11/3/13 5:06 PM

i've owned 3 ipads and 2 androids.

for a techie that likes to be in control, ipads are brutal. everything is either dumbed-down excessively or locked down to work the apple-way -- the net result is that it was infurating for me.

after selling my ipads i've settled on androids. while still not perfect, they give me more control over my user-experience and the competition amongst different manufacturers has seen the various offerings completely outstrip the latest ipad for value.

but for me the android/ios operating systems are their biggest impediments to being *really* useful devices. sure they're great for reading books/magazines, surfing the web, and email. but i'd say 20% of the time i find myself wishing i could just use an app that i have available on my normal laptop. sure there are apps that can approach the capability of what i can do on my laptop, but they're invariably some weird derivation of what i really want that doesnt quite do what i'm accustomed to. i definitely use my android, but i'm always thinking it could do so much more...

but last night i swung into the MSFT store in the mall to kill some time, checked out the latest windows-8 tablets...the surface-pro from MSFT and something else from lenovo. bottom-line: i think with windows-8 on the tabled, microsoft has figured it out. these things are cost-competitive w/ the latest ipads/androids, but windows-8 gives you *everything* you have on your laptop (all of the same apps that you normally use will install/run just fine on these devices) but it's also a tablet w/ a nice touch-screen and stylus. performance seemed to be snappier than even my quad-core asus android -- i was amazed.

for me MSFT has shown the way with windows-8, you dont have to give up *anything* from the OS when you want a tablet form-factor and ios/android will be relegated to phones (at least for me). it'll be interesting to see how good the tablet flavour of ubuntu ends up if/when the ever release it. if that day never comes, i can live with windows-8 on a tablet just fine.

11/3/13 5:11 PM

"MSFT store in the mall to kill some time"

You manage to kill any Somalians while you where at it? ;)

Last edited by Sparky on 11/3/13 6:29 PM; edited 1 time in total

11/3/13 6:25 PM

...will check that out, too!

11/3/13 7:44 PM

Convergence between a laptop and tablet is what the surfacE pro 2 is supposed to represent. There is still a compromise between weight, power and apps though. Glad it hits the sweet spot for you.

For me, I can dream of a MacBook air whose screen when detached becomes an iPad.

11/3/13 7:56 PM

I like the iPad because it is simple.

The way I see it, it works and does what I need it to do. In fact I do a great deal of schoolwork on mine. I even take it into the treestand with me.
I find Apple products to be stable, long living electronics. What you call customization I see as unneeded complications. In fact 90% of the tools built in to the Office line never get used. Pages more than meets my needs and most likely fills the need for most people.

I have a 4, my pop just picked up the iPad air, yep it works fine too.

11/3/13 8:30 PM

"I even take it into the treestand with me."

pretty nerdy, but I think I like it. ;)

11/3/13 10:15 PM

quote:

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my pop just picked up the iPad air,

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11/3/13 11:27 PM

<i>vive la différence!</i>

iphones used to be rock-solid and androids used to be crash-monsters.

that was 2-3 years ago.

my wife has had a 4, 4s, and 5...and they've gotten progressively less stable...conversely my androids have gotten much more stable. especially compared to her 5.

heck, i think they both suck...i still jones for my razr flip-phone and long for the days when MS-Word fit on a single 1.44mb floppy!

Last edited by walter on 11/4/13 8:09 AM; edited 1 time in total

11/4/13 5:07 AM

I have a new 5S.

64 bit processing is a leap. I have had no crashes or dumps at all.

I used a 4 with no issues but wanted the advanced BT support for heart rate monitor support etc. and the better camera.

The print reader to unlock is flawless and a HUGE game changer. It, in itself is a reason to upgrade.

I use my iPad in the treestand to do school work. I use pages all the time.

11/4/13 9:10 AM

I use 3 different Win 7 machines, a desktop and 2 laptops. About the only app's that I run on those machines are either my Ace Money checkbook, or some specific database and CAD programs for work I really have no need to try to run on a 7" tablet or iPhone (I can move the work laptop around, that's why I have it). I can access pretty much every doc file needed via Google Drive on any device as well.

That said I recently purchased an iPad Mini 1. They went on sale at MicroCenter for $279, though I paid $239 for mine. A Nexus 7, which is the only other Android model I would consider, was $229, so a no-brainer.

The Mini replaced a 2 year old Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus that I paid $329 for. It was a top-of-the-line Android device when I got it, but sadly Samsung doesn't think so and after updating to Ice Cream Sandwich, they've pretty much pulled the plug on an otherwise very good device. I guess they just have too many models out there to support legacy, which is too bad. Recently, my Tab had Google Maps crash the tablet every time it launched the keyboard to do a search. A 3 minute wait while Maps figured out it had crashed. Then a re-boot. Then dump the extra keyboard that replaced the stock and god-awful Samsung version and still Maps is NFG. So I back up in Kies - the Samsung PC based software for such purposes and which is the absolutely worst piece of crap software I have ever installed on a PC in nearly 20 years. I back up, set the tab to factory and the restore doesn't work. So I re-install 20 something apps. Then Chrome can't find the server so no sync of the bookmarks, dump Chrome, re-insall but zip, no connections. Then Over-Drive, the free library software won't install.

I then went and purchased the iPad. It's fully functional 30 minutes later, with apps ported from my iPhone, with none of the crap about backup/restore that Samsung can't figure out. As with most of Apple, it just works. All my Google apps - Maps, Chrome, Contacts, Drive work fine. The stock iOS keypad is a joy to type on. It's this kind of stuff that is where Apple shines, the apps work and work very well. No theatrics, just quality.

Never going back to Android and after 15 years of dealing with Win 95, ME and assorted bug fixes sold as new OS's, before XP and Win 7 finally got stable, THERE IS NO WAY I'M GETTING a Microsoft hardware product !.

11/4/13 11:37 AM

Piss on Microsoft.

11/4/13 12:11 PM

"Piss on Microsoft."


Nice and simple.. LOL

11/4/13 12:35 PM

Well, I don't really want to enter this full-on pissing contest as a contestant :-). So I'll just make a couple of observations.

1. I baby-ducked into CP/M rather than Mac because at the time (it was 1984 and I was in grad school) Macs were seriously limited in terms of memory. They were incapable of doing more than a 10-page paper and they could not do footnotes. My CP/M-based word processor could.

2. Since then, I have done a lot with lots of different kinds of computers. I resisted going to DOS, and then going to Windows, and I'm not all that crazy about Win8, but I've learned to live with it.

3. I *have* found my Windows machines to be very stable over time, particularly once MS switched to using the NT kernel for everything. I have used Macs, and they're OK, but a little pricey, and they don't really seem to do anything significantly better than Wintel boxes. Nothing really any worse, either, they're just not worth the extra $.

4. I'm not a tablet fan, so I can't enter into that particular debate at all--I like my Kindle Paperwhite for reading and not getting distracted.

5. I do think that much of the like/dislike that goes on is religiously based rather than fact-based, and that this is true of both sides.

11/4/13 12:45 PM

Ubuntu Akbar!!!

11/4/13 1:21 PM

I will say that especially since I worked with AIX, a few other UNIX NOS and a lot of early NT... NOS and OS...

Not to mention massive DOS ANSI environment stuffing and DOS Batch coding even before that...

I liked just using a PC at home and not fiddling too much, but not at Apples's price point. So I settle into Windows and mainly since XP have been satisfied.

I can pretty much fix about every OS issue, but it really is a question if my lazy ass want's to. ;)


Started on Apple II, CPM, right? Then MAC, and soon after PC challenges/travels started.

11/4/13 3:31 PM

I'm a bit of an Apple fan but I hope Microsoft does well because Apple is in its corporate complacency stage. The iPhone are mature. The iPads are mature. The MacBooks are mature. You will see nothing groundbreaking only incrementally faster, slimmer models.

The first iPhone was a technology disruptor. Only Google was able to respond. Blackberry is nearly dead - there was nothing they could have conceivably done. Nokia is now owned by Microsoft I believe.

So we need competition to give Apple a kick up the backside. Android is providing competition on the phone/tablet side.

After taking a nearly billion dollar write down on the first generation of Surface Pro machines, the 2nd generation came out less than one year later and is better but Microsoft needs to keep on pushing hard. The 3rd generation needs to come out in 2014.

Sandiway

11/4/13 4:36 PM

I do hope the Surface tablets mature and do well. The concept of being able to run whatever software you have on the laptop/desktop in a tablet format is - to me, very useful, especially in my work.

There are limits to the size of the apps, and maybe the software will develop to be tablet capable, with some feature set limitations.

Right now the Surface prices put it out of range for what I'd want to pay ($350 for the most basic) for the function. That's not much less then a cheap laptop with a whole lot more memory and storage capacity.

11/4/13 5:16 PM

Well I have an iPad and like it for simple stuff like email, internet, calendar, photos, etc.

For when I need to do actual computing work on a portable device, I have a Dell laptop that weighs 3 lbs and is less than an inch thick, is really no harder to carry around then a tablet, and has a 13" screen, a real keyboard, and the same hardware and software capability as my office desktop. In fact, I run my office desktop remotely from the laptop. If I need to create, view or annotate a complex document, I am not sure why I would want a tablet instead of this.

11/4/13 5:23 PM

The only thing for which I like a tablet is reading (hence my fondness for the Paperwhite). Like Dan, I have a tiny laptop that's not much more size-wise than a tablet, and the keyboard makes it much more useful for writing (and as I'm doing now, I can plug it into screen & keyboard, etc when I get home).

The Paperwhite (and similar devices) are very nice book replacements, and while I read lots of places, the place I read most is in bed, and it's a lot easier reading from my Kindle than from, say, a full-sized paper volume of Infinite Jest .

11/4/13 9:14 PM

I'm so glad competition had produced 3 viable OS, which will make both Walter and Erik happy! :D

My taste in portable devices are more like that of Erik's. I actually like many of the iPhone/Android specific functions. (I lost count of the number of times I'm tempted of slide my thumbs on my laptop screen to expand the screem!) I like the simplicity of it!

If and when I need something to actually do work, I prefer a laptop like device, top priority being a touch type keyboard! (followed closely by a large screen 13" and up, larger the better, checked and balanced by portability). As such, I don't even own a tablet, because I find I don't spend much time in that particular nitch...

Even if the tablet has a full feature OS, it still wouldn't appeal to me, if only due to the lack of a kayboard!

11/5/13 12:26 PM

April wrote:

"Even if the tablet has a full feature OS, it still wouldn't appeal to me, if only due to the lack of a kayboard!"

After a few years of frustration with the keyboard(s) on a Samsung tablet, I was very surprised at how functional the iPad Mini keyboard is. There is a really fine art to the ergonomics of such things and I think Apple executed the keyboard much better then Samsung and the assorted free app keyboards I tried. Chicklet size, spacing between, response and screen press accuracy are all super important. My wife's B&N Nook(s) also have pretty good on-screen keyboard and I find myself typing about as fast on the Mini as on a keyboard, but then I'm a 2 finger typist anyway.

11/5/13 1:12 PM

quote:

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but then I'm a 2 finger typist anyway

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11/5/13 2:29 PM

quote:

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There's a difference between typing and putting thoughts into words.

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11/5/13 2:58 PM

Awhile ago I was at a conference in DC, and one of the presentations was "using your iPad in hearings."

I had the task of introducing the speakers at a different session, and they were determined to run the Powerpoint from an iPad. It didn't work and the session was delayed about 10 minutes while the hotel techs got everything working. I started my intro "This is NOT the session on how to use your iPad in hearings."

I admittedly am not awful tech savvy but it seems you need to jump through a lot of hoops to get tablets to act like notebooks, when there are plenty of small, good notebooks.

Admittedly sometimes Powerpoints don't work with notebooks as well.

11/6/13 7:38 PM

Apple Keynote works flawlessly on my iPad. The cable issue is the only hurdle I have seen but with HDMI now being supported on most monitors and the fact that many current TVs supporting resolutions for computer use the idea of a dedicated monitor is quickly going away.