Coffee Talk: They Seem to be All The Rage These Days
Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Cofffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.
In case your home lost all access to the internet this week and your dog trashed your smart phone (and the sudden loss of communication put you into a hermit-like depression) , Apple unveiled their brand spankin’ new iPad this week. The internets have been in an uproar about it and its’ almost guaranteed you’ve heard mention of it in your local hang-outs. Comments have run the gamut from calling it the messiah of media consumption and advertising to nothing more than a big old iPod Touch (because it clearly can’t make phone calls, but that’s not the point).
Regardless of whether Mr. Jobs’ newest creation will revolutionize portable computing, the iPad is not the first of its kind. There have been tablet PC releases in the past, but none of which caught on. However, Apple’s new song and dance has rekindled the flames of corporate rivalry and will be accompanied by some competition. Alright, a lot of competition.
With not only the the surge of netbooks on the market but ones that can handle some serious gaming, is there really a place for the tablet device? More on that after the break.
The ExoPC Slate: it runs on Windows 7 and is set for release in March. Neato!
Looking at some advantages of the tablet, it’s extremely portable for starters. Able to slip in and out of your briefcase, messenger bag or even your purse is always a plus. The tablet is the perfect device for those who want the ultimate portable and lightweight computing solution. However, this does come at the price of somewhat less power in usually the inability to run multiple apps or programs at once.
Tablet’s normally come with 3G internet capability, which is great for those who just want to surf the web (just avoid Flash heavy sites on the iPad) while on the train, on the subway or waiting for their meal at a restaurant. While 3G is considerably slower (let’s just say I wouldn’t dare try playing Eliminate Pro on 3G) than WiFi, it’s fine for tasks like browsing your RSS feed or writing emails.
Alienware’s M11x netbook, set for a potential February release
With several manufacturers ranging from Asus to Dell releasing netbooks monthly that are continually more powerful than their predecessors (not to mention making them dirt cheap), what’s the need for a tablet device? Let’s take Alienware’s recently announced M11x, a netbook that can play some of today’s most GPU hungry games and display them at playable framerates. At $899, you’ll paying a bit more than what these tablets will cost on average, but will be getting a vastly more powerful (albeit heavier) machine. While these tablets will be able to play games and even offer multiplayer over WiFi (the iPhone and other smart phones already do), what’s the point of playing iPhone games when you can continue your adventures inAzeroth on the go?
All things considered, tablets seem to be a good solution for those who either have yet to get their mitts on a netbook or simply want to be connected everywhere they go (netbooks can kind of do this too, but it’ll cost you). Perhaps intense gaming and multitasking aren’t the voids that the tablet is trying to fill, but when today’s netbooks are getting closer to performing both of these tasks with no problem while remaining lightweight, one can’t help but question it.
Are you guys and gals already planning to get in line when the iPad launches? Perhaps you plan on sticking to your netbook or upgrading to one of these gaming capable machines. Do you think the tablet will squeeze just fine between the smartphone and netbook? Either way, tell us in the comments!
There was a post on Gizmodo a few days back about iPad dealbreakers which I thought were pretty interesting.
- No Flash support
- No Camera
- No Multitasking capability
- You need adapters for everything including USB connectivity
- 4:3 screen
- Won’t work on T-Mobile 3G
Are some of the highlights.
I have to admit I was pretty impressed with the device itself and I imagine browsing the web on it is probably a very cool experience, but some of those items on the list are pretty bad.
iPAD = DO NOT WANT.
@Chris: all good points, but I’m more concerned with what it will do that your increasingly not-so-average can’t.
@Eric: elaborate, please? Haha.
I will be waiting in line for my iPad day and date! Because if we have learned one thing from Apple; it is that they are great at deciding what would work best for the consumer and cutting away the fat. I remember when all you naysayers said the same things about the iPhone, now the iPhone has taken its place as the phone to own, and has conquered the smart phone market and most of us could not imagine life without it. For some of the points made earlier
-No Flash Support- Flash is EXTREMELY BUGGY and causes quite a bit of instability in browsers and is a resource hog. Steve said this many times during the keynote that the device “just works” and letting Flash into the sandbox would make it less stable of a machine besides with HTML 5 around the corner, Flash will soon be an after thought. Apple is basically forcing people towards this open standard and away from Adobe because they can and why this might necessarily be far or the right thing they can do it. I don’t want to even imagine how many web designers had to redo the site because their iPhone toting CEO couldn’t see it.
-No Camera- Why does every device have to have a camera in it? Sorry I really don’t need another crappy camera in a device, thank you. Not only did they do this to save on costs which if you think about it a sub $500 Mac computer is almost unheard of. But have you thought of the vertical markets ie:Government and Schools where a camera would actually make the device not allowed in the establishment. I think Steve hit this price point because he wants this in the hands of the children and government and who needs another camera anyway?
-No Multitasking Capability- This one has been on the Apple back burner for years for Iphone os and I think it will happen and soon.
-You need adapters for everything- Well because if this thing had USB it would need drivers and drivers lead to instability. Once again Apple wants it to “Just work” I can’t tell you how many times a wonky driver has taken down my entire pc.
-4:3 Screen- Books are not long rectangles, they are about 4:3 not too mention the price for the widescreen LCD would have made their price point unattainable. I think this device is first, Apples entry into the E-reader market and second a media tablet.
-Won’t work with NAME CARRIER HERE- There will be unlocked iPads not only that all you need is a mobile wifi and your good. Also did you see there was not contract needed and it was “pay as you go” Apple bent some elbows to get this deal, no contract is unheard of but the success of the Iphone has gave them so serious clout and AT&T would be lost without them.
I think in a years time when iPad 2.0 comes out we will all wonder what a world was like without them.
Dan – I can tell that you’re an Apple die hard and I don’t want to start any type of flame war but I think a lot of your points are 1 sided. A lot of people (myself included) would argue the following:
Whether or not you care for Flash, it is a fact that it constitutes a huge amount of content on the internet. Content you can’t use on your iPad.
Your hatred for cameras confuses me.
How many people use their camera on their iphone? How many mobile uploads do you see going up on facebook? Youtube? With the wifi and 3g connectivity of the iPad you can’t even video conference with it? For a device you’re supposed to take with you everywhere…its pretty poor. A Camera in this day and age should be a no brainer.
If your argument about USB connectivity is true then why sell a USB adapter for it? Maybe I just want to hook up a thumb drive so I can have more than 16gigs of storage for my media etc.
4:3 screen – The ipad is just as much a multimedia device as anything else. Can you read a book on a 16:9 screen? Absolutely. Simply crop the side or the bottom and add touch controls similar to a Nook. You don’t even get hdmi out even though you can buy HD movies through itunes.
As a consumer – I am not free to choose my 3g carrier. That was my only point.
You have high hopes for it – and it will probably be successful – but its far from perfect.
@Dan: You do raise a good point with the upcoming HTML 5 and how it’s probably going to change the whole web design game and I agree that Flash might not be such a big deal in the face of it. However, let’s just hope HTML 5 doesn’t take very long to catch on as it’s gonna be an issue for the iPad until that time comes.
Moving away from the iPad, what do you guys think of other tablet devices and where the tablet fits in, generally speaking?
I think I like the idea of a tablet device more than I like the device itself. I think the original post said it kind of fits between a web enabled phone and a laptop computer/netbook. Does that space really warrant a whole new device in your life?
I think its kind of overkill to own all 3.
They’re not really small enough to be convenient and they’re not really powerful enough to do everything I’d want them to. Input interface is my biggest problem with it – a virtual keyboard is kind of a turnoff.
I think there is a market out there for something like the iPad and I totally dig it from an aesthetic point of view, but I don’t know if it would make me question how I lived without it. Then again I own a free phone with cricket service so I’m not exactly what you’d call plugged in.
I’ve been using a Thinkpad tablet for a few years now (as well as a Wacom tablet on my desktop) and I love it. There’s something wonderful about having a device the size of a magazine that works like a digital journal. It’s changed the way I work, especially for graphics work. That said: the iPad seems like a step backwards from the tablet computers that have been around for years. it’s not pressure sensitive and it’s built for fingertips instead of pens. Which is fine for a casual entertainment device (and Apple is positioning it as such), but I’ve been dreaming of having the OSX experience on a tablet for years. I’m really disappointed that we got a huge iPod touch instead of a true tablet.
HEY BOYS! I want an iPad simply so I can pretend it’s a prop-sized iPhone and make ridiculous fake phonecalls… who wants to help make this happen?
@ Bianca We should do a charity event with the incentive that we’ll make a hilarious video out of the gift. I’m down!