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What's wrong with Android on a tablet?

Honestly I'm really not trying to troll just trying to offer an alternative perspective.

I know I am specifically talking about the TP, mainly because it is by far the best android tablet out there and because I'm writing on one right now, but as a temporary laptop replacement, it really does a great job and the iPad IMO can't quite do that.


And I'm sorry but safari is a bit ancient. Flash doesn't work and html5 is more efficient on android
 
lilo777 said:
For those who do want to make music, there are much better options than iPad.
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For those people using the iPad to make music, and given the music hardware and software compatible with the iPad, could you please tell us all which tablet is a 'much better option' then?

(If your point is that those making 'serious' music wouldn't use tablets at all, then you can get out, because people are talking about the merits of Android tablets vs. iOS tablets, not whether the iPad can replace a piano or a table saw or a car or something irrelevant)
 
How can you be typing on the prime? people complain becuase the iPad gets warm, but with the prime you cant even get 15 ,feet from the router workout the wifi dropping off.
 
I have to disagree with this. I own a Transformer Prime and though I do enjoy my iPad 2, the Prime is so much more useful in so many ways. First of all, having widget support is probably the biggest advantage over iOS. Instead of having to open app after app, I have the information I want on my homescreens without having to open an app.

Secondly, having usb ports, hdmi out and flash support makes Android so much more useful for me than an iPad 2. I rarely use my iPad 2 anymore because theres just no reason for me to pick it up, unless there's a specific app. I want or need that is only on iOS. Though, the Android market I actually like more and it's cheaper.
 
infinitemethod said:
First of all, having widget support is probably the biggest advantage over iOS. Instead of having to open app after app, I have the information I want on my homescreens without having to open an app.
Click to expand...

Could you explain the situation where you need multiple bits of information at the same time? I check the weather in the morning, my mail at work, and get notifications for a bunch of things otherwise, so I don't see how having widgets to relay several bits of information at once fits any use case. Thanks.
 
Carouser said:
Could you explain the situation where you need multiple bits of information at the same time? I check the weather in the morning, my mail at work, and get notifications for a bunch of things otherwise, so I don't see how having widgets to relay several bits of information at once fits any use case. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have several widgets I look at daily. One being 5 day forecast, my calendar widget, having all my power controls, i.e. wifi, BT, GPS, sync, brightness to name a few. Not having to go into actual settings or open each app. is extremely useful. Of course this is personal preference, but for me, I find Android be much more useful. You should give ICS a try, might surprise you.

iOS does work very well, but it is a glorified app. launcher OS. Having said that, iOS was built around great apps, making great for what it was intended to do.
 
turkey1 said:
How can you be typing on the prime? people complain becuase the iPad gets warm, but with the prime you cant even get 15 ,feet from the router workout the wifi dropping off.
Click to expand...

Massive generalisation. Wifi performance isn't incredible but my god is the problem blown out of proportion.
 
I won't go near anything android. As soon as I pick it up, phone or tablet, and start swiping, clicking on icons, etc. I immediately want to barf. The UX is so laggy, unrefined, ugly... The list goes on and on.

I cant imagine actually owning one of these things and experience further what headaches are in store given the nightmares experienced due to fragmentation and utter lack of diligence in the execution of marrying subpar hardware and subpar software from two different companies. Complete fail.
 
Le Buzz said:
I won't go near anything android. As soon as I pick it up, phone or tablet, and start swiping, clicking on icons, etc. I immediately want to barf. The UX is so laggy, unrefined, ugly... The list goes on and on.

I cant imagine actually owning one of these things and experience further what headaches are in store given the nightmares experienced due to fragmentation and utter lack of diligence in the execution of marrying subpar hardware and subpar software from two different companies. Complete fail.
Click to expand...

What device did you use? My Galaxy Nexus runs smoother than my fiancee's iPhone 4. I'd kill myself if I saw a wall of icons on my phone.
 
Le Buzz said:
I won't go near anything android. As soon as I pick it up, phone or tablet, and start swiping, clicking on icons, etc. I immediately want to barf. The UX is so laggy, unrefined, ugly... The list goes on and on.

I cant imagine actually owning one of these things and experience further what headaches are in store given the nightmares experienced due to fragmentation and utter lack of diligence in the execution of marrying subpar hardware and subpar software from two different companies. Complete fail.
Click to expand...

This man has never used an android product produced since 2009

And ugly?! ICS is much much much prettier than iOS!!!
 
Fragmentation is a big problem with android phones, but it's somewhat better on tablets. Pretty much any modern tablet runs Honeycomb, and many older tablets have been updated.

I think Android is a fine operating system, and to be honest the iPad app store is mainly a giant pile of mediocre replacements for paper-and-pen. Plus, Apple's "case-by-case" refund system (if you can even call it that) is extremely unfriendly towards the consumer. It's far too easy to spend $10 on an app, and then realize that some crucial feature is missing or screwed up.

I think a big problem with Android is that most of the hardware makers still haven't figured it out. They think that they can slap a mediocre screen on top of some mediocre hardware and sell it for full price. Except for Samsung, which makes good hardware but charges way. too. goddamn. much. for the Galaxy 7.7.
 
coupdetat said:
Fragmentation is a big problem with android phones, but it's somewhat better on tablets. Pretty much any modern tablet runs Honeycomb, and many older tablets have been updated.

I think Android is a fine operating system, and to be honest the iPad app store is mainly a giant pile of mediocre replacements for paper-and-pen.

I think the problem with android is that
Click to expand...

...aaahh the suspense!!!
 
Le Buzz said:
I won't go near anything android. As soon as I pick it up, phone or tablet, and start swiping, clicking on icons, etc. I immediately want to barf. The UX is so laggy, unrefined, ugly... The list goes on and on.

I cant imagine actually owning one of these things and experience further what headaches are in store given the nightmares experienced due to fragmentation and utter lack of diligence in the execution of marrying subpar hardware and subpar software from two different companies. Complete fail.
Click to expand...

Honestly, does it bother you that iOS hasn't changed at all in it's appearance for 6 years? iOS 5 copied everything from Android and Windows Phone 7. I had the first iPhone and couldn't stand the lack of multi-tasking and looking at a wall of icons.
 
nickchallis92 said:
And I'm sorry but safari is a bit ancient. Flash doesn't work and html5 is more efficient on android
Click to expand...

the latter is just very very untrue.

i am okay if you like your Transformer Prime, it's the most valid alternative to the iPad currently on the market.

but your views on HTML5 performance, aswell as your idea what iOS multitasking can and cannot do are just wrong on so many levels. you clearly have no idea what you are talking about, hence discussion with you is pretty pointless :(
 
Fliesen said:
the latter is just very very untrue.

i am okay if you like your Transformer Prime, it's the most valid alternative to the iPad currently on the market.

but your views on HTML5 performance, aswell as your idea what iOS multitasking can and cannot do are just wrong on so many levels. you clearly have no idea what you are talking about, hence discussion with you is pretty pointless :(
Click to expand...

I stand corrected on the HTML5 front, sorry.

But I know iOS can multitask (with apple's permission), but that isn't good enough for a device with a screen that big, and with the processor it has

----------

If ICS can multitask without any issues, why can't iOS?
 
infinitemethod said:
I have several widgets I look at daily. One being 5 day forecast, my calendar widget, having all my power controls, i.e. wifi, BT, GPS, sync, brightness to name a few. Not having to go into actual settings or open each app. is extremely useful. Of course this is personal preference, but for me, I find Android be much more useful. You should give ICS a try, might surprise you.
Click to expand...

I have no idea who would want to access so frequently the things you list; I'll take your word for it that there's a use case with significant merit to seeing a 5-day forecast next to WiFi settings next to brightness settings, and that this simultaneity is 'extremely useful'.
 
infinitemethod said:
What device did you use? My Galaxy Nexus runs smoother than my fiancee's iPhone 4. I'd kill myself if I saw a wall of icons on my phone.
Click to expand...

nickchallis92 said:
This man has never used an android product produced since 2009

And ugly?! ICS is much much much prettier than iOS!!!
Click to expand...

infinitemethod said:
Honestly, does it bother you that iOS hasn't changed at all in it's appearance for 6 years? iOS 5 copied everything from Android and Windows Phone 7. I had the first iPhone and couldn't stand the lack of multi-tasking and looking at a wall of icons.
Click to expand...

Foolish of me to think there was not some android fans here, probably should have chosen less incendiary language. If you like your android device, then all is good. If you have found android device that suits you, im glad. That was just my opinion.

I will however, stand by my observation that the UX is just not as well designed. Most recently, I picked up a Samsung galaxy tab and I could not even find how to turn the screen brightness up. The interface was unresponsive, meaning that when I touched an icon or a link, it would not respond to my touch. It also lagged considerably. I found this to be the norm and not the exception. I had the same issues with the kindle fire. Sure, I could spend a little more time to get to know the interface and be more patient with the touch screen, but I don't want to because I don't need to do those things with my iOS devices.

Now, I havent tested every single android device out there to find one that works, but why should I have to? With an IOS product, anyone who picks it up for the first time already knows how to use it, and it works as it should. That is good and altruistic design and execution.
 
Carouser said:
I have no idea who would want to access so frequently the things you list; I'll take your word for it that there's a use case with significant merit to seeing a 5-day forecast next to WiFi settings next to brightness settings, and that this simultaneity is 'extremely useful'.
Click to expand...

Yes, you should take my word for it. As it appears, that would be too much for someone like yourself to comprehend all at once.
 
infinitemethod said:
Yes, you should take my word for it. As it appears, that would be too much for someone like yourself to comprehend all at once.
Click to expand...

Yes? I already told you I don't understand it at all.

Like, who needs their 'power functions' like BT and WiFi all up there at once like some cut-rate Minority Report display, sliding their brightness bar around, and oh look! The weather just changed by a degree, and I got an appointment at the dental hygienist on Tuesday, whew, good thing I didn't have to open any of these apps, because I have to twiddle my WiFi again, and now the weather is back down a degree. This saves me a lot of time, and notifications wouldn't cut it. Just another day here at Stark industries.
 
Le Buzz said:
Foolish of me to think there was not some android fans here, probably should have chosen less incendiary language. If you like your android device, then all is good. If you have found android device that suits you, im glad. That was just my opinion.

I will however, stand by my observation that the UX is just not as well designed. Most recently, I picked up a Samsung galaxy tab and I could not even find how to turn the screen brightness up. The interface was unresponsive, meaning that when I touched an icon or a link, it would not respond to my touch. It also lagged considerably. I found this to be the norm and not the exception. I had the same issues with the kindle fire. Sure, I could spend a little more time to get to know the interface and be more patient with the touch screen, but I don't want to because I don't need to do those things with my iOS devices.

Now, I havent tested every single android device out there to find one that works, but why should I have to? With an IOS product, anyone who picks it up for the first time already knows how to use it, and it works as it should. That is good and altruistic design and execution.
Click to expand...

Brightness setting in ICS is at the bottom right, click it once and it pops up a slider. Probably were still on Honeycomb.
 
Currently iOS doesn't do full multi-tasking by design. The hardware is capable of it but CPU cycles are spent on a single app rather then getting spread. While true multi tasking would require CPU cycles spread to a bunch of apps, I'm wondering if that would be a good idea. You could just as easily JB the iPad and then install Insomnia and Backgrounder to get true multitasking. However it also comes down to the consumers that use the product. Are they smart enough to manage their CPU cycles and memory? My guess is that they aren't. My parents and in-laws don't understand things running in the background and have whittled their memory away by never closing apps. Even without true multi tasking, they have about 40-50 apps open although paused on their iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS or iPad which makes me think that they are incapable of managing memory or CPU cycles. Can you change them to understand apps running in the background? Maybe but right now, the iOS solution is half smart and half not smart. For those smart enough to JB, they can certainly manage their own CPU cycles and memory.

Regarding HTML5, iOS5 handles it really well. The iPad can play HTML5 videos without missing a beat which is nice. It's just that HTML5 video isn't too crazy common yet. If you browse a lot of pr0n, you will probably need Android to play flash videos as well as get pop ups. Sometimes Android won't even play Flash on some websites just due to the restrictions to the webkit browser that we all use.

Also regarding the wall of icons, I'm personally not a huge fan. iOS has always turned me off that way and for lots of reasons I like the widget desktop on Android devices since I can quickly turn on the screen on an android device, swipe maybe 4 times and get all my information in 1 go. The concept however is very tough for non-technophiles to understand and I've had a client just figure out that they had multiple desktops as well as Swype on their phone (insert head slap here). iOS on the other hand responds very naturally although very archaically. You have buttons on the screen. You push buttons to use them. They just run. On Android when you click on a widget, it doesn't always bring up the app. It may do something different. It's a pretty big difference in how the OSs were designed.

Again, going back to what I posted originally, Android Tablet interface and functionality is still very fragmented. While there are some great Android tablets such as the Galaxy Note, Droid Xyboard, and Transformer Prime, they are few and far between which are the exception to the Android tablet experience. There are still tons of apps on Android Market that don't work properly across the board, also not enough ICS tablets out there to make a difference yet. While Honeycomb is ok, it's just not integrated enough to really stand on it's own. For those reasons, Android tablets right now do little but to give Apple hardware research to integrate new hardware into iPads.
 
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