One of the shopping dilemmas users face when considering purchasing a Tablet is determining the amount of storage they think they will need. Many Tablets are available in capacities ranging from 16GB to 64GB, with some available in larger options. Apple’s iPads have a 128GB option. Google’s Nexus 7 has 16GB and 32GB models. Microsoft’s Surface 2 Tablet comes in 32GB and 64GB options. Surface Pro 2 can be purchased with storage options ranging from 64GB to 128GB. Some Tablets allow you to expand your storage with an SD card, some do not.
Obviously, the less storage you buy, the cheaper your initial cost will be. Apple and Microsoft are raising the price by $100 as they double your storage capacity. Google is increasing the cost of the Nexus 7 by $40. Amazon has raised the price of Kindle Fire HDX Tablets by $50. Need the largest storage capacity available? It depends on how you plan to use a Tablet and the Cloud is prominently involved in this decision process.
With the advent of cloud storage and sync features, you can choose to store some content that you use for your device, not locally, in your Cloud account. Again, depending on how you use your Tablet, this may save you some space. For example, if you are an avid gamer and download lots of high-end games, they will quickly consume your storage locally. If you download a lot of video content for offline viewing, you may find that your storage share is rapidly decreasing as well.
Users with large music libraries no longer have to have these thousands of songs on mobile because they can access and play their music from a Cloud storage solution. Or they can use any of the many streaming services available. Documents can also be stored in the Cloud.
However, that doesn’t mean that documents, music files, and video files don’t magically enter your local storage while you use or play them. This doesn’t mean that the App or Game you downloaded last year just isn’t taking up a gigabyte or more of storage on your device. So, if your budget and usage scenario dictates that you prefer a small-capacity device, you sometimes need to make sure to delete or archive the old one before bringing in a new one.
iOS users with smaller capacity devices had to clear the storage space to let the latest iOS 7.1 update do its thing. Surface 2 users may see performance gains if too much content is stored locally. Also note that the advertised storage capacity is not fully available. Operating system and pre-installed Apps take some of this storage.
Fortunately, with Apps, you can delete them from your device and your purchase record is preserved in the App Store you use. So if you delete an App and want to re-download it, you can. A personal example of this is the NCAA March Madness Practice. I don’t keep it on any of my devices except when the tournament is going on. Then I delete it. Cloud versions for documents, music and video are always there as long as you are connected.
But removing content from your device can be a time-consuming, searching, and pecking process. For Kindle Fire HDX Tablet owners, Amazon has found a solution they’ve been looking for
It’s as simple as it sounds. With the touch of a button, you can send content from various categories that you haven’t accessed for a while to Amazon’s Cloud for later retrieval. Here’s how it works.
First, swipe down from the top of your screen to bring up the Settings menu. Then choose.
choose from there
choose from there
After entering the setting screen, you will see a list of your content by category. After a few seconds, an automatic scan of your device will reveal the number of items in each category displayed and how much storage each category is using.
You can tap any category to see more details. Beware and they are two separate categories.
At the top of the page, you’ll see a colorful graphical view of how your storage is used across categories. Colors are related to the following categories.
What we’re looking for is between the chart and the category list: Tap it and a short scan of your content will occur. Then you will see content that you have not used or accessed in the last 7 days.
There will be a checkmark to the left of the title of the content. Ready for anything checked. To uncheck an item, tap the checkmark to the right of the title. (Not sure why we need two checkmarks.)
At the bottom of the screen you will see buttons for and . If you tap the button, the items you selected will be removed from your device and stored in the Cloud.
This much. Simple. Sweet. An easy 1-Tap method to clear content from various categories in one place.
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