lol

Should we start taking bets how long it takes you to cycle through all the tablets currently available?

 

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I'm really disappointed with Android 3.x and the pace of tablet optimized apps. Honeycomb has been out since late February, but the number of apps is still disappointingly small and even quite a few of them are poor ports from iOS with fewer features or just Android 2.x apps tweaked for a larger display with poor UI. Not to mention lots of stability and performance issues.

There is speculation the developers are skipping Android 3.0 because it's only for tablets and they don't want to have to do more work for a tablet app and phone app. So are waiting for Android 4.0 which unifies the phone and tablet OS and the developers won't have to do extra work.

And on the hardware side, the Tegra 2 already feels old. It has poor video decoding performance is and already easily beaten by Qualcomm and TI OMAP processors already available. Android 3.0 was such a rush job that it was intially only optimized for Tegra 2, so that is why everyone is using it. Android 3.2 coming soon does add support for more processors (at least TI).

I kept trying different tablets, I guess foolishly thinking if I find the perfect piece of hardware it'll somehow help me overlook all the software problems. But all these tablets are essentially using the same internals, Tegra 2 and 1GB of RAM. And it's the software I end looking at the most and I just can't overlook it as much as I try to pretend I can.


Android 4.0 is coming this fall, sound like around October. The Tegra 3 quad core processor will be out around that time. The extra cores may not do much initially for CPU performance, but the GPU is suppose to be 5 times more powerful and should be much more capable of decoding HD video smoothly. Android 4.0 will also support a wider variety of processors right away, so we should see more diversity.

ASUS is rumored to have a Transformer 2 tablet coming this fall with ICS and Tegra 3. Would be really cool if it was compatible with the existing Transformer keyboard docks. Amazon has a tablet coming this fall with a TI OMAP4, being the company that did such a good job with the Kindle design, I hope their tablets are thin and light and comfortable. Motorola also rumored to have a Xoom 2 coming this year. All these expecting to come with Android 4.0.


In the meantime, I'm trying out an iPad 2. I have an iPad 1, which still runs pretty well, but sometimes suffers from it's measly 256MB of RAM and the 16GB model runs out of space pretty quick.

So far the iPad 2 with 512MB of RAM and 32GB of space gives me a bit more room, but the performance still feels mostly the same. But that is mostly because Apple did such a good job with the iPad 1, it is already very smooth and responsive, so hard to improve on that. The apps I'm using so far don't seem to need the dual core A5 processor in the iPad 2. Benchmarks showed it does improved the browser, but I have a hard time noticing any difference.

One complaint so far of the iPad 2 over the iPad 1 is the speaker. The iPad 1 was thick enough that it could be placed on the side and it sounded real good. The iPad 2 is super thin and so the speaker is on the back, same spot, but it faces more away from the user. Had this complaint with the Xoom too, for some reason a backward facing speaker, no matter how nice it is, just doesn't sound right, the sound is going away. The side mounted speakers, such as the iPad 1, just sounds better to me. Though if I put my ear directly in front of both speakers, I can tell the iPad 2 does sound better, but it's position just seems to spoil it. But I could live with it.

iPad 2 has a really solid feel, but I did prefer the feel of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 more (shame it has a crappy OS on it). And I'm kinda neutral on the 4:3 vs 16:10 ration panels. I think both have strengths. I like the 4:3 screen more for web surfing, because I like being able to rotate a page into portrait mode, hold the tablet in one hand and read like a book. And of course 16:10 is great for videos.

The main problem with the iPad 2 may be that I can't jailbreak it. Really like my jailbroken apps on the iPad 1. Going to be hard to give that up, for what so far doesn't feel much of an improvement.

For those sticking it out with the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung announced their software update is coming soon. This add TouchWiz, toggles, hubs, live panels, mini app trays, etc.

http://www.samsung.com/us/article/galaxy-tab-10-1-updates

You guys know anyone with tablet commitment issues? *looks around*
Good news. Rent-A-Center is now renting an Android Acer A500 tablet for $20 a week.
http://www6.rentacenter.com/Rent/Computers/Tablets/Acer-500.html

And you can return it anytime if something else better comes out.
Though should you decide to keep it, you'll probably be paying $20 a week for 2 years and end up spending $2000 on that $450 tablet. (just a guess, rent to own interest rates are usually pretty crazy high)

2 people on another forum stated they were able to purchase the new Toshiba Thrive from a local Best Buy and a third poster stated he was at Fry's and questioned an associate about purchasing one and he was told they had them in stock and were willing to sell him one. Just FYI.

Toshiba Thrive is a cool looking tablet. I think I might even like it more than the Galaxy Tab 10.1, assuming it's weight isn't too uncomfortable.

But I've learned my lesson. It took a while. But I'm confident I won't be happy with any tablet running Android Honeycomb on it. Way too many issues with the OS and compatibility issues with the applications. I just can't tolerate the keyboard lag, crappy Market app (doesn't rotate on a tablet?), and popular applications that frequently crash or misbehave. Along with other random quirks like wifi disconnecting and random tablet reboots.

My Android 2.2 phone is far more stable and reliable (even my hacked Nook Color is).

I'm going to wait until this fall. Hope Android 4.0 brings stability to Android tablets. If not, then there is some crazy guy on the tipb.com forums that swears he's got inside information that the iPad 3 is definitely launching in October with a high res display. Not holding my breath on that, but by the time Android 4.0 is about to launch we should know if the iPad 3 rumors are true or not.

Hope there is a new official Google experience tablet that replaces the Xoom with Android 4.0. And I sure hope it isn't another Motorola tablet. Would be nice to have an official Google tablet that gets all the updates first without fear of waiting half a year for them, like with other Android hardware. Just hope the next official Google tablet hardware doesn't suck as much.

It doesn't have a native mail client that works with ActiveSync? Weird. I don't have any issues with my Android phone and Exchange 2007. Whatever the native client HTC is using nowadays. It's not pretty but it has no problems messaging and integrates fully with the calendar.

 

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