Keeping Tabs on Tablets

 The iPad is by far the best suited computer device for seniors.

I say that even though I probably use my iPad only once a month.     That is because I have most of the best alternative devices for any given specific task..

What makes the iPad so appealing is that it can handle almost all those tasks at a price which is impossible to beat.      Other tablets simply do not measure up. The iPad can serve as your only computer.

The only downside is that it's big to lug around---but that does not stop most seniors from doing exactly that..  Many especially love it because of its ability to take pictures and show them to others.

I like to have something that's so small and portable that I scarcely am aware that I am carrying it.      My little iPhone SE even works with my hearing aid.

So what do we do  nowadays with tablets?     A lot more than email and texting.

I have digital subscriptions to newspapers and journals.       I have all my music available, of course. But what's new?

Newly I have added YouTube TV,  which offers all the channels I like,  including the local channels. The benefit is that I can access these channels anywhere, and listen to their live or recorded content at any time.    I can newly control our Roku TV.

I also access to radio stations anywhere.

I do much of my book reading on the small phone,  which will read out loud to me with a downward swipe of two fingers.    I can be reading a number of books at the same time without having to carry them around.   When nearby, I do my reading on the tablet. Or, when I need a larger screen I go to a small Chromebook most frequently, and then even to a PC.

I still occasionally use an old Nexus 7 2013 tablet, still a wonderful tablet.      My wife and daughter prefer theirs over all others. Every once in a while one breaks and needs to be replaced,

With all of them, much of what I do now is done with voice.

If I had to do with one device,  the iPad would certainly suffice.   it wins hands down as the best all around device out there.

Moving Away from Cable

 Three things happened at once to move us from cable TV to streaming media.

Our 10 year-old TV started having problems---we soon discovered that large-screen new sets with excellent picture quality now come at an extremely low price, as low as $230 for a 43-inch set.    Ours is now a 4K Roku TV, enabled for easy navigation of Internet offerings.

Then, our daughter and son-in-law cut off their cable when their cost exceeded $200 per month.   That caught our attention.

Then, Consumer Reports came out with a guide to free internet streaming, listing a wealth of free movies.

We were surprised at the difference in what is NOW available on the internet as compared to cable channels,  even though we had dabbled in Internet long ago with Netflix.

We had moved from a very limited selection of media to an exhaustive encyclopedic availability of things to watch.    Live and on-demand.

It got clear that the world is moving away from cable TV to internet, especially younger folks.     

The abundance of cable TV ads for medicine attests to a primary remaining viewership of seniors.

We installed YouTube TV in order to watch local channels and view whatever and whenever we wanted.    Our internet connection is now direct from ethernet as opposed to Wi-Fi. That gave us the bandwidth we really needed for 4K.

We can now watch anywhere from tablet or smartphone,  even with sound direct to hearing aids.