what tech do you use?

[LeafsFanNL]

Hi,

I use my iPhone 5 or my 2013 MacBook Air to read and post in this forum. I was a lifelong PC user, who switched this year. I had a iPhone 3GS which I got in 2010 so I could use Lines on our clandestine December 2010 trip.

What do you use?

 

[afar28]

I mostly use my iPhone 4S, but occasionally use my PC. The WDWmagic app is really helpful for me

 

[G00fyDad]

Android all the way. Tried the iGarbage and hated it. Getting ready to get a Galaxy S4. My S3 still puts my daughter's iPhone 5 to shame. My Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is still the best I have seen for a while. And I can use Lines and the WDW app on my Samsung.

I know that people just love their iPhone, but I don't get it. Probably never will. I walked into the mall and passed the Apple Store and nearly died laughing. It literally looked like a sea of blue shirts and two customers. They need that many "geniuses"?

 

[Zweiland]

I almost always use my PC if I'm at home. The iPhone app and mobile site are both great, but they lack a lot of features such as the post number in the thraed and the signatures. Also, it's harder to post images on an iPhone.

 

[acishere]

Usually I use my Galaxy S4 phone while I'm at work. At home I either use an iPad or my laptop.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Windows 8 PC, Microsoft Surface Tablet (currently using), or iPod touch for emergency use (while in the parks ). I'm a student, and the Surface works better for me than the iPad. I considered the iPad, but I need the Surface for editing MS office files when I don't have my laptop. That, and I have a program that converts DVDs to digital, and this one has more memory, plus expansion options for more memory. The iPad is nice though. My mom has one. I've borrowed it before. I don't understand Macs, they're out of what my parents and I are willing to pay for a computer, and sometimes people I know who have Macs at school have had trouble when getting files over to the school computers, which are PCs. I love my iPod. I'm probably upgrading to the 5th generation. But I don't love iTunes.

 

[SAV]

PC...I still have a dumb phone, so no fancy apps for me. I'm hoping to enter the smartphone world as soon as my contract expires or they let me upgrade early. Already have decided on the Galaxy S4.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

Android all the way. Tried the iGarbage and hated it. Getting ready to get a Galaxy S4. My S3 still puts my daughter's iPhone 5 to shame. My Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is still the best I have seen for a while. And I can use Lines and the WDW app on my Samsung.

I know that people just love their iPhone, but I don't get it. Probably never will. I walked into the mall and passed the Apple Store and nearly died laughing. It literally looked like a sea of blue shirts and two customers. They need that many "geniuses"?

I'm used to iOS, like how it works, and didn't see any advantage for me to switch to Android. Not saying Android is better or worse. Never seen the need to enter the flame wars. Lots of room for both.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

I don't understand Macs, they're out of what my parents and I are willing to pay for a computer, and sometimes people I know who have Macs at school have had trouble when getting files over to the school computers, which are PCs.

In 2011 DW and I both bought Dell laptops, which cost about $750 each, we need laptops as we are both teachers. I had purchased Dell desktops and a laptop in 2008 from the online store and always been happy. When these machines arrived I was really shock how flimsy and cheap they seemed, and would not have bought them had I seen them in a store. Mine died after 14 months. I shopped for a PC replacement and found that everything I saw was plastic and looked cheap. I started looking at MacBook Airs at our local BestBuys, liked the physical components a lot. Looking on the web, I noticed that there were comparable PC's with similar form and build quality, but to my surprise they were mostly on par with the Macs or more expensive, sometimes much more. Also, these high end machines were never available in the stores, so I couldn't try them out.

After doing more research, and getting used to OS X, I bought the new 2013 11 inch air. With educational discount it was $949. Not much more than the $750 for the hunk o'junk Dell.

As a teacher, I have to open a lot of Word files. Pages (Apple's word processor) opens all the Word files I get, and I can export Pages files as Word files. Same thin for numbers and Keynote. the three apps cost me $60. If I have issues in the future, I can buy MS office for the Mac, but its $250.

I'm turning 47 this weekend, and I have used computers since high school, anyone remember VIC 20's with 4K of ram?, was a DOS guy, and with my first teaching pay check, bought a 486 PC. But this Mac is the best machine I have ever used.

iOS devices are just tools to me, and if someone prefers Android or Surface pro, meh, good for you, but everyone looking for a laptop should have a look at MacBook Air.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

In 2011 DW and I both bought Dell laptops, which cost about $750 each, we need laptops as we are both teachers. I had purchased Dell desktops and a laptop in 2008 from the online store and always been happy. When these machines arrived I was really shock how flimsy and cheap they seemed, and would not have bought them had I seen them in a store. Mine died after 14 months. I shopped for a PC replacement and found that everything I saw was plastic and looked cheap. I started looking at MacBook Airs at our local BestBuys, liked the physical components a lot. Looking on the web, I noticed that there were comparable PC's with similar form and build quality, but to my surprise they were mostly on par with the Macs or more expensive, sometimes much more. Also, these high end machines were never available in the stores, so I couldn't try them out.

After doing more research, and getting used to OS X, I bought the new 2013 11 inch air. With educational discount it was $949. Not much more than the $750 for the hunk o'junk Dell.

As a teacher, I have to open a lot of Word files. Pages (Apple's word processor) opens all the Word files I get, and I can export Pages files as Word files. Same thin for numbers and Keynote. the three apps cost me $60. If I have issues in the future, I can buy MS office for the Mac, but its $250.

I'm turning 47 this weekend, and I have used computers since high school, anyone remember VIC 20's with 4K of ram?, was a DOS guy, and with my first teaching pay check, bought a 486 PC. But this Mac is the best machine I have ever used.

iOS devices are just tools to me, and if someone prefers Android or Surface pro, meh, good for you, but everyone looking for a laptop should have a look at MacBook Air.

My brother has a Dell. It's really flimsy. I've already had to replace his power cord. It works fine for him because he basically uses it for Youtube and some homework, but I had an HP that for about the same price was cheaper. His Dell was about $300. I looked into getting a Dell, but thank goodness I didn't. I've got the more expensive HP laptop which I love. I think mine was about $550. I would never even consider switching to a Mac. Not with how good my HP is and the fact that I was still a high school Senior when I bought this, so I didn't yet qualify for student discounts.

My Spanish teacher Senior year had a Mac at home and would have trouble if we didn't send stuff (we did a lot of speaking exams and listening stuff at home) in the correct file format, she would have trouble. Other upperclassmen (I'm a first-year college student) who have had Macs have told me they have issues.

Apple definitely puts quality into their products (hence why I have an iTouch). But as a student, the Surface (I have the RT, not the pro; I paid for the tablet myself and was not willing to throw out more for the pro) works better. My main complaint about it is app availability and the fact that I'm forced onto Internet Explorer. I looked into the iPad, but given my love of keeping movies on my tablet, I went with the tablet that had more memory for the price. That, and I need a keyboard. I take notes in class with that.

I'm surprised you can't get Office for lower. I know you don't teach college, but I can get it for $25 (Mac or Windows). I would think they'd make that price available to grade-level teachers as well. But I had to go through my college store when I bought it too.

As far as Android goes, I have an Android phone because that's the one I could get through my plan. Like Windows, it depends on the model phone that you get. Mine is fairly decent and what I expected for the price; my mom has one that is horrible. I like their app store. Ironically, some games (Temple Run, Candy Crush Saga, Pet Rescue Saga) run better on my dinky little Android than the iTouch. Of course, the iTouch is getting old, but still.

 

[Lucky]

desktop at work; usually iPhone5 away from work, but work-issued laptop if I am doing anything with images - someday when I return the laptop an IT person will be totally confused by the random collection of downloaded photos

 

[LeafsFanNL]

My Spanish teacher Senior year had a Mac at home and would have trouble if we didn't send stuff (we did a lot of speaking exams and listening stuff at home) in the correct file format, she would have trouble. Other upperclassmen (I'm a first-year college student) who have had Macs have told me they have issues.

I'm surprised you can't get Office for lower. I know you don't teach college, but I can get it for $25 (Mac or Windows). I would think they'd make that price available to grade-level teachers as well. But I had to go through my college store when I bought it too.

The Surface RT looks pretty good, but I'm not really a tablet guy. My 12 year olds use last years iPad minis, they play games on them, but they have recently used a concept mapping app for school work. They have also used Pages to do school reports. My wife has the 4th generation iPad. she does her report card comments on them via the dictation feature on Notes.

I briefly considered replacing my Dell with an iPad, but I'm too old school. I want an attached keyboard and an OS that is more robust than a tablet OS. the screen on the 11" Air has the exactly the same height as a full size iPad held in Landscape mode, and is an inch or so wider. In my mind I have an iPad sized laptop. Albeit with a really nice keyboard and the nicest touchpad I have used. These Airs have flash memory storage on the main board, and it does a cold boot in 12 seconds, and wakes up as fast as I can open the lids. Programs are really zippy when I launch them as well.

Your Spanish teacher must not have been very technically adept. I've been opening 10 year old powerpoint files from when I started Grad School using Keynote and the slides are perfectly transformed. I haven't had compatibility issues since I bought this in June. I'll shell out the $250 at the drop of a hat for Office if I need to, but not if I don't. So far so good.

I still have a 7 year old Dell desktop downstairs running XP, there is a 2008 Dell laptop that is unused as it is so slow, it runs Vista, and DW has her 2011 Dell laptop running windows 7. As you know, upgrading the OS isn't cheap. My Mac came with OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). When 10.9 (Mavericks) was announced last summer, I figured the upgrade would be $20 or so, turns out Apple made it free. Easy peasy to install too, just go to the Mac app store.

I'm not trying to convince you or anything, It's just been such a revelation to me, that I like to share it with others.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

PC...I still have a dumb phone, so no fancy apps for me. I'm hoping to enter the smartphone world as soon as my contract expires or they let me upgrade early. Already have decided on the Galaxy S4.

Go Leafs, Go Jets!!

 

[lazyboy97o]

My Spanish teacher Senior year had a Mac at home and would have trouble if we didn't send stuff (we did a lot of speaking exams and listening stuff at home) in the correct file format, she would have trouble. Other upperclassmen (I'm a first-year college student) who have had Macs have told me they have issues.

Issues with files between OS X and Windows transferring at this point in time would likely still arise if using the same operating system. It's more about knowing the specific software and it's file formats. Changes over time can complicate the process and some companies really limit the ability of older software. I don't use PowerPoint if I don't know the computer I'll be using because I've soon too many become a mess.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Issues with files between OS X and Windows transferring at this point in time would likely still arise if using the same operating system. It's more about knowing the specific software and it's file formats. Changes over time can complicate the process and some companies really limit the ability of older software. I don't use PowerPoint if I don't know the computer I'll be using because I've soon too many become a mess.

Make sense. The teacher I had was not particularly technologically literate, lol.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Make sense. The teacher I had was not particularly technologically literate, lol.

On the inverse, audio files can get very large very quickly or get very small and very lousy very quickly. A lot of students likely would have given no consideration to an optimal format and just clicked "Save."

 

[StarWarsGirl]

The Surface RT looks pretty good, but I'm not really a tablet guy. My 12 year olds use last years iPad minis, they play games on them, but they have recently used a concept mapping app for school work. They have also used Pages to do school reports. My wife has the 4th generation iPad. she does her report card comments on them via the dictation feature on Notes.

I'm not wild about that feature. I've used it when I've had my mom's iPad (she handed it to me and said, "Please entertain yourself" and I wasn't about to say no!) to dictate emails. Though it was kind of funny when I was saying Derek Jeter and it kept coming out as Derek Cheater . Siri is awesome though. Half the time I'm like, "Why are you asking me? Ask Siri." The she hands it to me and I ask Siri, lol.

I briefly considered replacing my Dell with an iPad, but I'm too old school. I want an attached keyboard and an OS that is more robust than a tablet OS. the screen on the 11" Air has the exactly the same height as a full size iPad held in Landscape mode, and is an inch or so wider. In my mind I have an iPad sized laptop. Albeit with a really nice keyboard and the nicest touchpad I have used. These Airs have flash memory storage on the main board, and it does a cold boot in 12 seconds, and wakes up as fast as I can open the lids. Programs are really zippy when I launch them as well.

Tablets have their advantages and disadvantages. I like mine because it's small and portable. I can stick it in my purse. And since mine works like a regular computer...but I can see why some people may not like it.

Your Spanish teacher must not have been very technically adept. I've been opening 10 year old powerpoint files from when I started Grad School using Keynote and the slides are perfectly transformed. I haven't had compatibility issues since I bought this in June. I'll shell out the $250 at the drop of a hat for Office if I need to, but not if I don't. So far so good.

You got that right, lol. She's not. It's possible to convert files I know (I've got files sitting here on my computer that are from the old Windows ME).

I still have a 7 year old Dell desktop downstairs running XP, there is a 2008 Dell laptop that is unused as it is so slow, it runs Vista, and DW has her 2011 Dell laptop running windows 7. As you know, upgrading the OS isn't cheap. My Mac came with OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). When 10.9 (Mavericks) was announced last summer, I figured the upgrade would be $20 or so, turns out Apple made it free. Easy peasy to install too, just go to the Mac app store.

I'm not trying to convince you or anything, It's just been such a revelation to me, that I like to share it with others.

Just go ahead and stick with XP. It's a nice solid operating system. 7 is fine too. Maybe even a bit better than 8 (it depends who you ask). I can upgrade for about $20 if I ever needed to, but you're right; not a student, not cheap. Although MS released 8.1 for free if you had an 8. Apple definitely does have it's advantages, but the few times I've used a Mac I've gotten very confused with it. I'm comfortable with the Windows OS, and it works for my price range. But hey, if you like Macs and are willing to pay for them, go for it.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

On the inverse, audio files can get very large very quickly or get very small and very lousy very quickly. A lot of students likely would have given no consideration to an optimal format and just clicked "Save."

True, she required us to save in MP3 format. Or if students were using the recording feature on the iPhone or iPod Touch and sent it to her, she could open it.

 

[G00fyDad]

In 2011 DW and I both bought Dell laptops, which cost about $750 each, we need laptops as we are both teachers. I had purchased Dell desktops and a laptop in 2008 from the online store and always been happy. When these machines arrived I was really shock how flimsy and cheap they seemed, and would not have bought them had I seen them in a store. Mine died after 14 months. I shopped for a PC replacement and found that everything I saw was plastic and looked cheap. I started looking at MacBook Airs at our local BestBuys, liked the physical components a lot. Looking on the web, I noticed that there were comparable PC's with similar form and build quality, but to my surprise they were mostly on par with the Macs or more expensive, sometimes much more. Also, these high end machines were never available in the stores, so I couldn't try them out.

After doing more research, and getting used to OS X, I bought the new 2013 11 inch air. With educational discount it was $949. Not much more than the $750 for the hunk o'junk Dell.

As a teacher, I have to open a lot of Word files. Pages (Apple's word processor) opens all the Word files I get, and I can export Pages files as Word files. Same thin for numbers and Keynote. the three apps cost me $60. If I have issues in the future, I can buy MS office for the Mac, but its $250.

I'm turning 47 this weekend, and I have used computers since high school, anyone remember VIC 20's with 4K of ram?, was a DOS guy, and with my first teaching pay check, bought a 486 PC. But this Mac is the best machine I have ever used.

iOS devices are just tools to me, and if someone prefers Android or Surface pro, meh, good for you, but everyone looking for a laptop should have a look at MacBook Air.

Trust me, I did. Couldn't believe how much something cost that fell so far short of its less expensive PC counterparts.

 

[LeafsFanNL]

Trust me, I did. Couldn't believe how much something cost that fell so far short of its less expensive PC counterparts.

I can't think of a thing I'd change in my machine if I could, but I'm curious to see if can outline your objections, Pick a machine, giving me a link to it, and I'll be better able to compare.