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Fryhtaning posted:I really don't understand why Android tablets aren't taking off. Whenever I go to trade shows or conferences, all of my iPad-wielding colleagues marvel over my Xoom. With my entire life on Google, and especially on Android 4.0, I can dual-wield my GNex and Xoom like the liquid-metal extensions of my body that they are. Everyone around here knows to buy ASUS (or Xoom, I guess) and I'm sure they'll make a loving fortune off of us considering that they can't drive those Chinese child laborers hard enough to take our money as quickly as we want to give it to them. But people don't like having to do homework on their electronics purchases and a lot of the technology (ahem, NVidia) seems to be named by the same marketing folks who came up with naming Sony's HDTV processors "Bravia Engine 2" and "Bravia Engine 3" without telling anyone what the difference is. My LCD TVs are the only thing exceeding Android hardware where I see so much marketing bullshit and have to ask the user community to tell me what the facts are.
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Jan 21, 2012 09:04
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Fryhtaning posted:That's kind of an unfair comparison. Apple is Apple quote:You can't compare the $100 tablets to the iPad just because it has an Android operating system on it. My point is that your phone has ICS, and your tablet has ICS, and you're wondering why nobody else is doing this. The issue is there's only two groups of people "dual wielding" Ice Cream Sandwich: * You * Google Employees ICS is brand new and a lot of people talking about it can't actually use it. My point is that you are using the two devices that put you closest to Google in terms of support and no manufacturing middleman, and when you do that you discount the experience of people using hardware with a manufacturer in the middle. I'm only bringing this up because I loved Android until a few weeks ago when I gave up my Nexus One for a Samsung i777 where ICS will only be deployed at AT&T's whims. The hardware's too good for me to go back to the N1, but watching the ICS rollout on tablets did make me recognize that it's not manufacturers, but the phone companies who make software support a year late and ten dollars short. As for tablets, Honeycomb was so rough that Google didn't want to release code. Again, no fair wondering why everyone isn't hanging out on the bleeding edge. quote:I'm not quite sure I follow 100%, since most of what I listed are Android OS-specific I'm pretty fuckin' nerdy, and I didn't really know whether that was good or not since I don't really follow mobile processors like Tegra, Snapdragon, etc. I saw "dual-core" and assumed it must be alright, but the focus on specs only loses people if they don't have some way to measure progress. In the Pentium Age it was the "more megahertz = better" thing (which Apple strongly objected to since their RISC processors did more in a clock cycle.) Now it seems to be "more cores = better". Boasting of specs is the kind of thing that is interesting to people who view tablets as a computer instead of an appliance. Most people are viewing it as an appliance if only due to how few hardware modifications are available, and thus they are amazed and confused by your Xoom because whatever you are showing them is something they aren't getting in commercials or marketing media. quote:Besides, why are Android and "marketing bullshit" in the same sentence when we're talking about a product that is only comparable with an iPad?
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Jan 22, 2012 02:05
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With the Primes in stock all of a sudden lately, I might make the jump but I'm really nervous between it and an iPad. Is there any way I can browse the (web) Market or something to see what kind of apps are designed for the tablet? My mother owns an iPad and given how long it took some apps like friggin' Facebook to build a native/optimized app for that machine, I'm afraid the tiny minority of Android tablets are probably ignored by developers.
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Jan 24, 2012 07:15
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If I can get a retina display iPad for $499 soon, then I wasted all my time here. Android phone screens have made good jumps and all, but I don't know when they'll ever compete with that DPI since it requires a somewhat ridiculous resolution standard. I mean, it could happen soon, but as a guy who just wants to read digital comics as though they were paper the retina display is kind of the American Dream.
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Jan 28, 2012 18:51
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golgo13sf posted:If I spend 2 hours just dicking around on XDA, figuring out how to root the device, installing custom ROMs etc, that $100 worth of time (2 hours for the mathematically challenged) pays for something that none of that was necessary for. Root is not necessary to make the machine simply start up and do tasks. This is like applying jailbreak time to the iPad because I simply MUST have my Playstation emulator and folders within folders. My time is worth nothing, I suppose (I am unemployed and have plenty of time for stuff like World of Warcraft as a result); but I only do root/etc as a hobby and not for basic functionality.
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Jan 28, 2012 19:03
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Yeah, I'm not going to buy an iPad 2, so that "fixed" chart doesn't help things. I'm buying either an iPad 3 or a TF Prime at the moment, but thanks a lot. I realize Apple gets a lot of things right, but their conservative approach in incremental things forward hurts them a ton. I would not have transfer stuff was a little important to me, and not having to use iTunes on the PC as a gateway of transferring stuff (which I can't, since I'm an Ubuntu/Linux user) meant a lot. I get recommending Apple to family members, I do it a lot myself, but I only buy one for me if they're ahead of the curve of the competition, and they've only been competitive for a few months now. You don't need to do it in this thread because we're not all technophobe family members. I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu to my mother, either.
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Jan 28, 2012 20:19
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I guess I'd point the Apple supporters here to this article on MacStories that points out that the iOS stock system, specifically the launcher, is far from perfect. Stock, non-rooted Android really isn't tweaky. You have desktop Widgets, sure, but iOS is destined to get them eventually as the article points out. That's not really tweaking, it's just personality, no different than having your own background picture in System 4. I have no love for tweaking, what I do have a love for is interfaces, and Android's interface is more in keeping with the computing world that I'm used to. I like file pickers. I don't mind choice in .PDF readers, etc. The long-press contextual menu is analogous to right clicking, where as a four year user of OS X I find little similarity in iOS' weird “slide to reveal the hidden button" design. Apple is designing tablets as appliances, most Android manufacturers with the large exception of Amazon are designing a new mobile computing platform. I have a Nexus One and a Cr-48, and I like them both but I don't think Google wants to get into manufacturing. They have a very contentious history with the Chinese government that could make it difficult to enter the world's largest manufacturing cluster, for one thing. Ultimately they'd do better to simply lend a direct hand in supporting Motorola's devices.
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Jan 29, 2012 02:14
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got dat wmd posted:All that's saying is someone's opinion on how the home screen started as one thing and is now another. Nitpicking about what pictures the icons have? I mean, come on. It's not commenting on its usability, stability or anything else, it's about the theoretical concept of "badges on a table." I'm just saying there's a lot that I find unintuitive about iOS launching and control. The hidden music player controls in the multitasking window is one of them. The weird "swipe for action" mechanic for things like revealing the delete button in Mail (and this is the BEST use of this gesture, apps like InstaCast go crazy with it) aren't very obvious at first glance, either. All of this would probably be forgiven in Android, since it's never been praised for it's UI, so stuff like media player controls shoehorned into the weirdest places would be understood simply as part of the deal. Coming from a company with almost 30 years of brilliant UI design it's a little startling. Toady posted:And what a success it's been so far. I already acknowledged I'm not in the majority. I wasn't claiming Android tablets deserve mainstream dominance, I was actually carving myself out into a niche where the product works well for me.
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Jan 29, 2012 04:11
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As much as some of the arguments presented doesn't make sense, to omit all comparison to non-Android platforms basically turns this entire thread into "Wheeeee, my Prime is shipping!" and "Got my Prime, fellas!" posts. This is boring, though sadly somewhat necessary since there's presently one tablet model that is running newer hardware than the other models, so it's almost all we ever talk about. Is this forum simply not capable of maturely acknowledging the existence of competing platforms?
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Jan 29, 2012 18:13
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Safari and IE are abandoning plugins in future releases. That will be the true death of Flash. Microsoft is even killing Silverlight to hasten that along. Here's a serious iOS v Android tablet question: digital magazines, what kind of support is out there in the Android universe? Apple is trying to clean up the App Store by collecting the various magazine clients in Newsstand, and Amazon is a big seller through the Kindle platform but for some reason won't support it's Android client, just Fire and iPad. Back when I set up my Mom's iPad, you couldn't get away from the apps by Newsweek, Oprah Magazine, etc. At least from my searching, Android seems kind of deficient in this area, the way the phones lacked a lot of official news apps from CNN and the like 18 months ago. But I'm probably not seeing the tablet-only apps, so I don't know if this is just my sample. One would think magazines would be at home here, since Google isn't forcing people to use the in app purchases system to give them a cut of the entire publishing indistry's revenue.
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Jan 29, 2012 21:38
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CBS owns the TV.com app, actually.
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Jan 29, 2012 21:42
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I find it weird people would mount 10" tablets to their dashboards. The smaller ones at least could be confused for a big TomTom if someone was drunk enough.
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Feb 4, 2012 18:09
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Pre-requisite: I'm an Apple hater, used their stuff exclusively in the beige box days but Jobs was Palpatine. The Prime thing isn't a problem with Android tablets, it's a problem with ASUS. Apple responded to the antenna thing the way they did (free accessories) because it was a phone problem, and rushing a new model to market to fix it would probably gently caress their negotiations with carriers. The reason they have no carrier logos and bloat is by not having new models every month like Samsung and Moto do. If an antenna issue hit their tablets, creating a fixed model and helping people turn in their old ones for re-manufacture would have been easy. The problem is not making a "fixed" model, it's expecting people to buy it a second time. For some reason ASUS doesn't think Prime owners won't hesitate to buy another tablet from them. There's enough Android manufacturers that it shouldn't be necessary. I think the sad lesson of the Prime is that as long as your first on the market with bleeding edge technology, early adopters will shoot themselves in the foot while crying that it hurts. Nobody would be buying this drat thing if there was ANY other Tegra 3 10"er out there. Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Feb 10, 2012 |
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Feb 10, 2012 19:14
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McLarenF1 posted:Acer Iconia Tab A200 Android 4.0 update rolling out now And suddenly that tablet is worth buying for someone who doesn't want to throw down $500. I wonder how much they've changed from stock, their Honeycomb port had a few extra little launcher tricks here and there and a custom unlock.
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Feb 13, 2012 03:39
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Seems the Acer A200 ICS story is more rumour than evidence. I went and found a store with one, upgraded the OS, and simply found myself on a newer version of Honeycomb. I looked online and nobody except the person who broke the story seems to be able to get the update. I like the display and nearly bought one, but I know the moment I do a similar >$400 tablet will get ICS. I made this mistake buying a carrier Galaxy S II when the Nexus was being delayed, and I'm not about to do the same error twice.
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Feb 15, 2012 06:40
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The next Transformer, named Infinity, was shown at a presser. 1920x1200 isn't anything to sneeze at. (EDIT: The people at Android Central need to take a break and rest, since they're listing a Tegra 2 instead of a T3 as reported on other sites.) Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Feb 27, 2012 |
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Feb 27, 2012 12:41
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We have no idea what the iPad's price structure will be like, we've heard one Retina SKU and one without, etc. What we do know about the iPad is that it's margins at launch are extremely tiny, with Apple basically selling them for the cost of parts and manufacture, rolling in dough with their software distribution and their phone business of course. It does make a compelling argument to drop the iPad 2 to $299 or so, because even at that price only about 15% of the iPad-buying segment is interested in that, and presently non-Android tablets collectively control about 5% of the industry. Regarding ASUS, if their plan is to soldier on with the Prime as a mid-range device, do they have any plan to revise the hardware so that the backplate doesn't kill wireless signals? I'm okay with no GPS, but no wifi ruins it. I feel more compelled to get a 300 so long as they continue that error. Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Feb 27, 2012 |
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Feb 27, 2012 21:55
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Don Lapre posted:Why would you lower the price of something you cannot build fast enough? It doesn't matter, because that's not happening?
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Feb 27, 2012 22:12
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randyest posted:Where did you get that idea? Wherever, it's wrong. It seems to be all over the place, with some people thinking they're making almost as much as 50% while others suggest a more modest 25%.
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Feb 28, 2012 02:26
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Not sure why Rastor didn't cross-post this. I found their discussion about Android tablets rather interesting, especially with respect to their thoughts about Windows 8. "There's no Facebook app" is an interesting attack to make, since the iPad became a mega-hit without one until, uh, like two months ago.
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Mar 2, 2012 01:09
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Rastor posted:This argument is loving stupid. There is NO loving WAY some Xooms are going to keep getting updates and others aren't (other than the fact of Verizon devices getting updates later than Wifi devices). Best Buy sells a "Xoom Family Edition" with lower power hardware that physically looks like the same Xoom and hasn't been getting Honeycomb updates. I doubt it will get ICS. Point being, there's more SKUs of Xoom than you realize.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:24
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My Linux Rig posted:You realize that spending less than $500 on a tablet is a sure fire way to get a less than stellar tablet, right? If this is the case, then why don't people just buy laptops? If you don't give a poo poo about playing WoW and the other things you're prevented from doing on a tablet anyway, it seems like a better deal.  but if you have to buy a Mercedes just to get a car you don't hate, why are so many people buying $300-$400 tablets anyway? Is it just because the concept is trendy?
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Mar 11, 2012 11:54
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People keep saying "it's just $100" but in a $500 device that's 20% and that's nothing to sneeze at. Buy the features for your needs. A super resolution isn't necessary to check GMail.
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Mar 12, 2012 13:42
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Mewcenary posted:What is so bad about tge Samsung software? Samsung seems to be rejecting new UI standards in Android and sticking with the old hobbyist looking poo poo that existed before, presumably because non-technical people would be confused if their launcher re-skinned after an update.
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Mar 24, 2012 14:13
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Reading the A300 review, and I'd say that I wouldn't worry too hard about a reviewer's materials judgment since they don't really throw their review units into walls. I own a phone that received similar comments and dropped it in the street the other week, and was impressed at how well it held up.
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Apr 26, 2012 13:05
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Is anyone planning anything that hits the "Tegra 3 + ICS + $399" bulletpoints the way the TF300 does? I really like the specs, but am not happy with what I hear about the ASUS hardware support experience.
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May 12, 2012 06:22
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That's not the first time you've posted that list, I use MX Player on my phone (Exynos CPU) and have the option of playing in hardware and software. Is it different on Tegra?
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May 14, 2012 18:22
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I wish the TF300 was available in white already.
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Jun 3, 2012 03:13
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Flameingblack posted:What I meant, is that I've bought some Comixology comics and I wouldn't want to have to re-buy them, because that seems like the kind of things I've had to put up with on Apple products before. Pre iCloud was awful times, where I ended up buying a copy of an album twice (The second time was a hard copy), just because customer service wouldn't let me re-download it. I don't know what Comixology's policy is regarding device limit or if there even is one, but if it's like the eBook marketplaces (Kindle, Nook, etc) you just remove the Samsung device and login with a new one and all your purchased stuff is there. All iTunes music from the past few years is DRM-free, all video (TV Shows and Movies) have DRM that won't play on any Android device. The two popular digital music stores for Android (Google and Amazon) have cloud music locker services and automatically host your purchases there so that you don't have to have the files on your device anyhow. If you want them there it's probably best to download your library to a PC and copy the files to the device from there.
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Jun 6, 2012 09:22
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FYI, red and white TF300s are showing up (as out of stock) on BestBuy.com.
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Jun 12, 2012 14:16
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People comparing ASUS product launches to Apple should probably think of the time when Apple released the iPhone 4 but kept the 3GS around as a cheaper 'intro' model even though it was outgoing, at the same time that AT&T was dumping excess stock of the officially discontinued 3G at the lowest possible price. It didn't flood the market, but you could say that less than savvy consumers were confused by the whole number of choices available. It didn't hurt the iPhone in the long run. Things turned out okay. There's basically three Transformers: The 700 is the flagship model, the Prime is the 'outgoing' model on the verge of being discontinued, and the 300 is the value model. If you need a direct Apple comparison, the 700 is the 4S, the Prime is the 3GS, the 300 is basically a 4 without a Retina screen and Siri, and the original TF101 is like AT&T dumping the goddamn 3G model nobody should buy. I think what the proper advice should be to someone who wants to own a 10" ASUS tablet is to either wait and see on the 700, or just buy the 300. The Prime really has so many drat issues that you shouldn't recommend it to anyone. They certainly hosed poo poo up and put a horrible first foot forward with the Prime, but the 300 launch went mostly okay so if they can do an alright job with the 700 and eventually phase out the original two models they'll be fine. Did ASUS gently caress up a product launch against a competitor who hasn't hosed up a product launch since 2002? Yep. Does that mean you should avoid all future ASUS products? Only if you still make your current purchasing decisions based on lousy ideas of Apple past like the Core Solo Mac Mini or the USB 'puck' mouse. Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Jun 15, 2012 |
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Jun 15, 2012 15:06
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The enthusiast/performance market for Android is about the same size as the Pantech $80 Froyo "tablet" market. That's not news. Android on tablet will take off in some form or another due to Amazon being pretty damned determined to keep the Kindle ecosystem alive. Google/gapps will probably never be in the driver's seat. To most people that's not important, though it will matter with developers who have been reacted to the Amazon store with something between apathy and disdain.
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Jun 20, 2012 02:10
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I thought the TF Infinity was the niche "Retina For Android" device?
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Jun 28, 2012 02:30
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Glimm posted:This device isn't available and as far as I know has no release date. I don't think high ppi displays are really a niche thing myself - I'm sure Android could stand to have a few more available. The Infinity isn't available to sell just yet but has been put through it's paces. Anand finds it's PPI is basically on par with the new MacBook (albeit on a smaller display) if just a tiny tiny bit below iPad. But obviously in the kind of territory that Apple wouldn't hesitate to use the word. Colour vibrancy is decidedly last year, but at least the density is there. They have some super-zoom comparison shots with the Prime that make the Prime look horrible, though none with ipad.
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Jun 28, 2012 02:47
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Zyklon B Zombie posted:This is a super dumb question, but is the Nexus 7 powerful enough to go to a site like twitch and livestream without lagging all over the place? If you're using Twitch's app, yes. If you're using Flash in a browser, no because Flash is dead. Livestreaming sites are probably going to have to start rolling out their own stream viewer apps, UStream had a really bad one very early on and JTV has a broadcaster with no viewer, wouldn't be surprised if they adapt the Twitch app for it eventually.
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Jun 29, 2012 06:30
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Twitter has always cared as much for Android as Facebook does. I've been using Plume since Eclair, and it works in a tablet fine. I guess you could argue that Android is poo poo because a company as popular as Twitter can't be assed to make quality software for the thing, but the only reason they had a quality iOS app is because they bought a third party developer outright, and now everyone there has switched to TweetBot since one of the various "New Twitter" relaunches. As the fate of TweetDeck and Tweetie bore out, it turns out the life of an official app is a depressing one no matter who is in charge. Users are better served by independent software relying on an open API since features (including also posting to Facebook) aren't removed and updates seem more common. One would think being absorbed into the official Twitter menagerie would make a good app even better, but it doesn't. Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jul 5, 2012 |
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Jul 5, 2012 06:27
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Vykk.Draygo posted:If Youtube worked with the screen off, not only would the RIAA have a shitfit about it, but so would music services like Spotify. It worked for years. If you want you can still run an old Gingerbread era version that will. The version that stopped working with the screen off was released at the same time as Google's Music Store, coincidentally enough. I've never known iOS to do it, though. It was one of those great reasons I moved to Android, for the RIAA/Spotify-infurtiating feature mentioned.
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Aug 15, 2012 04:08
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Rather than talk about anecdotal one-off defects in ASUS hardware, I wish we could talk about proven duplicatable issues like the I/O glitch. People thought jelly bean was going to fix that. I know the 300 isn't as bad as the 700 on this, but is it any better?
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Aug 24, 2012 06:53
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The 8.9 has a higher PPI than the TF700, which seems like it ought to be the best bang for buck for reading comics, both in Amazon and CBR/CBZ varities.
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Sep 7, 2012 14:33
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Given that the Nexus 7 is as much about getting Google Play competitive with Amazon's platforms, I hope the Fire HD gets a competitor soon. I just want a "Nexus Something Larger Than 7", because I think the Transformer line has not really succeeded on that front and as a guy with no interest about connectable keyboard docks I just want a full sized screen without having to spend $500.
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Oct 5, 2012 15:31
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