the tablet war is heating up

This is all speculation. No proof that it will happen. Lets keep to talking about tablets. Not what a company is doing to another.
Not for nothing, but if you didn't want to talk about companies screwing each other, seems odd that you went out of your way to dispute my comment about Apple screwing Amazon.

Seems to me that pro-Apple fawning is called out for jeopardizing the impartial nature of this discussion, but criticizing them is. Case in point...
 
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Mac OS X and iOS come from UNIX, long-ago predecessor to Linux.

On the component manufacturing front, Apple absolutely has been throwing their weight around: they're really good at business now.

Before the iPad 1 was announced they used their cash to buy up both flash RAM and display production. Since then they've gone one step further: they actually finance the development of new manufacturing in exchange for exclusive access to the production for a set period of time.

Having $70 billion in cash gives you a lot of influence.
So, Apple is so good at business that they can bankroll anti-competitive tactics. Hmm. What is it we call it when other companies throw their weight around to keep others from getting their goods to market? It slips my mind, but it's not as flattering as "really good at business".
 
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Not for nothing, but if you didn't want to talk about companies screwing each other, seems odd that you went out of your way to dispute my comment about Apple screwing Amazon.

Seems to me that pro-Apple fawning is called out for jeopardizing the impartial nature of this discussion, but criticizing them is. Case in point...

Thats because when ever you come here you slam apple.
Not always directly. But you comments do show your disrepect for apple.
You may start off talking about tablets, but sooner or later you slam apple.
 


So, Apple is so good at business that they can bankroll anti-competitive tactics. Hmm. What is it we call it when other companies throw their weight around to keep others from getting their goods to market? It slips my mind, but it's not as flattering as "really good at business".
Please, what's the term you mean? Monopolistic? Predicting a future for parts due to your introducing a new product that you believe will be incredibly popular and that no one else believes has a chance isn't monopolistic, it's risky as heck and yes, good business if you turn out to be right.

If they continued to use their cash to keep anyone from buying any parts then it might be monopolistic (though that's debatable), but they wisely haven't and instead compete for production like anyone else. When it became clear that their portion of production wouldn't be sufficient to meet demand they funded companies to build parts for them that they've pre-purchased. Nothing stops any other company from doing the same, other than a lack of cash, and also isn't monopolistic.

Or do you mean some other word?
 

Thats because when ever you come here you slam apple.
Not always directly. But you comments do show your disrepect for apple.
You may start off talking about tablets, but sooner or later you slam apple.
Your choice of certain words is noteworthy. "Show dIsrespect", for instance. Heaven forbid that I show disrespect towards a consumer technology corporation. If someone here consistently exhibited disrespect to to Microsoft, you'd be as quick to call them on it?

What you calll "slamming" is actually objective criticism. Sooner or later, I do that to everyone and everything. To me, skepticism is among the highest virtues, particularly when it comes to being a consumer. I have indeed spoken about some bonehead moves by Apple's wannabe competitors. What's more, I've extolled Apple's virtues, stated plainly that I chose Apple's phone over the competition, and mentioned that I was tempted to buy an iPad even if I bought the Toshiba Thrive. So, I think I've displayed my objectivity pretty consistently, rendering your assessment unfair.

The problem is a pervasive one. People are engrained to think in partisan terms, and that goes back to school days or rooting for sports teams. The wonderful thing about sports is that at the end of the season, the reset button gets mashed. That makes the loyal-to-the-bitter-end mentality harmless.

In other matters, such as politics or consumerism, there is no reset button and the impacts are lasting. That distinction seems lost on most folks, making needless partisanship one of those great human failings. Self-interested skepticism is the rational course of behavior--if someone's consistently falling short of your expectations, and you're paying them, you shouldn't feel like a traitior for making them re-interview for their position--but in practice, it's usually misinterpreted as unremitting negativity.
 
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So anyhoo, my boss came by with his Fujitsu Q550 and was showing it off to everybody. It's a Window 7 tablet that I had never heard of. It was okay, having USB and SD ports and an OS that renders the concept of an "app store" a tad callow. You want to run Netflix or Hulu in a browser? This'll do it.

However, at $900 for an Atom-powered 7-incher, that's more than a little overpriced. I tried out an ASUS EP121 for a few weeks, and that's got much better specs for only a couple hundred bucks more. OTOH, the reason I sent it back was the pathetic battery life (less than 3 hrs), and this Q550 will go for 7 or 8 hrs.
 
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So anyhoo, my boss came by with his Fujitsu Q550 and was showing it off to everybody. It's a Window 7 tablet that I had never heard of. It was okay, having USB and SD ports and an OS that renders the concept of an "app store" a tad callow. You want to run Netflix or Hulu in a browser? This'll do it.

However, at $900 for an Atom-powered 7-incher, that's more than a little overpriced. I tried out an ASUS EP121 for a few weeks, and that's got much better specs for only a couple hundred bucks more. OTOH, the reason I sent it back was the pathetic battery life (less than 3 hrs), and this Q550 will go for 7 or 8 hrs.

How did the Q550 function? I've seen the Acer Windows tablet, and I'm not sure whether or not I like it. I guess it just feels a little....odd. However in terms of power, and sheer "what it can do", it seems to blow everything by Apple, Google, or RiM away. It *is* expensive, though. And I don't know what battery life on these suckers is like.

Banshee
 

How did the Q550 function? I've seen the Acer Windows tablet, and I'm not sure whether or not I like it. I guess it just feels a little....odd. However in terms of power, and sheer "what it can do", it seems to blow everything by Apple, Google, or RiM away. It *is* expensive, though. And I don't know what battery life on these suckers is like.

Banshee
It performs like a Netbook (it's odd to me that we don't just naturally expect that to be the case). It can do browsing, light multimedia, that sort of thing. There's the usual trade-off where you gain multi-processing at the expense of overall performance. You have the standard burdens of a full-fledged Windows OS (updates and AV) that come as the price of being able to install and configure anything you want. Oh, and any brand of Windows is going to be murder on a battery.

The Q550 came with a stylus and the touchscreen certainly has very litle trouble letting you take notes in One Note. But it's often apparent that Windows 7 isn't really built with touch-pperation in mind. You can't accomplish nearly as much with pinches and swipes, so you're always at a risk of miniximizing or closing a window that you're actually trying to maximize, because those three functions are within fractions of an inch from each other.

In general, I'd say hold for Windows 8. MS moves at an elephantine pace, but I think this one will be worth the wait.

(Now I suppose I'll sit back and see if I get chided for saying all those critical things; let the thumb-twiddling commence)
 
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