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Thread: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

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    A shadowy flight. MSIC's Avatar
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    Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    Morning all, am hoping for some advice to clarify my thinking here.

    My son will be 3 years old in September, and loves playing with my iphone. I was thinking of buying a tablet, not exclusively for him, but certainly predominantly with him in mind for him to use.

    Now, before you start thinking "that's a crazy present for a 2 year old" (which it is! i'm not made of money) he has been diagnosed with some (hopefully mild) learning difficulties, and we have found that some apps to do with colours, shapes, animals etc seem to be helping him. On my desktop PC there are a whole load of flash games (cBeebies website etc) which he likes, but gets frustrated when he touches my monitor and it doesnt respond how he expects. Hence the idea of a tablet.

    I have considered an iPad, which is otherwise perfect i think, however given the flash-based games that he uses I think that it effectively rules that out.
    I am now considering something like an Asus Transformer, particularly since a few of the bbc flash games use arrow keys left / right etc.

    Anything else I should be considering??

    Thanks very much for the thoughts and input, my son is the most important thing in the world! (And if i can then also take advantage in the evenings, i'll be happy )
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    What about a touchscreen monitor ?
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    A shadowy flight. MSIC's Avatar
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    I hadnt considered that actually, but it might be a great idea.
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    I was initially the same about an iPad, but although you can't use Flash, there's plenty of very cheap/free similar games. Our (now) 4 year old loves mine, especially Plants vs Zombies and Angry Birds - which he's completed (!)

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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    I've just got myself an iPad 2 and my three year old loves it. She can work it absolutely no problem whipping the screens back and forth till she finds what she's after. Games, she's not too bothered about as she loves Virtuoso Piano, a drumkit app and Artrage, a drawing app. I suspect once she finds a game she likes I'll never get the thing off her. There are plenty of games for the iPad that are cheap and often very good. I'm sure your son would find them just as good as the flash games he plays!
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    Good ideas, and the idea of an iPad would be good because I already use itunes, have apps etc.
    The focus for me however is not just on keeping him busy, but on some aspect of educational value given his problems ...

    I have (briefly) played with an Android tablet, and felt that it was quite smooth etc, however think that iOS does have the upper hand with usability.
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    If you're happy with Android I'll take another opportunity to recommend the £130 10" elonex etouch, which is a reasonable Android tablet at a very good price and available from Toys'R'Us - you'll need to hunt through the market for suitable games (it doesn't support flash yet) but it's a very good device for the price.

    Alternatively, Scan have a couple of Atom / Windows tabs: the MSI Windpad 100W which uses the previous generation ultra-low-powered menlow platform (Atom Z530), or the Viewpad 10 which uses the newer Atom N455 and can dual-boot with Android 1.6 (although why you'd want to dual boot such an old version of Android Lord alone knows...). And there's always the Acer Iconia W500, which is an AMD Fusion-based Windows 7 tablet (if you can find it in stock anywhere EDIT: in stock at scan for similar price to the MSI).
    Last edited by scaryjim; 23-05-2011 at 12:20 PM.

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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    I would say have a look at the tablets in store before you buy one. The Asus Eee Transformer has a great 16:10 screen as it worth considering IMHO.

    A lot of the tablets have 10" screens although a few have 7" screens and are a bit smaller(perhaps easier to handle with smaller hands??).

    Also,the number of applications available for Android is rapidly increasing. There are actually more free applications available for Android now than iOS:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...e-2276011.html

    However,I would also consider a touch screen monitor as mentioned before. The display is simply larger and there is loads of educational software available on a PC.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 23-05-2011 at 12:29 PM.

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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    Ok, here's an idea...

    Kogan 7" Android (2.3) tablet for £99
    .
    For that sort of money, i'm prepared for it to not be the very slickest interface.
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    It's worth a stab I reckon. Wouldn't want to shell out for an iPad when it'll more than likely end up down the bog at some point over the next couple of years!

    When I was a kid I spent hours and hours just mucking around on Windows. Didn't have any games really, didn't have an internet connection, just loved pressing things and making stuff fly around the screen. Don't think capability will matter too much in the end.

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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    Done. Bought it, only downside is that the next release date is 8th July... got to wait now

    I'll be sure to post a review here, and am looking forward to my first Android device.
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    Re: Buying a tablet for my son: ideas welcome.

    I'll be intersted to hear what you think of it. With a Cortex A8 based processor you should be good to go with flash and it should run most games pretty well too. Looks like a good find to me!

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