Phil Speak: E-Readers and Tablets. Heck Yeah!

Sup everyone! Phil is here to satisfy your tech lust with juicy tidbits of info on the latest & greatest.

These wonderful little gizmos have taken the world by storm. With them we can surf the Net, read books, chat with our BFFs, and update Twitter and Facebook as much we want. So it’s safe to say we NEED these things right? Right! 🙂

Let’s start with the simplest of the bunch: E-readers. These serve only one function: for reading electronic books and magazines. The good thing about these is that they have loads of internal storage; you can put as many books and magazines as you want, so you won’t get bored the next time you’re on a five hour ride in a car with nothing better to do than to count how many power posts just passed by. Ugh.

Nowadays these come with Wi-Fi or 3G Internet, so you can buy/download books straight to the device without ever having to plug it into a computer. Nice, ‘eh?

One of these is called the Kindle. Being the most popular of its kind, it has the widest selection of electronic books available. It’s e-ink display is sharp and easy on the eyes, and you can read it under the sun if you’re out on the beach getting a tan 😉

Its competition, the Nook by Barnes and Noble, and the Kobo (you can get this one at Borders), are also very good readers at around the same price. These can display multiple file formats, so don’t worry if all you’ve got is a bunch of PDFs.

Higher up the food chain, we got tablets. These do a little more than just display e-books. You can surf, e-mail, chat, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and all the other ones that escape my brain right now. Sitting right up there at the top is the iPad. The sexiest of the bunch, this gorgeous piece of technology is available in 16, 32, or 64GB versions with Wi-Fi (that’s plain ol’ Internet sans cable) or 3G. The latter will fetch a monthly fee with the mobile carrier specified.

If Apple products aren’t your thing, fear not! There are PLENTY of alternatives, and among these are two of my favorites: the Samgung Galaxy tab and the brand spankin’ new Xoom from Motorola. These carry Google’s famous(or infamous?) widely used smartphone: OS, Android. Of course, all of these will perform all the functions I mentioned above, and perform them well.  So, next time you go tech shopping and think you’re spoiled for choice, you are! 🙂

~Until next time!~