Google's Nexus Tablet To Be Unveiled Next Week 198
zacharye writes "Google chairman Eric Schmidt revealed in December that the company was working on its first own-brand tablet, and the 'Nexus 7' slate will finally be unveiled next week during the Google I/O developer conference, according to multiple reports. The latest reaffirmation comes from DigiTimes, which has reported a number of details surrounding Google's upcoming tablet that will seemingly prove accurate."
7-inch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Smack in the middle of the market that currently B&N and Amazon hold. Seriously, 7" is e-book territory. They should have made an actual tablet. 8" or greater.
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You're expecting far too much from the product people at GOOG.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Interesting)
You're expecting far too much from the product people at GOOG.
Nick Wingfield, from NY Times, wrote, "With its new tablet, Microsoft will effectively be competing directly with its biggest customers. When asked whether Surface would damage those ties, Steven Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft’s Windows division, gently pushed a reporter in the direction of a stand of Surface tablets and said, "Go learn something.'"
Google's customers are not B&N and Amazon. It is in Google's interest to have many Android vendors, not just a few large ones, and their reference Nexus designs are intended to kickstart competition in the tablet world in much the same way as they have for mobile phones.
If you want to see the real competitive 7" tablet market, search for '7" Allwinner Android'. Go learn something.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Here is what I learned by Googling that seem to be key differentiators of the 7" Allwinner.
3. My A10 based tablet did not come with market, how can I install Market?
If you are using Gingerbread (Android version 2.3.X) use Tasselhoff's Script. it can be found here
2.3.x Topnotch Tablets A10 scripts download Page
If you are using Ice Cream Sandwich (Android version 4.0.3) use Lordsbm's script. it can be found here
Lordsbm's script for all allwinner A10 tablets
If you are using Ice Cream Sandwich for Android version 4.0.3 you might need to use a 4.0.3 variant to get market. http://www.sappasit.go.th/android/ner_ics4.0.3.zip [sappasit.go.th]
(Before flashing you might want to read Question 10 below for script customizations), Onda owners have provided positive feedback thus far for this script.
If you are using 4.0.3 plus and the newtech25 script does not work. The final options is the
XxLorxX Cleaned ICS Script
For most tablets newtech25 seems fine. The Cleaned ICS script should only be used if the above fails. Novo 7A owners have provided positive feedback for this script.
4. My A10 based tablet did not come with Google Maps/other google apps? Can I install it?
If you are using Gingerbread (Android version 2.3.X) use the Automod Script. it can be found here
2.3.x Topnotch Tablets A10 scripts download Page. Beware to _not_ use the build.prop from that script as it's compatability may not be good for all tablets. In that package you will find all the google apps in the apks subdirectory. copy them either into your tablets memory or on an sd card and install them.
If you are using Ice Cream Sandwich (http://www.sappasit.go.th/android/ne...r_ics4.0.3.zip
(Before flashing you might want to read Question 10 below for script customizations)
How is this competitive?
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Informative)
You are probably getting those hits from the few models whose manufacturer's were not preloading Google Play / Market due to initial issues. Currently, almost all good Allwinner A10 tablets have Google Play working and actually perform much better than Samsung Galaxy Tab etc.
I have got 5-6 of these A10 tabs from different manufacturers (for a retail project) and all except one are really good and cost below USD 100. Where they score above the branded ones are that all have a fully functional host USB unlike Samsung Nexus etc which advertise USB OTD but its really iffy. So you can connect a variety of peripherals and also run native ubuntu 12.04 nowdays. (earlier it was only the chrooted linux - see xda for details)
Offcourse, they don't have brand recognition and in fact some have such funny names embossed on them that you would feel embarrassed taking them out in front of anyone ! Allwinner A10 has done an excellent job in getting usable tablets for the low end of the market. The earlier ones like rockchip/via etc were completely unusable.
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Exactly.
Repeat after me.
Choice is bad.
March in step.
Follow the man in front.
Use what he uses.
Wear what he wears.
Buy Apple Products
Conform.
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To me it demonstrates that Google should be able to comfortably producing something for under $200 with a better screen and support and still make a lot of money from it. Even if they don't make a
Re:7-inch? (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, the company that's supposed to be producing the Nexus 7 already has a very nice line of larger tablets available. [wikipedia.org]
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Nook and kindle exist due to their ecosystem and true brand recognition outside of the 'geek' community. I don't know if what Google has would unseat either of them.
8" would just be the start, for people ( like me ) that feel 7 is too small, but don't want a 9.x to lug around ( unless its color e-ink, then id love 9.x ), but could do like Samsung and have many choices, but still not starting out in the e-book market.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, i forgot to mention it above, but i suspect Google is probably quite interested in blunting the momentum of the Kindle Fire if they can. Amazon rolling their own version of Android and cutting Google out of the market and ad loop is perfectly legal under the licensing terms, but that doesn't mean Google is necessarily pleased with the idea.
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We have two tablets for my wife and I, an iPad and a 7" Acer Iconia. I much prefer the smaller Iconia, I'm near-sighted, and don't like the extra weight/leverage that the ipad brings. My wife, who's a bit far sighted, prefers the larger screen of the iPad.
Truth? My biggest beef with the iPad is the lack of a universal "back" button. My wife's preference is for the bigger screen. Reality is that either is a truly viable product and I'd recommend either. The iPad offers integration with Apple TV (awesome once
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I used to believe 7" tablets were too small until I actually used one (an old Samsung P1000) but that changed my mind, the text wasn't too small to read, it's a little bit bigger then an A5 page, which is the standard size for novels. Web pages were fine as was video. Considering that the places where I use my tablet tend to be spaces t
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nook and kindle exist due to their ecosystem and true brand recognition outside of the 'geek' community. I don't know if what Google has would unseat either of them.
I think the biggest thing a Google tablet can offer over a Nook/Kindle tablet is the ability to run both the Kindle app and the Nook app on the same device without having to boot into a different operating system.
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that anticompetive (notice, no quotes) iOS device doesn't let you purchase books from within the kindle or nook apps. android? no problem.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Interesting)
I haven't bought a tablet yet because I have been waiting for something like this. 7 inches because it will be easy to carry, (the only useful computer is one you have with you) and from a source where I have a chance in hell of ever seeing an OS update. I thought the Samsung Galaxy 7 was my device, but negative experiences with the first Galaxy phone decided me against it.
Re:7-inch? (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't be obtuse. That's a paraphrase of "the best gun is the one you have on you", referring to having a less capable device actually on your person being better than having a more capable device at home. I do 24 hour on-call, as do a lot of Slashdot participants, and I suspect *they* knew what I meant.
I sometimes use Logmein Ignition to do casual administration rather than carry the laptop everywhere I go. A 7 inch tablet is just about enough screen area to do serious admin, and it's still small enough to fit in my pocket.
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You have some huge pockets. I have problems fitting 5" "shovelphones" in mine.
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He said cargo pants.
Those are pants whose pockets are made for carrying cargo.
I have a pair. I can put a Blackberry Playbook or a Samsung Galaxy 7" tablet in one hip pocket, and one of those stupid little Apple keyboards in the other.
If I was still doing the remote admin/on-call gig, I would totally buy more cargo pants.
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Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Rumor has it that the screen resolution will be 1280x800. That's pretty decent for that screen size, and should allow real application content on the screen.
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or more importantly your fingers. There is a practical minimum physical size for controls on a touch screen.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Smack in the middle of the market that currently B&N and Amazon hold.
I think you forget what the Nexus line of devices is. Reference platforms are made, among other reasons, so that the people behind the OS know what they're programming for. If people are already using this form factor (size, approximate resolution, pixel density, aspect ratio, etc), then a Nexus-line device standardizes that. (There is some problem with that when it comes to Android devices, but whatever, you get the point) That (in principle) helps app devs, OS devs, and yes hardware devs too.
I note that they call it the Nexus *7*, which also implies they could be making a Nexus 10, 5, 8, or other screen sizes in the future.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Smack in the middle of the market that currently B&N and Amazon hold.
I think you forget what the Nexus line of devices is. Reference platforms are made, among other reasons, so that the people behind the OS know what they're programming for.
In addition, Google has used the Nexus line as a way to combat the tendency of manufacturers to muck Android up with all sorts of "overlays" and modifications that generally do a lot of damage to the user experience. It's just like the tendency of PC vendors to pre-install loads of crapware, but harder to fix. So Google's Nexus devices showcase the "Google Experience" version of Android, in the hopes that users will see just how bad their devices have been screwed up and put pressure on the manufacturers (and carriers), to stop it.
Given what Barnes and Noble and Amazon have done with the Nook and Fire, locking them down, removing all sorts of features, providing only a very limited app store, and just generally making the devices suck as general-purpose tablets in an attempt to lock the users into their respective ecosystems, it seems to me that it's high time for Google to show people how an Android device with that form factor and cost price should work.
(Disclaimer 1: I haven't actually touched a Fire; everything I know about it is second and third-hand. I did, however, try to help my sister root her Nook and work around many of the limitations B&N had built in. The attempt was somewhat successful, but still a pretty poor UX. She ended up returning the Nook and buying a Galaxy Tab 10.1, and is very happy with it, even though it cost significantly more money.)
(Disclaimer 2: I work for Google, but don't work on Android or anything to do with tablets. I do have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Honeycomb which I quite like, however. Though I wish Samsung would release the ICS upgrade.)
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They may not be designed or sold that way, but they have that capacity, if it wasn't locked away from the end-user.
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> and just generally making the devices suck as general-purpose tablets
They're not designed or sold as general purpose tablets.
They may not be sold as general-purpose tablets, but many people want them to be. As for design... other than various software limitations, how is their design not suited to general-purpose use? They're not the beefiest devices, so there are some limitations, but outside of that there is a huge amount that could be done with them.
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(Disclaimer 2: I work for Google, but don't work on Android or anything to do with tablets. I do have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Honeycomb which I quite like, however. Though I wish Samsung would release the ICS upgrade.)
If you really work for Google why don't you flash the tablet with an internal ICS build? You know you can do that, don't you? No need to wait for Samsung to release it.
I'm sure people on the Android team could do it easily. I don't have access to any internal Android builds. I could use one of the builds off the web, but then Google's security policy wouldn't allow me to use it for my corporate e-mail. TechStop (Google's IT support staff) specifically will not do it for me; their web page says that they won't support ICS on the Galaxy Tab it until Samsung releases it.
There's probably a way around all of this if I cared to spend enough time looking, or maybe just go t
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it is quite clear that Google is on a mission here, and that mission is: ship a compelling tablet at the exact same price as a Kindle Fire.
Would an 8" screen make the tablet more compelling? IMHO, not really.
Would an 8" screen make it harder to hit the $199 price point? Yes. Not only are larger screens more expensive as a general rule, but the massive number of 7" devices already on the market mean that there should be multiple possible sources for a 7" screen, and volumes should help keep the cost down.
Will the Nexus 7 have a retina display? No, absolutely not, because there is no way they could hit the $199 price point.
Will the Nexus 7 have a GPS? Only if it can have a GPS and still hit the $199 price point.
Will the Nexus 7 have a camera? According to one of the linked articles, it will have a forward-facing camera for video conferencing, and will not have a rearward-facing camera to save on costs. As I already have a phone with a rearward-facing camera, a rearward-facing camera isn't that compelling IMHO, and I think Google made exactly the correct call here.
How much flash will it have? As much as it can have while still costing $199. I predict 8 GB.
I think you get the idea.
steveha
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A device that comes with thousands of dollars in carrier commitments does not cost $199.
Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Will the Nexus 7 have a retina display? No, absolutely not, because there is no way they could hit the $199 price point.
At a rumored 1280x800 res at 7", that's 215dpi, which certainly sounds close enough to "retina". Sure, it's a bit lower than what's available now but really does get there. While there's varying speculation about the smaller dimension, the 1280 and 7" are pretty fixed.
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At a rumored 1280x800 res at 7", that's 215dpi, which certainly sounds close enough to "retina".
That's highly interesting! Apple is now claiming that 220 DPI is a "retina display" for their new MacBook Pro model, so maybe the Nexus 7 will have a "retina display" after all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retina_display [wikipedia.org]
But it turns out that Apple is trying to trademark "retina display" so maybe we will not be allowed to use that term on the Nexus 7.
1280x800, plus a Tegra 3, means we will be able to watch HD con
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There's nothing about "now claiming" - the definition of Retina Display includes the viewing distance to the screen, so a laptop or desktop doesn't need to be as high a dpi figure to meet the definition, since you view the screen from further away. All that is required is that (for someone with 'perfect' uncorrected vision), the eye cannot distinguish the individual pixels at the standard viewing distance of the screen in question.
For phones and tablets this distance is small than for laptops, hence the MBP
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"The definition of Retina Display..." Hahahaha, good one!
The definition of Retina Display is "the display on whatever new device Apple is launching."
Apple chooses different resolutions and densities for whatever reason (e.g. we still don't have a framework for resolution-independent graphics, so we're just going to double each dimension), and then calls the result Retina Display.
It's pure marketing BS.
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Will the Nexus 7 have a retina display? No, absolutely not, because there is no way they could hit the $199 price point.
Actually, yes.
Given Apple's own formula, a 1280x800 7" device viewed at 15" IS Retina
http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/44196/does-the-ipad-2012-3rd-generation-have-the-most-pixels-of-any-tablets-displa/44222 [stackexchange.com]
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Re:7-inch? (Score:5, Funny)
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damn straight. while 10" tablets are nice for some things fitting on desks while trying to work isn't one of them.
I am looking for an up to date 7" android tablet that doesn't need to be modded and rooted into oblivion to work right.
Re:7-inch? yes! (Score:2)
I am diging the 7-inch. I have a 7 inch Galaxy Tab and it is -exactly- the right size to actually carry in a coat pocket, or the back pocket of jeans as long as you remember to move it before you sit. I bigger format is not something I would carry everywhere the way I can carry a 7-inch tab.
I will totally look at upgrading to this since the Galaxy Tab was abandoned by Samsung as far as updates.
I didn't switch to any of the 8-or-larger formats because they really -aren't- go anywhere devices.
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Where did you think the 6" number came from?
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...the biggest penis at GOOG...
It's good to know that you're personally familiar with that kind of information.
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vagaina
Is that the Star Trek creature that sucked all of the salt out of a person's body?
Sounds pretty! (Score:2)
So... (Score:2)
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Good, now market it (Score:2)
Please Google, sell this in retail stores all around, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. and don't make this be such a niche product where you have to order online and hope its as good as the reviews say.
Google has an advantage to all the rest of the tablets:
Dream Tablet (Score:3)
Although I love my iPad3 64GB and its retina display that really is indispensable for document reading, web, e-mail, etc., the iPad3 still has a lot of shortcomings.
If I was to design my dream tablet-phone it would have:
* Wi-Fi, 4G, GSM + CDMA (including audio for phone calls), BlueTooth, and NFC (with security element for Wallet and Authentication)
* 7 inch size, which fits nicely in my purse and eliminates the need to carry a separate tablet
* edge-to-edge-to-edge OLED display without any bezel
* "retina" resolution, well beyond 1080p, Apple has shown this is needed
* GPS (with offline turn-by-turn maps)
* true USB host support, none of this restrictive camera connection kit garbage
* mini-SD slot
* HMDI-out slot
* kick-stand + thin smart-cover like keyboard, like those in new Microsoft Surface Tablets
* pointy stylus, like Samsung Note
* high quality and high resolution rear camera with LED flash, and works in low light (indoors), supports RAW photos and 1080p video
* 64GB min flash
I would be okay with iOS, Android, and maybe Windows, provided that there is enough decent apps, and one can get access to the underlying OS (via jailbreak/root).
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* 7 inch size, which fits nicely in my purse and eliminates the need to carry a separate tablet
* "retina" resolution, well beyond 1080p, Apple has shown this is needed
Why would you need something "well beyond" 1080p on a 7" tablet?
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Not everyone is blind.
Thanks captain obvious.
My eyes have no problems seeing individual pixels on my iPad3.
Well, if i've got the math right then 1080p on a 7" screen is significantly higher than the iPad3. So what distance do you have between your eyes and the screen and what PPI do you want?
I read a lot of PDF data sheets, and retina quality display lets me view and read entire pages with pinching and zooming.
Retina display doesn't do anything for pinching and zooming, you can pinch and zoom on any kind of capacitive display, retina or not.
1080p not enough on a tablet with an edge-to-edge-to-edge display and no bezel, if the DPI is to match the ipad3.
Actually it will significantly exceed the iPad 3...so tell me what PPI do you need?
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Indeed, you are correct, your problem is not one that ophthalmologist could fix. You need a psychiatrist. Exomondo has the details.
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You forgot to mention that you're only willing to pay $200 or less for all of that. :-)
And you also want it to cost under a grand, right? (Score:2)
Good luck with that.
You Nexus 7, Huh? (Score:3)
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I only do "i"s.
Sir, if I only had mod points.
Oh, to have my mod points one more day (Score:2)
Well played, sir. Well played.
That's why Steve made the little silver apples (Score:2)
It may be walled, but it's a good kind of walled (and each of us already has a secret garden inside anyway).
Seriously though, the laptop is best for work and tv-substitute at home, IMHO; otherwise, for that on-the-go crap the ipod touch seems more than adequate (in a non-double-entendre kind of way). I don't know why the world needs more "in-betweens".
Do people really use the front facing cam for chat (Score:2)
I've only ever seen my daughter use the front cam, and that was the first day we got an iPad when the photo booth seemed like so much fun. She facetimes on her touch with a friend who moved to another state, but I suspect that's mainly because it's a touch and doesn't have an embedded audio-only client.
Seriously - aside from the first week or two of "ooh - look what I can do," is video chat a really useful function? OTOH, I use the camera on the back of my tablet to take pictures (i.e. photocopy) stuff in
So that's why... (Score:2)
Re:good luck to google (Score:5, Funny)
The problem is that in the fall apple is releasing an ipad mini which will dominate the 7" space as well.
A MiniPad?
SO the 10" will be the ... MAxiPad?
I sure hope that Apple can keep their products .... fresh, Otherwise folks will lose interest - especially that time of the month when they release new products.
I seriously don't think Google will be cramping Apple's style, but considering the tech press, well, you never know what they say on their rags.
Then again, Apple does stay on bleeding edge technology.
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Re:good luck to google (Score:5, Funny)
I really don't see how - but, somehow, you completely missed what he was doing.
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Oh I got it. I was just feeling sympathetic to my fellow Slashdot brethren who have girlfriends/wives who like to share details on that topic and offered a distraction.
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Ah, caught your mistake I see. Coulda been a lil classier about it.
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Then again, Apple does stay on bleeding edge technology.
Bleeding edge? Pfftbt. Apple has just taken stuff that already exists, made it smaller, made the features the predecessor advertised actually work with a shiny UI that people can immediately understand and use, addressed real concerns like battery life, and created the template for all their competitors to attempt to imitate.
Thanks for posting, I am in full agreement. All Apple has done was make a few products that don't suck and leverage their marketing and massive sales of these pathetically non-sucky products to make Apple the most recognized brand in the world and the world's richest company. Any company could do this and some company was bound to, and moreso, some company had to do this. Why people are so fascinated by these mundane and trivial accomplishments is also beyond the scope of my own comprehension.
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Then again, Apple does stay on bleeding edge technology.
Bleeding edge? Pfftbt. Apple has just taken stuff that already exists,
Apple invents too. Look at firewire... oh.
made it smaller,
The iPhone is too small. Don't worry, they'll follow the industry's lead and make it bigger.
made the features the predecessor advertised
Imitates competitors, yes.
actually work
Removed 90% of the feature and made the last 10% 'so easy' to use.
with a shiny UI that people can immediately understand and use,
Uh, yeah. Ever played with Automator? :-)
addressed real concerns like battery life,
Underclock their chips when running on battery.
and created the template for all their competitors to attempt to imitate.
After being guilty of said imitation themselves? These great templates... they didn't spring fully formed from the inspiration of some god. Sounds like someone doesn't believe in evolution boys...
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How did Microsoft's seem premature? (Score:2)
I thought Microsoft's presentation was amazingly polished and well put together. I didn't feel at all like it was rushed together.
Compare and contrast with Google's map presentation a week or so ago. Presenters could not talk without looking at notes every other sentence (watch the guy and the end bobbing his head down constantly). A bunch of filler content to make up for the fact they were just talking about a Google Earth update.
It's good to see real competition in the tablet space heat up.
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It's true that the didn't give price, but I thought they mentioned tying the release to the Windows 8 release.
They gave a rough estimate of the price though - it sounded like the ARM version was around the price of an iPad, while the x86 version was probably around the price of the Air.
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I wonder if Google can make it through their tablet presentation without one of their tablets locking up in the middle of a browser demo...
You'll notice that this scanner, Bill... whoa. (Score:2)
I wonder if Google can make it through their tablet presentation without one of their tablets locking up
Any more than, say, "Let's plug it in" back in 1998 [youtube.com]?
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I wonder if Google can make it through their tablet presentation without one of their tablets locking up
Any more than, say, "Let's plug it in" back in 1998 [youtube.com]?
and dont try to talk to your tablet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klU2zt1KdUY [youtube.com]
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I think Microsoft has actually done something smart this time.
Apple and Amazon are fighting it out in the consumer space. They are the only two tablet makers that have sold significant numbers. The enterprise market hasn't picked a winner yet and I think Microsoft realizes that if they don't make a grab for it now, they are going to have a much bigger fight for it next year.
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Of course the tablet probably won't actually ship till next year, but by making an announcement now maybe they can stall buyers from investing in another platform and instead waiting around to see what microsoft eventually puts on the market.
In other words, business as usual.
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Interesting point. I assumed that these things were going to be shipping with Windows 8 later this year. The hardware certainly isn't pushing any boundaries so I don't see why they won't be ready later this year.
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Yea, they might make the end of the year, but the fact that they won't commit to that makes me wonder. Microsoft has a history long delivery time.
More to the point though, 6 months out or 9 months out, they only announced the tablet to try to seal googles thunder and to try to slow the iPads inroads into enterprises.
You got it backwards (Score:2)
...if all this noise from Microsoft was trying to preempt all of the press that Google's announcement would generate using their own announcement. It explains why Microsoft's seemed premature.
Going after microsoft in announcements always made google seem awesome simply because up until recently microsoft always came out on stage and stepped on it's own dick. Then they did the surface tablet and... well even as an apple user I'm jealous of that keyboard cover. That was sheer genius. And it's shocking Apple, with all those hyper clever people, overlooked that perfect idea. and the tablet looks pretty substantial too.
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the thing about it is you always have it with you. you can get a keyboard folio for it because the blue tooth ones should work for both.
Re:Improve security please! (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually... (sorry apple fan boys) Android's security is much better than the iPhones. (Their web browser doesn't run as root first of all)
The DoD uses Android, and has for years, but only finally in the past couple months has approved any version (and not even the consumer version) viable for military use. you don't NEED to have an anti-virus, that is a joke... the AV companies just want you to think you do. Though Having one to scan inbound email attachments, downloaded files/etc isn't a BAD thing by any means, but ehh...
The Android security policies aren't an issue... It is people installing applications that allow reading from the SDcard/Contacts/etc and full internet access.
Android gives people more freedom, unfortunately that means more people hang themselves with that rope... that isn't Android's fault. Also means your organization is smart enough not to trust you to use the device securely.
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Re:Improve security please! (Score:5, Informative)
you don't need an AV client on android. in fact, all they do is compare applications you install against a blacklist. all they can do is warn you about blacklisted apps. that's it.
the security model of android (and many other operating systems) sandboxes apps. an app can't access any other app's data unless some special arrangement is made between them.
every android app is required to state the permissions it requires to run (internet, location, etc). these are presented to the user before they install an application.
users must actively allow applications to be installed outside of the android market.
Not fine-grained enough (Score:3)
an app can't access any other app's data unless some special arrangement is made between them.
Except it's not possible under Android to make such arrangements fine-grained enough to be both secure and useful. Either a program has full read and write privileges on the mass storage or it has none; there is no middle ground as I understand it.
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Android does warn users but still some vendors managed to slip some bad applications through that would do bad things on network and CPU usage (battery drain), some even sending premium rate SMSs (they have been banned).
OTOH, root access does allow you to firewall particularly noisy apps, if not explicitly block access via the hosts file.
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Windows phone is the desktop linux of mobile phones. It's simply so rare in the wild that it makes no sense to try to own it, as it will cost more to do so then realistic gains.
Re:Improve security please! (Score:4, Insightful)
What qualitative differences are there between general purpose computers, and mobile general purpose computers, that should makes mobile computing immune to malicious software?
It's a trade-off. Either you are allowed to install anything on your device, and are willing to wear the consequences, or you're not, and can choose from an accepted white-list of products that a trusted third party has validated clean. I can understand why some consumers choose to be limited (especially business consumers), but saying that one choice is better than another is just stupid.
And actually, when it comes to technical measures, Android's security is better, and more finely grained than iOS. iOS security model revolves around the idea that bad apps won't be running, because Apple will have stopped them being installed in the first place.
I accidentally the whole SD card. (Score:2)
Android's security is better, and more finely grained than iOS.
The Android devices that I've tried have the internal memory partitioned into about half a GB for "system" and the rest for "storage", and every application with the permission to read and write storage can read and write all of storage. There's no way to limit an Android application to only one specific folder on storage.
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Yeah, which enables apps to do things like load up and modify files they didn't create, just as they can on a general-purpose computer. It's part of that trade-off I mentioned. Android apps are compelled to tell you exactly what they want permissions to do; you can make your own decision as to whether you trust an app with those permissions. iOS apps don't provide you with that information, but are all governed by the default permissions enforced by Apple.
I agree it might be nice to have two separate permis
Choose a file or folder to modify (Score:2)
Yeah, which enables apps to do things like load up and modify files they didn't create, just as they can on a general-purpose computer.
Ideally, the end user would tell the application what files and folders it is allowed to modify through a file chooser displayed by a secure system process. That's what the OLPC Bitfrost sandbox does, that's what Mac OS X's App Store sandbox does, and that's what the JavaScript file API [w3.org] does.
I imagine the demand for that sort of feature is fairly low.
Demand will be low for anything the general public doesn't know about. The demand for smartphones themselves was low before the first-generation iPhone was introduced.
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I know there is a large community around modding so there's always that route if your device is popular I suppose (and able to be boot loader unlocked).
So I guess the que
A place to hold the tablet (Score:3)
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The bezel gives the user a place to hold the tablet without activating on-screen controls.
And in my experience, if you get fidgety (say, you're watching a feature-length movie on Netflix) that's not always enough.