Computers and Smartphones and Tablets, Oh My! How Will I Ever Decide What to Buy?

When it comes to tablets, I have only found two brands that I like enough to consider owning: Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy. Apple's most recent upgrade to its mobile operating system, iOS 8, now comes on all new iPads. If you have an older iPad that will accommodate iOS 8 but have an earlier version of the OS, you should upgrade to iOS 8 to ensure that you get the most recent features and the highest level of compatibility to the Mac OS vlO.10 (if you also use a Macintosh computer). The iPad comes in two sizes, the 10-inch iPad Air and the 7-inch iPad Mini. At the present time, the newest version of the 10-inch iPad introduced upgrades and improved hardware sufficient to set it ahead of the most recent version of the iPad Mini. As a result, I prefer the 2014 version of the iPad Air (a.k.a. the iPad Air 2) to the 2014 version of the iPad Mini (a.k.a. the iPad Mini 3). You can add media cards to many Android tablets, but not to the iPad. You cannot upgrade the RAM in most tablets. Accordingly, with the iPad, the RAM you get when you buy it is what you will have in it. Note that with the added media cards you can add content to the Android devices, but some programs will not run unless they are on the internal RAM. As a practical matter, I recommend that you consider 32 GB as the minimum amount of RAM for a tablet. Particularly if you get an iPad, you should think about getting 64 GB or even 128 GB of RAM. The extra memory gives you more flexibility and can make the tablet far more useful. Some tablets connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi only. Others can also use cellular data networks for connection. If you plan to take the tablet out and about, having a cellular connection can prove a real plus. You have a large selection of phones from a number of manufacturers available to you. In my opinion, the best smartphones are from Apple, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, or LG. I have strong preferences for Apple's iPhone 5s, 6, and 6 Plus and Samsung's Galaxy S4 or S5. The iPhone 6/6 Plus and the Galaxy S5 are the most current models (though the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are scheduled to come out soon), but the earlier iPhone 5s and Galaxy S4 remain commonly available. Screen sizes for the models follow: iPhone 5s is 4 inches, iPhone 6 is 4.7 inches, iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5 inches, Galaxy S4 is 5 inches, and Galaxy S5 is 5.1 inches. The primary advantages of larger screens for seniors are that you have a larger area to work with and can make characters larger and more easily