I finally convinced my 86yo mother to give up her landline and move to a cell phone on our family plan. This change will literally save her $100/month while providing significant benefits. We all have iPads and Android phones and I just planned on purchasing her a used Android phone and going with that. But the more I think about it, I think an iPhone SE might be better for her. I believe the UI is a bit cleaner with bigger images and, more importantly, I think she may have problems with the Micro USB connector found on most Android phones. Heck, WE have problems with those things. The iPhones have the Lightning connector which can be plugged either way. I also think it is a much more durable connector than Micro USB. (We've lost a few phones to those tiny connectors, but the iPad connectors have been very durable.) I don't think the extra $150 for a used iPhone will make any real difference to my mother. (Did I mention how much she is saving every month?) Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with older parents with iPhone and/or Android phones that you can share? I am completely agnostic on this topic since I like both platforms. I would love to hear things like: "My dad HATES his iPhone!" or "My mom LOVES her Android phone!" or anything else that gives some insight into issues they may have/not have. Finally, are there other smartphones (must be able to create a WiFi hotspot from the phone) that will work on T-Mobile and are durable and ergonomic for seniors? TIA for all your thoughts!

Thanks for all the amazing help in the other thread I posted regarding a smartphone for Mom! :hurray: Based on that thread, I decided that it might be interesting to try to understand what kinds of features and/or apps *might* be interesting to my mother and mother-in-law so that I can best configure their phones to allow them to get the most use out of them. I'm also interested in understanding how seniors learn (or not) how to use these devices. Many of the ideas in the polls came out of posts in the other thread. Here are some ideas on how to complete the polls: - Please DO NOT check items just because they used it once while you were there helping. The goal is to learn what seniors ACTUALLY use (or not). - Please be sure to check ALL options that apply, even if some may seem to overlap. - If you are thinking of more than one senior relative, please just complete the poll for ALL of the different things that the different individuals use. - If you feel that YOU are that senior relative, feel free to complete the poll and tell us about you. Hopefully I didn't leave off any commonly-used features or apps. If I did, please let me know right away and I will try to fix it, but if many people have already responded I may just leave it so that the poll doesn't get messed up. Hopefully we can all get ideas how to help our relatives get more enjoyment out of their devices!

Early in November, when she was out of town visiting her family, my wife installed WhatsApp on a Samsung Galaxy (Android) cell phone. After that, the phone began showing "Emergency Calls Only". Everything on the phone works, except it cannot originate or receive normal phone calls, which is the main thing a cell phone does. I cannot tell you how many hours my wife and I spent trying to resolve this issue. Lots of stress and a few dollars for a Google Play App (the Vendor has proved exceptionally helpful). Now, my wife is out of town again, because her mother was in the hospital. Her mother is out of the hospital and the plan is my wife will return home tomorrow. DD has a Noka Asha 302 QWERTY Messaging phone. It is Nokia Series 40 OS phone. So, the 2 phones are totally different, regarding their manufacturer and their OS. DD installed WhatsApp and now her phone shows "Emergency Calls Only".... WhatsApp and "Emergency Calls Only" are what the 2 phones have in common. My wife knows other people who are able to use WhatsApp and make regular phone calls too. She thinks it might be because our phones have very little Memory available. At this time, based on what I know, I would suggest NOT installing WhatsApp!

I know there is no answer to this question, just curious for thoughts! I have been an Android user up until now and have been happy with it, but I need a new phone now. I bought an iPad in the last year, and was surprised by how much I really love it. So, I was considering switching to an iPhone. My two choices with the current discount that I've narrowed it down to are either iPhone 5s or Samsung Galaxy S5. My only concern with the iPad, which makes me wonder if this could also happen with the iPhone, is that I use Gmail, and sometimes the iPad mixes up conversation threads. It will very infrequently group emails together that are not actually in the same conversation. I have never ever had this issue on my PC or my Android phone with gmail. But one time, I was replying to an email on the iPad, and it grouped a completely different set of emails with the email to which I was replying. So, it had copied the text of another, completely different, email in the reply. It would have been very, very bad if I had not realized this at the very last second before I hit send. Luckily I did, but there was very personal information that should not have gone to the other sender, and if I had been in a hurry, I may not have seen it. Ever since then, I am very anxious whenever I reply to emails from my iPad. Also, I use Google a lot for email, calendar, drive, etc, so I am wondering if I should just stick with what I know. Thoughts or opinions? What do you like?

I just discovered this game app for my new tablet (Samsung Galaxy) and I'm in love. It's a beautifully done puzzle type game called The Room. Reminds me of Riven or Myst, only on a smaller scale (it all takes place in one room with a series of boxes). Graphics are lovely and puzzles are fun without being super hard. The story-line is a bit silly. I could definitely do without that part. I guess the developers felt it was necessary, but I don't think so. I don't think I needed it to solve any of the puzzles. I just finished the first game and am doing the (free) Epilogue. I'll probably buy Room 2 when I'm done. Thought I'd let others, who enjoy these types of games, know about it. It is Christmas break after all. :D edited to add: I should mention that it did give me some grief with freezing up my tablet. I just had to reboot. It didn't happen all the time, but enough to be annoying.

For those that wanted to try the Interactive Metronome exercises for free, below is a link to an Android app. An Android developer was kind enough to create a metronome feedback app, but it was not complex enough to be put in the Android store and he does not do iOS apps. Obviously, the usual disclaimers apply to this FREE app, but when I tested it, it appears to work fine, including the following features: - 54 bpm, with feedback on how close you tap to the beat in milliseconds - feedback in different colours, sounds, left/right earphone - Session Summary includes: number of beats, % of Excellent/Good/Medium/Poor Accuracy https://www.dropbox.com/s/ipiuds7r6k3wepi/Tapper.apk (access from Android device, download & install) Link to list of IM exercises (libkuman2002 PDF file)

I thought it might make sense to have a thread where we could put all of the Kindle Fire reviews, including those from professionals and from WTM boardies. It seems that the professional reviewers received their Kindle Fires last week and the reviews are starting to happen. For reference, here is a link to the Kindle Fire Main Page. Also, here is Amazon's Getting Started with Kindle Fire page. If you want to see what apps are available for Kindle Fire, you can see them in the Amazon Appstore for Android. Amazon has even enabled it so that you can run many of the apps found there right on your PC! That way you can try them before you purchase them. You will find a different free app there each day. It looks like users are starting to write reviews on the Amazon review page for the Kindle Fire. Here are reviews by WTM members: Frontier Mom Munchkins_mama and 2 MaMa2005 Parker Martin reports that the Kindle Fire did not come in a plain, unmarked Amazon box! edelweiss BetterthanIdeserve Halcyon theAmbitiousHousewife Laurel RegGuheert and 2 NoNo Scrapmom3 ChristusG Here are some professional reviews: PC Magazine: The Best Kindle Fire Apps: A Starter Kit MSNBC: Kindle Fire review: Yes, it's that good PC Magazine: Kindle Fire Review & Ratings Gizmodo: Kindle Fire Review: The iPad Finally has Serious Competition Washington Post: Kindle Fire review: Changing the landscape of the tablet game Fox News: Kindle Fire Review: Good Tablet Despite Sacrifices Huffington Post: Amazon Kindle Fire Review: Not Identical to the Playbook, but Close Engadget: Amazon Kindle Fire review Best eReader Reviews: Amazon Kindle Fire Review PC World: Kindle Fire Has a Secret Ingredient: Amazon Prime CNET: Amazon Kindle Fire Review CNET: Help! Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? Wall Street Journal: Kindle Fire, a Grown-Up E-Reader With Tablet Spark Information Week: Kindle Fire: Early Reviews Roundup Mashable: Yes, You Can Install the Nook App on the Kindle Fire Wired: Is This Really the Tablet Everyone's Talking About? PC World: Amazon Kindle Fire Misfires Extreme Tech: Kindle Fire Silk web browser speed tested: It's slow ZDNet: 7 reasons the Kindle Fire is better than the iPad ZDNet: 12 things that kinda suck about the Kindle Fire written by the same guy as the one above! AppleInsider: Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet: an in-depth review

My brother bought me the following item:http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Iconia-A100-07u16u-7-Inch-Tablet/dp/B005EOYZ7Q for Christmas. I already own a laptop and a Kindle so what would I use this item for. I basically use the internet for this forum, occasional FB, Pintrest, googling and watching Netflix. My email is Microsoft something or other connetted directly to my computer so it wouldn't be practical to check it on-line nor do I see a need to. I have an ereader on my computer but do not use it as I have a Kindle. I do use Word a lot but all of my docs are on my laptop so I am not sure what exactly the purpose of this item would be for me. My brother drove 47 miles out of the way to get this item for me and spent money that he really couldn't afford to spare and he is sure I will love it once I get used to it. I really want to but I don't even understand it's function. Can someone help me out here?

I'm considering buying myself a Christmas present that DD could also use for school. I like the idea of being able to get at least some of the books digitally, because we just plain have SO many-and I do very, very badly at getting rid of books. I'd also love it if it were possible to use those PDFs I keep downloading and have DD do them on a digital device vs printing and having to do something with the resulting pages. I have a laser printer, so printing is cheap, but it's still a LOT of paper. I'm also looking at a science series where the student books are available online, and it's expensive enough that if we could use the digital student books, that would save quite a bit of money. And I love the look of the iPad apps-I have an iTouch that I use for music teaching, carschooling, and apps, and it's gotten a lot of use,and there are some on the iPad I'd love to be able to access, like the SM bar diagrams one posted yesterday. I'd LOVE to be able to access Discovery Streaming away from home (like in hotels with Wifi). But, the question is-is an Ipad worth the price premium over, say, a $79 Kindle or an Android tablet? Or am I just being lured by the glamor?

My husband would like a tablet for Christmas. Which one takes Skype? I've heard that Android doesn't work, is that true? I would like to get a cover with a keyboard also. Please help, I don't know what I'm doing!

One of the things I really like about the iPads is that we can purchase an app once and then use it on all of the iPads or other iOS devices tied to our account, up to a maximum of 10. To my knowledge, there is no such concept of sharing apps available from Google's Android Market. But now we have two Kindle Fires arriving today and I realize that both will be tied to the same account in a similar way to how the iPads are tied to the same AppleID. So I'm wondering if Amazon didn't just create the Amazon Appstore for Android to restrict and monitor the content of their store, but perhaps they wanted to change the business model from the one that Google put in place for the Android Market to one that better suits Amazon's needs. So the question is this: If we purchase an app from the Amazon Appstore for Android, are we licensed to use it on all of the Kindle Fires and other Android devices which are associated with our account?

Sometime during my six-or-so-month sabbatical from these boards, I purchased and fell in love with an iPad 2. For those of you who do not recall, I have been quite vocal about wanting to wait for an Android 3.0 tablet. You can click on the 'android' tag below to read some of the previous threads where I commented on this topic. Contrary to popular believe, Reg did not purchase an iPad simply because SpyCar stole one from his son! :D Here is my version of the story: It all started with the National Spelling Bee. DS13 went to the National Spelling Bee last year and this year I promised him that if he won our regional bee again, I would purchase him an Android 3.0 tablet of his choosing. As it turns out, this was a BIG DEAL to him, since the speller which he befriended at last year's National Bee, also the son of a mom on these boards, had been given an iPad for his achievement. My son spent time building 3D models of his future tablet in blender and rendering them and sending the images to his new friend and anyone who would listen. So my son won the regional bee again this year :hurray: in a hard-fought battle that required 52 perfect spellings! Tablet browsing turned to tablet shopping. The Motorola Xoom sounded somewhat disappointing from the reviews we read. The T-Mobile G-Slate (made by LG) was on our carrier and appeared to have everything imaginable (except battery life), but T-Mobile somehow believed that a 2-year contract was reasonable for that device. I beg to differ. Since the iPad 2 had come out two days before his win and the software he uses for spelling drill had just been ported to iPad, I opened up the competition to include the iPad 2. I encouraged my son to research all the options and pick what he preferred (though I would not sign up for a contract). In the end, my son chose an iPad 2 for three main reasons: his spelling app was ported to iPad, he liked the 4:3 shape better than the 16:9 shape of the widescreen Android tablets and he liked that it was what his friend had that he was so impressed with. So I bought two: a black one for my son and a white one for me (which I grudgingly share with the other children). While I still love our Android phones, here is what I *LOVE* about the iPad 2: 1) iTunes. As it turns out, the thing that I thought I would hate most about the iPad 2 is what I love most about it. Why? I really thought the idea of having to connect the tablet to a computer with a *cable* seemed so 20th-century! I also do not like the heavy-handed DRM that goes along with that. But the licensing model that goes along with this setup is what turned me completely around. I was in total disbelief when I first learned that I could pay for an app (or book or song or movie) once and use it on up to five different iDevices! Wow! There is NOTHING like this on Android to my knowledge. We have a big family and I can foresee more iPads in our future because of this! 2) The business model. I didn't know about 1) when I purchased the iPads, but still I felt Steve Jobs had done an excellent job pricing this thing. The price is fair, and the ability to hop into and out of a cellular plan month-to-month with the 3G models is what I wanted. Again, a big strike for the Android 3.0 tablets, which were mainly (exclusively?) being sold through cellular vendors at the time. 3) Apps. As mentioned, the availability of my son's spelling app was a deciding factor. We had communicated with the author and he is an Apple person, so porting to Android was not in the cards. Plus Android 3.0 was just coming out at the time and I learned (is it true?) that Google has a *different* Android Market for the tablets than the phones. So that meant that the Android Market would be pretty small, at least for a while. Put simply, there are some amazing applications for the iPad 2. DS13 LOVES photo booth, but there is also the *official* National Spelling Bee dictionary and many games which the kids enjoy, mostly free. FWIW, I estimate that we have spent just under US$100.00 on iPad 2 apps do date. 4) Book reader. I had previously purchase a Nook (another Android device), but it gets very little use due to a lack of decent free content, no backlight and poor rendering of PDFs. The iPad, by contrast, is a great reader that can be used in the dark, has a lock for screen rotation and has good zoom and pan capabilities. I find I prefer it for reading PDFs. Interestingly, we also use it for a bunch of content we have accumulated for the Kindle, even though we do not have a Kindle! 5) Movie player. Even though the iPad 2 does not have a widescreen display, I find that it is a GREAT movie player. It is extremely smooth and it allows you to tap to switch between a full-screen and a widescreen view of the movie. You can even turn on subtitles using closed-captioning. As it turns out, we have accumulated about 18 digital copies of various recent movie titles and I had been wondering what to do with them. The iPad 2 is the perfect solution, since they can now be viewed on multiple devices. 6) Casual browser. One of the main uses for a tablet to me was to have a convenient browser wherever I go. This browser serves many of my needs in this area, although I have to say it is inferior to Android due to the lack of Adobe Flash Player support. It's not a big deal for me since I use my Android phone if I am out-and-about and I need to access a website with Flash on it. 7) Syncs seamlessly with gMail. This was a total shock to me! I had no idea this would be possible right out of the box, but a clever person figured out a way to use some features of gMail together with some features of the iPad to make this work. For anyone who wants to do this, here are the instructions. Basically, you tell the iPad to treat gMail like a Microsoft Exchange server. Brilliant! 8) (Nearly) universal appeal. It is amazing how this one device is so popular with all but one member of the household. MomsintheGarden really does not like sharing a computer, so she will not touch it! (I like to tell her that she must have failed kindergarten! ;) ) But the rest of us find many, many uses for it! Regrets? One: I should have purchased the 64 GB version like MomsintheGarden said! Dislikes? One: Lack of Adobe Flash Player support. The bottom line is that while we still love our Android phones here we are now also sold on the iPad 2s. I can truthfully say that there has not been even a twinge of buyer's remorse which sometimes accompanies this type of purchase. This product has been well-thought-out and well-implemented from many different perspectives. The folks at Apple should be rightfully proud of what they have put together. One final note: I'm sorry ladies, but we generally do NOT use the iPads for school. We simply have too many children and too few iPads. It would not work out here. The one exception is that DS11 is currently using mine to read a draft PDF from SWB for a new writing book which is not yet published since we did not want to print something we will purchase in paper form later. We put this PDF on both the Nook and the iPad 2 and it looks better on the iPad. Thoughts?

Apple is scheduled to release iOS 5 today at 1:00PM EDT. This new version brings to iOS some features that have kept some Android affectionados away from Apple products, including: - An iOS 5 device will no longer require a MAC or a PC to accompany it. From what I gather, iTunes will essentially now live in the iCloud. This is a big deal, since it seems we still get the benefits of iTunes (specifically sharing content between multiple devices) without the hassle. Nice job, Apple! - A notification bar. This was one of the great features of Android when it first came out. Many are pleased with the new Apple implementation, so I'll look forward to seeing that. There are a bunch of other improvements included, as well. For all the details, you can go to the Apple iOS 5 website. If you are planning on upgrading this today, please note that you will need to first update iTunes to version 10.5 and reboot your computer. There is a new license agreement to accept for that, as well. You will probably want to update (and sync) all of your apps, as well, since many developers are releasing new versions to be compatible with the new OS. Apparently once the upgrade is done on both sides, we will be able to sync our devices wirelessly to iTunes. I'm curious whether it will be easy to drop iTunes altogether. We'll see. Hopefully the Apple servers will not be too overloaded today since DS13 is REALLY looking forward to playing with this new update.

Our anniversary is coming up and I want to get my DH something really nice this year. I'm thinking about an iPad, but I want to explore all my options. We've always been a PC/android family, but just recently he said we would probably replace my laptop with a Mac when the time comes. What should I buy? (He's my go-to guy for tech questions like this, but I want this gift to be a surprise :D )

What do you use? I've added so many that I think I'll use but keep forgetting they are there! I love Drink Water Beta. It's a widget and I hve it on my front page to help me keep track of how many glasses of water I drink. I use Lookout for security and for the just in case my phone goes missing I can send an alarm. Tried it .. wow that thing really works! I use Pure Calendar widget ... have it on my home page to see a list of everything going on this week. It syncs to my Google calendar...which I only use now because I can enter things fast and they show up on my phone! I have to look to see what else...

My dh is interested in getting a tablet. We boycott Mac here, so no iPads, but many other companies are launching their own tablet devices and his curiousity is piqued (terribly so, because he doesn't ever want to spend money on anything, yet is contemplating hundreds on a tablet!) My feeling is that buying now is just buying at the over-inflated "new-to-market" price and getting the less than stellar 1st generation version which will probably be re-vamped in a major way by this time next year. Dh thinks they'll have good versions (he's specifically most interested in RIMs offering). I don't think a tablet will do anything that my laptop and my BlackBerry doesn't already do. I don't see tablets replacing those things, and while I do think they're probably better for toting around books, I still think a book is better (I'm a Luddite in that way.) Cost is an issue, too. We could drop $500 on one of these things, but $500 would go a long way to other, more immediately useful items, too (or stay in savings!) So... what say you? Why should one purchase a tablet, or not? If you have one, what honestly compelled you to get one? Do you ever look at it and wonder if that money could have been better spent elsewhere? Is it truly useful to you (and if so, how), or is it more a fun thing, a toy? What are the negatives, if there are any? What are the big pluses that make you feel you couldn't live without it?

currently is to spend precious dollars on an ebook reader of some kind or spend roughly the same on an android tablet........... Can anyone help me decide?? Hubby is insistent that I need the tablet way more than the ereader and will still use it like an ereader. I don't have enough experience with any of them to know better. Here's what I would love to be able to do...(and I don't know if a single device can do it all but hubby thinks the tablet will do most) download and read whatever..books, newspapers, pdfs, from any source -Amazon, Google Books, Gutenberg press, BAMM, and BN (I don't even know if that is possible) give it to the kids (13 , 10, and 4) and let them read the books and listen to them. Even better to be able to run the audio version of the book while following along with the e-text. (my 10 year has some issues with reading and we are listening to the book while it's being read out loud to retrain his hearing and eyes) Play MP3s as my MP3 is apparently so old that is has a hard time now working My really out there wish list for technology : to have the size larger than the old pda's but smaller than lap tops sleek, simple design and thin without being overly heavy to have pda abilities ( I can whip it out, pull up the calendar, schedule a new event, contact etc) I would love to be able to pull up sites and do some searching on it while out and about, I'm back in school so having something that could take decent notes on and not have all these durn notebooks and notebooks and notebooks..... I've actually touched the Kindle, Nook and Nook color. The kindle was nice - light, simple easy as was the Nook. THe nook color was like holding a brick. I've never seen any tablet other than the Ipad which is way out of budget. BUt I loved the design, feel of and how it fits in my bag. But it's rather limited in doing much (or so that one seemed It's not like I've seen one enough to do much with it) I've never seen an Android tablet but it seems to do some of my wish list. Any one have experience that could comment and help me decide?? Thanks

It's a good thing I economized this Christmas, because dh is giving me a new phone for Christmas. He didn't buy one, because he wanted to leave the choice up to me. Do I want a Droid X, or a Droid Incredible? :confused: Or do I want to tell him no, because I think he shouldn't spend the $ ? He'd be very disappointed...:001_unsure: Our budget will be ok either way, I'm just being very thrifty right now because we're helping ds through college.

So, with the soon-to-happen demise of my trusty old Palm Pilot, a need move from using Outlook to Google Calendar to keep track of everybody's stuff, I am getting hip and getting a smart phone. We trimmed a couple bills so I can justify the data package. I was all set to get a droid phone... but ...the salesman worked pretty hard to talk me out of it. He was pushing a phone that had Windows platform because he felt it would suit my needs better. But, but, but ... the Droid phones are soooo coooool! The prices were pretty comparable. Both have slide out keyboards - both are full screen. The windows phone had lots of apps already loaded. I would have to download/purchase lots of apps on the droid phone. Both have GPS capability. So, will I be dissatisfied with a Windows phone and forever have Droid envy? Or will I be happier with a Windows phone?

I want an ebook reader. I don't want a Kindle or a nook. I think they are too expensive for just an ebook reader and most of the books I want to read are pdf books. I started looking for cheap ebook readers and discovered the Android 7" tablet-aPad. They cost about $100. That is less than a Kindle or Nook. Anyone have any experience with one of these? I don't want an iPad. It is too big. I have an iTouch that I LOVE, but it is just too small for me to read a book on. I really need something that shows a full page of text.

Shelves is an Android copy of the popular Delicious Library application for Apple devices. I've been looking for a good Android-based cataloger for some time and this free application looks pretty good. You can download it from the Android Market. If it is anywhere close to the one for Apple and iPhone about which I have heard rave reviews, this should be a very useful program!

...and the WePad from a company in Germany looks very close to what I want! Now, I wonder how long it will be before I can buy one in the US... Does anyone else have their eye on an Android tablet? If so, which one?

Please help me people. I am one year into my second Razor phone using Verison/Alltel. It is a fine phone. However, now that I am officially a Real Estate Agent (ha!) I feel I may soon need to join the rest of the techies of the working world. I can get a Blackberry curve for $29 after rebate. Or a Droid for $199 after rebate. HOW can there be that much difference between the two? I WANT a Droid because it is the latest wizzy thing...but it won't be the latest in oh say a month or so. If anyone has ANY feedback on ANY of this stuff....let me know. I am so confused.

You can read the details on Apple's website. It doesn't have the same kind of display as the Kindle and Nook, but it looks pretty interesting. The price is lower than many had feared. Here is the link to the SlashGear livecast of the press event with lots of pictures and some details of what Steve Jobs said. Please post links here about the iPad along with your thoughts on this newest of creations from Apple. Does anyone consider this a Kindle-killer?

While the iPad looks very nice, for our needs I really feel Android would be a better OS. I detailed some of the reasons in the iPad thread. Fortunately, it appears they will not be far behind the iPad. Here are a couple of offerings: Archos 7 Tablet Viewsonic VTablet 101 ICD Vega coming in 7, 11, and 15 inches MSI Tablet Coming Unfortunately, my favorite Android hardware manufacturer, HTC, has dropped their tablet offering.