Monday, March 25, 2013

I wish I had more time to write…

So it's been almost 2 weeks since I posted anything to my makeup blog, and almost three weeks now since I posted anything here. I actually have a bunch of stuff to write about both here and there, but with school, and trying to make space for my new computer, I've been really busy.

I had 2 presentations in the past little while, as well as 2 papers. One of which I handed in late and only part finished, planning to take a hit to my grade and then do it better for the revision mark. Instead, my prof was nice enough to let me take a few more days, do my research, and hand in the paper tomorrow, but that means that I now have to finish another 1000-2000 more words by tomorrow night at nine. After that, I'm hoping to get some posts done for you, and line them up so it doesn't look like I'm behind again for a while, since I will then have more work to do ... with 2 more research papers and a short paper due before the end of the semester.

But Wednesday is my birthday, so I shan't be doing any work then, or even going to class. So that should be a good time to write some posts for y'all.

Anyways, thanks for sticking with me while I'm silent. I'll be back soon, I swear <3

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

I want it… (Google’s Nexus 7 Tablet)

So, I used to think that tablets are pretty useless and too expensive to be worth it. You have a laptop, you have a smartphone, why do you also need a device that lives somewhere in between those two worlds? However, I’ve come to really really want one, specifically the Nexus 7.

Image taken from Google.com

Why?

Because, I think it could actually be really useful, for a few reasons:

1) pdfs: I’m a university student, and, though they used to make us buy essentially books full of printed-off pdfs which were more expensive than God’s togas, most profs, or at least all the upper-level class profs have stopped making those part of the book lists and have started either posting pdfs to WebCT, or else emailing them out when they are needed. This is great from an environmental standpoint, right? Less wasted trees? Yeah, sure, until you realise they expect you to have these articles in class… So unless you have a laptop or an ipad (or other tablet), that means printing them off. And they are not always short, I’ve had some spanning 40-50 pages!

So, long story short, having a tablet would be an easily portable way to bring those documents to class without carting my 16” laptop around (which doesn’t hold more than a 2 hours charge), or else murdering my phone’s battery.

2) eBooks: I love paper books, and I will never buy an ereader, though I will admit that sometimes ebooks would be super useful. Classics, for instance, are often free on ebook apps, be that Kobo, Kindle, or Google Play. Also, some books are massive, and it’s not fun carting a 500 page book around with you to read on the bus, so maybe buying (or borrowing from the library. Yes, you can borrow ebooks if your library is cool enough) big books would be a nice alternative. Also, for travelling, it would be a lot lighter.

2.5) Cheap magazines: the Google Play store lets you buy single digital issues of magazines, or else subscribe to a digital version of a magazine, and for a lot cheaper than a hard copy. In the case of magazines, this sounds pretty awesome, since Canadian subscriptions to American or British magazines are a little pricey, and those are, of course, my favourites. UK Cosmo, for example is more than a dollar less per issue, and a subscription almost looks reasonable, whereas a sub to Canada, for a hard copy, is over a hundred a year! Also, less magazines lying around that I’ll never look at again, but have a hard time throwing out!

3) Apps: I love my phone, but by technological standards, it’s really getting on in age. (He’s an HTC Legend, and yes, he also has a name: Seth. I’m a little odd, so all my devices have names >_>). Anyways, my phone is as full as his little brain can handle, and his OS is a little out of date, so a tablet would let me use newer and bigger apps, which I might want to use, but just don’t have space for. Like the really cool feature of new YouTube, which lets you preload your new videos to your device for watching offline.

Image taken from Google.com

Anyways, it sounds like a really great idea. I tried to convince myself I didn’t need one, but my pro/con list wasn’t very convincing:

Pros

Cons

1. ebook reader 1. expensive: ~$255
2. portable 2. already have phone & laptop
3. pdf viewer 3. would also want case/cover; added cost
4. 16 gigs and new OS (plus, gets updates)  
5. new YouTube (and other new apps)  
6. cheaper magazines  
7. holds charge for a long time (I think it’s like 10 or 11 hours)  
8. It’s shiny…  

However, all that said, I think my first con was a very important one; as a currently-unemployed student, $255 bucks (the tablet is $209 CAD, plus shipping and taxes and such) is a lot of money, and would come out of my student loan money. Granted, I could argue to myself—because who else cares?—that it’s okay to use student loan money for this because it is first and foremost a purchase to make my school life easier.

So, my plan is to try to cut back my spending for a couple of weeks, and if I can do that, I might actually allow myself to buy this very expensive, but very shiny piece of technology… and really it’s been such a long time since I got a new geeky toy! (If you don’t count sci-fi-esque merchandise…)

Anyways, if you actually read all that, thanks for reading! <3

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