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Chris in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware asked: “I’m buying an iPad or a Windows tablet. What are the plusses of each one and which would you recommend?”
Chris, they’re not really the same category of device, so it kind of comes down to what you’re looking for.
iPads are simpler to use, simpler to keep updated and overall secure, but they’re more limited. They sit somewhere between a phone and a laptop in functionality.
The Microsoft tablets are just Windows laptops in a different form factor. You’ll have to deal with the normal updates, and the latest batches of ads and invasive features that Microsoft seems determined to cram into Windows, you’ll need to worry about malware scanners, but they’re more versatile and can run the same software any other computer can.
It’s ultimately down to what you need to do with the device. If you need specific software for work or anything like that, your choice may be made by that restriction alone.
Joe in Hazleton, Pennsylvania asked: “If you need another reason to dislike Google, I can give you one. It’s the Google Mini speaker. I have one and it’s very annoying. I can listen to a stream of music for about 15 minutes, sometimes longer, and then it just cuts off and it says we can’t connect to the internet, check your modem or wireless connection and try again. This happens often. I’m really don’t know if it’s the speaker or if it’s my router or what it is, but sometimes I unplug and I unplug the speaker and I plug it back in and then it’s okay for a while again. So I don’t know what’s the problem. Can you guys help me on that? Thank you.”
Joe, the router is a more likely culprit than the speaker, if you can take it to someone else’s house or run it off of your hotspot for a while to test, you may be able to confirm that the speaker is working correctly.
Do you have any other device that can stream the same audio like a phone or laptop? If you do and the audio starts to drop on those devices too, you’re likely looking at a router issue.
If you do narrow it down to the speaker rather than the router, Google offers a one year warranty on its speakers. You may be able to get a replacement.
Routers, especially the cheaper ones, have a way of running out of memory and doing things like this, though. It’s likely that you’re going to find that it’s the router that needs to be replaced instead.