On my Android tab I have 5 fully customised screens with icons laid out how I want and widgets showing app updates. All I need to do is glance at my tablet and I see my latest 3 calendar events, latest 5 e-mails my combined accounts and the 3 latest new headlines in tech, uk and world news. That's just my main screen, I have other useful stuff on my other screens.
I can wirelessly browse the contents of my PC and watch any music/videos/pictures on my tablet streamed from PC over WiFi, I can copy any files and open them over wifi as if my computer was just an SD card. I can hook up any generic usb hub, pen drive, keyboard and mouse, my PS3 pad (via BT or usb) or xbox pad, 3G dongles and webcams as if it were a PC. I can plug my tab straight into my TV's HDMI and watch movies or I can use it as a VLC player remote control (or remote desktop client) for my PC. I don't need to go through any programs to transfer files, just drag and drop.
What I don't get is that iPad can't do any of that yet they're still the definitive pad to have. they still have the phone-style "collection of apps" interface and are quite restrictive about what they can do. If you want to check for news/twitter/facebook/calendar updates you have to open it's specific app, you have to use them how Apple tells you and not how you want to. I know there are more tablet specific apps for the iPad, if you can afford them, but theres nothing it can do that an Android tablet can't as far as I know. The marketing makes them sell well yes and the fact they have the industry known name, iPad is to tablets as Hoover is to Vaccum cleaners. That doesn't show why they get good reviews and people still stick by them though.
What is it that makes the iPad so impressive for so many people, why is it peoples tablet of choice?
*Disclaimer this is a genuine question, I want opinions. I want to know what I'm missing out on*
Just a thought, I wonder if Apple is scared of Honeycomb tablets actually being more useful than iTablets and that's why it's involved in such aggressive patent litigation to stop the Galaxy Tab 10.1 being sold?
ReplyDeleteUntil more honeycomb apps (or ICS in the future) appear then I think people will see the apps as "ugly"
ReplyDeletepeople don't seem to care about how well something works, they just want it to look pretty. It's sad but true.
It took a while for Android to wipe the floor with iPhone sales, it will do the same in the tablet world, once we are rid of all the 2.0/2.1/2.2/2.3 tablets and the majority are honeycomb or ICS then I think things will pick up a lot more.
I had the original Galaxy Tab but I wasn't impressed, it was literally a big version of my phone with resized apps. I sold it, I'm now awaiting my Vega that I will put Honeycomb on, everything about it looks better and the apps are made better (I can share it with the wife as it accepts 2 gmail accounts, 2 Market accounts, 2 Facebook accounts [Friend Me and Friendcaster apps] and 2 Twitter accounds [numerous apps])
I've had my Advent Vega since April. Overall I am impressed at what it could do rather than what it can do. Android is too fragmented with too many versions, with Apple it's much more controlled. The apps on Android feel unfinished with Apple apps are more polished. Then you have the Android market which looks both the same on both phone and tabet there's no difference, but the iPad the app store is designed for the IPad not iPhones.
ReplyDeleteAndroid is cheaper but I really don't think you get the same user experience out the box as you do with the IPad, for example you have to somehow either find an Market.APK file or install a custom rom which means you have to root it and try and get it into recovery which is a feat in itself (I use Audi)to get it into recovery. I have the R8 which is a no nonsense update to the stock rom. I've had VegaComb which looks brilliant but it's not quite there, I don't like having keep installing nightly builds I feel I am using it for test purposes, not as a tablet.
iPads are twice the price of the Advent Vega. There is a lot of bias towards Apple. You need to have loads of money to afford one if you don't work, the Advent Vega is at a budget people can afford. I am looking at getting a refund and buy an AndyPad or try and get a 1st gen iPad.
You might think I am dissing Android i am not, I own 2 android phones and of course the Advent Vega.
The best thing about Android is being able to customise them with a rom of your choice.
Google need to up their game if they want to compete with Apple and release the source code to all Android tablet makers.