Dell has decided to fill in the gap between smartphone and tablet (which was designed to fill a gap itself), but I'm not very optimistic. It's basically just an oversize smartphone. I guess Dell figured they couldn't compete with Apple directly, so they didn't. When will someone with balls make a true Android tablet?
Dell has decided to fill in the gap between smartphone and tablet (which was designed to fill a gap itself), but I'm not very optimistic. It's basically just an oversize smartphone.
Prediction - In the near future, it will just be a panoply of various devices of various sizes and capabilities, to fill what is essentially a fractal series of gaps.
Personally, given how I'm using my droid and how my mobile computing usage has changed as a result (my laptop just sits and collects dust most of the time) I'd really like a device with a large screen. I really find the 3.7" screen just too small to really browser the web effectively.
When will someone with balls make a true Android tablet?
Well before Froyo, android with really too slow to be competitive.
Why the fuck would I spend $500 on an easily stolen slab of underfeatured shit when I could buy a feature-rich, Linux-running, Open Hardware system with long battery life for $99 that will likely send one to a child in a country who also needs a computer? Fuck you, Jobs. There's more to this ballgame than industrial design.
I think even a decade old Newton would succeed at beating the iPad (even though it's abandonware, not open). 90's Alert What happened to that Apple? Why can't they be as good as the old days (in terms of philosophy, I mean).
Dan: is that something only third-world orphan kids can have? or can I buy one? me: no you can only have an ipad Dan:
Yeah, I just noticed that the "Buy One, Send One" program is over. However, the Moby tablet platform that the XO-3 is built on is one of Marvell's new products. We'll see a public release that's similar, but probably not under the XO name.
heh - I mentioned it elsewhere, but still - The london launch of the Ipad was the other day, and people were freaking out, lines around the block, so on, so on.
Two days before that in the middle of leeds city - most of the second hand gadget stores had a whole bunch of them, in most hard drive sizes, both wi-fi and 3g.
I popped into an Apple Store today (or the apple section of Media Markt) and played with an iPad for ten minutes. I didn't buy one, but I could feel the "magic", as Jobs calls it. It just works.
The thing that really surprised me was how fast I could type on the on-screen keyboard. Not as quick as a physical keyboard, but much faster than my iPhone. I'd actually prefer a keyboard half way between the size of the iPhone keyboard and the iPad keyboard. The horizontal keyboard was way too big, and they could have used the extra space for more keys, not larger keys.
No, I can't and that's the weird thing. I've heard other people talking about the browsing experience, and switching between apps, and looking through photos, and typing, and all that. They say it's like no other computer experience, but I've never worked out what they were getting at.
So after trying it myself, it really IS nothing like any other computer I've used. It really is much more than a big iPod Touch. A friend of mine was saying he can do everything and more on a 150 quid netbook, but really, this kind of device is something different. It is very limited, but in this case, I didn't mind that. After 10 minutes I knew all I needed to do know about it. That is a good thing. If I wasn't sure how to do it all after 10 minutes, I probably wouldn't have the same reaction. But in 10 minutes I'd run out of things to do on the pre-installed apps. Like I said, this is a good thing, because that means it'll just work.
Once someone figures out how to hack one and install Android on it I'll think about getting one. I mean usable Android.
I have a Touch and I have an Android phone. Multi-tasking is too important for me to justify purchasing a device that does not multi-task. I want to be able to run multiple apps at once and switch between them.
Thought this might be of intrest. Beta testers wanted for Settlers of Catan iPad game. Appears they're looking to start bringing Catan to the iPad properly (not just the current "scaled up" iPhone version). Hopefully other board games will follow suit. Maybe they'll implement card options like Scrabble does with iPod Touches or iPhones. Unfortunately, I don't have an iPad yet to test. Anyone have one here that wants to try it out? (And let us know how good/bad the game on it is?)
I have a Touch and I have an Android phone. Multi-tasking is too important for me to justify purchasing a device that does not multi-task. I want to be able to run multiple apps at once and switch between them.
I don't understand why people are making such a big deal about multi-tasking devices now - My two-or-three generations ago, last generation, and current generation Nokia smartphones all had multitasking.
I have a Touch and I have an Android phone. Multi-tasking is too important for me to justify purchasing a device that does not multi-task. I want to be able to run multiple apps at once and switch between them.
I don't understand why people are making such a big deal about multi-tasking devices now - My two-or-three generations ago, last generation, and current generation Nokia smartphones all had multitasking.
The big deal is because the 'magical' iPhone OS doesn't do it.
THEREFORE IT'S A REVOLUTION IN COMPUTING AND IF YOU DON'T MARCH IN LOCKSTEP YOU'RE A HATER AND A STUPID MICRO$OFT FANBOY.
I'm quite happy being what would probably be called a Microsoft fanboy using my Xbox 360, Windows computer and Zune 120 of playing more formats than iPods ever have awesome.
I'm quite happy being what would probably be called a Microsoft fanboy using my Xbox 360, Windows computer and Zune 120 of playing more formats than iPods ever have awesome.
The only formats for audio that matter besides mp3 are ogg and flac. Pretty sure no Microsoft stuff deals with them. For video, obviously the choices are limited in all directions. However, if I'm going to put a video file onto my phone, I'm going to re-encode it even if the format is supported. That way I can optimize it for the display. Handbrake is very good at encoding for iPhone and such. I watched Eva and Esca in their entirety on my iPhone by ripping DVDs and encoding with handbrake.
Audio wise, iPods and Zunes are equal, but the extra awesome comes in the form of video support. The HDs support WMV, MP4, and Xvid encoded AVI natively now. My Zune 120, which is from the generation before, plays wmv and mp4, but the Zune software itself will convert those avis it supports and anything else that it can play into a format that is cool for the Zune, even my old Zune 30. For most things I do not need Handbrake but I do have it for the odd mkv or such that I want to toss on there.
Right, fellow non-iPad-owners, I just read a blog from the dev team working on the Adam tablet. Earlier they said "We have a new idea for multitasking that we think is going to change everything." Of course, my reaction was "Yeah, right, what can be done so differently..."
But check this out. The two key steps are having two modes per application, and having three panels viewable and workable on screen at any one time.
The two modes are a full mode, where only the one application is visible, and you have full access to all functions and screen estate. The other mode is a streamlined mode, which shrinks the view of the application to a third of the screen, but also restricts the functionality of the app to more processor, memory and battery light operations.
"Example would be an email panel which allows you to read, send and refresh mail box, but to send “formatted email content†you need to call the main application"
Then you can have an unlimited number of these reduced apps running at any time, and are able to view any three. Meanwhile the full version of the apps are sleeping.
This quote makes this even more exciting:
"Panels also allow you to now work on the application which currently exist on Android Market. Since they were made for mobiles, just enlarging (2x) them doesn’t make any sense. So now you can run them in a panel without any pixelation.
Using these concepts now you can compare two documents, transfer files from one folder to another, take notes from one panel and write in another, you can chat in one and read RSS in another, while third one is playing your song, read this blog and update your twitter message. Most important element in multi-tasking is to SEE two things to work on them, and now we have 3! (The composition is really very dynamic, and one application is not restricted to only 1 panel, one can open another and so on)."
In using my iPhone and playing with Android devices, I can tell you multitasking is only true multitasking when you can see two things at once. The makers of the Adam agree. I think this is the way forward.
Comments
I guess Dell figured they couldn't compete with Apple directly, so they didn't. When will someone with balls make a true Android tablet?
Why the fuck would I spend $500 on an easily stolen slab of underfeatured shit when I could buy a feature-rich, Linux-running, Open Hardware system with long battery life for $99 that will likely send one to a child in a country who also needs a computer? Fuck you, Jobs. There's more to this ballgame than industrial design.
or can I buy one?
me: no
you can only have an ipad
Dan:
90's Alert
What happened to that Apple? Why can't they be as good as the old days (in terms of philosophy, I mean).
Two days before that in the middle of leeds city - most of the second hand gadget stores had a whole bunch of them, in most hard drive sizes, both wi-fi and 3g.
The thing that really surprised me was how fast I could type on the on-screen keyboard. Not as quick as a physical keyboard, but much faster than my iPhone. I'd actually prefer a keyboard half way between the size of the iPhone keyboard and the iPad keyboard. The horizontal keyboard was way too big, and they could have used the extra space for more keys, not larger keys.
So after trying it myself, it really IS nothing like any other computer I've used. It really is much more than a big iPod Touch. A friend of mine was saying he can do everything and more on a 150 quid netbook, but really, this kind of device is something different. It is very limited, but in this case, I didn't mind that. After 10 minutes I knew all I needed to do know about it. That is a good thing. If I wasn't sure how to do it all after 10 minutes, I probably wouldn't have the same reaction. But in 10 minutes I'd run out of things to do on the pre-installed apps. Like I said, this is a good thing, because that means it'll just work.
On a completely different note, a friend of mine has a Pandora on the way.
I have a Touch and I have an Android phone. Multi-tasking is too important for me to justify purchasing a device that does not multi-task. I want to be able to run multiple apps at once and switch between them.
If enough board game vendors got on board with the iPad, that would be the killer app for me.
But check this out. The two key steps are having two modes per application, and having three panels viewable and workable on screen at any one time.
The two modes are a full mode, where only the one application is visible, and you have full access to all functions and screen estate. The other mode is a streamlined mode, which shrinks the view of the application to a third of the screen, but also restricts the functionality of the app to more processor, memory and battery light operations.
"Example would be an email panel which allows you to read, send and refresh mail box, but to send “formatted email content†you need to call the main application"
Then you can have an unlimited number of these reduced apps running at any time, and are able to view any three. Meanwhile the full version of the apps are sleeping.
This quote makes this even more exciting:
"Panels also allow you to now work on the application which currently exist on Android Market. Since they were made for mobiles, just enlarging (2x) them doesn’t make any sense. So now you can run them in a panel without any pixelation.
Using these concepts now you can compare two documents, transfer files from one folder to another, take notes from one panel and write in another, you can chat in one and read RSS in another, while third one is playing your song, read this blog and update your twitter message. Most important element in multi-tasking is to SEE two things to work on them, and now we have 3! (The composition is really very dynamic, and one application is not restricted to only 1 panel, one can open another and so on)."
In using my iPhone and playing with Android devices, I can tell you multitasking is only true multitasking when you can see two things at once. The makers of the Adam agree. I think this is the way forward.