the tablet war is heating up

[falcarrion]

Samsung today anounced some accessories for there tablet.
Samsung reveals new Galaxy Tab 10.1 accessories: multimedia dock, HDTV adapter, case, and more -- Engadget

 

[falcarrion]

as an added note the apple camera kit has an usb adapter and a sd card adapter.

 

[Felon]

shifting the topic back to tablets a bit, what are all the connectivity options for hooking tablets to things?

For iPad:
Apple TV gives me wireless connection to my big TV
there's cables for VGA, component, hdmi at varying prices
a USB port (the camera adapter) that also does MIDI if your keyboard has a USB jack
Alesis has a full dock (marketed for garageband users) with midi, usb, XLR, 1/4", 1/8" and VGA jack
there's a few other MIDI adapters, and headphone jack adapters for guitars

I saw an GeekSquad commercial that happened to show an iPad doing AirPlay to a mini projector (I assumed thats what I was seeing).

are there any other doodads? And what can the non-iOS tablets be hooked up to?

Well, when it comes to connectivity, your options are constrained if you aren't willing to accept a dongle, which is tatamount to trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. How many people want to carry around a thumb drive, an SD card, a tablet, and then some other doodad that acts a bridge?

If you get a Toshiba Thrive or the upcoming Lenovo ThinkPad tablet, you get built in USB, which combined with Android means the world is your oyster.

 

[falcarrion]

Here is an app some of you might like checking out.
iGM & The Cursed Town of Drummond presented by TableTTop Games | TabletTopGames

They are at gen con check them out.

 

[catsclaw227]

This is interesting, I wonder if it has any bearing on future android sales or end users personal selections:

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_18684398

 

[Banshee16]

Wow, that *is* big news. It gives Google direct access to hardware manufacturing as well.

I wonder.....Motorola's CEO had talked about pursuing patent litigation against other Android manufacturers. I would think this would be against Google's interest to pursue further.

It still wouldn't make me buy a Xoom. As solid as the hardware is, the neglect shown to Canadian consumers does not allow me to feel faith in the support.

However, it makes me more comfortable with Android overall.

As such, I've now just purchased an ASUS EEE Pad Transformer 32 gb and keyboard dock, and am testing it out this morning.

Banshee

 

[Relique du Madde]

Wow, that *is* big news. It gives Google direct access to hardware manufacturing as well.

I wonder.....Motorola's CEO had talked about pursuing patent litigation against other Android manufacturers. I would think this would be against Google's interest to pursue further.

It still wouldn't make me buy a Xoom. As solid as the hardware is, the neglect shown to Canadian consumers does not allow me to feel faith in the support.

However, it makes me more comfortable with Android overall.

As such, I've now just purchased an ASUS EEE Pad Transformer 32 gb and keyboard dock, and am testing it out this morning.

Banshee

I would have to say, I hope Google's acquisition causes there to be an improvement in Motorola's consumer support considering that they (motorola) slipped the the point of being just shy of Samsung's low point within certain markets and for certain devices.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a wait and see considering that motorola now has become the official flag ship company.

 

[Fast Learner]

Wow, that *is* big news. It gives Google direct access to hardware manufacturing as well.

Yeah. If I was Samsung or HTC, say, I'd be looking very seriously at Windows Phone 7 and WebOS opportunities. There's nothing like the company you license your OS from suddenly selling directly to consumers to create insane channel conflict.

How will devices from MMI (Motorola Mobility, the group that Google bought) not be considered "true" Android phones, with the rest being off-brand options? If you were HTC or Samsung, how could you possibly believe that you'd get info about Android plans even close to the same time as the folks in MMI? Etc.

I suspect this signals the peak of Android's market penetration; that doesn't mean I think Android will take a sudden dive, but I would bet this opens up great opportunities for WP7 & WebOS.

I wonder.....Motorola's CEO had talked about pursuing patent litigation against other Android manufacturers. I would think this would be against Google's interest to pursue further.

Right, that's not going to happen. It's now pretty widely believed among analysts that the CEO's announcement was a bargaining tactic, putting the pressure on Google to get the deal done at a price MMI would be happy with.

 

[Banshee16]

I would have to say, I hope Google's acquisition causes there to be an improvement in Motorola's consumer support considering that they (motorola) slipped the the point of being just shy of Samsung's low point within certain markets and for certain devices.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a wait and see considering that motorola now has become the official flag ship company.

Personally, given how little being a Google Experience Device mttered for me as a consumer in Canada (ie. not at all) it doesn't bother me. It might other the maufacturers though. At the end of the day, what I care about is that the Xoom, outside of the U.S., is still on 3.0. The Transformer is alreay on 3.2.

I'm not sure what Motorola expected would happen. There ARE customers outside of the U.S. who don't want to feel like second class citizens.

I guess we'll see. Until Microsoft can get their mobile OS to have similar speed and battery life, I don't think it will happen. I'm not averse to Microsoft in the least..but their mobile tablets seem the most expensive, and with the shortest battery life.

I just typed this on the Transformer, with a wireless mouse from my laptop plugged in.

Banshee

 

[Fast Learner]

Wow, insane:

Two Weeks Ago: Woot puts the HP TouchPad up for a day at $120 off, sells 612, pathetic by Woot status where items at that price and newness tend to sell thousands and Woot completely sells out its stock.

Yesterday: Best Buy lets leak that they were shipped 270,000 TouchPads seven weeks ago and thus far have sold less than 25,000, and that they want to return their entire stock.

Today: HP announces they're dumping all webOS hardware and will not be selling them in the future. (And for that matter, they're getting out of the computer and mobile hardware business altogether.)

That was crazy short, especially for a tablet that was getting significantly better reviews than most Android tablets.

Crazy times. As several wags have noted, it's not yet a "tablet market", it's an "iPad market". I hope someone comes along to change that, or at least make a significant dent. I love my iPad, but at the very least want competitors pushing Apple to not rest on their laurels.