tubemonkey
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Posts posted by tubemonkey
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My 7 year old wants to try out a tablet of her own this year. She plays games mostly, including reading and coloring games, which is why I'd like to get her a larger tablet (~10in) instead of a smaller one. I've been looking over the black friday ads that are out so far, and Sears will have a trio stealth g4 10.1in quad core tablet with 16gb memory for $100 plus $20 back in points. I didn't find much in terms of reviews of this online. Anyone have experience with this brand, or recommendations on other models? We spend about $100 per kid for Christmas (with 4 kids), so this plus maybe some accessories would be all she gets. I'd be willing to spend a little more if there is a significantly better brand/product, but I can't really go over ~$150 or so. Thanks for the help!
Personally, I always avoid these no-name Chinese tablets and prefer to get quality brands backed up by reliable customer service and warranties.
If I was getting a tablet for a 7-yo, I'd get her a Kindle Fire HD. I'd go with Amazon for several reasons:
excellent 24/7 customer service
great parental controls via Amazon FreeTime
great ecosystem with lots of free content and credits
if the tablet is defective, they send you a replacement immediately - you send the defective one back after you get the replacement
the HD's are pretty sturdy and you can get inexpensive rugged cases for them
Amazon has a Kids Edition - it's more expensive, but the overall bundle is cheaper than buying individually
Meijer and Kmart have the lowest BF prices so far - Meijer: HD6 $59, HD7 $89, HD6 Kids $119 and Kmart: HD6 $70 (prices after subtracting the store coupons, points, or cards they give you)
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Definitely online. I'd rather battle cyber mobs than the real thing. It's even easier when you don't have must-have specific items on your shopping list. I look for the best online deal I can get in a category and settle for that.
Come 6am Thanksgiving morning, I'm usually done
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Uh oh for Costco -- they're being praised for being one of the stores that will be closed on Thanksgiving, thereby allowing their employees to be with their families. That's all well and good, except they're not going to be completely closed.
Costco.com will be open on Thanksgiving -- which means Costco employees will be working that day
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I take no one, because I do all of my shopping on my computer.
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And last year Walmart had an awesome deal on iPad mini with a $100 Walmart gift card.
Best Buy did the same thing.
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Doesn't Target do that?
No idea. Haven't been to a Target BF in over 10 years.
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I no longer go out thanks to online deals. But when I did, my biggest pet peeve was line cutters. The last year I went out (I forget which store it was), the store used shopping carts to control the line. The line formed along the side of the store and the shopping carts were positioned in such a way that that it forced the line to be single file. Also, near the doors, the carts were lined up three wide. That totally prevented people from cutting in line or bum rushing the doors at opening. Brilliant thinking. Wish more stores were that prepared.
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TubeMonkey - thanks for the pointers - she's arleady saying she doesn't think she'll be doing much creation - more browsing. That was part of the reason for the tablet over the 2 in 1. I was a little surprised as she does some work on her mini laptop. I plan on going with her to do some hands on. Won't be any surprise since she's laying out what she wants anyway. The early deals at Walmart just today have a couple of models on sale - no idea if that's a good price yet.
On another thing you posted - how did you convert BB cards to Amazon?
Consider an iPad mini 2. Don't get the mini 3 because it's $100 more and the only thing Apple changed on it this year was the addition of a fingerprint scanner. Is that worth $100 to you? If she doesn't plan to store lots of music and videos on the tablet, then 16GB will probably be plenty, not to mention cheaper.
Watch the ads and see if it goes on sale. Last year, both Best Buy and Walmart sold the 16GB mini 1 for $299 and it came with a free $100 gift card. That was a great deal. Hopefully they'll offer something similar for the mini 2 this year.
Best Buy let me use my $100 BB gift cards to buy Amazon gift cards. I don't know if they do it anymore, but they did last year. What they wouldn't allow was buying prepaid Visa cards with them.
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I am still kicking myself for not getting the ipad mini at Wal-Mart last year. I hope they have something similar this year.
Best Buy did the same thing last year too -- $299 + $100 BB gift card. I got two minis and then converted the BB gift cards to Amazon gift cards.
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Wife dropped a hint about a new tablet this year to replace her old mini laptop. She's used to Apple products so I'm considering an iPad. Couple of questions - Does anyone know off hand a "good-great" price range for each type and what's the deal with the "Retina" display? Is it really that much better?
Your first step is to decide which screen size she wants 9.7" (iPad) or 7.9" (iPad mini). The next step is to determine how she wants to use the tablet. Casual (web surfing, email, Facebook, streaming, simple games) or productivity (office, documents, spreadsheets, presentations) or photo editing or something else. That'll determine how much she needs in the way of hardware and storage. This year, Apple eliminated 32GB from its lineup, so the new models go 16GB, 64GB, 128GB (at $100 for each bump up). The full size iPad is $100 more than the iPad mini at each storage level. She might get by with a refurbished older model or she may need the newest one. Use will determine which one she should get.
As to retina display, it's just an Apple invented term for higher resolution displays that produce sharper images and text. All high end tablets from other makers have displays that equal or exceed Apple's. The last 4 iPads and last 2 iPad minis have had retina displays, so more than likely, that's what she'll end up with anyway.
Find out how she wants to use it and get back to me.
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A couple of retailers have some out and said they are NOT opening on Thanksgiving day this year, while others have pushed times earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving. As a Black Friday shopper, what's your opinion?
Let's encourage even earlier hours. Then in a few years, they'll be opening on Wednesday. Problem solved.
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any chance the fire is on sale on BF?
Strong chance. Two Kindle Fires were on sale last Cyber Monday (Sun-Mon), each one $50 off. Here's Amazon's press release:
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As long as other non-essential services remain open (movie theaters, restaurants, fast food, football games, bars, resorts, etc), I see nothing wrong with large retailers joining the fray.
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Official Black Friday TABLET Discussion Thread
in 2014
Posted
How old is she and does it need to be a 10" tablet?