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.
Showing posts with label Slate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slate. Show all posts
Friday, 9 July 2010
Sunday, 31 January 2010
iPad Initial Thoughts
Way back in the early turn of the century (probably about 2003) I had a Palm Treo phone, I believe it was a 180g, a monochrome device that was one of the earliest ‘smart phones’ around, although it wouldn’t look too smart now. I loved it, even though it was old technology even when I got it.
Around the same time a friend and work college of mine, John McDougall, purchased one of the early iPaq devices, a glorious device running a colour screen. It was amazing. Remember, the market at the time wasn’t concerned that these devices had no phone, phones were supposed to be separate from your PDA back then, despite the best efforts of a few manufacturers.
I remember one conversation where John derided my Treo (and I don’t mean that in a nasty way John) for running an OS which did not “properly” multi-task. “It’s a phone!” I told him, “Who cares?” “I can still have multiple applications running – or at least open, at the same time”. However his harsh words still lingered on toiling in the back of my mind...
Both our devices had hundreds of applications, both free and paid for, that we could source from a variety of locations on the web with little effort, and both were a joy to use in different ways.
That was about 8 years ago.
Soon after I bought an ordinary Nokia phone and an iPaq 4150, mainly as the Treo would often crash when answering an incoming call, and it was as uncomfortable as hell to hold against your ear for any length of time.
But that’s not the point I’m trying to make here.
This week Apple announced the iPad (apparently Version 2 will have wings!), a device running the iPhone OS. That means it currently doesn’t multi-task. That means it has no Flash support. That means you can only use Apple approved applications purchased via the App Store. That doesn’t mean rouge diallers and other nasties don’t already exist.
You may not even be able to buy ebooks for it in the UK (at least not initially). It hasn’t even got phone functionality (which would be odd I suppose), so in essence it’s an iPod touch with a very big screen. All this in a device that’s going to be “perceived” as a computer.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPad is a lovely piece of engineering from what I can tell, but it’s only an evolution in the hardware stakes. As far as the OS goes… well I didn’t want it on a phone, but on this, you’ve got to be kidding me! It is beautifully designed as far as presentation goes though, Very slick. However, I guess I’m not an average user. I think I’ll let Mr Stephen Fry buy, and keep, my one.
It’s not that I don’t even like this form factor, I really do. I loved my (now demised) HP Tablet PC (you know, one of those things that had a touch screen, a keyboard, and could be put into slate mode). This was however bulky to use and the battery life was only a couple of hours or so, 10 hours from this device will be very good and sets the benchmark for other devices to follow.
I think my ideal form factor could be something like the Apple iPad (and to me the big bezel around the screen could be a good thing) that slots into a keyboard or other portable type docking station to allow a real keyboard to be used (essentially like a laptop, plonk it into the bottom half of a laptop, with hinges and the additional ports!). How about if this was Bluetooth so I could use it or another keyboard wirelessly too?
It’s no secret that I’m a Windows man primarily, and in this rare case I actually feel a little pleased that the HP slate and others will be running Windows 7, you know, a real OS. Let’s hope the hardware measures up. If only Apple had seen fit to put OS X on the iPad. I still wouldn’t have got one, well, probably not, but I’d be more impressed.
Summary: Fail.
That’s possibly a bit harsh. Let’s just say it’s not what I’m looking for, it ticks the wrong boxes for me. It's a 'consumer device' not only in terms of market, but also in terms of functionality; it's designed more for consuming media than creating it. That's not what I'm after, but many will be, however even on this front I want to say "Must try harder".
Of course, Mr Fry and others will be snapping them up and I'm absolutely sure most people who do will be happy. It does look and will perform well, for what it does. It certainly doesn't deserve some of the accolades it's been getting, at least not in my eyes. Then again, some reviews have also been too harsh.
If you can’t wait to try one out I only have one suggestion to you. Get an iPod touch and put your face very close to it. It’s the next best thing to being there.
In the meantime if somebody brings out something similar, with the detachable wireless keyboard I mention above, and running Windows, well let’s just say I’m reaching for my wallet just at the thought.
Google is probably hoping the “Me Too” manufacturers will adopt either Android or Chrome, and I wonder where Windows Mobile 7 will fit into all of this. Any plans from Symbian in this arena, the last I heard the Nokia web device (MID, or whatever you call it) was running a variant on Linux, but at least this is a capable OS and can be made very pretty too. Not that Symbian isn't, in fact I do have a soft spot for Symbian as the underlying OS, but the UI plastered on top has let it down badly in the past.
I’d still prefer Windows 7 though, that’s where all my investment and knowledge is. Oh if only Windows 7 were multi-touch capable…. Hold on a moment ;-)
Around the same time a friend and work college of mine, John McDougall, purchased one of the early iPaq devices, a glorious device running a colour screen. It was amazing. Remember, the market at the time wasn’t concerned that these devices had no phone, phones were supposed to be separate from your PDA back then, despite the best efforts of a few manufacturers.
I remember one conversation where John derided my Treo (and I don’t mean that in a nasty way John) for running an OS which did not “properly” multi-task. “It’s a phone!” I told him, “Who cares?” “I can still have multiple applications running – or at least open, at the same time”. However his harsh words still lingered on toiling in the back of my mind...
Both our devices had hundreds of applications, both free and paid for, that we could source from a variety of locations on the web with little effort, and both were a joy to use in different ways.
That was about 8 years ago.
Soon after I bought an ordinary Nokia phone and an iPaq 4150, mainly as the Treo would often crash when answering an incoming call, and it was as uncomfortable as hell to hold against your ear for any length of time.
But that’s not the point I’m trying to make here.
This week Apple announced the iPad (apparently Version 2 will have wings!), a device running the iPhone OS. That means it currently doesn’t multi-task. That means it has no Flash support. That means you can only use Apple approved applications purchased via the App Store. That doesn’t mean rouge diallers and other nasties don’t already exist.
You may not even be able to buy ebooks for it in the UK (at least not initially). It hasn’t even got phone functionality (which would be odd I suppose), so in essence it’s an iPod touch with a very big screen. All this in a device that’s going to be “perceived” as a computer.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPad is a lovely piece of engineering from what I can tell, but it’s only an evolution in the hardware stakes. As far as the OS goes… well I didn’t want it on a phone, but on this, you’ve got to be kidding me! It is beautifully designed as far as presentation goes though, Very slick. However, I guess I’m not an average user. I think I’ll let Mr Stephen Fry buy, and keep, my one.
It’s not that I don’t even like this form factor, I really do. I loved my (now demised) HP Tablet PC (you know, one of those things that had a touch screen, a keyboard, and could be put into slate mode). This was however bulky to use and the battery life was only a couple of hours or so, 10 hours from this device will be very good and sets the benchmark for other devices to follow.
I think my ideal form factor could be something like the Apple iPad (and to me the big bezel around the screen could be a good thing) that slots into a keyboard or other portable type docking station to allow a real keyboard to be used (essentially like a laptop, plonk it into the bottom half of a laptop, with hinges and the additional ports!). How about if this was Bluetooth so I could use it or another keyboard wirelessly too?
It’s no secret that I’m a Windows man primarily, and in this rare case I actually feel a little pleased that the HP slate and others will be running Windows 7, you know, a real OS. Let’s hope the hardware measures up. If only Apple had seen fit to put OS X on the iPad. I still wouldn’t have got one, well, probably not, but I’d be more impressed.
Summary: Fail.
That’s possibly a bit harsh. Let’s just say it’s not what I’m looking for, it ticks the wrong boxes for me. It's a 'consumer device' not only in terms of market, but also in terms of functionality; it's designed more for consuming media than creating it. That's not what I'm after, but many will be, however even on this front I want to say "Must try harder".
Of course, Mr Fry and others will be snapping them up and I'm absolutely sure most people who do will be happy. It does look and will perform well, for what it does. It certainly doesn't deserve some of the accolades it's been getting, at least not in my eyes. Then again, some reviews have also been too harsh.
If you can’t wait to try one out I only have one suggestion to you. Get an iPod touch and put your face very close to it. It’s the next best thing to being there.
In the meantime if somebody brings out something similar, with the detachable wireless keyboard I mention above, and running Windows, well let’s just say I’m reaching for my wallet just at the thought.
Google is probably hoping the “Me Too” manufacturers will adopt either Android or Chrome, and I wonder where Windows Mobile 7 will fit into all of this. Any plans from Symbian in this arena, the last I heard the Nokia web device (MID, or whatever you call it) was running a variant on Linux, but at least this is a capable OS and can be made very pretty too. Not that Symbian isn't, in fact I do have a soft spot for Symbian as the underlying OS, but the UI plastered on top has let it down badly in the past.
I’d still prefer Windows 7 though, that’s where all my investment and knowledge is. Oh if only Windows 7 were multi-touch capable…. Hold on a moment ;-)
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