Hands-On With Acer's New 10-Inch Android Tablet

adeelarshad82 writes "Earlier this week Acer unveiled three new tablets, two for Android and one for Windows. Unfortunately details on the devices were slim, including their names. According to a hands-on with the 10-inch Android tablet, the device is about half-inch thick and weighs slightly more than an iPad. It's currently running an unknown Android version but according to the Acer executives the tablets will be running Google's tablet version of Android, Honeycomb. The tablet has no front-facing buttons. The side includes a power button, lock button, an SD slot and a docking port for full-sized keyboard dock. The device also includes two cameras, front and back, resolutions details of which are still unknown. There's also a mini HDMI port for playing content on HDTVs. The tablets are powered by Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU which gives it the edge when it comes to graphics."

Comments

I don't care

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it have 3G and the wifis?

Re:I don't care

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, how much does it weigh, whats the battery life, price?

Re:I don't care

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't care about the 3g -- my phone has that. As long as it has wifi + bluetooth, that is good enough. I can use bluetooth to get to my phone's 3g.

What's more interesting is the slew of no-name-brand and semi-brand Android tablets coming out, mostly in the $200 to $300 range. Such as the Nook Color (they call it an enhanced ebook reader, but it is really a tablet). Also interesting is the Wistech A81e tablet.

Re:I don't care

[tom17]

I want the one with the bigger gee bees.

Re:I don't care

[peterbye]

Most (if not all) of these cheap ones have resistive touch screens rather than capacitive, so they're not pleasant to use.

Re:Whoa...

[fishexe]

Looks like a nice device, but the screen is too shiny. I wouldn't be able to see anything on it. Still holding out for my Adam (or Lattice, whichever becomes non-vaporware first).

It's the apps, stupid

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Back when Bill Clinton was running for President, his campaign advisor James Carville stated in the plainest terms possible the best reason for voting for Bill over Bush, "It's the economy, stupid"

Now we have a choice between the iPad and this Android device. Both have fine featuresets, but what it all comes down to is what you can run on them. It's the apps, stupid. Which one has a richer appstore? Which one has the apps you're looking for? Which one has a large, dedicated application developer community?

I think we all know the answer to those questions. As much as it pains us to say, Apple has done those things very well while the Android market has floundered helplessly. So count my vote for Apple, because at the end of the day I want to get my work done, not just play around with a shiny toy.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

They are both toys, I highly doubt you're "working" on either.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[$1uck]

The apps will come. I have an iPad, I'll most likely pick up the 7" acer tablet when it's out. I'm not super impressed with any of the apps on the iPad. Given time I believe the number apps available for android will surpass the number available for the iPad. I'm not sure how you decided the "android market has floundered", and when you asked your trio of questions I really didn't know the answer to your questions. So maybe you need to go ahead and rethink your position.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Dr. Spork]

Correct, but this toy does something very entertaining that the iPad can't, which is to stream and display video from the home network.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Daetrin]

"As much as it pains us to say, Apple has done those things very well while the Android market has floundered helplessly. So count my vote for Apple, because at the end of the day I want to get my work done, not just play around with a shiny toy."

I think you just made an, um, bad analogy. The Android market has tons of productivity apps. It has tons of shopping apps. It has tons of fitness apps. The only kinds of apps it's seriously lacking in right now are games. And it actually does have a lot of games, it's just missing a lot of the high profile games that have become popular on iPhone. If you want to be playing "Game Dev Story" or "Cut the Rope" or "Super Mega Worm" or the latest Squenix game then you need to have an iPhone (for now at least.) If you're okay with fun but not as popular games then you can have just as good a time with Android.

So the iPhone is what you want if you just want to play around with a shiny toy. If you just want to get your work done then either will do.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

I stream all sorts of video files from my home network to my iPad. Mkv, avi, mpg4, etc.

Have you ever used an iPad?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[pushing-robot]

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/12/tuaw-faceoff-streaming-video-on-the-ipad-with-air-video-and-str/

The iPad has had video streaming apps since the damn thing was released. Maybe you should actually try one (or spend five seconds googling) before you proclaim its shortcomings?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[GreatDrok]

"Correct, but this toy does something very entertaining that the iPad can't, which is to stream and display video from the home network."

Funny, one of the main uses I have for my iPad is to stream video from my iTunes box. Sure, it's an app I bought called Air Video but it can do it and Apple is rumoured to be developing the AppleTV interface for the iPad too. It's a bit strong to say it can't do it when it clearly can although I'll concede that Apple should provide a solution themselves that works with iTunes directly. Mind you, Air Video also allows me to stream Flash video files directly to the iPad since the server side can convert them into h.264 so that works pretty well and I'll likely keep it around even if Apple provides a more direct video streaming solution for iTunes.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[gstoddart]

They are both toys, I highly doubt you're "working" on either.

Have many people replaced their main work machine entirely with an iPad or similar tablet? Not likely.

Can you actually do work with them? Absolutely. I've used mine to read huge (~ 1000 page) PDF documents away from my desk, and I've also responded to work emails from an airport using wifi. I've also used some mind-mapping type apps to collect my notes for some projects, and documents I put into my dropbox folder are available to me. I've got a reader for wikipedia which keeps everything it reads offline, so I have a bunch of tech references (and a bunch of other stuff) cached for offline access. Heck, I've got a webex client, remote desktop, telnet, some javadocs ...

I'll even give you "toy", but I prefer "portable entertainment system and light internet appliance" ... on two business trips now I've brought my iPad. Which, in addition to allowing me to read my email in airports and hotel lobbies, also gives me games, movies, books, and loads of other things when when I'm stuck in airplanes or in my hotel room. Heck, I can sit in the hotel bar after work with a martini and read google news, check in with the wife via email, and check my calendar *and* checkout nearby restaurants with UrbanSpoon. Sure, I could do that with my laptop, but it's far less convenient (and, my work laptop has wifi disabled as a security measure, so I'd actually need to be plugged into both wire and power to do it).

For the most part, I'm not hearing people claim to have chucked their laptop/desktop in favor of a tablet. That doesn't mean that the things people do with it don't have value to them. Trust me, on a one week business trip ... my iPad is as important to me as my laptop is -- it actually gets more use than the laptop. It lets me cover about 85% of the things I'd use my laptop for, and a bunch of things that I wouldn't want to use my laptop for. (I've tried watching movies on a laptop in a hotel room, and it sucked. Something I can hold like a book and sit in a comfy chair or lay in the bed is awfully nice.)

Trust me, the utility of an iPad is far more than my ability to "work". I'm not going to use it to compile code, run a web server, or generate SQL queries with it. But, I place a high value on the things it does allow me to do, and the way in which I can do them. That fact that it's small and lightweight, has a huge battery life, and will connect to anywhere with free wifi makes it far more convenient than a laptop. Given the size and weight, there are just certain contexts where I'd just as soon have both my iPad and my laptop -- I will use the iPad more, but if I *really* need to dig out the big gun, it's there.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[bonch]

You don't understand. This is Slashdot. That means quality isn't a consideration. Instead, the following factors are what determines success:

1.) Is it open source? I'll never compile it in my life, but I just have to know if others can do it for me.
2.) Does it run Linux? It must run Linux.
3.) Can I install anything I want? Basically, I want to pirate ROMs and other warez.
4.) Can I use Flash? People here have always mocked the use of Flash on websites, but when Apple decided not to support it on their mobile devices for performance reasons, Flash became important to me all of a sudden.
5.) Is it by Google? If it's by Google, it's automatically amazing to me. Google can do no wrong on Slashdot. The Google Street View van is sitting outside scanning my emails right now, but that's okay because Flash is currently running on my tablet! Hang on, it just crashed.
6.) Does it clone the iPad look and feel? I bash Apple products all the time, but the alternatives I use are mimics of those Apple products. All smartphones today resemble iPhones. Don't point this out to me, or I'll vote down your comment.
7.) Does it make me feel cool? I'm way too cool and independent to use an Apple product. I'm just going to stand here with all the other cool Android users who are way too cool for Apple users. Haha, those sheep.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[grub]

There's a great app called AirVideo which streams everything I've thrown at it. It's a measly $2.99 IIRC.

Server runs on your Windows/Mac/Linux box and you connect to it with the iDevice.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[NitroWolf]

Which one has a richer appstore? Which one has the apps you're looking for?

Umm, both have the same apps? Seriously, besides a handful of high profile games, what does Apple have that Android doesn't?

Which one has a large, dedicated application developer community?

Again... the answer is both.

I think we all know the answer to those questions.

Well, if I understand what you were trying to imply correctly, it appears you do not actually know the answer to those questions, so you are thinking incorrectly that we all know the answer, since you don't...

As much as it pains us to say, Apple has done those things very well while the Android market has floundered helplessly. So count my vote for Apple, because at the end of the day I want to get my work done, not just play around with a shiny toy.

Wow... so can you tell me what work you can get done on an iPad (or maybe you're talking about an iPod Touch or an iPhone), because I have an iPod Touch and an iPad and I can't get any real work done on either of them. Not because they are crappy devices, or lack applications, or what have you... but because they aren't built for getting work done. They are built to be shiny entertainment devices, not workhorses. You might *think* you are getting work done on your little iPhone or iPad, but you're not - because it's nigh impossible to be truly productive on the incredibly restrictive iPad (the keyboard on iOS alone would prevent you from doing anything more than hobbling around like an injured bird), not to mention the smaller iPhone or iPod. Then there's the whole problem of the iPad lacking any sort of useful input mechanisms.

But I digress... your entire statement is ridiculous in the extreme. If the Android market is floundering (which I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with you) the Apple Market is in the same boat. There is absolutely NOTHING in the Apple market that is compelling over the Android Market. I use both extensively, you sound like you are an Apple Fanboi, so I doubt you've actually used an Android based device for any length of time. I think the key take away here is that Android is more flexible and modern than iOS is currently (and likely will ever be) and that is going to be it's advantage, now and in the future. The Android market may be fragmented and may continue to fragment further, and while that has some drawbacks, the gains far outweigh the drawbacks... which is are already seeing in the form of how fast Android devices are taking off compared to Apple. Unless Apple does something drastic with iOS in the not to distant future, they are going to go back to and remain a niche market. I think this is actually fine with Apple, so I don't expect them to be in any race to improve iOS and bring it up to the standards of a modern day OS. Apple is and always has been fine with having a tiny slice of the pie and then charging through the nose for their curated slice.

If that's what floats your boat, fine. But there's nothing there at present and nothing in the future that makes Apple a superior choice any longer. iOS is, has always been and will likely always continue to be a shiny toy (although it's kind of a dull toy now), it's not meant to be productive. Will Android become a productive workhorse? Heck, I don't know, but trying to claim that iOS is one is a total joke. I can get far more done in an Android environment than I can in an iOS one and I don't consider the Android a productive environment, either.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Buelldozer]

Seriously,

What "apps" is Android missing? I work in the I.T. Industry and I've been carrying a Moto Droid since last December. I have yet to find anything that I need for work _or_ play that isn't available. So please give some examples of all these apps that Android is missing.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[hedwards]

Citation necessary. Android has hardly floundered. Apart from a few things that pretty much just Apple fanbois seem to want, very little is available on the iPhone which isn't available on Android. And considering how Apple has treated the developers I'd be surprised if that lasts long.

Seriously, you make it sound like there's some sort of shortage of developers working on the Android platform. And I'd have to point out that Android has attracted a pretty vibrant community considering how much shorter its time on the market has been. It's in phones, tablets hell even my Nook using Android as its OS.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[node 3]

I think you just made an, um, bad analogy. The Android market has tons of productivity apps. It has tons of shopping apps. It has tons of fitness apps. The only kinds of apps it's seriously lacking in right now are games. And it actually does have a lot of games, it's just missing a lot of the high profile games that have become popular on iPhone.

The way you described games is pretty much applicable to the other types of apps you listed. I would be amazed if even half of the non-game apps on my iPad or iPhone are available for Android. The only category that I'm aware of where Android is pretty close to iOS in this regard is music streaming apps, and even there it lags, but it at least has most of the main ones that come to mind.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[mikelieman]

Can you take this iPad, plug it into a USB jack on any PC, and copy over whatever files you want?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[aztracker1]

I can't speak for anyone else, but will address the points with the following prefixes... I refuse to spend another dime on AT&T service, ever. I'll start buying Sony products again long before I use AT&T. After owning several devices with bugs, only to discover they are no longer supported, or locked down in such a way that I can't use them in a way that's convenient to me as a user (like use an mp3 file as a ring tone, or download the opera mobile browser, not speaking specifically to apple here), I prefer devices with the potential for end-user support.

1) I don't care if I'll never compile it... as long as there's support for it, I'm happier in 2-3 years when the vendor isn't supporting the device, I can get updates. (Froyo on my G1, though sluggish, works).

2) I don't care... specifically Linux isn't *THE* end all/be all for embedded devices, and there are other similar OSes available that are equally/more open source.

3) Not just ROMs, but anything the company/vendor feels like making unavailable to artificially protect their other channels, or after they drop support for said device. Dropped support tends to happen very quickly on portable devices.

4) Really don't care too much on this... flash on mobile, especially smaller devices is a waste imho... though not being able to play videos is annoying at best.

5) Google has earned a reputation for delivering quality options with far fewer quirks than other companies. This comes at two costs: a. less feature rich, though what they do offer is solid. and b. google tends to do a lot of data mining, which raises some privacy concerns. As long as you are aware of A, and B I don't see the problem.

6) I don't bash apple for their design decisions (often), I happen to like aspects of Windows 7 *AND* OSX... though I think the applications for those platforms is where the differences come into play a bit more... To me, what keeps me from iOS devices is the artificial lock down regarding being able to side-load applications (I am the great and powerful JOBS, and all apps must go through me, giving me my cut). I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I won't spend my money there... I do own a Macbook.

7) kind of, yes... I can tinker, and my cool toy can do things your cool toy can't... I can do wifi tethering with my phone... For the most part, that was the single biggest selling point for my device is that there was 3rd party dev support, active 3rd party firmware, and the ability to utilize the hardware how *I* see fit.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[dAzED1]

err...if you have 50,000 music streaming apps for ipad, and 500 music streaming apps for android, but the top 10 work about the same...
...then guess what. They're equal. The "music streaming" role has been satisfied. You're not going to be using 50,000 of them at once, anyway.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[jo_ham]

"Informative"

What are the mods smoking?

Oh wait, this is slashdot.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[X.25]

Back when Bill Clinton was running for President, his campaign advisor James Carville stated in the plainest terms possible the best reason for voting for Bill over Bush, "It's the economy, stupid"

Now we have a choice between the iPad and this Android device. Both have fine featuresets, but what it all comes down to is what you can run on them. It's the apps, stupid. Which one has a richer appstore? Which one has the apps you're looking for? Which one has a large, dedicated application developer community?

I think we all know the answer to those questions. As much as it pains us to say, Apple has done those things very well while the Android market has floundered helplessly. So count my vote for Apple, because at the end of the day I want to get my work done, not just play around with a shiny toy.

Obviously, everyone is you.

Noone cares who you vote for. Hope it helps.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

What are the mods smoking?

It's more like Kool Aid.

You can make up any old bullshit about Apple products nowadays and it will get modded insightful by some troll who has decided that all things Apple are evil.

Certainly, something as factually inaccurate as the GP gets a free pass.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Daetrin]

The way you described games is pretty much applicable to the other types of apps you listed. I would be amazed if even half of the non-game apps on my iPad or iPhone are available for Android. The only category that I'm aware of where Android is pretty close to iOS in this regard is music streaming apps, and even there it lags, but it at least has most of the main ones that come to mind.

I'd certainly be interested to see a list of what you consider to be key non-game apps, but i guess there was kind of an underlying assumption that i didn't bother to clarify in my post. Unless you are migrating from one system to another, no one really cares which particular productivity app they use, they only care if it does its job well. I don't care how awesome the Mac proprietary office suite is, OpenOffice works fine for me on my PC. I know my old fitness app had both iPhone and Android versions. When they started requiring access to contact info because they wanted to integrate with Facebook i switched to a different app, and i don't care if this new app is on the iPhone or not, it does what i want it to do.

But stereotypes aside, gaming is a much more social activity. I'm sure there was an "Angry Birds" clone on Android long before the real thing came over. It could even have been just as good as the original game in its own way. But everyone was still eager to pick up the real Angry Birds game when it was available because they wanted to play the same game everyone else was talking about. They wanted to talk to their friends about it, or beat their friends' scores, or were just curious to see what the buzz was about, or whatever. No one (okay, almost no one =) runs up to their friends shouting "i just found this amazing new spreadsheet program on my phone! You have to try it out!"

For any kind of productivity app all that's needed is functional parity. For games or social apps however everyone is going to want whatever the cool new thing is. And for the moment at least the iPhone has the lion's share of the cool new things. Particularly with games, since games are so much harder to port/simultaneously develop than the social apps are.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[peragrin]

The numbers of apps for andriod will surpass the ipad easily. however since only about 30% of those apps will be available to any given device that metric doesn't really work. between non updating versions of android, (compare the number of iphone 3G users running IOS 2.0 against the number of early model android phones running 1.5 or 1.6) and the heavily fragmented nature of android hardware( tegra, arm, intel, all can't run the same software.

Then stop to wonder if Oracle wins even half of it's google/android lawsuit then all Android software will stop.

I have been waiting 9 months for someone to finally copy the ipad's hardware and install android 2.2 on it. I am still waiting. No one seems to be coming close. The Galaxy tab isn't bad the interface lags.( I have been testing demo units untill the wifi version is released). The one with real promise is Notion ink adam. but that seems to be never ending vaporware.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[sootman]

Wrong. Here is just one of several solutions to stream video from a computer to an iPad.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[sootman]

>> Which one has a richer appstore? Which one has the apps you're looking for?

> Umm, both have the same apps? Seriously, besides a handful of high profile games, what does Apple have that Android doesn't?

For the answer, see here and here.

Let's sort all Android apps into the following categories:

1. Apps from Google.
2. Third-party apps that also exist on iOS.
3. Third-party apps that are exclusive to Android.

From my time spent with the Nexus One early this year, I know that Google's Android apps are pretty good. These include both the core system apps, and the closed-source "Google Experience" apps like the dedicated Gmail client and Google Maps.

There are definitely a fair number of apps in the second category -- those ported to both iOS and Android. Examples: Amazon's Kindle client, Pandora, and a few popular games, such as Angry Birds and Doodle Jump.

But what I find striking is that the apps in the third category -- those exclusive to Android -- are almost entirely unappealing or irrelevant to iOS users.

That's not to say there's nothing in Android, as a system, that appeals to iPhone owners. Built-in turn-by-turn navigation on certain models. A system-wide notification system. Widgets on the homescreen. Over-the-air system updates. Unrestricted background processing for third-party apps, battery-life be damned. But those are things that are built into the system itself, or which otherwise come from Google. What I'm questioning is the strength and depth of Android's third-party developer support.

Which are the apps, from developers other than Google, that I should feel like I'm missing out on because I don't have an Android device? Where are the killer apps for Android?

Turn the table and we could be here all day running down the list of high-quality, interesting apps which are exclusive to iOS.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[hey!]

WTF? I have an iPod touch and an Android phone, and I can honestly say that "not enough apps" hasn't been my experience on Android at all.

I'd characterize the difference between the app stoes this way. There's no question that Apple's store has *more* apps, but in terms of *useful* apps there's not much practical difference between them. I think my one or two very favorite apps are on iOS; I particularly like a version of WordNet that not only has the definitions, but the whole/part (e.g. hand to finger) more general/more specific (e.g. disease/malignancy) links. I really wish that something like this was available on Android.

Among the very best apps, I think there is a slight edge in polish to the ios apps. On the other hand, there are certain things that apps aren't allowed to do in the Apple world that I'd like them to. I can buy non-DRM MP3s from Amazon in several Android apps, which of course isn't possible on any Apple ios device. You have to through Apple's iTunes store.

I often have both devices on me, and if you don't count Apple's own iTunes and video apps I'd say 90% of my app use is on Android. In part that's just habit, in part it is functionality allowed in Android but not ios. When I need a thesaurus or a graphing calculator, I go for the iPod because the best apps I've found for those happen to be on ios.

Your experience may be different, of course. There may be that one app you absolutely have to have which currently is only on ios; or it may be the other way around. But my experience suggests to me that if forced to choose between an Android phone and an iPhone, I could live with either and not miss the other. I'd ditch the iPod touch today except I'd lose access to all my Apple movie and music purchases (which is another kettle of fish right there).

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[CaptScarlet22]

I actually agree with this pretty much...Looking at the market on my Droid X, I find that the presentation of the apps absolutely HORRIBLE compared to the IOS App store. Where is the "What's Hot" section??? How long has Gmail been on the "Top Free" list??? How about a Staff Favorites section??? How about screenshots of the app that doesn't fucking flip when you try at look at them landscape???

Games?? HAHAH....People talk about fart apps on IOS, how about puzzle games on the Andriod....holy crap...can there by anymore??? Thanks for Angry Bird at least!

Android "isn't all that" folks....it kinda...MEH to me....

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[hey!]

I have to say that other than games, you've just named the things I like *least* about the iTunes store. I don't give a fig what apps the staff likes, and I *really* hate the way iTunes wants to steer your purchases to what they think is (or want to be) hot.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[EEPROMS]

So when I go to a meeting I have to take my iPAD and a Windows server to show my slides/video on the projector via it's HDMI port ? I dare say an already built in HDMI port would be father easier..

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[EEPROMS]

father=far

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[martas]

http://xkcd.com/644/ It's the hardware/price, stupid. "The rest is software".

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[peragrin]

um the is slashdot home of OSS, where if you don't have 50,000 kinds of any application then you don't have enough variation to figure out which is the best app. Because in OSS if you don't like it you fork it and try again and then let it die when it becomes work.

So by that very definition the 50,000 ipad apps are superior even if they suck. As choice is always superior to non choice.

Which is funny because android is supposed to promote choice while apple limits choice, however there are more choices to make your tablet useful with apple than with android.

Now I shall be modded into oblivion.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[peragrin]

There is a major shortage of developers for android. that is why HTC doesn't support any phone for more than 6 months old and 3/4 of their product line recieves nothing but basic updates to the OS.

Seriously name more than 1 android phone that recieves regular updates from the vendor for the software. You can't do it. after 6-9 months they all stop allowing updates.

Apple gives you 2-3 years everyone else gives you the middle finger.

I want an android phone, but i really don't want to have to root, and then install my own updates because some vendor is cheap.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[rwa2]

I'm fairly happy with my HTC Slide running CyanogenMOD.
But it still hasn't replaced my PalmTX

Um, here's some other guy's blog entry who articulated it much better than I could:
http://jaredrobinson.com/blog/rewinding-from-immature-android-to-mature-palmos/

(eventually he ended up somewhat satisfied with one of the newer iPod touches... I'll probably go the other way and install Debian on my phone)
The Linux Installer app didn't complete successfully on my device, but hopefully I'll have better luck following the ARM debootstrap procedure from:
http://www.android-devs.com/?p=152

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Sleepy]

As a web developer, the iPad kicks ass for getting work done.. actually *replacing* my laptop for many things: reviewing online (or offline) documentation, checking email, and oh.. testing my work via Safari Mobile. If your work IS the web, the iPad rocks. In a pinch, I could code on it using a bluetooth keyboard, but that's not really what it is best at obviously.

At the very least, it makes a hell of second or third monitor (and has a much better display than the standard 75DPI used on most desktop and laptop displays).

I do have some serious gripes, primarily that of depending on iTunes to sync everything (but I get around that well enough with an old Linksys NAS200 stuffed with 2Tb in drives, a TZO.COM dynamic dns account, and port forwarding on my home router).

I actually held off on an iPad until the Samsung Galaxy reviews came out... I only use Linux at home and work, and a droid for my phone... I -really- wanted my platform to be a droid. My last "Internet tablet" was a Nokia N800 running Maemo... a pity that Nokia smothered their tablet line and moved the OS goalposts so many times (even now, the n800 is impressive... but lacks newer software).

Maybe in a couple of hardware revisions, android tablets will get there. I'm sure of it. But right now Android is not designed for tablets, and people are trying to force it into that hardware...

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

"Correct, but this toy does something very entertaining that the iPad can't, which is to stream and display video from the home network."

Yup. This tablet also has a screen, which the iPad doesn't have.

There is also a button on it, which the iPad has none of.

Oh, the Acer one is also in tablet form factor, which the iPad isn't.

On second thought, this little game of yours isn't really fun. And someone is going to think I am stupid if I keep playing it. All yours, Enjoy!

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Buelldozer]

I'm running CyanogenMOD 6.0 Stable on my Droid but that's only because the last round of updates from Verizon borked my battery life something terrible.

I've reviewed the list and here are my thoughts:

1) There is an icon for direct access to the calendar. Aside from a hardware button this is as easy as it gets. There is a button on the top right of my device for "instant power". Author is confusing Android the OS with Nexus one the device, which they do a LOT in this article.

2) This is available: http://pocketpccentral.net/help/android/general/bluetooth_keyboard.htm and has been since at least March 1st.

3) I'm not familiar with datebk5 but obviously this person really misses it. There are bunch of calendar apps available in the app store, find one that works for you. This is the whole POINT of apps, you're not stuck with the stock functionality.

4) Again, pick one of the many alarm clock apps available and use it. This is the point of a smartphone!

5) I can sort my contacts by last name. I don't understand the author's complaint.

6) User a different email client. I believe that touchdown supports copy and paste.

7) This is at least partially the responsibility of the hardware. How good are the pictures taken with a PalmTX?

8) This is a HARDWARE complaint and doesn't at all belong in an article about "Immature Android".

9) Hardware again.

10) I do not understand this complaint. Backup is trivial. Did the author not possess a USB cable? If they can't manage it there are plenty of available apps to do it for them.

11) Hardware again.

So in the end a fair number of the author's complaints fall to hardware and have nothing to do with the OS. Of the remaining complaints most of the rest are solved with apps to extend the stock experience.

The author clearly has no problem with purchasing applications because they are using Datebk5 from Pimlico, which didn't come with the PalmTX that I know of. That means they BOUGHT IT. An app.

So while this article seems like a good read on the surface it's actually a mess. The author confuses hardware with operating system and refuses to make any attempt to enhance the experience even though they admit to previously doing so with another handset.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[toopok4k3]

You can call iOS the better platform the moment I get to develop an application that can run in the background (no, you still can't do this on iOS unless your app matches some very specific use cases). The fact that you can't run an irc client that stays connected 24/7 on a iOS device tells what's really wrong with the platform.

I'm currently making an iPhone version of our clients mobile product. Let's just say that due to iOS platform limitations I can only make 10% of the features we have on our symbian version. Hell even on Android we propably can't make it to be an exact match of our symbian product.

Ohh and Nokia with their Qt. It just lacks utilities to access certain system properties and events. Even the Qt Mobility API still lacks a lot of needed features. Features which are apparently easy to do for an experienced Symbian developer (I'm just glad its not me. Descriptors, anyone?). Sure, you can make some nice apps with Qt. You just can't get down to the system stuff (well this should be obvious to anyone). We have to do a lot of work with Maemo/meeGo/Symbian specific implementations. Guess that's what you get when you need to do something really specific on a very specific phone model. But I still have to say, Qt seems to be the most promising framework on mobile devices atm. I have high hopes on meego devices. At the moment Android seems to be the most fun to target while symbian still is the most feature rich of them all.

I just don't want to imagine what kind of shitstorm i would hit on a BlackBerry or a Bada platform. Ohh right, M$ is back in the game too with their newest shitplatform. Ugh..

Mobile software development is a bitch. Too many shitty platforms, all having their problems. Gotta hope the shittiest drop off the face of earth soon or get more open (Fuck iOS and Apple's policies atm. I only started to work with the 4.1 and I can't even imagine how closed and limited it was before).

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[painandgreed]

What "apps" is Android missing? I work in the I.T. Industry and I've been carrying a Moto Droid since last December. I have yet to find anything that I need for work _or_ play that isn't available. So please give some examples of all these apps that Android is missing.

I don't think there is an Android version of Osirix yet or a suitable dicom viewer replacement that can view images off of our PACS systems. iPhones and iPads were adopted fairly quickly by clinicians who field of study required time sensitive callings on radiological exams. Now doctors in need of such can carry around an iPhone with them at all times and if they are contactible, view images and make the calls that sometimes need to be made in less time that it would take to get to the hospital. This was all due to the open source Osirix software for the Mac. If there is an Android version or substitute, we'd like to know about it.

Also, people here are all posting how "just a few games" aren't on the android. Let's not forget that computing devices are still governed by the idea of the "killer app". Some games being available isn't as strong a motivator as the one game I really want to play being available. I'm a Mac fan, but as there are Windows computer games I want to play, I also have always had a Windows computer. There was a game I wanted to play on the Xbox, so I bought an Xbox and so far it has never done anything other than play that one game. If those few games are important to people, it can well decide which phone they buy.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[ncc74656]

Correct, but this toy does something very entertaining that the iPad can't, which is to stream and display video from the home network.

How does wildly inaccurate crap like this get modded "informative?" I've used AirVideo for some time now on my iPhone (yes, it also works on the iPad). It streams video not only over WiFi, but over 3G (if your device supports it), with live reencoding. I have the server component running in a WinXP VM on my MythTV box, streaming MythTV recordings and archived movies and TV shows from a NAS box on the home LAN. Bring along a video cable when you travel and you can stream your entire library of movies and TV shows into nearly any TV.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[mea_culpa]

What I'm questioning is the strength and depth of Android's third-party developer support.

Which are the apps, from developers other than Google, that I should feel like I'm missing out on because I don't have an Android device? Where are the killer apps for Android?

Turn the table and we could be here all day running down the list of high-quality, interesting apps which are exclusive to iOS.

This is a little unfair.
The way I see it Android didn't really become relevant until earlier this year, or reached critical mass anyway. If you look at the numbers and current trends, the explosive growth in just the past few months probably caught most devs by surprise and are now only beginning to consider Android. Developing on another platform, especially one like Android that has multiple platforms in and of itself will take time.
Look where iOS was in its infancy, huge growth was happening even before Apps or an App Store were thought of due to the Apple brand and appeal of the new device. They were the pioneers in this game so it is not surprising in the least that iOS has more exclusive 3rd party apps, they are the ones with a light-year head start.
Only when Android vastly surpasses iOS will I expect to see the balance tip the other way. If current trends hold it is inevitable. It will be PC vs Mac all over again with PC trouncing Mac in applications like it does now.
This doesn't suggest that iOS is inferior to Android, but it will come down to economics like it always does. It just seems that more often than not open formats/platforms prevail against closed ones in the long term. Much like VHS vs Beta. Even when the closed one is considered superior by those who use them.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[lordmetroid]

I want to have a tablet which I can freely do as I wish with like any ordinary computer without any trouble of first rooting the machine.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Americano]

The fact that you can't run an irc client that stays connected 24/7 on a iOS device tells what's really wrong with the platform.

Is this because IRC is such a popular communications medium that everybody in the world uses it?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[R3d M3rcury]

Trust me, as a long time Mac user (my first Mac was a Macintosh), I know the argument well.

Way back when, Macs couldn't do accounting. Why? Because there was no QuickBooks for Mac. No QuickBooks, no accounting. It was that simple for most people. Sure there was AccountEdge and other products, but would you want to trust your company's accounting information to them? All your friends had QuickBooks and they had no problems.

So it becomes a branding issue. QuickBooks = Accounting. AutoCAD = CAD. Microsoft Word = Word Processing. If those programs aren't available, then the fact that you have AccountEdge, ArchiCAD, or Mariner Write that are "just as good, if not better" doesn't mean diddly.

It becomes even more difficult with games, where branding is key. Angry Birds, for example, is a fun game. I'm sure there are plenty of Angry Bird clones out there. But everybody has heard of Angry Birds and they've heard it's a fun game. Which means that's the game you're looking for on your respective platform. If there's no Angry Birds on Windows Phone, for example, then it doesn't have any good games. The fact that "Annoyed Armadillo" is basically the same game is beside the point--no "Angry Birds", no fun games.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[node 3]

err...if you have 50,000 music streaming apps for ipad, and 500 music streaming apps for android, but the top 10 work about the same... ...then guess what. They're equal. The "music streaming" role has been satisfied. You're not going to be using 50,000 of them at once, anyway.

That's why I said that streaming music apps is the one category where Android is fairly close. This is because streaming audio apps are dead simple to write, and are generally free.

And no, your example numbers of 500 and 50,000 are not equal. You're right that you're not going to be using all 50,000 at once, but if you want to use one of the 50,000 that aren't in the 500, what are you supposed to do?

People like to rip on the App Store because of fart apps (as though they make up the bulk of the hundreds of thousands of apps or something), but in terms of top quality apps, the App Store has the Android Market beat hands down.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[node 3]

You're right that there are similar apps in most likely every category, but the best apps are on the App Store, and only some of them make it to the Android Market. All you have to do is look at the top ten in any category to see what I'm talking about.

It's similar to Linux vs Windows and Mac, where The latter have Photoshop and the former has the GIMP. Oh, and the latter have the GIMP too, it's just that they also have the best programs in addition to the lowest common denominators. Same for MS Office vs OpenOffice.org, etc.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

garmin mobile xt
decent sshd/scp support for transferring large files/directories and issuing commands
voip support with p2psip and regular sip transport
vpn support
on device ssh with X support for remote apps
citrix support
word/excel/exchange+outlook support with decent word editing and excel editing capabilities
eink screen with sunlight readable

basically the innoversal lattice would be the ideal tablet...but its vaporware right now.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[shutdown -p now]

h have fine featuresets, but what it all comes down to is what you can run on them.

Well, if they use the existing Android Market, then it'll have a very nice selection right out of the box. One thing that's going for Android here is that its UI framework is designed to be flexible with respect to screen size and resolution - there are Android handsets with resolution ranging from 320x240 to 480x854 - with widely varying aspect ratios and DPI. That means that most Android apps are coded to properly scale. This is quite unlike iOS, where an app written for iPhone can run on iPad only in the ugly bitmap-scaled-and-centered mode.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[abigor]

My television runs Linux (Sharp Aquos). It's a computer. I don't regard it as an "ordinary computer" where I'd want to do with it the same things I do with my laptop.

The iPad and Friends are meant to be problem-free appliances, not laptop replacements. They are wildly successful in that role.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[robogun]

I'm with you if we were talking about useful updates, but you are talking about Apple updates, which pretty much stick to one-upping jailbreakers, eliminating unauthorized apps, and otherwise interfering with legitimate use of the device.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you're okay with fun but not as popular games then you can have just as good a time with Android."

Don't forget literally tens of thousands of flash browser games which intentionally won't work with Apple's stuff.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[obarthelemy]

Actually, as long as I can consume media on it (web, book, music, video), I'll be happy; and doing that really doesn't take much. I'll pay much more attention to the hardware (screen size/rez/quality, I/O, dock) thank to the OS/Apps, 'coz I'm pretty sure any OS can make me happy.

On the same note, I bought an WinMob 6.5 HTC HD2 3 months ago, and I'm mightily happy with it in spite of the clumsy OS and the scarce App catalog, because the thing is solid and the screen large and beautiful. Again, OS and Apps really did not contribute to my choice.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[obarthelemy]

except the vga dongle only works in limited ways, and with progams that specifically support it. It is NOT a "regular" video output, in the sense that a PC laptop's (or MAcBook's) VGA/HDMI ports are.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Dr Max]

I'm sorry but compare the ipad to this and it does not have a "fine feature set" at all. Tegra 2 powered means it has twice the power due to dual core; 5 X the 3d graphics power; 1080p not 720p; twice the battery life; and these have two cameras compared to the ipads zero. Package that with the inevitable Ubuntu support for tegra 2 then it doesn't even have an advantage in software; unless you really like your range of fart apps at itunes.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[sir1real]

It's the apps, stupid. Which one has a richer appstore?

So count my vote for Apple, because at the end of the day I want to get my work done, not just play around with a shiny toy.

Yeah, because it's so hard to get any work done without an appstore.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[bemymonkey]

If you're talking about games, sure - Apple's got a pretty big leg up, what with the crappy GPUs and broken MultiTouch on most last-gen Android devices. If you're talking about actual apps (productivity, lifestyle etc.), nope. Android apps may not always be as polished, but they more than make up for it with additional functionality that's just not available on unjailbroken iOS (take Sipdroid as an example)...

And since you mention getting work done and then say Apple gets your vote because of that, I'm pretty sure you haven't used Android apps lately...

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[bemymonkey]

"People like to rip on the App Store because of fart apps (as though they make up the bulk of the hundreds of thousands of apps or something), but in terms of top quality apps, the App Store has the Android Market beat hands down."

I don't have ready access to an iOS device, but do play with one every once in a while, and lately, I've got to disagree with this. Do you have any current examples of this, or is it still the same "opinion" that most people have had for the last year or so? And yes, I'll readily admit that it was very true - iOS apps were just more polished and, in many cases, better - but with current Android devices, running 2.2? I doubt it.

I'd love to hear some examples to support your claim though... preferably other than the Facebook app ;)

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[bemymonkey]

Could you give us a few examples of these apps whose equivalents are so much better on iOS?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[peterbye]

Turn the table and we could be here all day running down the list of high-quality, interesting apps which are exclusive to iOS.

As an android user who has never even touched an iPhone I'm completely unaware of what I'm missing out on, could you please list some of these apps?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[RichiH]

> It's the apps, stupid.
> I think we all know the answer to those questions.

We do, but apparently, we disagree. Walled garden, my ass. If I want tethering, I tap the _widget_ on my home screen and it's activated. I paid my provider exactly zero euros for this oh so holy privilege. I am running a stock firmware cause I happen to like HTC Sense. But if I wanted to run a different image, I could. HTC would not try to limit my choice.

Obviously, Meego will be even more open once they get their act together for real.

Long stories short? Yes, it's the apps (but not only those) and Apple is losing; and fast.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you seriously think that Android apps developers are in the minority? Android = open, iOs= closed (and needing approval from Apple before being in app store)

What are you smoking?

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[Angostura]

Hmmm, every update I can think of so far has added useful functions to me. The only exception was the last one (4.2) which was mainly aimed at iPad users.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[rwa2]

Yeah, thanks for the list. I think a lot of his complaints are addressed by Android 2.2 / Froyo / CyanogenMOD, but I think back in April most of those were still valid.

The palm was primarily designed as a PIM device, and it shows. I did like the hardware addressbook / schedule buttons, since you're usually in a hurry when someone starts giving you that information, and it takes time and concentration to navigate through your software icons, even if it means hitting 2-3 buttons instead of 1. The guy who originally designed the Palm supposedly carried around a block of wood and pretended to use it in his daily life when he was imagining how the UI would actually work, and that part shows.

Anyway, play with some of the PIM apps in the PalmOS simulator sometime...
http://www.accessdevnet.com/docs/palm_os_garnet_simulator54/Simulator_Using.html

It's actually quite remarkable how easy it is to use. The Android calendar has gotten better, but I still find myself frustrated with a few UI elements... especially trying to find the "New Event" button hidden behind 2 levels of menus, and having to use those silly +/- buttons to set the event time, or having to double-click on the hour / minutes field separately to type in the numbers. It's evident that they still kinda expect you to do most of your data entry from the gmail interface on a PC.

I gave up trying to use the IMAP client, I just use the gmail and yahoo mail apps now.

The new autofocus and stability checker in Android 2.2.1 / CyanogenMOD 6.1 does work much better. But that just came out last month :P Before had to use Camera 360 to get some of that functionality... and it took me a while to sort through all the various camera apps on the mess of the market / appbrain pages to find it.

I am kind of miffed at the inability to record to somewhat standard formats. My wife was using her Android phone to record interviews, and eventually I had to set up some pipeline where I converted the .3gp files to .wav using a command line tool before finally using audacity to do some processing and save as .mp3 . But hopefully more tools will be able to import/export the cellphone formats natively soon.

The Palm backup was more trivial... you plug it into your computer and sync with the palm tool or JPilot and it's done, and you can restore everything to a fresh device. I've been using the Titanium backup tool under Android to save everything to SD, but then my SD card died and I pretty much ended up losing everything and having to reinstall most of my apps onto a new SD card, at least all the ones that I had done the "move to SD" to.

I don't know why he threw the last point in, his Nexus One actually had an FM tuner, but only newer versions of CM could actually use it.

Datebk5 was actually included with the Palm TX, you only need to buy it to use with older Palm devices.

My own gripe with my HTC Slide is the puny 100MB available for apps, so I'm always uninstalling stuff I want just to install new things, even after manually moving all the data I could to SD. Next time I flash an new CM, I'll try to do the
CustomMTD partitioning to reallocate that extra 100MB or so that not used by /system to /apps data. But it feels so weird jacking about with this kind of thing when it wasn't even an issue on the Palm, where you could just install apps on both the device and the SD card with wild abandon.

Palm users are just bitter after having a steady upgrade path for years, and then being forced to wait *years* while watching iPhone, WebOS, N900, Android etc. kind of flounder around with the basic PIM stuff. Sure, maybe there *could* be apps that make the experience better. But there aren't yet, and you wouldn't really want to use a third-party app / data format for PIM, since there's a lot of cross-app integrat

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[NitroWolf]

As a web developer, the iPad kicks ass for getting work done.. actually *replacing* my laptop for many things: reviewing online (or offline) documentation, checking email, and oh.. testing my work via Safari Mobile.

That is not being productive... Everything you listed is surfing the web (and checking email). Yes you are right, the iPad excels at that. But even that has its drawbacks as far as being productive in even it's area of expertise. For example, I am replying to you on my iPad right now... It is literally taking me 3x as long to do so simply due to the fact the keyboard is so horrible. So even in the things it's designed for, iOS still hobbles any productivity you might be able to get out of it. Android at least has the Swype keyboard, which helps some.

If your work IS the web, the iPad rocks.

I am going to guess by that statement that you aren't terribly fast or efficient then to start with. My work is IS, among other things, and the iPad (nor any of my Android devices) increase productivity by any cost effective amount.

In a pinch, I could code on it using a bluetooth keyboard, but that's not really what it is best at obviously.

At the very least, it makes a hell of second or third monitor (and has a much better display than the standard 75DPI used on most desktop and laptop displays).

I do have some serious gripes, primarily that of depending on iTunes to sync everything (but I get around that well enough with an old Linksys NAS200 stuffed with 2Tb in drives, a TZO.COM dynamic dns account, and port forwarding on my home router).

I actually held off on an iPad until the Samsung Galaxy reviews came out... I only use Linux at home and work, and a droid for my phone... I -really- wanted my platform to be a droid. My last "Internet tablet" was a Nokia N800 running Maemo... a pity that Nokia smothered their tablet line and moved the OS goalposts so many times (even now, the n800 is impressive... but lacks newer software).

Maybe in a couple of hardware revisions, android tablets will get there. I'm sure of it. But right now Android is not designed for tablets, and people are trying to force it into that hardware...

No, Android isn't there yet either, sadly. But the open development nature of it means it will likely get there sooner rather than later, whereas iOS was not built for it, can not do it currently and likely will fall farther and farther behind. Again, this is probably fine with Apple, since they aren't about being productive with iOS, but about providing an expensive walled garden.

Re:It's the apps, stupid

[dAzED1]

the top streaming music app is Pandora...which is available for both platforms. Way to miss the point.

Re:Whoa...

[AnonymousClown]

It's the headline. If it were "Acer's New 10" Andriod Tablet Proves to be a better alternative to the overpriced Apple iPad" then, you'd see a lot more comments.

Acer tablets out less than a week

[Anonymous Coward]

Acer tablet out less than a week, now lets all think up something negative to say about it ..

Re:Acer tablets out less than a week

[countSudoku()]

It lacks USB? Other than that, I'll be eying this pad as a possible iPod Touch replacement. The Pod is losing its 'Touch' as the battery starting to show its age(1st gen from 2008), as well as the OS and lame app store nonsense. Android device with SD slot is for me! Storing files on an iPod or iPad is fucking WEAK and endlessly cumbersome, it's just not a proper computing device and the crap store makes it even shittier.

Re:Whoa...

[Anonymous Coward]

...first post??? Is this an alternate universe?

If first post says "first post", then it's the same old annoying universe as it ever was.

If you'd said something intelligent, that might have indicated an alternate universe.

not the first time

[larry bagina]

The TSA has been hands on with 10-inchers for a while.

Re:not the first time

[Anonymous Coward]

I see the TSA has something in common with your mom.

That last line

[Monkeedude1212]

The tablets are powered by Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU which gives it the edge when it comes to graphics

Sure, it might have "The Edge" - but that doesn't mean its always a good thing.

No, I'm not a fan of Apple, I don't own any of their products (though I'm forced to support a few Macs at work).

But when Epic showed their Unreal Engine working on an iPhone - well - thats when I realized that they hit a target that will appeal to most people. I imagine getting it to run was probably more ingenuity on Epic's part and not so much Apple Engineers - but regardless, developers wanting to make rich 3D Applications can now license and leverage that technology on the App Store. Now - the costs for developing and the chances your app gets rejected are all reasons not to develop for the iDevices but thats an entirely different discussion; Strictly hardware speaking, if you get it to run on an iPad you can then feel comfortable it'll run on a new Acer Tablet.

So - I aim my app to work on a slightly lower end device knowing I won't be pushing any limits when I want to port it to the other popular options. As opposed to making an App to run on the Acer Tablet but then finding it a bit slow on an iPad - that's not what I, as a developer, want. I don't want exclusives, that means I'm shunning a portion of my audience.

Re:That last line

[$1uck]

I don't see "rich 3d" games being that big of a deal on a tablet. The interface just isn't conductive to playing a game in 3 dimensions at least it doesn't seem that way to me. The most successful games that I'm aware of seem to be more along the lines of Plants vs Zombies, Angry birds, and various tower defense games.

Re:That last line

[samkass]

Sure, it might have "The Edge" - but that doesn't mean its always a good thing.

"The Edge" over what, anyway? These devices aren't going to ship for 3-5 months, by which time they'll be competing against iPad2 and who-knows-what. The fact that the specs are even comparable to this past year's machine kind of indicates it won't have "the edge" in performance over anything.

Re:That last line

[JackieBrown]

The interface just isn't conductive to playing a game in 3 dimensions at least it doesn't seem that way to me.

People said (and still say) the same about the game-pad controller versus a keyboard and mouse.

Re:That last line

[Anonymous Coward]

And they said the same thing about using a bullhorn to play Starcraft. What's your point?

Re:That last line

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think you understand - "The Edge" (yes, the guitarist from U2) actually wrote the graphics driver. He's not only a competent (if uninspired) guitar player, but also a programmer who only misses his deadlines by a few days. Generally, we're satisfied with his performance so far...

Re:That last line

[Dr Max]

When the ipad2 comes out it will undoubtedly run on a Samsung orion soc; which has roughly the same power in cpu and gpu as the tegra 2. So hooray for apple they would of caught back up with the competition. Only then dual core 2.4 ghz socs will be getting put in to other devices, and we can have this whole argument again.

Re:That last line

[jones_supa]

2D adventure games would suit the platform excellently.

Cost?

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

How much is it going to cost?

Also, 16:9? Shit! Should be 16:10

Re:Cost?

[$1uck]

According to the specs I saw the aspect ratio was 16:10 enough pixels to push 720p and have 80 pixels left over.

Re:Cost?

[$1uck]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/23/acer-introduces-7-inch-and-10-inch-android-tablets?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_engadget

Re:Cost?

[Misagon]

I disagree. The ideal would be 3:4 (0.75) to be close to the aspect ratios of A4 (0.71) and US Letter (0.77) paper sizes.
Some of us would like to use pads to get some work done. If I want to watch movies when travelling, I would get a portable DVD player.

Re:Cost?

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Who's talking about movies? When I do work, I prefer 16:10. I've never watched a dvd movie on anything other than a television screen.

I was using dual monitors at work, both 16:10, but one was 20 inches while the other was 19. I kept asking my boss if she could get me a second 20" monitor to replace the 19" one. She ended up getting two new 20" monitors, but they were 16:9 and I had to squeeze everything down to a smaller space. It sucks now.

Re:Whoa...

[fishexe]

It's the headline. If it were "Acer's New 10" Andriod Tablet Proves to be a better alternative to the overpriced Apple iPad" then, you'd see a lot more comments.

Also, if they had found a way to work in the word "tits".

scalable graphics engines are old hat

[OrangeTide]

Unreal Engine works on beefer systems too. It's a sliding scale that is easy for developers to configure. Maybe these apps will get higher framerates or high resolutions when ran on some devices.
Besides if you have to port your app to Android instead of iOS, it seems reasonable to also optimize it for the Android devices out there rather than hold back to what the Apple A4 can do.

Aerosmith

[Anonymous Coward]

"And I whip out my big 10-inch"....

Thats where I jumped to when I read the headline. Just wanted to share.

racial profiling?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect it is even uncommon for them to get hold of a 7". I suspect the average person will be packing a unit just a little bit smaller. But 4.8" will just make you a laughing stock.

Wait, what were you talking about? I was thinking about a 6" eBook.

Why android?

[Keruo]

Where are Maemo/Meego tablets?
Why is everyone pushing android for tablets when even the original author says it's not designed for that purpose.
Maemo & Meego are opensource and free, and they are designed to be used on tablets.

Re:Why android?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Where's the application infrastructure? Third parties, distribution, OS drivers, etc?

With MeeGo, it's not there. Not for MeeGo specific apps.

Re:Why android?

[Anonymous Coward]

The 'OS drivers' are part of the kernel. Android and MeeGo both use the Linux kernel, hence they share drivers. The infrastructure is there, it just sucks for other reasons.

Re:Why android?

[Microlith]

Who knows. If Acer is willing to provide their own stores they should have no problem supporting MeeGo. It may have more to do with the fact that there's no reference UI they can be lazy and make minor modifications to before pushing it out.

Re:Why android?

[bonch]

Better question--why do techies think normal people give a shit if a tablet OS is "open source and free?"

Re:Why android?

[drinkypoo]

What does it mean for an operating system to be designed for tablets? Who cares who puts input events onto the queue and who services them so long as it happens?

Re:Why android?

[hedwards]

We don't, we just don't want to go over to fix computers belonging to people like you only, to find out that there is no patch that fixes the problem and that anything short of replacement if futile.

Re:Why android?

[falsified]

If this is running Honeycomb, the version of Android designed for tablets, then we should be okay.

Hey, look, TFS says it's running Honeycomb!

More seriously, I'd imagine the reason they're choosing Android is that more people in the US are familiar with that OS. I've never seen Maemo in my life except for online screenshots, and I've spent more than my share of time puttering around in cell phone stores (I'm from the US).

Re:Why android?

[BoberFett]

I've wondered this myself. These tablets are just large smartphones with the phone hardware. How can it not be "designed for tablets"?

Re:Why android?

[BoberFett]

Errr, that should say "without the phone hardware."

Re:Why android?

[farble1670]

Why is everyone pushing android for tablets when even the original author [engadget.com] says it's not designed for that purpose.

that article refers to android 2.2. android 3.0 is specifically designed with tablets in mind and is targeted for early next year. most vendors are waiting for 3.0 before joining the tablet race.

Maemo & Meego are opensource and free, and they are designed to be used on tablets.

maybe because nobody knows what the heck maemo / meego / moblin are therefore wouldn't buy a tablet based on something they've never heard of. i'm just saying ...

Re:Why android?

[Microlith]

Where's the application infrastructure? Third parties, distribution, OS drivers, etc?

With MeeGo, it's not there. Not for MeeGo specific apps.

Well, if Acer is going to supply their own store then they're supplying the infrastructure. MeeGo is a middleware platform that resembles a standard Linux distro that pulls heavily from upstream, instead of a massive NIH effort designed around pushing Google's services out to the world.

Most of the anti-MeeGo comments I see stem mostly from not understanding what, exactly, MeeGo is supposed to be.

Re:Why android?

[Sleepy]

Nokia *alienated* their user base, sadly.

As an n800 owner, I expected the hardware would become obsolete... eventually. I could see making the n800 with built in GPS... but then the n900 as a PHONE and then signaling to the developer base that Maemo5 will abandon the 800 + 810 user base... that hurt. Then the n900 was obsoleted before it even shipped.

Nokia gets praise for making a system that was largely open, but they weren't open enough. When a product is truly open, it can not be killed by the manufacturer.

I suspect developing for MeGoo is inly slightly more relevant than developing for the nostalgia/emulator crowd.

I'd like to see a tablet that's truly open... something that encourages hacking, as in a tablet equivalent of the Arduino platform (a popular micro processor based on open sourced hardware).

Re:Why android?

[tlhIngan]

Who knows. If Acer is willing to provide their own stores they should have no problem supporting MeeGo. It may have more to do with the fact that there's no reference UI they can be lazy and make minor modifications to before pushing it out.

Ah, but there's already a supply of Android apps out there. Supply of MeeGo apps is a bit lower. If you're running a store, you might as well have something existing devs can submit apps they already have rather than write new ones.

Though, this proliferation of Android app stores has me wondering if it'll devolve into what happened with phone java apps - each dev has to negotiate with each carrier to carry their java app. Right now, most devs want the Android marketplace to get most Android devices out there, but as more Android devices get released without Google's apps and such, these alternative app stores might gain prominence.

(I'm still waiting for the Installuous app "store"...)

Re:Why android?

[Microlith]

When a product is truly open, it can not be killed by the manufacturer.

The N900 is plenty open. And my device hasn't gone tits up on me because Nokia threw some switch. And their handling of the Internet Tablets/N900 has nothing to do with MeeGo, which exists under the Linux Foundation.

I suspect developing for MeGoo is inly slightly more relevant than developing for the nostalgia/emulator crowd.

I'm confused. How is developing for a Linux distro that uses Qt as its primary toolkit like "developing for the nostalgia/emulator crowd"?

Re:Why android?

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen the Nokia C6? Cute slider phone web browser, 3G and teh wifis. Unlocked it's $250.

A European intern brought it over, bought a SIM card at&t/gophone to power it.

Runs her about $50/month with heavy usage. It's a really cool device, I'm thinking of getting one. Now if only Tracfone would start allowing cool things into their universe, it would be all good.

Re:Why android?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

I'm curious as to how every single vendor shipping a different interpretation of MeeGo is better than Android?

At least Android's compatible, if fragmented.

This is absurd! Version unknown to who?

[bogaboga]

It's currently running an unknown Android version but according to the Acer executives the tablets will be running Google's tablet version of Android, Honeycomb.

So which is which? The version of Android is unknown to who? If it were unknown to the author, he should have said so. Otherwise news snippets like these add to the notion that there is chaos in Android's ecosystem, which is incorrect.

Re:This is absurd! Version unknown to who?

[squiggleslash]

Honeycomb doesn't exist yet, so I suspect the author intended the tenses in the sentence to matter. The author doesn't know what version the tablet is running right now. Once Honeycomb is ready, it will be shipped with Honeycomb.

making up for some bad karma

[callmebill]

With an Informative! These details were on a photo in TFA of a presentation:
General Information:
Launch time: APR 2011
Positioning: Provide a complete Android tabel with full HD media and web anywhere

Features:
Dual coe 1.0 Ghz processor with Flash 10.1 support for the fasted HD web experience and multimedia playback anywhere
The latest and the highly intuitive good android tablet os and acer UI 4.5 to reach a whole new level of interactivity
SMP rear-facing camera + HD front-facing camera for vide, video chat, quickly snapping a picture and uploading it to Facebook, YoTube, Picasa, and also for barcode scanning.
HDMI output to playback HD content on DFTV or Hi_Def montor for HD extensibility.

Industrial Design:
36[?] design ensure optimal on-screen experience for every angle.
Aluminum...provide a ... tactile sensation..anodized....decorated with engraved textures...sophis

Android without Market

[tepples]

The Android market has tons of productivity apps. It has tons of shopping apps. It has tons of fitness apps.

Are these only on the Market, or are they also available as .apk files for devices without official access to the Market? As of right now, Android media players (e.g. Archos) and Android tablets without 3G tend to come without Market access.

Re:Android without Market

[drinkypoo]

ITYM most Archos tablets.

Re:Android without Market

[bemymonkey]

There are APK files floating around the web for pretty much every Android app. Just download 'em and send the dev a few bucks (most can be contacted by E-Mail or via their own support forums/bugtrackers and subsequently paid via PayPal)...

No USB == DESIGN FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

Epic design fail.

Re:No USB == DESIGN FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

Epic design fail.

Besides the fact that you're a whiny idiot, why is this an epic fail?

I have yet to think "gee, I need to plug a USB drive into my iPad".

Re:No USB == DESIGN FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

> Besides the fact that you're a whiny idiot, why is this an epic fail?

I can think of a TON of things it would be awesome to plug into this thing with USB, especially when you have a customizable OS:

* Keyboard
* Mouse
* Flash drive
* Audio interface
* Video digitizer
* Turntable
* Reading light
* Second NIC
* Price scanner
* Credit card scanner

That's just off the top of my head. If you think USB isn't useful for a tablet... well, it takes an idiot to know one.

Re:No USB == DESIGN FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, just use the friggin' bluetooth in it and add a keyboard if you need.

And, seriously ... who is going to need to hook a turn-table up to an iPad and for what? And WTF would I need a reading light on a device with a lighted screen? Fuck, I can get a flashlight app if I needed one why would I drain my battery with a night-light?

A second NIC? Credit card-scanner? Price scanner? Just how many fucking people do you think will ever hook that kind of stuff up to a tablet?

The whole point of a tablet is it's portability -- tethering it to a bunch of wires kinda defeats the whole point, no?

Oh, I see, you want to be able to install Linux on it and do a bunch of obscure things -- not because you need to, but so you can tell all of your cool friends at your LAN party how you managed to interface your fridge with your r00ted iPad that now runs HURD?

You're just not describing how people would actually use a tablet computer. You're describing a desktop.

Re:No USB == DESIGN FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

Not having a USB port is a horrible design flaw, and will result in thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lost sales. It greatly reduces the versatility and utility of the device. For me, it reduces the amount I'd pay for the device by at least $100.

I'm surprised that anybody is defending that decision. Leaving off the USB ports is the epitome of trendy form-over-function design.

Re:No USB == DESIGN FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

> The whole point of a tablet is it's portability -- tethering it to a bunch of wires kinda defeats the whole point, no?
> Oh, I see, you want to be able to install Linux on it and do a bunch of obscure things

No, I want a mobile PC that I can use a-la-carte, and this thing would fit the bill if it had USB. Pity, really -- it was so close.

The real story?

[earlymon]

I don't know that Acer rules any roost, so I think the point of this story is that tablets are getting bigger, more powerful and hopefully, as implied by the Acer name - cheaper.

So far as I can tell, the big winner here is the 10" screen - using tired old LCD tech.

Personally, I think where tablets lose is the display (not e-ink) and for those that may be interested, there's an Android tablet on the horizon with Pixel Qi tech and Qualcomm's Mirasol is also something to know about:

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2010/11/05/pixel-qi-powered-notion-ink-adam-android-tablet-in-time-for-the-holidays/

For some other tablet alternatives - http://www.anythingbutipad.com/

(I got nothing against the iPad, that's just a halfway decent site for a tablet alternative.)

My 2 cents on tablet ownership would be - match your OS to your cell phone if you can because it makes your transition from one device to another smoother and tablets should be all about ease of use. In that sense, Acer's move to offer these things in Androids and Windows shows real insight on their part (and no sad surprise - no Linux out of the box, again).

I'm OS agnostic and believe in the right OS for the job, fwiw.

Re:The real story?

[butalearner]

I don't know that Acer rules any roost, so I think the point of this story is that tablets are getting bigger, more powerful and hopefully, as implied by the Acer name - cheaper.

They don't rule, per se, but as the second largest PC manufacturer behind HP (they leapfrogged over Dell with the netbook craze), they certainly are a force. It's also very nice to know they are back on board with giving a non-Windows OS a try. I bought their first netbook with a horrible version of Linux on it (it is happy as can be running Ubuntu 10.10 now), but of course when it didn't do as well they axed the Linux line and went Windows-only. They were also one of the manufacturers that pointedly ignored producing ARM laptops for the same reason.

Re:The real story?

[Anonymous Coward]

no Linux out of the box, again

Android uses Linux.

Re:The real story?

[earlymon]

Yeah, I know. It's safer to call it a version of Linux - root it and run ps from adb and there's no doubt.

But - for those that think in terms of Linux distros with things like rpm and debian installers, Android is other.

Lousey battery life

[rahvin112]

So Tegra 2 Powered means the Battery life is what like 2 hours? No tablet will be successful with small battery life. The only way to get a successful android tablet is to at least match IMAXI er IPAD battery life.

Re:Lousey battery life

[Anonymous Coward]

You're daft. The Compal NAZ-10 (and thereon based products, like the Aigo N700) claims 16 hours of video playback.

Re:Lousey battery life

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a Tegra 2 based tablet. Battery is lasting at least nine hours with steady use.

If the damn thing was just a computer...

[maillemaker]

If the damn thing was just a computer, who would care about a fucking "app store"???

I don't go buy my PC based on writes software for it. Is this like 1975 when the hardware was thrown in for free to get you locked into their software?

Re:If the damn thing was just a computer...

[Anonymous Coward]

If the damn thing was just a computer, who would care about a fucking "app store"???

I don't go buy my PC based on writes software for it. Is this like 1975 when the hardware was thrown in for free to get you locked into their software?

Are you KIDDING? "My software wont run on it" is the CLASSIC, decades old argument against Macs & Linux & Other OS.
Are you really buying into the smoke and mirrors "the PC is going away because of the web" bullshit? Do you really think the software market is going away?
Wake up man.

No USB ? Dickheads

[Latinhypercube]

No USB ? Dickheads. Just a proprietary keyboard port, because no body has spare usb keyboards lying around right.... Fools. You'd think Apple is paying these dipshits to fuck their designs up.

Re:No USB ? Dickheads

[earlymon]

USB would give quickly allow access to USB-based devices like hard drives and burners - the apps would come.

I think the manufacturers are simply walling things in to protect their low-end laptops.

If true, I'd point the finger for the USB design shortfall at marketing and management, not R&D, fwiw.

Can you write on them like a piece of paper?

[maillemaker]

What I want to know about these tablets is: Can I write on them with a stylus and get results like writing in a notebook?

Re:Can you write on them like a piece of paper?

[darthdavid]

Not with current gen capacitive touch-screens...

Re:Can you write on them like a piece of paper?

[Marcika]

What I want to know about these tablets is: Can I write on them with a stylus and get results like writing in a notebook?

Apparently yes, but you need a special iAccessory that simulates a finger.

Re:Can you write on them like a piece of paper?

[gstoddart]

What I want to know about these tablets is: Can I write on them with a stylus and get results like writing in a notebook?

Maybe not with a stylus, but I have an app called neu.notes. (here, here, here).

You basically write/draw with your finger ... depending on how far zoomed in you are determines the effective "font size" of your writing. Say, everything from an 8 point font to a 100 point font or somesuch. You can have multiple 'notebooks', and each notebook can have multiple sheets. But, it's vector based and has several different pens which can be set to different width, color, opacity, etc.

There is no OCR abilities so it won't turn it into text for you, but if you want the results like writing into a notebook and you have an iPad, I've found it to be a damned handy app. I won't replace my actual notebooks, but in terms of being able to email a quick diagram or something, it's pretty good.

My handwriting is just as bad in the app as it is in the real world, which means it's working pretty well. :-P

Re:Can you write on them like a piece of paper?

[VonSkippy]

Sure use a Sharpie - it's like writing on glass.

Read the memo again

[paiute]

Please in the future stick to the style manual: any headline about a tablet has to include the words "iPad killer". See the previous memo about mp3 players.

Re:Whoa...

[Lumpy]

Yet the Acer will cost as MUCH as a ipad...

IT will rock if it has a 1.5ghz processor. anything less than 1ghz is dog slow on an android tablet. I also hope they do not end up stupid and cripple it with a low amount of ram.

Both of those make almost all the current android tablets suck bad.

If you want to be an early adopter

[Fnkmaster]

Buy the Viewsonic G Tablet now. The software sucks, but there are already several custom ROMs available - a port of CyanogenMod 6.1 (beta), ZPad, and TnT Lite - just check out the XDA Developers forums for all your ROM needs. It has a Tegra 2, 10" capacitive touch screen and has home/search/back/menu buttons like a proper Android device.

It runs Market and gets almost every app after applying the Market fix, all the Android games I've tried run great, YouTube is great for dumb video content in a pinch, my K-9mail push IMAP mail is there, contact sync and calendar sync with Google works, and it plays downloaded video content just fine (I haven't experimented with HD content yet - I don't really see the point on a tablet device). I like the Aldiko and Kindle e-readers and I read PDF ebooks with RepliGo Reader (better than the free Adobe Reader, IMO).

If, on the other hand, you want a tablet that works great out-of-the-box, without installing custom ROMs and recovery images, get an iPad. That's what my wife has. There aren't any Android tablets that are there yet, and most likely won't be until Android officially supports them and will let the official Market ship with the device.

But for the Slashdot early adopter set, the G Tablet is a pretty cool option that you can pick up right now for under $400 at Sears or Staples.

Re:If you want to be an early adopter

[ninjacheeseburger]

There aren't any Android tablets that are there yet, and most likely won't be until Android officially supports them and will let the official Market ship with the device.

Samsung have a tablet which looks pretty much there.

Off-topic but related

[drgould]

The Viewsonic G Tablet is out and available now at, for example, Sears for $400.

Decent specs; 10" screen, 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, 512MB RAM, 16GB flash, Android 2.2.

My impression from reading the reviews is that the hardware is decent but the software needs a little work, probably because it's just been released. If you can put some effort into tweaking it you can end up with a decent tablet, or you can wait 6 months and hopefully let Viewsonic iron out the wrinkles.

Re:No USB, are you sure?

[Overzeetop]

I think I've read about 4-5 articles, plus the press release, and it doesn't say that there is no USB terminal, or that it won't have one when it ships in (February/April) 2011. There are a lot of specs left out, and they (Acer) seemed very careful to show as little as possible about the tablet.

Except for the existence and likely delivery date, I'm guessing that a lot is subject to change.

Archos 10.1

[Gothmolly]

Why not the Archos 10 inch, which runs Android 2.2, weighs less than an iPad, and is buyable now?

Acer lacks USB ?

[Anonymous Coward]

'It lacks USB?`

"Powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, the tablet has some serious graphics chops. We saw it play a 3D game during the on-stage demo and then watched as it effortlessly handled 1080p HD video streaming from a nearby Acer laptop. Both devices feature DLNA-enabled Clear.fi, Acer's new WiFi-based content streaming and sharing technology. Acer execs said Clear.Fi. will help users create a "personal cloud." link

Sorry, back to the crib sheet fellas .. :)

Re:Whoa...

[Enderandrew]

Older builds of Android have a file system bug that causes really slow ext3 performance. The Cynogen Mod actually fixes this bug and helps with performance.

The problem is everyone shipping old verisons of Android coupled with crap-ware included that is often running in the background all the time.

Someone could put out a new, fast and clean build of Android to deliver a nice tablet experience. Sadly no one has.

WiFi only version PLEASE!!!!

[bemenaker]

If they make a wifi only version I'll buy it. I hope they do. If I have to buy another cell plan, then I won't own one.

Misread the title

[MarkGriz]

Thought this was another TSA patdown story.

a TON of things with USB

[Anonymous Coward]

Keyboard, Mouse, Flash drive, Audio interface, Video digitizer, Turntable, Reading light, Second NIC, Price scanner, Credit card scanner ..

Off the top of your head, can you provide a demo of all these devices simulation performing at full speed on a customizable OS? I want to see full video editing that doesn't freeze when you move the mouse, like on another customizable OS ..

Re:Whoa...

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a nice device, but the screen is too shiny. I wouldn't be able to see anything on it. Still holding out for my Adam (or Lattice, whichever becomes non-vaporware first).

Well friend, looks like you're in luck. The Adam has been released.

K-Mart 7" Android Tablet $180

[Doc Ruby]

Various outlets are selling for $150 a 7" Augen Gentouch78. Is it any good, considering that low, low price?

OT: Bill O'Reilly?

[emarkp]

You do know that your sig is wildly deceptive right? The statement in context is here, and is quite different from (say) Congressman Phil Hare saying he didn't care about the constitution.

Re:OT: Bill O'Reilly?

[fishexe]

My sig is not nearly as deceptive as the things O'Reilly says on his show every weeknight. The man has made a personal crusade out of shredding the Constitution so why shouldn't we hold him to account when he slips up by admitting it?

I'm also fully aware of the "context" for O'Reilly's statement and think that it actually bolsters my point. His guest was making a very good point that we should follow the Constitution in how we try terrorists. O'Reilly would have none of it; he thinks we should have trials the way Bill O'Reilly wants, Constitution be damned. That's all clear if you watch the clip.