Mobile phones & tablets thread

[Jag_Warrior]

Another one bites the dust? My buddy's wife just emailed me that the HP Slate is rumored to be dead on arrival. So of the major makers, does that just leave Dell to compete with the iPad later this year with a tablet?

I'm surprised (and rather sorry) to hear about HP possibly killing the Slate. I thought they might decide to use the newly acquired Palm OS in the device (instead of Windows 7), which might have made for a very interesting tablet.

[Jag_Warrior]

Finally some good news for "my kind":

Tablets Still Can't Beat the Book

It will take you longer to read a book on an iPad or Kindle compared to the printed page, according to a recent study. Dr. Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group--a product development consultancy that is not associated with Nielsen, the metrics company--compared the reading times of 24 users on the Kindle 2, an iPad using the iBooks application, a PC monitor and good old fashioned paper. The study found that reading on an electronic tablet was up to 10.7 percent slower than reading a printed book. Despite the slower reading times, Nielsen found that users preferred reading books on a tablet device compared to the paper book. The PC monitor, meanwhile, was universally hated as a reading platform among all test subjects.

Overall, it took each user an average of 17 minutes and 20 seconds to read a story regardless of the platform and comprehension levels were virtually identical on all four reading formats.

However, Nielsen says the printed book was the clear winner in terms of speed. ( ) Users were reading 6.2 percent slower on an iPad compared to paper, and 10.7 percent slower on the Kindle 2. Nielsen did not provide any statistics on the reading time for the PC monitor.

[Mark]

Another one bites the dust? My buddy's wife just emailed me that the HP Slate is rumored to be dead on arrival. So of the major makers, does that just leave Dell to compete with the iPad later this year with a tablet?

I'm surprised (and rather sorry) to hear about HP possibly killing the Slate. I thought they might decide to use the newly acquired Palm OS in the device (instead of Windows 7), which might have made for a very interesting tablet.

Just ask J4MIE what he thinks of the Dell!

[MrJan]

I'm a guy who is rolling with an 8 year old

I read that and nearly had a coronary An unfortunate place in the sentence for the end of the line to fall

Mark and his e-mails is why the iPhone is popular, it may not be the best but it's the easiest and that's why the masses like it. I spent hours pricking about with my blackberry to get it working (gave up in the end). Eventually the thing broke anyway and, although I miss the browsing bit, I'm quite happy using my Nokia 3110c again. I'd still quite like an iPhone too but I don't text/call enough to warrant a monthly contract and the PAYG phones are silly prices.

What features does the iPhone have that the iPod touch lacks? Is it just the phoning thing or does 3G come into it? (I've heard the letters GPRS and EDGE also mentioned but that means nothing to me)

[Mark]

The iPhone can access the mobile network so can make calls and access the Internet via the mobile network. The touch can only use wifi.

[Andrewmcm]

Back at a PC and back on my high horse

I think this thread showcases exactly why people buy into the iPhone/iPad. Not because other devices are poor but because people have to deal with systems/devices which are poorly setup or badly specced. If I hadn't worked in places where the person next to me could send me an email and it was in my outlook inbox half a second later I'd find the idea that an email could get to my phone quicker than to my PC amazing.

And not everyone has a) your apparent technical proficiency and/or b) the time to be arsed to set things up properly. Apple hardware just works. There is no need to mess about with settings as the closed hardware prevents any non-standard stuff messing up software.

Say what you like about Apple's control of everything, but it serves a purpose. Their machines are reasonably idiot-proof, which is no doubt a small part of their appeal.

[Valve Bounce]

Just ask J4MIE what he thinks of the Dell!

Hi J4MIE, what do you think of the DELL?

By the way, there is an article in today's The Australian about Jailbreaking the Ipad, and the instructions are on youtube. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225889144280

ENJOY

[Daniel]

And not everyone has a) your apparent technical proficiency and/or b) the time to be arsed to set things up properly. Apple hardware just works. There is no need to mess about with settings as the closed hardware prevents any non-standard stuff messing up software.

Say what you like about Apple's control of everything, but it serves a purpose. Their machines are reasonably idiot-proof, which is no doubt a small part of their appeal.

Well perhaps I just like a machine that has an endless list of capabilities. If my contract gets extended I'm going to build myself a new PC which will mop the floor with any Mac you can put against it aside from perhaps the top of the range dual processor one..... all for about a third to half the price of what Apple will charge.

Essentially what you're saying is that you can be an idiot and own an Apple product, what I say is "Don't be an idiot, buy an xyz product, save yourself hundreds of pounds and just rtfm or have a look on the internet, the solutions are all there"

[GridGirl]

But those idiots who will happily spend money on buying an off the shelf product most probably have no idea and no desire to build their own pc. I quite happily include myself as an idiot who could learn off the net how to do it but doesn't want to as there are more interesting things that I would rather be doing. My 10 year old pc and 4 year old laptop probably are rubbish and are considered pre-historic but they work ok for my requirements. When they break I could get Ibby to fix them for me but more than likely I wont bother.

I suppose I'm a slave to consumerism because I have other hobbies to fill my time and a nice disposable income but I'm happy to be an idiot.

[Daniel]

That's not what I said at all.

I'm saying that if you can't get one of the competitors products to work, a simple search on the net will yield the results and save you hundreds of pounds.

I have hobbies to fill my time with, I just don't see the point in wasting hundreds of pounds giving money to some freaking egotistical maniac in a turtleneck rather than just doing it myself.

You seem to have this idea that I can't afford anything or that I'm too cheap to spend money on something decent. That's not the case at all. If buying an Apple product was actually going to save me tens of hours I'd get it but that's simply not the way it is.