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The HTC Flyer: Breakthrough tablet?

As nice as it maybe, it's no "iPad killer" fact is apple got a 1 year head start and everyone else is late to the game and will be perpetually 3 steps behind.

Nice efforts to one-up the iPad 2. But little do they know the iPad 3 is probably already in planning stages.
 
I do like the capabilities of the 'scribe' stylus pen. Although being out of school I don't take quite as many notes as usual, I do occasionally take them during meetings at work. They are usually accompanied my sketches, so not always something that could be typed up. Other than that I wasn't wowed by much.
 
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They always like to make it look spectacular in the demos, but when you actually use it, it's s crappy experience. It would be nice if it works as advertised, but I'm not banking on it.
 
Mac.World said:
They always like to make it look spectacular in the demos, but when you actually use it, it's s crappy experience. It would be nice if it works as advertised, but I'm not banking on it.
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+1 in my experience, many of these companies promise you the moon to get your money and fail to deliver....
 
My ideal tablet would be something like that, but a bigger screen (at least 10") and running a tablet version of windows (that's touch and stylus optimized--not just windows 7 shoehorned on to a tablet).

I'd love something that I could mark up documents easily with a stylus pen (be it highlighting things I'm reading or grading student papers etc.), and also have full MS Office Suite, USB drive support etc.

So I'm glad to see some tablets are at least heading that direction, having a stylus and seeming a bit more focused on business/work use than mainly designed for media consumption like the iPad (which is fantastic for that purpose--I just personally find it very limiting to try to do much work on with my particular needs).

I like my iPad, but it's really just an entertainment device for me and down the road I'd like to move on to a tablet I can do more of my work on, and ideally even do enough to be able to just take it on a business trip rather than needing a full laptop.
 
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It's the software, and Apple's the only one who has a strong consistent UI and a huge number of great applications.

Good luck to anybody who buys an HTC tablet.
 
I have to say that it seems to be nicer than any of the other Android tablets, and if I were to trust any manufacturer to deliver a good product it would be HTC. I would wait until the reviews come in in regards to the UI and battery life. If the pen option is appealing it seems like this would be very nice. I would be concerned that the white plastic on the back would get dirty from handling it; I think there's a reason why the white iPads come with a black plastic antenna cover.

Our company has been looking for presentation tablets and this might fit the bill. We do legal graphics/presentations and all our interactives are done in Flash. Despite the fact that I have a personal iPad I would lean towards this, assuming its hardware is beefy enough; the stuff I do usually weigh in as 50+MB Flash EXEs.
 
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dmaul1114 said:
My ideal tablet would be something like that, but a bigger screen (at least 10") and running a tablet version of windows (that's touch and stylus optimized--not just windows 7 shoehorned on to a tablet).
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The main reason most people want Windows 7 on a tablet is its existing applications, and they are all mostly terrible on a Windows tablet.

As soon as you say "Windows 7" it automatically means a heavy machine with short battery life, and lot of heat plus fan noise. I have a HP Windows 7 tablet which comes with some extra touch-optimized software but really, as soon as you want Windows 7 on your system it completely negates the point of a tablet computer. Just get a light laptop with touch screen.

The HTC flyer looks very intriguing and I hope the iPad can get some of that pen option sooner or later.

I've earlier made a prediction that we'll get threads for almost every single major tablet as they are released and looks like that probably is becoming reality. AT least the Xoom threads have pretty much been put out to pasture.
 
fertilized-egg said:
The main reason most people want Windows 7 on a tablet is its existing applications, and they are all mostly terrible on a Windows tablet.

As soon as you say "Windows 7" it automatically means a heavy machine with short battery life, and lot of heat plus fan noise. I have a HP Windows 7 tablet which comes with some extra touch-optimized software but really, as soon as you want Windows 7 on your system it completely negates the point of a tablet computer. Just get a light laptop with touch screen.
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Yep, and that's why all tablet PCs have sucked, and why I said it can't just be Windows 7 shoehorned onto a tablet.

MS is said to be working on a new Tablet OS, built from the ground up and not just tweaking windows 7. I'm hoping they get it right.

I don't need full windows. I don't care about running all PC software on it. I just want it to have Tablet versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc. that are 100% compatible with the desktop versions unlike the current office options on the iPad that wreck formatting when going a back and forth between the iPad and PC. And a USB port and file system so I can easily get files on and off the device without needing iTunes or an internet connection ec.


I have no interest in a light laptop as I'll always have a 15-17" laptop at home (no room for a desktop and just don't need one at home) as my main home computer and it's too redundant to own a 2nd smaller laptop that just gets used 10 or so times a year when traveling.

Plus the laptop form factor isn't good for things like reading, or marking up documents with a stylus etc, a tablet excels at that.

So I'm much more interested in some windows based tablet that has a stylus, runs a tablet version of MS office and so on than some clunky laptop with a touch screen. A tablet like that is a nice complement to my desktop-replacement laptop. A smaller laptop with a touch screen is just too redundant with the laptop I already have.
 
They used the word "magic". Send in the anti-marketing folks to say why using the word magic is bad.
 
dmaul1114 said:
I don't need full windows. I don't care about running all PC software on it. I just want it to have Tablet versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc. that are 100% compatible with the desktop versions
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So basically what you want isn't a Windows tablet but a tablet version of MS Office. It'll be interesting to see how the lock-in strategy based on MS' file format compatibility will work out by the time they have tablet OS ready.
 
fertilized-egg said:
So basically what you want isn't a Windows tablet but a tablet version of MS Office. It'll be interesting to see how the lock-in strategy based on MS' file format compatibility will work out by the time they have tablet OS ready.
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Exactly. I just need something I can do some basic work on while traveling to a conference etc. So things like working on a Powerpoint presentation and being able to put it on a thumbdrive to load on the PC hooked up to the projector in the conference room.

I can do neither of those on the iPad currently. And neither of those requires full windows or OSX.

It just requires adding a more robust file systems to a tablet OS, having an MS Office tablet version, and supporting USB drives. All pretty simple things.

I don't need a Tablet PC--like you said, just use a laptop or desktop to do real work. What I want is a small, light tablet that can do enough work that I can leave my laptop at home when going to a conference where I only need to do simple editing work etc.
 
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