the tablet war is heating up

Yes, connections are important to me as well. Apple's proprietary connections are one of the things that turned me off there.....and the initial reviews of the limited edition Galaxy 10.1 seem to indicate it doesn't have the plethora of connections that the Xoom and Iconia have. I having to buy a bunch of proprietary cables just to use a device. I've got more USB, micro USB etc. cables than I can shake a stick at, so I'd rather stick with them. Even HDMI cables. A good one is what...$10?

I used to complain about this proprietary connection as I bought Apple devices (iPods, iPod Touch, iPad, Iphone) and suddenly have nearly as many of these Apple connectors as I do anything else.

I think it is this way with a lot of Apple stuff. If you commit to them their interoperability between Apple devices is great. Trying to mix them is where the frustrations mount - which I am sure exactly what they want... ::shrug::
 

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There are some reasonably valid reasons for the 30-pin proprietary connectors, though I'm sure there are solutions that involve multiple connectors or other setups that would work.

The 30-pin connector does all of these things simultaneously:

- Transfers power

- Transfers audio and video

- Transfers other digital data like GPS signals and track info, simultaneously sending and receiving

- Sends information about the accessory's capabilities

- Supports the device

The real trick today, though, is maintaining compatibility with all those speaker systems and alarm clocks and automobiles and such. Hotel rooms all over the world have sound systems with iPod/iPhone dock connectors because iPods became so ubiquitous.

I suspect Apple will only switch away when they move to being fully wireless, though the EU requirement for mini-USB charging may have an effect as well.
 

I used to complain about this proprietary connection as I bought Apple devices (iPods, iPod Touch, iPad, Iphone) and suddenly have nearly as many of these Apple connectors as I do anything else.

I think it is this way with a lot of Apple stuff. If you commit to them their interoperability between Apple devices is great. Trying to mix them is where the frustrations mount - which I am sure exactly what they want... ::shrug::

Yeah, that's what I've been observing. It's been a *long* time since I've been an active Mac user. November to today is the first time I've actively used an Apple product in a long time....I'm talking about like 1988.

My business partner is a huge Apple fan, and keeps commenting about getting me off PC onto Apple, but I don't think it'll happen. I enjoy tinkering too much....even when I tinker and break something, I get a kick out of then learning how to fix it. With him, he seems to appreciate that he just gets everything Apple, they work together, he uses them, and that's it. However...if something goes wrong, he doesn't know how to fix it.

Different mentality, I guess. Not right or wrong, just different.

My wife already complains about cables, and they're one expense I wince at every time it comes up.

Banshee
 

There are some reasonably valid reasons for the 30-pin proprietary connectors, though I'm sure there are solutions that involve multiple connectors or other setups that would work.

The 30-pin connector does all of these things simultaneously:

- Transfers power

- Transfers audio and video

- Transfers other digital data like GPS signals and track info, simultaneously sending and receiving

- Sends information about the accessory's capabilities

- Supports the device

The real trick today, though, is maintaining compatibility with all those speaker systems and alarm clocks and automobiles and such. Hotel rooms all over the world have sound systems with iPod/iPhone dock connectors because iPods became so ubiquitous.

I suspect Apple will only switch away when they move to being fully wireless, though the EU requirement for mini-USB charging may have an effect as well.

I don't know if you need a 30 pin connector for that though. I could be wrong (I'm sure someone will point it out), but when I was using Blackberry, that one micro USB cable powered the device, transferred files, including audio/video...

I'm *assuming* it transferred GPS data, though I don't know....I didn't use the GPS very much, because the screen was so small, and the GPS itself was very slow.

Banshee
 


I don't know if you need a 30 pin connector for that though. I could be wrong (I'm sure someone will point it out), but when I was using Blackberry, that one micro USB cable powered the device, transferred files, including audio/video...

The "simultaneous" bit comes from a parallel connector like the 30-pin, while USB is, as the "S" indicates, serial. Transferring multiple simultaneous streams of data is where parallel can rock.

However, I suspect this mattered a whole lot more a decade ago. USB 2 (and certainly 3) is plenty fast enough to mimic the same thing with sufficient buffering/caching.
 

One of my players has ordered a Xoom, and intends to have his Pathfinder rules live on it. He wanted a large surface, with Android.

Me... a big chunk of me just thinks that a laptop is... just plain more useful. :erm: Mind you, my taste in laptops leans heavily toward, well leaning heavily toward the side holding the laptop carrier. :p I favor honking brutes, big enough to actually do some work on, especially mapping using CC3. As a result, they tend to be on the weighty side....

The Auld Grump
 

One of my players has ordered a Xoom, and intends to have his Pathfinder rules live on it. He wanted a large surface, with Android.

Me... a big chunk of me just thinks that a laptop is... just plain more useful. :erm: Mind you, my taste in laptops leans heavily toward, well leaning heavily toward the side holding the laptop carrier. :p I favor honking brutes, big enough to actually do some work on, especially mapping using CC3. As a result, they tend to be on the weighty side....

The Auld Grump
I hear that! I'm waiting on delivery of a 12 lb beast: Alienware M18x.
 

Me... a big chunk of me just thinks that a laptop is... just plain more useful. :erm: Mind you, my taste in laptops leans heavily toward, well leaning heavily toward the side holding the laptop carrier. :p I favor honking brutes, big enough to actually do some work on, especially mapping using CC3. As a result, they tend to be on the weighty side....

If I could only have one I would go for a laptop.

But being able to have a laptop and tablet works pretty well. I find the PDF reading on a tablet much better than I do on a laptop. I also prefer to read my kindle and epub stuff on the tablet as well. At the gaming table I find it much less obstructive to use a tablet than laptop as well.
 

If I could only have one I would go for a laptop.

But being able to have a laptop and tablet works pretty well.

Exactly. I read many, many arguments across the net about the 22 ways that laptops are better than tablets, and brother, I'm right there with ya: I love my laptop!

Then there's the list of ways that tablets are better, and I'm totally down with that. I love my iPad and use it many hours a day!

It's not Highlander, there can be more than one. Just because you have a toaster and an oven doesn't mean toaster ovens are stupid and only purchased by fools/sheep.
 

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