Here’s yet another random blog post as I wallow in the time between urgent projects.
Why Are There Tablets?
Certainly, Apple justified the Tablet market with the iPad. There were Tablet PCs before then. I updated my Laptops For Dummies with Tablet PC coverage a few years back.
Tablet PCs are basically laptops where you can twist the screen around to write on the thing. It’s basically Windows, but with a pen (or your finger) as an input device. There was no attempt, as there is with the iPad, to make a whole new mobile computing paradigm — which is probably why Tablet PCs sold so dismally.
Still, I like my Tablet PC. It’s good for taking notes in a meeting, and ideal for use on an airplane when the idiot in front of me folds back his seat.
But the iPad? What’s appealing?
It’s a mobile device, like a big phone, but not a phone. It does things your computer does, but it’s not a computer. The iPad sells like hell, and there are a swarm of competitors coming out this year and probably for years to come. So why bother? I mean, isn’t the iPad yet another gizmo to carry around?
Seriously: Why bother?
Buy Your Music on CDs
My son recently got a new PC. The problem: His iTunes was on his old PC and none of the songs transferred over, specifically the songs he paid for at the iTunes store. That sucks.
We’ve been able to pull off some of the songs by burning CDs, but that’s a cumbersome process. That leads me to an observation: Why buy digital music at all?
When you buy a CD, you own the CD. You have it forever, as long as you take care of it. Plus, you can always burn the CD to your computer’s music library. You can do it over and over and over; no digital rights management (DRM).
The Verizon iPhone
Yes, three years after you would have bought a Verizon iPhone, one is finally being released. Yeah! But you’re being really silly if you buy one now.
First, the iPhone being sold by Verizon is the iPhone 4. Sometime this summer, probably in July, Apple will announce the iPhone 5.
Second, the iPhone 5 will probably be a 4G phone, have real-time video chat over the digital cellular network, and offer a lot of cool must-have features. If so, why buy an iPhone 4 now from Verizon? You’ll be locked into a 2-year contract with no hopes of upgrading until perhaps the iPhone 7 comes out in 2013.
Yeah, I don’t really expect that many people to be flocking to the Verizon Store next month to get iPhones.
I saw an interview with Microsoft’s CEO showing the new Windows 7 tablet device, he was trying to demonstrate how easy it is to use but it took him up to 3 attempts to minimize a window with his finger, the fact is Windows 7 just isn’t written for small devices like tablets.
Do you have Spotify in America? I use this more than anything else now, free music streaming with only small 30 second adverts every 3rd or 4th track. You can put it on as many PCs as you like, and if you pay you can listen to your track list off-line with no adverts.
Comment by chiefnoobie — January 26, 2011 @ 2:47 am
THANK YOU!
This is everything I hate about the iPad, but haven’t been able to put into words.
It has less than half the functionality of a computer, and costs almost double the price.
Comment by gamerguy473 — January 26, 2011 @ 8:46 am
I think that the iPad missed the mark by making it too big, its not something you can carry around in a coat pocket and take out in a coffee shop. I think the Dell Streak got it right, check this video to see what tablets should be in my opinion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1MhBJgD0E
And a touchscreen only interface is really stupid, at some point a manufacturer has to get smart enough to make keyboards for tablets, preferably not a slideout but rather a clamshell keyboard so the screen will be protected. Then tablets would be like ARM CPU powered netbooks, much lighter and have better battery use. Thats the only reason I have not bought a Android smartphone or tablet, there is not a single tablet that exists that has a keyboard, and all smartphones have slideout only, none with a clamshell that will protect the screen in my pocket.
Comment by BradC — January 26, 2011 @ 9:46 am
I’ve not heard of Spotify, but then again I’m not really sitting on the leading edge of anything. I have used Pandora and enjoy it, and I’ve not yet heard an ad.
Comment by admin — January 26, 2011 @ 9:48 am
I heard that windows 8 will be using ARM so it can be used on portable devices, I think spotify if quite like Pandora
Comment by chiefnoobie — January 26, 2011 @ 2:59 pm
I heard that too. But win7 can barely run on an intel atom, I think MS is only going embarrass themselves by porting windows to ARM
Comment by BradC — January 26, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
I dunno, the nVidia ARM demonstration looked very impressive.
Comment by linuxlove — January 26, 2011 @ 7:48 pm