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Asus EeePad Transformer Gets a Thumbs-Up
Android Central has taken a close look at the new Transformer tablet from Asus, giving it an overall positive review, with minor points deducted for a 'plasticy' feel. The Transformer joins the Motorola Xoom in the world of Honeycomb (Android 3.0), and has very similar, high-end specs (though it's Wi-Fi only) with one big difference: the Transformer is marketed with a not-included-in-the-price attachable keyboard that adds a secondary battery. Notably, given inevitable comparison to the Xoom, the SD card slot, and Flash 10.2, work out of the box. The reviewer says Asus has done a credible job of making Honeycomb work well with a keyboard, but I wonder what other OSes will eventually be hacked onto this device. 16 hours of battery life in a netbook-sized computer sure sounds good to me, but I might want that to be with standard Linux apps instead of only with Android.
And where do the arms and legs come out?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
"Yes, this tablet is good but it needs a keyboard."
"Ah, yes, this keyboard is fine, but it needs a real OS."
"Whoa, this OS is killing the battery, what this needs is a big ol' battery and a charger brick to charge it."
"My hand is getting tired with all the pinching and zooming. I need a good touchpad and sometimes a good mouse."
So we're just reinventing the laptop. Great. Turns out doing something productive on a tablet is borderline impossible.
Considering 95% of all tablets in the wild (meaning the iPad) have no SD Card, having a card reader in a tablet is still somewhat of a novelty. How Apple gets away with that kind of thing I'll never know.
It's notable because the SD slot on the Xoom didn't work out of the box. In fact, I don't even know if it works now, 2 months later.
I wonder why camera companies waste volume with SD cards and don't just put 32GB of flash on the MLB and call it a day.
Because photographers don't want to waste time during a picture shoot downloading all their photos through the USB port, or they want to be able to take some shots and hand the card to someone to process them while they keep the camera doing camera-like stuff.
The most expensive part of a camera is not the electronics, it's the optics. Making the optics sit idle while you deal with an electronic issue is big big waste of money and time.
The SD slot is an obsolete waste of product volume and complexity, and for some reason people (meaning people on Slashdot, not as a whole) don't seem to get it.
I don't "get it", because I use the SD slots on the devices I have to move data back and forth, and have compact storage for things I want to carry with me. Yes, it's hard to remember which card contains what, sometimes, but I've found the same problem with USB sticks. What I also like is that most of the SD slots my things have are completely internal, so there isn't anything sticking out of the device while I'm using one, unlike USB sticks which 'stick out' and get in the way.
Are you out of your mind?
Do you want to buy a new device because you suddenly need 32 gigabytes of storage instead of 16 because your media library grows? Or maybe throw the device away when flash memory starts having problems after a few years?
Well, I don't. I'd rather replace a micro sd card with a larger one.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
It's $29, and works with any camera. That's not expensive, nor is it hobbled to any but a small niche of geeks.
A USB SD card reader that reads SD/SDHC cards costs a dollar. Of course if you wanted to go with a brand name such as Sandisk for your reader that would set you back a whopping three dollars.
So Apple's dongle enjoys a mere 10 times more expensive that an equivalent reader that plugs into a USB port. And yes it is hobbled since SD cards work in a variety of roles, and in a variety of applications not just for pictures and not just in blessed apps e.g. transferring files like documents, videos & music between devices.
There is no point trying to defend this practice, it's deliberately done to fleece and limit users, no other reason.