Anyone else not impressed by tablets?

[Mr. Lennon]

You're doing it wrong then. You buy the Ebook, and either crack the DRM, or torrent a clean copy. Restrictions on books are unacceptable. It's convenient carrying several books at one time, and fitting them all in a single cargo pocket.

People still wear cargo pants/shorts?

 

[SlitheryDee]

People still wear cargo pants/shorts?

Uh oh. Another fashion trend slipped away before I noticed. Guess I'll have to rebuy all new shorts or kill myself. Is suicide in style this month? Wouldn't want to be out of date, after all.

 

[lxskllr]

People still wear cargo pants/shorts?

As often as possible. I carry a lot of stuff, and I can always use extra pockets. Besides, it makes a good sizer for my devices. If something can fit in a BDU pocket, it isn't too big.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Uh oh. Another fashion trend slipped away before I noticed. Guess I'll have to rebuy all new shorts or kill myself. Is suicide in style this month? Wouldn't want to be out of date, after all.

We're all carrying man bags, Daisy Duke jean shorts and Ugg boots.

You missed the memo...

 

[sdifox]

I don't, but I probably will eventually. I'm having a couple of issues with my Touchpad:

1. The dreaded cracks near the speakers. Only one speaker has the crack and there is no way I am sending it back to HP just to get a refurb.

2. Since 3.05, I've had battery life and network issues. I finally got around to posting on Precentral so hopefully someone can tell me the issue.

no cracks (could be because I am not looking) but I do have the battery life issue.and the occational browser crash that freezees the touchad.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

They are not machines for business as far as I am concerned.

They are glorified time wasters.

And as for reading books on them, current research shows that people have a hard time maintianing focus on books because they can quickly switch to a game or facebook. I'd rather have a dead tree in my hands in a quiet room than read on a tablet.

Laptops could become more mainstream again. Just stop putting those sub 1080p F'ing screens on them. And when 1080p screens are on them, quit bundling them with more expensive hardware that no one needs. I know I don't need an i7 or i5 for what I do. Qwuit pretending I do. I am not stupid. And the stupid people come to people like me asking for what to get in a laptop. Give me a 17" screen on a laptop with more than 1080p resolution for $600 and I will buy it tommorrow. I can't though. It doesn't exist.

 

[Rifter]

IMO they are way way overpriced. You can get a laptop for $500 that is a real computer and nowdays with a good enough IGP to play most PC games.

For tablets to do well i think they should be in the 200-300 price range. Smartphones are good enough for mobile surfing and gaming, i dont see the point in having a tablet if you have a smartphone.

 

[alent1234]

IMO they are way way overpriced. You can get a laptop for $500 that is a real computer and nowdays with a good enough IGP to play most PC games.

For tablets to do well i think they should be in the 200-300 price range. Smartphones are good enough for mobile surfing and gaming, i dont see the point in having a tablet if you have a smartphone.

apple is selling 15 million ipads per quarter. about the same as dell/hp sell computers. how is that not doing well? i see more tablets and ereaders on the train than laptops

 

[SlitheryDee]

IMO they are way way overpriced. You can get a laptop for $500 that is a real computer and nowdays with a good enough IGP to play most PC games.

For tablets to do well i think they should be in the 200-300 price range. Smartphones are good enough for mobile surfing and gaming, i dont see the point in having a tablet if you have a smartphone.

This is something that I never agreed with. When they first unveiled the original iPad, I thought it was amazing how cheap it was selling for. After all, any real tablet PC at the time was going for thousands of dollars. Of course the iPad can only do a small number of things that those more expensive slates can do, but it also improved on the form factor, being even thinner and lighter than any of them. It was also arguably faster than any slate at the time, because they were running gimped PC hardware to fit into the form factor and running a bloated desktop OS. For my uses, I saw it as comparing quite favorably to everything similar that came before it and selling for a fraction of the cost. It seemed to me that it was selling for far less than they could sell out for if they wanted to.

 

[Golgatha]

The only thing I'm not impressed with is the price of tablets. $400-500 for an entry level iPad or $300-400 for Android based tablets seems way out there to me for the functionality you get from them. The iPads that are upwards of $700-800 just seem plain ridiculous to me.

I do own and like my 3G iPad touch. It's completely portable, allows us to make Skype calls while roaming around the house, keeps the kids occupied on road trips with simple games, let's us receive home phone calls when we're away from the house (need to have WiFi available), docks easily with our Logitech sound system for music during the day, is $200 for the base model, and can run all day on a full charge. About the only thing it can't do that a tablet could do is surf the web efficiently (I don't like mobile versions of websites typically) and store a lot of movies for road trips (small screen, lack of storage space, and lack of compatibility with my video files). When I surf the web and watch movies on the go, my cheap laptop is the tool of choice.

 

[yinan]

I love my iPad. It is much more convenient as a media consumption device than a laptop. The thing I had to get over was not to think of it as a computer, because that is not its intended purpose.

 

[Rubycon]

You can get graphing calc apps. With the 2048x1536 display that should look nice. I have a few on my note and they work well. Android does need a proper signal scope app like IOS has, though.

 

[Red Storm]

As someone who remembers the specs and performance of older computers, I sure am impressed by tablets.

 

[jhansman]

To answer the OP's question, yes, I am very impressed by tablets. Am I going to shell out hundreds of dollars for overly priced, hipster toys? No. My mother-in-law has a Fire, and while I think it's cool for all it does, my hard earned $$ would be much better spent elsewhere.

 

[BoberFett]

Best post of the thread!

You seem a little angry there dude

Repetition does not the truth make.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Repetition does not the truth make.

Read a study the other day, it found that the thing that makes people feel happiest is knowing they're worth more/earn more than other people.

Knowing you die inside every time an iPad gets sold helps me too

Just saw a prediction for 66 million iPads sold this year

 

[BoberFett]

Read a study the other day, it found that the thing that makes people feel happiest is knowing they're worth more/earn more than other people.

Knowing you die inside every time an iPad gets sold helps me too

Just saw a prediction for 66 million iPads sold this year

Then I'm happier than 95% of Americans. And I'm quite happy without an iPad. What will make me even happier is when eventually - not right away but it will happen - the ubiquity of tablets and their commodity status all but eliminates Apple like it did the first time around in the PC market. So please, go buy more stock and hang onto it forever because you believe Apple is infallible. I support you.

 

[bfdd]

I enjoy my HP TouchPad, but yeah lols it is basically what I thought. A coffee table internet device. Thankfully I wasn't retarded enough to jump into the market at the premiums companies are asking for.

 

[HumblePie]

I own a massive desktop PC, as per my signature. I primarily use it for gaming and some work. I have an awesome HTPC as well (better than most people's primary/gaming computer). I had one kick ass latpop, one decent laptop, and a nice netbook. I also own a touchpad and a nook color. It's all fun for me. I use each item for different reasons.

I won't lie though. I only bought the tablets I have because I got them really cheap. The touchpad has basically become an Angry Birds machine. WebOS was just too limited. I'm waiting for ICS to finally work damn near flawlessly on the touchpad before I screw around with it though.

My nook color I've used a lot though. I enjoy reading books on it. I also play angry birds or other cheapie game apps like that on occasion on it as well.

Still, if I hadn't picked either one up for $100, I wouldn't have bought them. I can't see myself paying $800 for an ipad. Just not going to happen with the current capabilities of an ipad versus a laptop similar in price or even cheaper. Heck, my $200 netbook does more an iPad.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Then I'm happier than 95% of Americans. And I'm quite happy without an iPad. What will make me even happier is when eventually - not right away but it will happen - the ubiquity of tablets and their commodity status all but eliminates Apple like it did the first time around in the PC market. So please, go buy more stock and hang onto it forever because you believe Apple is infallible. I support you.

Really, you know the 95th percentile means you make $100K+ a year?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32212294&postcount=213

You're a HS grad, making $100/year and paying child support?

I think I just found out why you hate Apple, you can't afford Apple stuff.



I made 1/2 your salary last year today.

And you're lying about your income now.

 

[darkswordsman17]

WTF is going on in this thread?

Pliablemoose, regardless of the validity of people's dislike of Apple, you seem to have a weird habit of not discussing the actual topic in a rational manner and instead turning it into some psychoanalytical garbage. I remember when you were comparing data throttling to the Civil Rights Movement, and now everytime Apple is badmouthed you try and turn it into a social class issue and trying to make claims about happiness?

And yes, plenty of people are just as bad in their disdain for Apple, but there's more than enough legitimate complaints that I have no clue why you always try to turn it into some other issue instead of actually discussing the topic.

honestly i dont have time nor the reason to be cracking copyrighted material. Plus i do not pirate and steal shit.

nothing beats a good ole fashioned paperback book, durable, practical and convenient. what more could one ask for? I have a kindel fire and i am not a fan of ebooks.

He said buy the book and then get a DRM free version.

As for the rest, meh. Old books are cool, but I don't see the fascination with new mass produced books, especially if its 600+ pages and half the cover is just pic of the author. Personally, its the content that matters to me. And e-books can really enable useful features (interactive components, quick lookup on maps, glossary, dictionary, highlight without ruining the book, etc).

 

[justjohnny]

I've tried both and prefer the Android. The apple stuff has more polish and shine and the iOS stuff can be pretty cool, but it's expensive to upgrade. Android tablets, on the other hand, can be purchased dirt-cheap if you know where to look and have almost identical functionality. The best tablet pc is especially nice, with gesture-based controls and a slick, tabbed interface a la Chrome. It also runs flash, which is nice.

 

[BoberFett]

Really, you know the 95th percentile means you make $100K+ a year?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=32212294&postcount=213

You're a HS grad, making $100/year and paying child support?

I think I just found out why you hate Apple, you can't afford Apple stuff.



I made 1/2 your salary last year today.

And you're lying about your income now.

Yep, I took advantage of being laid off. Funemployment they're calling it. I had a lot of money saved up, plus severance and unemployment I took a nice long almost two year vacation. Now I'm back at work making more than I did at my last job.

But believe whatever you want if it helps you sleep better at night little man.

And sure you make that kind of money. Are you talking paper gains? How much of that stock you can't stop talking about did you unload to realize those gains?

 

[Ichinisan]

I've tried both and prefer the Android. The apple stuff has more polish and shine and the iOS stuff can be pretty cool, but it's expensive to upgrade. Android tablets, on the other hand, can be purchased dirt-cheap if you know where to look and have almost identical functionality. The best tablet pc is especially nice, with gesture-based controls and a slick, tabbed interface a la Chrome. It also runs flash, which is nice.

A 2-year-old Android tablet isn't worth much $$$. A 2-year-old Apple iPad is still worth a LOT of $$$.

 

[WelshBloke]

Read a study the other day, it found that the thing that makes people feel happiest is knowing they're worth more/earn more than other people.

Knowing you die inside every time an iPad gets sold helps me too

Just saw a prediction for 66 million iPads sold this year

I read a study that said that deeply insecure people keep talking about their financial worth in public.