iPad + Autism = match made in heaven

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I'm on the fence about buying an IPAD or android compatible tablet. Why do you like android better?

They sure did think everything through. Marketing genius.

The strength of Apple is, because it’s so totalitarian (controls every aspect of its technology), the products run nice and smooth. BUT, that control and lack of competition also allows Apple to charge extremely high prices…

Compared to Apple, the rest of the technology market is wide open. With PCs, various non-apple tablets and smart phones, and operating systems like windows, android/Linux, there’s a lot more diversity and competition. This usually means better prices, but it also means things are a lot more complex—things don’t always work right, certain combinations of hardware/software can be unexpectedly toxic to one another… Like in the real world, messiness is the price you pay for freedom and diversity in technology.

There’s no denying Apple makes some sexy technology. Unfortunately, the democrat/punk in me can’t abide the elitist, authoritarian mentality behind the Apple Corporation and the way they market their overpriced, underpowered tech (compare the specs of a netbook to an iPad).

I have no doubt that an iPad like device could be very helpful/therapeutic with autistic kids, but giving these kids actual iPads at $500.00 a pop is asinine. Parents and schools need to explore the emerging, value conscious alternatives like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet. At less than half the cost of an iPad, those products make a lot more sense.

Those other tablets are half the price for a reason. There's also a reason why Android tablets make up such a tiny percentage of the overall market.

I find my iPad very useful for my education. It has apps for every lesson, all of which are of high quality and use to me. (As a side note, most of the apps I've used on Android have been of significantly lower quality in comparison to their iOS counterparts.)

One of the main reasons they're half the cost is because they aren't made by Apple. The new Nook has some pretty robust specs and even the more modest Fire punches way above its "price weight."



Well, we'll have to see what Amazon and B&N serve up for their new hardware.

Remember, we're talking about younger kids here--some with significant impairment--both platforms already have some good content aimed at little kids.

This is just the reader, not the new tablet... I think it's a much better choice for little kids.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sldoNrcsIvg[/youtube]

Not at all. The Kindle Fire, for example, actually costs more to make than it does to buy. Amazon is making a loss on every single unit they sell.



I'm sure they'll make some very nice pre-loaded apps and launchers, don't get me wrong, but the Android Market apps are of lower quality. Hell, the Kindle Fire and Nook won't even have the Android Market! Even worse.



Yes but giving kids with learning difficulties low-budget, low-quality gadgets won't do them much good.



It won't offer the same flexibility. You have to hack the thing just to get apps on it (and if an app isn't on the proprietary app store systems B&N and Amazon have to make, you have to hack the tablets too).

Honestly, it's a lot more stress and it's just not worth it, especially since educational institutions probably get a discount on the iPads anyway, especially if they're being bought in bulk.

How does this not support my point? Amazon is willing to take a small loss on the hardware end because they know, (using a very Apple-like system) they’ll make it up selling content.
Frankly, Apple gouges its customers on hardware and locks them in to one content source.
That is just greed, plain and simple.

I don’t think you want to make this argument. The Android Market is an open, third party market. IPads don’t have access to anything like that either.
The Nook and Fire will have EXACTLY what iPads have, a closed market run by the parent company that contains only company-approved apps.
If it’s good enough for iPads, why isn’t it good enough for Fire and Nook?

Okay, this is just baseless and silly. Last generation kindles and nooks were just fine. There’s no reason to think these will be “low quality gadgets.”


Okay, this is simply wrong. Both the Fire and the Nook ARE DESIGNED TO RUN APPS! They will have an apps store modeled after Apple’s app store. No hacking required.
Sure iPad has more apps right now, but these products have just launched and both already have 1000+ apps available.


PS
And just to be clear, the Nook color/reader (shown above) can run apps without hacking thanks to one of the four software upgrades B&N has supplied FREE OF CHARGE since launch.

B&N could have forced customers to buy their new tablet for app support, but they didn't...

When's the last time an Apple product was upgraded like that free of charge?

Well, they hope they'll make it up by selling content, yes, but my point is that selling hardware at such a low price isn't really sustainable. Even most Android tablets are iPad price. And the only reason that Amazon can charge less is because Amazon's content is the only way you can actually use the device - it has to pull things from Amazon's "cloud", doesn't it? Because it has minimal internal storage, and other skimping on the specs.

Amazon is actually doing the same as Apple content-wise, but they are in fact worse, since using their cloud service is the only way to actually get content on the Fire.



It's a massive headache for both developers and customers to have to deal with multiple app stores. Really, it'd make more sense for Google to just let all tablets into the Android Market, but their system is so damn "open" that tablets are, ironically, closed out



You get what you pay for. Cheap products are made of cheap components.



They don't even have the proper Android Market



Umm, the iOS 5 update that came out last month? And the iOS 4 one that came out before then? And so on...

^^^ Okay....

We could continue to derail this thread with argument, but I think it's better if we simply agree to disagree. You're an Apple fan and I'm not. We're never going to find common ground here.

To my original point, I still think the iPad is much too expensive to give to a child.

The new value oriented tablets will be available in stores by the first of next month or before (Nook at Barnes & Noble and Fire should be available at Best Buy, Target , etc).

I would urge parents to go do a hands-on with the Nook, Fire, and iPad before making a decision.

I think most parents will find either the fire or the nook more than adequate for their child's needs.



Here's a decent comparison article too. <-click!


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Personally, I'm going to pick up a Nook Tablet for me (grown-ups need toys too). For half the price of an iPad the Nook beats it with twice the RAM (512MB to 1GB) and up to twice the on-board storage (both have 16GB, but Nook is expandable to 32GB via SD card).

...and within a month or two I'm sure I'll be able to buy or build an Android boot card, allowing me to run the tablet as generic tablet or a Nook as I choose.

VIVA LA FREEDOM! (at a good price)