the tablet war is heating up

[rangerjohn]

No, I won't become accustomed to them. Because its not an acceptance issue. It's a form factor issue, until voice recognition becomes 100% and holo projectors become practical or at least wireless connection to big monitors/televisions, they are simply too small for me to use. It's not an education/fear its vision and finger size.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Yowtch! Do you remember when this was? They had a model that had some nasty battery problems.

Personally, the only Apple product that I had a problem with was an old IIe, which had a severe motherboard frying. Since then, the only reasons I've had for replacements has been extreme obsolescence: my si lasted 8 years, my G3 lasted 10+.

And up until I got my latest iMac, I was even running some software (mostly graphics & games stuff) from as far back as the 1980s...

But anyone can make a lemon. I had a friend whose Volvo spent more time at the dealership's service department than in his own garage...while our 4 lasted an average of 16 years each (and we had one that got totaled in a hit & run after only 5 years).

And once we bought a big-screen Sony TV for my grandparents that blew out it's CRT when I plugged it in.

Been out of commission due to the power outages in CT...sorry for the lack of a timely response.

I forgot what year it was, but at least the Apple Store near us replaced the first three iPods until the fourth one worked fine. The first three lasted a few weeks apiece.

The iMac was one of the first ones with the built-in webcam. The previous version had a recall due to motherboard problems, but the same Apple store refused to budge on the iMac.

 

[Fast Learner]

High resolution screens help with poor vision since things don't have to be so physically large in order to be readable. 16 point characters on a 96 - 120 dpi screen are somewhat readable with limited vision but the shapes of the characters become much, much sharper at 300+ dpi, which helps way more than you'd think.

Current iPhones are at more than 300 dpi, and iPads will be there soon. Because you can resize things as much as you'd like, you'll always be able to have text you can easily read.

Here's a 100 year-old visually impaired woman enjoying her new iPad -- her first computer ever -- reading and writing for the first time in many years:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndkIP7ec3O8]Virginia's new iPad - YouTube[/ame]

And that's without the higher resolution.

 

[rangerjohn]

I realize you can resize the font on a portable device, but then you can't get a whole page width on screen at the same time. Having to use the bar is very annoying when having to read something. That also doesn't address the issue of games and movies. The smallest screen, I've comfortably used was a 17" laptop. To give you an idea, I'm using my desktop which is hooked to my 32" television. This with me sitting at the desk. I can see images across the room, but not text. I can't read magazine text at all anymore.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

High resolution screens help with poor vision since things don't have to be so physically large in order to be readable. 16 point characters on a 96 - 120 dpi screen are somewhat readable with limited vision but the shapes of the characters become much, much sharper at 300+ dpi, which helps way more than you'd think.

The whole resizing of text thing was the primary reason I've been talking to my Mom about getting her an eReader or tablet of some kind for a couple of years, now. She has a few different eye problems, so she has to buy hardcover books just to be able to continue reading.

Well, as of today, her iPad2 is being shipped. This means she'll be able to get books with type she can read...without cluttering her shelves up with hardcovers she'll read once. Bonus for her: more space to put Lladro porcelains and Border Collie collectibles.

 

[Banshee16]

Good write-up on the usage.

Still not sure that's a clear Android is better story. $70 buys an Apple bluetooth keyboard for an iPad. I wonder if having the keyboard right there made it obvious and thus won a fan (whereas, lacking iBoard, didn't make it obvious that it can do the same thing).

Not saying you're bashing one over the other. I just don't see a clear difference in actual capability from your story.

A $70 bluetooth keyboard doesn't charge your iPad, or include USB ports or SD card slots does it ? Those have all been part of the overall utility of the Transformer that I posted about above.....if I'm mistaken, so be it, but the bluetooth keyboards I've seen didn't have those features.....and those features are a big part of why this works.

That having been said, as I mentioned, everyone has different needs.

The iPad also doesn't have file system access, which is another big part of it. There are apps to do it, but the ones I've tried on my iPhone were very much inferior, as they didn't give full access. As it is, after a year I have tonnes of orphaned data taking up wasted space on my iPhone, and no way to get at it and clean it out. I seem to have noticeably less room available on my phone a year after getting it than when I first bought it....even after wiping and resetting the phone. Either I'm missing something obvious, there are tricks that Apple people know that I don't, or that's just the way it's designed. Being able to see the files on my device, move them, delete them, send them in e-mails as attachements...all very useful. I don't understand how someone would NOT find those useful.

And short of carrying around a bunch of attachments, the whole process of taking photos out of the camera was very easy.

One could flip the argument around and say there's nothing you can do with an iPad 2 that you can't do with an Android tablet. That's why the whole "my device is better than your device" war we see with the two OS' is kind of silly....they're all useful. Just depends on needs, comfort level, and budget.

Banshee

 

[Janx]

A $70 bluetooth keyboard doesn't charge your iPad, or include USB ports or SD card slots does it ? Those have all been part of the overall utility of the Transformer that I posted about above.....if I'm mistaken, so be it, but the bluetooth keyboards I've seen didn't have those features.....and those features are a big part of why this works.
...snip of good points....
One could flip the argument around and say there's nothing you can do with an iPad 2 that you can't do with an Android tablet. That's why the whole "my device is better than your device" war we see with the two OS' is kind of silly....they're all useful. Just depends on needs, comfort level, and budget.

Banshee

technically, for the iPad, I've seen a keyboard dock, that holds the screen at a useful angle. I assume the iPort powers the keyboard. I've seen Apple's iPort do-hickey that passes MIDI and USB signals (the camera kit). i've seen iPort chargy things to add juice for the iThing. All thru the same iPort (the silly name I call the funny connect on iThings). It would seem that could be combined into 1 device.

What I been curious if the best of class Android had super powers that the iPad doesn't. Something so better that we'd all be fools to buy an iPad if we were on the fence.

I too miss direct file management, but I suspect the iThing stayed away from it because the average human can barely manage their documents on a PC (mostly true, I've had to explain how to use My Documents and copying to a thumb drive too many times).

But I limp along mailing files to myself....

I suspect both sides end up liming along with some things, but are plenty happy with the good stuff.

 

[Banshee16]

technically, for the iPad, I've seen a keyboard dock, that holds the screen at a useful angle. I assume the iPort powers the keyboard. I've seen Apple's iPort do-hickey that passes MIDI and USB signals (the camera kit). i've seen iPort chargy things to add juice for the iThing. All thru the same iPort (the silly name I call the funny connect on iThings). It would seem that could be combined into 1 device.

What I been curious if the best of class Android had super powers that the iPad doesn't. Something so better that we'd all be fools to buy an iPad if we were on the fence.

I too miss direct file management, but I suspect the iThing stayed away from it because the average human can barely manage their documents on a PC (mostly true, I've had to explain how to use My Documents and copying to a thumb drive too many times).

But I limp along mailing files to myself....

I suspect both sides end up liming along with some things, but are plenty happy with the good stuff.

For whatever reason, though there are different add-ons that individually handle pieces of that functionality, nobody seems to have made an add-on like the Transformer's keyboard that does all of it in one piece of equipment.

I'm not just harping on Apple in this case. There's a bluetooth keyboard for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that has similar limitations...no USB, no ports, and it just holds the tab at one angle. And also no extra battery. Those are absolute limitations.

Anyways, I only posted all this because you asked. Maybe the viewpoint could help someone who's on the fence.

I was a little disappointed that there wasn't an easily located handwriting to text app that I could find....if they're out there, I'm not sure where. However....after thinking about it....I type at over 100 wpm....faster than I could write with a stylus. So I'm not even sure if the lack of handwriting recognition matters.

Can you play PS2 games on an iPad2? Do they make emulators etc? What about PC games? I've talked with people on another message board I'm on who are playing Baldur's Gate on their Transformer.....I find that pretty cool. Admittedly, I don't know if something similar is possible on a stock or jailbroken iPad.

**actually, just figured that one out.....found some posts online that it's also possible on a jailbroken iPad 2

Banshee

 

[rangerjohn]

I imagine the answer is yes to older pc games no to emulating PS2. This is no slap at portable devices however. It's simply very hard to emulate a PS2. It takes very high end components. Processor, video card etc. A lot of PC's can't do it either.

 

[Janx]

I imagine the answer is yes to older pc games no to emulating PS2. This is no slap at portable devices however. It's simply very hard to emulate a PS2. It takes very high end components. Processor, video card etc. A lot of PC's can't do it either.

true enough, even just a couple years ago when I investigated it, PS2 emulators were still piss poor. Not enough horsepower in PCs yet.

As a note, it's not because the PS2 was made from amazing future tech. To emulate a processor, generally you create a simulation of that processor in softwarre. that software must run on a processor fast enough that the load of the virtual processor leaves speed left over to do the work that the game expects to be running at.

Running emulators is sort of a bootleg operation, while cool, not a driving feature for a mainstream tablet user. Additionally, most people want to play a game made for the tablet, not a game made for a console with a controller they don't have. Being able to play old games is cool and all, buit not a driving factor for most people.

Of the differences thus far, here's what I smell as significant (wholly my opinion and worth what you paid for it):
direct usb/media ports vs, a dongle with ports
direct data file access vs. email, itunes or drop-box to move files
Flash support vs. no flash*
battery life
fully open app store vs. gatekept app store**
wide mix of HW to support with Android vs. narrow band of HW for iOS to support

There could be more, hopefully I didn't get too nitpicky nor dismissive of anything significant.

*there might be a few browser apps that supply Flash support, instead of Mobile Safari. Also, one could remote desktop to a PC and use the browser there to run a flash page.
**the trade-off being open seems to be vulnerable to malware, and the gated store bars some apps from being published.

I like my iPad1. I use it more for personal stuff on the couch than for work. But then for work, mostly I need a real computer or a notepad to jot things down quickly. In a way, my iPad has become my "home" computer, and my laptop is my "work" computer.