The tablet love affair

 

I subscribe to the Hackernews feed, and recently came across a post, someone was declaring that Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over. An excerpt:

Back in 2011, I was having an all-consuming love affair with tablets. At the time, I was the first-ever head of mobile at Netflix. I saw tablets in my sleep, running apps that would control homes, entertain billions and dutifully chug away at work. Tablets, I was convinced, were a third device category, a tweener that would fill the vacuum between a phone and a laptop. I knew that was asking a lot — at the time, however, I didn’t know just how much…..

…The tablet couldn’t possibly shoulder all the expectations people had for it. Not a replacement for your laptop or phone — but kinda. Something you kick back with in the living room, fire up at work and also carry with you everywhere — sort of. Yes, tablets have sold in large numbers, but rather than being a constant companion, like we envisioned, most tablets today sit idle on coffee tables and nightstands. Simply put, our love for them is dying.

Nice revelation. But I had arrived at this conclusion over two years ago. Good to see the rest of the world catching up.

The tablet frenzy as we know it, began with Apple’s launch of it’s Pads. Having used a computer for more than 20 years, and laptop for the last 3, I really couldn’t see how this puny device could revolutionize my personal computing experience. I used a decent enough feature phone, smart enough to browse the net. And I had a desktop and laptop for my core programming needs. And I didn’t buy it that a tablet could replace my laptop anytime soon. After all, its not just about processor speeds and memory, right ? The interface of a tablet was programmer un-friendly, and the fact that you needed one hand just to hold it up, meant that it was more like a book.

A book. That is where this device could help me. Reading has always been my only hobby, but lately I was finding lesser time everyday to read. And the fact that book prices were not coming down, and that books of my favorite  genres was even harder to find, meant that I was not buying enough books. A quick search online revealed that free , and even hacked/pirated ebook/pdf versions of books were easily available. Much much easier to get, and cheap (read free).

Over a year ago, I decided to get a cheap 7” tablet, strictly for reading. And maybe some browsing. But nothing more than that. The cheapest android based tablets available online as well as at retailers in Bangalore back then was around 12000 /-. The cheapest ebook reader was a 3 year old kindle at 7000, and the Pi at 1000 /- !

Seriously. Something was wrong here. Whatever happened to those cheap chinese knock offs ?

One sunday, I walked to Bangalore’s Burma bazar. This is the hub of all grey market electronics in the city. You may not get a warranty on the stuff you buy from here, but you are guranteed lowest prices.

After 4 hours of searching, I finally decided and purchased  a Chinese made Allwinner tablet for 2000/- rupees. A pretty decent design, light enough, and strong build. It was running Android 4.0.4 ICS. And had Wifi, but no 3G.

This has to be one of my best investments so far. I did have my share of problems with the battery and Wifi connectivity issues on it. But being a trained engineer, and a  DIYer by passion, I found ways every time.

And exactly as I had expected, the device has not replaced my laptop. I use it to read. I have rediscovered reading, my long lost hobby. Right now I have over 200 ebooks on it, and some songs. I carry it with me on all my long journeys, I imagine carrying my own library of books with me. My favorite genre is Victorian English literature, the ones I grew up with. Most of the books from this time have gone into public domain, and are freely available. My other favourites: PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Michael Crichton , Dan Brown and Tolkein – I was able to find every book by these authors online.

Being an RSS fan, I catch up with my feeds on Google reader, now Greader and Feedly. Its nice to have a device which serves it’s purpose just right, without putting a hole in your wallet.

I am happy to say my affair with my tablet is still on.