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WePad Tablet Will Use Linux To Rival the iPad
cypherdtraitor writes with news of an iPad rival being prepped in Germany for a June launch. "A German company, Neofonie GmbH, has set out to provide an alternative to the iPad, according to Neofonie's founder, Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen. The WePad will boast a Linux-based OS, USB ports, webcam, and Wi-Fi, as well as other features. The 16GB edition will cost €449 ($610), and the 32GB €569 ($773). A more expensive model will include a 3G modem. This PDF compares WePad specs with the iPad. There are also hints of cheap, available software. For example, OpenOffice.org will be the primary office suite, and you may use 'any application that pleases you' to play music and video, a clear edge over Apple's limitation to iTunes." The WePad will also run Flash.
First, there was the iPad for those nerdy chicks..
Now our children will have the "WeeWeePads"?
Who comes up with these names? And more disturbingly, what did they name their children?
Why am I suddenly reminded of the days in the 70's and 80's when everything ran CP/M and everything *had* to run CP/M? I know that Apple II *DID* run CP/M of some flavor, but CP/M *sucked*, and Apple showed nearly no support for it.
Now we're stuck with Flash, which everyone tolerates and does a lot, but again, it *sucks*. Adobe hasn't put together a decent Flash interpreter for ANY OS(well, the Windows version is debatable), and everyone puts up with it because of it's ubiquity.
Folks. Ubiquity is never a reason to keep a shitty idea around. Particularly when it comes to the mobile space.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Obviously competitors have realized that it's worth it to come out with clone or me-too products much faster than they did in the past with the iPhone. This suggests to me that they'll be at least somewhat more successful than before in taking market share from apple.
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You don't need to create a device to compete with the ipad. The ipad will fade into obscurity and during that time your efforts could be better invested else where.
Eat sleep die
The free/open source OS will run the proprietary multimedia software. Openness triumphs again!
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
This is a very confusing -- and probably confused -- statement.
iPad can play back content with its iPod functionality. Which isn't "iTunes" in any meaningful sense. (It also includes an iTunes store interface.)
Content can be loaded onto the device only with the iTunes Mac or PC application, but there are many ways to add content to your local iTunes app other than the iTunes store. For example, ripped CDs, Amazon MP3s, "Digital Copies" included with many Blu-ray discs, anything you encode yourself with compatible codecs and parameters (e.g. DVDs ripped and encoded to M4V with Handbrake).
-Peter
What's with the naming convention?...the iPad, the wePad, next the usPad following soon the youPad and finally for you women, the maxiPad.
Of all the things I've lost; I miss my mind the most. - Mark Twain
A delightful microfan to hum you to sleep.
Specs aren't what will make a device sell well with non-geeks (of which there are more of than geeks).
I'm tired of people shoehorning the power-hungry x86 architecture into small devices. If there's one thing that Apple did right it's not using the Atom. The WePad runs Linux: there's no reason to stick with the legacy x86 architecture. Even Adobe Flash works on ARM (just not Flash 10 yet).
If the WePad used an ARM chip, it could probably retain its feature set and bump up the battery duration to the iPad level, which seems to be the only feature where it loses to it.
Copernicus risked personal safety by advocating a heliocentric theory of the universe
From who? Powerful churchmen like....Copernicus?
Agreed. Atom is not appropriate for mobile devices like WePad. This really calls for ARM.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Why not just call it a "Depends"able Computer with plenty of "Poise"?
(Man, and I thought the iPad was a bad choice.)
At that price, why not just get a laptop?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
This is the year of the Linux Tablet!
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
What? The IPad is hardly novel. Tablet computers have existed for a decade or more. Hell, my 5 year old laptop (and it wasn't even top of the line when I bought it) with a nearly dead battery had a flip around touch screen that worked in tablet mode.
The "marketplace" is nothing new, linux has had something similar for years it's just that apple dressed it up to look pretty and marketed it well..
The wepad is bigger and heavier than the ipad while having inferior battery life, and seems to have vents at the top suggesting it gets quite hot. I would rather have an open arm based tablet, ipad like hardware and open software...
On the subject of software, for anything like this to succeed it needs to have a slick interface, all the previous tablets i've used had really lousy interfaces, typically just desktop interfaces that don't work well on a tablet.
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There were a ton of tablet prototypes shown at CES this year, months before the iPad was announced. Everyone and their mother independently came to the conclusion that tablets were going to be the next big thing after the success of netbooks.
"Half the functionality" isn't opinion, it's fact? I'm quite interested in learning more about the methodology you used to quantify this. Remember to show your work.
While we're at it, could you point me at the "fully functional" devices that cost the same as the ipad. No vaporware please!
That being said, I never thought I would see people ardently defending paying more for less
Ever been to a strip club? The skinnier the girls, the more you pay!
Come to think of it, dating isn't much different ....
everyone puts up with it because of it's ubiquity
No, everyone puts up with it because:
...all out-of-the box.
As of 2010, these bullet points have all been true for nearly fifteen years. Meanwhile, HTML5 will still be playing second-fiddle even when the language is completely formalized (no fonts, MP4 is questionable, MP3 is questionable, and you'll still have to test twenty different versions and have plenty of hacks up your sleeve to get everything to look correct across all platforms & browsers).
I'm not the OP and I can't show my work. I can show my questions though. How does Open Office do with multi touch? How does it do with just touch - not stylus / mouse, but fingers? Do browsers on Linux do well with touch? Does GIMP do well with fingers? Mostly I doubt it - not because any of them are defective; they just have not been designed with that in mind.
It can be better, faster, hotter, smaller, sexier, but it will not be accepted by the consumer world outside of the Slashdot audience and not "rival" Apple in measurable financial way. Not trolling here, just the honest truth - general public doesn't care if something is "better" - anything associated with Apple has immediate press and street cred, and anything containing the word Linux has immediate press and street stigma. Sad really.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
joojoo much?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
The tablet is the same form-factor as a clipboard. You can hold it with one hand while standing and use the other hand to do things on it (similar to writing on a clipboard while standing). You can sit up in bed, fold your legs up to about 45 degrees, and use it that way. You can also sit on the couch and hold it in place. Placing it on a desk and trying to input data into it is going to be a nightmare for most people. They'll enter their data on a real computer and send it to a tablet for final editing or just to present it.
You are thinking of a tablet as a "content production" device (lots of typing and data input). In general, it's not good at that. A tablet is a content consumption device. Surf to YouTube, maybe type in a short search, then click on what you want and sit back and watch. It's for passive consumption, not active participation.
It's more akin to a really cool interactive television set than it is a computer.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
"Zero user servicable parts inside"
User serviceable parts add bulk to an item. If part of the item's functionality is due to its form factor having user serviceable parts can impair the overall functionality of the device.
If you want something small and sleek you don't want all sorts of bulges and ports and doors on the device just to support getting at a component 99.999% of the users will never want or need to access.
This is a bit extreme but compare D-cell batteries to a form fitted Li-po battery for use in a tablet. Sure the end user can easily replace the D-cell but now you've added a lot of size and weight and probably lost a fair bit battery life.
Definitely agree. If they've been working on touch-enabled OpenOffice or Gimp I'd love to see it. Hell, I'd probably toss them on my iPad once it's JB'ed. (Yes, you can compile/install java on iPhoneOS)
However, it seems to me that everybody who's been whining for the last 2-3 months about how the iPad isn't a "real" computer, are going to get exactly what they asked for: A desktop pc crammed into a slate formfactor, running mostly desktop apps.
Sounds a lot less useful than either a desktop OR an iPad to me.
Based on a number of different sources, the thing is hard to hold on to for any decent length of time. Nearly every review I have read makes mention of this, regardless of whether it heralds the iPad as the second coming of christ or as a piece of junk.
Just like supermodels with eating disorders, being too skinny can be a bad thing.
Living With a Nerd
You are wasting your time with a fanboy.
I second that one.
Well, not the strip club part. I don't do those. (I worked in the adult industry, and see the money guys waste on not getting laid and laugh).
Ya, the prettier, skinner girls end up costing us a fortune. What's worse is the ones who want to date, and want you to go out with them every night, but it never goes anywhere. I was seeing this totally hot girl who dropped every hint that she wanted me, except for actually doing it. She insisted on splitting the cost of going out when applicable, so we were on a "just friends and then more" level. Then the equality of us going out went away when she "didn't have any money" and I was to pay. So one very pointed statement was made, and a few hours of fighting ensued. Well, one sided fighting, but hey. I woke up to a bunch of voicemails and emails. There was an apology in the middle, but it was wiped out by the absolute hatred in the ones that followed. I like fights that I don't even have to be involved in. :)
I had a roommate the same way. I spotted her insanity a mile away. She was a friend of a friend, who needed a place to stay and I had a spare room. I let her stay with me. She made very suggestive moves on me, which were stopped at the most inopportune times by "I think we should stay friends." Ok, whatever. Then she met a guy, and went to stay with him. Just over a month later, after living with him and his dad giving her a job at the family business, she showed back up at my door. "Do you believe he wanted to sleep with me? He wanted sex!" Well, no shit. You moved in with him, were sleeping in bed with him (without having sex). Dad gave you a job and anything else you wanted. You were his girlfriend. She never did learn that she was dropping hints saying that's what she wanted, and was completely stunned when anyone broke the news to her. So, she stayed at my place for two more nights and was gone.
And if my sampling of women of the world has anything to say, all women are completely nuts. We'll suffice it to say, the sample set is large enough to make almost any statistician happy. :)
And now that I've been woman-free for months, I'm almost happier. No crazy-chick headaches. More money in my pocket. And, I have time to mess around with things I want to do. There's no "but sweetie, I wanted you to go shopping for shoes with me." or "can you help me do this." Bah. For what dating costs, it's cheaper to hire a good escort. $1000/hr and you're with a beautiful woman who'll do anything you want, and when you're done she leaves and never bothers you. She won't even come over again until you call her. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
So in other words, like the old saying goes, you don't pay escorts to come over to your place, you pay them to leave afterward?
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Flash is indeed everywhere.
But I've found the number of places where something I WANT to see is not in Flash, is in practice very small. I installed Click-To-Flash about a year ago because I could no longer handle the omnipresence of flash ads.
Now I like ads on sites, because I like to see sites with content I enjoy stick around. But flash ads were everywhere, distracting and sucking up CPU. Finally I said, ENOUGH!, and flash was blocked except when I needed to see content.
You know what? I can still browse, read news, etc. just fine. There are a few things I have to turn on flash for but I think over the past few months it has been a handful. Flash is simply not needed in the general case to use mot of the internet, despite as you say the fact it is "everywhere".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
... So a quick google search says the average couple reports having sex 146 times a year. That's $146,000! And, if you're a complete pervert like me, that cost goes through the roof. I have to call my girlfriend and thank her for saving me from bankruptcy!
Why not just say it's running Android? I don't see a tablet running Android being a victory for Linux. Is the nook a Linux victory too then?
over time, you'll see that tablets can and will be far more than simple consumption devices, and will be very, very good at input of all sorts. Drawing is the most obvious example that works today, but others will follow.
Drawing doesn't work well on an iPad. Yes, I've tried. It's no Wacom.
It's not very,very good at virtual keyboard input either. It's actually slightly worse than my iPhone.
No, to be a rival, you have to address the same market.
A Linux tablet PC and the iPad address completely different markets. One goes for geeky people who want a small, portable multi-touch thing that they can hack at leisure. The other for people who want a media and content consumption device that simply works and stays out of your way.
They're not the same device. The number of people who really find it hard to decide between them is tiny. Probably about 50 grandmothers who can't afford an iPad but their granddaughter wants one, so the sales person at the computer store convince them this Linux pad thingy is mostly the same, for half the price.
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