Articles about Tablet

I upgraded one of my Apple devices to iOS6 last night and the first thing I did, once finished setting it up, was to launch the new Maps component. This, as you’ll no doubt be aware, replaces the aging Google Maps app. I knew from other articles I’d read previously that Apple’s own mapping service wasn’t going to be as good as the old Google one. After all, Apple is new to this mapping lark, and the search giant has years of experience in the field. But I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt, and forgive any minor problems. After all, how bad could it be?

I started, as I am sure most people do, by typing in my address. Well, actually as I live in the United Kingdom I typed in my post code. Apple found my road, Prince’s Drive, but decided it was called Princess Drive. Not the most auspicious of starts.

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Almost two weeks after Amazon unveiled new tablets, the $199 7-inch Kindle Fire HD tablet gets "a new lease on life" through rooting.

Gaining elevated privileges (popularly known as "root") is facilitated by an exploit found in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that Amazon didn't fix before shipping the tablet. The fairly uncomplicated process gives the Kindle Fire HD a new trick up its sleeve -- using the Google Play Store, which provides access to all apps available there.

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Late this afternoon, in response to Motorola's requested, massive Apple product ban, Dan Gillmore posts to Google+: Come on, Google, don't abuse the patent system the way Apple does. Sheesh". I've seen similar sentiments expressed elsewhere. Gillmore and others are wrong. Google isn't playing Apple's game, but trying to end it. If Apple won't negotiate willingly, a show of force may be the only way to achieve patent peace.

Motorola Mobility is now a Google subsidiary, so legal demand from the one really comes from the other. From one perspective, the request is so sweeping as to dwarf any of the claims Apple makes against competitors like HTC and Samsung. Moto seeks a ban on virtually every Apple device -- iOS or OS X -- sold in the United States. It's reasonable to look at Google and to question whether the tactics are heavy-handed. They are not.

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Asus' Windows 8 tablet roadmap leaked a few days ago, revealing the company's intention to launch three tablets powered by Microsoft's soon to be released Windows 8 operating system. Bloggers and journalists have used the roadmap to argue that the pricing is too high to compete effectively against Apple iPads and Android tablets. Taken aside that the pricing may not be final, it seems like they are right, if you only compare price and nothing else.

Asus' entry model, the Vivo Tab RT, for instance, lists with a starting price of $599. That's $100 more than Apple's cheapest new iPad model, and $300 more than Google's Nexus 7 tablet. But can you really make that comparison?

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You do even better! That's what I'd say to fellow BetaNews contributor Mihaita Bamburic if I ran into him in a hallway somewhere. As I watch with amusement, his "existential struggle" with the post-PC question, I have to chuckle a bit at his naïveté. Like most PC veterans, Mihaita tries to squeeze a square peg (tablet) into a round hole (desktop-centric thinking). He'll need to leave those preconceptions behind if he ever hopes to do more than scratch the post-PC surface.

For starters, reset your purchasing criteria. You need to forget about those expensive "clamshell" tablet/dock combos and start off with a simple, cheap Android tab. I picked up a dozen Acer Iconia A200s on eBay for use at the new school my wife and I are building. Prices ranged from $170-200 for refurbished units with 8GB or 16GB of onboard SD storage. At that price point, you can pretty much experiment to your heart's content without worrying about trashing some "transforming" device that costs more than a decent laptop.

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There's an encore to Jelly Bean Build 1. Android Open Kang Project team has announced the availability of the second release named Jelly Bean Build 2 that should be even more impressive that the first.

So what's new? AOKP Jelly Bean Build 2 is based on Android 4.1.1 , build number JRO03L and adds stability improvements, improved functionality and larger supported devices list, that now includes Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy S III for Verizon Wireless and even the venerable Samsung Galaxy S. As a nice bonus for Google Nexus 7 (grouper) owners, 720p video recording is enabled for the front-facing camera.

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Post-PC is a lifestyle I do not strive toward and I have very good reasons for that. Yet after buying my Galaxy Nexus, I started toying with the idea that maybe a tablet is not such a bad idea after all. I will not concede to the concept of a tablet being suited for all tasks, yet I can accept it for what it is -- a toy. I have not self-medicated, nor did I happen to change overnight, but there is a logic to my madness.

I am the type of person that gets easily bored by using the same thing over and over again, be it software or hardware, and it would only be a logical step to assume that a new device could put an end to my unconscious --or most likely conscious-- quest to find the perfect anti-boredom device. My needs are rather specific, and I struggle to find the reason why I would rationally want to make the switch to an all-purpose tablet, and there isn't one.

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Rumors of a $199 Microsoft Surface RT tablet popped up on the Web a month ago, feeding the idea of a cheap and even subsidized Microsoft tablet that would take the pricing war to any device from the Google Nexus 7 to Apple's new iPad. In an interview for The Seattle Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned a new price range for the the company's Windows 8 device, putting the previous rumors of a $199 Microsoft tablet to rest.

Even though Microsoft did not announce the pricing, when asked about Surface, Steve Ballmer said that it would go for "probably $300 to about $700 or $800," giving a rough estimate of what potential buyers should expect to pay for the much discussed tablet. The previous rumors might be dust in the wind after the latest "estimate," but at the same time it calls for speculation justified by the $500 difference which isn't unsubstantial to say the least.

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Talk about your bitter clingers! Here I am, minding my own business, just writing about my experiences using an Android tablet, when out of the woodwork comes this wave of angry post-PC deniers. I mean, the level of rage on display is unreal. You'd think I walked into a Steve Jobs memorial service wearing an "I love Android" t-shirt or something!

For those of you who missed my earlier post, I noted how pleased I was with the outcome of my own post-PC experiment. I wrote how, with the right supporting peripherals, I could be perfectly productive on even a cheap Android tablet -- like my trusty Acer Iconia Tab 200. In fact, I was so impressed with the results that I declared being done with laptops forever. I would literally never buy another traditional laptop PC.

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Apple is on my mind again, with the company hosting a big media event tomorrow presumably to unveil iPhone 5. I'm not seriously thinking about buying the smartphone, certainly not sight unseen. I'm super satisfied with Galaxy Nexus -- if not, I'd move to a LTE Android, perhaps HTC One X or Samsung Galaxy S III. Rather, iPhone 5 is good time to assess my personal Apple boycott, where I sold off all my fruit-logo gear in protest of patent bullying.

Until July, I was a long-time Apple user, starting with the December 1998 purchase of the original Bondi Blue iMac. Then about six months ago, Apple's persistent competition-by-litigation tactics finally made me mad. I also had grown sick of Apple media bias that borders on the insane. How crazy? Yesterday, Washington Post explained "How Apple’s iPhone 5 could singlehandedly rescue the US economy". Bad is worse -- today, extending this economic lift to US presidential elections, Nextgov (a product of the National Journal Group) asserts: "How the iPhone 5 could help re-elect Obama". These are people I really don't want to associate with. (Say doesn't the president use BlackBerry?)

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That is the conclusion I reached after several weeks living la vida post-PC. With nothing but my trusty Acer Iconia Tab to work on while waiting for my house sale to close in Florida (see previous post about not needing a smartphone), I've managed to remain productive and connected without touching so much as a byte of "wintel" technology.

Well, maybe a few bytes. There have been the occasional detors off the Android wagon -- for example, when I needed to quickly print, sign and re-scan some legal documents and hijacked my daughter's Dell Inspiron for a few minutes (it was like pulling teeth -- she's quite possessive of her toys). However, for the most part I accomplished everything I needed to from the comfort of my Ice Cream Sandwich-based tablet. And the secret of my success had as much to do with the accessories that I surrounded the tablet with as with the device itself.

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CyanogenMod 10 is one of the most popular Android 4.1 Jelly Bean custom distributions available today, but keeping up with all the nightly releases can be time consuming, which is why the team behind the project announced the rollout of the M-Series build -- releases of CyanogenMod 10 that will be available at the beginning of every month.

CyanogenMod team wants to offer more stable builds on a timely manner, that is a departure from the ever present CM10 nightly builds that can vary in quality from one release to another. A code freeze was announced, blocking new features and focusing instead on stability that is of utmost importance for a build designed to work for a month and be adequate for daily use. They will still be labeled as "experimental" considering that at their core they still come from nightly builds.

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First in a series. Over the past few months I’ve seen several articles and forum postings negatively criticizing the design of Windows 8; from the flatness of the UI to design inconsistencies on the desktop. I’ve also seen articles asserting how difficult the operating system is to use because it’s not instantly intuitive.

While I think there are some valid concerns in these articles about Windows 8, I personally believe that most of what has been written is shortsighted. I hope to prove this over three articles.

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Following Amazon's Kindle Fire HD announcement, a reader reminded me of a prediction I made at the start of the year: "If Apple gives up its position of industry leadership in 2012 the only company capable of assuming that role is Amazon.com". I stand by those words -- Amazon is really bringing the fight to Apple -- but the most important part is "if Apple gives up its position", which it clearly hasn’t, at least not yet. The real loser here, in fact, is not Apple but Microsoft.

I could be wrong about this but I don’t recall any pundits (me included) predicting that Amazon would introduce a larger format tablet, yet that’s exactly what they did. The larger Kindle Fire HD with its built-in content and app ecosystem (and that killer 4G data package!) is a viable iPad competitor at a terrific price and puts real pressure on the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. Will Apple match the price? I don’t think so. That’s not the game they want to play. But the game is on, nevertheless, and users can only benefit from competition.

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Call me old fashioned. I do not now, and never have in the past, owned a smartphone. Whether it was due to geographic isolation (the iPhone debuted after I'd moved 11,000 miles to the Indian Ocean), fear of being a too-early adopter, or simply an inability to rationalize the cost of a non-subsidized device, I have somehow resisted the siren song of the smartphone revolution.

But that doesn't mean I'm stuck in the past. More than any of my contemporaries, I have embraced the post-PC concept with gusto. From my first attempts using an HP Mini 2140 netbook (great machine), through my awkward BlackBerry PlayBook (still love my 32GB unit) days to my present infatuation with rooted, customized Android tablets (thanks xda community!), I've seized every opportunity to put my 30+ year relationships with the "wintel" cabal behind me.

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