Comments on: Tegra 2 Isn’t Enough

By: MT-Francis

MT-Francis — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:51:00 +0000

I believe its the concordance of both software and hardware is the key for a great user experience.

By: Megacharge

Megacharge — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000

It wasn’t Samsung’s software that made the tab popular, no one likes touch wiz, look around the web, you will see far more hate for it, than love. It’s a curse on anything Android that Samsung puts their hands on, the main reasons it sold so well was because the non U.S. versions had cell phone capability built in, and the Galaxy Tab was the first Android tab.

By: Brad Rampersad

Brad Rampersad — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Tegra2 + Gingerbread or Honeycomb…will be an awsome fluid experience

By: Brad Rampersad

Brad Rampersad — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Tegra2 + Gingerbread or Honeycomb…will be an awsome fluid experience

By: Koowie

Koowie — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:16:00 +0000

Yea but to me it’s the software that sells phones.

By: sajid

sajid — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:28:12 +0000

Just wait for the HTC tablet offering. With HTC SENSE it will all make sense. I have used HTC Hero, HTC Desire, and HTC Desire HD. It has been a pleasure to use there software on these phones as it evolved with each phone. If anything Google should copy their interface and improve the Android experience. I can honestly say that there is no comparison between a HTC Sense version of Android on a powerful handset and Apple iPhone IOS.

By: WillTheThrill

WillTheThrill — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:02:14 +0000

Hey Swag,
Could you post a benchmark screen shot for compairson sake; Along with what Android rev you applied?

Also were you able to netflix to stream well?

By: Joe M

Joe M — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 15:51:49 +0000

First I might mention that I’m a Windows PC user, but I do own an iPhone. I’ve coveted the iPads owned by my inlaws for a while now. I have checked out a good number of Android based tablets, including the ePad and the Viewsonic. I was hoping for something a bit less expensive, but offers nearly the same experience. Much as is the case with a good desktop PC.

Sadly, it seems that the market is awash in poor quality tablets. Crappy resistive screens, disappointing battery life, poor product support, and so on. And ironically, they’re not all that much cheaper. I spotted the 10″ Viewsonic unit at Office Depot recently for $400. After spending a short time with it, I would definitely spend the extra $100 for an iPad.

I definitely agree that much more than some new hardware is in order, if the Android tablets really want to offer some real competition.

By: Chikn

Chikn — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:34:52 +0000

I’m honestly psyched about the prospect of HP’s marriage of the TC1100 tablet PC and the Palm Pre Plus. It’s a match made in heaven: TC’s rugged, steel frame construction, brilliant ergonomics, and ThinkPad-worthy stability combined with Pre’s elegant ‘pebble’ shape, wireless charging, and THE best OS ever to grace a phone.

This article is spot-on. The internals don’t make the device. My TC1100 was released in 2004- and it still runs loops around most netbooks today! That’s the brilliance not of fast chips, but incredible engineering. Ditto the Palm Pre; it’s running a chipset that’s 2 years ‘behind’ and is faster, more intuitive, more versatile than anything available. That’s not a hardware thing- it’s the ingenuity of software that is designed to take advantage of whatever system it’s used on.

HP has the ingredients in hand to make what could be the most groundbreaking piece of circuitry since the Apple II.

That said, HP, you’d better release a KILLER WebOS tablet at CES 2011.

By: sola

sola — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:19:01 +0000

Good thinking.

Actually the right thinking for everyone with some computing knowledge.

By: sola

sola — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:17:41 +0000

Yes, Apple may have a simple, good tablet solution for unexperienced users.

On the other hand, power users will never accept their silly restrictions and go for more powerful, more open devices (aka Android).

Android devices will catch up at the tablet user experience. Just like they did on phones.

By: FireDragon

FireDragon — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:04:03 +0000

To be honest, the way I see “Apple” is one of the major reason software is not be able to evolve as quick as hardware and I mean by productivity side. Yes they bring lot of eye-candy and speed but to bring speed alongside that said eye-candy remove the most-used features out of the screen. OS developers limited their circle of productivity to a certain limit and made a disaster instead of creating something more to offer. Those OSes developers/designers seems to win race for User Experience on eye-candy side and not out of it.

By: swag247

swag247 — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:09:17 +0000

Bought the Viewsonic G-Tablet knowing the software was crap…. wiped and modded into one of the hottest tablets available! Agreed, the software out of the box was horrific! And crippled practically unusable. My purchase was for the hardware only. (quadrant scores in the mid to upper 2500′s)

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:51:55 +0000

Isn’t this a chicken and egg sort of thing? You need the hardware before the software can really take off right?

By: Wish

Wish — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:14:33 +0000

Well, duh. A second core that does nothing, playing NOP,NOP by itself in a corner does nothing to improve performance. What a shock. Carelessly put together first-out-the-door almost-prototypes don’t work well. Who could guess?

By: Damon

Damon — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:00:03 +0000

On any of THESE devices.

Woops.

By: Damon

Damon — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:59:39 +0000

Slap a fruit icon on any devices and we’d be seeing tech bloggers slobber all over them. Tegra 2 isn’t enough, but blind fanboyism would provide the “magic” to make these devices sell.

By: Jamieson

Jamieson — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:42:23 +0000

I think that the mentality is a holdover of the PC desktop market, where you got essentially the same form factor but with more “guts”. Customized software wasn’t a consideration, because you could just get the generic stuff, which was more than enough.

With specific hardware form factors though, adjustments need to be made, and I think the market’s been slow to realize this. Apple does a fantastic job at this, but only by heavily walling off “The Apple Experience” from anything external that might taint it. Google has taken the opposite route, which isn’t as pretty without significant work being put into it.

By: Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:13:36 +0000

It’s a great point Chris. Its just as true in the PC space where the latest generation processors aren’t enough to drive sales. The software experience really is the differentiator and Apple continually becomes a touch competitor because they own the software as well.

Even though Dual core Android devices will be out first I am guessing that when Apple puts a dual core in the iPhone the experience will deliver because of their tight integration of hardware and software.

Google could do this as well but given that they try to cater to all the OEM’s it will be difficult since they are already making vendors mad by choosing one partner to work with to roll out new things. To MSFT’s credit they did a better job treating the OEM’s equally.

By: cincibluer6

cincibluer6 — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:07:43 +0000

I think the iPhone, sad to say, is the best example of this. For who knows how long (and even today) they have hardware that lags behind the market but they consistently deliver an easy to use interface.
Now I hate Apple just about as much as any one person can for numerous reasons, but they best exemplify that sales aren’t created by hardware alone (or even at all.)

Great article.