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Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

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Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#141

Post by Periodic »

pedalpete wrote: post #93
bhauer wrote: post #65

Although 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've always thought this is what I wanted too, and until now, never thought that maybe this makes the Chromebook the right platform going forward. Though still 'first class citizen' machines, they're probably the thinest client available, which kinda gets to where we're going. Or maybe Microsoft (with that shiny new CEO) can deliver on the streaming OS vision and truly provide I/O focused devices http://www.networkwo…

This is where I am now. I have been lucky enough to get started on a Chromebook for free and have expanded from there. For me, the Chromebooks and tablets are ways for me to access webapps, particularly Google Apps. Additionally, Chromebooks have a fully-featured SSH terminal built on NaCl and a remote desktop app in form of Chrome Remote Desktop. For me, they are just windows into my cloud applications and back to my full-featured workstations (both home and work). I don't feel restricted by them except in the rare cases where I don't have access to the internet, which is increasingly rare, and even then the Google Apps are working better and better offline.

My tablets I mostly use as a web browser, an email client, an eReader and a remote control for my television. They really aren't the way I want to work, just sometimes a good form-factor for relaxing.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#143

Post by anigbrowl »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #135
coldtea wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You can get external A/D/A converters, some of which are designed to just plug in to a tablet via a USB or proprietary connector, some of which are designed to house the tablet entirely, eg http://www.alesis.com/iodock

That said, even cheap converters are pretty good. Bear in mind that state-of-the-art analog tape recording only delivers about 12 bits of fidelity.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#144

Post by DasIch »

The problem with tablets is not that they are not useful, they are just not good enough, yet.

They should be about as heavy as a sketch book, allow input as precise as a pen on paper and preferably be foldable.

They need something like a filesystem that allows sharing documents between applications. Instead of folders I want documents organized by metadata: mimetype, a history with all times and locations at which I modified it and when I want to open one I want to see the ones I'm most likely to open right now based on whatever information the device has.

Most importantly though integration with other devices needs to be better. I want no distinction between my notebook and my tablet when it comes to accessing data. I shouldn't have to worry about backups or the contents of my hard drive, the hard drive of any device should contain an operating system and a cache and everything else I want encrypted in the cloud.

Switching from one device to the next should be seamless (as far as input methods allow.)

As it stands tablets are glorified file viewers with some limited editing facilities. What a tablet should be is a sketchbook for everything digital.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#145

Post by jack-r-abbit »

dragontamer wrote: post #116
ChuckMcM wrote: post #106

There 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…

Some of us wish for Tablets to be more than just a portable screen. Fortunately for those of us who wish to push the boundaries of computing, some companies are willing to go in that direction. Content Creation Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCKWn1zjejE Surface Pro obviously, but the concept of a highly-accurate stylus has become standard in Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab as well. Android now supports multiple u…

> Programming on a Tablet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XmxtIDWI_E

That clip is 1.5 minutes long. I can handle any annoying thing for a minute and a half. But I can not see any way that would be sustainable for an entire day (week, years) of coding. I doubt I will ever give up my physical keyboard.

Your drawing example makes perfect sense though. We started with the Wacom tablets and such since it very closely matched what it was like to draw on paper. But there was a certain amount of disconnect since the drawing surface was separated from the actual image you saw. So it makes sense that the next step would be to draw directly onto the display.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#146

Post by johngalt »

It's easy to see that 5-10 years from now we will all be walking around with phablet style devices in the 5-7" form factor. Docking with a larger fixed display or external keyboard/mouse when needed.

It's been in progress for years. Talk to non-tech people today and you'll find they live their lives on smartphones/tablets. Sure they keep an old XP machine around for when they need to type something lengthy or run some old software, but that's driven by necessity not desire.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#147

Post by rch »

My iPad does sit around at home, waiting for me to test out some new UI, but my Nexus 7 has replaced my phone altogether. I don't really make personal calls, but I do a ton of casual reading and email. While the phone is nice to have for the occasional call, the smaller form factor tablet works best for me day-to-day.

If I could use a small Bluetooth headset to make calls through Google Voice, I'd happily ditch the phone forever.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#148

Post by w1ntermute »

snogglethorpe wrote: post #125
w1ntermute wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference in screen size between tablets and phones is much less apparent now than it was 2 or 3 years ago.

Now we've got "phablets," which are bad at being phones (awkward and clumsy to carry around, and almost impossible to operate with one hand) and bad at being tablets (small screen for a tablet, inherently greater limitations on battery life)... > Yay?

Really? You sound like most tech journalists two or three years ago, when the original Galaxy Note came out. They were sure embarrassed a couple months later when they turned out to be completely wrong about how popular it would be.

Try getting out of the iPhone bubble for a while - you'll find that in the real world, phablets are not just something that you make fun of.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#149

Post by mturmon »

bphogan wrote: post #91
ako wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and watching tv or reading a book you are also not getting any work doen. What's the point? Computers are no longer just about getting work doen. For many, computers are more about entertainment and communication, than about work.

I've long argued that we, as tech folks, are not the target for tablets. The target for tablets are the Facebook Messenger folks. the people who want to watch videos and surf the web, chat with others, etc. You know, the same folks Dell was able to con into paying $600 for a computer that needed GeekSquad to fix it every six months because computers are so unfriendly to non-technical people. Tablets, especially ones…

True. Many of the comments nearby (personal testimonials) are missing the point.

If we're talking about the tablet market, we do need to talk about kids, grandma, and average people who want to be entertained. Not nerd hobbyists who are frustrated by the shortcomings of tablets relative to general-purpose computers.

These feelings matter to us, but in a discussion of the market, they are irrelevant.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#150

Post by scribu »

wonderyak wrote: post #130
scribu wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few weeks back I saw here on HN a very enterprise-y looking service (from Amazon, if I recall correctly) that allowed employees to access company applications (think pre-configured versions of Word etc.) from whatever device they had available. It was like the next-generation VPN, which sounds like what you're getting at. Sadly, I can't seem to find the link now.

Probably Workspaces: http://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/

Indeed. Thanks!
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