Slashdot Mirror
MSI Will Launch iPad Alternative
itwbennett writes "Underwhelmed by the iPad? Don't give up on tablets just yet, says blogger Peter Smith. MSI has a tablet coming in the second half of 2010 that measures up on price and size and addresses a lot of the iPad's most noted shortcomings. 'The iPad runs iPhone OS while the MSI runs Android,' writes Smith. 'That means the MSI will multitask of course, and Flash support in Android should be a given by launch time (though that isn't certain). It has a camera. It's running on an Nvidia Tegra2 chip which Ars Technica suggests puts it on par with the iPad's A4 as far as computing horsepower. And of course Android doesn't live in a walled garden.'" The post notes that the MSI device does not support multitouch in its built-in apps. Still, would an Android-powered iPad-alike tempt you?
Update: 01/29 17:58 GMT by KD : Dave Altavilla suggests Hot Hardware's coverage of Asus's recently announced tablet, also based on the Tegra2 chip.
Update: 01/29 17:58 GMT by KD : Dave Altavilla suggests Hot Hardware's coverage of Asus's recently announced tablet, also based on the Tegra2 chip.
While Apple may prove that it is indeed possible to put a better-than-TN LCD panel in a small (laptop-like) form factor, MSI would do well to follow the lead on quality.
That might provoke Lenovo to bring something back to their laptops that has been missing for a while.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I've yet to see a compelling reason to pay more for a tablet. My Acer Aspire cost less than any tablet I've seen yet but does quite a bit more. The only thing it is missing is the touch component but I have yet to find an app that makes me care.
If someone comes out with a tablet that is prices competitively with notebooks and has the same level of features, I'd think about it more seriously.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Hope they can get it to have multi-touch, at least in the "euro" version we could all purchase via the internet. And I would not mind one running WinMo7 if that think ever comes out (maybe they're waiting for Duke Nukem Forever).
-- All this knowledge is giving me a raging brainer.
Highly doubt the Tegra 2 is on par with the A4, unless the A4 has a dual-core Cortex A9... Info suggests the A4 is only a single core Cortex A9 which would make the Tegra2 at least 2x more powerful. Not to mention Nvidia vs ARM based graphics core.
I think it has more promise than the iWidgets do.
It's a more open platform which IMHO gives it more potential.
It's not about "do more things," it's about "do very few things better."
That's why Apple wins.
My wife asked about the iPad last night (she owns a netbook right now) and now she's drooling over one. Why? It doesn't have "files." It doesn't have "windows." She won't have to worry about "flash drives." And so on. She was so excited about all the things it didn't have (and that she therefore didn't have to worry about) that she was disappointed when I told her they weren't in the Apple Store in Manhattan yet.
Meanwhile, the geeks are running around blasting Apple products for all the things they "don't have" and recommending complex alternatives.
That's why Apple is making $$$ these days. Because they're removing 60 percent of the features and making the remaining 40 percent configuration free and so polished they make your eyes hurt.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I generally like the notion of a touch screen gizmo that'll let me STFW and watch the odd video and stuff, that I can hang on a wall - like in the kitchen - I like the idea of having a recipe website handy.
But for me, if it's a large (touch) screen that doesn't do much, I'm not going to pay over the odds for it.
I'll pay more for more functionality (well, actually I probably won't - if I wanted a laptop, I'd have already gone and bought a laptop), and I'll buy cheaper stuff if it does the right subset of things.
Nobody needs to pay for a camera in what is suppose to be a display/input unit. Keep it simple and cheap. Heck, if they really want to be inventive, make it work with the Cameras in any other android phone. That way you attach your phone to a stand, plug it into your apad, and then have the camera stream to the apad.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
http://bonkel.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/windows-7-and-kde4-multitouch/ So, wait NOT.
Why would a guy want something that is already commonly called the iTampon?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Touch interfaces are nice. And multi touch is nicer.
I had to go back from a touchscreen TomTom satnav to a non-touchscreen Garmin -- it just felt unwieldy.
Once I'd used an iPod Touch for a while, I kept wanting to pinch-zoom the map on the TomTom.
There are certain things that just feel nice with mult-touch, and it also saves space by doing away with a trackpad.
As a frivolous example - a game like Crayon Physics will be tremendously more satisfying on a touch tablet, than when played with a mouse. But things like photo browsers, drawing apps, etc. will also benefit.
They need to solve the problem of so many things needing text entry, though. Decent handwriting recognition is surely the answer.
I'm not exactly sure what "Android doesn't live in a walled garden" means, but if means "doesn't have the design consistency and intuitiveness of Apple UIs" then I doubt that the market is going to embrace it.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Why do tablets all of a sudden need a phone OS?
Check out 1:12.
He is scrolling through the pics, he exits out, then tries to open the photos again. Instead of seeing the picture, he sees an error box stating
"There is not enough memory to load the photo".
Seems a bit... sad.
Acers used to run pretty hot if I remember right. How is yours for being warm to the touch?
iPad is not a tablet. You cannot do anything on it but whatever Apple lets you. No, a real tablet would be fully configurable and open to modding the software and even firmware. These control freaks in business now are going to lose everything. Apple would have cleaned house if iPad was a tablet without a keyboard, running OSX or better, and able to do anything you want -- even if you want to dual boot OSes.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Or, actually, the post asks the right question in the wrong place.
The question is not what'd be popular on Slashdot - we're not representative of the wider population by almost any stretch of the imagination. Of course Slashdotters want multitasking, want to be able to install ssh, want the option to run their own web server on the thing. Slashdotters will want the darn tablet to support FLAC and Ogg Vorbis/Theora.
But the things that'd make this really popular with Slashdotters are not the same things that'll make a tablet a commercial success. It's pretty obvious the majority of people don't care about multitasking (as long as they can listen to their tunes while they do other things - which is true of the iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, and most any other device), nor about Apple's "walled garden". What they do care about is the availability of the apps they want and that the features the tablet offers are easy to use and work well.
#DeleteChrome
What blu-ray slot?
A tablet might be nifty. I will get one when they have either an sd card slot or a little compartment to put an USB stick in. I want to be able to work with the music/video/text/whatever files that are on the removable media, no 'importing' crap.
And if i have wifi and a browser, i need enough flash support to watch Weebl and Bob.
And for blimey's sake, make the screen scratch resistant.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
No multitouch like the droid doesn't have multitouch (the droid certainly does support multitouch)? The default browser doesn't (other browers and apps on the device do) and it's up to each app to support it.
Or, in this case, is there really no multitouch?
I love the idea of these kinds of devices. I could definitely see myself having breakfast and reading the newspaper on one of these things. It'd also be nice for taking freeform notes. However, at the end of the day I really need even a basic computing device running something that will let me get my job done. Namely: * I need to be able to read my corporate email. From an Exchange server. Preferably using Outlook. * That probably means I need a VPN client. Even if I don't need a VPN client for Outlook, there's a few other reasons it would be nice to have; not the least of which is just to be able to get to that corporate Intranet server. * I want to be able to open and do a quick change on a spreadsheet or document. In other words, everything that I can do on my netbook, I want to do on a little tablet.
----- obSig
people.
"I can either outfit you with Gentoo on an 64-way 128GB NUMA server with a 16TB ZFS RAID that you access via ssh over gigabit ethernet... or with your basic hunk of steel... if the 64-way Linux box is too complicated for you. No, you don't want that iPad. All it does it access the web, your email, Facebook, YouTube, and iTunes with the touch of a finger, but only over a wireless network so unspecial you'll find it anywhere in the world, and it doesn't do anything beyond that, really. Oh, and it won't force you to learn anything while you're at it. Naw, either stick to the Gentoo server or the hunk of steel, those are your two best bets, depending on what sort of person you are."
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Are there good Word Processors/Spreadsheets/Presentation apps on android yet? Seriously asking. I'm a big Pages fan and am really happy to see they were able to put together an iPad version; and the single-record entry views in Numbers are one of those "duh" ideas that would probably be really useful.
Please don't post to tell me about google docs -- at the very least a "real" word processor should allow more than web core fonts, and should let you set line spacing, tab stops per paragraph, and use named styles.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
You make a valid point - Slashdot is not the market segment Apple is aiming at with the iPad. Rather, it's the woman in my class whom I overhead saying "I was thinking about getting a Kindle, but now I might get the iPad - it looks cooler and can do more stuff" or my buddy whom I saw last night saying "The iPad looks so cool, and it's CHEAP! [for an Apple product]"
Problem is, I pointed out to my friend that since the iPad lacks flash, he won't be able to watch Hulu on it. He was very disappointed to hear this. Unless, of course, Hulu releases an iPhone/iPad app. There was a rumor about that last year, but nothing solid so far. ATT complains that the iPhone is already killing their network, think they will really want to let Hulu on the iPhone? How will Apple feel about Hulu as a potential competitor to iTunes? Yeah, there are other streaming apps, but still.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
"It has a camera. It's running on an Nvidia Tegra2 chip which Ars Technica suggests puts it on par with the iPad's A4 as far as computing horsepower"
What a stupid measurement. A4 is superior for this environment. 300 mw 1GHz. 45nm. I will be might surprise if the Tegra2 can be put into a similiar sized device and still get 10 hours.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
with my wife hating multitasking. She never closes a thing (tab, application, etc.) and invariably runs out of memory. Often, there are dozens of background processes. Her hard drive starts to thrash. Things grind to a halt. I get called.
I've tried to explain about things taking up memory, the problem of lots of background applications, the problem of never closing applications. She doesn't want to know what memory even IS. "Why is the computer so stupid," she wants to know, "that it can't figure out that I only care about what I'm working on RIGHT NOW?"
Say what you want, but a) she's my wife, b) she's rather beautiful, c) it's absolutely impossible to even try to say "okay, let me explain to you why..." and d) Apple's gonna continue to make bank selling devices to people just like her.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I just keep seeing over and over again, with my own experience and through others, what a positive experience it is to use Apple products and what a hassle it is to use non-Apple products. So, I for one would not consider such a tablet; I'll stick with the iPad. If something goes wrong, I just pop into one of the many Apple stores and get hands on assistance with it. You can't do that with anyone else.
People dismissed the iPod and iPhone, when they first came out and then each time a competitor took a step ahead. Things like, where's the camera? Where's the video? Where's the radio tuner? And still today, where's the camera flash? Where's Adobe flash? Etc., etc. And yet, they sell extremely well, dominating their respective markets. Why? Because there's something about Apple's designs that taps into people emotionally. They're fun, they're endearing, they've got style. People like that, and people pay for it.
I'm content with my own personal technology, but I am invested in some of these companies, so I look at it from that standpoint.
I see the big problem with both the MSI tablet and the iPad is that both are trying to be everything to everyone. Instead of showing how great the games or "Brushes" or the eBook reader are on the iPad for 30%+ of the launch event, I would have liked to have seen how Apple plans to expand into markets that have been relatively closed to them in the past.
Medicine: the iPad is uniquely suited to allow doctors and nurse practitioners to bring x-rays, CT scans, patient records, and more into the room with them - a laptop is too big and bulky, an iPhone / iPod touch too small. Show off an app that allows this to interface with a server in the office to store medical records on the fly, and I think they might have gotten the attention of physicians and hospitals.
Manufacturing: Great for live project / inventory status updating on the assembly line, at delivery point, etc.
Construction: Ruggedize and show how great it works as a tool for schematics, supply chain management, etc.
Instead, Apple is targeting this at the wealthy who need a new toy to fit somewhere between their Macbook and their iPhone on the spectrum of personal technology. I think that's why the iPad will fail - and MSI's solution will too, unless they partner in advance with companies that develop software actually used in service-related industries and focus on selling to a different crowd than the typical iPhone / Macbook owning home user.
because (a) I'm a Linux user since 1993 (Unix since 1986) and often personally share some of the frustration that geeks have about narrowly specified consumer devices (as opposed to flexible, powerful IT tools), but at the same time and paradoxically, (b) since getting my iPhone I carry my laptop about 90 percent less. I already am doing most of the web browsing, emailing, facebooking, document editing, and even ssh logins in my life NOT FROM A COMPUTER but from a locked down Apple device, only one with a tiny-ass screen. If that's how it's going to be, might I not as well just get an iPad?
But then, clearly, I will be banned from /. forever. Still, it's only $499... There's something do the idea of a limited-function generalized network access appliance with a long battery life, completely uncumbersome (and no-mouse-or-pen needed) user interface, that's super lightweight and portable, and runs "full" versions of the few things it does well (as opposed to the crippled versions of everything that were common on mobile machines before iPhone came along).
I haven't decided yet. But I know that in about 60 days my wife will be turning up saying "so I went into Manhattan today, and I bought a little something for myself..."
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Tabloid?
Features I would require to purchase a tablet:
multitasking
sd and usb slot
flash support
Nice to have:
16x9
hdmi out
camera
iPad fails miserably on ALL of the above. Android is where the future of tablet lies, in my opinion.
An MSI tablet running Android would definitely induce drool for me. Android is on the extreme end of the stick against Apple's OS in terms of openness, and so it helps to have an open competitor in the face of a totalitarian locked-down sorry excuse of a computing device. ... As long as Android's problems are addressed at a quicker rate.
Even having said so, the iPad will not be popular because of its usefullness or usability for the most part, but because of brand power.
For an Android tablet to fight that, it really has to exceed the iPad (LOL) in all aspects.
"You don't really want to buy *cheap* PC hardware, do you?"
This device sounds fairly interesting, but I would rather have the openpandora. Portability is my goal.
I think it's only a matter of time until someone clones the basic multitouch functionality and iPad form factor in a Win7 system. That's basically all I'm waiting for, because I need that compatibility to run full featured music creation software. (Yes, Android and iPhone both have music making apps, but you have to jump through many hoops to even hope to integrate them into professional software, and even then they're still mostly just toys.)
While I like open source operating systems, and Android would be heads and tails above iPhone OS's closed environment, I really just want to be able to use the software I currently use on a laptop/desktop. And that means Win7 (though XP is fine).
The best thing about the iPad is that it provides a feature blueprint to manufacturers of all the current, bulky, poorly-designed Win7 tablets. Whether from the semi-knock-off factories in China or from more upstanding sources, hopefully within the year we will finally have a relatively powerful Win7 tablet with multitouch and a usable form factor. This tablet from MSI isn't it, but it is a great sign that PC/laptop manufacturers are eager to exploit the iPad hype and revisit innovation upon a previously dwindling market.
1.0 Ghz processor versus 1.66 Ghz processor
128 MB of RAM (assumed like iPhone, not explicitly stated in specs) versus 1024 MB of RAM
16 GB of storage versus 160 GB of storage
No webcam versus a webcam
No keyboard versus a keyboard
No Flash veruss Flash
No multi-tasking versus multi-tasking
No Windows or Linux apps versus install whatever you want
$500 versus $300.
The iPad does have a touchscreen. Does that offset the $200 and all other disadvantages?
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Maybe it's just my fingers, but every touch interface I have used has been absolutely horrible. They only register my touches about 7/8 of the time. And then of the times they register a touch, the only do what I intended about 3/4 of the time. They scroll when I wanted them to zoom, click when I wanted to scroll. It's an exercise in frustration everytime I have to use the damn things, regardless of whether it's an iTouch or Droid or the HP tablets or any of the other random phones that I have had to use on occasion. The only touch device that worked was my original Palm Pilot with a stylus.
It's really discouraging that all the smartphones are going to touch interfaces - even the ones with keyboards expect you to point and click with your fingers. It's the main reason that I have stuck with plain old phone.
Would be awesome if I could use it as a glorified tv remote. If it could be used in place of this remote then I would look at buying one.
If:
- the UI is as polished and intuitive
- it can has a remote itunes app
- ibook app and store with at least the same offerings as the ipad
- itunes store equivalent
- and integrates as nicely with my itunes/ipod touch ecosystem
AND no shortcomings the iPad doesn't have
AND fixes some iPad shortcomings (none really for me except maybe 16:11, 16:10 would have been nice compromise between book and move screen format)
then Yes, I will buy the msi tablet instead....
anybody got some recent temperature measurements from hell???
iPooh'd
I dont really hate Apple, every company has their good/bad ideas. It will be interesting to see where this iPad leads to. Have been using Apple products for about 18 years now, along with x86 products.
Read another article here on it, and it's supposed to have a windows XP interface (if you couldn't tell from the video). I can (sort of) understand why the apple fans want their iPad instead of a notebook / laptop - mostly because of the simple interface / simplicity.
Why anyone would buy this instead of a desktop / laptop is beyond me. What's their advertising campaign going to be? "For $450, you can get a device with a 16-64 gig hard drive, 1 gig of ram, and no built in keyboard! It's also slightly cheaper than an iPad, so you may be able to fool your friends into thinking you have an iPad because it kind of looks like same!"
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
go apple. now all the imitations will come out. ipad has flash support and might even have camera support as the software states but to rush this product for show the camera was left out. Yes multitouch is important and I guess it will be there in the second version as the A4 has multitouch options. so all you hatters just relax and enjoy that apple just pushed the limits a bit and now others can follow and evolve the technology.
It's just like Tivo in many respects. I could have some other box that does more, but it would require logarithmically more effort to get going, have more problems, and in the end be a much less satisfying experience at what it's supposed to do (if you like tinkering, perhaps that doesn't matter).
And it's not that the iPad is without some criticism; the storage I find anemic for a device that doesn't have to make a ton of sacrifices in the name of size & portability; an IR port for remote control seemed obvious to me as well.
But for sitting on the couch, sitting in bed, or at the kitchen table, it's PERFECT for the kinds of things I want to do on a PC in those rooms. Anything else, I want to be at a desk in front of a REAL PC with dual monitors, etc.
Lignux fan boys talking about Flash. Who hoo, what happened boys ? recession biting ???
The JooJoo (formerly known as CrunchPad) looks better to me. https://thejoojoo.com/
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
Sure, it's "her own fucking problem" and it looks like iPad is how she's going to solve it, judging by her excitement at watching the YouTube videos and my answers to her questions about it last night. I'm sure you don't care.
Maybe you think she's an idiot. Maybe I'm really bad at explaining. Both of those things have little to do with my suggestion that geeks will likely continue to wonder until the end of time why not everyone wants a bare/caseless single board computer that fits inside a coffee cup, runs embedded Linux, and is hackable for umpteen million projects.
I'm just ruminating on all the Slashdot anti-Apple posting and the apparent geek frustration at the success of Apple.
A: "Apple sucks!"
B: "Regular people like Apple!"
A: "But Apple isn't a hackable Linux embedded device with hooks for 23 language APIs!"
B: "Regular people don't want that!"
A: "Then regular people are really stupid and deserve to be dominated and reamed!"
B: "?!!?"
A: "By the way, why don't people like us, and why can't I get a girlfriend?"
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Ipad will not be successful. geeks will tell you Ipad lacks a camera, tethering etc. But the mainstream will not buy it at large: you cannot read books in sunlight, it has a very low browsing experience (no tabbed browsing, no flash plugin support). And in the sunlight you can't use the device. How phenomenal is unusable?
The really cool apps will be on android. Innovation needs open systems, it simple doesn't work in closed software, hardware and distribution systems. For instance notions ink device looks like the Ipad and runs android and has a color screen which is readable in direct sunlight. It has even all the things that geeks miss in the Ipad, camera microphone etc. tabbed browsing, flash support. Check the video at the bottom of the linked page. That's phenomenal!
Of course I would not expect you tell your wife that.
Really, your wife is really really ignorant or just really good at selling you on her buying a new toy.
I know lots of people who are bad with computers, I certainly do my best to make sure they don't touch one
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Its rather traditional for them announce an "imminent" clone whenever a competitor announces a major product. Of course, no one listens anymore.
More seriously, the rumor mill about the two-screen Courier looks interesting. That device would seem to be portable than an iPad.
A long time ago MS got into the pen-computing bubble, an industry which went nowhere.
I don't want to be locked in to all of the crap that comes along with an Apple hardware/OS device. As soon as a good Android, or anything else really, pad device comes along I'll be all over it. The iPad makes me cringe just because I know I'm gonna have to listen to Apple fanboys rave about it endlessly without any real reasoning to go along with said ravings.
adaptation that provides a great cognitive interface for flash decision making (think of it as the "summary view" of the facts that you have) and for lineage and group preservation (i.e. getting offspring reared to adulthood). We enlightenment-era folk think we don't like emotion, but it's one of the innovations that has made humankind very successful. Emotions aren't irrational emergent properties of no particular origin, they are indicators of conclusions made subconsciously based on evidence and previous experience and/or necessary safeguards for self-preservation and species-preservation.
They work quite well and have done for much of human history.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
The iPad is just a over size Ipod touch. It is not even at the 3Gs standard of the iPhone.
It need to have at least the feature set of the iPhone to even be consider.
My trouble is that in spite of all the short comings of the iPad it has one major thing going for it - it will work. I own a iPod touch and it just works - no pissing around hours of tinkering. For 95% of the users that is the key. Apple's closed system allows for tight integration which can lead to ease of use for the end users. Other netbooks can do more and are cheaper but like larger computers that they can be tinkered with by 3rd party applications that can cause issues. When it comes to mobile computing I want something that I know will work and will be simple to use and apple products allow this.
As I said I own a iPod touch and see no reason to by this version of the iPad. It needed many more features that should have been integrated and that has cost Apple my purchase.
Apple restricts things to make them easier. Period. Most people - and even those of us who like to tinker but don't have the time - are willing to get a device that works "well enough" in trade for a perfectly customized experience. Most people don't give a shit about computers or what goes on behind the monitor - they use it like a knife. Most people pay very little attention to alloys, but I'm sure there are metalurgists out there who really care about the alloy in their cutlery, the rest of us just want it to chop carrots when we take it out of the drawer.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I bought a high-end motherboard from MSI for almost $400. When I found a problem with one of their memory slots, I discovered just how terrible their customer service is.
The problem is that this model of board, MSI X48 Platinum, has a design flaw with its #2 memory slot. I tried memory from OCZ (who also has terrible customer service), Kingston (great customer service), and Crucial (fantastic customer service). All worked in slots 1, 3, and 4, but only the Crucial would work in slot 2, and only after I raised the supply voltage.
Whenever I could call for tech support, I would ALWAYS get a voice mail. There's like one guy working there. They usually would not return my calls. They had ONE other board of the same model in stock, which was WORSE and looked like it too had been a return.
So here's my take on all this. I will NEVER buy anything again from MSI. On the other hand, I have had a GREAT customer experience with Apple. Apples are NOT perfect. My wife and I have had problems with our notebook computers (although the iPods, iPhones, iMac, and AEBS have been flawless), but when you buy that AppleCare extended warranty, they REALLY take care of you. I don't care what kind of extended warranty MSI will offer. They're not going to give you good customer service.
Here's the story with my MacBook Pro. Read it how you like. I got it in January of 2007. A few months into owning it, I started having random wireless disconnects. Apple sent me a box to FedEx it, and the machine was out of my hands for maybe 36 hours. Other than that, the only problem was the issue with overheating that they all have. At the time, I didn't know about programs that will boost your fan speed. So I was using it to do SSE-heavy scientific computing for like 2 weeks straight in late 2007. I started noticing after that that after waking from suspend to RAM, there would be instability, like the memory had been corrupted. Apple and Crucial were happy to replace the RAMs, which fixed that problem. But then, it started ruining batteries. (I'm not on my 6th, and without AppleCare, they would have cost $113 each.) Instead of a graceful decline in capacity, they would suddenly lose power, shutting the machine down without warning. Every time a battery would get ruined, they would dutifully replace it for free and also suggest another way to try to narrow down the problem. Recently (Dec 2009, Jan 2010, when the thing is 3 years old), I started also experiencing kernel panics and other weird hangups. 10 days before my AppleCare is out, I get two panics within an hour, so I call them up. They send me a box the next day. When I get it back about 48 hours later, I find that they had replaced both the main board and the battery. And also, there had been a bit of floppiness in the hinge for the screen, which I didn't bother mentioning to them. They fixed that too. Now I have an extra 90 days on the warranty (at least for what they fixed anyhow), and it's in better shape than it's been in in a long time.
I like MacOS. Especially because it's UNIX. A lot of things "just work", but not everything, and at least the notebooks have some reliability problems. And the AppleCare cost like 10% on top of the base price. Although friends of mine haven't had as many problems. But when you do have the AppleCare, the customer service you get beats the hell out of what I've experienced from any other PC maker.
It's rare I get fired up enough to post here. The iPhone OS does multi-task. That's how you can listen to music while doing something else. It just doesn't multi-task YOUR app. 99% of the people here are not embedded device programs and case less about resource utilization. THAT'S while multitasking is not enabled for run of the mill apps. When Xcode handles power profiling and Apple figures out how to accept/reject Joe Sixpacks app if it doesn't meet power requirements, you can bet multi-tasking will be enabled. I'm betting on 4.0.
Every iPhone app I have (yes, that's the iPhone famous for "not multitasking") stores complete state information when it exits.
Safari comes back with all the same tabs and windows open. It doesn't have to reload them. It is scrolled to exactly the same place I was at. Partially filled out forms are still partially filled out.
The document I was working on in DocsToGo is exactly the way it looked (with the cursor in exactly the same place).
It's COMPLETELY state-stable and FAST, there's no "saving state" when you switch applications, because they store their state continuously as it evolves.
I am a power Linux user. I HAVE a home-built hardware RAID sitting here on my desktop, along with a triple-head display.
I run from the updates-testing repos on Fedora. I have patched my own radeon_drv.so Xorg module to fix the infamous compositing corruption bug (for those who care, when doing copy-from-screen, first do a test to see if the bitmap being copied is smaller than 32 pixels; if it is, don't copy-from, because the bitmap hasn't made it into the buffer yet to be copied back from).
I'm the sort you'd think would be bugged as hell with "no multitasking."
Only I'm totally not. As far as I'm concerned, for an interface on a tiny screen (where you're unlikely to have multiple windows onscreen at once), perfect stateful information is damn close to multitasking.
The only thing that can't be approximated is background processes (i.e. start it and let it compute while I work on something else), but it's not like I'm going to do a 20-day render on my iPhone, is it? Nor on my iPad.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Why can't we just have everything? Why does it have to be multitasking OR multitouch? clearly the tech is capable of both, why can't we just have it? is multitasking too complex for the average user to get their head around? that's been part of both mac and pc computing from the word "OS", why is it suddenly a new concept? multitouch and gestures are new, and a revolution if they could be used for computing and not just dicking around. can you imagine? a multitouch interface with final cut pro, moving video clips around a timeline and synching sound effects with gesture? hot damn, that's a sweet concept! but it's not yet! and it so totally could be now! why can't we have nice things?!
Android really doesn't do much for me. It's kind of a kludgey OS in a lot of ways, and a lot of the Android hype is just hype. It's open source, but it really feels sometimes like the UI was designed by schizophrenics. It has more potential than iPhoneOS, I guess. In any case, I love my MSI Wind netbook, so if the hardware really impresses me, I might give it a go just to have an Android device I can develop for (so I don't have to keep borrowing devices either from an employer, friend, or an emulator). But for light daily use, productivity, gaming, ebook reading, or web browsing? Probably not. I'd probably buy one though if it ran a real Linux based OS like Palm's webOS which has better gesture support, a cleaner UI, and probably a better browser. With the release of the PDK, the games are way better, too.
The "shortcomings" of the iPad? Yeah, right.
There've been so many "iPod killers" (and then "iPhone killers") over the years, I've lost count. All of them try to outdo the Apple offering in tech specs. Guess what? Specs matter little. People don't buy iPods because they are the best technology. People don't buy Macs because they're the fastest, best machines around.
That is techie thinking and the world doesn't revolve around it. That's the kind of people who are still sad that VHS won the format war and not Betamax. That wonder why Linux doesn't dominate the desktop.
The revolutionary thing about the iPad isn't in the technology. It's in the way that Apple understands to put technology to the uses that people actually want. Real people, the one you meet in the street, not the one that builds their own iPad from spare parts. People that don't have the time to debug their kernel or X server just because they can. Yeah, I can debug a network just fine, from the socket code to the firewall settings, to the packet dump to the switch. But I prefer if I can plug it in and it just works.
MSI thinks "wouldn't it be neat if the feature list would contain this and that and here's one more and add a kitchen sink while you're at it"
Android and Linux hackers think "wouldn't it be neat if I could hack it and make it do whatever I want, given enough time and boredom?"
Well, none of that will kill an iPod or iPhone or iPad and not even an iMac, because the typical Apple customer thinks none of that, he thinks very simply "wouldn't it be neat if the thing simply worked?"
So MSI will add competition, but to a different market segment.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Screen won't be as good. Nothing as good as iWork will run on it. But go ahead and jizz all over it like you did the Zune, and then don't buy it, like you didn't buy the Zune. HAHAHAHAHA!
Not really -- at least until someone comes up with a compelling use for that style tablet. An iPad-like tablet (as opposed to the "tablet convertible" models) is a combination of an a computer with a clumsy interface for most computer tasks (e.g., if you actually need to do text entry, the "keyboard" takes up display real estate) with an ebook reader that adds color and support for more interactivity but sacrifices readability compared to dedicated, e-ink based designs.
Tablet convertibles -- running general-purpose environments like Ubuntu or even Windows -- are pretty much superior in every way, and a netbook plus a dedicated ereader isn't much more expensive, and is more useful in many ways.
An Android-powered iPad-alike tablet would be more interesting (if the price and hardware are comparable) than a large-screen iPod Touch, but not enough to provide a compelling reason to buy into that particular form factor.
myself, I have to admit that I ONLY want to know how certain things work. My car. My computers. Mechanical-technical things.
Do I know much about Pushkin's body of literature or the rhetorical devices he uses? Not really. Do I care? Not really. Do I want to know the rationale behind the weaves in common fabrics? Possibly, but not if it takes an hour to explain it to me. A sweatshirt is a sweatshirt, I'd rather just put it on and work on my tech devices.
People are interested in the stuff they're interested in. My mom loves to garden and loves genealogy (as in family history). She can talk about both (and their importance for society) for hours on end, if not days.
My eyes glaze over. I simply do not care about second-cousins of great-great-grea-great-great-granduncles who fought in obscure battles in obscure places for six weeks and then went back to Prussia to start a corn farm, nor do I care about twelve different strains of radishes. I just want the red ones with the white centers or whichever one is best: cheap, healthy, and with minimal negative health or environmental impacts.
Do I need to do my own radish research for years on end to determine this for myself? No, I'll just listen to a couple of authorities on the matter.
For most people, it's that way with tech. Everyone is interested in, or at least something of an expert on, something or other. Nobody is an expert on everything, and very few people want (really, honestly) to be an expert on everything.
Dish soap? Toothbrushes? Oatmeal? Yeah, I suppose I'd be fascinated by a little science on these. But not too much. I have other things to do with my time.
There's nothing that special about computers, other than the fact that this is a community full of people that really like them and their diversity, the flora and fauna of the tech world. But not everyone wants to study that particular flora and fauna.
Because my iPhone doesn't act like that. When I exit safari and then come back, it doesn't have to reload anything. It exactly where I left it. It's perfectly state-stable across entrances and exits, and with no delays.
Not to mention that Facebook is an app, and the app is MUCH easier to use than the website; I tend to facebook from my iPhone and never from my PC.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
anyone that followed CES saw that there were many, many companies showing off tablet devices. many android tablets, and some windows.
it was a little sad to watch actually. the ipad will probably do alright just because it's apple, but all those other devices together will be fighting over scraps in a market that has already shown that tablet devices are at best a niche.
HTC already canceled their android tablet. as a company that is at best viewed as one more cell phone manufacturer (in the US anyway), throwing one more android tablet into the fray would have been a serious mistake.
How about you give me a 10" Netbook (usual specs, maybe 2GB ram), give it one of those screens you can twist around and use as a tablet, and make it a touch screen. Price it below 500$. Let it be able to run XP and 7.
PROFIT!
Seriously I want one. I could also see anyone doing any kind of mobile reporting, inspections, data collection would love these as a development platform.
I hate using windows CE as a developmental environment and the iPad I do not see filling this sort of corporate role.
It doesn't feel like shutting anything down. It feels--exactly, in fact--like switching windows and then switching back.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I can't really see that much appeal in having Android on a tablet, to be honest. On a phone I can see there are arguments for a software stack that diverges from the Linux "norm" but on something larger I would actually quite like it to be easy to run my favourite applications (possibly with GUI modifications). Moblin has a touch-oriented interface that's designed to expose information to the user on a read-mostly device, KDE's Plasma Netbook shell is going in this direction too. I'd prefer to get access to the much larger developer base (and existing software base) that you'd get with a full-featured OS.
Also, having a "full" Linux on a tablet gives me the potential to, say, redirect sound from a movie I'm watching onto a home theatre machine with better speakers, or to migrate a radio stream from my desktop onto the tablet when I take it out of the room. If I'm running a more restrictive device it makes it harder for me to knock together cool hacks like that - and it probably makes it harder for other developers (and the device manufacturers) to do so.
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I ran across this video about the iPad the other day - at first I thought it was a parody, but I guess it isn't (which is rather sad).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXzZNpBfgDw
When I first saw the iPad I was somewhat excited, expecting something revolutionary - and the more I watched and read about it, the more it seemed like a giant iPod touch with a couple new apps and features. It has nothing to offer me that my Android phone can't handle on the road - and my laptop for the office/hotel/home. Sure a 10 hour battery life is nice, but if I can't use it for what I want then that is useless to me.
The only selling point I see for the iPad is that it starts at $500, which is about the same price as an unlocked iPhone.
rather than a better Kindle?
In fact, you're imposing your own arbitrary perspectives.
The Kindle is also your basic good old fashioned Von Neumann architecture computer with inputs and outputs. Even a keyboard and a display, in fact.
So why is the iPad a "poor computer" and not an "insanely great Kindle?"
In fact, why is it either?
I have a Kindle. I love it. I use it to read books.
I have a computer. I love it. I use it to manage data, code, and do research.
I have an iPhone. I love it. I use it to web browse, email, Facebook, and watch YouTube videos.
I don't walk around musing about how the computer is the "real" computer and the other two are just pale imitations of it, or how the Kindle is the "real" Kindle and the other two are just pale imitations of it, etc.
iPad is a device with specific properties and limitations that will serve some users well and other users not at all. The latter should not buy it. But I suspect that members of the latter group who have been marching around on /. for two days making fun of iPad and suggesting either that (1) nobody will buy it or (2) that nobody should buy it are a little myopic, to say the least.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Don't forget about Samsung and their investment in Enlightenment. Their touch cell(smart) phones are pretty nice.
I would expect them to be quietly cooking up something which is a more open solution sooner rather than later. Apple will open up this market, but I think Samsung will bring a viable option out soon. I just hope it has multitouch and can make cell calls via bluetooth headsets. Camera would be nice too.
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iPad, it would have been $3500 and come with sixteen fans, an all-aluminum brushed metal exterior, LED glow lights around the edges, an SLI cable for linking two tablets together to get really high framerates on Google, and a poorly supported Linux SDK.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
There's an app for that
Do any of these makers have one with an active digitizer? I really like taking notes with a pen (for drawing etc) during meetings. Replacing my current convertible tablet with a mini-slate running android would be awesome.
Pen input? Does anyone know? I haven't yet found one.
archos. http://www.archos.com/ The 9 in particular can run a complete desktop os (it ships with Windows7). But they have scaled down versions that run android and linux. The 9 can be had in its basic configuration for $550. It's stock configuration is on par with the iPad processing wise and blows it away on the openness and additional features front. Built in web cam, standard usb ports, 60gb hd.
You people are acting like there aren't 10 other alternatives already out there.
It's not like Apple invented some amazing new concept called a Tablet PC. Then of course there's Netbooks, MIDs, and UMPCs as well.
The masses think Apple is some sort of genius company whose unique inventions everyone copies, and articles like this only reinforce that misguided viewpoint.
We should be trying to educate and instruct the masses, show them that really, they're not getting anything special, just a sleek case and a $200 price jack up over an equivalent model.
This should be Google's pitch:
"This is our book reader. It has every book in the New York Public Library. It has every book in Harvard's library. It has every new book as soon as it's published. It has every major newspaper and magazine. And, of course, it's all searchable; we're Google. For one flat rate of $20 per month, you can read it all."
The fact that the iPad has no Flash and that that makes it impossible to watch Hulu on it is moot since the rest of the world, you know, that fairly big part of it that isn't the US, is not allowed to watch the shows on Hulu anyway...
Dude, it does what you want. When you "send" an email, the mail program runs in the background, even after you close it and switch to another app. It even continues to do the send even after you put your iPhone to sleep. The phone *does* multitask, but only certain apps (like mail and ipod) are allowed to do so.
...
I have a Kindle. I love it. I use it to read books.
I have a computer. I love it. I use it to manage data, code, and do research.
I have an iPhone. I love it. I use it to web browse, email, Facebook, and watch YouTube videos.
I don't walk around musing about how the computer is the "real" computer and the other two are just pale imitations of it, or how the Kindle is the "real" Kindle and the other two are just pale imitations of it, etc.
iPad is a device with specific properties and limitations that will serve some users well and other users not at all. The latter should not buy it. But I suspect that members of the latter group who have been marching around on /. for two days making fun of iPad and suggesting either that (1) nobody will buy it or (2) that nobody should buy it are a little myopic, to say the least.
By your own words, it looks like you won't be buying an iPad. After all, what NEW purpose does it serve that your other devices don't? It might be a nice upgrade to your Kindle, but that's about it. My point is that Apple shrunk the target market from what it might have been. Even so, if they can get the price down to $350 or so, it might get some serious traction in the e-reader market.
If I STILL need to carry a computer, phone, and iPod when travelling, I won't make room in my luggage or my budget for another device -- unless it lightens my load in some other respect.
Most of the iPad criticism has nothing to do with Apple's stated purpose: an internet "appliance". The real issue is that Apple's notebook lineup starts with a $1000 Macbook that is far more powerful than an entry-level user really needs. Apple does a GREAT job of competing in the premium PC space. But they barely EXIST in the market where MS made most of their money. Switching to x86 architecture opened the door to competing head-to-head with MS. And with Vista, the target was simply not going to get any softer. Give MS enough time, and they will polish up Windows 7 and take back most of Apple's gains in the upper echelon of PC space.
To me, a $600 sub-Macbook would have been a much more substantial accomplishment.
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It doesn't look that nice (even if it's very similar), it just lacks the shine and finish you get from Apple produces, for instance scrolling through the pictures was anything but smooth, it lacks multi-touch. Hell it failed to load a picture due to memory that they had on the machine. It just looks like something designed by a PC company rather than Apple.
So if I'm in no way going to buy an iPad, I'm not going to buy a cheap knock-off.
All this talk about the iPad not comparing well to other computing devices seems so pointless.
The iPad is sold as an appliance (in spite of having computerish guts) and all non-ereader tablets and laptops are sold as computers.
Seriously, if the iPad's limitations annoy you, it just means you need a real computer, not an appliance.
The iPad is more comparable to a TV with Internet, Music and Book channels than it is to a crippled laptop or "tablet PC".
"and Flash support in Android should be a given by launch time (though that isn't certain)."
Some day we will discover that Adobe hired away the best of the Duke Nukem Forever team.
And the best wasn't good enough.
Please stop with the rumors that Adobe will bring Flash to Android everywhere. They might for the MSI pad, and some of the more endowed devices, but for most android devices Flash is a a cruel promise. They can't make it work. If they could, they would have already. It's been long enough.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
"For a Mac user it is obvious and when they switch to Windows they wonder why when they try to close one window every other window with that app closes too."
The "shutdown" button isn't used to close the current window.
Sounds like a netbook would fit your requirements nicely.
One thing that geeks here on slashdot don't seem to understand is the concept of "target market". Often times they assume that just because a product doesn't have some geek feature that they would like, they think the product cannot possibly succeed in the larger population in general. Geeks here on slashdot want certain features. Some of them want more control and configurability. These are not bad things; but geeks here have to understand that they are not everyone. General consumers want different things.
Where Apple has succeeded in the past, contrary to the dire predictions of geeks, is that Apple does not design their products for geeks. They design their products for a target audience. Most of their products are designed for average consumers.
MP3 players existed before Apple. When Apple entered the market, there were two distinct categories: large HD players with GB capacities that were the size of portable CD players and smaller pocket-sized flash RAM players that could hold at most 128MB. While the iPod didn't have all the technical features that geeks here wanted (some of which were not included in other players for years), Apple focused on other aspects which appealed to average consumers. First it was only slightly larger than the flash RAM players but could nearly as much as the larger players. Second, to get music onto a player back then was a pain which required the patience and know-how of a geek. You had to find a ripper and then an encoder which was separate of the program that managed loading the music onto the player. Apple worked on making the music transfer as simple as possible. iTunes did all three.
Years ago, Apple released the MacBook Air. This product was different from other Apple products as it was designed for a different target audience than the average consumer. The MacBook is designed for average consumers; the Air is designed for road warriors who need a lighter computer and some computing needs. But for most slashdot geeks, since it wasn't powerful to decode the human genome instanteously and at the same time, weighed more than a feather, they deemed it a failure.
In 2007, Apple released the iPhone. It was a smartphone designed for average consumers. Unlike the Blackberry, the iPhone was not intended for business or corporate users. Again, the exlusion of a long list of technical features slashdot geeks wanted meant it was doomed to fail.
Some of the same criticisms are being repeated again with the iPad:
Here's where I see this product's market: Those who want more capabilities than a Kindle but not as much as a laptop. Some examples that come of the top of my head: School lessons, digital magazines, personal media players. Basically, the iPad is an appliance not a computer.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
How is this "the world we live in"? You can write all the software you want for ANY hardware out there that's designed for people to openly develop on. This hasn't changed....
Apple's developer program for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and now iPad does require you "pay to play" ... BUT, they're also handling all the distribution for you. You don't need to create your own web site and pay for a package with enough bandwidth to handle the demand of all the people who want to visit and download your program(s). It seems to me like that has some value... does it not?
Everyone's free to do as they like with these things. All I know is, I can see it being potentially VERY profitable to develop the right type of apps for a brand new device like the iPad. You might not want to jump through Apple's hoops if you're just wanting to make another chess or tic-tac-toe game run on one. But this thing could become HUGE in the medical industry, for example, if you made software that catered to what doctors and nurses really need in the office or hospital. (I'm thinking software that interfaces with existing back-end packages to enter/retrieve patient information? Or maybe enabling digital viewing of X-rays?) Or heck, if it turns out the device isn't approved for use in those environments - sell to chiropractors! They don't have to comply with tons of regulation on what electronic devices they opt to use in their offices.... How about insurance agents? I bet some software allowing easy collision damage estimates and mobile access to customer records might appeal to claims adjusters? Ever see how awkward it is for a lot of them trying to hold a notebook computer while walking around a wrecked car or truck? Or let's see ... who else spends a large part of their day doing their job while standing up? Teachers sure do. How about some tools for education then?
Any of this stuff makes the $99 a year "entry fee" seem laughably trivial if you're serious about what you're doing.
I think I'll become more interested in tablet devices when they offer the readability of an ebook device and the responsiveness / colour of a regular netbook / laptop. Pixel Qi is supposedly producing displays which hit the sweet spot, allowing relatively low power, high res monochrome output but still allowing colour and other functionality. A decent screen wouldn't fix the godawful usability issues of touch screens but it might strike the right balance between the needs of ebooks & casual computing.
Emotions are only adequate for decision making in areas with which you have had considerable experience.
Outside this very small domain they are worthless. Worse, they will instill you with the same confidence in their analysis irrespective of experience.
In other words, in almost all significant circumstances in the modern world they are beyond useless.
Much of human history is a grotesque tale of incomprehensible suffering, ruin and loss brought about by our own poor decision making, innate inability to rationally analyse the world, and our susceptibility to emotional manipulation.
Which, touching upon the point of the parent, is exactly why marketing works as well as it does.
Ok - all well and good, but WHY would you ever care about being able to view video in 1080p resolution on a tablet device?
Even with the big screen LCD televisions, the "experts" are always advising that 1080p hi-def isn't really useful or noticeable until you get up to at least a 50" screen size or so!
I think too many people get caught up in making sure a given device meets a check-list of features, instead of looking at the functionality of it on the whole.
MSI may very well release a superior product. We'll have to wait and see. But first off, I'll be shocked if the build quality approaches anything near what Apple's is. Every MSI motherboard I've owned looks like its components were soldered on any old way, as long as they worked electrically. You'll see things like audio jacks siting several centimeters off the board in back, but flush in front, and just an overall board layout that has little concern for the person assembling the PC with it. (EG. Circuit traces are run right under the places you have to pry/pull on the clips holding the CPU down, so one small slip of a screwdriver can mean gouging a trace and destroying the board.)
And secondly, just how much performance does a 10" tablet need? If everything you run on it feels "instantaneous", it sounds like they're good. Beyond a certain point, you're just burning up battery life for unused processor cycles.
If someone would release a 10" tablet with an active digitizer, a decent notetaking program, a decent graphics program, multi-tasking, wifi and 3G for about $500, I could only imagine the amount of Engineering and Art students that would jizz their pants.
All I want is a glorified notepad, something to take with me to lectures and tutorials, I can have my lecture screens on my tablet, I can scribble, I can check my mail between/during classes and I can use it anywhere. Netbooks don't suit this, smart phones are too small, tabletPC's are too expensive.
Over the next year we are going to see a number of iPad alternatives, and that's a good thing, as long as we don't start seeing the term 'iPad-killer', which is a sign that the iPad has won. I see that the iPad-like devices will tap into the market that wants to sit on a lounge and twitter or check facebook or youtube, they don't care about the OS, they do care about how it looks.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
...I have had the same 5 web pages open on my iPhone for the last 4 months. So yes, iPhone OS can at least do that.
{Your browser isn't on the page you spent 15 minutes drilling down to?}
AC
You clearly have been spending too much time inside. You should get out more and then come back and tell us how well all this emotional decision making is going for us.
I need multi-tasking.
You say that generally. But for what?
The iPad can play music while you do other things (just like the iPhone). It can get notifications, calendar entries can pop up, and it will be checking email in the background.
How much stuff REALLY needs to be running at the same time, vs. being quickly accessible? With a device oriented to quickly launching applications, switching is not as painful as closing and reopening apps in a traditional computer, and lots of apps maintain state as to exactly where you were. From day one that was supposed to be an important design goal for apps and as they mature most of them will support that well.
I prefer to have a modable interface to save CPU/Battery power (less is more)
But that's exactly what Apple has optimized the hell out of. The 10 hour battery life stated is listed on the store as being 10 hours of playing video or browsing the web. What exactly would you customize to further improve battery?
I want an SD or USB port
I can understand the SD port (want one myself) but at least there is an adaptor. And the standard dock cable goes into USB at the other end. I'm not sure what USB device you were thinking to plug into it, but you can use a keyboard or headset over bluetooth, and print via WiFi... There are also existing apps for the iPhone that you can treat it as WebDAV storage. I used that to backup photos from a trip to my iPhone even without any kind of SD adaptor.
I need a text and email program.
It ships with email and if you take a look at the Pages demo that's a great word processing program for a touch device.
I need it to be less than $600.
Well, they have you covered...
I don't care what anyone else wants nor how successful the company will be (or if it "wins" in the tablet arena)
I don't either. I want the iPad because I think it's going to be quite useful, especially for working on a plane. Finally a device you can use in coach with a seat folded down in front of you. And yes, I plan to get some coding done on the device thank you very much... if you don't think a programming editor is practical I don't think you have enough imagination. Modern editors already have extensive code completion, it's not like you are typing that much anyway compared to thinking about what you are going to type.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You just wait till she actually uses one for an extended period of time. I strongly suspect that she'll suddenly find out that all those "complicated things" such as files and multitasking were actually very handy to have.
70 million iPhone/Touch users can tell you right now that does not matter.
As another poster noted, when applications save state you don't necessarily need multitasking, when you can swap back and forth in a second. And never have to worry you forgot to press "save" when you power off the device (except you simply leave it running because there aren't a ton of background processing running to start consuming resources).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Thank goodness there hasn't been any malware on iPhone, eh? Oh, wait, never mind.
Never mind is right - because that is not spyware. An application that asks you if it can use your location and then sends it, is not spyware. An application that tracks user metrics ONLY for itself, and no other application - that is not spyware.
Spyware/Malware is evil because it's tracking things you do all over, or affecting behavior of other programs (like injecting ads). No iPhone app has done that. No iPhone app CAN do that.
So as much as you say Apple's control over iPhone apps is one thing, it has the inherent side effect of protecting the user to some extent regardless of intent.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1.0 Ghz processor versus 1.66 Ghz processor
On chips with COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ARCHITECTURES. I thought this was a technical site. And how do you even know the processor rating of the A4?
128 MB of RAM (assumed like iPhone, not explicitly stated in specs) versus 1024 MB of RAM
Why would you assume something with four times the screen estate and (again) a totally different processor and more internal physical space would not have more RAM?
Furthermore, you note the Netbook has more memory - but that's pretty meaningless when you are comparing devices with totally different OS's and development environments. And on top of that, you need far more memory on the Netbook exactly because it allows multitasking of third party applications. It's not at all clear to me the Netbook as the better spec there, and the iPad can browse many hundreds of pictures where the Netbook in question seems to crap out after a view (the video showed an out of memory error loading photos).
No webcam versus a webcam
Since I have yet to use the camera in my laptop I'm dubious about how much that matters, but I can see where some people might like that so I'll give you that... (though you could always use an app to attach to an external IP webcam).
No keyboard versus a keyboard
Now there the iPad has you, since it has an infinite number of keyboards. Some of them are in fact even physical since you can use bluetooth keyboards, but you have the freedom to be without when that is more convenient.
No Flash veruss Flash
Here I am confused which you are trying to cheer for, because who uses flash anymore apart from video? And most of the flash video is using the same h.264 that is native to the iPad, which is why there are many flash video sites that just give you h.264 video directly when browsing from an iPhone (and soon, the iPad). To complain about the lack of flash games seems amusing when you could spend a whole year just trying free game demos at this point.
No multi-tasking versus multi-tasking
This is technically inaccurate. The iPad (just like the iPhone) supports multitasking for many Apple included apps. Your mail client is checking email in the background, music plays while you run any app. The multitasking limitation is only between third party apps - and even there via notifications your app can ask the user to bring it back up for some important event.
No Windows or Linux apps versus install whatever you want
Not sure where you are going with that one, except that I will say there are very few applications tailored to the form factor of the netbook or PC tablet, while there are around a hundred K already built targeting multi-touch, and with a little overhaul can make full use of the larger iPad display.
$500 versus $300.
And how long is that $300 device going to last vs the iPad? And how much time will you waste trying to work on such an underpowered system vs. using software tailored to the device at hand?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I can use my Macbook in sunlight today, so I fail to see how that will stop me from reading books on an even brighter LED display.
Personally I find the grayish eInk pages harder to read than LCD's. I love the idea of eInk but am still not happy with the quality of products using it yet.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What they need to be able to do is demo our web-based products and take orders online. We already have an iPhone app, but the iphone is just too small. We had been using latops or net books with cell cards, but this device is perfect for our needs. The sales reps need to have cellular data, which is cheaper with the iPad than USB cell cards, and be able to demo our products in a web browser. That's it. And the fact they can use the existing iPhone app to enter sales data...
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
One of the other "iPad clones" may as well.
I have the same views regarding what I want from a portable device, but please let's not give free advertising to Apple - it's bad enough that now every phone is referred to as an "Iphone clone". Tablets - and indeed phones - existed years before Apple decided to play catch-up.
I propose that the Ipad now be referred to as an Apple "Archos clone". And the Iphone can be an Apple Nokia clone.
AIUI, the kind of screen needed for multitouch is also less accurate, so there's a trade-off. It's not all nicer.
And I want a device that works, rather than having to memorise complex justifies. "One mouse button is simpler" -this is even more true on portable devices.
The 5800 has a choice of stylus of finger, and it has handwriting recognition as one of the methods of input. I like using the stylus, and would hate not to have the choice.
Sadly you don't hear about it, because Slashdot and the rest of the media would rather give advertising to Apple, than mention the number 1 company in the market (Nokia).
Indeed, even on this article - a rare coverage of a non-Apple product, yet we still have the obligitary Apple mention. "Ipad alternative" my arse. The Ipad wasn't the first tablet, and it hasn't even been released yet. This, and the Ipad, are "Archos alternatives".
(If I tick the box to disable Slashdot advertising, will it clear all the Apple advertising too?)
Okay, we've heard the "It's an appliance" claim about a hundred times now, but what does it actually mean? How does that justify spending more money, for something that does less than other products already available (and not merely announced vaporware)?
But yes, I agree. Apple isn't interested in making computers anymore, and therefore their products should not be considered for the markets of portable computers or smartphones.
The Nokia N900 meets all of your criteria, though performance on Hulu is still a bit dodgy. This may get fixed with future updates, however I don't really find it any loss as the N900 offers a million other ways to get audio/video content from the Internet.
Want to use it on vacations, eh? I'm posting this from my bed in Kampala, Uganda from a local 3G network. I currently have 9 browser windows open along with my calendar, RSS reader, a few instant messaging conversations, and my e-mail, and can easily flip between them all with two taps of my finger on the screen.
Furthermore, adding a movie, TV show, radio show, BT download or video game to the list of currently running applications is trivial.
Highly recommended.
nice considering how crappy trackpad pointing is.
I totally agree: track pads are the horror. Track points (clit mice) are good, though---at least I like the one on my Thinkpad t43p.
Give them a try (if you can).
You can get notifications of pushed items and listen to all your MP3 files in the background while you do other things.
You can also start the sound recorder and leave it recording while you do other things.
You can also start a phone call and use Safari (or any other app) while you talk, even over bluetooth with a headset.
The "it doesn't multitask" thing is a LIE based on marketing. It absolutely multitasks. There is simply a restriction: only Apple-supplied software is allowed to run in the background.
Third party software is not allowed to run in the background.
People bitch and moan about this and call it "not multitasking" but in fact given my experience in the past with third-party background apps on other devices behaving like shit (not to mention in Windows itself), I'd say Apple has a valid rationale (whether you agree or disagree) for insisting that the only apps that are allowed to do whatever they want in the background come from Apple themselves.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
If Acer and MSI can't beat Apple's price point, and I doubt they can, Apple will be the top seller in this non e-book category. As for DRM e-books, I don't thing you can get away from it.
No multi-touch on yet another Android device? What gives?
Only the dead have seen the end of War. - Plato
C'mon, this is /., where the only really important thing is the ability to play with the guts of the system.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Am I the only one that is underwhelmed by android (and iphone OS)? I want a tablet that can dual boot ubuntu and win7 (or a full osx with boot camp could do as well) and is light and cheap with multitouch... you know something with the application support for what I want to do with it?
i would think using the onscreen keyboard might be faster? once when my keyboard broke, i used my wacom pen tablet as a stylus of sorts & tapped the onscreen keyboard. worked well enough! i'd say it should work better than handrwriting recognition
duh?