cordelli

So you can charge people for the upgrade. People who don't want or need it get a cheaper box, those who need it will have to pay for it to be enabled, installed, whatever

broadwayblue

Apparently there's an issue with Honeycomb not supporting SD cards...a software update will correct that (so they say.)

new2japan

Why would you wait and not just get an iPad?

ByrdluvsAWACO

Because I choose not to support Apple.

DJ Bitterbarn

I liked the look of the Xoom when I saw it the first time, but not enough to rush out and buy one. The specs look nice, but I'm not overly excited about it for some reason. Between that and finally getting some time on a Galaxy Tab (just a bit small for my liking, but not too small) I'm going to share your sentiments about an HTC 10". I still may consider the scribe when it appears in the wild, but 10" is closer to my ideal tablet size right now.

Because I happen to believe that Apple's walled-garden approach to integration is completely wrong, along with a list of other complaints that I will not get into here.

Now, if a company would be so considerate as to release a 10" tablet that natively doubles as a keyboard/tablet input to a separate Windows/Linux box running on the same LAN, then you've got my attention.

new2japan

Their walled in garden has plenty of benefits. It has provided you with quite a bit of innovation. Without it, those Android phones likely wouldn't be around, there'd be no app store, Vista/7 would look completely different, Microsoft would be failing horribly at being the leader in tablets (oops, I mean slates), Blackberry would be the most consumer friendly smart phone and you'd still be buying CD's.

I guess none of that counts for anything. Android is now enjoying the fragmentation mess that linux has for years. Instead of enjoying a tablet for the last year, you're waiting for CES, so you can buy an also ran?

There's an app for that. Has been since the iPad was released. I guess that walled in garden is not so bad after all.

wco81

Despite the "walled garden" there's more software support and more peripherals support not to mention more content. Android doesn't have Netflix or access to certain other types of media, does it?

This critique comes from geeks and has filtered into the mass culture but a lot of people choosing Android don't even know what it connotes. A lot of them probably thinks Android has or will have more software support, because it's "open."

cparekh

Because I prefer using Android and all its flexibility and power, in my opinion, over the Apple products. That being said, I also prefer Ubuntu Linux to Apple's OS, so I understand I am in the minority in that I find Android easier to use for what I want, but the sales of Andoid phones to the mass market shows they are getting many things correct.

That being said, I would not really criticize anyone who would rather get an iPad, iPod, iPhone, or iTouch, as they are all really nice products.

broadwayblue

Are you just trolling or is this a serious question? There are still a few of us who aren't Apple users. I have an EVO and love Android...and in the next few months there should be plenty of Android tablets to choose from. If you are a mac user at home (or office) I can see why an iPhone and iPad make sense. But I'm a PC guy and have no interest in dealing with software and/or apps for multiple platforms.

DJ Bitterbarn

There's an android app for that, too. Neither gives anywhere near the level of integration that I know there could be. Real distributed computing is more than a bunch of standalone devices that all require apps to talk to each other, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be in the cards. As for the rest of it, I have a rule about not arguing with mac zealots*.

Neither does... the country where I live. As for other media, I have a solution in place that works pretty nicely involving an underpowered webserver (again, not proper distributed computing nicely, but we'll get there eventually). But Android hasn't yet failed at the tasks I need it for, and I'm interested to see how 3.0 applies to tablets.

*I have lots of friends who are mac users, we get along fine. But they aren't in-your-face "mac is perfect and you're wrong for not thinking so".

wco81

One thing I hear is that a lot of Android phone makers don't update the OS for their customers.

So a number of people are still on 2.1 or even earlier, waiting for 2.2. or 2.3, unless they've rooted their devices.

Will be curious what kind of after-sales support these companies will provide. Of course there's a wide range of companies, from fly-by-night outfits offering $99 tablets to more well-known companies. But even some of the latter, like Samsung, draw complaints for poor software upgrade support on existing phones.

whitearrow

Some of the hardware isn't capable of supporting the OS upgrades. I'd rather keep an OS that works than "upgrade" to one that doesn't.

broadwayblue

Even if my EVO never gets another OS upgrade I'll still have no regrets I went with it. It's an iPhone killer as far as I'm concerned. Regardless, any new hardware with decent specs will be more than capable of supporting the current OS and likely at least 1 or more upgrades down the line.

Anyway, less than 1 month until MWC...looking forward to some new devices.

new2japan

Rather very serious post. Seems rather silly to be so interested in tablets that you're waiting to buy one from the likes of Samsung when there have been industry changing tablets in the marketplace for a year now. Let me get this straight, you're a PC guy and you don't want to deal with a phone that isn't made by the manufacturer of your desktop computer.

By the logic, the device that you'd be wanting to use is Windows Phone 7 and you'd be waiting for an MS tablet...er slate as they call them. Your actions seem to indicate that the OS maker of your phone is independent from what OS you use on the desktop. You're basically talking out of both sides of your mouth.

You do realize that your PC and your Android phone mean that you are "dealing with software and/or apps fro multiple platforms". Must suck to be you.

I love my google, but they've created a fragmented marketplace. They should call it Androids not Android as your Android can be anything from a cheaply made chinese piece of junk to a high end HTC device running the latest Android. Who knows if a particular app can run on your phone.

Microsoft seems to have learned from this by putting a greater degree of control in it's licensing model.

Oh right. It's been running on the Android tablet for the last year. Oh wait, there wasn't an Android tablet for the last year. It took Apple 'innovating' one so that the Android device makers could innovate one as well.

I've found one thing * about people who mumble about rules during any type of debate. Incidentally, this "mac zealot" wrote the original post on a Windows machine. I'm writing this one on a macbook. I have more Microsoft based systems in my house than I do Apple and I use a Blackberry. Should I make a post in Omni advocating for the poor, you shouldn't assume that I'm doing that because I'm poor. Being puzzled about why you would be waiting for a tablet to launch when there was an industry changing device launched a year ago certainly doesn't take a Mac zealot. Just a sensible person.

* - They know they'll be owned during the discussion so they talk about rules and throw their arms up in the air and refuse to talk about it. That way, they don't have to face losing the debate.

DJ Bitterbarn

I know my Hero isn't really happy with a few bits of 2.2, but happily runs it for the great dev community who has tweaked 2.2 specifically for the Hero. But the lack of proper 2.2 on the unrooted Hero is, from what I understand, a fault of both the provider for not enabling it and a bit of the manufacturer for not taking the time to "customize" their OS skin for it. Yes, this involves rooting and tweaking, but when most of the good features of iOS only come with jailbreaking, then we should at least compare apples to apples (pun intended).


If the original subject was "the poor" or "lack of money" or "what will we do to get more money to the poor", and you came on and started talking about the poor, I would not think you were trying to advocate anything. If the subject was "exchange rates" and you started in on something about the poor, then I'd think you were trying to advertise something. Because that's what you did. This subject was about android tablets and you just couldn't resist adding your two cents about "oh mac is so perfect, you should all buy macs".

And since a number of keyboard/mouse program have been on the android app store for more than a year, they count. But again, none of them do it right, so my original point stands.

But