Courier was more of a form factor than anything else. MS needs to start from scratch with the OS and build it to suit the form factor not shoe horn what they already have into something new. I think they have enough talent to do it, but I don't know if they have the vision to really "get it" from a users perspective.
I've done pretty much the same thing, I only take my laptop with me if I have wiring or domain related work to do. My iPad (or occasionally my G-Tablet) have replaced my notebook, my DSi, my wireless troubleshooting gear and my service ticket book. Its done wonders for my back. I still do the major work on my desktop at home but for daily visits to my clients I haven't found anything I really cant do.
Your welcome...just figured I would share the fact that there really are practical uses for tablets. While your absolutely right about developers from a volume standpoint...I really think it will happen quicker than most expect. Just look at how fast apps starting getting native support on the iPad. Though the selection isn't as deep there the Google Marketplace has most of the bases covered and its only going to get better. Honeycomb will at least I hope will reduce fragmentation and encourage more developers to jump on board. The first gen just like with the iPad will likely be nothing but ports of existing apps, but native apps will soon follow that will take advantage of the real estate and power. I know several local developers that are chomping at the bit to get started up until build once deploy many is really possible they just haven't found it practical.
OSX Server isn't going away, just the low volume ugly rackmount box. I have actually had several clients approach me about the Mac Mini server, most didn't know apple made any servers at all. Though its not there speed wise yet (an i7 next gen could change that), the new mini is as if not more capable and its much more affordable easier to integrate into a small business. The Mac Pro is fully capable of running OSX server as well and those have long surpassed the Xserve hardware wise.
Im really hoping that honeycomb will change that, while the fragmentation problem is certainly real, its really not the hardware folks fault as much as it is Google's. Google put a restriction list on Android that made it impossible for anything that isn't a phone to fully comply enough to provide access to things like the Market Place and Google Experience, as a result the only "full" android experiences were the few tablets that had "oversized phone" features that many people simply don't need. Honeycomb will hopefully loosen those requirements and allow vendors to get more inline and lessen the fragmentation issue while providing a better end user experience...at that point I really think developers will be more inclined to jump on board.
I've actually found a business segment where the iPad has made a near perfect replacement for the traditional laptop. I don't see MS catching up anytime soon. I just finished up a 4 month project to get one my clients moved to iPad's for courtroom usage. I was approached by the Sr Partner in the firm to come up with a way for him to use his new toy back in August. I was then given an iPad and list of "requirements". It needed to be able to send and receive email, edit word and pdf's, sync with the firms docket calendar, record dictation in a standard format that would be emailable and would be foot pedal compatible and access documents back in the office. After evaluating a ton of products I chose Pages, Evernote, Drop Box and Dictate on Demand with Team Viewer as an option for the more advanced. It worked so well that the Sr Partner decided everyone needed one.
Now everything they did on a notebook and a digital recorder requiring over $800 in software (MS Office, Gear Player, Adobe Acrobat, etc) has been replaced with a $800 worth of hardware and apps. So far its worked great the most expensive part aside from the iPad itself was the Dictation program which apparently they are quite proud of (it was $99). I had to wait a while for things to get out of beta, but when they say there is an app for that, they aren't kidding. Paired with a bluetooth keyboard (we picked up leather cases from Think Geek that have a keyboard built into the lid) they have all the capability they had with 4x the battery life, better connectivity and all the functionality the needed for a fraction of the price. For me its been great..no mid day treks to the courthouse or off hour support calls because the laptop crashed, got infected or randomly glitched. So far none have had any real issues at all that weren't simply lack of familiarity with the applications. It's going to take an awful lot for MS to be able to compete, windows 7 and its core applications simply aren't designed for finger input, instant on isnt going to happen unless its imbedded and then there is the issue of getting developers on board...based on their tack record with Windows Mobile I don't see it happening any time soon. I really think the biggest rival is going to Google assuming Honeycomb is as good as I hope it will be.
I like the simplicity...and it even seems tablet friendly so far. It appears to resize and render well on the ipad...some overlap issues on my android tablet but its still usable.
Thank god...I loved the first one but the second and third were so awful I havent been able to even watch the first one since..there was alot of potential but they killed it...let it stay dead.
does this mean we can forget the second and third
on
The Matrix Re-Reloaded
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· Score: 1
If they really need to do a 4th and 5th, perhaps it should open with Neo waking up after a bad reaction from having taken the Blue pill in the first movie...then we can all just pretend that the 2nd and 3rd were just figments of his imagination.
The people watching are fans the people seeking out the sneak peeks, virals, bloopers, etc are also fans. Its not like they are going to loose anything by letting this stuff get out. Most fan sites are good about hiding "spoilers" for those that don't want to know..and for those that do all it does is generate hype and buzz...which usually is something niche programming clamors for.
I have a friend who is semi-retired or was until suddenly the higher up's realized that all the young staff they had hired had great php and perl skills but didnt have any skills related to the legacy systems they had in house...they built a beautiful shiny front end but when it came time to make changes at the backend there was a sudden dearth of programmers that could handle it due to the managements lack of foresight. As a result the friend I mentioned was begged to come back to his old position (he had been laid off over a year prior...which is what spurned the desire for retirement), he refused but offered to come in as a consultant...now he has raped them for over a year at nearly 3x his old salary.
They had me until I saw an interview last week where the rep mentioned it had 2.2 and not really needing 2.3 because they have their own solution for voip...then when asked about honeycomb the reply was that most of that stuff they had their own solution as well...then android marketplace was mentioned and the reply was that they would have their own marketplace. Now i've gone from a must buy to a must watch....it just dont trust that the company is going to support it very well when upgrades roll around...the Xoom is starting to look like the better option for now.
There is no law stating they have to provide you access to do so...just that you can do what you want with your phone...your still free to look for or build another solution, just no Chevron. Rather suprising move though, you would think MS would overlook this simply for fear of upseting and driving away an already fragile userbase.
I had the aversion to non-physical media for quite a while..but like most I have found digital to be acceptable in quality (for me music is mostly for background noise and even with headphones a higher bit-rate sounds "good enough" for me). With a little redundancy in the home network the "collection" is assured to last. The biggest hurdle for me was will an MP3 be playable 20 years from now...but after thinking about it, the likelihood of being able to play a digital based format is probably much higher than being able to play a physical one, how many 8-track, turntable or cassette players do you see these days? I'm more willing to bet on the longevity of the digital copies. As for album artwork and liner notes...there really hasn't been much effort put in to those in years so the labels have managed to reduce the desire for those on their own. I still buy the occasional CD but the first thing I do is rip them and then put the original on a shelf to collect dust.
Lets see every carrier having at least a couple android phones vs one carrier with a single phone the only news would be that it took this long. When a single model of android based phone on a single carrier overtakes the iphone then it will be news. I have an Vibrant myself...love it but by the same token my mother has an android phone and didn't even know it was android until I pointed it out to her. She picked up a My Touch a few months back because it was free with her contract renewal and it was pretty. Its great that Android has made such headway but lets be real, while some are actively seeking out a decent android phone because its running android, many people are getting android phones because some are cheap and/or free from their carrier. They really cant be compared.
Would it not have been fairly simple to put in some sort of security that basically warned when an authorized SIM was being used outside what should have been a fixed location? Hell for that matter wouldnt a simple alarm when the sim was removed been sufficient. Hard to believe a team of engineers would overlook or simply dismiss such a gaping flaw.
Been there done that no one cared. Everytime a thread about tablets comes up there are a flood of posts about how they all suck because they don't have this or that and usually about how they don't have a "real" OS. Motion Computing, Fujitsu, HP and several others have wasted plenty of effort to bring slate computers with full operating systems, styluses, miniature physical keyboards, etc, no one bought them. The simple fact is that every attempt at a tablet has failed up until the ipad was released, Google is following the lesson learned properly and is also locking things down and simplifying things. I think what most geeks whining about what is lacking on tablets are missing the point....though they want want it bristling with features, menu's, dangly bits and expandability, the vast majority of normal people just want a nice user experience, both Apple and Google are doing a nice job of that...sometimes simple is simply better, the more crap you have to support the more complicated it becomes. I really don't see the majority of vendors willing to give up the target user base to placate a couple of geeks that think everyone else wants the same things they could have had for the past 10 years or so if they had actually supported any of the earlier efforts.
The multiple app store shenanigans are going to be the hardest thing for Android to overcome if google wants to take a serious bite out of apple. The iPads success isn't hardware as much as it is standardization. Of course google non-support for tablets is the reason...but google enabled the situation to get out of hand. Hopefully honeycomb will fix that.
Wow between this and yesterdays announcement that they will have sub-$300 3d tv's by the end of 2011 it looks like maybe the others should start taking Vizio seriously. I have Vizio in my bedroom that I picked up cheap...figured it was garbage but at a good price...so far it has outlast the samsung I had the living room and actually has what at least to me appears to be a better picture than the one that replaced it. I really dont see OnLive taking over the consoles any time soon but for the casual crowd it may make quite a dent.
Umm if expedia was responsible for the "extra business" that implies that they are rooms that would otherwise have gone empty, thus any profit margin was more than they were going to have. I do think its funny that once something like expedia, hotels.com, orbitz, etc shows a moderate level of success businesses involved tend to try and dismiss them as unncessary and completely forget the empty seats and rooms that came before.
Geez where is the love for the G Tab? Viewsonic has had a Tegra 2 tablet with a dual arm processor on the shelves for months. Sure the default interface is crap...but its nearly the exact specs hardware wise as the "announced" tablets and a standard andoid 2.2 install is pretty simple on the device. The really funny part is the several of the "announced" tablets are actually rebadged viewsonic.
The galaxy S i have is actually the phone not the tablet:) I have played around with the Galaxy Tab...its ok but for something a bit more future-proof im really starting to like the Viewsonic G Tablet...it's for some odd reason available at Sears. It has a dual core 1ghz arm, Tegra 2 graphics, etc....the default interface is crap but there are homebrew builds easily available for download that make it pretty much the best Android tablet out there at the moment...oh most important feature..it has a capacitive screen like the ipad...much better than the resistive that most of the android tabs currently have. Oh its cheaper than the Galaxy Tab 2...around $375
Please explain where the "bullshit" is? The devices I mention are an Archos 7 Home Internet Tablet, An aPad and my Samsung Galaxy S. None are even remotely similar interface or app set wise beyond all having the little green robot show up when they boot. As I stated, denial isn't helping, why cant android fanboys figure that out...its as bad as apple zealots that dismiss areas that are lacking when they all know the minute Apple announced they have suddenly "invented" it again...it will become a feature they couldn't live without. It really is ok to like something and still be critical of it...there is simply no other way to improve upon something without it.
There is a big difference between obsoleteness and fragmentation, support for older devices has always been an issue of "we'll take what we can get" when it comes to technology. The problem with Android is that you can buy half a dozen currently on the shelf products and find that none are running android the same. The 3 devices I have were all purchased this year, one has 1.5, one has 1.6 and one has 2.1, 1 has google apps the other 2 don't come with, 1 has a custom front end with swipe, one has a custom front end that makes it almost unnavigable and one has a vanilla dated android front end with half the default stuff missing. I like android as much as anyone but burying our heads in the sand and pretending the problems don't exist isn't supporting the platform its supporting a path that will inevitably lead to its demise. While I like the idea of open source, Google needs to put their foot down and at least come up with a set of minimal standards that require manufacturers to comply with them for the platforms own good. As it is now its great for a geek that knows what he is doing but for the average consumer without a lot of research and someone to hold their hand has no idea what they are going to get when they go to buy an android device. I cant even count how many times I have had clients ignore my advice and go out and buy a cheap piece of crap since the cheaper one ran android too....then I have to deal with them pissed off with me that they have a version that doesn't sync with exchange or doesn't have google apps, or is missing media players, etc.
Because whenever fragmentation is mentioned the bozos pretend it isn't a real issue? I have 3 android devices in my home...none of them run the same version, one has google apps natively, one has a hack to get it and the other one I haven't even bothered with because its too much of a pain in the ass. All have different front ends as well...
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Courier was more of a form factor than anything else. MS needs to start from scratch with the OS and build it to suit the form factor not shoe horn what they already have into something new. I think they have enough talent to do it, but I don't know if they have the vision to really "get it" from a users perspective.
I've done pretty much the same thing, I only take my laptop with me if I have wiring or domain related work to do. My iPad (or occasionally my G-Tablet) have replaced my notebook, my DSi, my wireless troubleshooting gear and my service ticket book. Its done wonders for my back. I still do the major work on my desktop at home but for daily visits to my clients I haven't found anything I really cant do.
Your welcome...just figured I would share the fact that there really are practical uses for tablets. While your absolutely right about developers from a volume standpoint...I really think it will happen quicker than most expect. Just look at how fast apps starting getting native support on the iPad. Though the selection isn't as deep there the Google Marketplace has most of the bases covered and its only going to get better. Honeycomb will at least I hope will reduce fragmentation and encourage more developers to jump on board. The first gen just like with the iPad will likely be nothing but ports of existing apps, but native apps will soon follow that will take advantage of the real estate and power. I know several local developers that are chomping at the bit to get started up until build once deploy many is really possible they just haven't found it practical.
OSX Server isn't going away, just the low volume ugly rackmount box. I have actually had several clients approach me about the Mac Mini server, most didn't know apple made any servers at all. Though its not there speed wise yet (an i7 next gen could change that), the new mini is as if not more capable and its much more affordable easier to integrate into a small business. The Mac Pro is fully capable of running OSX server as well and those have long surpassed the Xserve hardware wise.
Im really hoping that honeycomb will change that, while the fragmentation problem is certainly real, its really not the hardware folks fault as much as it is Google's. Google put a restriction list on Android that made it impossible for anything that isn't a phone to fully comply enough to provide access to things like the Market Place and Google Experience, as a result the only "full" android experiences were the few tablets that had "oversized phone" features that many people simply don't need. Honeycomb will hopefully loosen those requirements and allow vendors to get more inline and lessen the fragmentation issue while providing a better end user experience...at that point I really think developers will be more inclined to jump on board.
I've actually found a business segment where the iPad has made a near perfect replacement for the traditional laptop. I don't see MS catching up anytime soon. I just finished up a 4 month project to get one my clients moved to iPad's for courtroom usage. I was approached by the Sr Partner in the firm to come up with a way for him to use his new toy back in August. I was then given an iPad and list of "requirements". It needed to be able to send and receive email, edit word and pdf's, sync with the firms docket calendar, record dictation in a standard format that would be emailable and would be foot pedal compatible and access documents back in the office. After evaluating a ton of products I chose Pages, Evernote, Drop Box and Dictate on Demand with Team Viewer as an option for the more advanced. It worked so well that the Sr Partner decided everyone needed one.
Now everything they did on a notebook and a digital recorder requiring over $800 in software (MS Office, Gear Player, Adobe Acrobat, etc) has been replaced with a $800 worth of hardware and apps. So far its worked great the most expensive part aside from the iPad itself was the Dictation program which apparently they are quite proud of (it was $99). I had to wait a while for things to get out of beta, but when they say there is an app for that, they aren't kidding. Paired with a bluetooth keyboard (we picked up leather cases from Think Geek that have a keyboard built into the lid) they have all the capability they had with 4x the battery life, better connectivity and all the functionality the needed for a fraction of the price. For me its been great..no mid day treks to the courthouse or off hour support calls because the laptop crashed, got infected or randomly glitched. So far none have had any real issues at all that weren't simply lack of familiarity with the applications. It's going to take an awful lot for MS to be able to compete, windows 7 and its core applications simply aren't designed for finger input, instant on isnt going to happen unless its imbedded and then there is the issue of getting developers on board...based on their tack record with Windows Mobile I don't see it happening any time soon. I really think the biggest rival is going to Google assuming Honeycomb is as good as I hope it will be.
I like the simplicity...and it even seems tablet friendly so far. It appears to resize and render well on the ipad...some overlap issues on my android tablet but its still usable.
Thank god...I loved the first one but the second and third were so awful I havent been able to even watch the first one since..there was alot of potential but they killed it...let it stay dead.
If they really need to do a 4th and 5th, perhaps it should open with Neo waking up after a bad reaction from having taken the Blue pill in the first movie...then we can all just pretend that the 2nd and 3rd were just figments of his imagination.
The people watching are fans the people seeking out the sneak peeks, virals, bloopers, etc are also fans. Its not like they are going to loose anything by letting this stuff get out. Most fan sites are good about hiding "spoilers" for those that don't want to know..and for those that do all it does is generate hype and buzz...which usually is something niche programming clamors for.
I have a friend who is semi-retired or was until suddenly the higher up's realized that all the young staff they had hired had great php and perl skills but didnt have any skills related to the legacy systems they had in house...they built a beautiful shiny front end but when it came time to make changes at the backend there was a sudden dearth of programmers that could handle it due to the managements lack of foresight. As a result the friend I mentioned was begged to come back to his old position (he had been laid off over a year prior...which is what spurned the desire for retirement), he refused but offered to come in as a consultant...now he has raped them for over a year at nearly 3x his old salary.
They had me until I saw an interview last week where the rep mentioned it had 2.2 and not really needing 2.3 because they have their own solution for voip...then when asked about honeycomb the reply was that most of that stuff they had their own solution as well...then android marketplace was mentioned and the reply was that they would have their own marketplace. Now i've gone from a must buy to a must watch....it just dont trust that the company is going to support it very well when upgrades roll around...the Xoom is starting to look like the better option for now.
There is no law stating they have to provide you access to do so...just that you can do what you want with your phone...your still free to look for or build another solution, just no Chevron. Rather suprising move though, you would think MS would overlook this simply for fear of upseting and driving away an already fragile userbase.
I had the aversion to non-physical media for quite a while..but like most I have found digital to be acceptable in quality (for me music is mostly for background noise and even with headphones a higher bit-rate sounds "good enough" for me). With a little redundancy in the home network the "collection" is assured to last. The biggest hurdle for me was will an MP3 be playable 20 years from now...but after thinking about it, the likelihood of being able to play a digital based format is probably much higher than being able to play a physical one, how many 8-track, turntable or cassette players do you see these days? I'm more willing to bet on the longevity of the digital copies. As for album artwork and liner notes...there really hasn't been much effort put in to those in years so the labels have managed to reduce the desire for those on their own. I still buy the occasional CD but the first thing I do is rip them and then put the original on a shelf to collect dust.
Lets see every carrier having at least a couple android phones vs one carrier with a single phone the only news would be that it took this long. When a single model of android based phone on a single carrier overtakes the iphone then it will be news. I have an Vibrant myself...love it but by the same token my mother has an android phone and didn't even know it was android until I pointed it out to her. She picked up a My Touch a few months back because it was free with her contract renewal and it was pretty. Its great that Android has made such headway but lets be real, while some are actively seeking out a decent android phone because its running android, many people are getting android phones because some are cheap and/or free from their carrier. They really cant be compared.
Would it not have been fairly simple to put in some sort of security that basically warned when an authorized SIM was being used outside what should have been a fixed location? Hell for that matter wouldnt a simple alarm when the sim was removed been sufficient. Hard to believe a team of engineers would overlook or simply dismiss such a gaping flaw.
Been there done that no one cared. Everytime a thread about tablets comes up there are a flood of posts about how they all suck because they don't have this or that and usually about how they don't have a "real" OS. Motion Computing, Fujitsu, HP and several others have wasted plenty of effort to bring slate computers with full operating systems, styluses, miniature physical keyboards, etc, no one bought them. The simple fact is that every attempt at a tablet has failed up until the ipad was released, Google is following the lesson learned properly and is also locking things down and simplifying things. I think what most geeks whining about what is lacking on tablets are missing the point....though they want want it bristling with features, menu's, dangly bits and expandability, the vast majority of normal people just want a nice user experience, both Apple and Google are doing a nice job of that...sometimes simple is simply better, the more crap you have to support the more complicated it becomes. I really don't see the majority of vendors willing to give up the target user base to placate a couple of geeks that think everyone else wants the same things they could have had for the past 10 years or so if they had actually supported any of the earlier efforts.
The multiple app store shenanigans are going to be the hardest thing for Android to overcome if google wants to take a serious bite out of apple. The iPads success isn't hardware as much as it is standardization. Of course google non-support for tablets is the reason...but google enabled the situation to get out of hand. Hopefully honeycomb will fix that.
Wow between this and yesterdays announcement that they will have sub-$300 3d tv's by the end of 2011 it looks like maybe the others should start taking Vizio seriously. I have Vizio in my bedroom that I picked up cheap...figured it was garbage but at a good price...so far it has outlast the samsung I had the living room and actually has what at least to me appears to be a better picture than the one that replaced it. I really dont see OnLive taking over the consoles any time soon but for the casual crowd it may make quite a dent.
Umm if expedia was responsible for the "extra business" that implies that they are rooms that would otherwise have gone empty, thus any profit margin was more than they were going to have. I do think its funny that once something like expedia, hotels.com, orbitz, etc shows a moderate level of success businesses involved tend to try and dismiss them as unncessary and completely forget the empty seats and rooms that came before.
Geez where is the love for the G Tab? Viewsonic has had a Tegra 2 tablet with a dual arm processor on the shelves for months. Sure the default interface is crap...but its nearly the exact specs hardware wise as the "announced" tablets and a standard andoid 2.2 install is pretty simple on the device. The really funny part is the several of the "announced" tablets are actually rebadged viewsonic.
The galaxy S i have is actually the phone not the tablet :) I have played around with the Galaxy Tab...its ok but for something a bit more future-proof im really starting to like the Viewsonic G Tablet...it's for some odd reason available at Sears. It has a dual core 1ghz arm, Tegra 2 graphics, etc....the default interface is crap but there are homebrew builds easily available for download that make it pretty much the best Android tablet out there at the moment...oh most important feature..it has a capacitive screen like the ipad...much better than the resistive that most of the android tabs currently have. Oh its cheaper than the Galaxy Tab 2...around $375
Please explain where the "bullshit" is? The devices I mention are an Archos 7 Home Internet Tablet, An aPad and my Samsung Galaxy S. None are even remotely similar interface or app set wise beyond all having the little green robot show up when they boot. As I stated, denial isn't helping, why cant android fanboys figure that out...its as bad as apple zealots that dismiss areas that are lacking when they all know the minute Apple announced they have suddenly "invented" it again...it will become a feature they couldn't live without. It really is ok to like something and still be critical of it...there is simply no other way to improve upon something without it.
There is a big difference between obsoleteness and fragmentation, support for older devices has always been an issue of "we'll take what we can get" when it comes to technology. The problem with Android is that you can buy half a dozen currently on the shelf products and find that none are running android the same. The 3 devices I have were all purchased this year, one has 1.5, one has 1.6 and one has 2.1, 1 has google apps the other 2 don't come with, 1 has a custom front end with swipe, one has a custom front end that makes it almost unnavigable and one has a vanilla dated android front end with half the default stuff missing. I like android as much as anyone but burying our heads in the sand and pretending the problems don't exist isn't supporting the platform its supporting a path that will inevitably lead to its demise. While I like the idea of open source, Google needs to put their foot down and at least come up with a set of minimal standards that require manufacturers to comply with them for the platforms own good. As it is now its great for a geek that knows what he is doing but for the average consumer without a lot of research and someone to hold their hand has no idea what they are going to get when they go to buy an android device. I cant even count how many times I have had clients ignore my advice and go out and buy a cheap piece of crap since the cheaper one ran android too....then I have to deal with them pissed off with me that they have a version that doesn't sync with exchange or doesn't have google apps, or is missing media players, etc.
Because whenever fragmentation is mentioned the bozos pretend it isn't a real issue? I have 3 android devices in my home...none of them run the same version, one has google apps natively, one has a hack to get it and the other one I haven't even bothered with because its too much of a pain in the ass. All have different front ends as well...