Hello AF, Long time no see. This is pretty random, but I was thinking of getting a tablet (something that uses Android) so that I can increase my studying time during my daily commute. I know obviously that a .pdf would open on a tablet, but have anyone ever tried getting their Schweser VCD Lectures or the Stella testbank to run on the Android family OS? The Schweser VCD seem to operate over some form of Windows IE environment. Thanks.
I have an Acer Aspire One (see Wikipedia) and both the video lectures and testbank run smoothly on it (Internet is however needed for the streaming video). I have the mp3 on my Android phone, and anything that is printed as a non-locked pdf displays well on the Android phone (but you can’t view something locked with eg Locklizard). I don’t think it is possible to, at this stage, run the QBank on Android. Maybe some other year? This may be a silly suggestion but why not use the mp3 on an Android phone, if you want to read or study while commuting, and if you want to solve questions just print them out in Advance from the QBank in sets of 60 questions? If you do the printing to a pdf and then rezise the pdf to two pages per page before printing on paper, it’s not too much to carry around. Just a few sheets of paper, a pencil and a calculator. While we’re at it does anyone know of some software you could use to create and display flashcards on an Android phone? I’m looking for something that doesn’t require internet access while viewing the cards.
I’m a sucker for new technologies and I really want to get my hands on a new tablet this boxing day. My wild guess is that a tablet running Win7 would probably be compatible with Qbank and the Schweser videos, whereas a tablet running Android may not. It seems like Schweser/Stella was a bit quick to assume the CFA candidates to be technologically conservative. Like k-calculi has suggested, a smartphone smartcard program would be quite interesting during those lunch/toilet breaks.
k-calculi, how long can you read on a smartphone before it gets annoying? isn’t the limited screen size vs. a tablet or computer monitor a problem?
^ I have a mini-notebook for reading, but I actually prefer to read from paper copies of the books. I don’t use the smartphone for reading (on the smartphone I only have the mp3 files with that Schweser guy reading out loud from their books). Edited: with paper copies I mean the paper books themselves, in contrast to when the books display through the VitalSource bookshelf. I don’t mean copies made from the books. For better portability I have cut the first volume into three pieces: one for Ethics, one for statistics and one for economics.
What about Kindle? Kindle can read PDFs right?
I love my Ipad!
I have made my own notes and exported them to a PDF format (through pdf995) and that document is very easy to read on an Android smartphone. The Ethics chapter (published for free on the Level I section on CFA Institute’s website) displays rather well too. It’s not possible (for me) to access anything from VitalSource, and I don’t want to display the books directly from VitalSource over a live Internet connection (although I suspect it would be possible) since it means sending data back/forth over a mobile network.
I have just checked, the books display very badly on the Android, the letters aren’t very clear they’re rather fuzzy like some scanned copy of a bad copy of something you have received on an ancient fax machine. I don’t like the application (VitalSource) itself either, I can’t understand how the programmers can have missed out on a crucial feature like zooming in and enlarging the text.
On an iPad, it’s rather primitive. You cannot leave bookmarks, so you have to remember where you were. There’s no “jump to” feature from the table of contents or the index and no linking within the text. There’s also no word wrap in case you zoom in. And lastly, the page-to-page hand movement is rather awkward. It’s a weak first effort IMO>
I have a netbook and d/led the curriculum there as well as on my desktop PC. In my opinion, it’s OK. I don’t like reading from a backlit screen much, but it’s better for the environment (even if I end up printing half the readings, which seems like a really high estimate) and I can carry the full curriculum easily, as opposed to previously, where the books were a P.I.T.A. to carry. As far as the iPad or whatever, I’ve tried reading on a friends for a while, and I hate it. The display is way, way too bright. It’s like staring at a g-d bulb.
The kindle can do pdfs. I just got one and am lovin it. Easy to read, battery life is really good. I tried the ipad and the its too bright + causes eye strain after a bit. Between PCs, switching to a kindle is a good break for eyes. I got the $139 wifi version (no need for the more exp 3G)
And what about the screen of the samsung galaxy tab? Did someone try it?
The samsung resolution is 169 pixels per inch (vs 132 ppi for ipad) so the screen is slightly sharper but they are both color, back lit, and have roughly the same refresh rate…so i cant imagine the eye strain will be any less. But if u really want a tablet, i would reco the samsung, its android, is less restrictive and has more features than the ipad.
1moreQ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The kindle can do pdfs. I just got one and am > lovin it. Easy to read, battery life is really > good. I tried the ipad and the its too bright + > causes eye strain after a bit. Between PCs, > switching to a kindle is a good break for eyes. I > got the $139 wifi version (no need for the more > exp 3G) i jus got my Kindle yesterday. so ur saying it displays PDFs well? btw +1 on the break for eyes and $139. its gr8 value for $$$
It displays PDFs. How well depends on pdf. Kindle just displays the pdf as is, so if you have a lot of text on a page-since it shrinks to page which means 11" of vertical text squeezed into 7"-the text can look squished. You just have to zoom in to view it properly but the zoomed in and left to right scrolling is a little clumsy. Other than that docs such as annual reports (even color ones) display nicely in B&W. For price and convenience, make me a happy camper.
1moreQ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It displays PDFs. How well depends on pdf. Kindle > just displays the pdf as is, so if you have a lot > of text on a page-since it shrinks to page which > means 11" of vertical text squeezed into 7"-the > text can look squished. You just have to zoom in > to view it properly but the zoomed in and left to > right scrolling is a little clumsy. > > Other than that docs such as annual reports (even > color ones) display nicely in B&W. For price and > convenience, make me a happy camper. Thanks. theres a SW called Calibre that helps in formatting data which displays better on the Kindle