It's KitKat, Tablet Whack, Don't Give the Kid a Phone

[billroper]

Apparently, some of the problems that Julie's tablet was exhibiting late last week were due to it being dropped by one of the neighbors, or with the assistance of one of the neighbors, or something like that. In any case, the intermittent failure to load from the internal SD card became a permanent failure, so it was time to get a new tablet for Julie.

The new, cheaper, faster tablet arrived today. I spent a few minutes configuring it for her and reloading some of her favorite apps. In addition, I managed to junk the standard launcher it had come with, replacing it with the Google Now Launcher under KitKat, which is a much happier app loader, in my opinion.

I also hid away the non-standard bit of app downloading software that had come with the tablet, as I suspect that will only bring us grief. While I was messing around with that app, it mentioned that the tablet had been rooted. Maybe so -- I didn't bother to check, but I did make sure to remove the terminal app that I'd loaded from the list of apps that she might want to download to her machine, because the picture of Julie with root privileges and a terminal app to play with was simply not a pretty one.

The old case doesn't quite fit properly (the rear camera is covered), but a bit of work to carve out a hole should fix that. And I moved the big SD card from the old tablet to the new one. (I have heard a rumor that Santa is bringing an external speaker for each girl's tablet, so they may get some music downloaded onto those SD cards to play, which will do wonders for preserving our kid CDs...)

In the meantime, Julie is happy with the new tablet.

I expect Katie to drop her tablet with malice at some point once she realizes that Julie's tablet is "better". *sigh*

Of course, what Katie really wants is a phone.

And that will not be happening any time soon. :)

Comments

[persis.livejournal.com]

Remind me how old Katie is? You are a good Dad to replace broken gear so quickly. Of course, some of that may be self-preservation.

[billroper]

Katie is eight; Julie (of the deceased tablet) is six and a half.

Yes, replacing the broken gear was very much a matter of self-preservation. The whining that was going on yesterday because Katie's tablet was working and Julie's wasn't was remarkable to listen to.

So I loaned Julie my old tablet for the evening. It's being replaced with an iPad and the old tablet is going to Gretchen for quick lookups of info when she needs it.

Gretchen's also got a seven-inch Chinese tablet that's a couple of years old now. The problem is that touchscreens don't seem to like the touch of her skin...

[tollermom]

Julie... Terminal... root...

Eek!!!

[persis.livejournal.com]

I see... Do Katie's friends all have phones? I am assessing 4th graders this year for NAEP, and it will be interesting to see how many of them have phones... I think we gave Talis her first phone just after she turned 11 or 12 (I just don't remember, the years blur when they are teenagers). She has gone thru several, and lots of screens. (For that matter, I have gone thru many screens myself, but lost only one to water damage, so I should not talk.)

[katyhh.livejournal.com]

I expect Katie to drop her tablet with malice at some point once she realizes that Julie's tablet is "better". *sigh*

I sure hope that is not really something she would do??? Because, frankly, in my world, that would justify NOT getting the tablet replaced. Sorry, but if the kids already expect expensive toys and gifts like that, they need to respect their value and treat them well. Even if it might not be exactly what they want. But such is life ... Katie is old enough to understand this, and you would not be doing her a favor by tolerating (and even rewarding) such action.

[billroper]

Oh, I agree. And I really do not think she will drop her tablet.

What she would be much more likely to do is to whine about it being unfair that Julie's tablet is faster. And I will explain to her that the longer she keeps her tablet working, the better her next tablet will be... :)

[billroper]

As far as I know, she only has one friend who has a phone and she is in third grade. However, I haven't done a detailed census. :)

[billroper]

Yes. Six year olds should not be given root privileges.