I'm really enjoying the healthy debate here. It's certainly a divisive topic with people seemingly very strong on either side.
Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
131–140 of 201 posts
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#132Although I own three tablets, my love affair with the tablet as it exists today never really took off the same way it did for so many consumers. The primary reason is that I do not believe that tablets should be first-class computing devices. Tablets, and in my opinion, the entirety of what we today call "mobile," should be subservient to a general computing model of personal omnipresent applications [1]. Put more co…
I agree with you (especially about Microsoft.) I've been saying for years that there is a killer opportunity for Microsoft in the enterprise: develop a single platform for serving applications that serves a tablet view to tablet users, a desktop view to desktop users and a mobile view to mobile users. Basically, enable the hell out of BYOD because the PC is disappearing. They can make the money they lose in Windows l…
I've personally been thinking along the same lines. We may be thinking about the personal cloud. Bringing the application server to the user allows us to provide thin clients, reestablish personal security, and drive consumers to buy more advanced hardware for their core infrastructure. It would require a big change in how things are done today, but I think it would ultimately end up helping the industry.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention that curling up with a small laptop the size of an iPad (MacBook Air 11'') is even more ergonomic because it has a built-in stand and doesn't need a cover. Close to the same weight, same size as an iPad, but a full laptop.
have you ever tried using a laptop in bed , in a similar position to if you were reading a book? It kinda sucks (yes, even the 11'' air). Tablets replace magazines, not computers (at least in the "position in which you're using it" category). Why would you want a stand if you're going to hold it anyways?
In bed, I often lay on my side with my tablet locked to portrait orientation but it is standing horizontally with respect to the bed. This way, I don't need to support it with my hands to read, only need to use my hands when I need to scroll or pick something new to read.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#134My love affair with the tablet isn't over: I love how it lets me browse the web, read books and magazines, and watch videos in bed after a long day. That's probably how most people use their tablets — secondary devices, mainly for entertainment. After a working day, I don't want to use a PC, and the tablet lets me use the web and other media comfortably, but I wouldn't try to actually use it for work beyond initially…
My sentiment too, especially with airplay/chromecast (I use both iOS and Android), the value of the tablets is only going up for me. I happen to prefer Nexus 7 over iPad for reading books, but besides that iPad is my go-to device for non-work consumption.
With FaceTime use especially, iPhone form factor is not great. Same can be set for my old Galaxy Nexus with hangouts. iPad/Nexus 7 do way better in that department. iPad Air weight and form factor is especially better then the old iPad.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#135I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. My 11" Macbook Air is just about as portable as an iPad, but is way easier to use, not just for streaming, but even for coding, etc. Of course, I've been wrong about things before and I'm not really a typical consumer user, but I just can't imagine a future for tablets with phones getting as good as they are, and sma…
> I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. Surfing and reading on the crapper. No need for input devices. Well, and tons of other stuff besides, depending on your age and interests. Almost every niche, from astronomy geeks to musicians has lots of great apps for tablets. Entry to mid-level director? Tons of filming assistance can happen on a tablet, from st…
> Musician? [..] audio recording
Are the D/A converters of tablets really that good? Honest question since I have no idea. From my limited experience, there is a huge difference between inbuilt ones and something external that sends the converted signal to the 'puter via USB or firewire... or is that just because desktops have a lot more interference? GPU, CPU, the fact that it's plugged into an electrical socket etc... but I imagine a tablet with everything crammed real close together might have similar problems... ?
> Photographer? Tethered shooting, library management and rating your shots post-shoot, etc.
For tethered shooting I can see how portable instant feedback for persons you're photographing, or things you're photographing for other people, would be super nice. But full-blown library management? Again, I never tried it, but I just can't imagine doing it without a keyboard and mouse, since I need to be able to tweak the RAW conversion settings; pretty much all photos look bad straight out of the camera, so to know if something might be a keeper I need to make at least rough adjustments. That is also a lot more fun (read: less horrible) with a decent CPU... of course, if you're on the road it would be way better than nothing, but for most of my use, I'd rather wait until I get home and then do it better and quicker.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#136My love affair with the tablet isn't over: I love how it lets me browse the web, read books and magazines, and watch videos in bed after a long day. That's probably how most people use their tablets — secondary devices, mainly for entertainment. After a working day, I don't want to use a PC, and the tablet lets me use the web and other media comfortably, but I wouldn't try to actually use it for work beyond initially…
There is a whole gradient of mobile devices, from small PMPs to full-sized tablets. They all are essentially the same thing in different scales. The article seems to be saying that the use case for tablets is being supplanted by larger phones.
> The article seems to be saying that the use case for tablets is being supplanted by larger phones
... which seems a fairly silly thing to say. The exact same factors which attract people to larger phones -- bigger screen, bigger battery, other things like CPU power that more space helps with -- are also going to make "tablets" more attractive than "phablets" for some people and/or some situations (e.g., like many people, I have a "home tablet" which sits around my house, but I don't try to carry it around in my pocket).
I think phablets have a place as the very-small portable end of the tablet market, but they aren't a good replacement for traditional smartphones, because they're just too awkward. So the argument that they're a "good enough" one-device alternative to both phones and tablets doesn't seem very strong (it will certainly be true for some people, but it will not be true for many others).
[If you look at people using phablets, they tend to use them exactly like tablets: two hands for operation (whereas traditional smartphones work great with one), putting them down when not in use (people often just hold their phone), putting them in a bag instead of in a pocket, etc. They're tablets.]
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#137I mostly disagree with the article. True, I do watch Netflix on my Android Samsung Galaxy III, and it is nice, but it is nicer on an iPad mini (or full size iPad).
I keep the markdown files for my book projects in Dropbox, and while I can read them and make small edits on my phone, writing is much nicer on my iPad mini - so much so that I very often write on my iPad instead of on my MacBook Air laptop.
I don't have a separate data plan for my iPad, rather I use a mobile hotspot from my phone when necessary. Yeah, I am that cheap.
My MBA, phone, and iPad cover my needs for work, reading, watching video. I would not want to be without any of them. I largely just use my MacBook Air (with a huge external monitor) for writing code - just about everything else I prefer to do on my two smaller devices.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#138I just got my first tablet in the form of a Dell Venue Pro 8 and I absolutely love it but I think a large part of it has to do with the ability to run full apps and the fact its 7in form factor lets me put it in my pocket.
Tablets used to refer to larger phones that ran the same apps but that ecosystem is hopefully changing.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#139He really likes to drop names.
Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over
#140There is an interesting commonality here, everyone "grew up" with computers. Tablets aren't computers, they are smart displays, and that dissonance seems to grind sometimes. The Kindle/Nook concept of a tablet is pretty straightforward, keep it as cheap as possible and let be your portal into a bunch of pre-created content. I used my iPad and my Nook HD this way, I've got 45 books I carry around in my messenger bag t…
Tablets aren't computers, they are smart displays
My main interest in tablet apps is for recording, editing, and synthesizing sound, a task for which there is a rich app ecosystem. Of course they're computers, even if you you personally prefer to use them mainly as displays. Of course, I can do those tasks on a larger scale and with better quality on a desktop/laptop computer, but as an aesthetic matter, that means putting the computer at the center of things which I prefer not to do. A tablet offers a moderate amount of computer power in a particularly accessible form factor that's (figuratively) lightweight enough to use as an adjunct device in the studio.