That linked cartoon really says it all about how apps are being positioned for consumption and not production. As more apps are created to help people create stuff, maybe there will be more general interest in tablets based on convenience (since there are usually less OS hassles on Android or iPhone devices)? Otherwise, I can see the argument for the laptop form factor for those who want to create through typing. (Disclaimer: I made an Android App about a year ago about producing your own music.)
Like anything else, "creation" inside of the Walled Garden is subject to the rules of the platform tyrant. If you aren't prominent enough, you might get censored or your politics may be fundementally in conflict with the tyrant.
But one thing Apple won't allow is apps to make your own apps. Even Nintendo, which has even more stringent developer guidelines than Apple, released a rudimentary game-creation toolkit called WarioWare DIY. One of the steps is writing scripts (or "Action Instructions" as WWDIY calls them). Apple rejects apps that allow end user scripting; a port of a Commodore 64 game was removed from the App Store for the sole reason that it allowed the user to reboot the C64 into BASIC and enter programs with an on-scree
i'm pretty sure there are some reasonably priced android tabs out there, but as it is, i dont have the money to spare for such a thing, so even though i dont find the prices objectionable, it would be price for me
I signed in to say exactly the same thing. I have little money, and so price is the reason.
If I had lots of money, there are lots of other toys I would buy before a tablet. But I'm sure I would buy a tablet eventually. Even if just to see what all the fuss was about.
I also voted OS. Ironically, I would buy either a Debian based of Windows based tablet more or less equally happily. Debian would be better, but in either case, I'm not facing the walled garden that Apple provide or the Google buys your soul deal you get with Android. Same deal with phones. I thought MS at least would offer a business-focused smartphone, but it's still the same "Hey look - here's uninstallable Facebook integration and you can only move things on and off the phone via our Zune software crap.
_IF_ I would ever get a tablet at all it would have atleast two very basic requirements: 1) Have a browser (duh!) 2) Offer convenient ways to get other information at a glance => Convenient apps.
I doubt I'll get much of the later with Ubuntu, but what do I know. Maybe if they had a tablet edition of the OS but I don't want the regular OSS crap, it's not designed specifically for the tablet.
over here in holland, the Point of View Mobii is available for 130 euros, archos also has some pretty cheap tablets.
Something seems to be keeping the cheap tablets off the US market.
I'm surprised not to see inexpensive tablets and ebook readers at Target and Best Buy. For some reason, the prices remain high.
I saw a $75 ebook reader on woot today that plays FLAC files and has Wi-Fi and a web browser. I'm sure it's cheap, but the reviews seem to say it does what it advertises. I don't understand why those
Pocketbook has a decently built tablet for about $170 dollars, I am sure you can get in the US as well.
Don't be so sure. I just looked on Amazon and found exactly ONE available and it's $200.
I'm telling you, the tablet market in the United States is being seriously manipulated. Very limited availability and inflated prices. Apple is the only beneficiary, as far as I can tell.
Google for the Smart Q7. You can get them in the UK for about £100, so they're probably about $150. 7" display, 600MHz ARM11 core, runs Android, Wince or Ubuntu.
It looks great. But for some reason, unlike any other product, when I google the "Smart Q7" I don't get a single link to a place I can buy one. TigerDirect doesn't have 'em. Newegg doesn't have 'em, and even Amazon doesn't have them (and they have everything). Usually when you google a product like that, a whole bunch of paid and "featured" links pop up where you can buy one, but I don't get a single one in my search results.
I found a site called "gadget craver" that's asking $200 for them, but they appear to be "out of stock". They say the "list" price is near $300.
I'm telling you, there's something up with tablets in the US. The cheap tablets and handhelds that you can buy everywhere else in the world just aren't in the US. It seems fishy.
I was going to suggest eBay, but there don't seem to be any on eBay.com. You could try eBay.co.uk - a few of the sellers ship from Hong Kong, so can probably ship to the USA just as easily as the UK...
The cheap tablets and handhelds that you can buy everywhere else in the world just aren't in the US. It seems fishy.
a lot of the time this can point to patent issues. there might be chipsets (often the radios or something else fairly narrow) that prevent legitimate US import.
I'm having trouble finding it now, but sometime in the last few years there was a pretty major seizure by Customs in a situation like this. I believe it was related to this [nytimes.com], if memory serves.
Hardware isn't every thing. If the only way your product can make a profit in the marketplace is simply because no other product knows how to make your product, your product is destined for failure. Rather, your product needs to be -better- than the generic competition, in some way. Despite the fact that Malt-o-Meal makes a product pretty much identical to Captain Crunch, somehow Captain Crunch manages to be sold and making a profit. Your analogy is laughable. In more free markets than the patent-encumbered
Cereal companies rely on trade secrets and trademarks (Malt-o-Meal can't put Cap'n Crunch on their version's box) to market a successful product. Trade secrets don't work very well in tech because, believe it or not, it is easier to take apart a device to see how it works than to analyze a food product and determine the recipe. Malt-o-Meal's done a good job, but not all products can be replicated so successfully. Coca Cola doesn't jealously guard their formula for the theatrics... they really don't want
you'd be okay if I just opened up the first phone that rolled off the assembly line and duplicated your chip? then started selling clones for a tenth of what you charge?
Yup. Innovate or die. By the time people clone your design, you should already have released at least one and probably two newer generations of your product. Parents weren't intended to protect giant corporate-backed inventions. They were designed to allow individual inventors to shop their designs around to manufacturers without worrying about those manufacturers stealing the designs and producing them without giving the inventors anything. The first mistake was allowing a corporation to hold patents in the first place. It was all downhill from there.
Not true. Corporations can hold patents. They merely cannot file the patents. Once filed, the inventor can transfer the patent. A patent assignment is not the same thing as a patent license. If it were merely a license and a third party used the patented technology, the corporation would not have standing to sue that third party. They would have to sue the inventor, who in turn would have to sue that company.
I ended up buying a cheap low-end android phone, and then a cheap tablet just last week. So for about the same price as one of the high-end phones, I pretty much have all the features I'd ever want to play with:
HTC Slide : $300 from craigslist a few months ago, running CyanogenMOD
physical keyboard
small size
reasonably fast graphics
LED flashlight
HSDPA tethering (lower latency and near DSL speeds)
- ARMv6 CPU doesn't run some newer games or google earth mobile (google maps mobile / navigation work great, thoug
Actually, in practical use it's not too much of an issue. As i was reading this on my iPad I looked and saw how I was holding it.
I'm reclined on the couch, holding the device in a landscape orientation. The bottom edge is resting on my upper right leg, and Im holding it up with my left hand, which is resting on my body and quite relaxed. I use my right hand (also resting on my body) to tap and scroll. When I moved to start to typing this response, i propped my leg up and type naturally. No gorilla arms going on here. For relaxing and mostly reading it's very comfortable. I'd pull a laptop out if i needed to type much more than this though,
Conversely, touch screen tablets if light enough are an ideal device to do things like stocktakes, read instructions while performing a task, etc.
You CAN use a laptop for this, but they're much more unwieldy to hold and carry while walking around with the folding screen and extra space taken up by the keyboard.
Our organisation has done extensive tests using a tablet device for business data entry (eg medical records). We've found it to cause ergonomic strain after very short periods of time. One tester had to be removed from the tests due to significant neck pain after only a few minutes of use. Hence, we don't endorse it to our customers. However, this doesn't make it useless. It just means that you have to use as if it were a kindle... or perhaps, buy a kindle.
Sure you can do all that on paper. The difference is that I don't have to do as much planning ahead of time. That saves me time that I can then use for other things.
Case in point: I decide I want a soldering station with adjustable temperature iron. There are several considerations, but one big one is the need to be able to get replacement tips without having to mail order them. Thus, browsing products online first makes no sense because I'd be writing down prices for hundreds of products, only three of which are really viable. Browsing the store first also isn't ideal because it would mean two trips to the store---one to get a list of brands and models, then a second one to actually buy the product (maybe) if the price was good enough. With a smartphone, I can almost instantly do the price comparison while I'm doing the model comparison.
Similarly, I was looking for blenders a while back. That's the sort of thing that you'd prefer to buy locally in case it sucks. On the flip side, you also want to have some idea of whether it sucks before you bother to buy it and bring it home. So I went around to local stores looking at their selections and simultaneously looking at reviews on Amazon. Eventually, I found one that looked like it would be good. It would have been good, but they only hat one left, it was the display model, and it only worked once before some part of it fell off. (I forget exactly what.) So I ended up buying one online in that case, but at least the instant access to Amazon reviews saved me from a lot of other annoying returns.
A more frequent example is buying DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, etc. I often just go to Fry's to see what they have. If something looks interesting, I might buy it. However, I might find something---a set of DVDs, for example---that seems good but pretty expensive. If I can quickly bring up Amazon and see that it's significantly cheaper, I'll add it to my list of things to buy online, then choose something else to buy for entertainment that day. If it isn't much cheaper, I might decide to buy it there. Without a smartphone, that would require either making a trip home or just making a call based on my gut, then returning it later if it turns out to be significantly cheaper on Amazon. Both are workable, but neither is nearly as convenient. And because my phone is always with me, I never have to think about bringing a paper list. It is also a lot easier to keep an electronic list sorted alphabetically without wasting a lot of paper reprinting it every time I buy some DVDs. (Yes, I know that it is probably always cheaper on Amazon, so I could probably just buy DVDs ahead so that I never run out, but there's something to be said for supporting local businesses, not to mention actually looking through the DVDs when choosing what to buy.)
And really, the same technique works equally well for anything you consider buying just because you see it and think, "That would be cool to own." It's not for big purchases that you plan for weeks to buy, nor for the little things that you buy every week, but for the stuff in between. Often, I find that it is much cheaper online, so I say that I'll buy it online. Then I think about it further and realize that I really don't need it anyway.
It's really one of those things whose usefulness you tend to underestimate until you experience it.
Another +1 to price comparison. Extremely useful if you happen to catch a glimpse of you haven't seen for sale before in a shop window - you can compare prices online to see how badly you're getting ripped off (or not).
Navigation apps, augmented reality (location of nearby food places including hotlinked reviews, etc) and staying up to date with what is going on while you're out and about are all things well handled by modern smart phones that were either difficult/impractical or damn near impossible t
Price is definitely an issue when the Wi-Fi only 16 GB Apple iPad is US$499--at that price, you could get yourself a real laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium, 4 GB of RAM and (frequently) 500 GB hard drive!
I'm hoping that tablets that run Google Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") will be cheaper, since unlike the iPad you don't have to amortize the cost of iOS itself.
except you really can't use the laptop while walking down the stairs, you can't scroll the screen with a flick of the wrist, and the screen size makes most windows apps unusable.
Well, you can use a laptop while walking down the stairs, but it's inadvisable for the same reason that using an iPad while walking down the stairs is inadvisable. It's an almost surefire way to wake up lying on top of the device at the bottom of the stairs three hours later.
I went one further, I got a HP laptop with the twist around screen, so I can use it to write, play games, do all the usual laptop stuff, then I can spin it around and use it as a tablet (albeit a heavy one).
As you state, having a good smart phone can negate a lot of the need for a tablet, and if combined with a laptop it almost removes the need for one altogether.
It might make it easier to combine trolling with other activities such as shitting. Also, a touch screen might degrade my typing a bit. It's amazing how many people will comment on spellling errors and ignore horrible cynical statements of idiocy.
I was considering buying a portable DVD player to keep my son entertained on a long plane trip, but decided to get an iPad instead. Try to find a portable DVD player with a nice 10" IPS display and 10h battery life. As a bonus you don't have to carry along 10 DVDs either. After I bought one I've also started using it more and more for other things like playing games and browsing the web, but since that was never my primary goal it just comes as a nice bonus.
I wonder who's the moron here.
I'm pretty sure that his son isn't really interested in watching the DVD-discs themselves but rather the movies that's stored on them. An entry level iPad have 16 GB storage. That's about 20-30 nicely ripped movies in a DVD class quality no kid would complain about.
And one reasonable way to "augment" storage is free software like ZumoCast that will stream whatever you have on your home computers. Works fine over 3G if your cell provider has their act together.
I think the jokes on you, so blinded by anti-Apple hatred to see the utility that millions already have.
yeah, who wants a light weight large screen with a good resolution device that can store 30 or more kids shows? much better to take 30 physical disks, a heavier and more power hungry device with a crappy screen~
You're hatred is interfering with your civility and thinking. Chillax, dude.
I voted need fulfilled buy other devices, but I agree - I'm not sure what that need actually is. A computer that I can't type on? I can honestly say I've never thought of that as something that I need. The closest I've come to wanting a tablet is my eBook reader, but I bought that because of its eInk screen - a tablet with an emissive display would be inferior as a reading device. For any use other than reading, I'd want a keyboard.
The only thing I could think of using a tablet for is to take notes during meetings and to read, but, guess what, I have a notebook for the first, and books for the second.
Both are more comfortable to use. Besides, books are arguably more useful - and certainly cheaper.
There you go. The devices which fullfil whatever need I could have that a tablet could serve its purpose are things that do not need a battery. Funny.
Because eventually no one will be selling any more Palm TX on eBay. And I given the recent SMS bug with Android, I won't trust any smartphone with confidential data -- at least not for another couple years.
Seriously, you would send confidential data over SMS?
And getting around the Android SMS bug is easy enough, get a Google voice account and use it for SMS instead of the native app. I still don't think I'd use it for confidential data though.
Absolutely right...people keep talking about these things like they are computers or something! Most of the things I do on my computer can't be done on a tablet. There's not a mouse either (insert rolling-eyes icon here).
Absolutely right...people keep talking about these things like they are computers or something! Most of the things I do on my computer can't be done on a tablet. There's not a mouse either (insert rolling-eyes icon here).
A keyboard is an absolute requirement for a general purpose computer.
Tablets are "real computers" in the same sense that your dvd player, microwave oven, car ECU, and cell phone are computers. They are are special purpose devices that contain computers. Tablets are special purpose devices for consuming electronic media (video, audio, web, games), very much like your dvd player.
I have a ton of 720p mkv movies and TV on a NAS and I'm waiting for a tablet that will:
a) recognise mkv over DNLA and be able to be play them correctly
b) display them at the right resolution
c) have the horsepower to play them smoothly
a) recognise mkv over DNLA and be able to be play them correctly
Your NAS can't deliver MKV over DLNA, as it's not one of the supported profiles [wordpress.com]. It's possible someone will do it in a non-standard way eventually, but it can't be done within the standard.
I have a tablet, but I'm planning on selling it at the end of the month.
The reasons are primarily 'need fulfilled by another device' and 'price.'
Although the tablet is great at certain things (even in the realm of content creation/editing) and is definitely an interesting social turn in computing (I mean that in the "using computers with other people" sense, not the "checking facebook" sense), I have a laptop and a smartphone, and three mobile devices is just too much.
Tablets are pointless for me -- nothing I do with a computer would benefit from a tablet, and quite a bit of it would actually be harder if I tried to use a tablet. What would I do with a tablet? I read papers on paper, because it is just a lot more convenient -- I can highlight, circle, hand partially to others, and not worry about batteries. My web browsing is limited to news, banking, ordering books, and searching for more papers to read. The only game I really play is Go.
From the very beginning of tablets my feeling was that to me their form factor will not be useful.
1. Can't hold them in the lap - either you put it down and must bend your back/slouch to read, or hold it in hand for long periods of time - both stressing to posture and uncomfortable.
2. Can't type - my network use requires typing/input at least half the time (I guess I make a bad "consumer").
I do own a convertible netbook/tablet and found that I rarely use it in tablet mode.
1. Can't hold them in the lap - either you put it down and must bend your back/slouch to read, or hold it in hand for long periods of time - both stressing to posture and uncomfortable.
This is the exact reason I don't find tablets interesting. I don't want to hold a computer like a book. When I have a laptop, the screen stands on it's own.
I use my computers for doing work and writing papers. Trying to use a tablet without a keyboard to do these things would be like a form of Chinese water torture.
... at least for iPad. When you want to type on a real keyboard, you can connect it to a keyboard dock. When you're done typing and just want to surf the web (or whatever), you can pull it out of the keyboard dock & go.
But I voted "need satisfied by other devices". I already have an iPhone and a laptop. I can't see spending hundreds more dollars on something in between those two.
For me, tablets fall into this strange area; they are too small to display a keyboard and enough information to be useful yet too big to carry around comfortably. What I want is a flexible screen that rolls up when not in use so the tablet is large enough to be useful and small enough to carry around.
I realize I'm in the minority here but I'm not impressed with modern smart phones. They are just a tad too large to be comfortable in my pockets but not large enough to be comfortable web browsers, ebook readers etc.
My needs would be covered by two devices, a smartphone in the size of say the fith generation iPod Nano and a 10 inch tablet. So far the market has only deilvered the latter so that's what I have.
*a phone/camera/mp3 player with a slide out QWERTY and no internet connectivity. Just make those 4 functions work perfectly and I'm fully satisfied. *a home PC -- I already have this. *a tablet PC to use as a portable PC when I'm not at home. Email, websurfing, reading eBooks, some video, light office work (which I'd avoid since I'm not in the office...), and that's about it.
I'm thoroughly wedded to having a decent keyboard for touch-typing, and for brief mobile Internet usage a touchscreen smartphone with slide-out keyboard is usually good enough.
If I just need to do something quickly, I'll use my smartphone. If I know I'm going to need something heavier-duty, I'll bring my laptop. The tablet is too big to carry in my pocket everywhere (as I can do with the smartphone), and not set up to do heavier work that requires a significant amount of typing (as my laptop is). So while they're very popular, the tablet seems to me to just be the worst of both worlds.
Price isn't even really a factor. Even if they were giving the things away, I just don't know what need I would have for one that I can't fulfill with something I already have.
From what I gather many people like it better for couch-surfing than a laptop. Seen more people use one on airplanes than that bother pulling out a laptop. It certainly sounds like a better eBook reader than a laptop too. I don't know, I see the niches but to me they don't add up to a purchase.
... I'd probably get one. I can see, as an example, using it on the train to work - you could get your e-mail all squared away before you arrived, or read a book, watch a movie, listen to music, or whatever. But I have to drive to work, so I really don't have a use for it.
Missing option: Apple. I refuse to buy one after Apple got so cocky and restricive, otherwise I'd bought one ages ago. Still waiting for the perfect Android tablet, though.
You don't know your history very well. The Apple ][ was very open, Apple published complete schematics and monitor ROM (BIOS, today) source code. With the original Macintosh, stuff was abstracted a level, but Inside Macintosh provided very comprehensive documentation for software development. And, of course, anyone could develop and distribute software completely independent of Apple. No one went to the intense effort which would have been required to reverse-e
Apple has been on the ropes for so long that everyone forgot what jerks they were. Everyone got into the mindset of thinking of them as the "poor underdog" rather than a company that pretty much got what they deserved.
Things we buy and use all fulfill a need in our lives. I can clearly identify why I need a telephone, and why that telephone needs to be mobile. I can also clearly identify why I need a computer, and why that computer needs to have a decent screen size and a keyboard. But I can not identify any functional need in my life, for which a tablet would fill that need. This is nothing like the option "need fulfilled by other devices". Yes I have other devices that fit identified needs, and yes a tablet can also fill some of those needs in a limited capacity, but there is absolutely no need that I can see for a table.
As an example, lets look at the basic need of human communication. This can be broken down further into two sub-needs; speed and reliability. Verbal communication takes care of speed, and written communication somewhat addresses reliability (repeatable, retrievable later, reviewable, etc). To meet the need of fast communication throughout history humanity has expanded the distance over which this need can be met by creating and improving tools such as signal flags, signal fires, telegraphs, radios, television, telephones, close range mobile phones, longer range cellular phones, and other such tools. Each of these tools have also been used for other, similar purposes (example: fax machines, entertainment, SMS messaging, etc) but these tools are still focused on the primary need of fast human communication over great distances. With tablets, I see they are trying to add such additional purposes, without fist being a tool to meet a clear primary need.
Things we buy and use all fulfill a need in our lives. I can clearly identify why I need a telephone, and why that telephone needs to be mobile. I can also clearly identify why I need a computer, and why that computer needs to have a decent screen size and a keyboard. But I can not identify any functional need in my life, for which a tablet would fill that need. This is nothing like the option "need fulfilled by other devices". Yes I have other devices that fit identified needs, and yes a tablet can also fill some of those needs in a limited capacity, but there is absolutely no need that I can see for a table.
Well, I picked 'need fulfilled by other devices' because I assumed that the set of 'other devices' included the empty set.
Perhaps there is something I do with some device that I could do with a tablet. Like drive nails or keep papers from flying away in the breeze.
But the real answer for most of us picking this option is (IMO): "I don't need one or want one now."
I want to be able to do real stuff on the machine. Not just serf the web and run specialized, approved apps. I want to do the same stuff that I use my laptop and stationary PC for now, but in a handier, more portable format and with better battery life.
Don't give me a watered-down netbook OS! Give me something with a file manager! Don't give me your proprietary docking port. Give me USB in and out and HDMI so that I can use it as portable drive against my work PC or connect a proper screen and keyboard to it when I am home but need to get some real work done.
A 1GHz ARM CPU and Tegra chipset is more than enough. A Ubuntu distro for ARM with some minor UI tweaks might be enough, but that is something that I could get rolling myself. The ports are what I am missing the most. Therefore, I voted "features".
You should watch the CES stuff. A trend's building to make netbooks that convert into tablets, either through flipping or sliding. I've seen Asus, Dell and others showing out concepts and looking at them, some are definitely more than mere prototypes. A proper computer that can run a proper operating system with a proper keyboard, yet can also convert into a tablet whenever needed? Yes please.
How about, I'm waiting until I can use one plan to pay for all my wireless data consumption? Hell, I don't even have a smartphone yet, and I don't know the pricing really, but wouldn't a tablet be just another $30/month for 3G?
That, and I still fail to see what a tablet can do that a smartphone can't (or well, theoretically couldn't). To me, tablets just look like a reinvented smartphone with a bigger screen. Needing the same mobile devices in two different sizes: that to me exemplifies excess of need. Well
It's a cheap Android-based model from China called a gPad. I put in a 16 GB micro SD card, loaded it up with a bunch of children's videos, some age-appropriate apps, and gave it to my 2 year old daughter. She loves it!
I'd like an iPad. I'm sure I'd get a lot of use from it and enjoy having one. However, I have an iPod Touch that pretty much runs my life due to the fact that I always have it with me. From my address book to my calendar to my Getting Things Done lists in OmniFocus, I practically live in the thing. I can depend on it because I know it's always nearby when I want to make a note or look something up.
A tablet would never leave my house, and that's where my laptop lives (with its Emacs-friendly keyboard, termin
Tablets seems to be good for one thing at least: travel. They have better battery life than laptops and weighs less. So for watching movies on that 10 hour flight they sound quite good, and once at your destination you can get a prepaid 3G SIM and have cheap internet.
3G wireless service, at least where I live, just doesn't cut it for any of the purposes a tablet might serve. Service is intermittent, pages hang for minutes before loading, even google maps is basically unusable.
When we have real wireless broadband in my area, then I'll look into a tablet. Maybe.
I bought an iPhone 3G when they first came out, and I had the same complaint - 3G would be great if I actually had it. But AT&T must have finally installed new towers or whatever, because the phone finally got lit up with a 3G signal around my house a few months later, and around my office a few months after that. It's not as good as my wired internet service, but it's not bad.
1) Market competition to bring down the price. Right now, realistically, it's Galaxy v. iPad and even that's not even competition. That's just "we offer this, they offer that. You must choose one."
2) An OS that offers a customizable UI. I hate fluffy UIs. I use Windows 7 and revert it back to look like Win2k. It's saves a bit of power and everything is just snappier. I want to be able to use a wire-frame UI with simple clear text on my tablet interface. This may be a future incarnation of Android or it may be a new Ubuntu Tablet edition.
3) Not Apple. No MS Windows.
4) Must be under $500.
5) Must not require subscription for any 3G/4G data service. The prices and contracts are unreasonable.
6) Must have Wi-Fi, 2 USB pots, 1x microSD, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x 3.5mm microphone jack, an offline map and directions program, non-software brightness and volume control (nothing wrong with buttons or knobs in my opinion), lightweight AC adapter that allows for simultaneous use and charging, and a battery life that allows for at least 6 hours of constant web-surfing (not watching movies).
7) Must innately support Flash, all standard ePub formats with an included eReader program, and either have a free office suite or have the ability to install one with no issue.
8) Would prefer 16GB storage, Nvidia CPU (would settle for just about any dual core), removable battery, and upgradeable RAM and HDD/FDD.
I don't care about: -- The existence of a camera or webcam on the tablet. I'd never use it. -- HD Video capabilities. I'd *almost* never use it. -- Any proprietary "app store" -- If it's linux, I can find my own "apps". -- Proprietary email, calendar, multimedia players. They're typically bloated anyway. -- Fancy/shiny ways of displaying e-books or album covers. I'm happy with text.
There is a lot of potential for tablet devices, yet they are held back by any number of things. Ridiculous cell data prices, closed OSs, terrible interfaces, outright expensive, etc. In the end, they offer little that you can't be had with a notebook, so why not just buy that instead?
I see the lack of an open OS and interesting hardware as the primary problems though. Without those, there is little ability for people to innovate and explore the possibilities of such devices. As such, it will be a long t
I am seriously considering buying a tablet for my mother. I set her up with wifi and 3G broadband late last year. She has an old laptop running linux but her favourite activity is watching the weather radar to see when to get out in the garden. A tablet with colour e-paper would be ideal for her because it is readable in sunlight. Maybe in a year or so products like this will be on the market.
Why WOULD I buy a tablet? Seriously? Do they have any purpose other than saying "hey look at me I have a tablet" ? Completely useless in comparison to a laptop for computing, and useless in comparison to an e-reader for reading.
The genius GF is sitting here while I look at these comments on the HTPC. I'm annoyed by the rationale some people give for not wanting a tablet (I think the only reason not to get one is because you don't want one. All stop.)
However, she notes:
Remember, these are men. They can just put a smartphone in their pockets... most do. They have no use for a tablet if they have to carry around a bag to keep it with them.
And I think she's right. If you don't normally carry around a backpack, briefcase, messenger bag (I do), or a duffel bag, then you probably won't carry one just for your new tablet PC. However, if you do, then you can likely integrate a tablet into your life and relieve yourself of any poor functions delivered by a smartphone.
It's win-win for me. I don't like smartphones (small keyboard, small screen, need for a "mobile web" for efficient browsing, etc) AND I carry around a messenger bag just about everywhere I go. For me, it's perfect and I can't wait to get one that's up to my specs.
Us real men carry only what fits in the small of our backs under the belt (must have a trigger) or in our sock at the ankle. It is also acceptable to carry any object over 75lbs as long as you do so without looking strained.
"Could you put my keys in your pocket?" "Why? Put them in your purse." "I have my sunglasses in my purse, I don't want them to scratch." "Put your sunglasses in a sunglasses cover." "It's too bulky to put in my purse." "Use a larger purse." "Well, I don't want to carry around a backpack." "Then don't carry things that require a backpack." "I need all this stuff."... etc.
Years ago I bought a PDA - then I realised I didn't need it. The number of occasions when I'm *not* driving, yet need GPS are minimal. The number of times I require entertainment when mobile are satisfied by the features and functions of my phone. The ability to use it in anything approaching daylight is strictly limited and trying to use it as a web browser is like trying to look at a photograph through a postage-stamp sized hole - without a mouse and with your finger neatly covering exactly the thing you're trying to reference.
On top of all that, the battery life is pathetic.
I concluded shortly after buying it that it was just another piece of clutter that needed charging, carrying and maintaining - but failed to deliver any real benefits. Now that their bigger brothers, with bigger price tags are on the market I can safely say "once bitten, twice shy".
the stuff around the corner will be truly awesome.
Sounds like the best strategy is to not buy anything until we get around the corner and then take another look. Who'd want "really good" when you could have "truly awesome"?
Theres the Wetab but it has Intel Atom(ugh) and the battery life doesnt hold up
Battery life is huge for me. I just don't see value in a device that I can't use all day long, sun-up to sundown. Not constantly, but I'd like to be able to check my email and the news on the way to the airport, watch two movies and play some games during the flight from Chicago to Vancouver and be able to check in again with home when I get there. Maybe enough juice left over watch an episode of Sons of Anarchy before bed.
I don't really get what is the use for a tablet, what can it do that my phone can't?
My workplace is going a bit psycho over personal Internet use so some of us are buying tablets to keep beside their normal keyboards, for personal web browsing. I use my phone for that but the screen is small.
I voted "watching what tablets will morph into." Beta designs/thinking are a reason I am still waiting, besides high initial premiums. Android needed a good many months to get publicity on TV thanks to the heavy Verizon DROID campaigns. Incomparison, itablets [to diff from the old tablet functionality] were born yesterday, and it will be a similar sales curve.
I will wait till AFTER the "year of the tablet comes" (not during, since lots of fakes pass off as good products, kinda like the Motorola BLUR UI.) Li
Oblig Xkcd (Score:4, Insightful)
Crucial app unavailable. [xkcd.com]
Apps to create stuff (Score:2)
Crucial app unavailable. [xkcd.com]
That linked cartoon really says it all about how apps are being positioned for consumption and not production. As more apps are created to help people create stuff, maybe there will be more general interest in tablets based on convenience (since there are usually less OS hassles on Android or iPhone devices)? Otherwise, I can see the argument for the laptop form factor for those who want to create through typing. (Disclaimer: I made an Android App about a year ago about producing your own music.)
Re: (Score:2)
I wouldn't say there aren't any good creation apps. And neither would the North Point Community Church Band [youtube.com].
Re:Apps to create stuff (Score:4, Insightful)
Like anything else, "creation" inside of the Walled Garden is subject to the rules of the platform tyrant. If you aren't prominent enough, you might get censored or your politics may be fundementally in conflict with the tyrant.
No iPT counterpart to WarioWare DIY (Score:3)
Price (Score:5, Interesting)
i'm pretty sure there are some reasonably priced android tabs out there, but as it is, i dont have the money to spare for such a thing, so even though i dont find the prices objectionable, it would be price for me
Re:Price (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
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Why what? I don't want a freaking Ubuntu tablet.
_IF_ I would ever get a tablet at all it would have atleast two very basic requirements:
1) Have a browser (duh!)
2) Offer convenient ways to get other information at a glance => Convenient apps.
I doubt I'll get much of the later with Ubuntu, but what do I know. Maybe if they had a tablet edition of the OS but I don't want the regular OSS crap, it's not designed specifically for the tablet.
Re:Price (Score:4, Interesting)
A 7" tablet with wifi-only should be about $150. I don't need cellular service for a tablet.
Offer that device and I'm in for three.
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over here in holland, the Point of View Mobii is available for 130 euros, archos also has some pretty cheap tablets.
Keep in mind though, for that price you get only 256mb of ram and a resistive touchscreen
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Something seems to be keeping the cheap tablets off the US market.
I'm surprised not to see inexpensive tablets and ebook readers at Target and Best Buy. For some reason, the prices remain high.
I saw a $75 ebook reader on woot today that plays FLAC files and has Wi-Fi and a web browser. I'm sure it's cheap, but the reviews seem to say it does what it advertises. I don't understand why those
Re:Price (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't be so sure. I just looked on Amazon and found exactly ONE available and it's $200.
I'm telling you, the tablet market in the United States is being seriously manipulated. Very limited availability and inflated prices. Apple is the only beneficiary, as far as I can tell.
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I'd love to buy one, but a wifi-only tablet is not worth more than $150. And I am not exceptional in this regard.
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Re:Price (Score:5, Interesting)
It looks great. But for some reason, unlike any other product, when I google the "Smart Q7" I don't get a single link to a place I can buy one. TigerDirect doesn't have 'em. Newegg doesn't have 'em, and even Amazon doesn't have them (and they have everything). Usually when you google a product like that, a whole bunch of paid and "featured" links pop up where you can buy one, but I don't get a single one in my search results.
I found a site called "gadget craver" that's asking $200 for them, but they appear to be "out of stock". They say the "list" price is near $300.
I'm telling you, there's something up with tablets in the US. The cheap tablets and handhelds that you can buy everywhere else in the world just aren't in the US. It seems fishy.
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The cheap tablets and handhelds that you can buy everywhere else in the world just aren't in the US. It seems fishy.
a lot of the time this can point to patent issues. there might be chipsets (often the radios or something else fairly narrow) that prevent legitimate US import.
I'm having trouble finding it now, but sometime in the last few years there was a pretty major seizure by Customs in a situation like this. I believe it was related to this [nytimes.com], if memory serves.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So what you're saying is that the US patent system is anti-competitive and harmful to consumers?
Thought so.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Price (Score:5, Interesting)
Yup. Innovate or die. By the time people clone your design, you should already have released at least one and probably two newer generations of your product. Parents weren't intended to protect giant corporate-backed inventions. They were designed to allow individual inventors to shop their designs around to manufacturers without worrying about those manufacturers stealing the designs and producing them without giving the inventors anything. The first mistake was allowing a corporation to hold patents in the first place. It was all downhill from there.
Re: (Score:3)
Not true. Corporations can hold patents. They merely cannot file the patents. Once filed, the inventor can transfer the patent. A patent assignment is not the same thing as a patent license. If it were merely a license and a third party used the patented technology, the corporation would not have standing to sue that third party. They would have to sue the inventor, who in turn would have to sue that company.
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I ended up buying a cheap low-end android phone, and then a cheap tablet just last week. So for about the same price as one of the high-end phones, I pretty much have all the features I'd ever want to play with:
HTC Slide : $300 from craigslist a few months ago, running CyanogenMOD
Option missing - Dont give a shit (Score:5, Interesting)
And no, that's not fulfilled by another device. I *GENUINELY* dont give a fuck about them
Re:Option missing - Dont give a shit (Score:5, Interesting)
My (missing) reason for not buying one is ergonomics.
Remember the gorilla arm syndrome.
You can't use a tablet and rest your arms at the same time, meaning any prolonged use is going to be painful (or, more likely, non-existent).
Re:Option missing - Dont give a shit (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, in practical use it's not too much of an issue. As i was reading this on my iPad I looked and saw how I was holding it.
I'm reclined on the couch, holding the device in a landscape orientation. The bottom edge is resting on my upper right leg, and Im holding it up with my left hand, which is resting on my body and quite relaxed. I use my right hand (also resting on my body) to tap and scroll. When I moved to start to typing this response, i propped my leg up and type naturally. No gorilla arms going on here. For relaxing and mostly reading it's very comfortable. I'd pull a laptop out if i needed to type much more than this though,
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Conversely, touch screen tablets if light enough are an ideal device to do things like stocktakes, read instructions while performing a task, etc.
You CAN use a laptop for this, but they're much more unwieldy to hold and carry while walking around with the folding screen and extra space taken up by the keyboard.
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Re:Option missing - Dont give a shit (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure you can do all that on paper. The difference is that I don't have to do as much planning ahead of time. That saves me time that I can then use for other things.
Case in point: I decide I want a soldering station with adjustable temperature iron. There are several considerations, but one big one is the need to be able to get replacement tips without having to mail order them. Thus, browsing products online first makes no sense because I'd be writing down prices for hundreds of products, only three of which are really viable. Browsing the store first also isn't ideal because it would mean two trips to the store---one to get a list of brands and models, then a second one to actually buy the product (maybe) if the price was good enough. With a smartphone, I can almost instantly do the price comparison while I'm doing the model comparison.
Similarly, I was looking for blenders a while back. That's the sort of thing that you'd prefer to buy locally in case it sucks. On the flip side, you also want to have some idea of whether it sucks before you bother to buy it and bring it home. So I went around to local stores looking at their selections and simultaneously looking at reviews on Amazon. Eventually, I found one that looked like it would be good. It would have been good, but they only hat one left, it was the display model, and it only worked once before some part of it fell off. (I forget exactly what.) So I ended up buying one online in that case, but at least the instant access to Amazon reviews saved me from a lot of other annoying returns.
A more frequent example is buying DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, etc. I often just go to Fry's to see what they have. If something looks interesting, I might buy it. However, I might find something---a set of DVDs, for example---that seems good but pretty expensive. If I can quickly bring up Amazon and see that it's significantly cheaper, I'll add it to my list of things to buy online, then choose something else to buy for entertainment that day. If it isn't much cheaper, I might decide to buy it there. Without a smartphone, that would require either making a trip home or just making a call based on my gut, then returning it later if it turns out to be significantly cheaper on Amazon. Both are workable, but neither is nearly as convenient. And because my phone is always with me, I never have to think about bringing a paper list. It is also a lot easier to keep an electronic list sorted alphabetically without wasting a lot of paper reprinting it every time I buy some DVDs. (Yes, I know that it is probably always cheaper on Amazon, so I could probably just buy DVDs ahead so that I never run out, but there's something to be said for supporting local businesses, not to mention actually looking through the DVDs when choosing what to buy.)
And really, the same technique works equally well for anything you consider buying just because you see it and think, "That would be cool to own." It's not for big purchases that you plan for weeks to buy, nor for the little things that you buy every week, but for the stuff in between. Often, I find that it is much cheaper online, so I say that I'll buy it online. Then I think about it further and realize that I really don't need it anyway.
It's really one of those things whose usefulness you tend to underestimate until you experience it.
Re: (Score:3)
Another +1 to price comparison. Extremely useful if you happen to catch a glimpse of you haven't seen for sale before in a shop window - you can compare prices online to see how badly you're getting ripped off (or not).
Navigation apps, augmented reality (location of nearby food places including hotlinked reviews, etc) and staying up to date with what is going on while you're out and about are all things well handled by modern smart phones that were either difficult/impractical or damn near impossible t
No use for it (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Price is definitely an issue when the Wi-Fi only 16 GB Apple iPad is US$499--at that price, you could get yourself a real laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium, 4 GB of RAM and (frequently) 500 GB hard drive!
I'm hoping that tablets that run Google Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") will be cheaper, since unlike the iPad you don't have to amortize the cost of iOS itself.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, you can use a laptop while walking down the stairs, but it's inadvisable for the same reason that using an iPad while walking down the stairs is inadvisable. It's an almost surefire way to wake up lying on top of the device at the bottom of the stairs three hours later.
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I went one further, I got a HP laptop with the twist around screen, so I can use it to write, play games, do all the usual laptop stuff, then I can spin it around and use it as a tablet (albeit a heavy one).
As you state, having a good smart phone can negate a lot of the need for a tablet, and if combined with a laptop it almost removes the need for one altogether.
Re:No use for it (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:No use for it (Score:5, Funny)
The best portable DVD player ever made (Score:4, Interesting)
I was considering buying a portable DVD player to keep my son entertained on a long plane trip, but decided to get an iPad instead. Try to find a portable DVD player with a nice 10" IPS display and 10h battery life. As a bonus you don't have to carry along 10 DVDs either. After I bought one I've also started using it more and more for other things like playing games and browsing the web, but since that was never my primary goal it just comes as a nice bonus.
Re:The best portable DVD player ever made (Score:5, Informative)
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yeah, who wants a light weight large screen with a good resolution device that can store 30 or more kids shows? much better to take 30 physical disks, a heavier and more power hungry device with a crappy screen~
You're hatred is interfering with your civility and thinking. Chillax, dude.
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Seriously, you would send confidential data over SMS?
And getting around the Android SMS bug is easy enough, get a Google voice account and use it for SMS instead of the native app. I still don't think I'd use it for confidential data though.
missing feature (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:missing feature (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely right...people keep talking about these things like they are computers or something! Most of the things I do on my computer can't be done on a tablet. There's not a mouse either (insert rolling-eyes icon here).
A keyboard is an absolute requirement for a general purpose computer.
Tablets are "real computers" in the same sense that your dvd player, microwave oven, car ECU, and cell phone are computers. They are are special purpose devices that contain computers. Tablets are special purpose devices for consuming electronic media (video, audio, web, games), very much like your dvd player.
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Price. (Score:4, Funny)
I'll wait until the come down to under a dollar.
What's being implied here (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Performance (Score:2)
a) recognise mkv over DNLA and be able to be play them correctly
b) display them at the right resolution
c) have the horsepower to play them smoothly
Re:Performance (Score:4, Informative)
a) recognise mkv over DNLA and be able to be play them correctly
Your NAS can't deliver MKV over DLNA, as it's not one of the supported profiles [wordpress.com]. It's possible someone will do it in a non-standard way eventually, but it can't be done within the standard.
Combination of Three (Score:2)
The reasons are primarily 'need fulfilled by another device' and 'price.'
Although the tablet is great at certain things (even in the realm of content creation/editing) and is definitely an interesting social turn in computing (I mean that in the "using computers with other people" sense, not the "checking facebook" sense), I have a laptop and a smartphone, and three mobile devices is just too much.
Well, I can more effectively u
Pointless (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, I am not a typical computer user.
Missing option: Form factor/usability (Score:3)
From the very beginning of tablets my feeling was that to me their form factor will not be useful.
1. Can't hold them in the lap - either you put it down and must bend your back/slouch to read, or hold it in hand for long periods of time - both stressing to posture and uncomfortable.
2. Can't type - my network use requires typing/input at least half the time (I guess I make a bad "consumer").
I do own a convertible netbook/tablet and found that I rarely use it in tablet mode.
Re: (Score:2)
This is the exact reason I don't find tablets interesting. I don't want to hold a computer like a book. When I have a laptop, the screen stands on it's own.
Keyboard (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
You can get them (Score:2)
... at least for iPad. When you want to type on a real keyboard, you can connect it to a keyboard dock. When you're done typing and just want to surf the web (or whatever), you can pull it out of the keyboard dock & go.
But I voted "need satisfied by other devices". I already have an iPhone and a laptop. I can't see spending hundreds more dollars on something in between those two.
Size (Score:2)
For me, tablets fall into this strange area; they are too small to display a keyboard and enough information to be useful yet too big to carry around comfortably.
What I want is a flexible screen that rolls up when not in use so the tablet is large enough to be useful and small enough to carry around.
I have a tablet but no smartphone (Score:2)
My needs would be covered by two devices, a smartphone in the size of say the fith generation iPod Nano and a 10 inch tablet. So far the market has only deilvered the latter so that's what I have.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm with you. I want:
*a phone/camera/mp3 player with a slide out QWERTY and no internet connectivity. Just make those 4 functions work perfectly and I'm fully satisfied.
*a home PC -- I already have this.
*a tablet PC to use as a portable PC when I'm not at home. Email, websurfing, reading eBooks, some video, light office work (which I'd avoid since I'm not in the office...), and that's about it.
That's everything.
No use for one (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm thoroughly wedded to having a decent keyboard for touch-typing, and for brief mobile Internet usage a touchscreen smartphone with slide-out keyboard is usually good enough.
Why would I care? (Score:5, Insightful)
If I just need to do something quickly, I'll use my smartphone. If I know I'm going to need something heavier-duty, I'll bring my laptop. The tablet is too big to carry in my pocket everywhere (as I can do with the smartphone), and not set up to do heavier work that requires a significant amount of typing (as my laptop is). So while they're very popular, the tablet seems to me to just be the worst of both worlds.
Price isn't even really a factor. Even if they were giving the things away, I just don't know what need I would have for one that I can't fulfill with something I already have.
Re: (Score:2)
From what I gather many people like it better for couch-surfing than a laptop. Seen more people use one on airplanes than that bother pulling out a laptop. It certainly sounds like a better eBook reader than a laptop too. I don't know, I see the niches but to me they don't add up to a purchase.
If I traveled a lot... (Score:2)
Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Missing option: Apple. I refuse to buy one after Apple got so cocky and restricive, otherwise I'd bought one ages ago. Still waiting for the perfect Android tablet, though.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You don't know your history very well. The Apple ][ was very open, Apple published complete schematics and monitor ROM (BIOS, today) source code. With the original Macintosh, stuff was abstracted a level, but Inside Macintosh provided very comprehensive documentation for software development. And, of course, anyone could develop and distribute software completely independent of Apple. No one went to the intense effort which would have been required to reverse-e
Re: (Score:3)
Apple has been on the ropes for so long that everyone forgot what jerks they were. Everyone got into the mindset of thinking of them as the "poor underdog" rather than a company that pretty much got what they deserved.
Missing option: Does not fill any need! (Score:4, Insightful)
Things we buy and use all fulfill a need in our lives. I can clearly identify why I need a telephone, and why that telephone needs to be mobile. I can also clearly identify why I need a computer, and why that computer needs to have a decent screen size and a keyboard. But I can not identify any functional need in my life, for which a tablet would fill that need. This is nothing like the option "need fulfilled by other devices". Yes I have other devices that fit identified needs, and yes a tablet can also fill some of those needs in a limited capacity, but there is absolutely no need that I can see for a table.
As an example, lets look at the basic need of human communication. This can be broken down further into two sub-needs; speed and reliability. Verbal communication takes care of speed, and written communication somewhat addresses reliability (repeatable, retrievable later, reviewable, etc). To meet the need of fast communication throughout history humanity has expanded the distance over which this need can be met by creating and improving tools such as signal flags, signal fires, telegraphs, radios, television, telephones, close range mobile phones, longer range cellular phones, and other such tools. Each of these tools have also been used for other, similar purposes (example: fax machines, entertainment, SMS messaging, etc) but these tools are still focused on the primary need of fast human communication over great distances. With tablets, I see they are trying to add such additional purposes, without fist being a tool to meet a clear primary need.
Re: (Score:2)
Things we buy and use all fulfill a need in our lives. I can clearly identify why I need a telephone, and why that telephone needs to be mobile. I can also clearly identify why I need a computer, and why that computer needs to have a decent screen size and a keyboard. But I can not identify any functional need in my life, for which a tablet would fill that need. This is nothing like the option "need fulfilled by other devices". Yes I have other devices that fit identified needs, and yes a tablet can also fill some of those needs in a limited capacity, but there is absolutely no need that I can see for a table.
Well, I picked 'need fulfilled by other devices' because I assumed that the set of 'other devices' included the empty set.
Perhaps there is something I do with some device that I could do with a tablet. Like drive nails or keep papers from flying away in the breeze.
But the real answer for most of us picking this option is (IMO): "I don't need one or want one now."
I want a netbook replacement (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to be able to do real stuff on the machine. Not just serf the web and run specialized, approved apps. I want to do the same stuff that I use my laptop and stationary PC for now, but in a handier, more portable format and with better battery life.
Don't give me a watered-down netbook OS! Give me something with a file manager!
Don't give me your proprietary docking port. Give me USB in and out and HDMI so that I can use it as portable drive against my work PC or connect a proper screen and keyboard to it when I am home but need to get some real work done.
A 1GHz ARM CPU and Tegra chipset is more than enough. A Ubuntu distro for ARM with some minor UI tweaks might be enough, but that is something that I could get rolling myself. The ports are what I am missing the most. Therefore, I voted "features".
Re: (Score:2)
You should watch the CES stuff. A trend's building to make netbooks that convert into tablets, either through flipping or sliding. I've seen Asus, Dell and others showing out concepts and looking at them, some are definitely more than mere prototypes. A proper computer that can run a proper operating system with a proper keyboard, yet can also convert into a tablet whenever needed? Yes please.
Data bills? (Score:2, Interesting)
How about, I'm waiting until I can use one plan to pay for all my wireless data consumption? Hell, I don't even have a smartphone yet, and I don't know the pricing really, but wouldn't a tablet be just another $30/month for 3G?
That, and I still fail to see what a tablet can do that a smartphone can't (or well, theoretically couldn't). To me, tablets just look like a reinvented smartphone with a bigger screen. Needing the same mobile devices in two different sizes: that to me exemplifies excess of need. Well
Re: (Score:2)
I want someone to invent a tablet like the ones from Earth: Final Conflict. Perhaps something that uses rollable OLED displays? http://www.neowin.net/news/sony-unveils-the-future-of-screens-rollable-oled-displays [neowin.net]
Batteries (Score:2, Insightful)
Missing option: batteries.
I'll consider buying one when it could be used for 10-12 hours straight with just a single charge.
Already bought one (Score:3)
I love my iPod Touch (Score:2)
I'd like an iPad. I'm sure I'd get a lot of use from it and enjoy having one. However, I have an iPod Touch that pretty much runs my life due to the fact that I always have it with me. From my address book to my calendar to my Getting Things Done lists in OmniFocus, I practically live in the thing. I can depend on it because I know it's always nearby when I want to make a note or look something up.
A tablet would never leave my house, and that's where my laptop lives (with its Emacs-friendly keyboard, termin
Travel (Score:2)
Tablets seems to be good for one thing at least: travel. They have better battery life than laptops and weighs less. So for watching movies on that 10 hour flight they sound quite good, and once at your destination you can get a prepaid 3G SIM and have cheap internet.
Wireless still too slow (Score:2)
When we have real wireless broadband in my area, then I'll look into a tablet. Maybe.
That really is a pain (Score:2)
Combination of factors (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Market competition to bring down the price.
Right now, realistically, it's Galaxy v. iPad and even that's not even competition. That's just "we offer this, they offer that. You must choose one."
2) An OS that offers a customizable UI.
I hate fluffy UIs. I use Windows 7 and revert it back to look like Win2k. It's saves a bit of power and everything is just snappier. I want to be able to use a wire-frame UI with simple clear text on my tablet interface. This may be a future incarnation of Android or it may be a new Ubuntu Tablet edition.
3) Not Apple. No MS Windows.
4) Must be under $500.
5) Must not require subscription for any 3G/4G data service. The prices and contracts are unreasonable.
6) Must have Wi-Fi, 2 USB pots, 1x microSD, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x 3.5mm microphone jack, an offline map and directions program, non-software brightness and volume control (nothing wrong with buttons or knobs in my opinion), lightweight AC adapter that allows for simultaneous use and charging, and a battery life that allows for at least 6 hours of constant web-surfing (not watching movies).
7) Must innately support Flash, all standard ePub formats with an included eReader program, and either have a free office suite or have the ability to install one with no issue.
8) Would prefer 16GB storage, Nvidia CPU (would settle for just about any dual core), removable battery, and upgradeable RAM and HDD/FDD.
I don't care about:
-- The existence of a camera or webcam on the tablet. I'd never use it.
-- HD Video capabilities. I'd *almost* never use it.
-- Any proprietary "app store" -- If it's linux, I can find my own "apps".
-- Proprietary email, calendar, multimedia players. They're typically bloated anyway.
-- Fancy/shiny ways of displaying e-books or album covers. I'm happy with text.
All of the above? (Save "Already Bought one") (Score:2)
There is a lot of potential for tablet devices, yet they are held back by any number of things. Ridiculous cell data prices, closed OSs, terrible interfaces, outright expensive, etc. In the end, they offer little that you can't be had with a notebook, so why not just buy that instead?
I see the lack of an open OS and interesting hardware as the primary problems though. Without those, there is little ability for people to innovate and explore the possibilities of such devices. As such, it will be a long t
For my mother, not me (Score:2)
I am seriously considering buying a tablet for my mother. I set her up with wifi and 3G broadband late last year. She has an old laptop running linux but her favourite activity is watching the weather radar to see when to get out in the garden. A tablet with colour e-paper would be ideal for her because it is readable in sunlight. Maybe in a year or so products like this will be on the market.
Had one for years (Score:2)
Simpad SL4, almost 10 years old.
Simply not big enough (Score:2)
Waiting for a cheap A4 size screen. I'm getting old and I want a bigger screen, so I'll give up my laptop when I can get a cheap A4 Tablet.
Missing option (Score:2)
Why WOULD I buy a tablet? Seriously? Do they have any purpose other than saying "hey look at me I have a tablet" ? Completely useless in comparison to a laptop for computing, and useless in comparison to an e-reader for reading.
Those who don't want tablets prob don't carry bags (Score:3)
The genius GF is sitting here while I look at these comments on the HTPC. I'm annoyed by the rationale some people give for not wanting a tablet (I think the only reason not to get one is because you don't want one. All stop.)
However, she notes:
Remember, these are men. They can just put a smartphone in their pockets... most do. They have no use for a tablet if they have to carry around a bag to keep it with them.
And I think she's right. If you don't normally carry around a backpack, briefcase, messenger bag (I do), or a duffel bag, then you probably won't carry one just for your new tablet PC. However, if you do, then you can likely integrate a tablet into your life and relieve yourself of any poor functions delivered by a smartphone.
It's win-win for me. I don't like smartphones (small keyboard, small screen, need for a "mobile web" for efficient browsing, etc) AND I carry around a messenger bag just about everywhere I go. For me, it's perfect and I can't wait to get one that's up to my specs.
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Us real men carry only what fits in the small of our backs under the belt (must have a trigger) or in our sock at the ankle. It is also acceptable to carry any object over 75lbs as long as you do so without looking strained.
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Here, here!
"Could you put my keys in your pocket?" ... etc.
"Why? Put them in your purse."
"I have my sunglasses in my purse, I don't want them to scratch."
"Put your sunglasses in a sunglasses cover."
"It's too bulky to put in my purse."
"Use a larger purse."
"Well, I don't want to carry around a backpack."
"Then don't carry things that require a backpack."
"I need all this stuff."
Just a PDA with a bigger screen? (Score:3)
On top of all that, the battery life is pathetic.
I concluded shortly after buying it that it was just another piece of clutter that needed charging, carrying and maintaining - but failed to deliver any real benefits. Now that their bigger brothers, with bigger price tags are on the market I can safely say "once bitten, twice shy".
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the stuff around the corner will be truly awesome.
Sounds like the best strategy is to not buy anything until we get around the corner and then take another look. Who'd want "really good" when you could have "truly awesome"?
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Battery life is huge for me. I just don't see value in a device that I can't use all day long, sun-up to sundown. Not constantly, but I'd like to be able to check my email and the news on the way to the airport, watch two movies and play some games during the flight from Chicago to Vancouver and be able to check in again with home when I get there. Maybe enough juice left over watch an episode of Sons of Anarchy before bed.
I d
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That option is covered under OS/Software, features, or waiting to see what tablets morph into.
Thats three options that all fit but aren't missing.
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Display stuff at a screen that's comfortable for prolonged reading/viewing.
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I don't really get what is the use for a tablet, what can it do that my phone can't?
My workplace is going a bit psycho over personal Internet use so some of us are buying tablets to keep beside their normal keyboards, for personal web browsing. I use my phone for that but the screen is small.
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I voted "watching what tablets will morph into." Beta designs/thinking are a reason I am still waiting, besides high initial premiums. Android needed a good many months to get publicity on TV thanks to the heavy Verizon DROID campaigns. Incomparison, itablets [to diff from the old tablet functionality] were born yesterday, and it will be a similar sales curve.
I will wait till AFTER the "year of the tablet comes" (not during, since lots of fakes pass off as good products, kinda like the Motorola BLUR UI.) Li