Techy device for 9 & 11 year old

Red Pepper

Somehow I have managed to raise 2 girls (9 and 11) without any of the techy devices or gadgets that everyone seems to be getting lately e.g. Xboxes, DSs (?), Wii, Ipod, Ipad etc. We only have 4 TV channels too but they don't watch much TV or use the internet.

I think it's time to get them one of above (or similar) for Xmas.

What do people recommend that can be fun for all the family on dark winter nights but are also somewhat educational?

CrazyRabbit

You'll probably be best with Tablets. Something like a Galaxy Tab 2 or 3. Tons of free educational apps & games and useful for homework research etc.

They are also portable which makes them good for traveling.

And of course they are not as pricey as PC's and consoles meaning you could probably get them one each.

pwurple

Are you in any way technical yourself? As in, will you be able to set something up?

If not, go with an ipad.

Red Pepper

pwurple wrote: »

Are you in any way technical yourself? As in, will you be able to set something up?

If not, go with an ipad.

I am somewhat technical i.e. I'll figure it out eventually.
I do have an Apple ipod shuffle for running and figured that out.

what exactly is an ipad useful for? will they get bored of it?

Big Bag of Chips

Tablets can really only be used by one person at a time though. They will probably end up sitting on their beds or on the couch with their heads stuck in them, ignoring everyone and everything around them!!

If you are looking for something for the whole family to enjoy together you are probably better off with a console. We have the Wii a long time now (not even sure if they're still being sold!!) and we get great fun out of it together.

pwurple

I seriously doubt they would get bored of it.

My 3 year old uses ours for loads of stuff, learning japanese, doing jigsaws or puzzle games (two dots), playing musical instruments, astronomy (goskymap). We do things like identify trees from their leaf shapes (leaf snap). She skypes her cousins. We run HowToDraw, which gives video tips on sketching by hand. We download books and read them.

Asking what an ipad is good for is like asking what books are good for, or what the internet is good for. It's good for whatever you use it for.

Hannibal Smith

I would imagine if it's for all the family you'd be better off with a console? We're not at the console stage just yet...but if we were I'd be looking at whatever Disney infinity comes with just so I can play with the superheroes!

Well done on lasting till 9 and 11...I've a 5 year old asking for a tablet. ..and a 3 year old asking for something called leap tv??? (The five year old is trying to be clever and convinced his younger brother this is what he wants )

Red Pepper

An ipad is like all other tablets but just "Apple", right?

And all tablets need internet access capability to download stuff?

is this a good "starter" tablet?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CYR6UTM/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00CYR6UTM&linkCode=as2&tag=jobseekwyomin-21&linkId=Y6V2GSLFVZCK3UON

pwurple

I'm not an apple fanboy, I've an andriod phone etc, but apple products are what I get my mother, my non-techie brother, my children etc... because they work very easily, there are loads of apps available, and simply out of the box and I don't want to be fix-it girl. Plenty of reasonable refurbs out there.

farmchoice

remember if you don't have ''the internet'' in the house most of the tablets will be of limited use. Do you have an internet connection and a wifi router?

Moonbeam

mine love the tablets (android and ipad) and The Chromecast.

Red Pepper

farmchoice wrote: »

remember if you don't have ''the internet'' in the house most of the tablets will be of limited use. Do you have an internet connection and a wifi router?

Yes we have the internet and a laptop but the girls don't tend to use it much.

Moonbeam

Mine are all still small but we are both techies so our kids have grown up surrounded by it but if they have no interest I would not push it.
We don't have tv channels but the kids love netflix and Youtube and use the Chromecast to send what they want to watch to the tv.

I would recommend an Android tablet over an Ipad and Samsung make really good ones at the moment.

Red Pepper

Moonbeam wrote: »

Mine are all still small but we are both techies so our kids have grown up surrounded by it but if they have no interest I would not push it.
We don't have tv channels but the kids love netflix and Youtube and use the Chromecast to send what they want to watch to the tv.

I would recommend an Android tablet over an Ipad and Samsung make really good ones at the moment.

What about this one? Not sure if it's Android.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...V2GSLFVZCK3UON

Moonbeam

That would be fine.
It only has a 7 inch screen which is small but it would be fine for playing games etc on or would work well with a chromecast for watching stuff on the tv.

CrazyRabbit

Red Pepper wrote: »

An ipad is like all other tablets but just "Apple", right?

And all tablets need internet access capability to download stuff?

is this a good "starter" tablet?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CYR6UTM/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00CYR6UTM&linkCode=as2&tag=jobseekwyomin-21&linkId=Y6V2GSLFVZCK3UON

In my humble opinion stay away from Apple products or Amazon Kindle's. Apple products are way overpriced. Other manufacturers offer practically identical products at a much lower costs.

Amazon products have been a pain in the past due to legal restrictions in Ireland (like with eBooks). I don't trust them. Also...and this is a biggie...Amazon Kindle's don't use Android standard OS so you lose access to the millions of free Android apps/games. You will be stuck using the rather more selection of Kindle Fire Operating System apps that are approved/sold by Amazon. This can be bypassed by 'rooting' the Kindle but it's not easy.

Just stick with a Samsung Tablet. They are excellent, good value and easy to use. Very family friendly with the right apps/games.

7, 8 or 10 inch models available depending on how much you want to spend.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-7-inch-White/dp/B00DPJ8H8K/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846822&sr=1-2&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-8-inch-White/dp/B00EC9C2E2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846822&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-10-1-inch-White/dp/B00EC9C2L0/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846822&sr=1-3&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3

Bigger list of choices:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A340831031%2Ck%3Asamsung+galaxy+tab+3&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846810&rnid=1642204031

taytobreath

I got my 8yo daughter a nabi tablet 2 years ago and she still regularly uses it. Its a good tough tablet and theres a good kid safety feature on it too. i paid 70 euros at the time.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nabi-7-inch-Childrens-storage-Android/dp/B00A3OCQ0U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416941549&sr=8-2&keywords=nabi+tablet

Red Pepper

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

In my humble opinion stay away from Apple products or Amazon Kindle's. Apple products are way overpriced. Other manufacturers offer practically identical products at a much lower costs.

Amazon products have been a pain in the past due to legal restrictions in Ireland (like with eBooks). I don't trust them. Also...and this is a biggie...Amazon Kindle's don't use Android standard OS so you lose access to the millions of free Android apps/games. You will be stuck using the rather more selection of Kindle Fire Operating System apps that are approved/sold by Amazon. This can be bypassed by 'rooting' the Kindle but it's not easy.

Just stick with a Samsung Tablet. They are excellent, good value and easy to use. Very family friendly with the right apps/games.

7, 8 or 10 inch models available depending on how much you want to spend.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-7-inch-White/dp/B00DPJ8H8K/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846822&sr=1-2&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-8-inch-White/dp/B00EC9C2E2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846822&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-10-1-inch-White/dp/B00EC9C2L0/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846822&sr=1-3&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3

Bigger list of choices:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A340831031%2Ck%3Asamsung+galaxy+tab+3&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+3&ie=UTF8&qid=1416846810&rnid=1642204031

I might well go for a Samsung Galaxy.

A possibly stupid question on the sizes. Is there a big difference between the 7, 8 and 10 inch besides cost and screen size. For example, the 7/8 inch seem to be shown as "portrait" display whereas the 10 inch is "landscape" - I presume the 7/8 inch versions can be landscape too if you turn them??

CrazyRabbit

Red Pepper wrote: »

I might well go for a Samsung Galaxy.

A possibly stupid question on the sizes. Is there a big difference between the 7, 8 and 10 inch besides cost and screen size. For example, the 7/8 inch seem to be shown as "portrait" display whereas the 10 inch is "landscape" - I presume the 7/8 inch versions can be landscape too if you turn them??

The only difference is that the screen is bigger/smaller. No other technical differences. The display is actually one of the most expensive parts of a tablet.

P.S. You might ask grandparents/Uncles/Aunts etc to buy a case for the tablet for Christmas in lieu of other gifts. The cases are fairly cheap and help protect the tablets from accidental bumps & knocks.

Red Pepper

What do you reckon about this tablet;

http://www.currys.ie/Product/asus-memo-pad-7-tablet-red/326812/7.18

CrazyRabbit

Red Pepper wrote: »

What do you reckon about this tablet;

http://www.currys.ie/Product/asus-memo-pad-7-tablet-red/326812/7.18

Whilst I prefer Samsung, Asus are also a good brand. I don't have any personal experience with the MeMo Pad, but I'm sure it's fine. It has Android, a good processor and plenty of storage space.

Moonbeam

Red Pepper wrote: »

What do you reckon about this tablet;

http://www.currys.ie/Product/asus-memo-pad-7-tablet-red/326812/7.18

It looks very good for the price and generally good.
I have never used an Asus tablet but the Asus eeepc was fantastic.

Red Pepper

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Whilst I prefer Samsung, Asus are also a good brand. I don't have any personal experience with the MeMo Pad, but I'm sure it's fine. It has Android, a good processor and plenty of storage space.

Thanks!

lonestargirl

That Asus tablet seems to be €10 cheaper in Argos.