[Leica] Hand troubles

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

Thanks, Phil, Sonny and everyone else.

I went to the local Apple store today and looked at the iPad Mini 
Retina.  While I liked it, two things stopped me:

1. Price, especially when the salesperson started steering me towards 
the more expensive iPad Air, informed me I'd need a $60-90 case, and by 
the way, let's set you up with an Apple ID, and how much Cloud service 
are you going to need...

2. The voice recognition software doesn't let you find a word or phrase 
on a Web page and click on it. So I still would be using my fingers for 
browsing beyond the initial lookup or URL. And in that case, why pay 
Apple prices since I'm a PC guy and not already in their orbit? Both 
iPad and Android will let you answer an email using voice dictation, and 
both will search the Web and open an app via voice.

For a good deal less cash, I can pick up a current Nexus 7 tablet, which 
appears to do what I want, and has very good reviews. It will still get 
me off the PC and mouse for mail and casual browsing, which is the point 
of this exercise. So if somebody thinks that this choice is really dumb 
for some reason, please let me know, because the Nexus 7 is looking very 
good to me.

As far as alternate pointing devices and ergonomic setup, I'm 
corresponding with a hand doctor who is also a musician, and will check 
with my own doc for a referral next week.  I'm going to play with 
Windows' voice recognition to see how I like it on the PC before 
springing for Dragon, but that's a possibility, too.  A cell-enabled 
tablet is not necessary for me, because my little Tracfone can do 
rudimentary Web over the cell network--it's just that the tiny screen 
makes most picture content too small.

--Peter


 > Like Sonny, I've had great luck with the iPad Mini (retina). It probably
 > handles 80% of my computer tasks with ease. As others have said, it's not
 > ideal for serious keyboarding but for most other tasks I love it. If 
you go
 > that route you'll also need to consider whether to get one that 
allows you
 > to work where there's no wifi (via data plan). I decided against it for
 > economy, and also because I use mine mostly at home where I have wifi.
 >
 > BTW, photos look stunning on the retina display.
 >
 >
 > --
 > Phil Swango
 > 307 Aliso Dr SE
 > Albuquerque, NM 87108
 > 505-262-4085