Tablets? I'll wait for next year's models... or longer, maybe much longer

There are a tonnne of tablets available now, and I've realized I'm buying none. There's two reasons: (1) I don't need one; and (2) next year's models will be much, much better.

As Apple, HP, RIM, and Google announced and delivered tablets, I debated which one might be best:

• iPad? Definitely not, since it is hobbled by lack of Flash. 
• PlayBook? Nope, now that Microsoft has its tentacles growing into it. 
• TouchPad? Maybe, out of nostalgia for the 10+ years I owned a Palm PDA, but then I realized that it is going to be DOA. 
• Android? Fer sure! ...or maybe not; Honeycomb's been pulled, the prices are a shade too high, and next year's hardware and OS specs are going to be w-a-y better.

So, no model is suitable today. Or, more precisely, more suitable than the 4" Samsung Galaxy Vibrant cell phone that I use daily.

Then I thought about what I'd use it for. I've watched the few fellow journalists employ their's at press events, and didn't see the advantage over my 2.5-year-old LG X110 Linux-running netbook with its fabulous keyboard.

I used to own a touchscreen notebook computers, one of those dismal HP tx1000 convertibles, where the screen swung around to create a tablet form factor. (The screen sensitivity was dismal, the build quality was dismal, and the bad nVidia graphics chip killed the whole system.) While it worked (well, laboured actually, according to the sound of the roaring fan), I used it for... oh, lessee, a sum total of 15 minutes as a tablet. Specifically, trying out MoI software.

Summing Up

I'm not buying a 7" or 10" tablet this year, because:

- Current models are insufficient for practical and political reasons.

- I don't see that I would put a tablet to use for anything more than a few minutes of software testing here and there.

- The LG netbook and 4" Vibrant do all I need, road warrior-wise.

 

Comments

[Mike]

Have to agree with you. What would I do on a tablet I can't already do on my phone?

The only thing I've seen that might drive me to a tablet would be reviewing plans with Autocad WS if I worked in the field with electronic files.

[Jimmy Bergmark - JTB World]

Temperature range is not good enough I think. Cannot be left in the car during summer and sometimes not in cold winter.

iPad operates in 0º and 35º C and store in -20º and 45º C. "Don’t leave the device in your car, because temperatures in parked cars can exceed this range."

PlayBook operates in 0º to 40°C and store in -10º to 40°C.

Not sure about other ones.

[DF]

"Definitely not, since it is hobbled by lack of Flash."

Many people would consider a lack of Flash to be a major plus, myself among them. Flashblock is the most useful productivity-boosting tool I've found in quite some time.

Question: does AutoCAD WS run faster as an app or as Flash?

[Anthony]

Hobbled by lack of Flash, as opposed to say hobbled by Flash stuttering and freezing your tablet and draining the battery? Give up, Flash is obsolete technology.

[Ralph Grabowski]

If Flash stutters on your computer, then follow this simple fix:
1. Right-click the Flash video.
2. Turn off hardware acceleration.

I find that Flash works smoothly on my Android, allowing me to view videos embedded in Web sites, as well as movies downloaded from YouTube in Flash format. Very convenient, and I don't suffer from the technology censorship imposed by Mr Jobs.

I suspect that iPhones and iPads are too weak to run Flash, which is why the technology is being kept from Apple devotees.

[DF]

"I find that Flash works smoothly on my Android, allowing me to view videos embedded in Web sites, as well as movies downloaded from YouTube in Flash format."

Youtube has provided H.264 video for quite a number of years, now.

"Very convenient, and I don't suffer from the technology censorship imposed by Mr Jobs."

As opposed to one provided through Adobe?

"I suspect that iPhones and iPads are too weak to run Flash"

Along with every other mobile device going as well? Really, Ralph?

Maybe there's a simpler truth here that you're resisting; that Flash - designed for PCs - kills mobile devices (both resources and battery life).

[Ralph Grabowski]

You are mixing up propaganda promoted by Mr Jobs with reality, as experienced by me on my Android device. Everything he says is wrong with Flash, isn't.

[DF]

Well, let's go to third-party sources, then.

Infoworld on Flash for Android (April 2011):

"Streaming video is the most popular application for Flash today, so I tried that first. Ironically, I had a hard time finding demo cases. The Xoom ships with a video player that automatically launches when you view content from YouTube or Dailymotion, so you don't need Flash for those sites. On the other hand, Hulu wouldn't work even with Flash installed; all it would say was, "Unfortunately, this video is not available on your platform. We apologize for any inconvenience."

On sites where I could view Flash video -- such as Comedy Central and MTV -- results were mixed. Playback quality was mostly good but a little choppy at times, and audio occasionally seemed slightly out of sync. Videos that looked sharp in full-screen mode seemed to degrade in picture quality when shrunk to smaller sizes. Worse, some of the Flash video players' controls were almost impossible to activate, given the tablet's touchscreen interface

[...]

As far as I could tell, there was one thing and one thing only that the Flash Player for Android 3.0 accomplished successfully. On the stock Android browser, Flash content is invisible, so you don't notice Flash-based advertising. With the Flash Player installed, however, all those ads suddenly appear where once there were none, their animated graphics leaping and scuttling under your fingertips like cockroaches on a dinner tray -- some achievement."

http://www.infoworld.com/print/157838

Infoworld again, reviewing the Playbook (April 2011):

"On the bright side, the PlayBook supports Flash, with no need to download a player as on Android. But Flash objects are often slow to load, and some would not function. That’s an issue Flash also has on Android, as my colleague Neil McAllister discovered in his extensive Flash tests. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that Flash and mobile don’t mix."

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/rim-blackberry-playbook-unfinished-unusable-534

Techcrunch on Flash for Android Firefox (March):

"One thing Firefox mobile doesn’t have is support for Flash, even though Android has a big partnership with Adobe to make Flash work on mobile. I spoke with some folks from Mozilla yesterday about this topic. Eventually, Firefox mobile will support Flash, but it is just not there yet in terms of responsiveness."

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/29/mobile-firefox-flash-html5/

Engadget on Android Flash (2010):

"Battery and heat are also of concern: the pre-release beta we have, according to Adobe, lacks hardware acceleration. Ergo, our beloved handset got piping hot after about 30 minutes of heavy video watching, and the battery indicator in the upper right had a sizable dent."

http://engadget.com/2010/05/20/android-2-2-froyo-beta-hands-on-flash-10-1-wifi-hotspots-an/

Adobe's Flash for Android demo last year at Flashcamp:

"Then, he pulled up the same thing on his Nexus One. The site’s progress bar filled in and the 3D world appeared for a few seconds before the browser crashed. Ryan said (paraphrasing), “Whoops! Well, it’s beta, and this is an intense example — let’s try it again.” He tried it again and got the same result. So he said to the audience, “Well, this one isn’t going to work, but does anyone have a Flash site they’d like to see running?” Someone shouted out “Hulu.” Ryan said, “Hulu doesn’t work,” and then wrapped up his demo, telling people if they wanted to try more sites they could find him later and he’d let them play with his Nexus One."

http://jeffcroft.com/blog/2010/may/08/android-flash-demo-flashcamp-seattle/

I could go on. But, hey, maybe you're right.

[Ralph Grabowski]

The reviewer reminds me of one who reviewed the then-new Canon AE-1 in Popular Photography magazine (c. 1976). He was negatively overwhelmed by the bright red flashing 'M' that appeared in the viewfinder when the camera was in manual mode. Based on this experience, I instead bought the Minolta XE-7, a camera with which I was very happy.

Later, my dad got the AE-1, and I found the tiny red M wasn't wasn't the problem the reviewer made it out to be.

Same goes for the InfoWorld review of Flash on Android. Rolling and moving ads exist on iPhone and Android apps, whether generated by Flash or not.

As for playing back Flash movies, I just need to download the FLV file (or copy it over from my PC), and any movie player on my Android plays it back. Smoothly. No need to xlate formats.

Just because a reviewer writes something, doesn't mean it's true. S/he could be looking for a point of negativity to make the review appear more honest. Or they're just not that acquainted with brand-new products, and so don't know what they're doing. Or they're just biased against Flash, like you.

[fred]

why do people bash microsoft? it is an honest question. Have you tried windows 7? it is pretty good. in the past five years there have been rapid improvement in MS projects ranging from the OS thru to the programming languages...do you really think you can run engineen

Windows 8 from the ground up will support tablets natively.

[Anthony]

A little rich to be accusing others of biased Ralph, no?

[Ralph Grabowski]

When I do bias, I call it "opinion"!

[DF]

Rolling and moving ads exist on iPhone and Android apps, whether generated by Flash or not.

I double-dare you to spend an evening with Flash blocked on a web browser, and come back here and tell me that the experience wasn't vastly improved (note that I'm not talking about crappy Flash games or whatever, which grown men have no business playing).

Flash is a bane of the Web. It crucifies browsers, breaks the implicit model in WWW navigation, and gives money to the morons who make those stupid Flash-based websites that some architects seem to love.

As for playing back Flash movies, I just need to download the FLV file (or copy it over from my PC), and any movie player on my Android plays it back. Smoothly. No need to xlate formats.

I believe the 'Flash video' that everyone is concerned with is web-based playback, not playing back in 'any movie player' (whatever those may be) on your Android. This is what is commonly understood.

iOS/the iPhone came out several years ago, and even years later with vast improvement in mobile hardware specs,Adobe still say that acceptable Flash on mobile will be 'soon'. Do they take us for suckers?

"Just because a reviewer writes something, doesn't mean it's true [...] Or they're just not that acquainted with brand-new products, and so don't know what they're doing. Or they're just biased [...]"

Why, yes. I believe I've seen Mac 'reviews' in the recent past that fit into that category.

[ralphg]

I can only repeat, that you are biased by your exposure to second-hand experiences. Here is how the real world works on my Android:

1. Flash videos embedded in Web pages are shown by a green download arrow.

2. If I wish to view it, I click the arrow, and seconds later I am viewing the Flash video clip on my Samsung Vibrant, smoothly.

I can only repeat that iOS hardware must be so weak that Jobs daren't allow Flash to run it on.

[Kevin E.]

I'm in favor of Flash being wiped from the planet myself, however, I will let the market decide its fate.

Flash is now one of the biggest exploits on the PC. As Windows has become more secure, Flash is the next target for the bad guys.

Hardware wise, iOS devices are still pretty potent. In fact bench marks show that the iPad 2 pretty much wipe the floor with the Motorola Xoom in both CPU performance and graphics. So I don't think your "the hardware is too weak to handle it" argument makes sense.

[Kevin E.]

Here are some of those benchmarks from anandtech.com

http://bit.ly/iy8Wlv

[Ralph Grabowski]

The "iOS hardware is too weak" is me being facetious. Since Android has proven that there no problems running Flash on smartphones, then clearly the only problem on the iOS side MUST be hardware. Either that, or else Jobs is being political, I doubt he would stoop that low. Would he?