Author Topic: Tablet for archive research?  (Read 2829 times)

Offline Gen List Lass

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #9 on: Tuesday 21 May 19 18:49 BST (UK) »
Thanks for all your ideas, kind people.

I rather fancy the sound of either the Samsung or Lenovo tablet. Samsung have been giving me good mobile phone service for donkeys years and I've got a Lenovo tv which I'd never heard of but performs perfectly well. So.....I will check out both.

As for price, this will be my secondary piece of pc kit so not too much or too little.

The thought of having to download a FTM conversion sounds horrendous. I don't have my tree on Ancestry apart from the basic one for DNA matching purposes. So I want a tablet that will run FTM just like my laptop plus sync as often as I go to the archives i.e. twice a week. Conversions! Yikes they went out with the PC dark ages, didnt they?!!

I wouldn't want to use FTM on my mobile, the screen's just too tiny.

Gen in NBL UK (sometimes)
UK - Northumberland, County Durham: ANDERSON,   DODD(S), EDWARDS, ELLIOTT/ELLET, FENWICK, GREY/GRAY, HINDMARCH and variants, JORDAN, MOORE, MURRAY, RIPPON, RODDHAM, RYDER-TURNER, SPARK(E)(S), STEWART, TILLEY, TIPLADY, WATSON,
Sheffield: TURNER
Middlesex: RYDER
<br />Aberdeenshire: EDWARDS, BRODIE<br />Angus STEWART, DIXON, PETRIE

Offline Gadget

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #10 on: Tuesday 21 May 19 19:37 BST (UK) »
A branch of that well known electrical/computer store at Silverlink has a good range that you could try before you buy  :)
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Offline Gen List Lass

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #11 on: Tuesday 21 May 19 20:36 BST (UK) »
Gadget - Ooo I like the sound of that. I've been caught out twice with nastily configured keyboards bought online!

Got my last laptop there! Thanks for the tipoff.

Gen in NBL UK
UK - Northumberland, County Durham: ANDERSON,   DODD(S), EDWARDS, ELLIOTT/ELLET, FENWICK, GREY/GRAY, HINDMARCH and variants, JORDAN, MOORE, MURRAY, RIPPON, RODDHAM, RYDER-TURNER, SPARK(E)(S), STEWART, TILLEY, TIPLADY, WATSON,
Sheffield: TURNER
Middlesex: RYDER
<br />Aberdeenshire: EDWARDS, BRODIE<br />Angus STEWART, DIXON, PETRIE

Offline Gen List Lass

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #12 on: Thursday 23 May 19 11:12 BST (UK) »
I've been looking at FTMGTG, the app for using FTM on a tablet. It looks as though every time I work on an FTM file on a tablet, I have to make a GEDCOM and transfer it to my laptop and open it there, to update the laptop FTM I'm working on, on both devices. And vice versa, from laptop to tablet
 
This seems very old-school, as I reading it correctly?

Gen in NBL UK
UK - Northumberland, County Durham: ANDERSON,   DODD(S), EDWARDS, ELLIOTT/ELLET, FENWICK, GREY/GRAY, HINDMARCH and variants, JORDAN, MOORE, MURRAY, RIPPON, RODDHAM, RYDER-TURNER, SPARK(E)(S), STEWART, TILLEY, TIPLADY, WATSON,
Sheffield: TURNER
Middlesex: RYDER
<br />Aberdeenshire: EDWARDS, BRODIE<br />Angus STEWART, DIXON, PETRIE


Offline Craclyn

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #13 on: Thursday 23 May 19 14:52 BST (UK) »
That is probably because the version of FTM produced when MacKiev took it over was initially designed to synchronise with Ancestry. They probably do not put much time and effort into working on integrated synch with other tools. You can read about their synch here: https://www.mackiev.com/ftm/features/familysync.html.

If you are planning to use any other app to synch with your files on FTM you should be sure to backup before you start and regularly thereafter as any problems resulting from an unrelated app synch may not be covered by MacKiev support teams.
Crackett, Cracket, Webb, Turner, Henderson, Murray, Carr, Stavers, Thornton, Oliver, Davis, Hall, Anderson, Atknin, Austin, Bainbridge, Beach, Bullman, Charlton, Chator, Corbett, Corsall, Coxon, Davis, Dinnin, Dow, Farside, Fitton, Garden, Geddes, Gowans, Harmsworth, Hedderweek, Heron, Hedley, Hunter, Ironside, Jameson, Johnson, Laidler, Leck, Mason, Miller, Milne, Nesbitt, Newton, Parkinson, Piery, Prudow, Reay, Reed, Read, Reid, Robinson, Ruddiman, Smith, Tait, Thompson, Watson, Wilson, Youn

Offline Gen List Lass

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #14 on: Thursday 23 May 19 15:47 BST (UK) »
Craclyn....this gets complicated. As you know, I don't keep my main FT on Ancestry and never will. So FTM ONLY syncing with Ancestry is no use to me.

When I had my notebook pc, I use to transfer my latest file via USB cable to my laptop and vice versa. That ensured I had the latest version on both. Maybe I could do the same with a tablet? What file extension does FTM use on a tablet?

My main FTM tree goes onto a cloud every month or earlier if the occasion demands.

Gen in NBL UK
UK - Northumberland, County Durham: ANDERSON,   DODD(S), EDWARDS, ELLIOTT/ELLET, FENWICK, GREY/GRAY, HINDMARCH and variants, JORDAN, MOORE, MURRAY, RIPPON, RODDHAM, RYDER-TURNER, SPARK(E)(S), STEWART, TILLEY, TIPLADY, WATSON,
Sheffield: TURNER
Middlesex: RYDER
<br />Aberdeenshire: EDWARDS, BRODIE<br />Angus STEWART, DIXON, PETRIE

Offline Craclyn

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #15 on: Thursday 23 May 19 17:25 BST (UK) »
Yes, I know you have no plans to put your whole tree on Ancestry. If you ever change your mind about that you could make it private and unsearchable then nobody can see anything on it at all.

Transferring your FTM file to a tablet is no problem. Just download it from your cloud. The first problem then is what software would you use to process it? Then you have the constant upload and download as you move between machines. A plain tablet runs apps, not programmes such as FTM. Maybe what you are really looking for is a tablet/laptop hybrid that can handle both. You could keep your main FTM file in the cloud so you can access it from different machines when you are at home and at the archives.
Crackett, Cracket, Webb, Turner, Henderson, Murray, Carr, Stavers, Thornton, Oliver, Davis, Hall, Anderson, Atknin, Austin, Bainbridge, Beach, Bullman, Charlton, Chator, Corbett, Corsall, Coxon, Davis, Dinnin, Dow, Farside, Fitton, Garden, Geddes, Gowans, Harmsworth, Hedderweek, Heron, Hedley, Hunter, Ironside, Jameson, Johnson, Laidler, Leck, Mason, Miller, Milne, Nesbitt, Newton, Parkinson, Piery, Prudow, Reay, Reed, Read, Reid, Robinson, Ruddiman, Smith, Tait, Thompson, Watson, Wilson, Youn

Offline Deirdre784

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #16 on: Thursday 23 May 19 18:15 BST (UK) »
I have a Lenovo Yoga Book. It's like a mini laptop, in that it has an attached keyboard, but this can be folded back on itself to (effectively) be a tablet. Less than 1cm thick and weighs about 1.5kg, so nicely lighter than a laptop. Battery life is coming in around 10-11 hours, although obviously that would depend on what you are using it for (manual says "up to 15 hours"). Charges using a standard mini-USB cable (like a lot of phones).
My one is a Android version, but they do have a Windows 10 version, but that is a bit more expensive (have to pay Bill Gates' pension I suppose  ;))

Do you like the Lenovo Yoga? We are likely to get them in work - by the end of the year -  instead of our current desktops for flexibility.
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Offline jc26red

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Re: Tablet for archive research?
« Reply #17 on: Thursday 23 May 19 19:03 BST (UK) »
I have a Lenovo Yoga Book. It's like a mini laptop, in that it has an attached keyboard, but this can be folded back on itself to (effectively) be a tablet. Less than 1cm thick and weighs about 1.5kg, so nicely lighter than a laptop. Battery life is coming in around 10-11 hours, although obviously that would depend on what you are using it for (manual says "up to 15 hours"). Charges using a standard mini-USB cable (like a lot of phones).
My one is a Android version, but they do have a Windows 10 version, but that is a bit more expensive (have to pay Bill Gates' pension I suppose  ;))

Do you like the Lenovo Yoga? We are likely to get them in work - by the end of the year -  instead of our current desktops for flexibility.

I too have an android version, I like it but the keyboard takes some getting used to.  I doubt they would be a good alternative to a desktop, I only use it for light stuff. Fast touch typing isn’t possible, I suggest you google the reviews on the model your company are looking at.  You can’t attach a portable hard drive and the micro connections means I have had to order new cables. In a work environment, I would suggest a laptop would be better, but it does depend on what they are going to be used for.  I wish I had waited a little bit, the W10 version is now cheaper than the android on the model I purchased...  Hopefully the newer models have some of the earlier issues ironed out.
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