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Apple iPad, Android, other tablet displays

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Merih;1651113; said:
So exactly what are the benefits to this tablet over a netbook...I mean obviously it's touchscreen. But is there anything else?

I heard it doesn't even have a true operating system. That basically it's just a giant Ipod Touch. But this was coming from an avowed Apple PC Hater.
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That's about right. It's an iPod Touch XL with an optional 3G data plan that can be self-activated in monthly increments on-demand, provided you pay the additional $130 for the 3G hardware-enabled version.

The fact it's the iPhone OS and not MacOS X is a curious choice, because that does cripple it in comparison to true netbooks and tablet PCs. It'll be interesting to see how much of a backlash builds over the next 60 days (beyond the obvious anti-Apple sentiment that is built into every product they make).

I think it does have huge market potential though. Personally, there is little I want from a true mobile device other than easier input (a big keyboard) and full-screen landscape presentation of Web pages, so it does fit a category of product I could see myself using which isn't handled by anything else currently, and since it would be something I use exclusively in my home or office, where WiFi is available, I don't need the 3G. I also don't need the massive storage space, because I'm not going to listen to MP3s on it, so the 16Gb $499 version would suit me fine.

The most appealing element to me on the eReader side is full-color magazine presentations and the availability of iPhone store apps from Amazon (Kindle app), Barnes & Noble, and Stanza. While not eInk, which is a huge drawback for extended reading, the iPad immediately brings with it the largest book selection with competitive pricing models. That's always been the downside through the previous 3-4 year battle between Sony (the PRS) and Amazon (the Kindle).
 
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Dryden;1651133; said:
That's about right. It's an iPod Touch XL with an optional 3G data plan that can be self-activated in monthly increments on-demand, provided you pay the additional $130 for the 3G hardware-enabled version.

The fact it's the iPhone OS and not MacOS X is a curious choice, because that does cripple it in comparison to true netbooks and tablet PCs. It'll be interesting to see how much of a backlash builds over the next 60 days (beyond the obvious anti-Apple sentiment that is built into every product they make).

I think it does have huge market potential though. Personally, there is little I want from a true mobile device other than easier input (a big keyboard) and full-screen landscape presentation of Web pages, so it does fit a category of product I could see myself using which isn't handled by anything else currently, and since it would be something I use exclusively in my home or office, where WiFi is available, I don't need the 3G. I also don't need the massive storage space, because I'm not going to listen to MP3s on it, so the 16Gb $499 version would suit me fine.

The most appealing element to me on the eReader side is full-color magazine presentations and the availability of iPhone store apps from Amazon (Kindle app), Barnes & Noble, and Stanza. While not eInk, which is a huge drawback for extended reading, the iPad immediately brings with it the largest book selection with competitive pricing models. That's always been the downside through the previous 3-4 year battle between Sony (the PRS) and Amazon (the Kindle).
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I wanted to get one because I thought it would be a cool Home Entertainment System remote...you know...one of those things that I can use (through a wireless external peripheral) to control the TV, Speakers, motorized shades, House lights, Home Alarm system...etc etc.

But without it having a true operating system I think I'm going to be at a loss on that one. Sure would have been nice.
 
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Merih;1651113; said:
So exactly what are the benefits to this tablet over a netbook...I mean obviously it's touchscreen. But is there anything else?

I heard it doesn't even have a true operating system. That basically it's just a giant Ipod Touch. But this was coming from an avowed Apple PC Hater.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what it is, with maybe a few new bells and whistles...
 
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Daring Fireball: The iPad Big Picture

[...] the iPad is using a new CPU designed and made by Apple itself: the Apple A4. This is a huge deal. I got about 20 blessed minutes of time using the iPad demo units Apple had at the event today, and if I had to sum up the device with one word, that word would be ?fast?.

It is fast, fast, fast. The hardware really does feel like a big iPhone ? and a big original iPhone at that, with the aluminum back. (I have never liked the plastic 3G/S iPhones as much as the original in terms of how it feels in my hand.) I expected the screen size to be the biggest differentiating factor in how the iPad feels compared to an iPhone, but I think the speed difference is just as big a factor. Web pages render so fast it was hard to believe. After using the iPhone so much for two and a half years, I?ve become accustomed to web pages rendering (relative to the Mac) slowly. On the iPad, they seem to render nearly instantly. (802.11n Wi-Fi helps too.)

The Maps app is crazy fast. Apps launch fast. Scrolling is fast. The Photos app is fast.

[...]

But: everyone I spoke to in the press room was raving first and foremost about the speed. None of us could shut up about it. It feels impossibly fast. (And our next thought: What happens if Apple has figured out a way to make a CPU like A4 that fits in an iPhone? If they pull that off for this year?s new iPhone, look out.)

Apple doesn?t talk much about the technical details of the iPhone. They never talk about CPU speed or the name of the chip being used. They don?t tell you how much RAM is in there. Part of their vision for moving computers from technical culture to popular culture is about getting away from defining these things by their technical specs. So the prominent talk about A4 is telling. This is something they want us to notice.

I mentioned this year-ago quote from Apple COO Tim Cook the other day, but it?s apt here, too. Cook told BusinessWeek, ?We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.?

Apple now owns and controls their own mobile CPUs. There aren?t many companies in the world that can say that. And from what I saw today, Apple doesn?t just own and control a mobile CPU, they own and control the hands-down best mobile CPU in the world. Software aside (which is a huge thing to put aside), it may well be that no other company could make a device today matching the price, size, and performance of the iPad. They?re not getting into the CPU business for kicks, they?re getting into it to kick ass.

[...]
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Spin? From videos it looks fast, but I'd really like to see an A4 run a multitasking OS before annointing it the next big thing. Good news on the speed front, though.
 
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FOR:

Apple iPad First Hands On - apple ipad - Gizmodo

It's substantial but surprisingly light. Easy to grip. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands. And it's fasssstttt.

Apple didn't really sell this point, but it's the single biggest benefit of the iPad: speed. It feels at least a generation faster than the iPhone 3GS. Lags and waits are gone, and the OS and apps respond just as quickly as you'd hope. Rotating between portrait and landscape modes, especially, is where this new horsepower manifests in the OS.

Build
Imagine, if you will, a super light unibody MacBook Pro that's smaller, thinner and way, way, way lighter. Or, from a slightly different perspective, think about a bigger iPhone that's been built with unibody construction. The iPad really does feel like some amalgamation of these two product lines from Apple. And, in the hands, it feels great?not too heavy at all.

The screen looked nice, and it's able to display even small text crisply. Touch responds like a dream.

[...]
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AGAINST:

8 Things That Suck About the iPad - apple ipad - Gizmodo

No Multitasking
This is a backbreaker. If this is supposed to be a replacement for netbooks, how can it possibly not have multitasking? Are you saying I can't listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can't have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can't have AIM open at the same time as my email? Are you kidding me? This alone guarantees that I will not buy this product.

No Flash
No Flash is annoying but not a dealbreaker on the iPhone and iPod Touch. On something that's supposed to be closer to a netbook or laptop? It will leave huge, gaping holes in websites. I hope you don't care about streaming video! God knows not many casual internet users do. Oh wait, nevermind, they all do.

Adapters, Adapters, Adapters
So much for those smooth lines. If you want to plug anything into this, such as a digital camera, you need all sorts of ugly adapters. You need an adapter for USB for god's sake.

[...]
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10 things Netbooks still do better than an iPad | Crave - CNET

Video chat. Most Netbooks, even low-end ones, now have webcams enabling basic video chat over Skype or any other program. The iPad, however, does not. We wish the iPad had a camera and iChat, especially since it would make the tablet a unique communications device to rival the iPhone. Perhaps cost was a factor, even though most Netbooks manage the feat in a package under $500.

Run Flash. While Steve Jobs called the iPad "the best Web experience you've ever had," there is a big missing piece right now, and that's the whole Web. Browser-based apps and Flash-driven content are huge elements of cloud computing and of many Web sites, and right now it's not even clear whether the iPad can even run Hulu or Netflix. Atom Netbooks can be slow and stuttery when playing Web video, but at least they can.

Programming. Most people aren't programmers, or anything close to it, but most Netbooks do run on a full Windows 7 OS that can be used for programming or modification. For the friendly hackers out there, that's a deal-breaker on the iPad.

Upload photos from a camera. No USB ports on the iPad mean no connecting cameras or other peripherals, which can be a drag if the iPad is meant as a portable computing replacement for bloggers. Netbooks have at least 2 USB ports standard.

Store more than 64GB of data. We expected a little more memory on the iPad. Even the most basic Netbook has a 160GB hard drive. Cloud storage can assist with data, but it's still no replacement for onboard capacity.

Play Facebook games. Without the aforementioned Flash, browser games aren't really possible on the iPad. Those looking to play Farmville will have to wait for the App or just flock to a Netbook.

Swapping batteries. Sure, the iPad is slim, attractive and very showy. But its battery is fixed, while a Netbook can not only swap its battery, but upgrade from a three- to a six-cell or more.

Install CD media (or any media other than from an App Store) With the addition of a simple USB DVD/CD-ROM drive, disc-based software can be installed on a Netbook even without an optical drive built in. Netbooks can also install files off USB drives, or via any other input method. The
iPad wasn't designed with this flexibility in mind, but it's still nice to be able to do.

Type on your lap. Yes, the iPad has a virtual keyboard, and even a cool keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a quasi-desktop device. But the dock can't be used for lap typing, and the Apple demos didn't make iPad typing seem as comfortable as pounding away on an old-fashioned hinged Netbook. For long-term writing on the go, a physical Netbook keyboard with an attached angled screen still wins.

Upgrade. Netbooks can upgrade their RAM--albeit slightly--and with a little effort, that hard drive can be swapped, too. The iPad is a fixed entity, so there's no going back once you've picked 16, 32, or 64GB.
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After the hype seems to have blown over, I have gone out and done some research, now Iphone users have been waiting a while to get flash, just like Android users, but the research is all so clouded. It seems like everywhere I read I get this:

Building iPad Applications with Flash (Adobe Flash Platform Blog)

We announced the Packager for iPhone at MAX 2009 which will allow Flash developers to create native iPhone applications and will be available in the upcoming version of Flash Pro CS5. This technology enables developers to create applications for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (though applications will not initially take direct advantage of iPad?s new screen resolution). It is our intent to make it possible for Flash developers to build applications that can take advantage of the increased screen size and resolution of the iPad.
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This packager makes it sound more like you'll be able to develop apps with flash, but it leaves me to wonder if you'll be able to run flash applications, like webgames, inside the browser.

Also, the lack of multi tasking features, and once again apple using their store as a native control over their content has me, well to be honest, disappointed. Since the ipod came out, apple has pretty much dictated what you can and can't do on your device, taking away the freedom that comes with a computer all together, while the defense is "protection from virus's and other negative elements of the internet" it does leave the users experience stuck.

This still feels like a niche product, I am sure there will be those apple heads who are jumping through the roof to get one, but with the advent of wifi tethering and other such technologies, I don't see the need to go beyond my laptop or netbook for these uses, but hey, that's just me.
 
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The Pro CS5 package will be used to produce standalone apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, like Apple's SDK. It will not allow Flash devs to produce Web content to run in the browser. At least, that is my understanding of it.

The underlying issues with Flash on mobile devices is the processing horsepower required and the fact that Flash completely circumvents the distribution model for apps and data. Apple's roadblock to Flash-inside-Safari on the iPhone is a powerplay to discourage users from streaming audio or video or playing Flash Web games on the phone, which would cannibalize sales from the AppStore and iTunes.

HTML 5 will bring dynamicism without Flash. But I think if failure to support Flash appears to be a failing point in moving iPads, Apple will get it in there.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10443246-1.html?tag=digg
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This list is inadvertantly funny to me, because half the things I wouldn't do on a netbook anyway (programming? really?) and the other half you couldn't do even if it was a MacOS enabled "true" netbook (like install software from a CD -- you can't find Mac software in any store, so why do you need a CD drive to install it?!)

Again, this goes back to semantics I mentioned earlier. When I think of a netbook, I think of something dinky like the Eee PC which you're not going to do "real" work on anyway and which lacks all those bells and whistles. The MacBook Air is a true "Netbook" in the literal sense.

Somewhere along the way, laptops became the word for "portable desktops" or big laptops, and netbooks became the new word for "laptops" or small laptops.
 
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Dryden;1651279; said:
The Pro CS5 package will be used to produce standalone apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, like Apple's SDK. It will not allow Flash devs to produce Web content to run in the browser. At least, that is my understanding of it.

The underlying issues with Flash on mobile devices is the processing horsepower required and the fact that Flash completely circumvents the distribution model for apps and data. Apple's roadblock to Flash-inside-Safari on the iPhone is a powerplay to discourage users from streaming audio or video or playing Flash Web games on the phone, which would cannibalize sales from the AppStore and iTunes.

HTML 5 will bring dynamicism without Flash. But I think if failure to support Flash appears to be a failing point in moving iPads, Apple will get it in there.
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Yes, but there's a huge issue with the video support for html5, since ogg is open source and free, and H.264 is licensed but superior in terms of playback, firefox wants to stay "open" but both Safari and Chrome have chosen to go with H.264, since both Google and Apple are huge companies, the licensing fee is just a drop in the bucket.


This list is inadvertantly funny to me, because half the things I wouldn't do on a netbook anyway (programming? really?) and the other half you couldn't do even if it was a MacOS enabled "true" netbook (like install software from a CD -- you can't find Mac software in any store, so why do you need a CD drive to install it?!)
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My netbook is my linux machine, it boots fedora, ubuntu and whatever else I choose to be playing with at the time. I do a lot of shell and python scripts on that system as well as essential security tasks like wifi auditing and using nmap, granted i am not the average user, but it's nice to know those options are there.

I agree with you, my laptop really is just a portable workstation with a few hours of power, my netbook is a toy, I break it, fix it, do different installs, test things etc...

It's back to the mac/pc thing, and the end result is the consumer is going to get fucked here. Apples plan for global domination really does revolve around their DRM, if they can get all your media on their supported platform it's much more than "screw this, I'll just buy a new pc with windows" or "I want to get away from my iphone" well with the pc you can still play your media, however, something as simple as buying a new phone could cost an average user more than they are comfortable with.
 
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:lol: you have quite a gift. Maybe not a desirable one, but remarkable nonetheless.
Taosman;1651350; said:
Jobs the day of the announcement panics! "Oh! Shit! I completely forgot about the iPad announcement! Quick! Get me a tray from the cafeteria! And 8 iPhones!" And some Super Glue!"
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MSI’s will launch it’s 10-inch Android tablet this year for $500 : leakdroid.com

For all of you that are less than excited at the ipad, MSI has an Android tablet coming out later this year.

According to DigiTimes, the MSI tablet will hit the streets in the second half of 2010 for about $500. MSI is entering the tablet market with a speedy Tegra 2 processor that is powering the MSI Android Tablet with a 10 inch touchscreen. The Tegra 2 processor by nVidia is advertised as allowing up to 120 hours of music playback and 15 hours of HD video on a single battery charge.
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msiandroid500.jpg


So far, tablets have done little for me, but I have seen prototype models that look like a netbook, with keyboard, and a touchscreen that you can pop out if you want, those look kind of cool.
 
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