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<blockquote data-quote="Banshee16" data-source="post: 5720892" data-attributes="member: 7883"><p>Those are valid questions.</p><p></p><p>There's a difference between my partners and I, and then the other people I was referencing. We tend to be rather technical as we're partners in a web design/development company, whereas my relatives are not. One of them owns a programming/consulting company in Australia, and the others aren't in the computer industry at all.</p><p></p><p>So, with my partners, one of them uses his iPad largely for personal stuff. I rarely see him use it at work. He's a programmer, and fairly familiar with the technology. Has an iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. My other partner is more of a designer. He played around with note taking apps early on, and then stopped, and now uses a regular notepad. He *does* use his for wireframing websites, and there's a really cool app for doing that on the iPad. Nothing comparable on mine for doing that yet.....though there's one coming called Adobe Proto that I think will be released tomorrow. Aside from that, I believe he uses it for news reading, games for his kids, etc.</p><p></p><p>To be clear, they both use their device...just not as much for work.</p><p></p><p>With respect to my relatives, the one who owns a programming firm had an iPad right there, and everyone thought it was cool. When he looked at the Transformer, he thought it was pretty cool. He hadn't seen one down under yet. He pointed out it didn't render pages as quickly as the iPad 2 did, but the keyboard dock and ports would be very useful.</p><p></p><p>We had all attended a wedding the day before, and I had taken a bunch of photos on my SLR. They wanted copies of them, but didn't have a laptop or anything......so I was able to grab the USB cable from my camera bag, sit down with the Transformer and connect it to the camera, quickly pull all the photos down to the tablet, and then upload them to a photo sharing site via WiFi. Took a few minutes (mainly upload time, not actually getting things set up). It was easy peasy. I was also able to use the tablet that way to quickly show all the photos to the family. That went very well....at which point the kids wanted to grab the Transformer, and started playing Angry Birds etc. on it</p><p></p><p>I'm using a variety of apps on the tablet at the moment......I have been experimenting with a bunch, not knowing what's best, as I'm new to Android, whereas I've had an iPhone for a year, so I've got a bunch of duplicates loaded on at the moment.</p><p></p><p>Media</p><p>-MX Player</p><p>-VLC Player</p><p>-Mobo Player</p><p>-Rock Player Lite</p><p>-Netflix</p><p>-Doubletwist</p><p></p><p>Notetaking</p><p>-Springpad</p><p>-Evernote</p><p>-Supernote</p><p>-Sketchpad X</p><p></p><p>Games</p><p>-Dungeon Defenders (not a fan of the whole "tower defense" type game)</p><p>-Galaxy on Fire 2</p><p>-Angry Birds (3 different types....I think Rio and another one).</p><p>-Fruit Ninja (find it stupid, so I've since deleted it).</p><p></p><p>WiFi Analyzer (use this for help when figuring out WiFi coverage zones at office, and troubleshooting interference problems)</p><p></p><p></p><p>News Readers</p><p></p><p>Feedly</p><p>Pulse</p><p></p><p>Browsers</p><p></p><p>Dolphin Browser HD (lots of useful plugins)</p><p>Opera</p><p>Flash</p><p></p><p>ES File Manager (file manager for whole SSD, also lets me move files over WiFi, FTP into web servers, etc.)</p><p></p><p>I'm running a replacement launcher....ADW Launcher, I believe, that they thought was pretty cool, in terms of being able to change the interface.</p><p></p><p>There's a bunch of other stuff it'll run......programs to download from Torrents etc. but I don't use any of those.</p><p></p><p>I have a few book reader apps, few of whom work as nice as the ones on the iPad. Specifically, simple things like the page flipping animations don't seem to be included, even when I'm using an app that has a brother app on iOS that *does* do it.....but I know the programs *support* it.....as in, if I use the Kobo app or the Google Books app, or the ASUS Books app, I can get page flipping if I read an epub file I bought online....but if I read a PDF (like an RPG book I purchased from RPG Now), it doesn't support the page flipping animation.....but if I read the exact same file on iPad using Kobo (for instance), I *do* get the animations.</p><p></p><p>In general, points that were commented about as being positives were:</p><p></p><p>-detachable, portable keyboard that charges the tablet.</p><p>-long battery life (with the keyboard, I get 16-22 hours active use...not sleep time)</p><p>-USB ports and HDMI port (didn't use HDMI port)</p><p>-memory card support as we could easily move something to tablet on memory card, remove memory card, stick it into another computer and migrate files</p><p>-full file system access (the programmer liked this one)</p><p>-they liked that they could look at any website and not get "install Flash" prompts and big blank areas. My relative the programmer liked this. He understands what Flash is. My other relatives who aren't in the computer business just liked that they could see everything, without really understanding Flash vs. not Flash. This is less of an issue on major websites where they have big web budgets to reprogram stuff.....but for the 90% of websites out there that are launched by companies who *don't* have budgets allowing them to reprogram sites over and over, it helps.</p><p></p><p>There's a bunch of stuff it does that I haven't even really tried yet....DLNA streaming, replacement keyboards, Splashtop desktop control, I've barely touched the unlimited cloud storage, etc.</p><p></p><p>VPN connections work *much* better than on my iPhone. On my iPhone, the VPN connection fails 90% of the time....I have to try connecting over and over before it finally works. Same with my connection to Google apps. It routinely rejects my password, even when I type them into my notes so I can verify by sight that I've got them typed correctly, then I highlight the text, copy, then paste it into the password field for Google Apps. On the Transformer, those things are working 100% of the time.</p><p></p><p>So really, it depends on what you're doing with the device. As a laptop replacement, I find the Transformer works much better. Due to the better availability of apps, games etc. I think the iPad works better as an entertainment device.</p><p></p><p>My tablet has less variety of apps on it than my iPhone does....but then, I've had the iPhone longer, and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, several apps just make more sense to use on a phone than on a tablet (IMO). Regardless of the fact that I like the GPS and maps on my tablet *more*, the fact is I'd rather be carrying around a phone for mapping, rather than a 10 or 9 inch tablet. Similar for recording gas mileage, tracking miles driven for work, recording the location of my car and time left til my parking meter expires, recording receipts for expenses etc. etc. I *could* do all those on my tablet......but there's just no sense.</p><p></p><p>Another good example of use was last week. One of my partners and I drove to a client meeting out of the city. We used the iPhone to navigate, as the meeting was with a company in the country. On the way, I pulled out my tablet (he was driving), and as we drove, I logged into Google apps, had the tablet and keyboard sitting on my lap (very comfortable...much moreso than my 17" laptop), and as we drove by, I was rapidly pulling up the websites of companies whose offices or signs we saw on the side of the road, and adding them all into our online spreadsheet for following up and cold calling, and rapidly adding in notes from what I could see as we drove by their locations (signage needs updating, etc. etc.). All stuff we couldn't easily see by using the Yellow Pages. By the time we got back to our office after the meeting, I already had a new list of prospects to cold call.</p><p></p><p>Data input on the run is very easy that way. Yes, I could do it with a small netbook....but that'll be $300, and runs Windows, so it's slower...and doesn't include the touch screen etc.</p><p></p><p>Banshee</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Banshee16, post: 5720892, member: 7883"] Those are valid questions. There's a difference between my partners and I, and then the other people I was referencing. We tend to be rather technical as we're partners in a web design/development company, whereas my relatives are not. One of them owns a programming/consulting company in Australia, and the others aren't in the computer industry at all. So, with my partners, one of them uses his iPad largely for personal stuff. I rarely see him use it at work. He's a programmer, and fairly familiar with the technology. Has an iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. My other partner is more of a designer. He played around with note taking apps early on, and then stopped, and now uses a regular notepad. He *does* use his for wireframing websites, and there's a really cool app for doing that on the iPad. Nothing comparable on mine for doing that yet.....though there's one coming called Adobe Proto that I think will be released tomorrow. Aside from that, I believe he uses it for news reading, games for his kids, etc. To be clear, they both use their device...just not as much for work. With respect to my relatives, the one who owns a programming firm had an iPad right there, and everyone thought it was cool. When he looked at the Transformer, he thought it was pretty cool. He hadn't seen one down under yet. He pointed out it didn't render pages as quickly as the iPad 2 did, but the keyboard dock and ports would be very useful. We had all attended a wedding the day before, and I had taken a bunch of photos on my SLR. They wanted copies of them, but didn't have a laptop or anything......so I was able to grab the USB cable from my camera bag, sit down with the Transformer and connect it to the camera, quickly pull all the photos down to the tablet, and then upload them to a photo sharing site via WiFi. Took a few minutes (mainly upload time, not actually getting things set up). It was easy peasy. I was also able to use the tablet that way to quickly show all the photos to the family. That went very well....at which point the kids wanted to grab the Transformer, and started playing Angry Birds etc. on it I'm using a variety of apps on the tablet at the moment......I have been experimenting with a bunch, not knowing what's best, as I'm new to Android, whereas I've had an iPhone for a year, so I've got a bunch of duplicates loaded on at the moment. Media -MX Player -VLC Player -Mobo Player -Rock Player Lite -Netflix -Doubletwist Notetaking -Springpad -Evernote -Supernote -Sketchpad X Games -Dungeon Defenders (not a fan of the whole "tower defense" type game) -Galaxy on Fire 2 -Angry Birds (3 different types....I think Rio and another one). -Fruit Ninja (find it stupid, so I've since deleted it). WiFi Analyzer (use this for help when figuring out WiFi coverage zones at office, and troubleshooting interference problems) News Readers Feedly Pulse Browsers Dolphin Browser HD (lots of useful plugins) Opera Flash ES File Manager (file manager for whole SSD, also lets me move files over WiFi, FTP into web servers, etc.) I'm running a replacement launcher....ADW Launcher, I believe, that they thought was pretty cool, in terms of being able to change the interface. There's a bunch of other stuff it'll run......programs to download from Torrents etc. but I don't use any of those. I have a few book reader apps, few of whom work as nice as the ones on the iPad. Specifically, simple things like the page flipping animations don't seem to be included, even when I'm using an app that has a brother app on iOS that *does* do it.....but I know the programs *support* it.....as in, if I use the Kobo app or the Google Books app, or the ASUS Books app, I can get page flipping if I read an epub file I bought online....but if I read a PDF (like an RPG book I purchased from RPG Now), it doesn't support the page flipping animation.....but if I read the exact same file on iPad using Kobo (for instance), I *do* get the animations. In general, points that were commented about as being positives were: -detachable, portable keyboard that charges the tablet. -long battery life (with the keyboard, I get 16-22 hours active use...not sleep time) -USB ports and HDMI port (didn't use HDMI port) -memory card support as we could easily move something to tablet on memory card, remove memory card, stick it into another computer and migrate files -full file system access (the programmer liked this one) -they liked that they could look at any website and not get "install Flash" prompts and big blank areas. My relative the programmer liked this. He understands what Flash is. My other relatives who aren't in the computer business just liked that they could see everything, without really understanding Flash vs. not Flash. This is less of an issue on major websites where they have big web budgets to reprogram stuff.....but for the 90% of websites out there that are launched by companies who *don't* have budgets allowing them to reprogram sites over and over, it helps. There's a bunch of stuff it does that I haven't even really tried yet....DLNA streaming, replacement keyboards, Splashtop desktop control, I've barely touched the unlimited cloud storage, etc. VPN connections work *much* better than on my iPhone. On my iPhone, the VPN connection fails 90% of the time....I have to try connecting over and over before it finally works. Same with my connection to Google apps. It routinely rejects my password, even when I type them into my notes so I can verify by sight that I've got them typed correctly, then I highlight the text, copy, then paste it into the password field for Google Apps. On the Transformer, those things are working 100% of the time. So really, it depends on what you're doing with the device. As a laptop replacement, I find the Transformer works much better. Due to the better availability of apps, games etc. I think the iPad works better as an entertainment device. My tablet has less variety of apps on it than my iPhone does....but then, I've had the iPhone longer, and, as I mentioned in an earlier post, several apps just make more sense to use on a phone than on a tablet (IMO). Regardless of the fact that I like the GPS and maps on my tablet *more*, the fact is I'd rather be carrying around a phone for mapping, rather than a 10 or 9 inch tablet. Similar for recording gas mileage, tracking miles driven for work, recording the location of my car and time left til my parking meter expires, recording receipts for expenses etc. etc. I *could* do all those on my tablet......but there's just no sense. Another good example of use was last week. One of my partners and I drove to a client meeting out of the city. We used the iPhone to navigate, as the meeting was with a company in the country. On the way, I pulled out my tablet (he was driving), and as we drove, I logged into Google apps, had the tablet and keyboard sitting on my lap (very comfortable...much moreso than my 17" laptop), and as we drove by, I was rapidly pulling up the websites of companies whose offices or signs we saw on the side of the road, and adding them all into our online spreadsheet for following up and cold calling, and rapidly adding in notes from what I could see as we drove by their locations (signage needs updating, etc. etc.). All stuff we couldn't easily see by using the Yellow Pages. By the time we got back to our office after the meeting, I already had a new list of prospects to cold call. Data input on the run is very easy that way. Yes, I could do it with a small netbook....but that'll be $300, and runs Windows, so it's slower...and doesn't include the touch screen etc. Banshee [/QUOTE]
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