US Cheap Tablet Options For 2012

The 2012 Holiday Season is surely the hottest holiday season for tablets. While the iPad is still dominating the tablet market, we are now seeing cheap tablet with good quality, thanks to Android tablet.

My Desert recommends two options, other than the iPad. The Google Nexus and Amazon tablets. Why ?

Android tablets — which run Google’s Android operating system — are becoming a big threat to the iPad. Though Google has made Android available to all tablet makers, your best bets for now are Google’s own flagship tablets, the Nexus 7 ($199) and Nexus 10 ($399). 

These gadgets run the latest version of the Android operating system, 4.2 or Jelly Bean, and are the first to receive updates. They can go neck-and-neck with the power, features and usability you’ll find on similarly sized iPads, too, but at a lower cost. In some ways, the Nexus tablets are actually better. 

Source: My Desert

And for Amazon ?

Amazon’s Android-based Kindle Fire tablet got a major upgrade recently, along with a few siblings, making it a more competitive option.

Source: My Desert

What do you think ?

Ainol Novo Captain tablet pc

Ainol Novo, a Chinese tablet manufacturer is very aggressive in producing cheap Android tablet. It has just released Ainol Novo Captain. A 10-inch tablet with display resolution of 1920 x 1200. One of the best display, with only Apple and Google having tablet PC with such high resolution.

The Novo Captain will also come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and quad core CPU @ 1.5GHz. The price ? Very cheap, $212.9 for the 8GB storage and $259.99 for 16GB. The release date is set for mid December. It will be available worldwide, not only in China.

The main attraction point of this new tab is certainly the 10.1-inch IPS display that boasts a 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution, but the quad-core ATM7029 CPU clocked at 1.5 GHz, the Mali 400 GPU and the running of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean should also contribute to the Captain’s wow factor. 

The rest of the features are more down to earth and include 1 GB of RAM, a 2 MP rear-facing camera, a VGA front-facing webcam, microSD support, a mini USB port, HDMI, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The 10,000 mAh battery might be another great thing about the 10-incher, though until testing the tab out we can’t know for sure how will that huge capacity translate into real-life autonomy. 

As for internal storage, the tab will be available in two versions, with 8 or 16 GB of memory, which is a bit odd, considering its high-end “material”. Then again, it’s obvious that this is a 10-incher meant for tech users on a budget, who’ll be glad to know that they can grab a Novo 10 Captain for as less as $212.90. 

Source: Android Authority

This is definitely one of the cheap tablet worthy of your consideration for the upcoming holiday season shopping.

Tablet Battle for the Holiday Season Watch Out Buyer

The Holiday season may still be in December, however the battle is shaping up right now. With the iPad Mini just launched in late October, Microsoft releasing its Surface tablet together with the launch of Windows 8 today and Google coming up with Google Nexus 10 and an update to Google Nexus 7. Let us not forget Amazon Kindle Fire HD. It sure feels like the holiday season is already here.

One thing that must be remembered to all new buyers out there is that once they buy a tablet, they are most likely stuck with the apps available on that device. iPad has its iTunes, Google has Google Play, Amazon with its Kindle and Microsoft with its own system. Every one of them has their own ecosystem. Watch out what you are buying into.

To make it clearer, here is Warner Crocker of Gotta Be Mobile:

As I’ve been saying for quite some time now, picking a Tablet has more to do with which company’s ecosystem you want to buy into than it does with picking up a piece of hardware. Yes, the hardware is important, and consumers look to have quite a few choices at quite a few price points to choose from on the hardware front. Make no mistake though, once you buy a Tablet you’re buying into a digital world view that is defined by Microsoft, Apple, Google, or Amazon. Unless of course you’re like me and you like to dabble in each of those worlds. But for most consumers, it will come down to one choice. I’m guessing that there are more than a few consumers out there who don’t realize the full impact the ecosystem has when they are looking at these devices, or the sexy commercials. We’re reaching a point where not only do the hardware and the ecosystem matter, but how those choices fit in with what you currently use for your computing chores and increasingly your entertainment choices. Here’s my take on some of the choices. 

Clouds, Storage, Media
Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft all want you, your data, and your content in their respective Cloud. To some degree your media choices are limited by content companies who allow those four to let you use their content. Chances are with video you’ll find most of what you’re looking for with Apple and Amazon, with Google and Microsoft currently lagging behind. Unless your tastes are really special, you’ll find pretty much any of the music you’re looking for wherever you go. If books are your thing then Amazon is the clear leader here, and not just on its own devices, because you can load up a Kindle App on any of the other platforms. iBooks and what Google makes available pale in comparison in my view, and Microsoft, who I bought my first eBooks from, just isn’t in this game. 

If you want to mix and match (Google Drive on an iPad or Microsoft’s Skydrive on Android as examples), you can do that as well with all but Microsoft Surface currently. If you want to use Amazon’s MP3 player or Google’s Music Player you can mix and match on all platforms except Microsoft. You can, through 3rd party solutions, sync your music from iTunes on other platforms (excluding Windows RT). Apple, Amazon, and Android also currently give you access to third party media clients. Do you notice a trend there? I would hope you do. Again, I imagine that we see third party Cloud solutions for data and content on Surface in the future, but if you want to be portable now, you need to look at Android (including Amazon) or Apple. I guess a reverse of this would be when we’ll see an xBox music App on the other platforms. Of course there are third party streaming alternatives as well, and again you can have good luck with those currently on all but Microsoft’s Surface RT platform. 

With regards to data, if you want to use a third party solution like Dropbox, you’re safe at the moment with all but Microsoft. Expect that to change, but currently there is no Dropbox (or other third party Cloud Storage) App for Microsoft’s Tablet.

Source: Gotta Be Mobile

In summary, we, the buyer must know what we are getting into. Some apps will not be available for certain ecosystem. So, make sure that the function of the tablet match your needs. Otherwise, you will waste your money.