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Interestingly titled 'why my...', as it heads off the trolls at the pass, decrying "yeah but it's great for MY needs". But Stross makes some really good points

Interestingly titled 'why my...', as it heads off the trolls at the pass, decrying "yeah but it's great for MY needs". But Stross makes some really good points, proprietary connectors are a relic of a long time ago and part of the reason why Apple is still hawking them is that they don't want to do something silly like Samsung have, and break compatibility. Which isn't a good idea on Apples part as the dock connector is still crap, but I'd wager they'd have a lot of upset customers if they killed it. I only just recently bought an iPad, it took time to convince me I needed one. I did look at Android for a while though, mostly for the price point. My experience was much the same, I found at the name brand manufacturers quality was excellent but the software was terrible, and the off brand was vice-versa. Apple has the market stitched up at the moment by having a) excellent hardware and b) excellent software (which even if you don't like iOS you can't argue it's very good at what it does).

larsberg 14y ago
> part of the reason why Apple is still hawking them I've always assumed a large part of the reason Apple uses proprietary connectors (other than any potential circuit real estate savings) is that it significantly reduces their testing matrix. If you have to have a license to plug it into their system, they don't have to test it unless you paid the fee. If you saw the terrible, horrible things that hardware vendors do to the USB specification just because "it doesn't crash when attached to a Windows <N> box" you would cry bloody tears.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  You know what, that's a super smart idea that I hadn't even considered. I just assumed it was to not upset consumers and/or because they've already got an entire production chain geared for producing them for absolutely nothing, but forcing it down that route does ensure Apple has a slightly easier life.
- DeepDuh 14y ago
  Also don't forget that their dock connector does a bit more than USB<=2.0, namely audio/video up to 1080p. The signal quality has always been a strong point as well, at least for a portable device. It's no wonder many audio professional are using iPads nowadays (well ok, the excellent audio frameworks provided in iOS are probably the biggest reason for that).
jsnell 14y ago
I'm not sure whom you're classifying as off-brand vs. not, but Asus has arguably the best Android tablet hardware out there and a good track record on software. They release updates monthly, got ICS an update for old tables out fairly quickly, and don't add any intrusive changes on top. There's a small number of extra apps, but they're filling in real holes in the functionality rather than overlapping with stock apps. The amount of custom theming seems to be limited to adding a few live wallpapers and replacing the awful stock butts for the back/home/recent apps/menu buttons. Of course they still don't have a 7" tablet out, which is a shame.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  Tried a few 'no-nameish' brands from friends, in Maplins etc, I didn't come across one of the Asus ones unfortunately but my entire Android Tablet experience wasn't as rock steady as I'd have liked to be able to live with it for day after day. But it's a YMMV situation I think!
- jsight 14y ago
  I have an Asus TF101, and I completely disagree. ICS has been awful, and the forums are full of complaints. The earlier builds crashed ~1 per day. Often you'd turn pick up the tablet only to see it in a boot loop, consuming battery at a high rate. They've fixed most of those issues, but they've left massive OpenGL renderer memory leaks. Gmail becomes unusable after a few hours of use requiring a reboot, for example. Just look at the xda forums for plenty of other people who are still having these issues after months of updates. Each one was supposed to solve all of the issues, but none have.

larsberg 14y ago

> part of the reason why Apple is still hawking them I've always assumed a large part of the reason Apple uses proprietary connectors (other than any potential circuit real estate savings) is that it significantly reduces their testing matrix. If you have to have a license to plug it into their system, they don't have to test it unless you paid the fee. If you saw the terrible, horrible things that hardware vendors do to the USB specification just because "it doesn't crash when attached to a Windows <N> box" you would cry bloody tears.

nicholassmith 14y ago
You know what, that's a super smart idea that I hadn't even considered. I just assumed it was to not upset consumers and/or because they've already got an entire production chain geared for producing them for absolutely nothing, but forcing it down that route does ensure Apple has a slightly easier life.
DeepDuh 14y ago
Also don't forget that their dock connector does a bit more than USB<=2.0, namely audio/video up to 1080p. The signal quality has always been a strong point as well, at least for a portable device. It's no wonder many audio professional are using iPads nowadays (well ok, the excellent audio frameworks provided in iOS are probably the biggest reason for that).

jsnell 14y ago

I'm not sure whom you're classifying as off-brand vs. not, but Asus has arguably the best Android tablet hardware out there and a good track record on software. They release updates monthly, got ICS an update for old tables out fairly quickly, and don't add any intrusive changes on top. There's a small number of extra apps, but they're filling in real holes in the functionality rather than overlapping with stock apps. The amount of custom theming seems to be limited to adding a few live wallpapers and replacing the awful stock butts for the back/home/recent apps/menu buttons. Of course they still don't have a 7" tablet out, which is a shame.

nicholassmith 14y ago
Tried a few 'no-nameish' brands from friends, in Maplins etc, I didn't come across one of the Asus ones unfortunately but my entire Android Tablet experience wasn't as rock steady as I'd have liked to be able to live with it for day after day. But it's a YMMV situation I think!
jsight 14y ago
I have an Asus TF101, and I completely disagree. ICS has been awful, and the forums are full of complaints. The earlier builds crashed ~1 per day. Often you'd turn pick up the tablet only to see it in a boot loop, consuming battery at a high rate. They've fixed most of those issues, but they've left massive OpenGL renderer memory leaks. Gmail becomes unusable after a few hours of use requiring a reboot, for example. Just look at the xda forums for plenty of other people who are still having these issues after months of updates. Each one was supposed to solve all of the issues, but none have.