Slashdot Mirror
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."
Does it have 3G and the wifis?
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.
"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.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
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?
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
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.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
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.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
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.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
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.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
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.
Can you take this iPad, plug it into a USB jack on any PC, and copy over whatever files you want?
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
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.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
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.
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...