Comments on: Toshiba’s Giant Tablet is a Giant Mistake

By: T88powered

T88powered — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:41:00 +0000

“Don’t push the hardware limits” wait for the software to become available. Why would software become available for hardware that isn’t? I remember when Samsung released the first tablets, no software was available and the OS was for phones. The market place was still created and the same WILL happen here with larger tablets.

You seem more worried about the size for YOU and not what the consumers want. To me, the 7″ tablets are unacceptable and 10″ tablets just barely work for daily use.

Even phones have now reached half the size of the largest tablets, doesn’t this suggest tablets could be bigger as well?

By: Jacob Kirchheimer

Jacob Kirchheimer — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:29:00 +0000

pretty much
just kidding, but samsung is my favorite android company

By: Louis B

Louis B — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:31:00 +0000

Yeah yeah everything Android that’s not made by samsung is bad right? *eyes rolling in sarcasm*

By: evilsushi

evilsushi — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:33:00 +0000

I think you might miss the point of this. It definately isn’t for everybody but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for it. Think about reviewing Schematic diagrams? or legal documents. Something with a larger screen like this would be great in the enterprise especially in settings where multiple people may be looking at the same document at the same time like diagrams.

By: Bonosedge

Bonosedge — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:09:00 +0000

no,, it’s not a giant mistake… thats awesome!!!! atleast for me..

By: Daniel Araos

Daniel Araos — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:44:00 +0000

Every time I see more and more articles like this one “This isn’t like an Ipad, and doesn’t suit my specific needs, so it’s horrible”

By: Bunta_Sugawara

Bunta_Sugawara — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:47:00 +0000

The only giant mistake is your opinion that tablets need to be fixed to a certain size. I wish the T-Prime had a 13″ option.

By: The_Four_Freedoms

The_Four_Freedoms — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:29:00 +0000

As I’m just about to sell my 10″ android tablet due to the poor apps for Honeycomb and being fed up waiting for an ICS upgrade, this product is a non-starter in today’s market.
Fast forward another 12 months, to when ICS has achieved a critical mass and the apps have been developed, then it will be a different story.

By: Carney3

Carney3 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:50:00 +0000

Of course you can run an office suite on a non Windows tablet. Just not Microsoft Office. But iWork for iOS is respectably robust. And OfficeSuite Pro, SmartOffice, and ThinkFree Office are decent suites for Android.

By: Liaw Kim Poh

Liaw Kim Poh — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:46:00 +0000

I would get it unless it run Windows 8, can double up as an ultrabook with a keyboard docking

By: $32081693

$32081693 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:31:00 +0000

And if Apple where to do this, you would be up in arms about how you couldn’t wait to take it home and fornicate with it!

By: pepee63

pepee63 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:49:00 +0000

13 inch and wifi only, what a perfect tablet for the home. Remember people, they said 4 inches was too big for a phone screen, now we are up to 5 inches and loving it. Give it two years and i can see the day where we have 15 inch screens. Tablets are always going to get lighter and the bezels smaller, so one day a 15 inch is going to make perfect sense. 10 inch screens are just too small to enjoy browsing and watching movies on. Bring on the big screen revolution. As for the apps, the more prolific large screen tablets become, the more tablet oriented apps will appear, and as for the new TV’s that will allow apps to be shown on their screens, the more of a urge to supply these apps.

By: eraserhead2702

eraserhead2702 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:54:00 +0000

I think this is a good idea but is really expensive e_e

By: Stocklone

Stocklone — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:06:00 +0000

I completely agree with the software needing to be there to make the hardware useful. My HTC Flyer didn’t have what I consider really good software for note taking until about 8 months after it was released. The software HTC made for the stylus is ok but some of the 3rd party apps out now that have N-Trig support just blow it away. Apple has the huge benefit of developers willing to quickly support their hardware pushes.

By: D

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:23:00 +0000

The larger screen would be better for presentations that are done on the fly for
traveling sales persons that must do presentations without the use of an A/V set
up in a meeting or conference room. The USB, HDMI & SDI card slot would
also come in very handy for sales people that have to go from one place to the
next. At 2.2 lbs., it is still much lighter than many laptops to lug around to
do product presentations.

By: BROKENarrow

BROKENarrow — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:18:00 +0000

Perfect platform for Arm Windows 8

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Except the ultraportable can only display landscape. Trying to read any kind of PDF or similar, maybe scanned pages of some kind, and you will be doing a whole lot of scrolling.

Slap those pages on a 13″ portrait and your very close to the physical size, text and all.

By: ZeeLobby

ZeeLobby — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:26:00 +0000

“you can use any type of stylus on a tab” – but you can’t… digitized styli only work on devices that support them… The “obviousness” of my remark was the fact that I was replying to you. I just figured you’d put 2 and 2 together: “‘drawing board/pad’/
canvas” and “digitized stlyus” go hand in hand. If your doing art, on a tablet/touchscreen it is widely accepted that digitized styli are much preferred. I made the assumption that you would be using the tablet for artistic/design applications, and not just finger painting, but I may have been wrong, for which I apologize.

As for your second paragraph. There is no such thing as a “great” capacitive, or “finger tip press”, stylus when it comes to drawing. They are all the same. The material might be different, or the shape, or it might feel better in hand, but there is no difference when determining what part of the screen is being interacted with, how much pressure is being used, or how finite of an area you are targeting based on the stylus. This is all determined by the software of the tablet your using. But when you combine a digitized stylus with this software you suddenly have different pressure gradients, and it is more akin to creating actual drawings/paintings, rather than finger painting. It also makes blending and mixing easier as it will sense the down pressure and up pressure of every stroke.

Its one of those things you can’t explain to someone who hasn’t used one, but I wouldn’t get this tablet if you are expecting to do more on it than doodle/sketch (even then sketching is very monotone without grays). Take it from someone who has used many digital art products, and has had experience with both the Idea Pad and Galaxy Note.

By: renGek

renGek — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:02:00 +0000

We are seeing tablets installed inside stores and restaurants and airports for customers to use. Why wouldn’t a larger tab make sense? Seems to me the author lacks the ability to think beyond his sofa.

By: Christopher Morrison

Christopher Morrison — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:00:00 +0000

I’ll just wait for a windows 8 tablet since I want to use a tablet like a piece of work equipment and not an internet toy… I can’t run an office suite on android or ipad, especially when needing VBA access. Toshiba did get one thing right, the 13″ screen is a great idea for a laptop replacement tablet

By: Trace

Trace — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:44:00 +0000

I didn’t “gloss” over anything Zachary. I was merely pointing out that you can use any type of stylus on a tab. You didn’t specify the application of such stylus which would have made your statement’s topic more “obvious.”

I have used quite a few very good styli and some of the very best are “finger tip press” types. If you want a brush tip or stylized stroke then you are better off getting a tablet that supports software for that pupose, not merely relying on a stylus.

By: JohnJohnJ

JohnJohnJ — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Toshiba is using the shotgun marketing approach. But honestly to assume one is going to buy a second tablet just for home use is silly. And author, your comment about Toshiba writing Android software is priceless…in a nutshell that’s what’s wrong with Google’s Android approach in the first place.

By: Hobozombie

Hobozombie — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:22:00 +0000

I am 100% on board with a big home based tablet computer. But how on earth can a company bring out something with a screen this size, in a market like this with a resolution like 1600×900? Even if a panel like the new ipads is out of reach, at least get it up to 1080.

Madness!

By: ZeeLobby

ZeeLobby — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:11:00 +0000

You’ve glossed over the word “digitized” obviously. Capacitive styli produce the same amount of accuracy as a finger tip press. Digitized styli are not only more accurate, but can detect varying degrees of pressure. They require hardware modifications that most tablets currently do not have, and apps must have ingrained interaction with this hardware. Good examples of digitized styli are Lenova’s Think Pad and Samsung Galaxy Note. Any real artist/designer would want one of these, which is similar to WACOM tablet stylus technology. Otherwise your just finger-painting on a 13″ screen.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:06:00 +0000

This is only a big mistake if you assume all tablet users are the same. (I’ll hold on a second while you admit that not all people who use tablets are the same…) Okay, now that that’s over maybe we could examine if the possible user-base that might like (and buy) a larger tablet, is a large enough demographic to make it worthwhile for someone to build one?

Or not, actually. Because it appears that Toshiba already did the market research and decided that it’s worth the risk fr them.. Time will tell if they’re right or not.

By: Boybolivia

Boybolivia — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:03:00 +0000

Personally, I never understood the appeal of the 10 size. Give me either something truly portable like a 7 inch size or big enough for me to have an enjoyable web browsing or media experience. 10 inch size is best if what you want is something that says, “look at me, I’m so important, I need to have a computer I can use while standing!”

Bet a lot of the bashers would be saying “What a great idea!” if this tablet had that iconic logo on the back of it.

By: CorusMaximus

CorusMaximus — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:35:00 +0000

Someone missed (the admittedly bad) joke.

By: atari37

atari37 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:34:00 +0000

The size is not a mistake, I know I’ve been patiently waiting for something like this to replace my laptop for everyday web browsing, productivity apps and occasional game play. This fits the bill perfectly for me.

HOWEVER, Toshiba has priced this thing way too high. All three versions are overpriced.

By: Haris Radzi

Haris Radzi — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:28:00 +0000

Its not an opinion if he wrote it on a website to let people know what he thinks. It is a statement from the author. I dont consider it as an opinion anymore

By: Maikel Warmerdam

Maikel Warmerdam — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:27:00 +0000

The’re many customers out there that wan’t 13″ tablet, like me for example. So what most of the apps arn’t really made for an 13″ screen. They will get better over time.

By: TechGuy21

TechGuy21 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:23:00 +0000

Toshiba made it its a giant mistake
if it was apple you would see 20 articles talking how awesome it is
smh

By: Hector Alejandro Garcia

Hector Alejandro Garcia — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:21:00 +0000

transvestites, cross-dressers…. travesty tablet, cross platform… YOU? just looking for an excuse to bitch… transvesties do describe themselves and travestites and have no shame in the use of the word when used correctly… now, if the author would have used “drag queen” then maybe you would have a sliver of reason to bitch and moan… I’m tired of people like you looking for a reason to raise the alarm over bullshit.

Thanks, but I doubt transvestites appreciate your stupidity.

By: davidten

davidten — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:16:00 +0000

It’s great that manufacturers are taking risks. The tablet market is still nascent and important hardware features like size will sort themselves out (ala Jobs’ 10 inches is IT, vs. the push we are now observing for a smaller form factor iPad). Wish Slash Gear took a more positive and open tone regarding this in this specific article. The market will sort these issues out.

Your point on ap development is well taken, but Toshiba is only a small part of that much broader issue, whose ownership rests on many different shoulders, not just the hardware companies.

Though portability is important for me, I have a friend whose tablet doesn’t leave his home and he’s expressed interest in a larger size than his current iPad2. His use is mainly sofa based or on a work table. Just one example of ‘to each his own.’

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:16:00 +0000

Not bashing Android or anything, but the majority of apps on Android tablets are blown-up phone apps, which look barely acceptable on a 7″, not at all on a 10.1″, and I can only imagine how bad they will look on a 13.3″.

By: Gldata

Gldata — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:13:00 +0000

I want one and will buy it.

By: Kellic

Kellic — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:11:00 +0000

So basically the summary of this opinion article, and it definitely IS an opinion, is choice is bad, go with what everyone else is using. People only need one size fits all.

Let me guess, Apple fan?

By: fauxshizzl

fauxshizzl — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:09:00 +0000

I thought I read on another site that 13″ did in fact have a full sized USB port.

By: Trace

Trace — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:04:00 +0000

I rarely held my iPad or hold my Galaxy Tab 7.0 either even though it’s pretty darn light. My wife always holds hers but then she just treats it as an ereader, which I doubt many ppl would buy a 13″ tab to be.

By: NoSacredCow

NoSacredCow — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:03:00 +0000

This would be great for the medical market.

By: jhdale

jhdale — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Most of the time when I use my tablet (which is 1.6 lbs), it is sitting on the table or in my lap. I rarely hold it up in actual use. So I don’t know that the additional weight is that much of a big deal. It probably is for some users. This is not going to appeal to that segment. That is probably why they are also making 7″ and 10″ versions.

As for keyboard… well, in my opinion all tablets would be improved by a removable keyboard, like for example the Asus Transformer. But again I’m not sure that’s applicable to all users.