SHTF Blog is hi tech!
Yeah, yeah, what place does a computer device have after TSHTF?
It can have a big place if the conditions are right. Let’s assume that the TEOTWAWKI event doesn’t involve an EMP event, rendering most electronics useless dead-weight. All you need is a way to charge it such as a solar panel and you’re all set.
But what good can a computer tablet do? What can it be used for?
First, it’s a great organizational tool. You can create searchable lists like a spreadsheet or database and put inventory information in it and have easy access to it. Let’s say there’s a TEOTWAWKI event and you’re suddenly cut off for awhile. You’re on your own and you want to know exactly what you have for food, water, and other resources right now.
You can write it all down on a pad of paper (valuable resource) or you can type it directly into your tablet and have a searchable list. “Where did I put the 45 degree angle iron?” You can search through your sheets of paper or you can do a quick search of your spread sheet.
It can serve as an entertainment device for the kids. If you have a few movies downloaded onto it you can keep them entertained while you get other important work done.
You can download books or manuals to store on it. Sure, nothing beats holding a book in your hand and I agree with that, but books take up space and if it’s something you might read only after TSHTF then this might be a great way to save space. If I had to physically store my SHTF library it would take up a warehouse full of space I don’t have.
Tablet vs PC or Laptop
The tablet is basically a small computer that comes in three main flavors right now. Your smartphone could be considered a small tablet, but I find the interface to be too small for serious every day computing like word processing and such. Sure, you can make quick notes and whatnot, but to write a large document on it would require more skill than I have with the small keyboard.
The three basic types of tablets out there run the Macintosh, Android, or Windows operating system.
If you have multiple devices like phones, desktops, laptops, tablets, it’s probably a good idea to get them so that they all talk to each other so they can share data.
So let’s talk specifics. I have extensive experience with two devices, so I’ll give you my impressions of those.
First is the Amazon Kindle Fire, which runs the Android operating system. I have the 7″ and the 8.9″ HD versions. The Kindle is a great book reader that can do a whole lot more. You can download various “aps” (applications) from the internet to do different things. As a consumption device it’s awesome. You can watch movies, check your social media, read emails, Skype, and do all kinds of cool things with it. Where I found it lacking was actually creating things like Word documents, lists, etc. There are a million aps for it, but to actually type on it – even with the little Bluetooth keyboard I bought for it – was a hassle. I just wanted to open it up and be able to type on it and that wasn’t the experience I had with it.
The price for the Kindle can go anywhere from $80 to around $350 and it’s worth the price if you’re on the market for something like this.
But in my quest for a tablet that would allow me to create documents and spreadsheets the same as you would on an actual laptop I decided to branch out and try the Microsoft Surface 2, which is what I’m using to create this post. The Surface 2 was what I was looking for when it came to a device meant for creation instead of consumption. The keyboard is a pleasure to type on compared to the small Kindle keyboard I bought and it comes preloaded with MS Office 2013, which is a killer ap.
There are three main versions of the Surface. The first generation was the Surface RT (Run Time). According to the research I’ve done you’ll probably want to stay away from this one. I bought the Surface 2, which is still RT, but as far as I’m concerned it’s awesome. RT means it’s still considered a tablet operating system, so if you want to get an application for it you have to go to the MS Ap store and get it there. When it first came out there were very few aps written for it and this was one of the drawbacks, but by the time I bought mine I went out and installed a bunch of applications that I found on the store for free. Perfect!
The Surface Pro has the actual Windows OS, so if you want to install software off the ‘net or Cd or whatever you can do it.
Windows 8.1
The Surface tablets come loaded with Microsoft Windows 8.1, which a lot of people really hate. I have to admit when I first loaded it up I was like, “What the hell is this???” but after taking 20 minutes to actually learn the OS I’ve come to prefer it over Windows 7 and earlier operating systems. It’s fantastic to use when you can swipe it with your fingers, but a bit of a pain when you have to use just the mouse.
My suggestion is that if you do get this on a tablet or PC give it a chance. It’s not like other Windows versions, so get that out of your head right now. The Metro desktop is quite different, but like I said, once I got used to it I like it a lot. Figure out how to manipulate the icons and set your desktop up your way, which will make it a lot more fun to use.
Touch and Type Keyboards
There are two types of keyboards that you can buy with the Surface. The Touch keyboard is basically a flat keyboard and the Type keyboard has small keys on it. I’m old school in that I like the feel of actual keys, so I bought the Type keyboard. For me this is a big part of what makes the device so usable. The keyboard plugs in and works. Period. You don’t have to go to your wifi settings to hook up the bluetooth or any of that. It attaches via powerful magnets and you can actually hold it up by the keyboard and the table won’t come off.
I tried the Touch keyboard and I’m sure with a little practice it would have been easy to use it quickly and accurately, but the Type keyboard gave me better tactile feedback, so that’s what I went with. It does cost a little more, so be aware of that if you decide to go out shopping.
Price
Now for the price. The original Surface RT usually goes for less than $400. The Surface 2 – the one I own – was $449 plus you have to buy the keyboard, which was another $119 or so. The Surface Pro and above go for over $1000. Ouch.
I almost didn’t get it because of the price. After all, I could easily run down to Walmart and pick up an Acer laptop for $259. But I already have a laptop. Even a small laptop starts to be a hassle to carry around, so I opted for the Surface, which goes a little over a pound.
The engineering is excellent and the back of the tablet folds out to create a stand. With the magnetic keyboard attached you nearly have a laptop experience on your lap or desk. It also has a USB 3 port on it, which means you can attach a mouse, extra keyboard, USB thumb drive, or just about anything. A very welcome addition to the computing experience. Another great feature is the battery life, which lasts for about 10 hours. I use my Surface all day at work and then again when I get home after the kids go to bed and I only have to charge it up over night. During the day I might use it as a word processor, or for looking up my workout routine, downloading books (mine has a 32 GB hard drive), listening to music, writing blog posts, taking pictures on it’s rear and front facing camera, etc etc.
Since I bought my Surface 2 I think I’ve opened up my actual laptop four or five times in the past three months.
If you’re looking for a solid tablet that allows great productivity then I would recommend this one.
Questions? Comments?
Sound off below!
-Jarhead Survivor
20 comments
Timing is everything. The Surface is the perfect iPad slayer, but it came about a year too late and about $100-$150 too expensive.
But at a Christmas sale at Microcenter, I picked one up with the keyboard for $179. Brand new and not refurbished.
It is an amazing piece of hardware. Now we just need to convince Microsoft that it is worth keeping in the lineup as long as they don’t try to price gouge us again.
Light years better than my Android tablet, and even better than the iPad (except for the lack of retinal display), I am convinced it is the “just right” tablet product.
I have bought into http://www.meetearl.com/
this is a backcounty tablet with emergency radios and maps for which ever region you order. its “waterpoof” can charge off solar and runs the latest android. Im planing on loading all my prep books and as many mapping/navigation apps as I can. will be the perfect tablet for SHTF
Wow, that Earl looks pretty awesome. Gonna have to inventory my pennies and dimes for one, methinks. Thanks for the heads up!!
It does look pretty cool. I saw some military computers that were built much the same way.
If anyone is in the market for a good solar charger at reasonable prices, I’ve found http://www.browndoggadgets.com to have a lot of excellent stuff, pre-assembled and DIY kits. Admittedly, I haven’t looked around much either…. But their Altoids Tin solar USB charger was pretty awesome.
While I have some things stored on my laptop, I don’t really foresee being able to download documents, etc when TSHF. so make sure you get them stored NOW! When you need them it will be too late to get them (like a lot of other things).
This is one of the places I download from
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html
Ahhh tablets. I have had a love affair with them for some time. It’s almost sad really. I cannot recall the last time I went out and bought a brand spanking new desktop computer of any kind. I have 1 laptop I bought new in 2009, and every thing since then has either been a used XP Dell, or this iMac we bought (6 months newer than my laptop) used for $500.
I have done plenty of computer work, a degree in software development, but when people come ask me about tablets it all breaks down to personal preference.
The ipad we have in the house was a gift for my wife that I bought for her as a Christmas/Anniversary gift (those things are expensive), but I have had at one point in my life a 1st gen Kindle, 2nd gen nook, and currently a samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0.
After living in a windows world for so long, they really screwed the pooch in the tablet market (No offense Jarhead lol) I loved developing in .NET so I know my windows GUI, but they (Microsoft) bit off too much. Trying to cram windows 8 tiles onto a non-touch desktop soured most people.
As an owner of a Zune mp3 player (30gb brick) I can see where they were going to, but hindsight is always 20/20.
Yes there were improvements, yes right now it’s slick, but it doesn’t outperform the leaders in the industry.
So when I am asked what to get my advice generally is this: Get something with a min 8gb onboard only if it has an expandable microsd/SD slot. Otherwise look to 32gb tablets. That will up your cost to at minimum $200, but when you are using is as your primary device to surf, email, chat, a little gaming, having storage space is critical.
#2) Make sure it’s HD capable. No one wants to watch SD crap any more. The quality of screens these days blows me away.
#3) If you go with Android OS, please be sure you can upgrade to JellyBean. That means a dual core processor if possible, quad core or better if you want fast.
#4) If you have other apple products and want to enjoy seemless integration (iphone, appletv, macbook, imac, apple mini, etc) with all of them, then get an ipad. It’s a little “fanboi” to say it, but the only other products I have seen great integration with were my Galaxy products (My former Galaxy S2 phone shared it’s data connection 3G/4G seemlessly with my tablet).
Besides the apps, games, surfing, and email you can do with a tablet you can also read books, educate your children, write in journals, and even inventory your prepping goods. These are tools that integrate into peoples lives better than desktops/laptops ever could and I believe it has made peoples lives a little easier.
As for the sub $100 tablet market. There is a place for it. There is an app I use to document my archery practice called rcherz and that can be installed on most android tablets. (The RCA one it doesn’t seem to like). But I bought a $50 tablet for my daughters first tablet because she does enjoy reading, and has a few education apps (cursive handwriting for example), that she loves to work with.
There is no easy answer for tablets, but if you can afford to pick up a $50 tablet and stuff it full of books, PDF files, spreadsheets to store in a faraday box for backup, you only need to take it out every month, put it through a few paces, recharge, and store it away again. These devices will get cheaper, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see working first gen ipads at garage sales for $50 soon. 🙂
Happy binary trails!
R.C.
I agree about MS screwing it up when they tried to get everybody to go to Windows 8 on non-touch screens. People hated Windows 8.0! Still do too.
I like it on the tablet, but haven’t tried it on a desktop yet, so I can’t speak to it.
Tablets are as personal a choice as underwear. Get what makes you happy and put it to good use. 🙂
I hate Windows 8. It seems designed to make you buy/download stuff/apps. I deleted everything I could and there are still apps on the main window that just won’t go away. Another thing if you click on a app, even unintentionally I have to close it using the task manager. Seems they are designed to stay in memory. It keeps popping up and forcing me to click or otherwise do something to get back to whatever I’m working on. Because of that I wind up constantly fighting the operating system. I thnk microsoft should offer Windows 7 for free for all the people who hate windows 8. It is too inconvenient and counter-intuitive.
I like my 2012 Note 10.1, the stylus is far beyond any other save the 2014 Notes, and it has forward facing stereo speakers which the newer one doesn’t have. It also doesn’t have annoying physical buttons for home/back/menu to accidentally hit.
I was seriously looking at the Earl, but I can’t take my current tablet out many times because it’s too cold, the folks at Earl have hinted that once the initial run is out they’ll make a more expensive model with a screen that’s capable of operating in the cold.
That I will definitely buy.
Hoping it doesn’t take them too long to put out, I really want a tablet that’ll work when there’s ice in your beard.
two things.
1) I like that Earl. Pretty smart to include FRS/GMRS, NOAA, and GPS/TOPO. As a ham, and a skywarn peep, I have many of those bases covered already. So for $199 Gen 1 Ipad, with an $80 otterbox case, I can put topo maps on it already (Have them for my other devices). Not trying to shortchange or take away from the Earl, I see where it is going, but you are limited to the features it has, versus making a tablet do what I want, and adding ruggedness to it by putting it in a waterproof/dirtproof case.
2) Some one mentioned Browndoggadgets as a place to source solar chargers. I picked up 2 of these: http://amzn.com/B005ZSVZRY and they have charged every portable device I own, and I can secure it in my pack.
Just wanted to add a couple other points to this conversation. I’ve enjoyed reading every one elses perspective.
🙂
Its a good idea , even in a situation where internet is down , so much can be saved on flash drives . They pack away well too , just have the means to recharge them .
They are really nice NSA tracking and audio monitoring devices. ALL hand held and mobile electronics are now. If you own or use one you can kiss ALL OPSEC GOODBUY . All I keep is this old desk top and if I had to S*** can It; it will be no great loss. I don’t own a smart phone or laptop and don’t WANT a “reader”. Myself; I think we peaked about 1939 or 40 and have been sliding down hill ever since
A friend once said to me before Windows was invented “computers – ha! It’s just a passing fad.”
If you use credit cards, an ATM, an ATM card to pay for groceries or gas, collect social security, have health insurance or have a bank account, you have no OPSEC – it is all traceable at the push of a button. Hell, even police helicopters are equipped with heat detecting devices that can find a human body on the run.
Yes Ray, it is a brave new world & I once thought like you but I decided years ago to embrace it because it was far easier than resisting it. I say, why not hide in plain sight.
No ATM card- No debit card-No credit card. I do pay bills with paper, witch leaves a trail(of sorts) . And Jason; FLIR is GREATLY overrated. My self I never thought E-COMMS were a passing fad. I just think that computers and cell phones are the worst mistake humans have ever made. Worse than Nukes and democrats combined. I really hate the 21st century and look forward to the reset to a pre-20th century world. What we have now is unsustainably stupid, and nature will not long abide stupid without radical correction.
Once you’ve had Mac, you’ll never go back.
I like seamless integration between my devices & hate viruses. I switched to Mac 10 years ago & never regretted it for a single moment, in fact, my 8 year old son uses my 7 year old MacBook Pro laptop that still runs the same today as it did new. The Apple customer support is second to none.
I have the iPad, iPhone & MacBook Pro – all with the retina display & the resolution is truly unbelievable. It may be a few bucks more BUT due to the longevity & extremely low hassle, it proves much cheaper in the long run in my experience.
You are right about the Mac not being hacked or viruses being created for it as much as it is for Windows. It is for the same reason the hackers stole the credit card info from Target and not the little mom and pop store down the street. That is is is bigger and the reward is bigger. In general the hackers aren’t interested in a Mac and it’s 1% of the market they want the big guy on the block, Microsoft.
I have the base model Nook e-reader with an e-ink screen, it’s loaded with normal books i like to read and i also have a ton of PDF files relating to survival / homesteading. it runs for 2 weeks on a charge. I also several solar panels to charge things including the nook. I have a Dell (win-7) laptop that I’m very happy with, i don’t see myself going to a tablet any time soon. I like the laptop a lot and i’m not pressured to buy apps for it. I charge it from a 50 watt solar panel (made by Ramsond out of Detroit) so it works well when tent camping.
I also have a desk top computer that i really like as it was built for gaming and few laptops make good gaming machines.
I forgot to mention my most important mobile device, i use it every day (for the last 10-years) It’s my Palm Pilot. I keep untold number of things on it. I have a record of every customer I ever did work for, I have numerous survival files / memos on it. It is the most important electronic thing I have. And I backup it daily to one of my computers so all the data is safe. In fact it’s so important, I have a few spares.