Willing to drift?

As if the love-in for Apple devices at BP isn't enough, I recently watched a guy on my train home using his iPad as an eBook reader. This got me thinking "I could be tempted by an Android slate" (see earlier posts for why iOS and Windows Phone devices are not on my radar).

The is remarkable for me as only a few months ago I would not have entertained this thought at all, in fact I was only interested in running Windows 7 on a tablet. I have to admit my ideal device would still be this, but the swish iPad equivalent hardware for PC devices is, I fear, still some time away.

I loved my tablet, but it was too bulky, too underpowered and the screen was too dim/fuzzy due to the touch functionality. However. technology moves on and now all of these issues have now been solved, but strangely not in one device.

Touchscreens are now much clearer and more vibrant. The mobile versions of the Core chips and similar offerings from AMD are very capable. Laptops, whilst not as light as an iPad also weigh much less now. And the deal maker or breaker for my next purchase will be battery life (I had too many occasions with my last tablet where it died half way through a journey home).

I had whittled my choice down to either an HP tm2 tablet, basically an updated version of my current (very sickly) tablet, or an Acer 5820 with an almost 7 hour battery life and Core i5. Out of the two the Acer is a more powerful machine, but lacks the touchscreen, if only they had included this I'd have had the credit card out last week instead of still plucking up the courage to part with my cash.

And that's my point; why is it so hard to put a touchscreen on a decently specified machine? I know it's going to add to the price, weight, and you have to design in the hinge, etc., but it's surely not that difficult is it? Who is going to be the first company to step up to the mark? It's a problem that's been commented on for an age, and now just seems to be accepted: "It you want a tablet or slate you must sacrifice power and other features". Why?

So it seems I'm going to be stumping up for a regular laptop this time, safe in the knowledge that my ideal tablet won't arrive at least until it's time to upgrade again, possibly after this (Did I hear Windows 8?).

So what about the Android slate? Well the reality is I have no neeed for a slate device so it's just a "perhaps one day" thought. An iPad may have appealed if it supported flash and wasn't locked into the app store.

What really strikes me, as I mentioned before, is how I am now even considering an Android device over Windows (be afraid Microsoft, you're starting to loose the faithful like me). But at the same time I take comfort in the fact that I am able to see beyond the brand, and it mirrors what's happening on my desktop too.

Sure I've experimented with Linux over the years from Red Hat to Ubuntu, but for all its sins Windows has suited me far better (yes, even Vista). Linux has always had an air of "not quite" about it, not for everyone, but for my "needs" and probably "wants".

18 months ago I went mental when somebody installed Chrome on my mums PC. I was running mostly Firefox and a little IE7 when required. When IE8 arrived I found it better for my liking than Firefox (which had started to show signs of copying the worst problems of IE) so switched back to mostly IE8. Now I find I'm increasingly using a combination of Chrome and IE8, especially after reading the results from a recent security conference where all the other main browsers were hacked in around 10 minutes, yet for the second year running chrome resisted attack.

On the Java IDE front I used to be a massive fan of JBuilder. This was eventually replaced by Eclipse in my toolbox, then Netbeans, and now, mostly from necessity, I find myself back to Eclipse again. It's just a case of the right tool, or the necessary tool for the job.

As I get older I'm having less of an emotional tie to software and devices, and more of a practical attachment, which is why I don't need to be locked in any more than is necessary. Of course, this is not possible as any software I do buy, unless it is free and available on multiple platforms, will inherently be tied to a platform(s).

That's one of the reasons why things like Adobe Flash, Java and to a (much) lesser extent Silverlight and .Net are important as they facilitate some level of platform drift. And that's the real reason why Apple doesn't want you to have them.

The rumor for Windows 8 is that it too will have an application marketplace. The way Microsoft seem to be mimicking Apple these days, I fear the day when you can only run approved applications in Windows may not be far off. When that happens perhaps it won't just be Google's Chrome that's on my desktop.