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Ask the Community: In the Market for a Modern Tablet

posted by janrinok on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the wild-dreams? dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

I tried searching and came to the conclusion this does not exist. I would like a tablet with the following features:

  • Easy to install (or pre-installed) LineageOS, or some other open source OS that doesnt require any fighting with bloatware or control over updates (please give your opinion on what is best)
  • Easy to open up and repair (and mod) the device hardware myself without any special tools (ie, standard electronics screwdrivers, etc)
  • Matte screen with dynamic range that allows the screen to be bright enough to use in the sun but dark enough to use while falling asleep.

I don't plan on using it for anything besides basic web browsing and pdf reading, so it should be cheap. However, price is no object if it has those features. There was one other soft criteria but it sounded like an ad so I removed it... See if you can guess.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:49PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:49PM (#677886)

    During my search, I saw that how well a tablet can record your conversations is now being used as a selling point. This is specifically a feature I would not use or want:

    At my demo here in Vegas, the Thinkpad X1 Yoga was able to hear me and Lenovo's reps from at least 12 feet away. Those who don't like using Cortana will be glad to know Lenovo will be including the Amazon Alexa app for PCs on the new Thinkpad X1s by the end of January, so you could be saying "Alexa" instead of "Hey Cortana".

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/08/lenovo-thinkpad-x1-carbon-yoga-tablet-2018-hands-on/ [engadget.com]

    However, if I can remove the mic(s) (point 2) then that feature would be fine.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:52PM (7 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday May 10 2018, @02:52PM (#677887)

    However, if I can remove the mic(s) (point 2) then that feature would be fine.

    Why would they allow you to do that? That'll greatly reduce their profitability (by preventing them from snooping on you and selling that information), and only a tiny percentage of potential buyers care about this, so it's entirely in the manufacturers' interest to make sure these devices have microphones that are good at eavesdropping on you, and to prevent this feature from being disabled.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @03:02PM (#677895)

      It could just be a side effect of letting you replace the battery.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Thursday May 10 2018, @04:34PM (5 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday May 10 2018, @04:34PM (#677982)

      Can we please get the paranoid conspiracy mod ? Sometimes we do need the community to be able to label a statement as what it is, rather than "interesting" or other approving-sounding ones.
      (note that being paranoid doesn't mean that they not out to get you, so I don't want to tag this "disagree")

      • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:13PM (2 children)

        by JNCF (4317) on Thursday May 10 2018, @05:13PM (#678003) Journal

        I'm in favor of a Paranoid mod, but only if it's +1.

        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @07:47PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @07:47PM (#678078)

          It should be -1+1i (-1 real +1 imaginary).

        • (Score: 2) by driverless on Friday May 11 2018, @09:31AM

          by driverless (4770) on Friday May 11 2018, @09:31AM (#678301)

          What are you afraid of it it's +2?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 10 2018, @06:44PM (1 child)

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday May 10 2018, @06:44PM (#678046)

        Is it really "paranoid" though? This is, after all, Google's entire business model, and Facebook's too. And we have "smart TVs" that really do listen in on you and send your speech to cloud servers, this has been proven.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @06:48PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 10 2018, @06:48PM (#678049)

          I think we found the limits of bob's cynicism. It blows my mind that people just trust these services because REASONS! So how does facebook only record tv shows / movies / songs playing in the background? /rhetorical

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @02:00PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @02:00PM (#678370)

    Have you considered using a low-profile heaphone/microphone plug to trick the hardware into thinking there's an external microphone? It won't work on all devices, but might work on yours. https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-headset-Dust-Plug-Buttton/dp/B01LYWI6NT [amazon.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @03:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 11 2018, @03:56PM (#678434)

      Very interesting idea, thanks. Although for the tablet I have never once even used the mic or cameras (unlike my phone) so would probably just remove them. Of course it would be better to not pay for that hardware to begin with but that seems impossible these days.