Feedly still working for me (the web site, not the Chrome app). And blazingly fast.

Obviously not relevent to android users, but in terms of people having trouble.

I find that I like Feedly. It took a minute to set up the way I like it, but now it's good.

My Mom has a really generous Amazon gift card and is thinking of getting a tablet.

1) It would be used for web browsing, reading email, watching videos (including Democracy Now), reading the NY times online and so on.

2) She has bad eyes. The large size iPad (not the touch) with retina display would be ideal. But though the gift card is generous, it not THAT generous. Is there anything less expensive with similar display quality? She does not need iPad quality otherwise, just in turns of screen.

3) One thought is Kindle Fire. But from what I understand that is still optimized as e-reader and is slow and unreliable for general browsing. Or is that info obsolete for latest fire?

4) She has mild hearing loss too, so we need something that will take inexpensive headphones.

5) She won't want to pay monthly for data connection, so need wi-fi to take advantage of our existing broadpband. I think that is all tablets these days.

Do you know what the budget is? That will help narrow down the field considerably.

The gift card is 250. She will throw in $50 or so for the right tablet. So a squishy $300

And you think 7" is too small for her? Because she can get a Nexus 7 for that price and the screen quality is great (how much nicer do you need?)

I don't know how limited the Nook or Kindle tablets are, but they're within that budget--do you think she has functional requirements that exceed them?

Hmm. The Nexus 7 is too small for me, but her eyes are better than mine. I guess I need to take her down to the Amazon Display Case (otherwise known as best buy) for a look.

In terms of nook and kindle - how good are they for web browsing, play videos, email, reading NY Times and such?

I have used my original Kindle fire for Web browsing and it is fine. I am sure the updated versions are better. But I would generally suggest staying in the Normal Android world if possible unless she plans to do Amazon reading, music, video, etc. Amazon is a bit annoying and I don't completely love the Fire interface. The world seems to think the Nexus tablets are the best choice. I covet the N10.

Gris, do you think someone's mother needs to stay with conventional Android? I think if your use cases are limited what does one need out of the full universe of applications? I wouldn't encourage my parents to spend extra money to get that, even as I'd nudge my sister to do so.

THE nook Hd+ is a pretty fantastic deal right now, possibly because B&N is going out of business soon. So support won't be there but it is a 9" tablet for $149