[Oldmanmatt]

What is the best sub £100 pad for kids? (Two of ours have just been given pads by well meaning relatives leaving two seriously pissed off step siblings...)

x2 A4 and some couloured pencils.

Amen to that one!

This goes seriously against the grain.

The perks of 4 kids, two for each of us, meaning a shitload of Grandparents. One (my mother-in-law (is that still true?)) doesn't speak much English and turned up with pads for my two (to Skype)  and a couple bags of sweets for the other two. We have this crazy situation, where the kids are constantly confused about who's a real relative...
We don't distinguish between hers and mine at home, but relatives can be less accepting of "outsiders".

[mrjonathanr]

Are there any tablets out there good for using Powerpoint and Microsoft Office?

[tomtom]

Are there any tablets out there good for using Powerpoint and Microsoft Office?

MS surface and other tablets that use Win 8.1 or Win RT.

Or iPads and using the office app. The office app is free to use to view things, but costs (iirc £60 year or £60 for 4 years student subscription). I've a student/educational deal (as above) and its great. Does all the useful things word and ppt do. Not the complete functionality but everything I need...

The office app is due to be released at some point in the near future for android tablets - expect the same subscription model as per iPads etc...

[Oldmanmatt]

Quick office pro is great for office docs on an iPad. Generating and viewing, at a fraction of the cost. Pages on the pad works very well and now logs changes etc. Converts office docs well for me and exports as office, pages or PDF.

[tomtom]

Yup. Pages is nice - for me the winner with MS office is the review/track changes thing works perfectly - I do a lot of collaborative writing and it's invaluable.

[mrjonathanr]

Thanks for the replies. We have an ipad but I'd be after something altogether cheaper to cart around. Nexus 10 looks like it might do the job, but even cheaper would be better. shame Hudl doesn't come in 10" version.

[slackline]

Are there any tablets out there good for using Powerpoint and Microsoft Office?

For platform neutral alternative to PowerPoint consider Prezi

[tomtom]

Prezi is nice - doesnt handle video clips well - and if you work on something collaborative everyone has to be happy with using it...

[slackline]

If collaboration is desirable then Google Drive and their office suite is the way forward (or if you're geeky then WriteLaTeX).

No idea what the Google Drive ecosystem is like on iOS but under Android they have recently released standalone applications for Docs and Spreadsheets.  These and the default Drive application work fine (well as fine as editing/writing text on a tablet can be, which is in my opinion cumbersome in comparison to using a keyboard).

[Oldmanmatt]

Thanks for the replies. We have an ipad but I'd be after something altogether cheaper to cart around. Nexus 10 looks like it might do the job, but even cheaper would be better. shame Hudl doesn't come in 10" version.

I get the idea and I thought about it a couple of years back. But it just worked out cheaper to insure the pad for "what ever happens", back everything up to the cloud; giving me the option in extremis of using my iPhone as a clone, pending replacement of the pad.

[psychomansam]

http://dealsprime.com/cube-talk-9x-3g-tablet-pc-9-7-2048-1536-octa-core-2-0ghz-mtk8392-android-4-2-gps-bt-2gb-ram-8-0mp.html

Whaddya reckon?

[mrjonathanr]

Okay Sam thanks, that's new to me...looks good on price. I want it for tutoring so I can show presentations/ interactive stuff, sound files etc.

Slackers, prezi I've heard of but have many gigabytes of Microsoft resources I habitually use.

OMM - thanks but the ipad was a gift (from me) to Mrs mrj- and I would never be trustedwith it

[Paul B]

I'd be wary of the less-branded tablets as many apps aren't fully tested on them and thus Android Market (Play) rules them out or they behave / look like crap.

Sticking to Google or larger names alleviates this (in the Android world).

[slackline]

Slackers, prezi I've heard of but have many gigabytes of Microsoft resources I habitually use.

Micro$oft rumoured to be developing Office for Android & iOS

Sticking to my tangent of unuseful advice....if the resources are static (i.e. you're not going to edit them and instead just print/display them) then converting them to PDF would mean that they are easy to display on your tablet.  You can keep the originals on your PC as editable versions should you need to tweak them.

[tomtom]

Slackers, prezi I've heard of but have many gigabytes of Microsoft resources I habitually use.

Micro$oft rumoured to be developing Office for Android & iOS

Ahem... see my post from the 8th...

The iOS office apps are really good - great adaptations of the desktop version - keeping all the functionality I need.. I suspect the Android ones will be too..

[slackline]

Slackers, prezi I've heard of but have many gigabytes of Microsoft resources I habitually use.

Micro$oft rumoured to be developing Office for Android & iOS

Ahem... see my post from the 8th...

The iOS office apps are really good - great adaptations of the desktop version - keeping all the functionality I need.. I suspect the Android ones will be too..

Yeah, but this thread is about alternatives to iPads.  The El Reg article indicates that M$-Orifice its going to be available on an alternative to iOS, ie. Android   

[tomtom]

Ahem - read my post from the 8th...

The office app is due to be released at some point in the near future for android tablets - expect the same subscription model as per iPads etc...

[slackline]

 

[slackline]

Slackers, prezi I've heard of but have many gigabytes of Microsoft resources I habitually use.

Google Slides (should be able to import PPT's)