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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.
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
90% of computer users would never consider installing a new hard drive, particularly now that USB2 is widely available.
iPad says hi.
(Then says "buy my $30 adapter, faggot!".)
They only register my touches about 7/8 of the time.
They only register an average slashdotters touches about 0/10000 of the time.
Your average slashdotter is invariably left to interface with himself.
That isn't something to brag about. You're a dinosaur.
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
No, you just have to get yourself approved as a developer by Apple, for "only" $99 a year.
Wonderful world we live in, where we have to pay to write our own software for our own hardware, isn't it?
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
I like to listen to music while I read or surf the web. Can it do that? No? But that's a pretty reasonable request, isn't it? I mean, almost every device capable of doing these things individually is capable of doing them at the same time, isn't it?
But what if I want 1000? 10,000? Apple's going to say "no", I'm going to say "jail-break it"... if I were stupid enough to accept Apple's control of my purchased hardware in the first place. I'm not. And in fact, I'm very happy about Apple's policies. They're part of the reason why, within the next two years, they'll be in second place against Android. That will be a very good thing to everyone who's not an Apple stockholder or fanboy.
-Dave Haynie