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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

#121

Post by jdap »

EnderMB wrote: post #116
danudey wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tow…

I go to Starbucks at least twice a week, and I've yet to see one there. The only places I've seen them is at a graduation party and a few days ago at Wagamama (asian restaurant). In contrast I see a Kindle nearly every single day on the bus or in Starbucks. I can imagine them selling quite well now, but I can't help but feel that people are buying them because they're a shiny, new Apple product, rather than because t…

The day-to-day experience gain of a tablet should be that it's way more available. I'm not convinced the iPad form factor fully achieves that, but it's at least a great proof of concept.

It's pretty much moot to ask a tablet to do something functional that a laptop can't. Anything a tablet can do today, a laptop can either already do or can do tomorrow.

Similarly, there's nothing a laptop can do that a desktop can't. I used to have a desktop that had carry handles and a keyboard that clipped to the base unit. But somehow, that concept no longer appeals. Not that I've ditched desktops, but I figure luggability wasn't as good as designed-in portability.

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

#122

Post by Stormbringer »

burgerbrain wrote: post #38

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.

People have been saying this about Apple products for years.

iPhone? "Nobody really wants it they just like Apple because it's trendy"

Mac mini? (Back when it first came out and was under $500 even though the 'experts' all agreed that Apple was institutionally incapable of producing a computer for under $1000) "Nobody really wants it they just like Apple because it's trendy"

iPod? "Nobody really wants it they just like Apple because it's trendy"

iMac? "Nobody really wants it they just like Apple because it's trendy"

iBook? "Nobody really wants it they just like Apple because it's trendy"

Mac Pro? (back when it first came out with the Xeons and was massively cheaper than the Dell equivalent) "Nobody really wants it they just like Apple because it's trendy"

Mac Cube? "Nobody really wants it..."

Well, I'll give you that last one. :D

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

#123

Post by jdap »

burgerbrain wrote: post #38

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.

I was at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week. Believe me, tablets are taking off big time. Not least because while lots of people like Apple products, no-one but Apple likes Apple to lead. Apple's already lost leadership in smartphone, and it's hard to see how they won't be outpaced by the end of the year in tablets too.

Smartphone shipments outran PCs (all kinds) last quarter, tablets are going to head that way too. Nobody loves tablets yet, but a heavy dose of competition and high volume will create the pressure to innovate and create something new and compelling.

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

#124

Post by Stormbringer »

aridiculous wrote: post #97
burgerbrain wrote: post #38

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.

The Blackberry Playbook has some interesting ideas, like using the touch-screen real estate outside of the viewing area for 'meta-gestures' (my made up word sorry, some nitpicker will no doubt jump in and correct me, and then get 10x the karma for it but whatever).

But the overall execution is going to suck really really badly. Also, RIM are busy peeing in their developers porridge... kinda like Nokia and the QT debacle.

I think the problem is that Apple has been working on this thing for years and years and years. Rumours of a tablet have been much exaggerated since before the iPhone came along.

Now the other guys are scrambling to catch up. And they're finding that in order to poop something out in six months, you have to cut corners, and if you cut corners, then quality suffers etc. Not to mention that things move slowly at most large corporations (Apple included - heck, they might even be worse than all the others, but because they fail in secret everybody thinks they magically just coughed hard one day and the iPad sprang forth from Steve Job's brow fully formed)

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

#125

Post by Stormbringer »

zmmmmm wrote: post #36

I think it's important to separate the advent of the touch screen interface from the form factor of a tablet. I kind of agree that tablets are pretty poor for everything (unlike others I think tablets & the iPad specifically is a mostly poor device even just for consumption, mainly because it can't stand up by itself, and it's near useless outdoors). But I can see that the touch screen interface has revolutionized in…

"I think it's important to separate the advent of the touch screen interface from the form factor of a tablet."

I think you're kind of missing the point then. Apple didn't invent touch screens, touch screens have been around for a loooong time.

You need to borrow an iPad and a 2 year old, and then watch the 2 year old interact with the iPad. Heck, I've seen 1 year olds playing with them. Now I'm not suggesting that a 1 year old is doing anything more than going "look at the pretty stars"†

Now imagine that you're using a touchscreen on your desktop Minority Report style. It's alright if you pretend to be Tom Cruise, I'll wait. Okay, now hold your arms out at maximum extension and move them around in little circles for a while. Now back and forth. Now up and down. Now go back to circles. Have you done 15 minutes yet? Liar! Do 15 minutes of that. Okay, now that your arms are on fire with pain, imagine doing that all day long. Yeah. Now you know why we're not gonna see touch-screens as a practical input method on a desktop for a while.

Conclusion: don't make the mistake of under-rating the form factor as part of the experience.

†Free upvote if you get the reference. :D

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

#126

Post by maguay »

ugh wrote: post #53
jules wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the ipad on the eyes? My eyes get tired from reading from a laptop screen at night. Is the ipad better?

It obviously is exactly the same because the iPad uses a laptop screen. (It has a higher quality IPS and not the usual TN panel [1] but I don’t think that matters a great deal. IPS panels have better color reproduction and better viewing angles, that’s the only difference to lower quality LCD panels.) The iPad screen has even a similar number of pixels per inch compared to current laptops. (A 15" laptop with a resolu…

Another thing that's better about reading on iPad versus a laptop or desktop LCD screen is that you can hold it almost any angle. To me, that's the best advantage. I read and write a lot on my iPad, and being able to sit with it at a more comfortable angle is a huge advantage to me. It definitely feels better on my eyes after looking at a desktop monitor for hours. That'd be subjective, though, but my experience is that the iPad feels easier on my eyes.

That said, I'm not sure if it's better on your neck versus a standard laptop in your lap. My neck hurts if I'm using a netbook on my lap too long, so I'm always using it at a desk or table. It never feels that bad typing in my lap on iPad, though.

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

#127

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

jules wrote: post #29
ihodes wrote: 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…

How is the ipad on the eyes? My eyes get tired from reading from a laptop screen at night. Is the ipad better?

The iPad have more quality screen that almost all laptops, but if your eyes get tired, maybe you need to change your environment too.

The eyes are very complex, there are a lot of things you can do to improve:

1)use lights to illuminate the room, sounds stupid but your environment needs to have the same luminosity than your screens, because when you glaze at it it needs accommodation of the eyes.

2) Adjust the screen global luminosity, refer to 1.

3)If you can, like on linux, change your window theme to a dark one, so light contrast do not fatigue your eyes, something like this will do: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Atolm?content=136789

4)Change your browser default background and text foreground colors at night(background of 90% web pages use to be white, with so much bright areas, better bright on dark than dark on write). It will look bad at first but your eyes will improve a lot.

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

#128

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

burgerbrain wrote: post #38

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.

I think therefore I exist. I like tablets, so your logic axiom is proven false.

Why do I love tablets?

I like having a computer I can move with, I can jump with, that is lean and lightweight.

I like using my computer in my car with GPS, and tablets are awesome here.

I like rotating the screen because reading is better in portrait mode. I read a lot.

I like using my fingers and hands to interact with my computer.

I love being able to draw and take notes on the screen directly(soon tablets will be able to do this as the touch resolution increases).

Of course if Windows, or better Ubuntu and Mac worked on tablets I will love it even more. Eventually is going to happen, what do you think MacOSX lion is aimed for? They are quietly paving the road for that integration in the future.

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

#129

Post by Raphael_Amiard »

ihodes wrote: 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…

> the lack of backlight makes it harder to read (esp. since I'm reading at night, and don't want to have a light on

You'll have to admit that this is a very particular use case though.

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

#130

Post by WiseWeasel »

Finally, a classic Jon Stokes "get off my lawn" piece. It's been a while. Maybe the winter weather is getting to him.

Personally, the tablet is the ideal "sitting on the couch browsing the web during commercials or boring moments" device, for which my iPhone had served previously. That and maybe a few casual games or acting as a rich remote for other media center devices. I'd imagine once a front-facing camera is standard, it'll be a common Skype device as well. I really don't know what Jon would be contented with given his issues with tablets, other than a brain implant. As for me, I loves me some tablets, and I've bought my last laptop; it's all desktops and tablets from here on out.

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