How can I justify buying a Hudl 2?

October 7, 2014 6:17 AM

I have an iPad 3 (Retina) which is excellent and works well. I am potentially able to buy a new Hudl 2 tablet with Clubcard vouchers costing me £65. What can I do with it that I can't do with my iPad?

I'm interested in coding (which I can't really do on the iPad), composing music, photography, messing around with my Raspberry Pi and watching TV. Are there any Android-specific utilities / apps that will work well on this budget tablet?

posted by Stark to Technology (7 answers total)

Best answer: I don't know about a couple of those areas, but I say this as a devoted Android user: the app selection and quality is better pretty much across the board in the iOS store, so I'd be very surprised if there was something worth switching off an iOS device that you like reasonably well. I do code on my tablet--with a Bluetooth keyboard and either a remote desktop or a SSH client and a terminal editor, and I'm pretty sure both of those things are also available on iOS. I prefer Android because it fits the way I like to use my devices better, generally, in terms of how the widgets work, those sorts of things, but it's pretty rare for anything substantial to be Android-only. Go looking for Android-only stuff and you tend to see a lot of launchers and widgets. iOS only stuff and you're looking at Garageband, for example, or the way that Adobe just released a whole bunch of new things for iOS and also that there was no timeframe on bringing those same things to Android.

If all you have is a vague idea that the grass might be greener, I'd skip it.
posted by Sequence at 7:07 AM on October 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

I like to put films on a memory stick and watch them on my Android tablet with the help of an OTG cable. It doesn't matter what file format they are. I don't think you can do that on an iPad (I could be wrong).
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 7:13 AM on October 7, 2014

Not a programmer, but this list of free/cheap editors for iPad might help the decision making?
posted by jalexei at 7:18 AM on October 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Best answer: So I have more hobbyist electronics dodads than I can shake a stick at so to start with you don't really need to justify it, just buy it, unless you're tight for cash, then don't buy it.

There are no standout Android-only apps that I can think of although almost all major apps are on both platforms these days. Are you interested in learning Android development? That would be one reason, t run your own code on the thing. There are definitely tools to let you code directly on the tablet as well if that's what you want.

The other major difference is the load-out of the Google apps - are you a big gmail user? Even then most of Google's apps are available in iOS as well.
posted by GuyZero at 7:21 AM on October 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Android certainly has a lower barrier for entry into things like programming. Apple will charge you an annual fee for the privilege of writing an app.

My son's Hudl has a load of emulators with which he can play games on the TV with a proper joypad. The iPad doesn't offer that, as far as I know.

Really, you have to identify a need. I bought a Nexus 7 a couple of years ago, when I already had an iPad. The Nexus 7 has had disappointingly little use, except to keep the kids occupied in the car.
posted by pipeski at 7:26 AM on October 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Network tools tend to be better on the Android side: Wi-Fi Analyzer is a good example.
posted by contraption at 9:51 AM on October 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't spend my money on a Hudl, especially if I didn't need it. Use your vouchers for something else: I think weekend breaks are pretty cheap.
posted by devnull at 1:21 AM on October 8, 2014