I console myself with the knowledge that by the time I am ready to upgrade to a newer smart phone in a couple of years, the technology will have progressed exponentially to… who knows what? There is one thing I am sure of: it was way past time I upgraded from the iPhone 3GS, and whatever I ultimately think of the Galaxy S4, it already looks and feels light years ahead of my old 3GS unit.

I would love to hear your opinions regarding the relative merits of my decision. What do you think? Did I make the right choice? Over to you, folks, iPhone 5 or Galaxy S4 - or should I have changed to something else entirely?
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