Posts by Christopher Rogers

Sunny out.

The satellite picture makes it look really boring.

I've been tempting myself with a new screen or 2 for a while, but really it would be a waste of money. I have a 4:3 ratio Sony which has a fantastically sharp screen and an HP generic 19" widescreen which is more than ample. The only really compelling reason to replace either will be when one or t'other pops it. Then its min 23" IPS all round.

Yup me too.

I now have collections of parts and cables over my and my parents houses. But! I am getting better. I am starting to catch on to myself. Things are heading binward. It is however a very long very slow process.

Acer gear is simply "ample." Its hard to get excited about what they pump out, but its is fairly stable and run of the mill. I just get the feeling the Nexus and the Kindle have a tad more cool about them. This from the owner of an Acer laptop and tablet....

I may need to look at my life....

Nice

But I won't be upgrading my A500 until after a large number of Windows 8 machines hit the market.

I own an android tablet and it's just average.

Its an Acer Iconia A500. It does the business. However, since android on tablets is sh1t, i'm going to wait for Windows 8 and then replace it.

I really wanted Android to be awesome, but its not. I currently have 2 experiences of using it, one on my phone and one on the tablet. The phone is better (HTC Sensation XE), the tablet is distinctly underwhelming.

Its no surprise the Android tablet market is not running the show. It just not alot of fun to use and there is no real productivity tools so business use is out.

So back to M$ cos f*ck Apple.

Ah yes, the tech blogs of the world are divided

Gizmodo have published an article that rips this case to bits and suggests Samsung have enough ammo to blow massive holes in this outcome

I gather you don't agree....

This statement shows Apple is just like every other firm...

"...we have enough patent filings in the tablet and smartphone arena to make life difficult."

READ: everyone has to come to us if they want to get involved in the tablet market. Kerching!

"For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It’s about values".

The values being that of each patient and how much it can bring in per device. Apple is a business. They have a social responsibility just like everyone else. They are not in any way particularly nicer or better people. They just happen to have had 2 very capable people on board in the shape of Jonathan Ive and the late Steve Jobs and a team of very capable lawyers. Some day the fanboi dream will end and millions of disillusioned Apple geeks will wake up and see that actually, these things are merely tools, Apple isn't a channel to heaven in the next life and actually Asus can make a useful product that does the same job but for less money...

A few Capita ACs here then....

The Android update debacle

I bought an Acer Iconia a500 last year out of sheer geeky will to spend some cash and that was the only model I could pick up from the shop there and then. For months the tablet had very little proper reason for existence with only netflix being its saviour. Then I bought a Kensington case and bluetooth keyboard and brought it on my honeymoon to back up photos and provide some web access etc while we were away. Frankly now I think i can get rid of my old Linux laptop - the tablet now provides all the functionality i need - light web surfing, media management. So I'm thinking I'd like a maybe faster tablet with better battery life and screen and less portly. I'm a google slut so Gdrive and Gmail do the business. I have a 3 mi-fi so need only wi-fi only.

But, what a bloody minefield it is. Does anyone have any idea what is coming around the corner from the hardware manufacturers? If i were to pay the inflated cost of this ASUS, am i going to discover that just around the corner, better again chip and screen designs are going to make this look old? I am very aware that tech keeps developing and if you wait for the next big thing, you'll be waiting forever. However, the tablet market is still young and volatile and can change beyond recognition very quickly. Is Android 5 and Windows RT going to move the boundaries so much that my ACER is going to become a digital picture frame?? I don't know.

Theres a reason why Apple still own this market - they have kept their wares simple. Android has simply confused it and constantly muddies the water. And frankly that perfect for Microsoft to wade in and absorb the Android market.

Agreed

LG do not have a good reputation in the Android market. Everything they have pumped out so far has been pretty poor. However, if they get this device into enough hands and keep it up to date, they could do some real damage to HTC. Frankly, the external memory slot is enough for me to call it better than the One X.

Rubbish

Bin fodder. Google should stick to android.

Nice

Would be a great device to have for media consumption, streaming stuff. Couple of UK problems - mobile broadband in some places is still pants and google music isn't available here. A mobile with hotspot ability is great right until you realise you have flattened your battery and left yourself with NO devices with broadband connectivity. I fully recommend a 3 mi-fi or an old smartphone off ebay with a 3 pay as you go sim.

Overall, This would be a great cheap tablet for sofa based internetting. I wont be replacing my iconia a500 any time soon however as I like the fact the Acer can turn into a bit of an ultrabook type device on top of being an ICS based tablet. Even if the power cable is a bit short.

Really?

7" tablet is the way forward? Really? So ballpark 2 inches bigger than some phones is the future of the tablet? Don't see it.

Tablets were talked up by Microsoft years ago, however they didn't have the technology to make them ultra portable nor did they have a clear definition of their purpose. When the technology came about, apple rebooted the idea and this time added focus - media consumption devices, designed to consume information, movies, pictures, games. Ipad does this brilliantly and as mentioned before, the ui is simple enough to get out of your road. The screen size is right on the money for watching movies etc. Thats the sweet spot. Apple got it right and thats why everyone else is playing catchup.

Microsoft are going 1 step further by pushing the idea that the ultrabook and tablet markets are going to merge into their Surface device. Based on the scant knowledge of this device, if it delivers on its promise they could just have pulled the tablet sector back round to what Billg talked about years ago. However, even they don't seem to have the idea licked. Two versions of Win 8 for 2 architectures? Are they hedging bets with x86 and ARM, hoping that there will be a winner and so the other can quietly vanish? Who knows.

One thing we do know, they think 10" and above is the way forward. Anything smaller is a phone.

I have an HTC Sensation XE and an Acer Iconia A500. Read into that what you will.

This stinks of fail

This is just too radical a departure for the great unwashed when it comes to windows. Win 7 is an outstanding OS. MS should not be releasing this product as Win 8, it should be Windows Metro and specifically for the tablet market. The X86 version should only be a metro skin for Win 7. Windows 9 should be where they attempt to pull the desktop and metro together. Win 7will indeed have a loooooong future.

I am going to re-purpose an old HTC Hero with a 3 PAYG sim and get the all-you-can-eat data deal. If it proves to be the business, I'm going to go for the highly recommended Mi-Fi.

Is the focus on this wrong?

Since computers or computing is going to be part of human life from the get go (how many babies are already in pictures on facebook) then surely computing should become a topic just like Science/maths/English/History, with programming being one of the key theories contained within that topic. We need to move ICT away from word processing and spreadsheets and more into coding, networking etc.