Tablet and Mobile

Archive for the ‘Android’ Category

We’re now looking at nearly 2 years since the launch of the original iPad and though the device retains some of the magic, those of us there at the beginning are no longer in awe of the fantastic design that has made so many millions for Apple and changed the way we work and play.

It now seems fairly natural to be walking around with a slim glass-and-aluminium device that’s more powerful than mainstream PCs of just a few years ago – so the only questions is – WHICH tablet should we be carrying?

I recently got my hands on a 7” Android tablet running “Gingerbread” – or Android 2.3.  Since then we’ve seen “Honeycomb” and finally “Ice Cream Sandwich” but most of the cheaper tablets are running 2.3 or lower.

To be honest I would not waste my time with anything LESS than version 2.3 is it’s fore-runners were never designed for tablet use.

Until now I’ve avoided Android tablets altogether for a number of reasons including the absolutely useless “resistive” displays that many of the cheaper ones employ. These are of the old-fashioned variety you have to press on to get any response and they are deeply unsatisfying to use. One of the iPad’s best features is the utterly responsive “capacitive” display which requires no finger pressure AT ALL to work – and so that for me is the minimum I’m prepared to look at.

The Yuandao N12 Fast Tab is one of dozens of 7” tablets out there that runs Android 2.3 and on the surface of it, it’s a mini-iPad..  the 7” format means it fits comfortably into a big hand and you’d expect that to be a big plus compared to the iPad’s rather larger format. In fact there is little apparent difference in weight.

So, in 2012 how to Android and Apple stack up?

The N12 is CHEAP – I’ve seen it at £100 including VAT in the UK so it’s not in the same league as iPad price-wise or feature-wise.

Let’s look at the pluses and minuses of this particular tablet – which is not untypical of the far-eastern offerings available right now..

Minus

• Battery life –claimed to be 20 hours standby and 5 hours video – yes, if you are lucky, more like it 4 hours of use. The iPad has never run out on standby in the time I’ve had it and gets around 10 hours of video NO PROBLEM.
• Microsoft Exchange – The M12 cannot handle any but the simplest of Exchange setups – if the setup won’t work with email and password, there seems to be no way to get into manual setup – this is a MAJOR omission for corporate use.
• Display – fast and responsive but ultimately at 800*480 pixels it’s an overgrown phone and the pixilation is obvious, even watching movies.
• WIFI – the WIFI is very insensitive, picking up less signal than many phones and dropping out occasionally.
• Limited memory – a common Android problem, although the unit has 8GB internally with access to an external memory stick, it seems that even though you can move Apps into this larger space, there is an internal CORE of 512MB RAM (this is a common limit – see specs – APPLE do NOT have such a limit) and even Apps in external memory use up SOME of this 512MB RAM which soon gets eaten up – putting a limit on how many Apps you can install – this is really unacceptable but somehow manages to escape most reviews.
• Speed – not quite fast enough to make good use of Flash – one of the so-called Apple-killer features, the Flash performance is poor.
• Finish – the unit has a nice Aluminium finish which unfortunately has sharp edges – after repeated handling while, say, watching a movie, tends to get annoying. This sharp edging appears to be common among the Chinese offerings
• Reliability – the hardware seems reliable enough but Gingerbread is chocker full of bugs – the language control means that some menu items come up in Chinese no matter what you do and installations can easily be messed up.
• The Android market has some gaping holes compared to Apple, the latter having an excellent PDF reader (GoodReader) and several other business tools missing from Android market.
• Front-only camera which is poor quality and not that reliable – only sometimes works with Skype. No back camera.
• No Bluetooth – yes you heard it  – no Bluetooth (the iPhone 4 and iPad2 reliably handle 2 simultaneous Bluetooth connections – in my car for example the phone is Bluetooth hands-free but also talks to a separate Bluetooth unit to play audio through the car stereo – something the old 3GS could not quite tackle)
• No sign of upgrades available – website is in Chinese, very little English discussion on the web.
• Large border area around the screen.
• 16:9 wide format

Plus

• The 7” format would fit into a large coat pocket and just feels nice
• The screen is bright and responsive
• The Android market has come a long way and although still full of rubbish, there are some hidden gems in there – many of which are free.
• External memory means no limit to movies you can store on the device.
• USB means external keyboard is easy to implement (though Bluetooth would be more convenient)

Summary

Based on the above – for me the ideal would be a 7” tablet with little border area i.e. mostly screen, running a later version of Android which properly handled Microsoft Exchange, on a tablet with at least 1024 pixels wide, rounded corners, 6-10 hour battery life, Bluetooth, sensitive WIFI, at least 1Gb internal working RAM, preferably more.

With current improvements to the Android Market, there is definitely a place for these devices. If you look at the likes of the Samsung S2 phone – slim, incredibly light, super display – think of one of those stretched to 7” or so and I reckon there is definitely a place for such a device provided the price is right (i.e. WELL under the cost of an iPad) – as yet it does not seem to exist, the NOTE being the nearest but still too small.

For now, the iPad is still streets ahead of Android…maybe they’ll keep that lead, maybe not. There is something quite nice about the smaller form factor and lower cost of the Android devices – opens up all kinds of possibilities if only the quality bar was raised…

Is it really possible that Google have finally gotten their act together with Android? Certainly the preview video below would make you think it’s possible…   if someone comes out with a widescreen, 10” tablet running this – and if it’s not a con… and if it handles Skype video… and the battery lasts 10 hours…   and runs cold…  and is thin…  then my next purchase… dare I say it.. could possibly NOT be an iPad 2…

Only time will tell… MS may as well give up at this point.

After all the media hype about “iPad killers” – has anyone noticed how quiet things have gotten recently? Novatech’s Windows 7 tablet got a severe bashing because Windows 7 remains badly-equipped for use by large fingers and the screen on that machine apparently isn’t that clever at an angle. Currys withdrew one of their two available Android models and so basically if you go shopping you’ll find the iPad and the Galaxy Tab, the latter of course being only 7” and having a lower-resolution screen than the iPad – the Tab did however in it’s first month manage to sell a respectable 1 million units so one would be daft to ignore it.

Other than that, what? The Dell Streak is basically a phone so really the Tab and the iPad are the only real players actually out there if you ignore the many units available on the web using older versions of Android and therefore hardly in the game. It amazes me that other manufacturers look to be going to miss the Christmas opportunity – I’d hoped that the Archos 101 would be the next contender because of it’s amazing price but according to PC PRO, it too has issues with poor screen readability. The reason this is important is because, unlike software, you can’t really upgrade the unit later to overcome such difficulties.

So why do we even need competition for the iPad? The unit is solid, reasonably priced, works a treat… yes indeed but the Apple unit still has some way to go before you’d throw the laptop out…

I’ve written a lot about the benefits of the iPad…. here’s a list of things that are NOT so good about the current iPad:

• No memory expansion
• No USB
• No camera
• No FLASH
• Airplay is still far from perfect
• Airprint is currently a joke, working only with a very limited number of printers
• The WIFI on the iPad still does not handle multiple access points properly

When the iPad came out, mobile connectivity packages were pants in the UK, with Orange and Vodafone competing to see who could offer the least monthly download for your money – and so 3G connectivity seemed like a joke which is why I bought the WIFI-only model – well that and the price, the top-of-the-range iPad is IMHO just too expensive for what you get – but then along came THREE who offer up to 15GB a month – now THAT’S more like it.  I’m using their branded MIFI unit and believe me, going through that amount of data is QUITE DO-ABLE so running a tablet on 3G really does need this kind of monthly allocation if you’re going to make heavy use of the unit.

Internet beginners might well ask “how on earth can you use up 15GB in a month” – well, let’s see, in a one-hour trip up the M6 listening to “The Big Cheese” radio station (as against various crap BBC stations which fade in and out and tend to bore one to death) I managed to consume 250Mb. I’ve never checked but I’m prepared to bet that watching an episode of “Have I got News for You” on the iPlayer would use up even more! Hopefully you get the point… if all you do is browse the web then the likes of the 3GM/monthly packages will probably do the job for you but once you see the possibilities that modern mobile systems such as the iPad, Galaxy and the new, larger mobile phones can give you, data use tends to rocket. I could see daily use of 1GB quite easily which takes you up to around the 15GB monthly allowance.

Once Apple get their act together with Skype and give us an iPad 2 with Skype video (or more likely, short term, Skype adds video to it’s Android line-up?) I could see video calls finally taking off en-masse – and that could change everything.

The good news is that various mobile operators are now starting to subsidise these tablets with contracts so the price barrier is starting to go away.

Meanwhile I’ve been struggling with the limits of Apple’s iTunes, probably the most miserable program in my PC armada of programs, iTunes excels in one thing and one thing only – organising your music collection.  If you’ve never looked at this, here’s my music line-up….

I’ve one PC at home that looks after our pictures, music and videos and stays turned on (monitor off) 24/7. It runs iTunes and talks to the Apple TV2 unit attached to our TV. Simply inserting a CD into the computer results in the entire contents of the CD including cover artwork, ending up copied to the hard drive and hence available within iTunes along with our pics and movies.

That in itself isn’t a great deal of use, but thanks to the addition of Apple TV and REMOTE (an App for both iPhone and iPad which lets you remotely control iTunes, select tracks and even build playlists) it is now possible to access all our media on the TV via a choice of remote control, iPhone or iPad – and it all works very well indeed. We tend to keep our latest pictures on Google Web Albums and access to that is missing like a sore thumb from Apple TV which prefers FLICKR (I don’t, mainly because of their association with Getty and Corbis) and I’m looking forward to the advent of APPS for Apple TV in the hope that one of them will add Google Web Album capability.

iTunes of course is far from perfect, the Airplay output to Apple TV straight from the PC will not work on either our main media PC or my laptop however thankfully via REMOTE, the PC will indeed stream to the TV without issue.

iTunes however is woefully inadequate at sorting tunes from a variety of sources or even in some cases at getting the right artwork so I’ve pressed two other programs into service – TUNEUP which is not free but does a great jog of getting artworks – and MediaMonkey which can be free and has some great facilities for organising your media. At long last I now have a working, practical media setup. All I need now is something to convert the optical output from the Apple unit – to work with my slightly-out-of-date HI-FI amplifier – it’s either that or scrap the TV and get one which has audio OUTPUT as well as input!

As I sit here in the early hours there is still no sign of the much-anticipated 4.2 IOS updates. The plan is they will be with us this week and will provide unity among all of the iTouch/iPhone/iPad gadgets. The important recipient of this upgrade of course will be the iPad as it is currently miles behind the iPhone in terms of multi-tasking and folders etc so that will be my first upgrade and I’m quite excited about the prospect!

But there is more as I’ve recently discovered… and what does this have to do with Apple TV you might ask? Well, a lot…

Rewinding a few days, it’s Maureen’s birthday today and I’ve been struggling with what to buy her. She’s an avid fan of watching movies on the go and uses her small laptop for email, music and movies – she’s also a fan of YouTube and we often turn this on when we have parties so folks can pick their own music video selections – it goes down well.  I’d planned on getting on of the new Android tablets for her and accordingly we sold her little Atom-powered netbook. Another option on the cards was a Windows 7 powered tablet… but that option quickly disappeared when I started cleaning up the netbook for sale and was reminded how painfully slow they are. In one of those Eureka moments I twigged that no matter what, a Windows 7/Atom powered tablet is going to be AT LEAST as slow as the netbook – and that’s just not on. So now we’re back to Android or Apple iPad.

Next stop PC World to check out the Android tablets. Well, really, despite the promise, what’s out there is just, well, rubbish. The new Galaxy Tab from Samsung is now available in the shops… and it has a VERY nice bright display, smooth touch-screen – and a camera!!! But hold on it still uses Android 2.2 – the very operating system that it’s designers, Google say is NOT ready for tablet use. Their own site states merely that  “Android 2.2 is a minor platform release including user features, developer features, API changes, and bug fixes”.

It seems manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon eager to get product out regardless of the suitability or otherwise of the software. “Gingerbread” or Android 2.3 is supposed to be going to be much better – but WHO KNOWS – as we can’t get our hands on it to try it out – it might be no better than current offerings. The lady at PC World did her damndest to convince me that because the Galaxy Tab has a camera, it runs Skype video – which is just absolute TOSH. The Android implementation of Skype doesn’t even have a video SETTING! Of course neither does the iPhone or iPad but I’d be prepared to bet that with the possibility of an iPad 2 with video camera widely touted to appear next year, negotiations will be taking place.  The first fully working tablet with Skype video gets my vote. Why? When there are other alternatives such as Apple’s own video conferencing software? Simple really, the other alternatives have such a small market share they’re not worth a light. If you have Apple’s video conferencing solution it’s only going to work with other people with the same software – and that’s a very small number. Skype on the other hand has for some time been the most widely used of it’s kind, it’s free, it works on a variety of platforms and when I say works… with a good connection it is absolutely EXCELLENT and I can say that with a LOT of professional experience of running meetings over Skype.

But I digress, the point of this is that we decided to become a 2-iPad family, but once Maureen heard of the possibility of an iPad with video she’s decided for now to save up her pennies and wait. Which took us next to the iPad store and Apple TV afte a brief conversation with a fellow enthusiast in PC-World.

You may be aware that the new IOS enhancements will include something called Airplay, a piece of software that allows you to stream video and audio from one device to another… and this is where Apple TV comes in. Far from unique, the new Apple TV device comes in at just under £100 – a small and typically beautiful piece of Apple engineering, it plugs into your HD TV (hdmi only, owners of older TVs can look away now) and the Internet and lets you then, via it’s simple remote control, do a variety of things from streaming movies (an alternative if you like to LoveFilm) for a price (maybe £3.50 typically) from the Internet… but that’s only the beginning. If you’re an Apple user, you will typically have your music and movies on iTunes on one of your PCs. Certainly I’m no lover of the iTunes program, I think it’s slow and clunky but it does make sense to have all your multi-media in one place and I guess this is where Apple TV device differs from the rest – full integration with iTunes. Of course you can download or SYNC from iTunes to your iPad/iPhone/iTouch devices… but with the new Airplay will come the possibility to STREAM the media rather than download it.  Apple TV not only lets you rent movies but will work with your iTunes selection to make the lot (movies, music, pictures) onto your regular TV, straight over your Internet connection. Not only THAT but it will also (apparently, once the devices have been upgraded) allow you to view media playing on your devices ON THE TV by streaming straight from the device. I should point out that like iTunes, Apple TV does not like for example DIVX video and so you have to convert your movies to an Apple-compatible format such as M4V which thankfully works for PCs etc just as well as DIVX – assuming you have VLC or similar.

But it gets better, you can ALSO watch video podcasts, YouTube and Flickr accounts directly on Apple TV – the device uses less power than a nightlight and runs freezing cold.. all this for under £100. So, is this a pipedream? Well, I can’t tell you about Airplay until it comes out but the rest WORKS – and more, a trained monkey could set it up. This then would appear to be a must-have and it’s certainly the best thing I’ve bought since the iPad. Thankfully there is a free solution in the form of HANDBRAKE – a  rather superb free video convertor (Google it). I’m busy converting my movies over now..

Well, the BAD news is – the new Android Tablet from Dixons/Currys/PC World is going to be DOA. Firstly it will NOT handle 3G – and secondly it will NOT access the Android Marketplace.  They plan on bringing out one that has both, in the new year sometime – I can only imagine they’re bringing out this DOA version to test the market. Punters who haven’t a clue what they’re looking for will no doubt spot the pretty display in the shop and take it away. By the time they realise they’ve bought a puppy it’ll be too late.

If this had firstly had the 3g capability and secondly handled the Android market – at £249.00 it would have been a serious contender – but with WIFI only and no access to the important market – the chances are you won’t even be able to get hold of a half-decent PDF reader for it. 

Such a shame – but there are plenty of competitors around the corner… and of course for only £150 more you can have the real thing!!  November is coming up fast which means the 4.2 IOS upgrade for the iPad must surely be just around the corner.

The Archos 101 which costs just a little more has the same issues, no 3G (which isn’t THAT big a deal) and no marketplace (which probably IS that big a deal)…

(DOA: Dead on Arrival)

Well, it’s not Curry’s fault, more the many people on the web out there frantically reading each others blogs an embellishing them.  I knew by last week the new Curry’s 10” tablet wasn’t going to make the predicted 18th window. It looks like we’re now talking the start of November.. AND it also looks like the 3G option is a “reserved for future use” pipedream. I wonder how many people will amend their blogs accordingly!

Anyway, the VEGA unit has movement sensing so that’s a good start. There is again apparently no rear-facing camera – though what you’d want one of those for on a tablet escapes me – the forward facing camera is surely more important – the Google really do need to get their act together and convince SKYPE to get Android and video talking… for me, the first tablet to come complete with SKYPE VIDEO gets my business. The iPAD has Skype but no video and it’ll stay that was as there is no camera – and I notice that Skype is now running on Android generally but again without the video.  My current solution if I want to go walkabout is to carry my rather heavy laptop around with a Logitech camera in my other hand! Not exactly ideal.

Of course like most laptops the chances are the internal camera will be the cheapest crap they could fit – if you see the Logitech Pro 9000 operating in average light and compare it to just about anything else – well, there is no comparison – it’s marvellous.. but again with USB fitted to an Android tablet one could conceivably imagine being able to plug-in the Logitech.. that would be superb…

So nothing to report, the iPad remains the only viable off-the-shelf product today…  but things change.  Since the last and amazing Goodreader upgrade for iPad I’ve noticed nothing revolutionary going on. We still don’t have our 4.2 IOS upgrade but I expect that’ll happen now in November, followed by hundreds of App upgrades to handle the changes. 

If I were to make a wish-list for the iPad it would be:

• Find a way to allow attachment of USB cameras and get SKYPE to handle this
• Get rid of the awfully restrictive filing system so that for example VLC can handle video files found anywhere on the iPad.

Oh, well, that’s about it really, certainly can’t fault the screen.

I love using that term “iPad Killer” – of course there is no such thing as yet.. but.. “one to watch” as they say is Currys (also PC WORLD’s) forthcoming Advent Vega device. This was supposed to be released on the 18th of October but on the 15th, staff at Currys didn’t have a clue what was happening –(update: November 16th it’s still not out).

The Advent Vega uses the 1Ghz NVideo Tegra chipset with 1024*600 resolution, same width but slightly less height than the iPad. There is an HDMI output for 1080p HD output to your TV which is nice, it has a 1.3 megapixel camera (but no doubt no support for Skype video so it’s likely to be fairly useless along with the cameras on other devices unless iPad2 convinces Skype to add video mode), Android 2.2 Froyo (which means FLASH support), a 3G Sim slot (often referred to in other articles as 3GB because they are replicating someone else’s incorrect spec without using their brains – and there is no indication as to whether it actually works or is there for the future like the connectors on Sky’s crappy HD box), almost no useful RAM but a microSD slot with 4GB already populated. Mine will go in the bin in favour of at least 16GB.

So why are you even reading this? Well, the 3G is nice at the projected price of £249  IF – and it’s a big IF, it will allow you to drop the SIM in from, say your Vodafone dongle – then tablet use anywhere (along with the option to use FON or BTOPENZONE etc) becomes a reality. Ok, you can do that with the iPAD but not at anywhere near that price and I think the 3G iPad uses a micro-Sim?? I just bought the WIFI version – as I thought the extra cost was excessive.

The Claim is 6.5 hours of video use – not as good as the iPad’s 10 hours but not to be sneezed at… even Currys don’t claim this to be of the highest spec… but it’ll be interesting to see in action.

Remember however that FROYA (Android 2.2) was not designed specifically for tablet use – there is as yet no decent EXCHANGE client for Android (that I can find) and as far as I’m aware, still no SKYPE.

Ok, looking at the VIDEO below – this is SUPPOSED to be it… and supposed to be a genuine demo. IF it lives up to the video – and it takes a normal SIM etc.. we may have a WINNER here.

Update:

Curry’s have NO IDEA when it’s coming in – they were going to ring me back this afternoon – and PC-World thought a couple of weeks but didn’t really know.. As for Dixons at the airport, the guy didn’t have the foggiest idea what I was talking about. See this extract from someone who got their hands on it – the highlighting is mine…

“The Advent Vega has two key weak spots. Firstly, (and this is the corner that’s been cut) the camera, which is a 1.3MP front facing camera, will be pretty useless. Secondly, it has no 3G, yet. The Vega tablet we saw had a 3G slot, and while it has nothing in it now, that’s something that Adam Lockyer, the category manager for Advent said would be added, and an Advent Vega would be available in early next year with 3G capabilities.”

All very interesting, I wonder if the shop will CLAIM the 3g works?

In the spirit of keeping an open mind to iPad alternatives – as I’m told just about every day by various DIY experts that “I’ve heard there’s an iPad killer coming out”, I’ve been scouring the web to see what alternatives, if any there are to the iPad right now. If you’ve read earlier blogs you’ll see that currently there are more lies than truths out there. It all begins with a Chinese company producing something that looks great but doesn’t actually work that well – they then translate a dodgy specification from Chinese into even more dodgy English – importers come along and blindly copy the spec into their adverts, often embellishing things on the way and before you can blink an eye – we have the next iPad-killer.

Most of the alternatives to the iPad including those which exist and those which are still vapour-ware, make great claims, for example SKYPE.  But to me, Skype is text, audio and video… not even the iPad or iPhone will use video with Skype and I see no sign of that happening real soon. Hardly ANY of the Android devices can run Skype at all, instead claiming compatibility with Skype because they can run FRING – yet Fring abandoned (or were forced away from) Skype multimedia compatibility ages ago! See what I mean by blindly copying information!

I did have my heart set on a very thin 10” slate (the iPad is just over 9”) but that too turned into a loser (for now, though Currys are promising something in November 2010)… but then I started to wonder why on earth there would be such a lot of promised 7” units on the horizon when really, that size is too small to read for example an A4 sheet…  I guess it all depends on what you EXPECT from one of these units. For reading the electronic equivalent of a soft-back book the iPad can actually be a little BIG and it has to be said that a slightly smaller unit might do for movies etc.

Blackberry of course have released their Playbook which has a reasonable screen width of 1024px (though as it is only 7” that’s going to be awfully small text) – it looks good – BUT they’ve used their own proprietary operating system called QNX – Eh? The Apple store has quarter of a million Apps – Android has many thousands of Apps and for QNX we have??? What??  I’m thinking no… and it’s not coming out until sometime in 2011 in the USA.

Make no mistake, my daily viewing tool of choice is the iPad but I figured, just to get it off my chest I’ll order one of the AVAILABLE 7” Android units – after doing much research into which ones actually WORK.  This particular unit has an issue in that they took the tilt sensor out as there were issues with it – but I figured that’d be no loss for watching movies or reading books….  other than that, the X5A is claimed to be the most powerful Android tablet on the market RIGHT NOW……

I ordered “the fastest most powerful Android Tablet in the World” –  the tablet turned up – it worked – it wasn’t an iPad-killer…  I sent it back.

So, up to now let’s see what’s good and bad about the X5 tablet and Android in general

Good

• Handles HDMI output, hi-def movies in various formats
• Nice design – solid case
• Large Library of programs via the market
• Good music support
• Good image support

Bad

• VERY watery display compared to iPad
• Won’t handle all video formats commonly used on PC
• Unresponsive and really NOT pleasant resistive touch display – really needs the stylus
• Applications are not making use of larger display
• No decent PDF reader – ie nothing to even APPROACH GoodReader on the iPAD/iPhone
• No Flash support as Android 2.2 does not seem to be available yet
• Not particularly fast
• Many Android applications are basically rubbish – some even incomplete
• Essentially no Exchange support – the one App that supports Exchange is ATTROCIOUS

I tried – and no doubt I’ll try again… fact is, the iPad is LIGHT years ahead in design and available Apps. Come the next software upgrade it’ll be even better and if ONLY Apple would get off it’s FLASH hobbyhorse….

They’re kidding, right? The forthcoming Galaxy Tab Android Tablet is a little 7” thing and they’re going to charge £600 ??? Ok it has a camera – but then unless they get a deal with SKYPE to get SKYPE video on there – it’s not going to be any use to anyone. Their AD CLAIMS video calls – but unless it’s SKYPE – who’re you going to call? Ghostbusters??   I have a 7” Android unit here and believe me it is TINY compared to the iPAD – I was hoping for something nearer £300. The basic iPad is only £420 and as we now have WIFI just about everywhere (especially if you’re a BT user and sign up to the free FON network which gives you free access to other FON user’s WIFI) – is the 3G really that big a deal (especially now that unlimited use is now history).

Meanwhile it turns out that 30 of the most popular Android Apps are sharing data with third parties without making it clear to users!

I think they’ve some way to go yet…

The iPhone and iPad just keep getting better – and it’s not really anything that Apple have done – it’s more a case of the Apps. Where Apple got it right was in their designs and marketing – everyone who has an iPad or iPhone says “it just works” – and with that basis the App designers have been able to get on with the job. Some of the Apps are so far ahead of anything on the Android or Microsoft markets – it’s hard to see them catching up anytime soon.

An example might be Goodreader.  I bought this for 99 pence right at the beginning when I got my iPhone, great PDF reader but it’s uses were limited on the phone – then out came the iPad and almost immediately they had an iPad-specific version of the software.  One of it’s few limitations was the ability to ANNOTATE PDFs- and many folk said to me – but I need to scribble on my PDFs at meetings..  I conveyed this back to the developers – no doubt many other people did – and only a couple of days ago, upgrades for the iPad came out – with iPhone upgrade coming this morning.

This program ALONE is worth getting an iPad for! It’s still 99p and reads PDFs, reads their bookmarks, works with links, lets you annotate and scribble on PDFs… and it’s not just limited to PDFs, the package can read a wide variety of formats and from a wide variety of sources.

The Android market has a product most likely deliberately named “A Good Reader” – it’s not even in the same class and some of the others out there can’t even handle bookmarks.

The bottom line is – if you need to read documents on the go – you can’t beat an iPad and GoodReader – if you can’t manage that then the next best thing is an iPhone with GoodReader!

HDR Photography and more

Then there is HDR photography, the greatest thing to happen to the amateur photographer since the digital camera. While PC conversion software struggles to work with multiple images (I’ve not seen one package that does the job properly yet) – PRO HDR on the iPhone produces brilliant results.

Take a look at the photo on the left, shot into the sun this morning – the sun is so powerful that hardly any other detail gets through – the sky is completely bleached and you can only just make out the vegetation.

The same photo taken with Pro HDR on the same iPhone… is very different – more detail and the sky is just about perfect. All that for 99 pence or thereabouts – and the patience to left the camera take 2 pictures in a row and automatically merge them for you. 

Consider your average daytime indoor shot – you can have a choice – detail in the room or detail outside of the window – not any more – this package on the iPhone lets you have the best of both worlds.

The last shot here was taken a couple of weeks ago in Bellingham in Northumberland (UK for any overseas visitors) and shows the high street – similar conditions – a normal photo would have netted a perfectly white sky… as it happens this photo – again taken on the iPhone and with Pro HDR – perfect.

More shots of this nature at the HollyBerry Cottage website – most of the shots there were made of multiple HDR photos then run through panorama software.

And there’s more – after having no decent note-taking software, the iPad now has NOTES PLUS – a brilliant innovation that lets you enter handwriting at reasonable size – but using your finger – it has to be seen to be believed.

Meanwhile tests with the Android tablet are not going too well up to now – I’ve a bunch of questions and the dealer has not come back to me today. I can see a return coming on – the screen is unresponsive – no sign of the hallowed Android 2.2 upgrade… and it won’t even play all my movies (oh, VLC is now on the iPad so that’s the limitation on M4V files gone).

And so it continues…

Peter Scargill