Tablet and Mobile

Archive for the ‘iPad Killers’ 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…

The title of this blog is misleading as the two tablets are not in the same league – but this is no doubt how the press will play this for a while until we all get used to the idea that Amazon has finally decided to go into the colour tablet market.

Feel sorry for those who’ve just bought a Kindle as the price of the existing models is about to drop – considerably!

So – what IS the “Kindle Fire” and how does it stack up against existing models such as the iPad 2? 

Firstly price, you can’t beat the expected retail price of $199 or around £130 IF the display quality is up to it – and that we’ll only find out with time.

The Kindle Fire is a 7” (as against 9.7” for the iPad) display Android Tablet that comes fully set up for getting you to buy Amazon products (books, magazines, movies etc. – the latter being something the existing Kindle could never handle due to the slow screen speed). The resolution is lower than the iPad at 1024*600 as against 1024 * 768 but frankly this is not as important as screen quality – I’ve seen many 7” tablets with similar but watery displays that you just would not wish to own.

So what does it NOT do? The Kindle Fire has NO cameras, NO Bluetooth, NO HDMI, NO expandable storage and we don’t yet know how much memory it will come with though STORAGE-wise it will have 8Gbytes.

At 0.45” it is a little thicker than the iPad but then, being physically smaller, at 14.6 ounces it is refreshingly LIGHTER than the iPad 2’s 21.1 ounces  (sorry to give measurements in old-fashioned imperial, I’m getting the info from US sites as there’s not much on the UK front yet, given that the tablet has only just been announced).

Processor is at this time unspecified but will be dual-core and the claimed battery life is 8 hours though that does not say under what conditions. The unit DOES of course come with WIFI.

The format of the tablet is WIDE – ie cinema-style and so this is much better suited to movies than the iPad – though conversely way LESS suitable for book reading.

Release date, sometime around November – though the UK launch might take a little longer, who knows at this stage.

Will it do well – of COURSE it will do well, given the marketing punch of Amazon – it CAN’T FAIL.  Is it an iPad-killer? No, not a chance. It’s not even in the same league – however it might make those who’ve been put off by the limits of e-reader screen technology (and it’s lack of capacitive touch technology) finally take the leap away from reading paper.

For me, the main areas I’d be concerned about at this price would be screen quality, touch experience and battery life. We’ve no information on that yet.

Would I buy one? Well, NO, because I have an iPad – but if I didn’t? That would depend on a number of things – very tempting for movies for example for travelling – but is 8Gb going to be enough? No, not unless you only want to keep half a dozen movies on there – so that leaves the question – will the USB connection allow for external storage? Preliminary specs say NO but we’ll take that with a punch of salt.

The iPad has the fantastic Apple store – the Kindle is not going to have that – and the VAST bulk of APPS available on the Android market are of no great use to tablet owners – certainly Android has nothing to touch the likes of GoodReader and many of the other Apple-based tools – for streaming media, for doing work etc. –but then we’re not comparing like for like.

At the end of the day however it may be APPs that make or break this product – we’ll soon find out  – but not until AFTER the great Christmas rush – surely they can’t fail to sell millions this Christmas?

48 hours from now I plan to have my hands on a pair of iPad2s…  specifically the plan is to have a black one for me – and a white one for my good lady!  Why two? well, I have to say I didn’t have to convince Maureen – the Apple Keynote speech did that, within minutes she’d decided to sell the laptop – and my iPad went off to Ebay.

So, there is the original iPad and now a host of imitators including the XOOM and the Galaxy Tab to say the least – WHY would one want to upgrade?

Ok, first things first – compare the all important BROWSER of the iPAD to the Android “competition”. The iPad’s browser has been described as a “top rate, no compromises HTML5 browser”. HTML5 is the new standard to work to, enabling many new standard features in your web browsing experience and also enabling for the first time, a standard for handling VIDEO without having to resort to FLASH.  By contrast the Android browsers are described as “not ready for prime time, even for HTML4”.

So that leaves iPad against iPAD2… why spend the money to upgrade or why buy one at all. Well, for those just coming into the game, the iPad 2 is CHEAPER than it’s predecessor and feature by feature not only blows away the competition, it also blows away the original iPad. Graphics up to NINE times faster, 33% thinner, 11% lighter, front and read cameras… the list goes on. For the foreseeable future this is going to be the tablet to have.

As soon as I get my hands on these devices I’ll put more info up here. Wish me luck in the queues.

By the time you read this, no doubt Apple will have had it’s launch and we’ll see the iPad 2 emerge perhaps even with an upgrade of the operating system. The amount of rumour and gossip out there is unbelievable for a device that only months ago was considered to be a novelty.  Back in April when it was released in the USA and I had mine ordered I told you it was going to be a game-changer… and it was.

So what’s going to be in the new iPad?  That’s anyone’s guess and when you think about the manufacturing involving many companies, Apple have done a cracking job of keeping everyone guessing.

The real question will be – what about the millions of iPad 1 owners – will we get the operating system upgrades? Is our old iPad now defunct?

Well, for me – I’m quite happy – sure I’d love a front-facing camera for Skype (and not that horrible Facetime thing).. but you know… iPad developers just keep making the products better-  I’ve a fantastic PDF reader in GOODREADER, some marvellous games, SUGARSYNC works a TREAT, I have video and audio streaming software on my PC that lets me watch my videos anywhere, Apple TV works a treat with the iPad… I could go on but regardless of what happens today I have an excellent product that has been utterly reliable over the past 10 months or so…  if they gold-plate the new one – I’m still not complaining. As for the so-called iPad killers – other manufacturers have had plenty of time to bring out their own superior products – erm… no, Apple still has the lead in this particular market.

Come back soon – I’m sure there’ll be much more to talk about in 24 hours from now!

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.

I’m still counting on SKYPE getting their act together and bringing out a Video Skype around the same time that Apple bring out an iPad 2…   I’ve been following Skype and ooVoo and it’s hard to tell which one is making the biggest mess. You’ll be aware of the SKYPE outage – well, I’ve also had crashes on PC Skype recently – indeed ever since they brought out version 5… there have been sound issues. ooVoo has much better sound but it’s so riddled with adverts it’s almost embarrassing. The problem for the iPad and iPhone is that ooVoo don’t have running versions for these operating systems. They’ve just released ooVoo beta for Android and I just tried it.  The video just doesn’t work AT ALL, in either direction – at least, not on the HTC Desire.  Someday one of these companies will get their act together and clean up house.

Meanwhile I have to say I’m still sticking to my guns – Android is just not making an alternative to Apple… many of the so-called iPad killers have fallen by the wayside and the only one to really get anywhere, the Galaxy Tab is too small for many purposes.  Meanwhile APPS for the iPad just keep getting better and better. There are now a couple of games out that are as good as console games (Infinity Blade being one example), there are now a ton of newspapers and magazines for the iPad and various other programs for both iPhone and iPad just keep improving and improving.

The Dixons/PCWorld/Curry’s tablet has still not come to fruition and already it seems the 3G option will NOT be available in the current version, meanwhile Novatech are bringing out their own Windows 7-based model – which on the surface looks good – multi-touch capacitive display, up to 32G solid state drive, 10.1” screen running 1024 * 600 display – however note that although the device is priced at £349, by the time you add Windows Professional (no apparent option to add Ultimate) you’re up to £469 – and my experience with Windows suggests that a 600px high screen is not ideal… also the 5-hour battery life is half that of the iPad. Advantages of course are obvious, Skype video, Flash video and the ability to run many Windows applications (none of which have been optimised for tablet use so you’ll be poking little buttons and links – and this is assuming you want to buy the normally expensive Windows programs all over again of course). By the time you’ve fitted this out with Office and an external keyboard (as many serious apps will be a pain to run with the external overlay keyboard) you’re probably looking at £600+  and personally I’d be spending that kind of money on a laptop. It remains to be seen how well Windows works with a multi-touch display if it takes advantage at all?? As for speed – at 1.5Gig you’d think this would be fast – but remember this is generic Windows, not IOS or Android – and most modern PCs run at twice that rate without having to handle a touch-pad.

Meanwhile Apple or rather the hordes of App writers are certainly not standing still.  I just bought Textastic which is a programmers editor. Full colour coded editing at last. Once the IOS4 operating system is ready, it should be possible to FTP download files, modify and re-upload for testing just as you would do on a normal PC. Meanwhile iDesign is looking to be the first practical vector drawing package for the iPad – a kind of beginner’s Coreldraw – handy as I have to come up with a gate design for the cave – the difference being Corel is exceedingly expensive on the PC – the iPad App is £2.99 !! I’m currently playing with a neat piece of software called VLC Remote that lets you control VLC on any of your PCs via the iPad or iPhone – VERY handy for parties assuming you’re living in the 21st century and run your music off a PC and not a CD player! The package lets you peruse your files and playlists and select, run, pause both music and video.

The only problem with iDesign at the moment is that it crashes sometimes when copy and pasting and one of the menus screws up… as you can see on the right….it’s as if one menu is sitting on top of another.

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?

It seems like new announcements appear every day now for Android alternatives to the iPad. Meanwhile there appears to be virtually nothing happening on the Windows side – at least, nothing of any consequence as what’s out there is at silly pricing.  So it looks like the market is going to be Apple and Google – Apple could kill the lot off by simply biting the bullet and putting FLASH on the iPad but until they do, everyone else is in with a fighting chance.

The problem is – most of the stuff out there seems like simple vapour-ware. Most of the offerings are just glorified phones with 7” screens – what IS the point? On the other hand there are a couple of 10” screens coming out of the woodwork – notably the Archos 101. But even that does not run Google marketplace by default – Google even now are saying their operating system is not optimised for tablets…

Here’s an interesting excerpt from one fellow selling a particularly nice-looking Android tablet called the APAD (yes, selling – all the rest appear to be “just around the corner”). This appears to be a tablet that was destined for the Windows CE market (i.e. toy version of Windows) and has been re-fitted with Android.

Read this frighteningly honest comment he has on his website – spelling errors are his:

This model is a new product and the firmware does not support the USB 3G or the Android market function temporarily. The firmware updating is in the process of R&D (research and development). It is planned to be finished within this month and we will provide the regular customers with the new version thereafter by sending a link for downloading to upgrade.

NOTE: Android 2.1 OS firmware on these are still in Resarch and Devlopment Stage. We are expecting firmware release almost every 10 days or so. If someone tell you thse are stable – then they are lying. I have tested these myself. They work but the Firmware need improvment, which will happen.

Note 2: People mentioning that thease have office running ( word etc ) -NOT TRUE -> you can install APK to view documents – ONLY Tablets running with WINDOWS CE will come with MS WORD EXCEL ETC.

Note 3: Running Internet Explorer (Thats Windows Specific) – NOT TRUE – > running Google Browser

Note 4: Support USB PORT FOR 3G MODULE & CAMERA – NOT TRUE -> maybe under Windows CE but not ANDORID 2.1 OS. A lot of sellers are just copying and pasting.

Note 5: Andorid Market – As you know it Not Yet SUPPORTED – Other Market to downlooad applications are installed by myself.

Even then he hasn’t stated the case strongly enough – Windows CE DOES NOT support Microsoft Word – it supports a toy subset – only Windows supports WORD. It amazes me that people can’t see this.

The 7” units can surely never be anything more than glorified phones but at 10”, there are a couple of models around the corner, including the Archos 101 which, given the apps could give Apple a run for it’s money.. BUT note I said COULD – manufacturers will rush out the hardware, dump Android on it and leave the possibilities (and responsibility) to your imagination – unlike Apple Apps where they are pretty much guaranteed to run as they were designed specifically for the one platform and only 2 hardware sets, Android, like Windows has to work on a wide range of hardware configurations. The fact that MARKETPLACE does not ship with most of these tablets says a lot about Google’s view on the currently emerging hardware.

So there you are, Apple are still on top, I’m certainly enjoying the new ability to view FLASH etc on my iPad using SPLASHTOP remote access to my PC. It’s not quite perfect YET.

Don’t you just love adverts…. just about every so-called iPad killer has a 7” screen – about the same resolution as a mini-notebook -  try reading an A4 manual on THAT! But there is at least one 10” screen floating about – the iROBOT. http://www.apads.net/

This advert shows a new “iPad killer” – another Android product. On the surface of it, it looks JUST like an iPAD but at £179.00 it has to be a winner, right?

Well, let’s take a look. According to the ad, the unit is proving to be “the most popular MID table computer available…

Look at the key phrases… “10.2” high resolution screen”, “can be used with a 3d dongle”, “Microsoft Office Suite”, “Skype”… these are all powerful claims – I’ll have one – NOW.

But just hold on a minute.. the high resolution screen turns out to be only 600px high which means many modern websites will fall off the bottom. As for the dongle – no mention of WHICH dongles – I doubt VERY MUCH if a standard UK Vodafone dongle would work, OR if Voda have ever heard of the tablet and as for the oriental manufacturer helping you with Voda or Orange…

It has “Microsoft Office suite” – right? Wrong. Firstly it only comes with 256MB of RAM – and the “suite” comprises free Android readers for Microsoft Office – some office – maybe 2010, maybe not. As for SKYPE, well I’m only aware of one Android phone that SKYPE has been released for. What you ACTUALLY get with the unit is Android, a browser, Gmail and Google MAPS -  the rest you have to download and take pot luck with! Looking on web reviews the unit appears slow and does not like PDFs. No customer reviews in Amazon.

No camera in case you were hoping for one. No mention of battery life.

The colour display is a “resistance touch screen” – funny I thought they were capacitance touch screens – that should be interesting.

But here’s the biggy – it’s roughly the same size as an iPAD – as per the photo – BUT – according to at least one advert, it’s a WOPPING 1 INCH THICK!!!

Let’s wait and see – the HP Slate looks like having similar issues – it only has 600PX height and the battery looks to last half as long as the iPAD. It also runs Windows 7 – slow to start up and not really designed for pad operations – but you never know. The GALAXY I believe has the same screen size issue… only time will tell if this changes… how anyone can consider under 1024*768 is beyond me.. Often quoted is lack of ability to multitask in the iPAD – that will come in Oct/Nov with version 4.2 software – now if Steve Jobs would JUST get over his dislike of FLASH…… that is about the only thing that will give competitors the edge – though I understand APPLE and ADOBE are back to speaking with each other.

MEANWHILE if you really want an iPAD running Windows 7 and office and are prepared for tiny icons which are difficult to handle with big fingers.. don’t wait for Microsoft and HP to get their act together – may I suggest.. the iPAD!!  Checkout SPLASHTOP REMOTE!! It costs a couple of quid and lets you run your PC from your iPAD – and we’re talking sound and video including FLASH!!! Browse the BBC website – watch flash video – all the things that WERE difficult on your iPAD are now easy. All you need is a WIFI connection, the APP and a free driver on your PC or PCs.