Author Topic: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...  (Read 3990 times)

onemorebike

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So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« on: January 05, 2015, 08:34:15 PM »
Short story long, I have an iPad 2 that I received as a father's day present many moons ago and each of my younger daughters have tablets that we got for a VERY long car trip last summer. Fast forward six months and my iPad has a crack down the screen (again, I had the first digitizer replaced a year ago) and my wife dropped one of the girl's tablet and it cracked too. Being mustachian (ironic, considering the number of tablets we have) I've left mine be, and ordered a replacement digitizer for the the girl's tablet but just spent an hour trying to replace it and once I had everything in place the dag touch screen didn't work. Bah.

I kind of want to throw tablets away forever but love so many things about them. (not their droppability with little kids around) As we move to a smaller house I had expected I'd likely get rid of our TV and I was relying on tablets for downtime with the girls (making doing away with a TV a lot easier). I enjoy reading my tablet at night and using it as a quick reference on things but I have a laptop and my wife and I have smart phones. So frustrated by these damn things right now. Paid $200 for my daughter's six months ago. Such a waste. (not to mention the 25 I dropped trying to replace the digitizer and it not working)

Any suggestions for work arounds here so I can do away with tablets altogether? If not, is there an uber cheap alternative I can use for my daughter's?

Feeling defeated.

-onemorebike

r3dt4rget

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2015, 08:49:30 PM »
What did you do prior to 2010? Heck, it's even easier to live without tablets now, because smartphones do everything a tablet does.

If your children must have tablets, go for the cheap android versions, or a high-end used model.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2015, 08:51:34 PM by r3dt4rget »

mozar

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2015, 08:59:53 PM »
I recommend an amazon kids tablet. They will replace for any reason for two years.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LOR524M/ref=fs_ket

bogart

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2015, 09:12:32 PM »

Any suggestions for work arounds here so I can do away with tablets altogether? If not, is there an uber cheap alternative I can use for my daughter's?


Well, there are these gadgets called "books" you may want to look into. 

We've got smart phones (me, DH) and laptops (ditto) and DS (7) does not and is banned from using ours, full stop.  He did just get (Christmas present) his first Kindle, an old-style one (procured via ebay).  I'm not so sure I've actually achieved this (that the old Kindles are as limited in their functionality/connectivity as I thought), but we wanted to restrict his usage to reading, i.e., he sees on the screen what he'd see on a printed paper page and nothing more.

We do have a TV (and cable) and a household computer that is largely used by DS (since DH and I rely mostly on our laptops), so we're hardly Luddites, even when it comes to the kid.  But steering clear of hand-held devices available to the kid (until we got the Kindle) has been *such* a wonderful thing for our household.

(We do limit adult usage of the electronics, too, i.e. DH and I are not "allowed" to whip out our phones when we are out-and-about as a family and to spend time lost in them rather than interacting with each other.  Not that we are perfect about this and we certainly make and receive some calls/texts/emails or have been known to look something up.  But we do try to be reasonably balanced and to behave ourselves approximately as we insist that DS behave.  Obviously he's not the one e.g. figuring out how to get to our destination, so it's not a 1:1 comparison, but all the same.)

RecoveringCarClown

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2015, 11:41:45 PM »
Have had an ipad for 3 years, still perfect with 3 young kids.  Griffin survivor case has saved it countless times.

gooki

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2015, 12:03:54 AM »
Get a good case if your accident prone. Or just make an insurance claim, and buy another used one.

onemorebike

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2015, 01:20:45 AM »
Believe it or not, this was already one of those kid specific tablets, the Nabi 2 - complete with rubber, drop proof case. Meh.

I suppose for now we can operate with just the one for the two of them. The things really pay their weight in gold on long car trips, and we've got one of those coming up in a month and a half. I'll have to come up with a plan by then. :(

MayDay

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2015, 04:39:27 AM »
We have a 2.5 year old 2nd gen iPad with a ridiculous case that is fairly drop proof and waterproof. It's been dropped multiple multiple times, and just this past week something wiggled loose in the sound wiring- if we shake it it'll work again.  I consider that a pretty good run considering the abuse. But we likely won't replace it unless we can get a cheap/free used one from a relative. 

acroy

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Re: So frustrated at tablets, looking for an alternative...
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2015, 09:38:21 AM »
Ditch 'em. You tried :) life without tablets is fine!