Average selling price of tablets drops 21% in three months The average price of a tablet computer dropped 21 per cent in the first three months of 2012 - making $386 (£250) the average amount that customers pay for a slab. Figures compiled by IMS research show the striking drop, which the tracker company attributed almost entirely to Apple. Apple's price cut on its iPad 2 model in …
My Android tablet supports an external 1080p monitor, mouse, keyboard - plus Citrix and VMWare View. Also various other forms of remote desktop, ssh, FTP and so on. So it's fully capable of almost anything the average IT/developer uses, or other typical office worker. I can manage hundreds of servers with it. Dual external monitors would be nice, but this is an older model.
People who call them toys just don't understand what's going on any more. I guess every generation has its luddites.
I use the quite awesome Model M buckling spring keyboard with mine when I'm doing this type work, now made with USB by PCKeyboards.com. Not to start a flame war or anything, but it's widely regarded as the only keyboard for the serious IT pro. I asked them to make a Bluetooth version, but there is not yet enough demand - but if you Google it somebody has come up with a kit.
And if I'm not doing this kind of work, but watching Netflix in bed or letting the kids amuse themselves on a road trip with Angry Birds Space HD instead, the keyboard is a detriment so I leave it off - but the 14 hour battery life is just the thing.
So what compiler does it support? What debugger does it support? What revision control system does it support? CVS? Clearcase? MKS on a tablet?
Can I actually write a kernel driver or some low level network code on it while on a plane from LHR to EWR (the slow-boat 757 which drags its feet for nearly 9 hours but has sockets even in cattle class)?
Well, not it does not.
Managing servers != development
Office work != development
Ssh != development
FTP != development
Ad naseum.
It is a nice consumer toy, it is a nice office work toy, it can even be a nice sysadmin toy, but a developer's toy it _DOES_ _NOT_ make. So while it can do about 66% of my work - office + syadmin (which I still do aplenty of each) it cannot do the remaining 33% where I have to write actual real code and do it in the gaps between meetings, on trains, planes and other places where I want a portable gadget. So for work I will still stick to a laptop (I may get a tablet for a car stereo/entertainment fronted at some point).
Yeah, I know, I am a caveman. People in developed countries who do powerpoint are not supposed to be writing code too. So I will stick to my caveman luddite attitude and use my laptop instead :)
Do you do nothing but work? Take time to enjoy the internet. A fondleslab provides a more immediate and convenient access point that even a netbook.
Its a basic connection with what's happening outside your immediate environment. Is a TV, a newspaper, a telephone - a TOY? Maybe you need to grow up a little ;-)
I call my tf101 a toy. But then I call my main computer a box and my graphics tablet a cat bed, so... yeah.
I don't get the whole problem with grown men having "toys". To assume that adults can never have anything to enjoy is a very childish way to view the world. To be an adult means knowing when you can let go and simply enjoy life - and play with your toys.
Nup, sorry. The best way to surf the web is with a keyboard, monitor and mouse. Fondleslabs (in particular Apple devices) are the best of the ultra-portable devices, but I'm always more comfortable sitting at a desk or table with a real computer and real physical input mechanisms than a touch screen.
I'll repeat that iOS got it as right as possible with smartphones and tablets, but the interface is less intuitive, and more clunky than a WIMP environment.
Sigh.... I have an Acer Iconia A500 ICS and I love the hell out of it. Bought it to replace my laptop and backpack I carry around every day.
But: I need serial ports, ethernet ports, keyboard, decent size monitor etc for my daily BS - no wireless, no workie, ya know? It's not a good replacement for a fulll-on computer yet.
My wife recently got an Asus Transformer Prime. It is really, really good. The addition of a keyboard "transforms" the usability.
It obviously isn't suitable for software development, graphic design or other specialist work, but for normal everyday computing it leaves very few boxes unticked.
Tablets capable of running full on Windows 8 (as opposed to merely being a larger screen version of what phones run, like Apple and Android tablets do) are going to cost more. I'm gonna guess they'll probably be priced closer to $1000 than $500, because they know they won't be able to compete with Apple on price, let alone with Android, so they might as well price them high enough to make a decent profit and give up any aspirations of penetrating the consumer market to any real degree.
I think MS' approach is interesting, the full OS on a higher spec tablet. I am in the market for a replacement workstation and laptop, I'd also like to get a tablet. I'm seriously considering the Samsung Series Seven slate, it runs a fully featured OS (Win 7 by default, but you'll be able to get a linux running on it.) It's got 4 gig-o-RAM and 128Gig of flash storage and an i5 processor. It has a bluetooth keyboard and a dock which connects it to Ethernet and an external monitor. It's also got celular, IIRC. It does cost a grand, but for the job it does that's not too bad, I think I'll wait for a while, but it's got me watching with interest.
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