When I bought my first computer, it was something like 1983, and there were essentially two choices for the home market; the Commodore 64, or the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. As kids, these were the only two machines available that we gave a damn about anyhow; they had the games we wanted, regardless of how we'd wheedle our parents and suggest a computer would help immeasurably with our schoolwork. Sure, there were micros like the Amstrad CPC or the Acorn Electron around, but owning one of those would be social suicide in the playground.
When the next generation of home computers came round, there were again essentially two choices; the Atari ST, and the Commodore Amiga. Again, there were other choices you might try, but at time Apples cost more than some nations GNPs (no change there, then. Ohh, what incredible satire), and IBM clones were still in their Cambrian era, and required more nursing and knowhow than most cars.
And so it continued. When Windows 95 dawned, there were a plethora of affordable PC Clones available, though they were so beige and indistinguishable that it didn't matter a damn which one you got. The major opposition was again Apple, and again they really were rather expensive in comparison.
I was actually making a point here, which is this: I'm idly considering getting an Android tablet in the reasonably near future, and the choices are simply overwhelming. I'm utterly at a loss as to where to even start looking; even finding a website that reviews what's out there is baffling, as there's hundreds of the buggers, often giving conflicting reviews.
All I would want is something like the Kindle Fire. I would actually be happy with the Kindle Fire, if it offered anything for apps other than the bloody Amazon marketplace. I wouldn't mind the amazon marketplace if it had a tenth of the content the Android Market has. And so on, and so on, back to the bad decision to climb down from the trees in the first place.
I homestly miss the days where your choices were limited, sometimes. At least you could be an expert on the two or three options you had.
Edit: So I ended up with the Kindle Fire. Which is less limiting now that it allows you to sideload apps you own; with a little email jiggery-pokery, you can install pretty much anything. It's not what I'd think of as the perfect eBook reader, but it's several large steps towards such over the older Kindles.
When the next generation of home computers came round, there were again essentially two choices; the Atari ST, and the Commodore Amiga. Again, there were other choices you might try, but at time Apples cost more than some nations GNPs (no change there, then. Ohh, what incredible satire), and IBM clones were still in their Cambrian era, and required more nursing and knowhow than most cars.
And so it continued. When Windows 95 dawned, there were a plethora of affordable PC Clones available, though they were so beige and indistinguishable that it didn't matter a damn which one you got. The major opposition was again Apple, and again they really were rather expensive in comparison.
I was actually making a point here, which is this: I'm idly considering getting an Android tablet in the reasonably near future, and the choices are simply overwhelming. I'm utterly at a loss as to where to even start looking; even finding a website that reviews what's out there is baffling, as there's hundreds of the buggers, often giving conflicting reviews.
All I would want is something like the Kindle Fire. I would actually be happy with the Kindle Fire, if it offered anything for apps other than the bloody Amazon marketplace. I wouldn't mind the amazon marketplace if it had a tenth of the content the Android Market has. And so on, and so on, back to the bad decision to climb down from the trees in the first place.
I homestly miss the days where your choices were limited, sometimes. At least you could be an expert on the two or three options you had.
Edit: So I ended up with the Kindle Fire. Which is less limiting now that it allows you to sideload apps you own; with a little email jiggery-pokery, you can install pretty much anything. It's not what I'd think of as the perfect eBook reader, but it's several large steps towards such over the older Kindles.
