the tablet war is heating up

[Felon]

I flew up to visit the family for Christmas. I gave my sister a Nook tablet. She loves the thing. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mother wasn't able to get the Kindle Fire to work on wifi, so we ultimately returned it. The same problem was true of the Nook. Taking a look at the router, I found that it was completely open, and once I actually added WPA2 PSK security with a password, the Nook was able to connect. I've seen this before, where devices don't connect to open security because they're waiting for password authentication that never comes.

My Thrive was real salvation during the trip. I have probably way too much money too quickly downloading Invincible compliations from Comixology. If you have a tablet of any kind, go check out Splashtop. It's a very simple-to-set-up app for remote desktop control, and it's available across the major platforms.

 

[Zaukrie]

I have last year's Nook Color. The closed market drives me crazy. Bleepin' crazy. I just bought a Rezound phone, and now I know what I've been missing in terms of apps. Ridiculous. B&N needs to open it up more. The smart phone just makes me want a real tablet even more than I did before.

 

[Felon]

The Rezound is a nice phone. As for the Nook, I noticed that even with the tablet, if I went to the Amazon Android app store, it would immediately close the browser. That's obnoxious. Root the sucker, I say.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I flew up to visit the family for Christmas. I gave my sister a Nook tablet. She loves the thing. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mother wasn't able to get the Kindle Fire to work on wifi, so we ultimately returned it. The same problem was true of the Nook. Taking a look at the router, I found that it was completely open, and once I actually added WPA2 PSK security with a password, the Nook was able to connect. I've seen this before, where devices don't connect to open security because they're waiting for password authentication that never comes.

My Thrive was real salvation during the trip. I have probably way too much money too quickly downloading Invincible compliations from Comixology. If you have a tablet of any kind, go check out Splashtop. It's a very simple-to-set-up app for remote desktop control, and it's available across the major platforms.

Wiat, did you say compilations of Invicible? Almost every time I look at that service it's all individual issues and it's cheaper to buy the hardcover collectons that bring 'em 12 at a time.

 

[Felon]

Wiat, did you say compilations of Invicible? Almost every time I look at that service it's all individual issues and it's cheaper to buy the hardcover collectons that bring 'em 12 at a time.

Looks to be the same either way. $2 for a single issue, $12 for a six-issue compilation. I figure the compilations save me a bit of scrolling when I'm looking at my titles.

 

[Felon]

CES 2012 is here. One of the biggest deals at the expo? Windows 8 tablets.

Here's Razer's concept tablet:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpj9TUp4rkU[/ame]

 

[Fast Learner]

While it's not Razer's market, per se, I think they would have been way better off creating controllers for existing tablets instead of insisting that people buy theirs.

With Bluetooth LE on new Apple hardware, for example, you don't have to get a special hardware license from Apple or anything. They could create awesome gaming control pads/speakers/whatever that snap onto an iPad and spit out a simple SDK that allows any developer to take advantage of it.

There are likely existing Android tablets with Bluetooth LE, too, or soon will be. (USB or other ports are bad because the physical position of each port makes creating a widely-compatible device very difficult, and the energy requirement of Bluetooth 3 drains the tablet and accessory batteries crazy fast).

I recognize that they're full PC games, but it seems like the actual price will doom it to ultimate failure. I'll be very surprised if it actually ever comes to market.

 

[Felon]

While it's not Razer's market, per se, I think they would have been way better off creating controllers for existing tablets instead of insisting that people buy theirs.

With Bluetooth LE on new Apple hardware, for example, you don't have to get a special hardware license from Apple or anything. They could create awesome gaming control pads/speakers/whatever that snap onto an iPad and spit out a simple SDK that allows any developer to take advantage of it.

There are likely existing Android tablets with Bluetooth LE, too, or soon will be. (USB or other ports are bad because the physical position of each port makes creating a widely-compatible device very difficult, and the energy requirement of Bluetooth 3 drains the tablet and accessory batteries crazy fast).

I recognize that they're full PC games, but it seems like the actual price will doom it to ultimate failure. I'll be very surprised if it actually ever comes to market.

Well, there's simply worlds of difference between playing iPad or Android apps and having access to every PC game on the market with an i7 processor and a proper GPU. You'd have a real OS, not just some wallpaper with app shortcuts. They could afford to charge what a good laptop or PC would cost because It would actually handle what laptops and PC's handle: hardcore gaming and hardcore productivity. Currently, tablets are just for dabbling in those things.

Razer is clearly not conceiving their tablet for a large mass-market consumer audience. It's for diehards. Then again, even if it never comes out, we will be seeing powerhouse Windows 8 tablets in its vein.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I was more interested in the 13" tablet. While I find my Toshiba is great for some things, I actually think it's a 'little' too small for PDFs and drawing on.

And yeah, a Windows tablet does sound sweet, but expensive. Apps have paved the way for a lot of inexpensive software that works.

 

[Banshee16]

I flew up to visit the family for Christmas. I gave my sister a Nook tablet. She loves the thing. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mother wasn't able to get the Kindle Fire to work on wifi, so we ultimately returned it. The same problem was true of the Nook. Taking a look at the router, I found that it was completely open, and once I actually added WPA2 PSK security with a password, the Nook was able to connect. I've seen this before, where devices don't connect to open security because they're waiting for password authentication that never comes.

My Thrive was real salvation during the trip. I have probably way too much money too quickly downloading Invincible compliations from Comixology. If you have a tablet of any kind, go check out Splashtop. It's a very simple-to-set-up app for remote desktop control, and it's available across the major platforms.

I've got Splashtop on my Transformer. It's kind of neat to play The Witcher 2 on my tablet, streamed from my PC.

Banshee