Back to school technology: Tablets

With August more than half over it means our Summer is coming to a close. That means it is time to start getting prepared for going back to school.

In today's technological world getting ready for school means making sure you have all the gadgets that will help through the school year. Laptops, mobile devices, portable storage, and chargers are just a few of the items that have become essentials over the the last decade.

The two big concerns on loading up on these technological essentials are space and budget. We don't want to burden our kids with so much gadgetry that they don't have room for books and other supplies. We also want to be able to get our kids everything they will need without draining our wallets.

In the last few years mini-tablets have become a very popular. They are a great size for reading the digital version of your text books, have most of the features you get with larger tablets without taking up the space, and are budget friendly with many of the being under $200.

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 comes a 3 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, 8 GB of internal storage that is expandable to 32 GB with an SD memory card, and it comes with 50 GB of Drop Box file sharing. It is $179 but if you are an Amazon Prime member the price goes down to $149.
• Google Nexus 7 is another great choice in the same price range. It doesn't have an SD expansion slot but 16 GB of storage. The front-facing camera is almost the same at 1.2 megapixels and the rear-facing camera is slightly larger at 5 megapixels.
• Toshiba Excite comes with 8 GB of storage but the operating system takes up 4 GB. There is a microSD slot that can be used for up to 128 GB of storage expansion. I t also has a 4 megapixel webcam. http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Excite-AT7-C8-7-0-Inch-Tablet/dp/B00KF47USG/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1440027413&sr=1-2&keywords=tablet&refinements=p_89%3AToshiba
• HP Stream 7 is a great alternative if you would prefer a Windows-based table. It comes with 32 GB of storage, a 1 year subscription to Office 365 with 1 TB of One Drive cloud storage. It doesn't have a rear camera but a 2 megapixel webcam. The tablet is under $100.