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Thread: Another "what to buy" question.

  1. #1
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Default Another "what to buy" question.

    OK folks, here's a good one for you. The lease is up on the second laptop, and the cunning plan is to buy it, and optimise it for DJ'ing. John did this for the old one, and what an improvement. Staggering. This machine is pretty old and low powered though, so I'd like to relegate it to backup if possible, and also since the newer one only has three USB sockets, making it the main playout on the VMS will mean I don't have to use a hub to use it.

    So, then I'd need to get a new one, and the question is: What? Experience now shows that it will be used almost exclusively for web browsing, and perhaps email. Use as a playout will be extremely unlikely.

    Price ceiling excludes most Apple and Mac products, we're around £350 maximum. I'd like full size USB connection, but that's not absolutely vital. So, do I go for a full size laptop which I know and love, downsize to a smaller and cheaper Netbook style, which still has all the features except a CD drive, or can I manage with the seemingly ubiquitous tablet style machine? I've got to say that cost saving would be nice, and I'm sort of leaning towards a tablet, simply for the portability aspect. I have a Nokia Lumia which can surf the web, but it's more than a touch cramped for this.

    P.S. I accept that I'll have to bite the bullet and accept Windows 8.

    Contenders:
    laptop

    netbook

    tablet

    Over to you, all advice welcomed, short deadline though. Must be PC World. Ta.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

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  2. #2
    deltic's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    OK folks, here's a good one for you. The lease is up on the second laptop, and the cunning plan is to buy it, and optimise it for DJ'ing. John did this for the old one, and what an improvement. Staggering. This machine is pretty old and low powered though, so I'd like to relegate it to backup if possible, and also since the newer one only has three USB sockets, making it the main playout on the VMS will mean I don't have to use a hub to use it.

    So, then I'd need to get a new one, and the question is: What? Experience now shows that it will be used almost exclusively for web browsing, and perhaps email. Use as a playout will be extremely unlikely.

    Price ceiling excludes most Apple and Mac products, we're around £350 maximum. I'd like full size USB connection, but that's not absolutely vital. So, do I go for a full size laptop which I know and love, downsize to a smaller and cheaper Netbook style, which still has all the features except a CD drive, or can I manage with the seemingly ubiquitous tablet style machine? I've got to say that cost saving would be nice, and I'm sort of leaning towards a tablet, simply for the portability aspect. I have a Nokia Lumia which can surf the web, but it's more than a touch cramped for this.

    P.S. I accept that I'll have to bite the bullet and accept Windows 8.

    Contenders:
    laptop

    netbook

    tablet

    Over to you, all advice welcomed, short deadline though. Must be PC World. Ta.

    i have resigned myself to the fact i am never going to persuade you to come over to the dark side and leave windoze behind……so from your contenders i think the tablet will be the most versatile and 3g to boot.
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  3. #3
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by deltic View Post
    i have resigned myself to the fact i am never going to persuade you to come over to the dark side and leave windoze behind……so from your contenders i think the tablet will be the most versatile and 3g to boot.
    - for £350 you can get a 2.5 gh dual core black mac or newer silver macbook.
    I actually got my pro for not much more than £400, but i was lucky.

    You have 98 models to choose from here all under £400.
    I would steer clear of the white ones (and anything black under 2.4 gig as the upgraded version is excellent) and only get one that is advertised as working perfectly:

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_ud...k&LH_PrefLoc=1

    This is a good example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Macb...item4612f5f6a1

    whats it for? If its for playout i would not get a smaller screen than a 13 inch PC or mac.
    I found this out as VDJ and Serato does not operate on a 10inch screen.
    Last edited by yourdj; 20-09-2013 at 10:53 AM.
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  4. #4
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    :
    whats it for? If its for playout i would not get a smaller screen than a 13 inch PC or mac.
    I found this out as VDJ and Serato does not operate on a 10inch screen.

    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Experience now shows that it will be used almost exclusively for web browsing, and perhaps email. Use as a playout will be extremely unlikely.
    . Must be PC World. Ta.
    Phone a friend Toby? As Andy knows well, Mac and Ipad are all but ruled out before we start. I'm still leaning toward the tablet. Anyone else?
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  5. #5
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Default Dear Lord, what have I done?

    Technologically advanced, or what? I've tethered the tablet to the phone, and I'm typing this on the M$ Surface 10.6" 64gb tablet. 21st century or what? Now I can hold my head up with all those posers who have one welded to themselves at all times.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

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  6. #6
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Sort of an "Oh " and a "Phew". All too late, I find that Windows RT, which this tablet runs on, won't let you download music from Amazon. That explains why the same thing happemed when I tried to do this with my Windows phone. No problems using the phone as a modem to download it on a laptop though.
    That completely torpedoes my cunning plan of stripping both laptops, and using the tablet to download tracks.

    However, a ray of light appears. I can download from 7digital, so at least I have a form of safety net, albeit a small one.

    Anyone considering this tablet, wait till the new one comes out ( shortly, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ) Apparently it runs on a full version of Windows 8. If the Acer tablet hadn't had an 8" screen, I'd have gone for that, it runs on Windows 8 as well. Hey ho.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Technologically advanced, or what? I've tethered the tablet to the phone, and I'm typing this on the M$ Surface 10.6" 64gb tablet. 21st century or what? Now I can hold my head up with all those posers who have one welded to themselves at all times.
    You can also take the dubious award of being the only person I know to own a Windows RT tablet.

    It was obsolete before you took it out of the box.

    Julian
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  8. #8
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by deltic View Post
    i have resigned myself to the fact i am never going to persuade you to come over to the dark side and leave .
    As I told you, I've got windows desktops, windows laptops, and a windows phone. You didn't really expect me to go with Apple for the tablet, did you?

    Quote Originally Posted by DJ Jules View Post
    You can also take the dubious award of being the only person I know to own a Windows RT tablet.
    Trendsetter, me.
    Quote Originally Posted by DJ Jules View Post
    It was obsolete before you took it out of the box.
    Julian
    To be serious, now that I've gone into it a little more, after finding out some things didn't work well, I see the new model with a V8 engine and go faster stripes is due out any day. Ah well. Perhaps it will be possible to upgrade mine to 8.1 at some point, who knows? We can always live in hope.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    As I told you, I've got windows desktops, windows laptops, and a windows phone. You didn't really expect me to go with Apple for the tablet, did you?
    No, Android


    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    To be serious, now that I've gone into it a little more, after finding out some things didn't work well, I see the new model with a V8 engine and go faster stripes is due out any day. Ah well. Perhaps it will be possible to upgrade mine to 8.1 at some point, who knows? We can always live in hope.
    Unfortunately this is always the way with the computer world, regardless of what you buy the next thing will always be out within a few months. I've got one of the few 10.1" dual boot Acer tablets somewhere which boots both Windows 7 and Android... bought about 2 days before they discontinued them I keep meaning to dig it out to run Freestyler

    Julian
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  10. #10
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Right folks, a few supplementary questions. I've got a copy of Office 365 ( don't ask why, I just have ) and from what I've read, I think it's possible to read and send email with this installed on a Windows 8 machine. Possibly on an RT also, I got confused after a couple of lines. Is this a runner? The RT one apparently doesn't have Outlook installed.

    Re downloads, I can't use the Amazon downloader,( so can't download any Kindle books ) which is a real PITA, but I seem to be able to get individual tracks from 7digital. ( Mind you, I can't find the one I downloaded as a trial. I played it when it arrived, now it's gone off and hidden. )

    Advice appreciated as always. Ta.


    Update: Who's a clever boy then? My ISP is Orange/EE. I just logged in there, and bingo, I can send and receive emails from there. Sorted.
    Last edited by Excalibur; 26-09-2013 at 10:05 PM.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

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