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Google quits selling tablets

techcrunch.com

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Re: Google quits selling tablets

#161

Post by shams93 »

__sr__ wrote: post #12

Good riddance! It’s not like they have actively been developing Android to support tablets. In fact, it is the other way around. The older versions had better support for tablets. Even Nexus 9 was a half hearted attempt at best — and the rest is history. Google’s lack of interest in nowhere more evident than their own apps — many of them were just scaled versions of phone apps. And if Google is not bothering to optim…

Chromeos with android is a lot more useful because you have full blown desktop chrome with chrome developer tools. The new chromeos devices have convertable touch screens and basically can function as tablets. But I own the new ipad because I don't have an iphone but still want my hands on these amazing Moog ios apps for my music. Android native is terrible for music, chrome browser itself has a much more highly developed api with webmidi and webaudio than you have with native android with its java based midi library.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#162

Post by eksemplar »

yason wrote: post #159

To me it makes sense. Tablets don't seem so hugely popular and they've become a commodity ages ago. Anecdotally, I've had a few and they all were left sitting in a drawer somewhere pretty soon. While I have my phone for quick lookups, a Chromebook for lightweight web browsing and long battery life, and laptops for "serious" computing (i.e. work, other programming, some gaming), I've never found much use for a tablet.…

I guess I’m an oddity, I can’t remeber the last time I went to HN or reddit on something other than my iPad. But I have an iPhone SE so maybe it’s just because I have a small screen phone that I rarely browse the web in it.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#163

Post by whatsstolat »

fireattack wrote: post #67
mortdeus wrote: post #55

Im just happy that tablets are finally dead. You have a super supped up desktop computer at home sitting on your desk, and you have a relatively supped up smart phone sitting in your pocket when you cant be sitting at your desk. Where does tablets fit into this scenario? It doesn't. All tablets do is make app developers think they can somehow make app experiences you can only achieve on the desktop, somehow attainabl…

Read books and watch videos in the bed. For me at least.

> watch videos

I prefer a laptop for this as I can sit it down. Plus the bigger screen.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#164

Post by stoolpigeon »

Bud wrote: post #75
shasheene wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung Chromebook Plus satisfies my needs for a tablet: mainly media consumption (web browsing, YouTube, reading long articles, and watching movies). 1. Incredibly nice screen 2. Gets security updates (ChromeOS devices are great for this compared to the dumpster fire that is Android security) 3. Haven't had any issues with Android support (I use mainly apps like RBDigital, Instapaper, Wikipedia) 4. Works well for mo…

Current iPad trounces the Samsung in all these categories (except Android support, of course), though, and costs less too. And has a better aspect ratio. And is much lighter.

It's doesn't cost less once you add the pencil and a keyboard unless I'm missing something.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#165

Post by etaioinshrdlu »

themacguffinman wrote: post #125
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was around the time I started playing with fragments that I realized that the native Java android toolkit was a giant pile of crap. Android, I think, is not even supposed to be a well-engineered system. It is not central to its purpose. Its purpose is to eat marketshare, collect data, and ensure there is an outlet for ads. It only has to work well enough to do those things :) I get the sense that it was all slappe…

Well, yeah, that's the goal of everything commercial. Being well-engineered is a means, not an end.

Nah, tons of companies are incredibly passionate about quality in itself. Sometimes to a fault!

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#166

Post by kevingadd »

kurtisc wrote: post #150
013a wrote: post #58

Microsoft seems like the only company that understands tablets right now. They should be more like computers, not more like phones. There's also a pretty great argument that given all of our phones are absolute powerhouses nowadays, phones should also be less like phones and more like computers. I'm hopeful Microsoft can also move to spur on this change; maybe soon the market will be ready for the return of Windows P…

I've found Windows very frustrating to use on non-Surface tablets and somehow the tablet mode is even more so. IIRC, opening the on-screen keyboard makes you lose focus on whatever window it was you wanted to type in.

How would the onscreen keyboard function if it worked that way? I don't think you remember correctly, and it doesn't do that.

The tablet mode is weird though, I gave up on using it. :(

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#167

Post by 7952 »

makecheck wrote: post #148

For me the tablet form factor was killed not by apps but ironically the non-apps: web browsing went from perfection to trash once sites tried to detect touch screens and “improve their experiences”. Pinch-and-zoom with normal sites goes a long way and should have been the preferred tablet web model.

I have Microsoft's RDP app on my tablet. It is shocking how well old fashioned windows software works with it. The app seemlessly converts your taps into mouse inputs, and you can bring up a cursor if you need to. It is not perfect, but I prefer it to a badly designed tablet UI.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#168

Post by fauigerzigerk »

eksemplar wrote: post #162
yason wrote: post #159

To me it makes sense. Tablets don't seem so hugely popular and they've become a commodity ages ago. Anecdotally, I've had a few and they all were left sitting in a drawer somewhere pretty soon. While I have my phone for quick lookups, a Chromebook for lightweight web browsing and long battery life, and laptops for "serious" computing (i.e. work, other programming, some gaming), I've never found much use for a tablet.…

I guess I’m an oddity, I can’t remeber the last time I went to HN or reddit on something other than my iPad. But I have an iPhone SE so maybe it’s just because I have a small screen phone that I rarely browse the web in it.

You must be keeping work and HN/Reddit admirably seperate then :)

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#169

Post by pjmlp »

shams93 wrote: post #161
__sr__ wrote: post #12

Good riddance! It’s not like they have actively been developing Android to support tablets. In fact, it is the other way around. The older versions had better support for tablets. Even Nexus 9 was a half hearted attempt at best — and the rest is history. Google’s lack of interest in nowhere more evident than their own apps — many of them were just scaled versions of phone apps. And if Google is not bothering to optim…

Chromeos with android is a lot more useful because you have full blown desktop chrome with chrome developer tools. The new chromeos devices have convertable touch screens and basically can function as tablets. But I own the new ipad because I don't have an iphone but still want my hands on these amazing Moog ios apps for my music. Android native is terrible for music, chrome browser itself has a much more highly deve…

Anyone serious about audio on Android needs to use the NDK APIs with OpenSL or the new AAudio, everything else is just pain.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#170

Post by pjmlp »

themacguffinman wrote: post #125
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was around the time I started playing with fragments that I realized that the native Java android toolkit was a giant pile of crap. Android, I think, is not even supposed to be a well-engineered system. It is not central to its purpose. Its purpose is to eat marketshare, collect data, and ensure there is an outlet for ads. It only has to work well enough to do those things :) I get the sense that it was all slappe…

Well, yeah, that's the goal of everything commercial. Being well-engineered is a means, not an end.

iOS and UWP are both commercial and the quality of their tooling and OS frameworks runs circles around Android's.

Sadly it is hard to win over free beer.

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