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Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

arstechnica.com

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Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider color temperature when reading at night: http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Consider your sanity when using flux. It has all kinds of weird interactions with other software (VMWare especially was unusable with Flux installed), and it's also very stupid about time zone changes. I ultimately ended up just uninstalling it out of frustration.

Maybe Redshift will work better for you? http://jonls.dk/redshift/

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#93
As someone who's had a iPad since it was released in the US, I have to say its a nice but it's been really hard for me to find a use for it other then it taking up space in my bag most of the time... I'm more a fan of how apple made tablet computing popular for consumers and a more common idea then the device itself ( I think the same thing about the Kindle as well)

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#94
post #46

The thing is, most people aren't scribes. The iPad isn't a good laptop replacement. It's something new. Developers are still in the early stages of figuring out what this means.

Rule #1 of entrepreneurship? Make sure your product solves an existing problem. If tablets don't do this then they fail.

The problem they solve is that ordinary computers are too complex and unreliable for the average user. Watch somebody over 50 with an iPad for 15 minutes and it makes sense.

That's not what makes them interesting to me though. They may make a better email reader for Joe Average but it's the interactive audio & graphics possibilities that intrigue me.

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#95
post #56
post #21

> Don't get me wrong: I'll always have a tablet in my life... And how is this not a game changer? Would the author have said the before the iPad? The iPad has replaced a laptop or desktop for all casual browsing (I typed this comment on mine) and a lot of media consumption. It's great for technical books. And I play games on it. It is easily the most cost effective tech purchase I have ever made in terms of how much…

> The iPad has replaced a laptop or desktop for all casual browsing (I typed this comment on mine) and a lot of media consumption. It's great for technical books. And I play games on it. I live in a large city in the UK, and throughout the past year I've only seen two iPad's. I wouldn't even remotely say that the iPad has "replaced the laptop" in any way, shape or form. When the iPhone was released it was near imposs…

I just got back from the year's largest conference of orthopedic surgeons, and the number of iPads was mind-numbing. And they were all for casual use.

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#96
post #56
post #21

> Don't get me wrong: I'll always have a tablet in my life... And how is this not a game changer? Would the author have said the before the iPad? The iPad has replaced a laptop or desktop for all casual browsing (I typed this comment on mine) and a lot of media consumption. It's great for technical books. And I play games on it. It is easily the most cost effective tech purchase I have ever made in terms of how much…

> The iPad has replaced a laptop or desktop for all casual browsing (I typed this comment on mine) and a lot of media consumption. It's great for technical books. And I play games on it. I live in a large city in the UK, and throughout the past year I've only seen two iPad's. I wouldn't even remotely say that the iPad has "replaced the laptop" in any way, shape or form. When the iPhone was released it was near imposs…

I live in Vancouver, BC and I've seen tons of people using them. If you hit a few Starbucks in a day (as I tend to do) chances are that you'll see at least one or two people using them there. Saw one girl yesterday that seemed to be reading a book; another one today was writing something.

They're not ubiquitous, but I get the sense that a lot of people buy them and use them at home instead of dragging them around town. I've bought one for my mother, and I know several other people who have as well. My landlord bought one for her boyfriend, other friends have them for using around the house.

They're selling very well, but unlike iPhones, it's rare that their owners take them everywhere, so seeing them on the street just isn't a good measure of their popularity.

(Also, they're ridiculously expensive in the UK compared to the US or Canada.)

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#97

I've long argued that the reason we haven't seen tablets take off in general is because while nobody really wants to admit it, nobody actually likes tablets. They just like Apple products.

This will be either proved or disproved when up to 20 new tablets are released by July. If you're right, it's gonna be ugly.

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#98

I got to agree. I got caught up in the tablet fever like everyone last year, but in practice all the complaints that people had with the iPad release panned out. Tablets across the board are jacks of few trades, master of none. Terrible input, only so-so for web browsing/reading, and basically on par with a laptop for video and portability. To quote a very smart man in 2003 [1], tablets are still only good for "a bun…

Tablets across the board are jacks of few trades, master of none.

My tablet is the master of social web browsing - browsing the web with other people around, remaining engaged. Browsing the web on a laptop is typically pretty isolating - even just the posture required to handle a laptop while browsing requires sitting down by yourself somewhere. With my tablet I can stand around or sit on the couch with other people around and my body language doesn't suggest that I want to be left alone.

Remember that a laptop isn't exactly a master of any trade either. Even my mbp's keyboard isn't quite as good as a standard pc104 desktop keyboard. The screen is always smaller and located sub optimally wrt your hands and eyes compared to a desktop computer's monitor. The trackpad on most laptops is a terrible input device - too small and not accurate enough for fast cursor manipulation - a mouse is usually better.

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#99
post #19

The thing is, nothing beats a tablet (well, I use an iPad) for reading. Instapaper (articles, news), iBooks (pdf, ebooks), Reeder (rss), Safari (everything else) are all excellent. I can't lay in bed with my laptop or desktop, nor does reading on my phone cut it. The Kindle is nice, but it's black and white, and for me the lack of backlight makes it harder to read (esp. since I'm reading at night, and don't want to h…

In my opinion, the iPad basically wins by exploiting the niche of how dreadful reading on laptops has become since 4:3 screens were phased out. I hate widescreen.

Re: Why I don't care very much about tablets anymore

#100

I don't own a tablet, saw one in action for the first time a week ago and the owner and I basically came up with the same reasons why it's rather useless as the ones mentioned in the article. It's definitely nice to have for reading in bed or keeping up 'on the road' but overall it seems to be pretty reduced to 'consuming' instead of 'producing'. One thing I like about tablets is that they made publishers reconsider…

'you could do so much more'

Could you elaborate on this? It is not immediately obvious to me.

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