A Tablet Place -- Old Eyes

One of my devices is a Dell Venue 8 tablet. Here is the setup. The tablet, of course is the Dell. The mouse is a hype bluetooth mouse. The keyboard is a Brookstone folding keyboard. And the glasses are Beyond Reading glasses. It's has proven to be a pretty good set up for consuming and even creating content.

The tablet runs Windows 8.1 and is in essence, a miniature laptop. Because it runs Windows, I find that the mouse is essential to my experience. Although the touch features do work on the tablet, I run enough "desktop" applications in my use that I find the mouse makes things better. It's battery operated and goes a long way on the batteries. It gives me the precision I need on the small device, especially with my touch-challenged fingers.

The keyboard is another necessity for creating content like this blog. It folds in half and is rechargeable. It does a good deal of time between charges and can easily last several days with my usage. Although I can use the on-screen keyboard, I find it less than adequate on this and other devices. This keyboard can also pair with my cell phone in case I want to go extra tiny. The feel is not as adequate as a regular keyboard and I can't type as quickly as I can on a laptop or netbook, but it works adequately for the use.

The last component are the glasses. I have just purchased these and they give me three ranges of magnification for my tired old eyes. Although I like the tablet, I find that the type is often just too small -- like trying to read the instructions on the pill bottle. These glasses give me the magnification I need to make things better. I actually see pretty well up close for consuming content, but, I don't see all that well when I use the keyboard or put the computer on the table.

And, speaking of the table, you need one to use the complete set up. The tablet case stands up the device, but it can't hold the keyboard. This makes a flat surface an essential component of content creation.

So what do I think? All=in=all, a pretty good set up. I sometimes think I should have gone with a larger tablet with a keyboard,but, for the cost, I am reasonably satisfied. Since I consume more content than I create, this set of tools is quite sufficient for my use.