Month: June 2012

One Tablet PC Per Child Tablet PC aka “iPad10”

I got to test out a number of Tablet PCs at one of the education projects I’m helping out. My opinion is that they are complete crap and even worse than I expected at the 81 USD price mark, for several reasons:

  • Of 6 units I tested, 2 were obviously defective (one would not charge past 12% and one constantly emitted a high-pitch squeal)
  • Overall build quality is poor
  • Devices show deep scratches, bubbles under the protective film, and other physical damage as delivered
  • Most of the cases I saw (I only checked a dozen or so out of 40 units delivered) were black or white, with some hot pink thrown in. This is a horrible thing for distributing to a group of kids.
  • Battery life is the worst I’ve ever heard of for any tablet PC – under 30 minutes of normal use
  • The touch screen is unresponsive and frustrating (removing the protective film made it a bit better, but resulted in really bad smudging)
  • Even though the battery capacity is so limited, charging time from near empty is around 80 minutes
  • Even the power adapters are crap; they get very hot and the cords are too short
  • This tablet is the second slowest I’ve ever used – the first being a very similar Chinese unit I tested two years ago
  • This tablet features perhaps the only graphical user interface I’ve ever used that doesn’t support drag and drop
  • The Android OS loads so slow, it has time to show off 3 boot screens/loading sequences

On the positive side:

  • The accessories for the tablets are good. The case, USB keyboard, and USB/ethernet dongle work just fine.
  • The product markings make for a fine conversation piece (iPad5, iPad6, iPad10, 4G, 64GB)

 

Software info:

Merry-go-round

These were probably taken at Gilroy Gardens, but it’s hard to say since we rode so many carousels on our trip home. It’s definitely not the Santa Ana zoo, either of the South Coast Plaza ones, or the one that used to be at Balboa Island, since the new owners are apparently complete dumbasses who forced the 80-year-old attraction away from the iconic Fun Zone. Such is progress when shitbirds call the shots.

Over the hump

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Mommy will be back soon.

Trying something new today: Mina went to stay with Nam’s family, and Max is with daddy. They’ve never been split apart like this and I was curious to see how they would cope. So far, it’s just not been an issue for Max; we’ve had a blast eating yogurt, playing with legos and drawing pictures. No call from the in-laws means Mina is probably fine, too. Who could have guessed?

168 hours of “where’s mommy?”

Nam left for Japan last night and will return in exactly one week. Mina slept like a log, but Max woke up a bunch of times and needed attention… I’m sure they’ll take turns throughout the week, but for today, Mina is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Max is eating and recharging slowly, and daddy needs a lot more sleep. Luckily, our favorite nanny (P’Kaew) is working for us again and comes every day to help out.