Neither of the quotes you provided seem particularly loopy. What I find nutty is that people insist on building cults of personality around a company's executives because they have the impulse to slap a face on something that's essentially faceless. Corporate executives are mostly dull, straight-laced people (the occasionaly weekend in Bangkok notwithstanding).
the tablet war is heating up
- Thread starter falcarrion
- Start date
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
Asus Transformer Prime appears to have had its distribution date moved back to January, but there are also reviews and perhaps reports that it has already been on sale in Canada.
Does anyone have first-hand experience with this? Or a reliable source? Or free candy?
Does anyone have first-hand experience with this? Or a reliable source? Or free candy?
It's out, from what I understand. I post over at Asus Transformer Tablet Forum and there have been several people posting in the last few days that their orders have shipped and some are starting to post (including photos) about theirs arriving.
It looks good.....real good. Almost makes me regret getting the TF101 4 months ago.....I've gotten a lot of use out of the first generation Transformer, but the Prime looks more solid, faster, and just much nicer looking.
Banshee
He's not the only executive who says nutty things....or just isn't a nice person, period. But then, in most cases, execs aren't paid to be nice people.
As to some of his statements being "nutty"....well, some at least, may not be looking as nutty a few more months out. Android passed iOS for overall total of users on the Facebook app, and appears to be pulling away. Facebook has now launched Timelines for the Android app first, and some writers are mentioning it may be a sign of a turning point, with more app developers starting to launch on Android first. Even a few weeks ago, this didn't seem possible, but we'll see I guess. Maybe Schmidt won't be wrong in the long run.
I was just looking at the Galaxy Nexus at Costco today, and frankly, it looks like a better built phone than my iPhone 4.
Banshee
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
Thanks. That's helpful knowledge.
Well, since I can't give you XP, how about a color icon. I don't know if this will look good enough, but it's the best I could do at the tiny icon resolution.
A poster after my own heart. An icon of the Lady of Pain 
I haven't handled the Prime yet, but it's supposedly very much similar to the ASUS Ultrabooks, and those are pretty sharp. Performance is supposed to be quicker, though not on every single app.....I guess it depends on whether an app is programmed to work with all four cores or not.
Screen brightness is supposed to be way up, with an outdoor mode that makes it possible to use outside in daylight. Battery life is better. Given the TF101 gets pretty strong battery life already, that's not bad. Depending on what I do with mine, when docked with the keyboard, depending upon how much I use WiFi, mine gets between 15-20 hours on a charge already. That's actual use...not just standby. Some apps are worse at draining the battery than others....same as with iOS.
How much use you'll get from it will depend on what you want to use it for. I use mine a lot for work. It's a great companion for meetings, and now with Photoshop Touch and Photoshop Proto available, I can work on laying out ideas for clients right there. The Prime improves on the video playback capabilities of the TF101 (which has issues with H.264).
With the USB ports, the Transformer series can actually work pretty well as Android based netbooks. Mine's pretty much replaced my laptop for everything except hard core word processing or more detailed Photoshop work (I don't use my laptop for gaming....I have a more powerful desktop for that).
The areas I see mine lacking vs. an iPad 2 are that the battery life is a little shorter (though not by much), and with the dock added, the battery life is better, that there don't appear to be as many games or entertainment apps (though with the recent $0.10 sale, it feels like the problem may be more that the Market isn't as well organized as the App Store). E-mail integration works much better than on iOS (phone version). I can actually search for emails by keyword, and reliably find what I'm looking for, even if it's months old. The TF101 doesn't feel built as nice as the iPad 2, but the Prime upps the ante, and is apparently quite solid.
The ports are useful....being able to move stuff on an off portable hard drives, print over the air to any printer (not just specific models), plug in a game controller and use it, or a wireless mouse, or even a wireless keyboard, or any number of other peripherals has been useful, as I tend to prefer a separate mouse over a trackpad.
Some reviewers had issues with weak WiFi...but apparently this appears to be a problem with early review units that has been corrected for the models being shipped to the U.S. for consumers....unless that's just a PR smokescreen. Hopefully not. Sites like Anandtech that had those problems reported receiving new copies that worked much better.
The TF101 is my first device, but I love the customizability. I've switched out my launcher and keyboard, and have also thought of switching my multitasking tray, as well as my text to speech engine...though I haven't gotten around to those yet, as the ones that are already there don't bother me enough. One thing I noticed....if you replace the keyboard, the software keyboard replacements don't work with the dock. If you keep the replacement "turned on" while the dock is installed, the dock won't work, you'll get typos galore etc. You have to turn the replacement keyboard off, and the dock will work properly. I guess the app makers didn't account to think of the ASUS dock.
Banshee
I haven't handled the Prime yet, but it's supposedly very much similar to the ASUS Ultrabooks, and those are pretty sharp. Performance is supposed to be quicker, though not on every single app.....I guess it depends on whether an app is programmed to work with all four cores or not.
Screen brightness is supposed to be way up, with an outdoor mode that makes it possible to use outside in daylight. Battery life is better. Given the TF101 gets pretty strong battery life already, that's not bad. Depending on what I do with mine, when docked with the keyboard, depending upon how much I use WiFi, mine gets between 15-20 hours on a charge already. That's actual use...not just standby. Some apps are worse at draining the battery than others....same as with iOS.
How much use you'll get from it will depend on what you want to use it for. I use mine a lot for work. It's a great companion for meetings, and now with Photoshop Touch and Photoshop Proto available, I can work on laying out ideas for clients right there. The Prime improves on the video playback capabilities of the TF101 (which has issues with H.264).
With the USB ports, the Transformer series can actually work pretty well as Android based netbooks. Mine's pretty much replaced my laptop for everything except hard core word processing or more detailed Photoshop work (I don't use my laptop for gaming....I have a more powerful desktop for that).
The areas I see mine lacking vs. an iPad 2 are that the battery life is a little shorter (though not by much), and with the dock added, the battery life is better, that there don't appear to be as many games or entertainment apps (though with the recent $0.10 sale, it feels like the problem may be more that the Market isn't as well organized as the App Store). E-mail integration works much better than on iOS (phone version). I can actually search for emails by keyword, and reliably find what I'm looking for, even if it's months old. The TF101 doesn't feel built as nice as the iPad 2, but the Prime upps the ante, and is apparently quite solid.
The ports are useful....being able to move stuff on an off portable hard drives, print over the air to any printer (not just specific models), plug in a game controller and use it, or a wireless mouse, or even a wireless keyboard, or any number of other peripherals has been useful, as I tend to prefer a separate mouse over a trackpad.
Some reviewers had issues with weak WiFi...but apparently this appears to be a problem with early review units that has been corrected for the models being shipped to the U.S. for consumers....unless that's just a PR smokescreen. Hopefully not. Sites like Anandtech that had those problems reported receiving new copies that worked much better.
The TF101 is my first device, but I love the customizability. I've switched out my launcher and keyboard, and have also thought of switching my multitasking tray, as well as my text to speech engine...though I haven't gotten around to those yet, as the ones that are already there don't bother me enough. One thing I noticed....if you replace the keyboard, the software keyboard replacements don't work with the dock. If you keep the replacement "turned on" while the dock is installed, the dock won't work, you'll get typos galore etc. You have to turn the replacement keyboard off, and the dock will work properly. I guess the app makers didn't account to think of the ASUS dock.
Banshee
Fast Learner
First Post
Time will tell, then. We'll check back in 6 months when, according to Schmidt:
- Third-party developers will be writing the best apps for Android first, and that Android development will overtake iOS development (promised at LeWeb 2 weeks ago)<br>
- "The majority" of all televisions in stores will have Google TV built in (also promised at LeWeb), and<br>
- Google will market a tablet of the highest quality (spoken to Italian reporters today)
And let's not forget that at $500, it's actually reasonably priced for the hardware you're getting. I like my Toshiba Thrive just fine, but only relative to the $300 I paid over Thanksgiving weekend, not for the $470 it has normally retailed for.
The problem with the Prime is that Windows 8 is on its way in 2012. We can praise Android ICS for how far it's come along, but the things we could major milestones for Android are things we consider basic expectations from Windows.
Microsoft hasn't really done a good mobile OS yet....so I guess we'll see. Microsoft definitely has resources....but they haven't been successful yet. I wouldn't mind it.....but not if it means the devices using it only have 3 hour battery life (as an example).
I'm not an Android fanatic by any means. I use Windows 7 and think MS did a pretty good job with it. It's just they're playing major catch up at this point, and don't know if they'll be able to do it.
I paid $425 for my Transformer.....which seems like a lot now. But it's a business expense so it kind of balances out. That having been said, I get a lot of use out of it, so by that token I'd probably be willing to pay more for it than something that I was using purely for entertainment.
Banshee
Fast Learner
First Post
I'll argue that Windows Phone 7.5 is quite good. It's not tablet-ready yet, and they certainly could blow it with Win 8, but as a mobile phone OS, I think they're already there.
