Or, of course, you could avoid stringing the cable across walkways. The Magsafe philosophy, of protecting people from their own bad decisions, is something the government usually embraces. Maybe you should write your congressman.
Really? My last BB had micro-USB, and my current Droid does, and my daughter's Captivate does. And someone else in this thread says that micro-USB is rated for more insertions than mini. It seems more like technology marching forward, as it is wont to do.
I agree that we should standardize on something and stick with it for awhile. My current phone has micro-USB and micro-HDMI, and that seems to be the hot setup for this decade.
Costing more would be fine. Professional grade DSLRs that can take that kind of beating cost more too. Often a high-end DSLR will come in consumer version and "weatherproof" version, with the latter costing more than twice as much and may even be missing a few consumer features like video. But if you're taking whale pictures on an antarctic cruise in freezing rain, it's worth the money.
And of course, if you're not, it's not. But having the choice would be nice.
So, a totally weatherproof Galaxy S phone, for instance, might cost $1200 to $1500. But if you're going somewhere brutal and need a smartphone, it might be worth it.
I used to carry a military grade Motorola flipper. It was darn near bullet proof, but unfortunately a lousy phone.
What, really? We have a Captivate and I haven't yet found a micro USB cable that didn't work with it. If you use a snap-on cover you have to take it off to charge, but otherwise haven't had an issue.
RS232 and Firewire are legacy interfaces anyway. It's like having a floppy in your PC. Interesting from a nostalgic viewpoint, but except for very specialized (and unsupported) applications, no longer useful.
Apple could use the opportunity to clean up all the old crap in the current interface and do something standard and consistent. Like, say, one USB 2.0 port and one HDMI port and call it done. But then, who would buy the elegant trendy white data cables and chargers?
Well, this is happening in the US -- manufacturers are starting to standardize on the micro-USB -- and without government mandate. Which is how it's supposed to work here.
Wow, I've never heard of this. I've had Blackberry Curve, Bold and Tour and they always charge with any generic USB cable I happen to have lying around. I don't understand why the Pearl would be different, but if so, boo on Blackberry.
They are, but slowly. Most Android and Blackberry devices charge through the USB port, although some use the mini connector and some use the micro-mini (or whatever the buzzword is). Of modern cell phones, even in the US, the major holdout is iPhone.
What the article doesn't make exactly clear is whether the iPad2 (assuming for sake of argument it gets a USB port) will act as a host or peripheral through the USB port. The former would be more appropriate for pulling photos off cameras. The thing is, I don't know of any examples of USB hosts (like laptops) that can be charged through their USB port. Usually they're *providing* power through that port. It'll be interesting to see what Apple implements. I suspect they'll just get an exception from the EU rule just as they have for the iphone and current ipad.
Incidentally, being able to pull photos off the camera into Photoshop Express on a tablet is *very* interesting. That's the one capability I don't currently have on my Droid X that would allow me to leave the laptop at home. Being able to pull in photos from a digital SLR, do minor editing, and post from the field from a compact device would be a godsend. The first manufacturer that provides a solution gets my money. (All Motorola would have to do is provide support on their existing USB port for a CF reader but that appears to be impossible for some reason or other.)
Awhile back I was looking at cheap Android devices for something that would play movies for long trips. There are many cheap (sub-$200) Android tablets out there that (probably for licensing reasons) do not have access to the Android marketplace. The literature says "you can download thousands of apps from other sources".
I'm thinking the great majority of the devices pwned by this virus will be of this cheap variety.
Are you sure you got the right person? What makes my posts "apple hating"? Please show me an example.
At home we have a Mac tower, (dual proc 800 Mhz Power series, still runs fine) two Touches (8 gig and 32 gig), a 5th gen Nano and an ancient 3rd gen ipod that remains connected to my car stereo. Soooooo what, are you saying I'm self-hating? Or does merely not feeling that an iPad fits into my workflow counts as "Apple hating"? If you really believe that, it says more about you than it does about me.
The Galaxy tablet is finally available, but has been only for a few weeks. I'm choosing not to count the plethora of cheapie under $200 tablets (usually running stale versions of Android) that aren't hooked into the Android marketplace. I suspect that Android tablets will take off in the same way Android phones have, but I've been surprised before. We'll see.
In the meantime, the iPad is still too big and lacks the SD card and USB slots necessary to fit into my workflow. If you like blowing out the candles on a virtual birthday cake, more power to you, it's not worth $529.99 to me.
Good question. I did that on a keyboard. I'm doing this on the droid. Not horror but some reluctance. Virtual keyboards are not repeat not a perfect substitue for hardware and anyone who tells you different is a damn liar.
Typing fast on a virtual keyboard takes practice but can be done. You should see my daughter make her galaxy dance.
Editing is more of an issue. The biggest problem is that my finger easily covers three letters which makes it hard for the tablet to know where to put the cursor. Droid has tap-tap-hold feature that pops up a magnifying glass for precise positioning. Cut and paste has improved but a mouse will always be faster.
On the other hand, operations that translate well to gestures can be faster on a tablet. Web browsing for instance is very fast and intuitive. It depends on what you're doing.
The point is, work can be done on a well designed tablet device with a minimum of pain, and i'm more likely to have a tablet in my coat pocket than a laptop.
I wouldn't want to type in that first article on a virtual keyboard, but did this one without too much trouble.
Well, also, early Microsoft concepts sucked because the Windows paradigm didn't work well on a touch device.
Still doesn't.
As someone else already pointed out, the slashdot community is not a hive mind. What you didn't read are all the articles people didn't write because they didn't care one way or the other or because they were waiting to see how things worked out. And I think you're misremembering all the slashdotters who thought this might be interesting, despite the fact that Apple had already tried and failed to play in that space. (Newton.)
The propagation of wifi is a small factor, but this doesn't explain why windows tablets still suck. (Besides, the iPad's conduit of choice is GSM/Edge, not wifi. As is the Samsung Galaxy tablet.) The real breakthrough, in my opinion, was the interface. Some of us Palm Pilot junkies from the nineties had a suspicion that a touch-only interface could be adapted to a "real" computer, it's just that nobody had been really successful at that very important part, before. After playing with the iphone when it first came out, it became obvious that this sort of interface would scale up just fine.
So no, I reject your allegation that the entire Slashdot community were proclaiming loudly that the iPad would be a failure. Clearly some were, but that really doesn't mean anything. If you said in slashdot that man landed on the moon in 1969, one out of ten would say, no they didn't.
My issues at the time were lack of SD and USB slots and lack of a user replaceable battery. These are still issues. No USB is not the same as no floppy. Floppy was a dying technology only used for boot and diagnostics, and when boot from CD became widely available the floppy died and deserved to. The comparison is specious.
And really, you're coming off as a bit of a fanboi harboring a snit.
I can see I didn't make my point very well. My apologies.
Although I don't have actual data in front of me, just looking at the rows of books at the local bookstore shows me that the great majority of books published are in 7" format. Clearly the great majority of readers are satisfied with that size.
This isn't an argument that tablets with screen sizes larger than 7" should fail. The original question I believe was "why are all the ipad competitors doing 7" screens?"
The short answer is, not all of them are. But to answer the unspoken question, it's because there is clearly a market for tablets of that form factor.
Parenthetically, to really make the pan and zoom argument work, you have to assume preformatted text (like a PDF file), and this does not apply to content delivered by kindle or the plethora of doc readers, or to the great majority of the internet in general. Even news outlets tend to format in narrow columns, which fit nicely on my Droid X without even having to resort to landscape mode.
Clearly there are uses for big tablets. I'm not questioning that. I personally don't need one, because everything a tablet can do is already accomplished by my notebook. What I'm saying is that there is clearly a market for tablets in format smaller than 9.7 inches but larger than 3.8 inches. I do understand that Steve Jobs disagrees vehemently with this. Shrug. If he's right, all those products will fail. What I think will actually happen is that the crappy 7" tablets will disappear or be regulated to shrink-wrapped toys at Big Lots, and the well engineered products will remain and be improved upon. We shall see.
As a side note, I don't personally believe that Jobs is disparaging the midsized tablet market merely because he has chosen not to participate in that space. I choose to believe that he really believes what he said, and is not being disingenuous. But I still think he's wrong.
Geeze, you've never read a paperback? If you can find someone who has, borrow a few of them and try this experiment: Measure the diagonal size of each one and average the measurements. It's about... say it with me... seven inches.
Even if I read Rolling Stone, I really don't need to view it in original size.
Slashdot Mirror
Or, of course, you could avoid stringing the cable across walkways. The Magsafe philosophy, of protecting people from their own bad decisions, is something the government usually embraces. Maybe you should write your congressman.
(waving hand) Libertarian here. Except it seems to be happening here in the US without mandate. Imagine that.
Really? My last BB had micro-USB, and my current Droid does, and my daughter's Captivate does. And someone else in this thread says that micro-USB is rated for more insertions than mini. It seems more like technology marching forward, as it is wont to do.
I agree that we should standardize on something and stick with it for awhile. My current phone has micro-USB and micro-HDMI, and that seems to be the hot setup for this decade.
Costing more would be fine. Professional grade DSLRs that can take that kind of beating cost more too. Often a high-end DSLR will come in consumer version and "weatherproof" version, with the latter costing more than twice as much and may even be missing a few consumer features like video. But if you're taking whale pictures on an antarctic cruise in freezing rain, it's worth the money.
And of course, if you're not, it's not. But having the choice would be nice.
So, a totally weatherproof Galaxy S phone, for instance, might cost $1200 to $1500. But if you're going somewhere brutal and need a smartphone, it might be worth it.
I used to carry a military grade Motorola flipper. It was darn near bullet proof, but unfortunately a lousy phone.
I'm reminded of the "USB" ports on early Macs that had an extra ridge that prevented using non-Apple USB cables.
What, really? We have a Captivate and I haven't yet found a micro USB cable that didn't work with it. If you use a snap-on cover you have to take it off to charge, but otherwise haven't had an issue.
RS232 and Firewire are legacy interfaces anyway. It's like having a floppy in your PC. Interesting from a nostalgic viewpoint, but except for very specialized (and unsupported) applications, no longer useful.
Apple could use the opportunity to clean up all the old crap in the current interface and do something standard and consistent. Like, say, one USB 2.0 port and one HDMI port and call it done. But then, who would buy the elegant trendy white data cables and chargers?
Well, this is happening in the US -- manufacturers are starting to standardize on the micro-USB -- and without government mandate. Which is how it's supposed to work here.
That sounds like it would hurt...
Wow, I've never heard of this. I've had Blackberry Curve, Bold and Tour and they always charge with any generic USB cable I happen to have lying around. I don't understand why the Pearl would be different, but if so, boo on Blackberry.
They are, but slowly. Most Android and Blackberry devices charge through the USB port, although some use the mini connector and some use the micro-mini (or whatever the buzzword is). Of modern cell phones, even in the US, the major holdout is iPhone.
What the article doesn't make exactly clear is whether the iPad2 (assuming for sake of argument it gets a USB port) will act as a host or peripheral through the USB port. The former would be more appropriate for pulling photos off cameras. The thing is, I don't know of any examples of USB hosts (like laptops) that can be charged through their USB port. Usually they're *providing* power through that port. It'll be interesting to see what Apple implements. I suspect they'll just get an exception from the EU rule just as they have for the iphone and current ipad.
Incidentally, being able to pull photos off the camera into Photoshop Express on a tablet is *very* interesting. That's the one capability I don't currently have on my Droid X that would allow me to leave the laptop at home. Being able to pull in photos from a digital SLR, do minor editing, and post from the field from a compact device would be a godsend. The first manufacturer that provides a solution gets my money. (All Motorola would have to do is provide support on their existing USB port for a CF reader but that appears to be impossible for some reason or other.)
I don't necessarily disagree. I don't know one way or another. But I have to ask: And you know this because....
And, this is different from now because....
Find those rolls in the back of the closet and send them in!
**cough**widgets**cough**flash**cough**sd slot**cough**customizable interface**cough**fanboi**cough
And of course you mean "on a non-rooted iPhone".
Awhile back I was looking at cheap Android devices for something that would play movies for long trips. There are many cheap (sub-$200) Android tablets out there that (probably for licensing reasons) do not have access to the Android marketplace. The literature says "you can download thousands of apps from other sources".
I'm thinking the great majority of the devices pwned by this virus will be of this cheap variety.
You THINK??
But seriously, what if this backfired, and Palin won?
Are you sure you got the right person? What makes my posts "apple hating"? Please show me an example.
At home we have a Mac tower, (dual proc 800 Mhz Power series, still runs fine) two Touches (8 gig and 32 gig), a 5th gen Nano and an ancient 3rd gen ipod that remains connected to my car stereo. Soooooo what, are you saying I'm self-hating? Or does merely not feeling that an iPad fits into my workflow counts as "Apple hating"? If you really believe that, it says more about you than it does about me.
The Galaxy tablet is finally available, but has been only for a few weeks. I'm choosing not to count the plethora of cheapie under $200 tablets (usually running stale versions of Android) that aren't hooked into the Android marketplace. I suspect that Android tablets will take off in the same way Android phones have, but I've been surprised before. We'll see.
In the meantime, the iPad is still too big and lacks the SD card and USB slots necessary to fit into my workflow. If you like blowing out the candles on a virtual birthday cake, more power to you, it's not worth $529.99 to me.
Wow, I recognize that! It's very similar to the interface on my daughter's ASUS T101 tablet PC in "fastboot" mode. I wonder if it was based on MeeGo.
Good question. I did that on a keyboard. I'm doing this on the droid. Not horror but some reluctance. Virtual keyboards are not repeat not a perfect substitue for hardware and anyone who tells you different is a damn liar.
Typing fast on a virtual keyboard takes practice but can be done. You should see my daughter make her galaxy dance.
Editing is more of an issue. The biggest problem is that my finger easily covers three letters which makes it hard for the tablet to know where to put the cursor. Droid has tap-tap-hold feature that pops up a magnifying glass for precise positioning. Cut and paste has improved but a mouse will always be faster.
On the other hand, operations that translate well to gestures can be faster on a tablet. Web browsing for instance is very fast and intuitive. It depends on what you're doing.
The point is, work can be done on a well designed tablet device with a minimum of pain, and i'm more likely to have a tablet in my coat pocket than a laptop.
I wouldn't want to type in that first article on a virtual keyboard, but did this one without too much trouble.
Well, also, early Microsoft concepts sucked because the Windows paradigm didn't work well on a touch device.
Still doesn't.
As someone else already pointed out, the slashdot community is not a hive mind. What you didn't read are all the articles people didn't write because they didn't care one way or the other or because they were waiting to see how things worked out. And I think you're misremembering all the slashdotters who thought this might be interesting, despite the fact that Apple had already tried and failed to play in that space. (Newton.)
The propagation of wifi is a small factor, but this doesn't explain why windows tablets still suck. (Besides, the iPad's conduit of choice is GSM/Edge, not wifi. As is the Samsung Galaxy tablet.) The real breakthrough, in my opinion, was the interface. Some of us Palm Pilot junkies from the nineties had a suspicion that a touch-only interface could be adapted to a "real" computer, it's just that nobody had been really successful at that very important part, before. After playing with the iphone when it first came out, it became obvious that this sort of interface would scale up just fine.
So no, I reject your allegation that the entire Slashdot community were proclaiming loudly that the iPad would be a failure. Clearly some were, but that really doesn't mean anything. If you said in slashdot that man landed on the moon in 1969, one out of ten would say, no they didn't.
My issues at the time were lack of SD and USB slots and lack of a user replaceable battery. These are still issues. No USB is not the same as no floppy. Floppy was a dying technology only used for boot and diagnostics, and when boot from CD became widely available the floppy died and deserved to. The comparison is specious.
And really, you're coming off as a bit of a fanboi harboring a snit.
They are both valid questions, but it is the first, not the second, that was the topic of this thread.
I can see I didn't make my point very well. My apologies.
Although I don't have actual data in front of me, just looking at the rows of books at the local bookstore shows me that the great majority of books published are in 7" format. Clearly the great majority of readers are satisfied with that size.
This isn't an argument that tablets with screen sizes larger than 7" should fail. The original question I believe was "why are all the ipad competitors doing 7" screens?"
The short answer is, not all of them are. But to answer the unspoken question, it's because there is clearly a market for tablets of that form factor.
Parenthetically, to really make the pan and zoom argument work, you have to assume preformatted text (like a PDF file), and this does not apply to content delivered by kindle or the plethora of doc readers, or to the great majority of the internet in general. Even news outlets tend to format in narrow columns, which fit nicely on my Droid X without even having to resort to landscape mode.
Clearly there are uses for big tablets. I'm not questioning that. I personally don't need one, because everything a tablet can do is already accomplished by my notebook. What I'm saying is that there is clearly a market for tablets in format smaller than 9.7 inches but larger than 3.8 inches. I do understand that Steve Jobs disagrees vehemently with this. Shrug. If he's right, all those products will fail. What I think will actually happen is that the crappy 7" tablets will disappear or be regulated to shrink-wrapped toys at Big Lots, and the well engineered products will remain and be improved upon. We shall see.
As a side note, I don't personally believe that Jobs is disparaging the midsized tablet market merely because he has chosen not to participate in that space. I choose to believe that he really believes what he said, and is not being disingenuous. But I still think he's wrong.
Geeze, you've never read a paperback? If you can find someone who has, borrow a few of them and try this experiment: Measure the diagonal size of each one and average the measurements. It's about... say it with me... seven inches.
Even if I read Rolling Stone, I really don't need to view it in original size.
Ok ok ok, but that's not something normal people wear.