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Xoom vs. iPad

dsfdsf
edited March 2011 in Technology
/discuss
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Comments

  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    I've never really liked apple products.
  • KieyKiey
    From my understanding of what I have heard, the Xoom is nice but too expensive.

    Additionally with the iPad press conference tomorrow any discussion today is basically moot.
  • CremlianCremlian
    I've never really liked apple products.
    Pretty much this. I like my stuff open and cheap just like I like my women.
  • zehaevazehaeva
    Like millions of other crackberry addicts I'm silently pining for the playbook, alone in the corner of a dark room sobbing gently to myself while RIM takes advantage of my wallet and my pride.
  • Dr. TimoDr. Timo
    I will shamelessly use my firstborn as an excuse to buy an iPad one of these days (he's really frustrated that he can't touch-scroll my laptop's screen).
  • SailSail
    Neither.
  • AprecheApreche
    For me personally, I don't need no stinking tablet. I got three laptops. Even the Chrome OS laptop is better than Xoom or iPad. However, if I had no laptops whatsoever, I would probably get an iPad simply for use while in bed or on the couch. I use my iPhone in bed a lot, and it would definitely be more comfortable if it were larger. That slight comfort still isn't worth buying one, it would just be a really exorbitant luxury. If I am mega rich, I'll get one just for those purposes.

    As for the Android tablets, they are all too shitty or too expensive. I can guarantee the iPad 2, revealed tomorrow, will blow them all away at a price similar to iPad 1. You might even see iPad 1 start to go for a scary low price, making the Android tablets even crappier by comparison.

    I still philosophically disagree with the closed Apple platform, compared to the open Android one, but reality wins. The fact is that Android is crashy, hacky, flaky, breaky, and bad. It does keep getting better and better with each new version, but people have to keep hacking and cracking to upgrade! Even if you do get the honeycomb, it's not perfect, and I don't think it ever will be. On handheld devices, user interface matters so much more than openness. See the GeekNights episode about phones with Conrad, same thing applies.

    I am thinking about seeing if my grandma can use an iPad. Next time I go down to Florida. She is not so good with the mouse. She can't aim or see the mouse arrow so well. Touch screen with big icons is probably best.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    See the GeekNights episode about phones with Conrad, same thing applies
    That episode is so old as to be completely irrelevant (Palm OS is dead). The android of today is a massive improvement over the android of a year ago. Also, all the devices now stock at least 512MB of RAM now, compared to the 256MB of the Moto Droid.

    Anyway, I don't really care to get into a protracted debate on this topic, but Android today is much better than it was. I won't say it's better than iOS, but it's a different OS that fulfills different requirements.
  • AprecheApreche
    Anyway, I don't really care to get into a protracted debate on this topic, but Android today is much better than it was. I won't say it's better than iOS, but it's a different OS that fulfills different requirements.
    I know Android has much improved, but has it improved enough? I'm not familiar with all the details.

    1) Does it still crash, ever?
    2) Do you still need to hack it to get it to upgrade and not suck?
    3) How's the battery life of the best phones?
    4) Does media playing/syncing not suck?

    My phone upgrade is due in 15 months. I will definitely investigate all my options at that time, including Android and such, but right now it's looking like iPhone5/6 is still going to be in a significant lead.
  • RymRym
    Palm OS is dead
    HP is promoting WebOS heavily.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    edited March 2011
    1) Does it still crash, ever?
    I get the odd app crash now and then, but my HTC has yet to fully crash. Now my Motorola would crash all the time, but I think I dropped it on its head one too many times.
    2) Do you still need to hack it to get it to upgrade and not suck?
    Depends on the manufacturer. Motorola and HTC are pretty good about updates, Samsung not as much. The real problem is how manufacturer seem to be making "value add" tweaks to the UI to make their phones unique, which really just make them shitty.
    3) How's the battery life of the best phones?
    Long enough, my Motorola could go 2 days without a charge if I didn't do too much with it. My HTC seems similar, but it's difficult to judge because the old battery in the Motorola didn't read it's remaining life in a linear fashion just before I replaced it.
    4) Does media playing/syncing not suck?
    This is the one where you Apple fanboys are on your own. I've never had any trouble with playing or loading media on my phone, but apparently my way is too much "work." There's a winamp app that I've never used so maybe it's good, but I don't know. I mostly just listen to pandora now so it doesn't matter.
    HP is promoting WebOS heavily.
    With what?
    Post edited by George Patches on
  • AprecheApreche
    Palm OS is dead
    HP is promoting WebOS heavily.
    The WebOS sketch.
  • RymRym
    With what?
    http://blog.palm.com/palm/2011/02/hp-webos-the-next-big-thing-and-the-next-small-thing-too.html
  • InvaderRENInvaderREN
    edited March 2011
    I have an iPhone and can see that an iPad is such a luxury device. You also get a lot of overlap with iPhone (same os...) so the gains from getting an iPad as lessened if you own an iPhone and you can experience at least 80% of what you could on an iPad on an iPhone (albeit smaller).

    BUT... My 2.5 year old son LOVES his nannas iPad! He can turn it on, choose a kids game and just start playing. It's crazy to watch him jump right in. he won't be able to start using a laptop until much later.

    iPads. For kids and old people... :)

    If I have a few $$ spare, I might consider getting an iPad2 for the above reasons and just as a "coffee table" pick up and start browsing type device. If you treat it as a toy, I think you will have a lot of fun with it.
    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • Hitman HartHitman Hart

    4) Does media playing/syncing not suck?
    If Android has any form of VLC/MPlayer type of thing, then it automatically wins over Apple for not making you have to Handbrake basically every single video to make it work, and if any of them let you drag and drop music, then they win on that front as well. iTunes is a horrible way to sync content. Even Windows Media Player is better, and it doesn't let you sync every format every player it handles just for being way less picky and I believe it has some degree of autoconvert if needbe
  • AprecheApreche
    iTunes is a horrible way to sync content.
    I've tried them all, and iTunes is the only one that actually works. It's far from perfect, but everything else I have ever tried is completely unusable.

    Also, even if an Android can just play any old video file, you still probably want to handbrake it before you load it on there so it's formatted properly for the tiny screen. Also, just about every video podcast is formatted for iPhone by default, and just works. Good luck even syncing a video podcast on Android.
  • Hitman HartHitman Hart
    edited March 2011
    iTunes is a horrible way to sync content.
    I've tried them all, and iTunes is the only one that actually works. It's far from perfect, but everything else I have ever tried is completely unusable.

    Also, even if an Android can just play any old video file, you still probably want to handbrake it before you load it on there so it's formatted properly for the tiny screen. Also, just about every video podcast is formatted for iPhone by default, and just works. Good luck even syncing a video podcast on Android.
    If the Android device can play any file, then it can take the iPhone formatted one just fine. As for content syncing, the Zune software is eons ahead of iTunes. It's not perfect, but it automatically converts a file if it can read it and the Zune needs it adjusted for playing. It also lets you sync individual albums as well as artist, genre, playlist, and song instead of just artist or genre or playlist.
    Post edited by Hitman Hart on
  • AprecheApreche
    If the Android device can play any file, then it can take the iPhone formatted one just fine.
    Even if it plays it, with what video player and what user interface? Will the video mute and pause when you unplug your headphones? Will it mute and pause when you get a phone call, or switch away from it to check a txt? These are very very tiny details, but they make an enormous difference in every day usage. Apple always gets them right. I hate the lack of freedom, but in a tiny device usability flaws are greatly amplified.
  • Hitman HartHitman Hart
    If the Android device can play any file, then it can take the iPhone formatted one just fine.
    Even if it plays it, with what video player and what user interface? Will the video mute and pause when you unplug your headphones? Will it mute and pause when you get a phone call, or switch away from it to check a txt? These are very very tiny details, but they make an enormous difference in every day usage. Apple always gets them right. I hate the lack of freedom, but in a tiny device usability flaws are greatly amplified.
    That I cannot say because I do not have one of these. I know my Zune pauses if my headphones get unplugged.
  • CremlianCremlian
    edited March 2011
    Even if it plays it, with what video player and what user interface? Will the video mute and pause when you unplug your headphones? Will it mute and pause when you get a phone call, or switch away from it to check a txt? These are very very tiny details, but they make an enormous difference in every day usage. Apple always gets them right. I hate the lack of freedom, but in a tiny device usability flaws are greatly amplified.
    You clearly have not used other phones lately. My freaking Blackberry does this. I use it as an Mp3 player all the time. Real handy to have that function when it's on silent because you known when someone is calling because the music stops ^_^
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • AprecheApreche
    edited March 2011
    You clearly have not used other phones lately. My freaking Blackberry does this. I use it as an Mp3 player all the time. Real handy to have that function when it's on silent because you known when someone is calling because the music stops ^_^
    Can you sync podcasts to the blackberry with new episodes coming down automatically? If you stop listening and restart listening again on your computer after a sync, does it pick up where you left off?
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    edited March 2011
    Even if it plays it, with what video player and what user interface?
    The gallery app, or you can download any of a number of third party apps.
    Will it mute and pause when you get a phone call, or switch away from it to check a txt?
    The phone always switched away for a phone call. The music app is fairly well flushed out and pauses automatically on a phone call and resumes automatically when the call is finished. The music pauses momentarily for the txt notification, but doesn't switch because it doesn't need to. Android notification bar makes automatically switching to a txt both unnecessary and annoying. The gallery app is currently not so well flushed out. It switches away for the phone (the phone always gets priority with android), but it doesn't pause videos automatically as of yet. This will probably be addressed in later versions, especially now with Android tablets coming out and video watching getting more of a front seat role. The story is exactly the same with headphones, pauses with the music app, not with the stock video app.
    Post edited by George Patches on
  • CremlianCremlian
    edited March 2011
    Are you going to move goal posts until you find something it can't do? Neither of those two features are very useful for me as I have more podcasts then space on my blackberry so I have to do some management before I transfer. Plus I never listen to podcasts on my computer.
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    Are you going to move goal posts until you find something it can't do?
    This was why I didn't want to get into a protracted debate, cause he always does this.
  • CremlianCremlian
    I would not say I'm arguing that my blackberry is better I'm just saying it does most of those features you just said they don't do.
  • zehaevazehaeva
    edited March 2011
    You clearly have not used other phones lately. My freaking Blackberry does this. I use it as an Mp3 player all the time. Real handy to have that function when it's on silent because you known when someone is calling because the music stops ^_^
    Can you sync podcasts to the blackberry with new episodes coming down automatically?
    Yes
    Post edited by zehaeva on
  • CremlianCremlian
    edited March 2011
    Yes
    Oh, check that out... Well score another one for Blackberry :-p
    Post edited by Cremlian on
  • zehaevazehaeva
    edited March 2011
    Yes
    Oh, check that out... Well score another one for Blackberry :-p
    We addicts must stick together!
    Post edited by zehaeva on
  • CremlianCremlian
    Oh just a note Scott, you are not registered with the blackberry podcast service, Anime World order is though :-p
  • AprecheApreche
    Oh just a note Scott, you are not registered with the blackberry podcast service, Anime World order is though :-p
    Probably because Clarissa is a Blackberry person.
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