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When to expect an IPAD alternative?

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JACKDRUID said:
you are not making sense... you run 1024x600 on your 26 inch monitor?

i use vs on 1024x600 ONLY in emergency, not at work nor at home...

as a developer, it is a must to have emergency access to development tool at all times (even on vacation).
Click to expand...

No, he's saying that because he got used to his big monitor at work, he wasn't able to use the tiny screen on the Dell Mini.

I had a similar thing happen to me several years back. Going from a 19" CRT (normally running at 1280x960) down to a tiny 12" 1024x768 laptop was unbearable.

Anyway, speaking to the subject at hand, I don't think you'll find an iPad competitor that is quite as good as the iPad anytime soon, if ever. The problem is, what does the iPad do? I finally got to use one today and while it was very slick and fast, it really is just like using a large smartphone. Web pages are more comfortable thanks to the big screen, but speed is pretty much equivalent to any premium 1 GHz phone and it can't really do anything that a phone can't.

I believe that while the iPad is a very cool and interesting product, it isn't useful at all. It is popular because it is a toy and because Apple makes it. iPad competitors will be thinking too much about how to make a device that is useful, and they'll fail because smartphone-based tablets aren't useful. And they'll be at an inherent disadvantage because they aren't Apple so people won't have this irrational desire for every product they release.
 
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AstroManLuca said:
No, he's saying that because he got used to his big monitor at work, he wasn't able to use the tiny screen on the Dell Mini.

I had a similar thing happen to me several years back. Going from a 19" CRT (normally running at 1280x960) down to a tiny 12" 1024x768 laptop was unbearable.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was saying.

And I am pretty sure my company would never expect me to have access to a dev environment on vacation 🙂
 
AstroManLuca said:
No, he's saying that because he got used to his big monitor at work, he wasn't able to use the tiny screen on the Dell Mini.

I had a similar thing happen to me several years back. Going from a 19" CRT (normally running at 1280x960) down to a tiny 12" 1024x768 laptop was unbearable.

Anyway, speaking to the subject at hand, I don't think you'll find an iPad competitor that is quite as good as the iPad anytime soon, if ever. The problem is, what does the iPad do? I finally got to use one today and while it was very slick and fast, it really is just like using a large smartphone. Web pages are more comfortable thanks to the big screen, but speed is pretty much equivalent to any premium 1 GHz phone and it can't really do anything that a phone can't.

I believe that while the iPad is a very cool and interesting product, it isn't useful at all. It is popular because it is a toy and because Apple makes it. iPad competitors will be thinking too much about how to make a device that is useful, and they'll fail because smartphone-based tablets aren't useful. And they'll be at an inherent disadvantage because they aren't Apple so people won't have this irrational desire for every product they release.
Click to expand...

well, a tiny screen is a godsend in case of an emergency bug fix...

I think as soon as (if) they enable flash, iPad would be the perfect internet appliance for home kitchen, sofa, ebook/pdf reading, etc

however, its not really a netbook tablet competitor though... too many restriction due to its limited OS capability.
 
I really hope someone comes out with a viable iPad alternative soon. I got a chance to play with one in Best Buy and I like the idea of a slate/tablet system. Apple's definitely got something. But, it's lack of Flash support and expandable storage really kills it for me.

So far it's too competitors are the JooJoo (formally crunch pad) and the Archos 9. Both extremely underwhelming products. HP's Slate is DOA and the MS Courier never made it off the drawing board.

Here's my wishlist for a proper iPad alternative.
-Absolutely no Atom or Windows 7. These are not meant for this sort of application. Don't try to shoehorn a netbook into a slate. That's not why people want tablets.
-It should run at least an ARM Cortex A8 at 1ghz with 256mb to 512mb of RAM to match the iPad's performance and battery life
-Expandable storage via SD slot and/or USB port.
-Support for Adobe Flash
-Printing support through wifi.
-Android or Windows Phone 7 as an OS. I think you'll get more dev support for these than Linux or WebOS based alternatives.
-Same res screen/screen size as the iPad. Works well for this format.
-Proper web browser similar to mobile Safari. Don't shoehorn mobile apps into this thing.
 
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