right, because owning anything without an apple makes me one of "them." i consume, therefore i am...
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Asus Transformer Prime -- Need Some Help Here
- Thread starter palpatine
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right, because owning anything without an apple makes me one of "them." i consume, therefore i am...
You have experienced the fundamental problem with all things Android. The hardware makers don't own the OS. They can re-skin it, add their own apps, themes, etc, but underneath everything its an OS written for general-purpose use on a variety of hardware platforms. That means it must cater to the least common denominator as well as the high-end devices like the Prime. As a result, you get subpar performance out of all those superior hardware components.
Most of the reviews of the Prime reflect your experiences. Those 4 cores aren't being tapped by the software, the GUI has been customized but as a result it shows some lag in responsiveness as it still must go through basic Android OS handlers, etc.
This is why the iPad/iPhone still draws such a huge crowd. They do NOT have the best specs by a longshot when compared to bigger screens, faster processors, etc of their Android competition. But the OS and the hardware are made/designed by the same company so one is designed to exploit the other to the fullest. This is the Apple experience. And for this, we pay the Apple tax and live with 'inferior' components. Because the software is at least, if not more, important than the hardware.
agreed. but, i think android is doing a lot better. i finally feel like it is worth looking at. hardware or software, nothing out there is as impressively put together as apple's products.
still, no matter how great apple is, design decisions made mean paths not taken, and i think a lot of people will continue to explore those areas. it's good to see the competition heating up a little.
still, no matter how great apple is, design decisions made mean paths not taken, and i think a lot of people will continue to explore those areas. it's good to see the competition heating up a little.
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Well over 25million people own iPads at this point. Nice people. Mean people. Happy people. Racist people. Idiots. Rhode Scholars. Sex offenders. Firefighters. Paramedics. Murderers. Morally ambiguous pansexuals. Your choice in computer device, whatever it is, does not make you special and does not mean anything either which way.
Totally agree competition is a good thing and Android is getting better all the time (I own a iPhone 4S and Galaxy Nexus) BUT it still doesn't have the same 'feel' as iOS all the Android Apps in my opinion are all over the place design wise and never fit in with the OS itself.
iOS apps are much slicker and you can see a lot more effort is made to make them stand out due however there are some slick Android apps out there just not the abundance you get with iOS.
But I digress.... I am sure you'll get the bluetooth issue fixed as Asus seem on the ball for updates (ICS rolling out internationally now) so hopefully it is only a matter of time before it starts working.
thanks. i am actually pretty pleased with the app experience so far. ios apps are great, of course, and tend to have more polish. but, these are quite solid, and in some cases more functional (evernote).
the bluetooth thing is probably not going to get fixed soon. i have a keyboard on the way that ought to play well with it. i have been meaning to get another bluetooth keyboard for a while anyhow.
at the moment, my main concern is cases. yeah. stupid, i know. but, the asus version of a smart cover is widely considered to be crap, because it damages the device. we've heard similar complaints on these forums about the apple cover (i never had any problems), but this is way beyond anything i ever heard there. there seems to be no easy way to cover up the back or the front, so i am a little flummoxed thinking about what i should do.
i guess you never miss something (accessories) until they are gone
I'll admit, I'm an IT geek, I love hardware.
I'm impressed by the Prime, I've played with one, and It's definitely the top of the heap in Android tablet devices.
That said, I don't see it getting traction for just the reasons you've described. There's little to no application infrastructure, much less apps that leverage the devices best qualities.
And @ $499 I'm in low end iPad territory, where there's countless accessories and an application infrastructure that's mind boggling. I wanted to like the Prime. I held it in my hands, played with it, and contemplated spending the $ just to have it as a conversation piece @ work (I'm IT Lead for a major media company) but in the end I just couldn't do it for mainly the reasons you gave.
Thanks for sharing and posting here. I sold my iPad and have been curious about the Prime as well. I am holding off to hear what the iPad 3 has to offer before making my next purchase decision. But I'm sure many of us are in a similar boat and it's nice to see an apple person post their opinions on going android. I feel like it would give me a better opinion than someone that's been android 100%.
thanks. i hope it helps. looking forward to the ipad announcement. my guess is that it will be so good none of us can pass it up