Do keyboards and tablets belong together?

 I have never been one to try to use a tablet as a quasi-laptop. For me, laptops are meant for creating content, while tablets primarily meant for consuming it. I have traditionally used my tablets primarily for reading books on the Kindle app, reading emails (but not writing them) and perusing the occasional Web page, usually linked to the aforementioned emails. One of the reasons I do not create much, if any, content on a tablet is because I hate typing with virtual, on-screen keyboards. One time, several years ago, I found a keyboard case at a thrift store that fit an old iPad I had, and while it worked just fine, I found I almost never used it, so it wasn’t worth the extra bulk. I eventually put the iPad back in its keyboardless case and set the keyboard case aside.

Since that time, I have settled on the Amazon Fire tablets as a tablet model that meets my modest needs without breaking the proverbial bank. I have now owned four of them and have never paid more than $70 for one. While the lack of a keyboard has been enough to dissuade me from doing more with my tablets than I do, that may have changed. I recently went down the rabbit hole of eBay and ordered a Logitech K480 multi-device bluetooth keyboard.

I have long been a fan of Logitech wireless keyboards and mice, especially those that use the Unifying receiver technology, allowing multiple devices to share a single USB wireless receiver. But for tablets and smart phones, Bluetooth is a better, if not the only, option. Having found Logitech products to be well-built and dependable, I decided it was the safest option for a bluetooth keyboard, especially when they can be had for considerably less than the cost of a generic keyboard case.

The K480 is considerably chunkier than keyboards incorporated into tablet cases, which may be less satisfactory for some users’ needs, but I find it works well for mine. Powered by two AAA batteries, there is little down time for charging. Just slap in a new set and you’re good to go. If you prefer a greener option, rechargeable AAA’s work just fine in it as well. According to the packaging, a set of AAA batteries will last approximately ten months in the device.

The K480 can pair with up to three different devices, so it can be the go-to keyboard for your phone, tablet and laptop at the turn of the three-position radial switch on the left side of the keyboard. Pairing is also easy. Just place the radial switch into the desired position, then press and hold either the PC or iOS paring button on the right side for five seconds, and the keyboard is discoverable by your device. Follow the device’s pairing prompts and you can be up and working in just a minute or two.

It will pair with Android, Windows, and ChromeOS devices, as well as Amazon Fire tablets, and most Apple devices. Pairing the keyboard with a laptop running Linux Mint was more complicated, but was ultimately successful after several attempts. I believe the issue was more with Mint than with the keyboard,

Similar in size to a compact laptop keyboard without a number pad, the K480 is comfortable to use and has a tactile response. The key caps are slightly convex instead of concave, which takes a bit of getting used to. One thoughtful feature is a rubberized groove above the keys, wide enough to hold most tablets in landscape orientation, somewhat simulating a laptop’s configuration. or both a tablet and a phone in portrait orientation, enabling one to switch between them at a turn of the selector switch.

At this point, I am favorably impressed with the keyboard, although its durability and longevity remain to be seen. I feel like a protective case is a good idea for taking it on the go, and I definitely plan to look into that.

I still don’t see myself using a tablet as a laptop substitute; in fact, I don’t have the necessary apps installed to do so, but it will be handy for those times when I might need more than a tablet, but less than a laptop.

Pros: Comfortable design with a groove to accommodate a tablet or smart phone. Easily switches between up to three devices at the flip of a switch. Runs on AAA batteries.

Cons: Bulkier and less portable than a keyboard case.

Bottom Line: A physical keyboard can be just the thing to expand the functionality of a tablet. The Logitech K480 is a solid choice if compact portability isn't a big concern.  

Meet the new tablet--same as the old tablet

 My Amazon Fire tablet is almost five years old, a proper antique by electronics standards, especially for cheap electronics, and although it continues to give good service, it has begun to show its age. It occasionally freezes up, requiring a restart to recover, and of course, the battery isn't holding a charge like it once did. Reading for about 45 minutes, as is my bedtime habit, can consume around a third of a full charge.

For these reasons, I've had it in the back of my mind recently to look for a replacement. The good part was that since my old one still works, I could bide my time to find the best possible deal. Sometimes, such deals come unexpectedly, as was the case when I recently replaced my old tablet, without necessarily upgrading it; that is, I replaced it with a newer version of the same model when I discovered all Fire tablets were on sale for half off as an early Prime Day deal. 

A flagship Amazon Fire Max 11 had initially caught my eye, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that most of its flagship features, which would attempt to mimic the functionality of a laptop, albeit severely hampered by Amazon's locked-down operating system, was effectively overkill for my modest needs. This is especially true, since the accessories that maximize the Max 11's functionality, a keyboard case and stylus, add significantly to the cost without adding to any of the functions I use.

Fortunately, before I pulled the trigger on the Max 11, I noticed that the updated version of the Fire 10HD, which is a newer version of the model I have been using for the past few years, was also on sale for half off. That price was half the sale price of the Max 11 and much more appropriate for my modest needs, as I only ever use a tablet to read books on the Kindle app, read emails, but not write them, and view the occasional Web page.

 Because of these very modest requirements, I am able to live with Amazon tablets' locked down operating system, but If I wanted to use it for any sort of productivity tasks, I would need to be looking at an iPad. 

Amazon outdid itself with overnight delivery. I ordered it in the middle of the afternoon, and it arrived before dawn the next morning. That said, I was a bit peeved with the delivery driver, who chose not to carry it the last few yards to the front door, but instead to leave it at the end of the driveway, where it would have been all-too-easy pickings for a would be porch pirate since they wouldn't have to go all the way to the porch. This is especially concerning since I have recently had problems with outbound checks being stolen out of my mailbox. Fortunately, I got to the package before anyone else.

Unboxing the new tablet gave me a great sense of deja vu, in that it was so similar to the one I've been using, although there are some differences. The first one I noticed was the power and volume buttons were reversed so that the power button was on the left instead of the right, when the tablet is held in a vertical (portrait) orientation. On closer examination, I recognized the reason for that change. The front-facing camera was relocated to what would be the middle of the left side in portrait orientation, but would be top center in horizontal (landscape) orientation. This, coupled by the orientation of the opening splash, is a strong indicator that Amazon is pushing landscape as the default orientation for the tablet. Positioned in this way, the power button is at the top of the right side, which is a much more logical spot, at least for right-handed users. The relocation of the camera also resulted in the tablet being about a quarter inch shorter and maybe an eighth of an inch wider in portrait orientation.

Beyond these minor physical differences and somewhat upgraded specifications, it is basically the same as the tablet I already have. So what did I get for my money? The main thing is better battery life, by virtue of being newer, but also a little more RAM and a faster processor for better performance. 

Given the way I use a tablet, I have decided to keep this new one in a fairly stock configuration, at least for the time being, to see how that affects performance. I'm also on the fence regarding whether to add a micro SD card to increase storage capacity, as I have done with the three previous Fire tablets I have owned.  

Adding micro SD cards have produced mixed results. It made absolutely no difference on my first 7-inch fire tablet, which could only address the card as external storage. The Fire HD8 and Fire HD10 can address the card as internal storage, effectively making it a permanent part of the tablet. A malfunctioning card on the HD8 effectively bricked the tablet until I replaced it, but the second card eventually malfunctioned as well with the same result. The micro SD card has been much more satisfactory in the HD10. Last night, I found a brand new 128GB microSD card in a camera bag, and was on the verge of installing it in the new Fire tablet, but I ultimately decided to give it an extended test run without added storage capacity.

While this new tablet is largely an exercise in sameness, compared with the previous one, it does stand out in one particular area--performance. So far, this new tablet shows no sign of bogging down. Screens load almost instantly. There is almost no noticeable delay when moving between apps, or even going from page to page in the Kindle app.  

The one thing a tablet is better for than a laptop is reading a book  on the Kindle app. I can and have read on a laptop from the Amazon Website, but the experience is not as good, and finding the book I want is a nightmare. While I'm still a laptop guy for most productivity tasks--give me a physical keyboard and an external pointing device (I prefer trackballs) any day of the week--this new Fire HD10 13th generation tablet is a welcome addition to my tech stable. 

ADDENDUM--As often happens, the acquisition of a new piece of technology sparks a second look at an older one, in this case an Amazon Fire HD8 tablet I had pretty much stopped using shortly after acquiring my previous HD10, which had replaced it almost five years ago. Just for fun, I charged it up and turned it on to find it was trying to work--not very well, but better than it was when I put it aside. 

This encouraged me to keep going, and after fiddling with it for a little while, including doing a factory reset, it's now working like it should. I was pleased enough with its revival that I ordered a new case for it, as the old one is in pretty rough shape, thanks to broken plastics at the corners and one of my cats using it as a scratching pad. At this point, I am seriously considering a factory reset for my older HD10 tablet as well.

Now that I have three functioning Fire tablets. I have to decide how best to use them. I don't really need that many, but I can certainly carry one with me while one the other(s) are charging. 

 

 

Ready to Trek!

Now that we're less than a month away from new episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds after a two-year hiatus, I find that anticipation is being tempered with the news that the end of the show is on the horizon. With season three set to premiere July 17 and season four in production, word has come down that season five will be the show's last, and it will consist of only six episodes, instead of ten, to give the series a total of 46 episodes. As a result, I am simultaneously anticipating SNW's return while dreading its eventual demise.

While I understand the reasons behind the delay, rooted in the double-whammy disruption of the writers' and actors' strikes that occurred just after season two was released in 2023, it still feels like a long time to wait. But then, we've had to wait longer between other installments. There was a four-year gap between the time the original Star Trek aired its last episode on NBC in the spring of 1969 and the animated Star Trek premiered on the same network in the fall of 1973, and there was a similar gap between the end of the animated series in the spring of 1975 and the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in late 1979. The subsequent feature films came out at roughly two-year intervals, up until the proverbial floodgates opened in the mid-'80s. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation was announced in September 1986, a couple of months ahead of the cinematic release of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and premiered on the small screen a year later. From the fall of 1987 until the spring of 2005, audiences were treated to the video equivalent of a 17-year all-you-can-eat buffet of Star Trek with overlapping TV series (TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise) and feature films, beginning with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and concluding with Star Trek: Nemesis. 

Audiences entered another four-year dry spell without new any Star Trek between the cancellation of Enterprise and the release of J. J. Abrams' Star Trek feature film in the summer of 2009. Again, the wait was on with a three-year gap before Star Trek: Into Darkness (2012) and four years until Star Trek Beyond (2016). No new feature films have been released to date, save for an ill-conceived Section 31 streaming movie in early 2025. 

But audiences had to wait less than a year following Star Trek Beyond before the CBS All Access streaming service (now known as Paramount+) brought yet another wave of Star Trek, beginning with Discovery in 2017, and quickly followed by the overlapping releases of Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds, the latter of which was a spinoff from Discovery's second season. 

While not all Star Trek content has been to everyone's taste--I personally have difficulty sitting through an episode of Lower Decks and I don't care if the rumored fourth and final installment of the J. J. Abrams Trek films ever gets made--the dry spell between Strange New Worlds' second and third seasons has been anything but truly dry.  The flow may have slowed to more of a trickle, but looking ahead, I trust that the remaining 26 episodes of Strange New Worlds maintains the same high standards of the 20 episodes we have already seen, and that the upcoming Discovery spinoff, Starfleet Academy, will measure up to the best of its predecessors as it Star Trek boldly goes into its next 60 years.