My Nvidia Shield Tablet - Part 2

I’m continuing today with my initial experiences with my Nvidia Shield Tablet (part 1 was posted yesterday)

The first two apps I used were the Kindle and OurGroceries. There were a couple of library eBooks I had checked out and I downloaded them from the cloud along with eBooks I had purchased. The OurGroceries required authorization from the owner email (which is mine) so that was quickly done and the current grocery list appeared. I didn’t have a case yet for the tablet so I would not be actually shopping with it until the case arrived (as you can see from yesterday’s picture I has arrived now so I am totally weaned from the Kindle at this point).

My next experiment was the camera. It won’t replace my camera - but it did reasonably well with the zinnia at dusk!

iNaturalist was the most substantial learning curve so far. The app is being used for a BioBlitz the Howard County Conservancy is doing in a few weeks at Belmont. We had a training session last week complete with some field time. I learned:

Glare is a problem

How to zoom effectively with the camera

The nuances of the app itself (collecting observations and getting them connected to a project)

Realizing that I was going to be busy assisting the 10 students I’ll have in my group rather than making observations myself!

My most recent app loaded was Cronometer. I’ve use the web site on my PC for the past year or so when I want to take off a few pounds (it was about 10 pounds in summer 2013, right now it is about 3 pounds). Now that it is loaded on my tablet I can tweak the food list for the day from the tablet or the PC!

I’m very pleased with the tablet so far. I’ll plan another post in October since I’ll have some travel experience with the tablet by then.

My Nvidia Shield Tablet - Part 1

My Nvidia Shield Tablet arrived just two weeks ago. It is replacing my Kindle Fire which I have used for the past three years: reading eBooks and recording my grocery list….checking email when traveling. The tablet will be used for those same things plus more. So - what convinced me that it was time to replace the Kindle? Here’s my list of the advantages of the tablet that convinced me:

• Larger, higher resolution screen - less weight
• Complete version of Android rather than a subset
• Ability to look at pictures recorded on my camera (via external cable)

The weight difference is not much - 1 ounce less for the tablet - but that, in conjunction with the larger screen was important to me. If it had been heavier, I probably would not have made the decision to replace the Kindle.

Loading Android apps onto the Kindle was always problematic because it did not have a complete implementation of Android. I’m glad the Our Groceries app worked but several apps designed for conferences did not. So - the tablet’s complete version of Android is important to me.

The ability to look at pictures recorded on my camera means that I might be able to forego taking my laptop with me when I travel. In the past I’ve always taken the laptop so that I could review all the images I captured at the end of each day rather than wait until I got home. The tablet screen is not as large as my laptop but it is certainly larger than the camera’s display….and it may be enough for the initial review.

I’ll post my initial set up experiences for the Nvidia Shield Tablet tomorrow.

If you want to look back at my experiences when I first got the Kindle Fire follow these links: week 1, week 2, week 3, 8 months. My Kindle is going to another person that will use it for eBooks only!