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.
Also, I should point out that Android seems to have all of the disadvantages of a closed system, and all of the disadvantages of an open system at the same time. For example, app developers on Android can publish without approval, but so can malware developers. There has already been one app pulled because it was a phishing app. Then, Google has complete control over what can be released, and can even uninstall apps that were previously downloaded.
So Google has basically built an App store that lets malware through without impediment, but can ban any software they want. How is that more open than Apple? It sounds to me like a much worse system.
Not to mention, Android limits the amount of disk space for installable apps to something less than 256MB. You can forget about apps that require a large local database, or other large apps like games.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
So the best device for your wife would be a solid chunk of stainless steel so she wouldn't have to worry about the battery life, don't worry about the screen if the device falls down, and actually don't worry about anything at all. After all, a chunk of stainless steel does extremely few things (well, actually nothing) but it is the best at it.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Absolutely. Ars is a bit of an Apple fansite.
Ironic, considering how ars was considered a PC fansite that gave no consideration to Apple only a few years ago.
90% of them would have Macs instead of PCs
Ya, because it's "nice to have" a computer that won't play any of my games, or that I can't put a new HD into, or a new video card. It'd be wonderful having a computer that does half the things my present system does for four or five times the cost.
Are you for real?
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
Multitasking is all very well, but having to open a task killer application to kill off background apps to free up memory is tiresome.
I didn't know that about Android. So the all-mighty, do-no-wrong Google endowed AndroidOS with one of the single most annoying features that has plagued Microsoft's PocketPC & WindowsMobile OS for the past decade. The inability to simply and effectively close apps without the use of a task-killer app.
That's hilarious.
I tried one of those, I dont like how you cant see under it to read the text or see what icon you are trying to click on.
Will they make a clear one so I can see the screen through it?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
By that logic a mouse is non-essential.
I wish.
I get PISSED off whenever there's something I can't do by keyboard alone.
All you hipsters using mice in Left 4 Dead 2 and such just don't get it.
Oh, look, an Apple fanboi. Note how there was not a single mention of iPhone or Apple in this thread so far, yet you felt the urge to chime in. Ah well, let's have fun.
Let me know when the UI's optimized for a small screen. Then I'll be impressed. Because then it'll be a competitor to the type of service Apple provides.
It still provides something where Apple provides nothing whatsoever. I don't see how it is not superior.
If you want teh shiny more than getting the work done, Nokia actually made an "official", KOffice-based document/spreadsheet reader with UI specifically tuned for Maemo.
Until then, there's no point it bringing it up. Just because it's able to run something doesn't mean that something will be useful (usable is not necessarily useful).
Being able to view and edit Office documents on one's smartphone, even when not particularly convenient, is still damn useful. Maybe not for you, of course - well, no-one holds your hand, go buy an iPad and enjoy your single-tasking and feature-limited platform with extremely smooth and polished UI for those few useful things that it can do. You just need to remember to keep repeating the same old mantra, "I don't actually really need this feature", to maintain the required frame of mind.
As a side note, the stock N900 UI is not in any way inferior to iPhone, not in functionality, nor in polish - as you'd know if you ever actually saw one, or at least watched the videos where it is demoed. The ability to run third-party applications - the same ones that one can use on the Linux desktop - is just a huge bonus on top of that.