3. Switch to Android, and become yet another Android also-ran with Huawei, HTC, LG, ZTE, and Motorola all fighting for sunlight behind Samsung's shadow. Nokia had some of the best designers in the business, but they would have been late to the game fighting other vendors for consumer attention. And they wouldn't even save much money, because Microsoft would have hit them with the same lawsuit it's used to extort patent fees from all of the other Android manufacturers.
- Even just two years ago, Samsung was not the massively dominant Android manufacturer it is today, and back then, most people had never heard of ZTE or Huawei, and HTC and LG didn't have anywhere near the brand recognition that Nokia has.
- While I think Samsung phones are good, they are often criticized for their unoriginal design and sub-par (plastic) build quality. Nokia, on the other hand, has long had a reputation for making phones of great build quality AND original (even "crazy") designs. They could have easily distinguished themselves in the Android marketplace.
- They would have been late to the game, but with their loyal brand following and great reputation, they could have easily pulled it off as being fashionably late.
- All the other Android manufacturers are not Nokia, which I think it's safe to say, has a massive war chest when it comes to mobile device patents, putting them in a great position had Microsoft gone after them for patents -- and this is assuming Google wouldn't have helped them out.
I think a previous comment nailed it: Nokia could have been the Samsung of Europe. I'm not even a staunch Nokia fan and I think it's sad to see what's become of them. It does give me hope to hear the news mentioned above about Newkia (though I'm guessing they won't be able to keep that name).
"...subject to approval by Nokia's shareholders, regulatory approvals and other closing conditions."
In my dreams, the shareholders revolt, backed by Finnish regulators and the Finnish people. Elop is ousted for being the trojan horse that he is. Nokia ditches Windows Phone to make smartphones running Android (at least to return to profitability in the short-term), Ubuntu Touch and/or Firefox OS.
I'd be very interested in a modern Nokia smartphone if it weren't running Windows Phone, and I know I'm not alone.
If you check batteryuniversity.com, one of the points made is that battery life can be prolonged by not charging the battery to 100%, but instead to lower voltages (i.e. only charging to 90% capacity. The lower the voltage, the more life you get out of the battery. So it could actually be that, if Apple is tweaking the cutoff point of its batteries to get better battery life, it's on the top end -- not the bottom.
Of note, this is one reason I still love Thinkpads: their Power Manager software allows you to set the maximum charge point, so you can set it to charge only up to 95% (or whatever you want) and it will do this even when rebooting into Linux, though the software must be run under Windows, of course.
I've not yet owned a Samsung smartphone, but this is one reason why my next phone will likely be one: all their phones have user-replaceable batteries. Most new phones from HTC, LG, Motorola and Sony have non-replaceable batteries. I probably would have bought a Moto X, if it had a user-replaceable battery.
What are you talking about? Given the bands supported, it will run on AT&T 2G and 3G, T-Mobile on 2G plus 3G in those areas where T-Mobile has re-farmed their 1900Mhz spectrum (see www.airportal.de). Given that it's an $80 phone, the fact that it's quad-band 3G is pretty amazing.
Except that there's no evidence that that's the direction things are headed in. Samsung isn't gaining market share at Apple's expense—it's gaining market share at the expense of all the other players in the market, and by expanding the market to new customers on the low end.
Dan Aris
I think you just contradicted yourself. Yes, Android is gaining global market share, largely due to it's dominance in countries like China -- that was my point, and it seems you agree. If this plays out as it has been (Android gaining a few percentage points of market share each quarter), and looking at the global picture (i.e. the billions in the developing world who will upgrade from their dumbphone to a cheap Android smartphone) things are definitely moving in the direction of iPhones having only 10% of the global smartphone market share. For evidence, according to Gartner, the iPhone had 9% market share of all mobile phone (smart and dumb phone) sales in the first quarter of 2013. Of global smartphone market it share, it dropped from 22.5% to 18.2% in the course of a year (Q1 2012 to Q2 2013), and in that same time, Android increased from 56.9% to 74.4% smartphone market share.
The point, in case it wasn't clear, is that in 5-10 years, Apple will have 10% of the smartphone market share (and in 5-10 years, all phones will be smartphones). Looking at the numbers above, it looks more like they'll be lucky to have even that in 5 years.
1. Investors are obsessed with growth. Obviously China is the biggest growth market there is. If you hadn't noticed, Apple's stock has gone from its all time high of $700 a mere 10 months ago to its current price of $440.
2. Every report that comes out saying Android has gained more market share makes it appear as though Apple is losing the war for the hearts and minds of mobile phone users -- and people tend to have an aversion to joining the "losing" team. The fact that Apple has massive profits, as you pointed out, is not exactly a selling point to consumers.
Don't worry, I'm sure you'll still be able to buy Apple hardware for years to come, but it's increasingly looking like the case in 5-10 years will be that iPhones have a 10% market share a la Windows vs. Mac, but this time around, instead of Apple being the product of choice for hip artsy types because "it's better for music and graphic design", it will be the product of choice for old fartsy types (like my parents) because "I don't want to learn something new".
(Just an example: Putting music on an iPhone can only be described as frustrating; particularly if you're using a computer that is not your own. On an Android or BlackBerry phone, you simply copy it over like it's a flash drive. No hassle, no "syncing", and no clunky software required. It just works.)
I was also going to mention this point. For a region where pirated media is the norm, it must certainly be unappealing to have transfer it from a computer using iTunes. One of the most ridiculous things I find about iPhones is the inability to simply download and save an mp3 file from a website: you can play it, but if actually want to save it, you have to get a special app, and then you can only download the mp3 and play it from within that app. Given that people are increasingly relying on their smartphone as their primary computer or even their only computer, this issue can't be overlooked, especially if Apple is going to begin trying to compete with Android on price (which I think is the main reason China prefers Android).
Even if MS did pull a fire-sale and dropped the price to $100, it wouldn't compare to the HP Touchpad fire-sale of 2 years ago for these reasons:
1. 2 years ago it was near impossible to get a decent tablet for under $200. In the past few weeks the Nexus 7 was on clearance for $150. Decent, no-name Android tablets can be found for under $100.
2. Far more people now already have a tablet in their household to play with. When the Touchpad dropped to $100, for many people (myself included) it was a golden opportunity to try out the whole tablet experience at a no-brainer cost. I suspected I really had no use for a tablet, and for $100 I was able to dink around with one and prove myself right. I and others like me don't need to do that again, especially given the next point...
3. It was practically certain when the Touchpad went fire-sale that it could be made to run Android, thus guaranteeing that the tablet would have a life regardless of what happened with webOS. This isn't the case with the Surface RT, and I don't see Microsoft making it easy to change this, even if it could save them millions of dollars.
4. It's Microsoft, and given the number of customers they've pissed off, there are a lot of people who just want to give them the finger.
I'm not saying Surface RTs wouldn't sell at $100 - I'm just saying there wouldn't be anywhere the kind of craze to get one like there was with the Touchpad. Even at $50, I'd still be asking the question "But can it run Android?"
Are you actually trying to make the argument that Samsung's success as an Android device manufacturer, which largely came with the devices released after the "copied Apple" ones in question (which, it's been shown, Apple used Photoshopped evidence in making its case for), is entirely based upon the fact that, under your assumption, their first generation devices looked more like an Apple's than the devices released by other manufacturers? Really?
I'm no die-hard linux fanatic, but this coming year really does seem like an incredibly ripe opportunity for Linux on the desktop.
Consider Google's Chrome OS. All they would have to do is start distributing an ISO that allows it to be easily installed (currently not the case) and they could easily take advantage of the coming news headlines about Windows XP biting the dust: a lightweight, free, secure operating system that will allow millions of people to "save" their old computers by giving them a simple and secure means of getting to an already familiar web browser (which is all that most people on XP-era hardware need anyway).
Now if only they would release it with a non-PAE kernel so that it can actually *run* on older XP-era hardware (currently not the case).
However, just in case Google doesn't have that in mind, or just because you don't want Google to rule the world -- seriously, Linux gurus, how hard can it be to put together a dekstop linux distro which:
- runs on a single core computer with 512MB to 1GB of RAM
- loads a solid but simple window manager / desktop with a simple and elegant Wi-Fi interface (Chromium OS is nice in this regard)
- runs auto-updating Chrome or Firefox (if I'm not mistaken, Chromium OS, the open source version of Chrome OS, doesn't auto-update)
No calculator, no image viewer, no document editor - just give me a lightweight distro that gets people securely into a web browser and I'll throw that on every XP-era system I can.
I'd do it myself if I had the know how, but I don't. However I would be willing to provide suggestions, encouragement and feedback to anyone who can and is willing. Seriously.
I was considering purchase of a Galaxy S2 in the next 12 hours. Now I can't justify spending the money on it knowing it has a gaping security hole.
Is there a possibility this could affect the similarly spec'd Samsung Galaxy S Advance? It has a STE U8500 chipset so if it's truly only an Exynos chipset vulnerability it should be fine, but this leaves me wondering about Samsung. Perhaps more telling would be waiting to see what, if anything, Samsung does about this.
Feeling bad about the sad things happening in the world solves nothing.
"Ricard donates all proceeds of his books to 110 humanitarian projects which have built schools for 21,000 children and provide healthcare for 100,000 patients a year."
Given this (taken from the article), it sounds to me like he certainly sympathizes with those in unfortunate situations and does what he can to help make their lives better.
I guess it depends on how you define portability. As someone who stuffs a ~1.2" thick Thinkpad T400 into a carry-on-sized backpack, one of the requirements of my next notebook is that it is thin - at least under an inch. Sure, a pound heavier or lighter will make some difference on my back when carrying it, but regardless of that, if it's thin I'll have an easier time stuffing into an already stuffed carry-on bag.
As for your case in particular, you don't really say how you plan to use your phone, but since you have a smartphone and assuming you want to use it as such, the T-Mobile $30/month no contract plan (online or through Walmart, as others have mentioned) is probably your best option. However, if you're in an area with poor T-Mobile coverage, check the link above for other virtual providers that offer service on AT&T's network.
I see this as a method of protest that will send a clear message to the PC makers and Microsoft:
1. Buy a new Windows 8 laptop from a reseller who doesn't charge a restocking fee.
2. Open the box (at least). If you feel like it, try installing X flavor of Linux (except Ubuntu, apparently).
3. Return it the next day. Reason for return: can't install X flavor of Linux. If the customer service person happens to be savvy enough to say "You just need to disable Secure Boot", say you bought the laptop because it included that feature, because you heard it improved security. If you have to disable it, you no longer want it, and you'll keep using your old laptop.
If enough manufacturers are seeing this reason for return and losing money because of it, you can be sure they'll start bitching to Microsoft.
Buy a computer with Windows 8, get a free Window Phone with 2-year contract.
Not that the artificially inflated sales figures will save them, but by then maybe Nokia stock will be worthless enough for Microsoft to buy them (that is the plan, right?) and begin suing everyone they can with Nokia's patent portfolio.
Either you have to acknowledge that tablets can easily attach keyboards
which essentially makes them into laptops...
or you have to force the PC to be touch screen only to have a fair comparison.
which is where things seem to be going. Windows 8 seems to be expressly designed with the realization that it would be really easy to make the display of your laptop or desktop into a touchscreen and thus have the best of both worlds. I'd be amazed if Apple isn't working on the very same thing.
Personally I'd be totally fine using a device with all the computing power behind the screen (as in a tablet) along with a *good* attachable keyboard, but I see one major problem to that at present: weight distribution. When using the device as a laptop, you'd either need a heavy enough keyboard to keep the screen from falling back (which kills the portability factor) or you need a flip-out stand as used on the Surface - which seems fine for a tabletop, but imagine trying to use that on your lap.
Really, when you add up the weight of a 10" tablet (new iPad: 1.5 lbs) and a protective cover (4 or 5 ounces), you're not far off from the weight of the small-screen ultrabooks (MacBook Air 11" being 2.38 lbs). Add in a bluetooth keyboard or keyboard-cover and it gets a bit silly.
At least for the near-term future, my guess is that touchscreen ultrabooks will become the standard solution for anyone needing a very portable computing device that allows them to get any actual work done (where said work involves typing more than a sentence or two).
Thanks for posting that video. That guy is clearly someone who is aware of how technology, the internet and approaching education socially can improve education, and is actually making it happen. For those that don't have time to watch the entire video (it's 53 minutes) the Puzzle Quest bit is in the last ten minutes, but I do think you need to watch the whole thing for the background, especially for the karma points aspect.
Show me an Android smartphone from a reputable manufacturer that has penta-band 3G (850/900/1700/1900/2100) which will get 3G (W-CDMA) reception in any country in the world. I'll save you the time and tell you there are two: Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and LG's Doubleplay. Not exactly a lot of options.
On the other hand, Nokia has released 20 devices that have penta-band 3G connectivity. Unfortunately they're all running Symbian or Windows Phone (the Lumia 710).
While this may seem like a trivial factor that only applies to world travelers, it's actually an issue for anyone wanting a GSM-based phone in the US. Anyone with an AT&T iPhone who has unlocked it to run on T-Mobile knows that you won't get 3G access because it's missing the 1700 band used by T-Mobile. The fact is that very few non-Nokia smartphones are built with 3G reception for both AT&T and T-Mobile (big surprise). I can only guess that this is because Nokia owns the patents related to 3G radios and other manufacturers have to pay a licensing fee for each band used in their devices.
The point is, Nokia could distinguish itself as an Android device manufacturer. They've made some great phones when it comes to hardware. Unfortunately they've made some poor choices when it comes to software. The day a quality Android ROM is ported to one of their smartphones may just be the day that I buy another Nokia.
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Exactly. How would a larger chunk of flash require more power?
They didn't go to 128GB because they need that for next year's tiny list of "vast improvements".
3. Switch to Android, and become yet another Android also-ran with Huawei, HTC, LG, ZTE, and Motorola all fighting for sunlight behind Samsung's shadow. Nokia had some of the best designers in the business, but they would have been late to the game fighting other vendors for consumer attention. And they wouldn't even save much money, because Microsoft would have hit them with the same lawsuit it's used to extort patent fees from all of the other Android manufacturers.
- Even just two years ago, Samsung was not the massively dominant Android manufacturer it is today, and back then, most people had never heard of ZTE or Huawei, and HTC and LG didn't have anywhere near the brand recognition that Nokia has.
- While I think Samsung phones are good, they are often criticized for their unoriginal design and sub-par (plastic) build quality. Nokia, on the other hand, has long had a reputation for making phones of great build quality AND original (even "crazy") designs. They could have easily distinguished themselves in the Android marketplace.
- They would have been late to the game, but with their loyal brand following and great reputation, they could have easily pulled it off as being fashionably late.
- All the other Android manufacturers are not Nokia, which I think it's safe to say, has a massive war chest when it comes to mobile device patents, putting them in a great position had Microsoft gone after them for patents -- and this is assuming Google wouldn't have helped them out.
I think a previous comment nailed it: Nokia could have been the Samsung of Europe. I'm not even a staunch Nokia fan and I think it's sad to see what's become of them. It does give me hope to hear the news mentioned above about Newkia (though I'm guessing they won't be able to keep that name).
which makes you look like a bigger tool: holding your over-sized phone up to your ear, or holding your watch up to your ear?
(I'll stick with my 3.3"-screen smartphone, thank you.)
"...subject to approval by Nokia's shareholders, regulatory approvals and other closing conditions."
In my dreams, the shareholders revolt, backed by Finnish regulators and the Finnish people. Elop is ousted for being the trojan horse that he is. Nokia ditches Windows Phone to make smartphones running Android (at least to return to profitability in the short-term), Ubuntu Touch and/or Firefox OS.
I'd be very interested in a modern Nokia smartphone if it weren't running Windows Phone, and I know I'm not alone.
If you check batteryuniversity.com, one of the points made is that battery life can be prolonged by not charging the battery to 100%, but instead to lower voltages (i.e. only charging to 90% capacity. The lower the voltage, the more life you get out of the battery. So it could actually be that, if Apple is tweaking the cutoff point of its batteries to get better battery life, it's on the top end -- not the bottom.
How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries
Of note, this is one reason I still love Thinkpads: their Power Manager software allows you to set the maximum charge point, so you can set it to charge only up to 95% (or whatever you want) and it will do this even when rebooting into Linux, though the software must be run under Windows, of course.
I've not yet owned a Samsung smartphone, but this is one reason why my next phone will likely be one: all their phones have user-replaceable batteries. Most new phones from HTC, LG, Motorola and Sony have non-replaceable batteries. I probably would have bought a Moto X, if it had a user-replaceable battery.
Vote with your dollar.
What are you talking about? Given the bands supported, it will run on AT&T 2G and 3G, T-Mobile on 2G plus 3G in those areas where T-Mobile has re-farmed their 1900Mhz spectrum (see www.airportal.de). Given that it's an $80 phone, the fact that it's quad-band 3G is pretty amazing.
Except that there's no evidence that that's the direction things are headed in. Samsung isn't gaining market share at Apple's expense—it's gaining market share at the expense of all the other players in the market, and by expanding the market to new customers on the low end.
Dan Aris
I think you just contradicted yourself. Yes, Android is gaining global market share, largely due to it's dominance in countries like China -- that was my point, and it seems you agree. If this plays out as it has been (Android gaining a few percentage points of market share each quarter), and looking at the global picture (i.e. the billions in the developing world who will upgrade from their dumbphone to a cheap Android smartphone) things are definitely moving in the direction of iPhones having only 10% of the global smartphone market share. For evidence, according to Gartner, the iPhone had 9% market share of all mobile phone (smart and dumb phone) sales in the first quarter of 2013. Of global smartphone market it share, it dropped from 22.5% to 18.2% in the course of a year (Q1 2012 to Q2 2013), and in that same time, Android increased from 56.9% to 74.4% smartphone market share.
The point, in case it wasn't clear, is that in 5-10 years, Apple will have 10% of the smartphone market share (and in 5-10 years, all phones will be smartphones). Looking at the numbers above, it looks more like they'll be lucky to have even that in 5 years.
1. Investors are obsessed with growth. Obviously China is the biggest growth market there is. If you hadn't noticed, Apple's stock has gone from its all time high of $700 a mere 10 months ago to its current price of $440.
2. Every report that comes out saying Android has gained more market share makes it appear as though Apple is losing the war for the hearts and minds of mobile phone users -- and people tend to have an aversion to joining the "losing" team. The fact that Apple has massive profits, as you pointed out, is not exactly a selling point to consumers.
Don't worry, I'm sure you'll still be able to buy Apple hardware for years to come, but it's increasingly looking like the case in 5-10 years will be that iPhones have a 10% market share a la Windows vs. Mac, but this time around, instead of Apple being the product of choice for hip artsy types because "it's better for music and graphic design", it will be the product of choice for old fartsy types (like my parents) because "I don't want to learn something new".
(Just an example: Putting music on an iPhone can only be described as frustrating; particularly if you're using a computer that is not your own. On an Android or BlackBerry phone, you simply copy it over like it's a flash drive. No hassle, no "syncing", and no clunky software required. It just works.)
I was also going to mention this point. For a region where pirated media is the norm, it must certainly be unappealing to have transfer it from a computer using iTunes. One of the most ridiculous things I find about iPhones is the inability to simply download and save an mp3 file from a website: you can play it, but if actually want to save it, you have to get a special app, and then you can only download the mp3 and play it from within that app. Given that people are increasingly relying on their smartphone as their primary computer or even their only computer, this issue can't be overlooked, especially if Apple is going to begin trying to compete with Android on price (which I think is the main reason China prefers Android).
Even if MS did pull a fire-sale and dropped the price to $100, it wouldn't compare to the HP Touchpad fire-sale of 2 years ago for these reasons:
1. 2 years ago it was near impossible to get a decent tablet for under $200. In the past few weeks the Nexus 7 was on clearance for $150. Decent, no-name Android tablets can be found for under $100.
2. Far more people now already have a tablet in their household to play with. When the Touchpad dropped to $100, for many people (myself included) it was a golden opportunity to try out the whole tablet experience at a no-brainer cost. I suspected I really had no use for a tablet, and for $100 I was able to dink around with one and prove myself right. I and others like me don't need to do that again, especially given the next point...
3. It was practically certain when the Touchpad went fire-sale that it could be made to run Android, thus guaranteeing that the tablet would have a life regardless of what happened with webOS. This isn't the case with the Surface RT, and I don't see Microsoft making it easy to change this, even if it could save them millions of dollars.
4. It's Microsoft, and given the number of customers they've pissed off, there are a lot of people who just want to give them the finger.
I'm not saying Surface RTs wouldn't sell at $100 - I'm just saying there wouldn't be anywhere the kind of craze to get one like there was with the Touchpad. Even at $50, I'd still be asking the question "But can it run Android?"
Sounds like astroturf - especially without a source.
Are you actually trying to make the argument that Samsung's success as an Android device manufacturer, which largely came with the devices released after the "copied Apple" ones in question (which, it's been shown, Apple used Photoshopped evidence in making its case for), is entirely based upon the fact that, under your assumption, their first generation devices looked more like an Apple's than the devices released by other manufacturers? Really?
I thought Google was only driving cars.
I'm no die-hard linux fanatic, but this coming year really does seem like an incredibly ripe opportunity for Linux on the desktop.
Consider Google's Chrome OS. All they would have to do is start distributing an ISO that allows it to be easily installed (currently not the case) and they could easily take advantage of the coming news headlines about Windows XP biting the dust: a lightweight, free, secure operating system that will allow millions of people to "save" their old computers by giving them a simple and secure means of getting to an already familiar web browser (which is all that most people on XP-era hardware need anyway).
Now if only they would release it with a non-PAE kernel so that it can actually *run* on older XP-era hardware (currently not the case).
However, just in case Google doesn't have that in mind, or just because you don't want Google to rule the world -- seriously, Linux gurus, how hard can it be to put together a dekstop linux distro which:
- runs on a single core computer with 512MB to 1GB of RAM
- loads a solid but simple window manager / desktop with a simple and elegant Wi-Fi interface (Chromium OS is nice in this regard)
- runs auto-updating Chrome or Firefox (if I'm not mistaken, Chromium OS, the open source version of Chrome OS, doesn't auto-update)
No calculator, no image viewer, no document editor - just give me a lightweight distro that gets people securely into a web browser and I'll throw that on every XP-era system I can.
I'd do it myself if I had the know how, but I don't. However I would be willing to provide suggestions, encouragement and feedback to anyone who can and is willing. Seriously.
They'll release an update. It'll work with the newest camera and not yours. That's what you should expect when buying Sony.
I was considering purchase of a Galaxy S2 in the next 12 hours. Now I can't justify spending the money on it knowing it has a gaping security hole. Is there a possibility this could affect the similarly spec'd Samsung Galaxy S Advance? It has a STE U8500 chipset so if it's truly only an Exynos chipset vulnerability it should be fine, but this leaves me wondering about Samsung. Perhaps more telling would be waiting to see what, if anything, Samsung does about this.
Feeling bad about the sad things happening in the world solves nothing.
"Ricard donates all proceeds of his books to 110 humanitarian projects which have built schools for 21,000 children and provide healthcare for 100,000 patients a year."
Given this (taken from the article), it sounds to me like he certainly sympathizes with those in unfortunate situations and does what he can to help make their lives better.
I guess it depends on how you define portability. As someone who stuffs a ~1.2" thick Thinkpad T400 into a carry-on-sized backpack, one of the requirements of my next notebook is that it is thin - at least under an inch. Sure, a pound heavier or lighter will make some difference on my back when carrying it, but regardless of that, if it's thin I'll have an easier time stuffing into an already stuffed carry-on bag.
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/usa.php -- A good list of prepaid providers both in the US (on that page) and in every country in the world.
As for your case in particular, you don't really say how you plan to use your phone, but since you have a smartphone and assuming you want to use it as such, the T-Mobile $30/month no contract plan (online or through Walmart, as others have mentioned) is probably your best option. However, if you're in an area with poor T-Mobile coverage, check the link above for other virtual providers that offer service on AT&T's network.
I see this as a method of protest that will send a clear message to the PC makers and Microsoft:
1. Buy a new Windows 8 laptop from a reseller who doesn't charge a restocking fee.
2. Open the box (at least). If you feel like it, try installing X flavor of Linux (except Ubuntu, apparently).
3. Return it the next day. Reason for return: can't install X flavor of Linux. If the customer service person happens to be savvy enough to say "You just need to disable Secure Boot", say you bought the laptop because it included that feature, because you heard it improved security. If you have to disable it, you no longer want it, and you'll keep using your old laptop.
If enough manufacturers are seeing this reason for return and losing money because of it, you can be sure they'll start bitching to Microsoft.
Buy a computer with Windows 8, get a free Window Phone with 2-year contract.
Not that the artificially inflated sales figures will save them, but by then maybe Nokia stock will be worthless enough for Microsoft to buy them (that is the plan, right?) and begin suing everyone they can with Nokia's patent portfolio.
Either you have to acknowledge that tablets can easily attach keyboards
which essentially makes them into laptops...
or you have to force the PC to be touch screen only to have a fair comparison.
which is where things seem to be going. Windows 8 seems to be expressly designed with the realization that it would be really easy to make the display of your laptop or desktop into a touchscreen and thus have the best of both worlds. I'd be amazed if Apple isn't working on the very same thing.
Personally I'd be totally fine using a device with all the computing power behind the screen (as in a tablet) along with a *good* attachable keyboard, but I see one major problem to that at present: weight distribution. When using the device as a laptop, you'd either need a heavy enough keyboard to keep the screen from falling back (which kills the portability factor) or you need a flip-out stand as used on the Surface - which seems fine for a tabletop, but imagine trying to use that on your lap.
Really, when you add up the weight of a 10" tablet (new iPad: 1.5 lbs) and a protective cover (4 or 5 ounces), you're not far off from the weight of the small-screen ultrabooks (MacBook Air 11" being 2.38 lbs). Add in a bluetooth keyboard or keyboard-cover and it gets a bit silly.
At least for the near-term future, my guess is that touchscreen ultrabooks will become the standard solution for anyone needing a very portable computing device that allows them to get any actual work done (where said work involves typing more than a sentence or two).
Thanks for posting that video. That guy is clearly someone who is aware of how technology, the internet and approaching education socially can improve education, and is actually making it happen. For those that don't have time to watch the entire video (it's 53 minutes) the Puzzle Quest bit is in the last ten minutes, but I do think you need to watch the whole thing for the background, especially for the karma points aspect.
Show me an Android smartphone from a reputable manufacturer that has penta-band 3G (850/900/1700/1900/2100) which will get 3G (W-CDMA) reception in any country in the world. I'll save you the time and tell you there are two: Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and LG's Doubleplay. Not exactly a lot of options.
On the other hand, Nokia has released 20 devices that have penta-band 3G connectivity. Unfortunately they're all running Symbian or Windows Phone (the Lumia 710).
While this may seem like a trivial factor that only applies to world travelers, it's actually an issue for anyone wanting a GSM-based phone in the US. Anyone with an AT&T iPhone who has unlocked it to run on T-Mobile knows that you won't get 3G access because it's missing the 1700 band used by T-Mobile. The fact is that very few non-Nokia smartphones are built with 3G reception for both AT&T and T-Mobile (big surprise). I can only guess that this is because Nokia owns the patents related to 3G radios and other manufacturers have to pay a licensing fee for each band used in their devices.
The point is, Nokia could distinguish itself as an Android device manufacturer. They've made some great phones when it comes to hardware. Unfortunately they've made some poor choices when it comes to software. The day a quality Android ROM is ported to one of their smartphones may just be the day that I buy another Nokia.