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Advice?
Dec 15, 2011 7:50:17 GMT -8
Post by ironnikki on Dec 15, 2011 7:50:17 GMT -8
I've had the same thoughts and reservations about getting a tablet for gaming. I've considered getting a Kindle Fire for these purposes, but I'm not in any place to spending any kind of money right now. I know someone who has one, so I may borrow it just to see if it handles the PDF's well before dumping all of that money.
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Advice?
Dec 15, 2011 17:53:45 GMT -8
Post by mook on Dec 15, 2011 17:53:45 GMT -8
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highroad
Initiate Douchebag
has a plan
Posts: 17
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Advice?
Dec 16, 2011 22:04:32 GMT -8
Post by highroad on Dec 16, 2011 22:04:32 GMT -8
I have to agree that I was nervous about dropping the cash on a tablet since it would mostly be a glorified pdf reader, but I have gotten a lot more use out of it since I bought it than I originally anticipated. Sure, it's great as a pdf reader too, but it's also really convenient for checking e-mail, hopping to a website for a quick peek at something, without having to boot up the desktop or laptop.
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riff
Initiate Douchebag
Let me check my notes....
Posts: 36
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Advice?
Dec 16, 2011 22:16:11 GMT -8
Post by riff on Dec 16, 2011 22:16:11 GMT -8
I love my iPad for pdf's and lots of other things.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Advice?
Dec 16, 2011 22:28:37 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2011 22:28:37 GMT -8
Just wish I could afford one.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Advice?
Dec 17, 2011 23:56:12 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2011 23:56:12 GMT -8
I recently got a kindle fire and I don't like the built in kindle Pdf reader, however the official adobe Pdf viewer works great if you turn it sideways. Perfect size for reading the dresden files rpg books for example. There is still a downside though, in that with adobe's app you can't save any notes or bookmarks and it doesn't save your place in the pdf for the next time you open it. So something to think about, but it's still hard to beat for a third the price of most full-sized tablets.
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Advice?
Dec 18, 2011 9:01:43 GMT -8
Post by ironnikki on Dec 18, 2011 9:01:43 GMT -8
I guess the reality for me right now is that I'm not going to be able to afford anything for a couple months at least, so I may as well just table my considerations for the time being :-) Thanks for those pictures, Mook, it was actually really helpful to see the iPad text side-by-side with the books.
Nobuo, what about the Fire's native PDF reader do you dislike? I think that I could get over the small size, as I've been known to put PDF's on my phone and consult them for rules, but I've also heard that the Fire is kind of glitchy in it's current state. Have you had problems with it?
UPDATE: I was given a Kindle Fire as a gift from my wonderful girlfriend for our anniversary. So far, I've only tested a couple PDF's on it, but so far, they seem okay. I've used the Adobe Reader app, and it's recognized the bookmarks and I can read the text without any issues. My biggest complaint is that it still seems to have trouble loading the pages fast enough for my tastes, and navigation without bookmarks would be a nightmare.
Once I get a chance to use it in a game, I'll update again to let everyone know how it fares!
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Post by remoore12 on Jan 8, 2012 8:01:09 GMT -8
The Kindle fire is great, but also take a look at the Nook tablet its very similar to the kindle fire but it has some pretty significant hardware upgrades, makes flipping through your pages muck quicker and the built in pdf reader is fantasic. The Nook tablet is however 50$ more than the kindle fire and I definately know the pains of no money.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Advice?
Jan 30, 2012 19:21:03 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2012 19:21:03 GMT -8
I have both a Motorola Xoom (running android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) and an HP Touchpad (WebOS)
Each's is betwen 9.5 and 10". (I know, "that's what she said.") The screens are *outstanding* for looking at PDF content.
However, the SOFTWARE available for reading PDFs is *terrible*. You know how a PDF sometimes drags on your desktop PC? Yeah, it's about 1/4 the speed on a tablet.. Maybe 1/2 speed on an iPad.
I blame Adobe.
I use my tablet with d20pfsrd.org more than any of the books.
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Advice?
Jan 31, 2012 8:51:17 GMT -8
Post by ironnikki on Jan 31, 2012 8:51:17 GMT -8
After trying the Kindle Fire for a while in game, I've come to a couple conclusions:
1) Why the hell can I not find an app to open, create, and edit RTF's on Android? That's beyond silly to me.
2) I had the same experience as you, shortbus405- I was able to read the PDF's without too many issues, but the software was prohibitively slow. Using the Fire to check things in PDF's just doesn't make sense, because it will take me 5 mins just to get to the right page.
3) Once I converted most of my game files in my Dropbox from RTF->TXT (grumble grumble), I was very pleased to discover that the Fire would be able to serve as a convenient tool after all. I've got a couple files that are relevant to the game, but don't require constant checking (i.e: Locations of vending machines and contents, a list of enemies and pre-made stat blocks, etc.) I can pull these files up quickly, and if necessary, edit them slightly without much fuss.
Luckily, I've found several more uses for the Fire outside of gaming, so it's not just a slab of plastic/glass at this point. It's nice that it has at least some utility at the game table, even if it isn't everything that I had hoped for.
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Jan 31, 2012 12:05:56 GMT -8
Post by Stu Venable on Jan 31, 2012 12:05:56 GMT -8
Are there any non-Adobe pdf views for Android/iOS?
I use Foxit Reader on my PC, and it loads much faster than Acrobat Reader and is much snappier.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Advice?
Jan 31, 2012 12:39:15 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2012 12:39:15 GMT -8
There are a few -- EzPDF reader is the best I know of on Android. It's *better* than the Adobe reader, both faster and full-featured, but still intolerably slow.
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joegun
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 249
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
Currently Playing: Just GM'ing right now.
Currently Running: Rippers Resurrected, and Savage RIFTS!
Favorite Species of Monkey: Baboon
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Advice?
Jan 31, 2012 14:51:04 GMT -8
Post by joegun on Jan 31, 2012 14:51:04 GMT -8
My pleasure, very happy I can help. I've been debating about getting a tablet to put all my pdf's on to put on the table for reference purposes. The problem I run into is that it would be a$500 pdf reader because that's all I would do with it. So, I've been reluctant to drop the money but I may end up getting one anyway. JiB Funny thing is, I have the same debate with myself on the Tablet. I know that is all I will ever use it for, but it would still be nice. I do rock Acrobat Reader + dropbox on my phone, and it works surprisingly well for those quick, crap I need to look up the rules and my laptop is off...Of course my phone is almost a tablet anyway with a 4.5 inch screen so maybe I already have a tablet?
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Post by jazzisblues on Feb 9, 2012 8:02:08 GMT -8
My pleasure, very happy I can help. I've been debating about getting a tablet to put all my pdf's on to put on the table for reference purposes. The problem I run into is that it would be a$500 pdf reader because that's all I would do with it. So, I've been reluctant to drop the money but I may end up getting one anyway. JiB Funny thing is, I have the same debate with myself on the Tablet. I know that is all I will ever use it for, but it would still be nice. I do rock Acrobat Reader + dropbox on my phone, and it works surprisingly well for those quick, crap I need to look up the rules and my laptop is off...Of course my phone is almost a tablet anyway with a 4.5 inch screen so maybe I already have a tablet? I've thought about this a lot because I know I'm going to have to replace my laptop sometime this year, so I could ... Get a replacement laptop and just keep doing what I've been doing Get a desktop and a tablet and use the tablet for things like email and pdf stuff etc but I also have a smartphone on which I actually do most of my email and social networking stuffs ... Gaaaaahhhhhhh !!!! Brain hurts JiB
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Advice?
Feb 9, 2012 11:46:50 GMT -8
Post by Forresst on Feb 9, 2012 11:46:50 GMT -8
Ahhh memories. When I was but a young gamer our group met in my friend Floyd's{1} one-bedroom bachelor pad, and we had no kitchen table just a tiny coffee table in the living barely big enough for our GM's dozens and dozens and dozens of Rift books. We had to get creative on how we managed our real estate as players, and you should have SEEN some of the tricks Lloyd the GM came up with. This was before laptops were cheap enough for Lloyd to buy, so what he would do is any pictures or maps or anything visual he wanted to display, he'd burn on to a CD-RW and queue them up on the TV. Nowadays, I hear he finally got a laptop and does it that way.
He made himself a custom GM screen out of just plain old cardstock, but made it significantly smaller than the regular GM screen size. It was only really big enough to accommodate his dice rolls, and on the inside, he'd written out tables and things from the stuff he found himself looking for most often. He drew his own pictures on the front too, and it was AWESOME when he'd get inspired by a game scene I'd been in to look at it after and recognize my own character doing stuff on it.
He kept his notes in a binder that he usually kept either on his lap or on the floor next to him. I did the same sort of deal, I kept my character sheet in a duotang, and I had clear acetate between each sheet that I would mark temporary status effects on in dry-erase fineliner.
Eventually I got sick of trying to thread my dice rolls in between other people's crap, and bought a 15 dollar TV tray at Canadian Tire and just left it at Floyd's house between sessions. I still have it, I took it with me the night the campaigns really fell apart. I love my TV tray.
As for your dilemma, yeah, I'm going to say everyone here has great suggestions. The other thing I do when I'm GMing is I try to limit the amount of paper I'm hauling around (I was kinda traumatized watching Lloyd walk around with an army-issue duffel bag full of Rift source books) and write out my campaign notes for the night on a googly doc. Then I can access it from anywhere, no matter where I am, even just on my iPood if I have to.
I also carry around a little pad of sticky notes, because I jump around in systems much more than Lloyd ever did so what I need to reference most from game to game changes, so instead of nice neat tables like he had on his custom GM screen, mine is a mess of sticky notes in different colours to show me what I need for whichever system I'm playing today.
I still draw out the scenes that inspire me on the front of mine, and yes, it's a little tiny roll-only screen. I figure anyone dedicated enough to read my chicken scratches sideways or upside down is crazy enough that they probably have x-ray vision anyway.
{1} All names changed to protect the silly.
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