the tablet war is heating up

[Argyle King]

The main thing which stopped me from buying an iPad was the lack of USB ports and/or some way of connecting it to other devices I have.

From an outside looking in, (right or wrongly) it seems as though I mostly need official iPad apps to be able to do some of the things I want to do.

I think having a tablet would be great, but, until iPad adds a few features I want or the competition offers a better price without sacrificing ability, I can use my phone for most of the things I could do with a tablet and be just as happy.

 

[falcarrion]

The main thing which stopped me from buying an iPad was the lack of USB ports and/or some way of connecting it to other devices I have.

From an outside looking in, (right or wrongly) it seems as though I mostly need official iPad apps to be able to do some of the things I want to do.

I think having a tablet would be great, but, until iPad adds a few features I want or the competition offers a better price without sacrificing ability, I can use my phone for most of the things I could do with a tablet and be just as happy.

What devices are you trying to hook up? You can get an usb adapter.
what are the things you need to do?

 

[Solvarn]

I think this is going to be like the iPod wars, yes there will be better cheaper products out there but because of marketing the pad wins, it hit first and has dug in.

I own a Samsung Galaxy tab and I'm not so sure. I think that the needs for a tablet are a little more sophisticated than that of an mp3 player. For example, I'm more willing to forgive the lack of multitasking in the iPhone but for me on a tablet it was a deal breaker. In addition the support for Android is there. There are a few sticky issues but it could be a pretty intense battle.

I can see the tablets replacing PC's pretty easily. For basic functions tablets using cloud computing perform well and can meet the essential functions most people use for computing, particularly if they are docked and it's easier to type. The line between gaming PC and consoles is blurring quite a bit.

 

[falcarrion]

Pretty much every iPod, for one example.

That may not be true any more. It depends on what your trying to do.
Lets say you only listen to music on your Itouch. If you only listen to music while your with in your wifi range of your router you can now share music between itunes, your ipad, and your itouch. So I can load all my music in Itunes, and listen to it on my itouch or ipad without having to load any music on either device. It basicly depends how new your device is.

 

[falcarrion]

I own a Samsung Galaxy tab and I'm not so sure. I think that the needs for a tablet are a little more sophisticated than that of an mp3 player. For example, I'm more willing to forgive the lack of multitasking in the iPhone but for me on a tablet it was a deal breaker. In addition the support for Android is there. There are a few sticky issues but it could be a pretty intense battle.

I can see the tablets replacing PC's pretty easily. For basic functions tablets using cloud computing perform well and can meet the essential functions most people use for computing, particularly if they are docked and it's easier to type. The line between gaming PC and consoles is blurring quite a bit.

I have a question about your Galaxy Tab. If you buy an app (or do you refer to it as apk) can you load it on your android phone at no additional cost? Or would you have to buy it twice?

 

[Relique du Madde]

I have a question about your Galaxy Tab. If you buy an app (or do you refer to it as apk) can you load it on your android phone at no additional cost? Or would you have to buy it twice?

You can with no extra charge as long as it's purchased in the Android Market or Amazon App Store. I'm not sure about other app markets/stores.

However, I should note that this *might* not be the case with some services that can be accessed through an apps (such as virus protection or non google data-protection) or some in app purchase unless that app accesses an external server.

 

[Zaukrie]

After surfing the web, video watching is my next most likely use....like yogajournaltv (flash), espn3.com (flash), and a bunch of other flash sites. I know, someday flash wont' matter, but you know what, it does now.

THAT is why I don't own an iPad.

And, I really want to see what the android tablets are doing by this summer....

 

[Argyle King]

What devices are you trying to hook up? You can get an usb adapter.
what are the things you need to do?

Being able to transfer information to/from external hard drives would be something I'd need USB for.

Also, when I have people over for game night, being able to display a pdf of a map or something of that nature on my TV would be helpful.

Being able to get music and media without going through iTunes would also be a preference of mine. (this may be doable, I'm not sure)

Those three spring to mind right away.

 

[John Crichton]

That may not be true any more. It depends on what your trying to do.
Lets say you only listen to music on your Itouch. If you only listen to music while your with in your wifi range of your router you can now share music between itunes, your ipad, and your itouch. So I can load all my music in Itunes, and listen to it on my itouch or ipad without having to load any music on either device. It basicly depends how new your device is.

Yes, home options are expanding and newer devices are getting better at that. However, there are millions of owners that won't care about that for years. And unless I can get all that on the go it won't truly matter since I still lose that functionality everywhere else.

 

[Fast Learner]

After surfing the web, video watching is my next most likely use....like yogajournaltv (flash), espn3.com (flash), and a bunch of other flash sites. I know, someday flash wont' matter, but you know what, it does now.

THAT is why I don't own an iPad.

What's not apparent to most folks browsing the web on their PCs is that more than 70% of Flash video has HTML5/H263 alternate video that automatically substitutes, with the percentage growing all the time. All of YouTube, Vimeo, FunnyOrDie, The Onion, etc. etc. do it automatically. If there's a site you're curious about and you have the Safari browser installed on your Windows PC or Mac, you can turn on Developer mode in the Advanced Preferences and then change your user-agent to "iPad" and visit the site in question. The site will think you're on an iPad and automatically substitute HTML5 video if it's available.

And really, even if you get an Android tablet that actually supports Flash video (currently they're pretty awful, unfortunately), you'll likely want to watch HTML5 video whenever possible because it -- generally -- takes better advantage of hardware decompression and uses less processor (and therefor, importantly, less battery).

That said, the two sites you specifically mentioned don't currently offer HTML5 backup (though the Yoga Journal offers an iPad app with 15 of the same videos), so it definitely sounds like it's not currently for you. I'm confident that will change, but it will take time.