which tablet for high school pupil?

maumau

maumau

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which tablet would be best for high school boys - windows, android or apple?

both pupils have PC's at home and are fairly internet savvy. the school has a wireless hotspot and one child studies IT - will he be able to create and run small programmes on the windows tablet? sorry if this is a stoooopid question :)

so far all we've decided on is the tablets must have wi-fi and be 10".

please give advice if you can.
 
iPad Mini is my vote. Don't worry too much about the 10' issue. You'll find for textbook reading there isn't a better option.
35438986_galileo_03_610x436.jpg
 
Randux said:
Shocker / Not
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What else would you suggest? It's pretty much accepted that iPad is the clear leader in educational tablets. It just has the best ecosystem. I'm not trying to start a war here. There's very good reasons to recommend it - the iPad Mini in particular is aimed straight at that market.
 
maumau said:
which tablet would be best for high school boys - windows, android or apple?

both pupils have PC's at home and are fairly internet savvy. the school has a wireless hotspot and one child studies IT - will he be able to create and run small programmes on the windows tablet? sorry if this is a stoooopid question :)

so far all we've decided on is the tablets must have wi-fi and be 10".

please give advice if you can.
Click to expand...


There are two Windows tablet versions. Windows RT... and Windows 8... the Windows 8 tablets... that can run any windows software and can compile software ( create + run small programs ) will start at about R9000+ when released...

The Windows RT tablets are in the same league as Android tablets and iPad's... To develop software on these you use them as "dumb" terminals developing software in a web browser / app - that is run/compiled in the cloud...
 
stricken said:
There are two Windows tablet versions. Windows RT... and Windows 8... the Windows 8 tablets... that can run any windows software and can compile software ( create + run small programs ) will start at about R9000+ when released...

The Windows RT tablets are in the same league as Android tablets and iPad's... To develop software on these you use them as "dumb" terminals developing software in a web browser / app - that is run/compiled in the cloud...
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+1. The Windows 8 Pro Tabs can replace all other hardware, including their outdated Home PCs - it is worth paying the extra. iPads and Androids are just consumption devices.
 
Joe Average said:
+1. The Windows 8 Pro Tabs can replace all other hardware, including their outdated Home PCs - it is worth paying the extra. iPads and Androids are just consumption devices.
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R9000 at a base level is a hefty extra to pay for a school tablet. There are plenty of very good coding/compiling apps available on both Android and Apple app stores btw. It's a total myth that they're just for consumption. They just don't have x86.
 
thank you boys. R9000 is too expensive but these devices will worth bearing in mind when their PCs become outdated. Stricken thanks for this info- it's something i'll have to look out for when buying.

will all operating systems be compatible with the south african school books which are supposedly being made available online?
 
maumau said:
thank you boys. R9000 is too expensive but these devices will worth bearing in mind when their PCs become outdated. Stricken thanks for this info- it's something i'll have to look out for when buying.

will all operating systems be compatible with the south african school books which are supposedly being made available online?
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What format are the books going to be in? I don't know anything about this initiative.
 
cerebus said:
What format are the books going to be in? I don't know anything about this initiative.
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i don't know what format they're in but we have a friend who's involved in proofreading them.

Samsung already has a "learners' hub" available on free download. this gives access to books purporting to be in accordance with the south african curriculum. i noticed "grade 12 mathematics" available for download at R88. i couldn't view any of the pages which is a drawback but the schpiel claimed that it contained previous exam papers, explanations and answers.
 
I saw the Nexus 7 3G 32GB for just over R4k in a store in Greenstone.
 
maumau said:
i don't know what format they're in but we have a friend who's involved in proofreading them.

Samsung already has a "learners' hub" available on free download. this gives access to books purporting to be in accordance with the south african curriculum. i noticed "grade 12 mathematics" available for download at R88. i couldn't view any of the pages which is a drawback but the schpiel claimed that it contained previous exam papers, explanations and answers.
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Samsung has Learning Hub, Apple has its Textbooks via iBooks and iTunes U, Amazon has cross-platform e-textbook rentals.. there's a number of initiatives out there. But I'd be very keen to know exactly how these books are going to come out; who are they partnering with to create and distribute them? Can you find out from your friend?
 
oh, are they all south african curriculum?

yes, i'll ask my friend to ask her friend to ask her husband whose paying him :-)) :-)) :-))
 
Shred said:
I saw the Nexus 7 3G 32GB for just over R4k in a store in Greenstone.
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now, we're talking and Greenstone's convenient. tks

do you remember which store? was it upstairs or downstairs? :)
 
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maumau said:
oh, are they all south african curriculum?
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Haven't got the foggiest mate. Hence I'm asking you :p It's impossible to say which device you need until you know the format and distribution method of the books. Hopefully it will be something OS-agnostic like say Amazon store but they might go and partner with one specific manufacturer (please oh please not Samsung) and then we're all stuffed innit.
 
cerebus said:
R9000 at a base level is a hefty extra to pay for a school tablet. There are plenty of very good coding/compiling apps available on both Android and Apple app stores btw. It's a total myth that they're just for consumption. They just don't have x86.
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Quite frankly, if the student has a PC already that means in all likelihood that PC is running Windows and MS Office too. Aside from the fact that a Win8 RT tab comes with Office preinstalled, it also has a now much healthier ecosystem. And it will continue growing. That should address the issue of coding/compiling.

For a student, I think Office is non-negotiable. Therefore, a Win8 tab is my recommendation.

I am buying one for the family. I have a work (enterprise) laptop so the Win8 RT will be perfect for the house since we are all students in the house (sons, mom, dad). None of us do coding.
 
McCrazieGoalz said:
Quite frankly, if the student has a PC already that means in all likelihood that PC is running Windows and MS Office too. Aside from the fact that a Win8 RT tab comes with Office preinstalled, it also has a now much healthier ecosystem. And it will continue growing. That should address the issue of coding/compiling.

For a student, I think Office is non-negotiable. Therefore, a Win8 tab is my recommendation.

I am buying one for the family. I have a work (enterprise) laptop so the Win8 RT will be perfect for the house since we are all students in the house (sons, mom, dad). None of us do coding.
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I think we need to identify what she wants to really be doing on the tablets. There's nothing non-negotiable about Office; I get by on the iPad pretty well without, doing just about all the Office functions through apps. But it's an awesome feature to have Office already installed on WinRT; I just don't know if that's what they are specifically looking for. So far no Win8 tablets have set my groins aflame though.
 
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