Tablets?

[Goober McTuber]

What is the deal with these tablets and why should I want one?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... remail2653

[ElTaco]

In my opinion, Tablets are the future. Laptops and PCs are good for specialized, development work, but 90% of people are viewers/users of content, in other words, they read email, read websites and such. They do not regularly create content. I think for using content, tablets are easier to use and because they are easy to transport, they are more ideal than a PC or even a laptop.

As far as which one to buy, well unless you are a hardcore geek, I'd wait until sometime this summer before you run out and buy one. Your choices are growing, which means prices will continue to drop.

iPad 2 is now out and seems to have a fairly good lead, but as new Android tablets come out, I think that lead will be reduced, just like android phones have now over taken the iPhone.
Motorola Xoom is the first Android tablet that really gives the iPad a run for its money, but for some stupid reason, Motorola made it more expensive than the iPad, which was a stupid move.
HTC is one of the best manufacturers of phones and has the best Android experience in the market and they are about to release the HTC Flyer, their first tablet. I am interested in some of the features they are adding to improve usability.
Samsung released the first real tablet GalaxyTab (your link), running Android 2.2, which is a 7" tablet. Everyone ragged on them for a number of reasons, but over all it was seen as a good success. I used it a little and it worked well but I think most people felt that a 7" tablet doesn't offer that much more than the existing 4" & 4.3" phones in terms of screen real estate and Android 2.2 was not ready for tablets. Samsung is about to release an 8.9" and 10.1" upgrade soon, which should be running 3.0 which was specifically developed for tablets.
Acer - I think Acer is about to storm the Android tablet market with the likes of the Transformer. It has been getting solid reviews and you can purchase an addon laptop type dock that has a keyboard, extra ports and even a battery, giving this baby a solid 16 hour usage life. The big question will be to see what type of face they choose to put on Android to differentiate their flavor from the competition.

Ton of other manufacturers are also releasing their own Tablets for different markets. You can buy a wifi only tablet now for well under $300 that actually runs fairly nicely. One tablet that is getting a lot of interest from geeks is the ViewSonic G-Tablet, which has been showing up on sale at different places for around $280. While it is not as nice as some of the new tablets showing up, if you aren't afraid to replace the OS on it with one from online, it is supposed to be a fairly awesome tablet. Dell has already released a few crappy phone/tablets but there is word that they will be releasing some new devices that fall into the Tablet market.

Blackberry just released the Blackberry Playbook today for sale and it has been getting decent reviews. The Hardware is a definite hit, but Blackberry couldn't seem to make up its mind if this is a consumer or business device so I guess there is some confusion on that part. One of the more interesting features is that the Playbook should be able to run Android applications as well as its own brand. We'll see if this works in Blackberry's favor or not.

HP also held a big event a little while ago promising to re-release its own OS called WebOS 2.0 and devices (tablets and phones). It is planning to ship this with all HP consumer devices (laptops, PCs, phones and tablets) and showed off some of the features. Their big selling point will be interactivity between Printers, PCs, tablets and phones. One thing they showed off was a feature in which you could bring up a website on your tablet's Browser, than touch your phone to the tablet and have the website load on it so you could basically work on your tablet at home, than when you are leaving the house, just transfer your work with a touch of the device and be on your way. There were some other neat features but it remains to be seen what HP will accomplish. There is definitely some good potential. http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/webos/us/en/

My goal right now is to wait until this fall at which point, all the major players will have released their major entries into the market for the year. I'm not an apple type person so the ipad is out, but I am hoping that as more and more Android tablets and phones get to the market, the prices for these devices will go way down. I'll probably pick one and pick up the Wifi version sometime in Sept or October, or if the prices are still high, than maybe this coming xmas.

[Goober McTuber]

So how does this device hook up? Wi-fi? Your cellular account? WTF?

[Goober McTuber]

My landline?

[ElTaco]

Your options are Wifi only or Wifi+3G (and 4G soon).

One pain in the arse thing is that you can't share data plans between your phone and tablet. You can take a wifi only tablet and tether it to your phone and use its data plan, but most Cellular providers charge extra for this (usually around $20 on top of your data plan) and add caps. If you have money to spare, giving the tablet its own Cell data plan is great because you aren't limited to using it around Wifi only but there are ways around this (like using tethering without telling your provider about it) but honestly, I think I'll be just fine with a wifi only tablet.

[Go Coogs']

I bought a Xoom and signed a two year contract for 3 gig of service which reduced the price tag of the xoom to $599.

As far as comparing it to the Ipad2, I think the Xoom beat it b/c of the freedoms of web browsing AND the 4g upgrade later this year, AND the removeable memory card.

[ElTaco]

I bought a Xoom and signed a two year contract for 3 gig of service which reduced the price tag of the xoom to $599.

As far as comparing it to the Ipad2, I think the Xoom beat it b/c of the freedoms of web browsing AND the 4g upgrade later this year, AND the removeable memory card.

Sweet! I'm thinking I will skip the Xoom thanks to the price and will opt for the ASUS EeeTab Transformer. I've only read good things on this tablet over all and it looks like ASUS is doing a lot to put out some useful Accessories, like the keyboard dock. With the Dock, it destroys the iPad2 on everything, including battery. I'm going to do Wifi only and if I need to get it online somewhere other than work or home, I'll use my phone as the AP.

[ElTaco]

AP in wireless talk stands for Access Point. Specifically an Access Point is a standalone wireless device that you plug into your existing wired network. Most people actually use a Wireless Router which is a combination device of a Switch, Router, Firewall and Wireless AP. Most of the android, WP7 and even IOS, as well as all the RIM BB phones all do tethering via USB, Bluetooth or they can now act as a WIFI Access Point for 5 to 10 simultaneous devices such as your laptop. Personally, I have used both wired and wireless tethering of my laptop on the road and it works fine, but lately both Verizon and AT&T have started cracking down on users who use tethering without paying the extra $20/mo for the privilege. Frankly, I think this is BS because you already pay for your data plan and how you use that, with a single device should be up to you, but it is what it is.
The last time I used it was with the Droid Charge on LTE and it was simply awesome. 20 mbps down and 5 up basically matched or beat my regular home internet connection, aside from the latency of the packets. If I was on the road a lot or if my company paid for the privilege, I would pick up one of the small LTE/3G Mobile AP devices that everyone sells now.

[Dinsdale]

The AP is a way to connect the tablet to the internet through your cell phone?

Yes. Some phones act like a wireless router,similar to what you hook up your laptop to at home. They also sell devices that aren't phones, but hookup to the cell network and provide internet access, but tey've become outdated almost as quickly as they were released, since smartphones can usually do the same thing.

Or, as ET explained, they can also be connected to the phone via a cable ("tethered").

[Dinsdale]

Most people actually use a Wireless Router which is a combination device of a Switch, Router, Firewall and Wireless AP.

And a DHCP server, and a NAT server...

but that's not important right now.

[Goober McTuber]

tigerdirect.com is always a good starting point for price and selection.

[ElTaco]

As I said, any Android, Windows or iphone phone will support wireless tethering. If you are dying to do this, I'd find someone who may be able to help you set this all up, but if you are going to opt for an Android Tablet, such as the ASUS Eee Transformer, which is probably the best one on the market for the money, than I would stick with an Android phone. Any phone that runs Android 2.2 or above (2.3 is the only above at this time) will support tethering and Wifi Access Point.

I personally prefer Verizon because I feel they are the best on the East coast, but I assume you already have a provider so what phone you would pick up will largely depend on how much you are willing to spend and which phone you will feel comfortable with. With Verizon and Sprint, you might consider their 4G service, although, again, only if its available in your area (home, work, in between and any other place you spend lots of time at). I currently use the Motorola Droid X which is a 3G phone running Android 2.3.3. The GF is using the Droid Charge from Samsung with Android 2.2 and runs on the Verizon LTE network. That thing is fast. Samsung offers an amazing experience with the screens they sell on their high end phones. Honestly with HTC, Motorola and Samsung you really can't go too wrong and even if you decide that you don't like their version of Android, you can always root the phone and put something different on there. It is one of the great things about Android is that a lot of the manufacturers support hacking/modding. Can't say that for Steve's OS (Iphone for the uninitiated).

Honestly, the best advice for picking a phone is to go into a store and handle it. I wouldn't worry too much about what the sales people say, about half the ones I talk to just talk BS.

As far as handling tablets, probably the best place to do that is at a store like Best Buy. They sell the Wifi only models as well as the Wifi+3G (or 4G soon) as well. If you get a 4" (or 4.3"), I'd say you'll probably want to opt for a 8.9" or 10.1" tablet. I've played briefly with the 7" tablets as well, but a lot of them are releasing with Android 2.2 and 2.3 (the phone software) instead of Honeycomb (Android 3.0 and 3.1) which is the tablet version. Since I already have a 4.3" phone that runs 2.3.3, I'll be aiming to get a tablet with Android 3.1 (the Eee Transformer is now at 3.1 along with most of the main players). If you are looking to do a little comparison to some other main tablets, the HTC Flyer is fairly impressive, mainly because you can get an over priced pen and mark up a lot of different types of documents, which I thought may be helpful for work, but its only out in the 7" form factor for now and while I do agree that a 7" tablet is very usable, again since my phone is 4.3", I don't think I'd gain that much. Also I think that the laptop dock that comes for the Transformer, with the extra battery is way more useful for business than a pen. Than there is the Motorola Xoom, which is fairly awesome but Motorola was high when it set the damn price. $600 is way too much for a tablet for me anyway. With that said, it is a nice tablet, but if the $600 wasn't an issue, I may have settled for an IPAD a long time ago. Also, as of now at least, no laptop dock add-on for the Xoom. Samsung has the Galaxy Tab, which came out as a 7" form factor but they are following up with a 10.1" and 8.9" but these are not out yet. They are supposed to be super thing but again, not out yet.
Acer also has Iconia Tab A500 but the review was mild about its capabilities in most places and its more expensive than the Transformer. LG also put out the G-Slate which is also a fairly awesome piece of hardware, although I think its only out for T-mobile users. It has some nifty 3D capabilities for games and it comes in an 8.9" form factor.

Anyway, as I said, for the price, I don't think you can beat the Transformer, but you need to handle the device, play with it at the store, try out some of the apps you might use on it and see what you think.

By the way, if you are on Verizon, if you buy one of their 3 4G (LTE) phones (HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Droid Charge or the LG one) you get free wifi mobile hotspot for a month or so before you have to pay the $20 on it. There are of course ways to work around this if you root your phone, but since you claim to be a Techno Noob, again, I might advise you to go out and seek some friendly help from someone who knows this stuff a little better.

[ElTaco]

1) can you do video conferencing on it? Something like Skipe(?) or Facetime(?)?
Yes, The transformer comes with a front camera. There are several applications on Android for video conferencing but your will have to see which one will work for you. Skype does exist for Android, but video conferencing is a coming feature. Skype also owns Qik, which works but you need a user with Qik to conference with. Fring is another video chat provider that is well known. They used to work with Skype as well but then the relationship soured so I'm not sure if it still works with skype or not. Yahoo messenger also does video I believe. The big feature coming to google chat on Android on 2.3.4 is that it will support the video chat feature as well. Not sure when that will come to the 3.x version of the tablet software. Of course Icecream (version 4) will combine the best features of both (phone and tablet) into a single OS so that should help. It will be out at the end of this year. Facetime is for apple devices/users and for the time beeing, they are only making it available on Apple technology (ipod, iphone, ipad, and laptop/desktops).

2) can you do the tethering and Wifi Access Point on an ATT phone? And if so, is there a specific one you could suggest?
Yes, some of their phones do support it. It is called a Mobile Hotspot, here is AT&T's description:

Mobile Hotspot***Connect your Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the Internet by creating your own mobile hotspot.

AT&T has several phones that are decent. The Motorola Atrix is supposed to be one of the best phones and got a lot of attention when it was released. The HTC Inspire also supports the feature but I don't know much about it. If you plan on doing the wifi tethering the supported way than I know that ATT charges you an extra $20/mo to do 2Gb of data for the Hotspot devices.

[PSUFAN]

Sprint just killed the 4G Playbook they'd been promising...

I wouldn't mind grabbing a cheap tablet that had HDMI output capability. We watch a lot of HDTV stuff with our laptop connected to the TV. In my house, anything that moves the entertainment stuff off the "work" computers will be welcome.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

So how does this device hook up? Wi-fi? Your cellular account? WTF?

Aren't you an "IT Professional?" Why don't you have some functioning knowledge of this?

[Goober McTuber]

So how does this device hook up? Wi-fi? Your cellular account? WTF?

Aren't you an "IT Professional?" Why don't you have some functioning knowledge of this?

I'm a mainframe dinosaur, of course. COBOL. IBM big iron.

[ElTaco]

The word is that a lot of the tablets are going to drop their prices. Even the most popular ones, such as the aforementioned Transformer haven't kept up 100% with the iPad. HP already dropped their price by $100 but their tablet is running webOS. It is an excelent OS, especially if you used to use Palm back in the day but not a lot of applications unfortunately. A lot of people are also waiting to see what Amazon will launch. If the Kindle is any sign of their clever design, they could potentially have a hit on their hand. The assumption is that it will be a lower end device (in features not necessarily quality) that will be much cheaper than the current tablets out there.

Of course now that Google has purchased Motorola Mobility, it will also be interesting to see what they may innovate in the next year or so. They will finally be able to directly influence hardware design and hopefully continue to crush Apple in activation.

[ElTaco]

Anyone pick up an HP tablet? I couldn't find any but there is a final batch that is supposed to come out one more time over next few weeks. Its a great steal for $99. Hope I can get one.

[Adelpiero]

Do the tablets have built in cameras, like cell phones.

If so, i will get rid of my notebook and start pricing tablets. When flying to Aruba, this chick did all kinds of shit on her tablet, that i paid a lot more to do with my notebook computer, and it was 1/3 the size and 1/8 the weight.


Also, they all have built in wireless cards, correct?

[ElTaco]

Yes, All tablets these days except for the really dirt cheap ones have a front and back camera. Now mind you, these aren't SLR compatible type cameras but for some pictures or more importantly, perhaps on the fly video conferencing, they are just fine. If you have a camera on your phone, you have a fairly good idea of what they can do (not great with fast motion, low light, etc...). If you plan on going on a trip, I would plan to bring an additional SLR for better pictures...

All of them come with WIFI (usually b/g/n), and you can also get some with Cellular data as well. I have my Asus EEE Pad transformer on order from Best Buy and its wifi only. The way I look at it is that I'll just use my phone for internet connectivity if I really can't find wifi but since I spend most of my time at home or at work, I doubt I will have too much to worry about. In addition, most of them also come with GPS built in, which is nice for trips, although if you get the wifi only models, you may need to rely on other navigation software on the tablet that stores maps (although google maps/navigation now does caching of maps as well).

Your cheapest/Best bet right now for a great tablet is: the HP touchpad. Its a bit of a gamble since HP just killed the hardware but they will be releasing one final batch of 200k more, hopefully at the $99 price again. The nice thing is that HP will continue to work on WebOS and hackers have been porting Android over to it, so more than likely you will be able to take advantage of the hardware for some time and at $99, you really are not taking a huge risk anyway.

Beyond that, the price will probably be the biggest difference. I like the Asus transformer, but most everyone is waiting to see what Amazon will come out with. Personally, I think they will cut out enough features to make it "cheap" and a "success" that I won't like it, but depending on your needs, that may not be an issue. The next breed of tablets will probably be quad core, with even more memory, but personally, in the near future, I don't see that as a necessary feature. About the only thing that is nice is that a lot of the android tablets that have come out since the Transformer are even more lighter and thinner. With that said, i think the accessories still make this one of the best tablets on the market.