4 ms·

I agree entirely with your first paragraph. I didn't realize how much I wanted a tablet until I had one, but my current tablet is almost 4 years old and I'm not

by delecti 11y ago

I agree entirely with your first paragraph. I didn't realize how much I wanted a tablet until I had one, but my current tablet is almost 4 years old and I'm not in any hurry to replace it. Compare to me just having gotten my 4th smartphone in a bit under 6 years.

VonGuard 11y ago
I think a lot of people have also been burned by utterly crap cheap tablets. There are thousands of sub $100 tablets, and I don't think any of them are worth while. Some are downright off-putting in their uselessness and lack of speed. I figure there's a subset of super-non-techies out there who've bought one of these at TJ Maxx and have now sworn off all Android tablets.
- edgyswingset 11y ago
  To be fair, there aren't even really great experiences to be had with a good android tablet. The OS and app ecosystem simply isn't good enough for big screens.
  - matwood 11y ago
    I agree. I was pretty stoked when I got a Nexus 7, but it was basically killed by system upgrades slowing the system down to nothing. Apple has done an okay job keeping the older models still functioning even if they do not get all the functionality of latest iOS.
  - NoGravitas 11y ago
    I don't know what you mean by "big", but I've loved the experience of my Nexus 7 (2012). Great for reading books, good for reading comic books, good for watching movies/TV by yourself. Not really any better for social media than a phone. Haven't tried any content creation on it other than a few memes, and sshing into an emacs session on a real computer. I'll replace it this year because of hardware problems (does not recognize charger except when turned off). But it's run up to Android 5.1.1 with no trouble.
  - TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
    My Galaxy Tab S is a great ebook reader. The screen is the best I've seen, and it's a joy for art/photo books and graphic-heavy PDFs. But it doesn't get much use as a browser - not least because of Google's bizarre decision not to include a PDF reader.
  - bigger_cheese 11y ago
    I bought an Android tablet last year. I was holidaying in South America for six weeks and did not want to carry a full laptop with me. I basically used it as an Ebook Reader / Mp3 player /way to upload photos from my camera to cloud while travelling. Since I returned to Australia it has been gathering dust there is no use case for it in my day to day life. As a cheap almost disposable laptop for travel it was great for anything more then that I don't see the point.
endymi0n 11y ago
Funny, I didn't realize how little I wanted a tablet until I got a brand new iPad as a signing bonus. I gave it away after half a year to a friend of mine, as for just two millimeters more, I'd have my MacBook Air, with a real operating system, a decent keyboard and an implicit stand that will hold up the screen upright when I'm watching something in bed. Never looked back, tablets just didn't make sense for me.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  > a real operating system Must say that the notion that some OS is more "real" than another is odd. I could kinda understand it back in the featurephone days. But these days the distinction seem arbitrary at best.
  - kenjackson 11y ago
    The distinction between a locked down mobile OS and a relatively open desktop OS is really not that arbitrary IMO.
  - pixl97 11y ago
    If you cannot install a native program you wrote for the device without hacking the firmware on the device, you do not have a 'real' operating system. I mean, of course you have an operating system, it's just one that Apple, Microsoft, or Google controls in the strict sense what you can do with it.
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      And what would native be in the case of Android? Flip the "unknown sources" setting and you can dump any random APK onto it. The tablet market neither begins nor ends with iPad.
      - pixl97 11y ago
        Being that endymi0n was talking about an iPad, it certainly relates to the conversation.
digi_owl 11y ago
The problem is see is that Google has been back and forth about their tablet commitment. Back when Android 3.0 shipped, they introduced a single bar UI that could be compared to the Windows UI that has existed since Windows 95. But then as later version of 3.x, and then 4.x was released, Google was introducing new restrictions and slowly rolling back the 3.0 UI. For example with 3.0 you had one storage permission, "external". But come 3.1, they introdced another, "media". And only system apps could gain write permission to "media", unless the OEMs went in and changed up key files. Thing about "media" was that it got applied to all removable storage. Be it SD slots or USB drives. Then as 4.3 shipped, anything smaller than 8" got a "hybrid" UI that looked like a phone, but acted like a tablet in various ways. And with 4.4 the tablet UI that was introduced with 3.0 was fully replaced with the phone UI. Odd thing is that with 6.0(.1) they seem to be moving somewhat back towards the 3.0 tablet UI. rather than having the 3 bottom bar buttons always centered, they split up and move to the bottom corners on larger tablets.

by delecti 11y ago

VonGuard 11y ago

I think a lot of people have also been burned by utterly crap cheap tablets. There are thousands of sub $100 tablets, and I don't think any of them are worth while. Some are downright off-putting in their uselessness and lack of speed. I figure there's a subset of super-non-techies out there who've bought one of these at TJ Maxx and have now sworn off all Android tablets.

edgyswingset 11y ago
To be fair, there aren't even really great experiences to be had with a good android tablet. The OS and app ecosystem simply isn't good enough for big screens.
- matwood 11y ago
  I agree. I was pretty stoked when I got a Nexus 7, but it was basically killed by system upgrades slowing the system down to nothing. Apple has done an okay job keeping the older models still functioning even if they do not get all the functionality of latest iOS.
- NoGravitas 11y ago
  I don't know what you mean by "big", but I've loved the experience of my Nexus 7 (2012). Great for reading books, good for reading comic books, good for watching movies/TV by yourself. Not really any better for social media than a phone. Haven't tried any content creation on it other than a few memes, and sshing into an emacs session on a real computer. I'll replace it this year because of hardware problems (does not recognize charger except when turned off). But it's run up to Android 5.1.1 with no trouble.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
  My Galaxy Tab S is a great ebook reader. The screen is the best I've seen, and it's a joy for art/photo books and graphic-heavy PDFs. But it doesn't get much use as a browser - not least because of Google's bizarre decision not to include a PDF reader.
- bigger_cheese 11y ago
  I bought an Android tablet last year. I was holidaying in South America for six weeks and did not want to carry a full laptop with me. I basically used it as an Ebook Reader / Mp3 player /way to upload photos from my camera to cloud while travelling. Since I returned to Australia it has been gathering dust there is no use case for it in my day to day life. As a cheap almost disposable laptop for travel it was great for anything more then that I don't see the point.

endymi0n 11y ago

Funny, I didn't realize how little I wanted a tablet until I got a brand new iPad as a signing bonus. I gave it away after half a year to a friend of mine, as for just two millimeters more, I'd have my MacBook Air, with a real operating system, a decent keyboard and an implicit stand that will hold up the screen upright when I'm watching something in bed. Never looked back, tablets just didn't make sense for me.

digi_owl 11y ago
> a real operating system Must say that the notion that some OS is more "real" than another is odd. I could kinda understand it back in the featurephone days. But these days the distinction seem arbitrary at best.
- kenjackson 11y ago
  The distinction between a locked down mobile OS and a relatively open desktop OS is really not that arbitrary IMO.
- pixl97 11y ago
  If you cannot install a native program you wrote for the device without hacking the firmware on the device, you do not have a 'real' operating system. I mean, of course you have an operating system, it's just one that Apple, Microsoft, or Google controls in the strict sense what you can do with it.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    And what would native be in the case of Android? Flip the "unknown sources" setting and you can dump any random APK onto it. The tablet market neither begins nor ends with iPad.
    - pixl97 11y ago
      Being that endymi0n was talking about an iPad, it certainly relates to the conversation.

digi_owl 11y ago

The problem is see is that Google has been back and forth about their tablet commitment. Back when Android 3.0 shipped, they introduced a single bar UI that could be compared to the Windows UI that has existed since Windows 95. But then as later version of 3.x, and then 4.x was released, Google was introducing new restrictions and slowly rolling back the 3.0 UI. For example with 3.0 you had one storage permission, "external". But come 3.1, they introdced another, "media". And only system apps could gain write permission to "media", unless the OEMs went in and changed up key files. Thing about "media" was that it got applied to all removable storage. Be it SD slots or USB drives. Then as 4.3 shipped, anything smaller than 8" got a "hybrid" UI that looked like a phone, but acted like a tablet in various ways. And with 4.4 the tablet UI that was introduced with 3.0 was fully replaced with the phone UI. Odd thing is that with 6.0(.1) they seem to be moving somewhat back towards the 3.0 tablet UI. rather than having the 3 bottom bar buttons always centered, they split up and move to the bottom corners on larger tablets.