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.
I wouldn't minimize the importance of several of those features.
My *understanding* is that even though the iPad 2 has a dongle it *still* can't replicate several things. I read on a tech advice column that even *with* the USB dongle, the iPad can only pull stuff *off* a flash drive....it can't put stuff *on* the flash drive from the iPad.
And that for printing, it still requires either a $100 accessory to print to a printer.......or the purchase of a printer that supports Apple Air Print or whatever it's called.
Those two things having been said, that's what the article I had read said. I can't attest to its veracity, as nobody I know who has an iPad or iPad 2 has paid for any dongles, so they can't do any of that anyways.
I just print whatever I want off my tablet. Yes, I need a free app for each printer manufacturer, but I've found them available for every printer manufacturer I've needed to work with, and it works fine.
eBook performance is better on iPads though.
I'm not sure if I'm one of the ones who counts the fully open store as a benefit vs. the gatekept one. There are advantages, but disadvantages as well. That impacts me far less (and honestly I don't care about it that much) than being able to easily grab any files on my device and send them out by e-mail (including multiple attachments of different documents created by different apps) and send them out in one e-mail, being able to access the file system etc. In a common workday that's something I depend on.
The few "dongles" I've purchased include an HDMI cable and a USB 3 cable, the two of which cost me a total of $6 from Monoprice. The HDMI is useful when I have to connect to a projector at a client's prem.
There seem to be more interesting games available for iOS.....though the selection is getting better for the Transformer, it's got a long way to go to catch up. I don't use many games on it though....I mean, I have several installed, but it's like with business apps....many of them are just more convenient on a phone format. If I have time to sit down with a larger device, I'm more inclined to go play any number of games on my 360 or PS3, rather than on a tablet. If I'm on the go, it's more convenient to use the games on my iPhone. I think that's just a characteristic of tablets though.....regardless of OS.
Incidentally, a friend of mine got the Playbook, and has been using it for several weeks now, and it's a far better device than some of the tech reviewers seem to give it credit for. Unless the problem is that reviews were done at release, and patches over the last 6 months have fixed things that they were penalizing it for before, I don't get why there's so much hate for it. It's polished, the OS is slick, it renders webpages faster and better than any iPad or Android tablet, and the battery lasts a lot longer than the 4 hours I read about in some reviews back in April. I mean, I hang out with my friend for an hour and a half, and he was playing with his tablet the whole time, and it only used maybe 15% of the battery.
I'm interested to see what will happen next year. If reports of a retina display iPad 3 are true, that'll give it a huge boost, as the 2nd gen Android tablets all seem to be sticking with the 1200x780 (or whatever) resolution screens.
Banshee
