Ramblings on media issues and trends, technology, higher education, and human culture in the digital era.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Taking tabs on the 2011 tablet market
So the iPad2 was released today, but I'm still laughing at this bit from Conan the other week.
I've never made it a secret that I don't like Apple and don't find their products as awe-inspiring as others. Feel free to psychoanalyze me for the reasons why. I had no interested in the original iPad, though I was (and still am) excited for the era of tablet computing. With a slew of Android-powered tablets expected to ship this year, and even some Windows-powered tablets coming out, this seems to be the real beginning of the tablet boom.
Longing for the HTC, Android tablet combo
I'm salivating over the idea of owning a tablet running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). The Motorola Xoom is out, with an $800 price tag at Verizon (with wi-fi and 3G -- and eventual 4G -- connectivity). There's also a $600 wi-fi-only model.
Personally, wi-fi only is the route I would go.
But I'm actually waiting for offerings from HTC (the company that built my phone, which I'm really enjoying). I like to consider myself generally oblivious to advertising campaigns, but several years ago this company caught my eye with advertisements for their phones. The music, the cinematography, the marketing message, even the story telling: All of these combined to make these spots stand out amidst the cacophony of "I can hear you now" and "'I'm a Mac.' 'And I'm a PC,'" and other such commercials.
I still get chills from this HTC ad:
Anyhow, the HTC Flyer tablet is coming out soon. Though it's at the size (7 inches) I'm interested in, I'm less excited that it runs Android 2.3, which isn't built for the tablet experience. So I'm waiting for their Honeycomb powered-machines, rumored for June (but probably later) and in the 10-inch form factor.
However, I'm impatient enough to incorporate a device like this into my life, and see how it fits, that I half thought "Maybe I should just get an iPad." I've realized I'm not THAT impatient, though.
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4 comments:
You get chills from a commercial for a technology company? Jeez ...
P.S. My HTC phone has sucked since day 1. Eagerly awaiting my Verizon iPhone.
Like I said: Good marketing. That ad has stuck with me over the past few years because -- to me -- it stood out among the typical crap airing between my regularly scheduled programming, be it Apple, Verizon, Sprint, IBM, or what have you.
What model was it, what sucked about it, and what version of Android was it running?
HTC Hero on Sprint, and I don't know the OS. It's always been slow, even with an app killer installed. Also, it gets confused about where it is and what time it is with frightening regularity, but especially when I'm traveling, which I've been doing a lot of these days -- yes, even with the location feature turned on.
Not that it will be relevant much longer for you, once you get your shiny new iPhone4, but the issue of app killers is one I looked into when I first switched to Android. It seemed there was/is quite a bit of debate on these things.
What I learned is that Android is built around multi-tasking and as such, is designed to handle multiple apps and kill apps that are running if another demands system resources. Killed apps are placed in a state in which they can readily be recalled when you need/request them.
Essentially app killers are, at best, redundant, at worst, a drain on your system.
I suspect the broader issue of your phone was the hardware, and as we know from our newsroom experience, bogged-down software only exacerbates slow hardware.
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