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Tablets (the iPad kind)

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  • Yeah, I wish the Nook tablet had a camera like the iPad, but for the price *shrug*.

    Anyways, it's only gonna get better once cyanogen mod gets ported to it.
  • Listening to the the most recent Geek Nights right now and Rym is telling his story about how people on the subway approached him about the book he's reading for the book club had me thinking about e-readers/Kindles. Normally people will see what book you're reading and strike up a conversation when they see what you're reading and have a similar interest. This sort of thing goes away when you are reading things on a tablet.

    Just a random thought.
  • Yet another benefit of ereaders ;)
  • Yet another benefit of ereaders ;)
    I think it goes both ways. There are some titles I really don't want others to know I'm reading, while at the same time you miss out on the opportunity of meeting new people or having interesting conversations.
  • Listening to the the most recent Geek Nights right now and Rym is telling his story about how people on the subway approached him about the book he's reading for the book club had me thinking about e-readers/Kindles. Normally people will see what book you're reading and strike up a conversation when they see what you're reading and have a similar interest. This sort of thing goes away when you are reading things on a tablet.

    Just a random thought.
    I can still see what people are reading if the title or author is on the top middle of the screen. It's no different than if someone is reading something without a cover. For example, I saw a guy on the subway a few days ago reading a Sesame Street Script. It was just paper, but I could tell what it was anyway.
  • edited December 2011
    Anybody scope out the new Asus Transformer Prime? It looks really nice but cost about as much as a Ipad 2. Even still it's probably one of the best Android tablets out there so far.

    Post edited by Josh Bytes on
  • As nice as the tablets look, I can't quite motivate myself to fork over $500 or so for one as of yet -- I don't really have any need for one right now. That said, my mom did just get an iPad 2 and she absolutely loves it, but it is just about the perfect type of computing device for her.
  • Right now if I was going to buy a 10 inch android tablet, It would be the Transformer prime. I really like the dock. It actually has a touchpad so you can really use it like a laptop when its in the dock. I wish it weren't so expensive though. When you combine the Tablet and the dock, It's almost enough to buy myself a new pc which would probably give me a lot more use.

    I like the look of the Acer Iconia 7 inch tablet. Its only around $250 (at walmart, at least) and it seemed really nice when I was messing around with it at best buy. The only real flaw I can see is that it only has a 5 hour battery life. I think I'd still pick that over the Kindle fire or Nook tablet though.
  • For 7 inch tablets I really like the Toshiba Thrive. It's costly though.

  • My friend has a 10 inch thrive and it seems pretty nice, but it is a beast. Its probably twice as thick as any of the other tablets out there. I really like the Galaxy tab 7+/7.7 but they're both pricey as well.
  • edited December 2011
    The Galaxy tab 7 is also really nice. The screen resolution and camera megapixels are better on the Thrive but the Galaxy beats the Thrive in almost everything else.
    Post edited by Josh Bytes on
  • But I already have an iPhone!
  • I doubt they'll actually make a smaller iPad, honestly, but I could see them having some produced just to test it out. The production date is off for a release, too, cause the iPad announcement event is next Wednesday. I'm confident enough that they're gonna be announcing a "retina" dpi iPad that I already sold my current one :P
  • Digitimes is the National Enquirer of Apple rumors.
  • iPad mini is coming.
    Negatory megatron. Apple doesn't want to fragment its resolutions like that. I'm 99.9% sure they're sticking with iPhone 3G, iPhone retina (2x), iPad, and iPad retina (2x). It makes things like subpixel smoothing and such really easy for developers, and makes the resulting apps look more polished and professional.

    My prediction for March 7th: Retina Display iPad 3, 1080p iTunes video, possibly a different sized connector, maybe some kind of TV thing.
  • edited March 2012
    I've got the iPad nano :P (iPod Touch)
    Post edited by ninjarabbi on
  • edited March 2012
    I don't know why people are so easily convinced that iPad retina is coming. It's next to impossible. Here are the many reasons why.

    We have only seen proof that a display with pixels as small as the retina display can be manufactured in quantity at a reasonable price at a size of 3.5". There is no evidence of even a prototype of such a display at 9.7", let alone being able to be mass manufactured at a reasonable price. Apple is very secretive, but it's much more likely that it just doesn't exist.

    The resolution would be something close to 2660 x 1770. The 27" Apple monitor is 2560 by 1440. It's literally impossible to develop apps for a retina iPad because nobody has a monitor that can display them.

    Even powerful desktop PCs that don't care about power consumption will have trouble rendering things at a resolution so high with a decent frame rate. Most likely you are going to need high end GPUs with big ass fans that eat up all the watts. How exactly do you expect an iPad to be able to render anything at that kind of resolution without eating the entire battery? What happens when somebody decides to play Infinity Blade 2? What GPU in the world even exists that you could put in there? If NVidia or AMD makes such a GPU, I want it in my desktop PC right now.

    A retina display that is around 7" is much more believable. The resolution would be closer to 2070x1370. Even so, that is still insane. It would be like having a magical time machine and traveling into the future to skip a generation of technology.

    Imagine if the Google glasses come out, and they are perfect amazing like what you imagine in sci-fi novels and movies. That is impossible. You know they are going to be janky, and have issues with focus, glare, battery, and all sorts of things. If there is a 7" or a 9" retina display, that would be an incredible leap forward in display technology. It will happen one day, but I have extreme doubts that it will happen next week.

    If I'm wrong, I'll eat a hat and buy an iPad.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • edited March 2012
    Well then we'll be welcoming you to the world of magical and revolutionary products next week!

    Also it's not supposedly true "retina", it's 2048x1536. It's like 280 ppi or something like that.


    VVV Yeah I guess it was even kind of arbitrary for the iPhone 4/s, cause some science says it has to be ~400 ppi or something to be real retina. Either way... it looks super good.
    Post edited by johndis on
  • I wonder if apple will just make an iPad with a higher resolution display and CALL IT a retina display.
  • I don't know why people are so easily convinced that iPad retina is coming. It's next to impossible. Here are the many reasons why.

    If I'm wrong, I'll eat a hat and buy an iPad.
    Betting against Apple being really really good at producing hardware has not worked well the past few years. E.g., RIM's "Apple is lying, that hardware spec is impossible" comments after the original iPhone announcement.

    Also generic 3D rendering on such a large sceen may be very hard, but writing extremely streamlined rendering code for the built in CoreGraphics library is another thing entirely. Maybe 3D games have to operate in "compatibility" mode at quarter resolution.

    Anyway, I suggest you go buy one of them nacho hats á la Homer Simpson and enjoy your iPad.


  • edited March 2012
    Your logic is sound. But..

    "According to Mac Rumors, which managed to get its hands on an actual iPad 3 display, the rumors regarding the resolution are indeed true. It will offer a 2048x1536 display, compared to the iPad and iPad 2's 1024x768 displays. By placing the displays of an iPad 2 and iPad 3 under a microscope, Mac Rumors was able to highlights clusters of 4 pixels from the iPad 2 and clusters of 16 pixels from the iPad 3"

    ... Rumours like this give me hope! I want to believe!

    "UFObelieve.jpg"
    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • Well then we'll be welcoming you to the world of magical and revolutionary products next week!

    Also it's not supposedly true "retina", it's 2048x1536. It's like 280 ppi or something like that.


    VVV Yeah I guess it was even kind of arbitrary for the iPhone 4/s, cause some science says it has to be ~400 ppi or something to be real retina. Either way... it looks super good.
    The iPhone display is 326ppi. There's a tremendous difference between that and 280ppi. 280 I will believe, and it won't be revolutionary. It's damn good, but it's not going to make me run out and buy one.

    It also still has the same problems when it comes to GPU and such. I am very curious to see what Apple's solution is, if they even have one.
  • edited March 2012
    Their solution is probably a quad-core A6 w/ some kind of new PowerVR gpu stuff.

    Also retina is based on viewing distance, and you usually put a bigger screen farther from your face. The "retina point" used for the 4 were 300ppi @ 12 inches, so I'd guess they're calling it based on some other assumed use distance. Or actually maybe they won't even call it retina? It's just the tech news world calling it that so far. I can't imagine Apple won't though, it's too good of a marketing opportunity.
    Post edited by johndis on
  • My girlfriend just bought an iPad 2 for our Africa trip. It is awesome. I want one, but to he honest, for now I can just borrow hers. It is awesome for watching YouTube videos in bed.
  • edited March 2012
    My girlfriend just bought an iPad 2 for our Africa trip. It is awesome. I want one, but to he honest, for now I can just borrow hers. It is awesome for watching YouTube videos in bed.
    It's that whole "You don't think you need one.. Until you try it" philisophy. Ipad2 is such a snappy little fucker, I only watch Youtube on it now, its just so fast and easy. Ipad (and tablets in general) are really exciting. Almost more exciting than phones if you ask me.
    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • My girlfriend just bought an iPad 2 for our Africa trip. It is awesome. I want one, but to he honest, for now I can just borrow hers. It is awesome for watching YouTube videos in bed.
    It's that whole "You don't think you need one.. Until you try it" philisophy. Ipad2 is such a snappy little fucker, I only watch Youtube on it now, its just so fast and easy. Ipad (and tablets in general) are really exciting. Almost more exciting than phones if you ask me.
    Yeah, I kinda want one myself for reading PDF files (though videos and such are also great). However, I'm a cheap bastard and can't motivate myself to fork over $500 for one. Thing is, I've gotten into discussions with some folks about doing some custom iOS programming for them, so my current plan is to start a little iOS software side business. That way, I can tell my CPA to deduct the cost of an iPad on next year's taxes as a business expense (I need it to test my iOS software!). :)
  • I don't regret dropping the money I did on my iPad 2 along with many accessories. I did get it tax free and put it on my employee account, so yeah.

    I love reading on it with the Kindle app and Comic Glass app.

    I also have some pretty interesting apps for learning Japanese along with a good reader for knitting patterns. I'm definitely making the most of my money out of this game.
  • It's very likely the double-resolution iPad is coming. "Retina display" is a marketing term that Apple will happily handwave away by talking about DPI vs. the distance from eye.

    I hope Apple also doubles the resolution on their notebooks.
  • Double resolution is reasonable and possible.
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