Differences Between e-Readers and Tablets

The CNET Community, in its Tablets Forum, offers a comparison between e-readers and tablets—information that you may find helpful this holiday season in choosing gifts. Advice is given in answer to a question from a parent of an eight-year-old who wants to know what is the best mobile device for her child. Answers include visiting an electronics store to have a salesperson demo different products, finding products that fit the interest and age level of the child, going with tablets because they have more functionality, and thinking about going to the library for traditional books if all that is needed is a book reader. Some CNET members suggest that if parents already have an iPhone, for example, that purchasing an iPad or iPod Touch is a good idea.

Parents should also keep in mind that schools are successfully putting digital devices to work in classrooms with younger children. Tablets have more flexibility for learning activities and, because they are dressed in a sturdy case, they usually can endure time in backpacks and accidental drops. Of course, checking with school personnel about devices that children can bring to school and use in the classroom is always wise advice.

Coming Soon Perhaps: Bendable Devices

Teachers and parents worry over dropped smart phones and digital devices, but that won’t be a problem when bendable, unbreakable digital devices come on the market. Samsung is working on “mass production of displays using plastic rather than glass”, and Sony has been working on it as well.  There are prototypes, but the companies have not solved the problems involved in mass production. Unbreakable digital devices, when available and affordable, will certainly be welcomed in schools and at home.

A Road Trip with Apps

I have to admit this summer I have had a lot of fun reading “sage” wisdom from the older generation about how we shouldn’t be downloading apps to keep our children busy in the car on long road trips. So often I read things like “just watching the scenery go by was enough for me and my family.”

Yeah right. Like the parents of past generations wouldn’t have downloaded apps to keep kids busy in the car if they had been available. You have to be kidding me, right? Most parents, under these kinds of circumstances, use whatever means available to them to keep kids amused.

For an honest look at how apps do and don’t work on an honest to goodness road trip, take a look at Hitting the Road, With Apps.