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The Chair

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Re: The Chair

#111

Post by flyosity »

blinkingled wrote: post #20
tumult wrote: post #2

The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America,…

Xoom can be bought online at Verizon or Moto websites. That nitpick aside it isn't anywhere near as bad as you are making it out to be. I am typing this post on one. The browser is far better. The OS is far more usable than the iPad, the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty. I haven't connected it to a PC yet - have my…

We got a Xoom delivered to the office yesterday and the first-time experience was terrible. It locked up 10 seconds after turning it on and displayed the keyboard and nothing else on the screen. 6 engineers played with it for a few minutes trying to get the home screen to show up but we couldn't so we forced a hard restart. That seemed to work and we got into the setup process which forces you to pick wireless connectivity. In our case, the Xoom had extreme trouble finding one of the three networks set up at the office and was unresponsive for long periods of time. Finally after it did find the network we used the browser for 2 minutes and it froze and then that managed to freeze the recent-apps sidebar listing panel as well.

This all happened in the first 15 minutes of us pulling it out of the box. If this thing is supposed to compete with the iPad and now the iPad 2, I'd say Motorola already blew it with most consumers. I'm a geek, and so are my coworkers, so we have more patience than many, but at the end of yesterday the consensus in engineering was that the Xoom is a hunk of junk compared to the iPad, and even the Apple-haters at work admitted so.

Re: The Chair

#112

Post by RyanMcGreal »

rbarooah wrote: post #36
blinkingled wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm no - most existing Android apps work and look good on the Xoom. Better than the iPhone apps looked on the iPad. I gave it to my wife who has an iPod touch and she has yet to complain about lack of apps - I found most of what is needed for her. So lack of apps is not really a burning problem.

You're seriously trying to claim that blown up android phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly, are competition to the dedicated iPad designs? Have you looked at iPad apps lately? Even if you don't include iMove and GarageBand that were just announced, how about OmniGraffle, Sketchbook, Inkpad, the Korg Apps, Reeder, Osmos, iWork, etc.

> You're seriously trying to claim that blown up android phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly, are competition to the dedicated iPad designs?

I believe the parent is trying to claim that blown up android phone apps on Xoom are no worse than blown up iPhone apps were when the iPad first came out.

Re: The Chair

#113

Post by [deleted] »

blub wrote: post #101
phil wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> defines the category and the expectations of the users It's stunning how long that has been true. The modern desktop OS is patterned after the Macintosh, modern laptops all use the form factor introduced by the Powerbook 100s, and now all the best phones are made to look like an iPhone.

First of all, the modern desktop OS is patterned after the work of Xerox PARC. Second of all, that form factor was used before Apple introduced the Powerbook. Last but not least, best phone doesn't equal slab of touch-sensitive glass that drops calls when you hold it wrong. Touch screens in general aren't a great fit when it comes to phone use. If we're talking phones, models like the Nokia E52 beat the pants off of…

[deleted]

Re: The Chair

#114

Post by code_duck »

tumult wrote: post #2

The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America,…

I was playing with a Xoom at a Verizon booth yesterday.

Re: The Chair

#115

Post by rpledge »

kalleboo wrote: post #98
dagw wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2007, if you said you were going to download an app to edit a high definition movie on your smartphone you'd be institutionalized. Why? I don't recall the first time I saw a phone that came with video editing software, but I'm pretty sure it was before 2007. So if someone had said "in a few years this software will be easier to use and can edit even higher resolution video than it can today", I would have replied,…

Sony Ericsson featurephones have had video editing built-in since 2005.

Interesting, didn't know that. It makes me wonder if the success Apple has had in mobile is due to their better understanding of software. Has Sony/Ericsson iterated on their video editing feature? Apple definitely gets that software is never done; I can't think of another mobile device company that constantly improves not only the core (i.e. OS) software but also improves its value adds (iBooks, GarageBand, iMovie, iWork, Remote, etc...) RIM comes to mind, but I don't have much experience with RIM devices.

Re: The Chair

#116

Post by rahoulb »

Newky wrote: post #96

"This is the iPad doing something new, things that couldn’t be done on the Mac" This is what I want to see, I don't own an iPad but I won't until there is genuine things on it that I cannot achieve on my laptop. I feel it is easy for a device like this to become widespread as it feels magical to use, but for me as a computer scientist, and someone who uses his keyboard almost exclusively, I need something from the iP…

You can read on a laptop ...

It's not about exclusivity.

The thing with the Kindle (I've only used one briefly) and the iPad (I love my 1st gen) is that they do some things better than a laptop.

Reading is better on a Kindle or an iPad - especially curled up on the sofa - than a laptop.

Sketching is better on an iPad than on a laptop.

Browsing in bed is better on an iPad than on a laptop.

Typing is much worse on an iPad than a laptop.

I'm particularly looking forward to Garageband (and I've spent a lot on music apps for the iPad) because it looks like it will be better than Garageband on a laptop (although I admit that's a prediction - one I'm willing to gamble five quid on).

Re: The Chair

#117

Post by jsnell »

nl wrote: post #103
rbarooah wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but with the phones there were lots of people who couldn't buy an iPhone to use on their carrier or wanted something cheap. Android phones had a captive market. iPads are more useful, cheaper and not limited by carrier. Why would a non-enthusiast buy an Android tablet based on the idea they they might get better over time, when iPads are good now?

I don't understand this argument at all. Why did anyone buy an iPad when they came out? There were no iPad specific apps when it came out, and yet it sold well. Clearly, Android has a good web browser and email client, and that's enough for many. Just as clearly there are a huge number of non-tablet specific apps that will run fine on the Android tablets, and Android developers are desperately releasing tablet apps a…

I thought there were quite a lot of apps for the iPad at launch, thanks to an early SDK release. At least there was talk of another app-store gold rush, stories of non-US developers flying to the US for the launch day just so that they could immediately check whether their already published app worked on the real device, etc.

Re: The Chair

#118

Post by jrubyer »

deong wrote: post #106
jrubyer wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I don't really see the relevance of the number of applications to the the UI experience. This is silly, without apps what value does it offer?

How many apps do you need? Don't get me wrong, I think the iPad is very, very good. I use mine every day. But I just took it out and counted the apps I actually use really ever, and apparently 64,987 of those 65,000 apps could be deleted tomorrow with no apparent loss of functionality for me. Of the 13 remaining, at least half run everywhere (Kindle, Twitter, etc.), several others are nice-to-have ways to access web…

>>Realistically, if you have maybe 1500 of the most popular apps, you have enough to pretty well serve the market.

Yes, that's the point. It's just that iPad now has so many good quality apps compared to Android. It _may_ change in future, but for the time being iPad wins. (The total number of apps never matters, most of them are crap anyway)

Re: The Chair

#119

Post by gyardley »

redial wrote: post #95
mcav wrote: post #11

This is why I hope Steve Jobs continues to drive Apple for years to come. He presses forward relentlessly, driving the user experience forward, even when the competition can't come close. No one else has been able to match the original iPad's size, cost, and specs; the iPad 2 makes the other tablets seem so bulky, so utilitarian, even though they haven't shipped yet. Any other company would milk the original iPad for…

And this is exactly what worries me. When Steve Jobs steps down, his replacement is gonna have a hard time assuming he is not Steve Jobs. I just hope he (or she) doesn't try to prove anything by making bold decisions on his own. On a related note, have you ever found weird that Apple doesn't have any women in a VP position? At least that is the impression it gives me. For such a liberal company, it seems to be mostly…

Just off the top of my head, there's Katie Cotton and Allison Johnson - someone who knows Apple better can correct me, but I'm pretty sure both are VPs.
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