Amazon Tablet May Cost Hundreds Less Than iPad

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

No. We got it with the 3.1 update.

Looks like the 4G upgrade may be imminent here.

Nevertheless, our tipster goes on to say that the Motorola XOOM is completely transformed from before now that it’s able to put up amazing speeds of around 18 Mbps. Seeing that the pilot program for employees was available until yesterday, August 29th, we may potentially see the entire thing go live to all customers very soon.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by kjk

Looks like the 4G upgrade may be imminent here.

Thanks.

I don't use the 3g a lot, but that kind of speed would be nice for when I do.

[stonetools]

for one there is no rigamore when transferring songs from your computer to an android phone, you select USB connection Whooopeee tee doo. Your computer see's your phone and drag and drop Ohhhhh soo difficult. whatever.

Hey, I found it more difficult to transfer and organize my music to my Android phone than I did working with iTunes. I'm pretty sure I wasn't alone in this. The stock Android media player was just not that good. which is why I downloaded another one. Itunes worked for me from day one.

As to the 4:3 ratio? That's bad for movies, better for ebooks and the web. And frankly, you don't notice the bars when you are watching from close up. Either ratio would be a compromise, and Apple did what it did.
You got me on the SD card thing, although frankly, hooking up the Camera Connection cable is just as easy as popping in an SD card. I, myself, think removeable storage would be a Good Thing. Clearly, most consumers don't care, which is why Ipad sells in the millions and hardly anyone buys a Toshiba Thrive-a product that I had not heard of till you mentioned it.
When Apple rolls out Ios5 and ICloud, the whole removeable storage issue will be less important. As it is now, I drag my files into Dropbox, open them in thje Ipad Dropbox app, and as you so eloquently put it, whoop te do.

[stonetools]

And for the record I was not bashing Apple I was bashing you.

Well if you cant bash the arguments, you bash the person. I understand.

Bottom line, Android tablets haven't taken off because they don't offer the broad mass of consumers a user experience that is equivalent to or better than the Ipad. You and others talk about Flash, USB slots, and what not. Clearly, those features-whatever merit they may have-aren't pulling in the crowds.
I think Amazon will try to duplicate the Ios experience as much as possible. They may offer Flash , but that won't be the focus. If I were them, I would make the core experiences of buying , enjoying and organizing media as smooh as possible, and forget about the hardware features and specs that some folks think are the be all and end all. They've done that with ebooks: they need to do it with movies, games and apps. All this may be even more important than price.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Hey, I found it more difficult to transfer and organize my music to my Android phone than I did working with iTunes. I'm pretty sure I wasn't alone in this. The stock Android media player was just not that good. which is why I downloaded another one. Itunes worked for me from day one.

As to the 4:3 ratio? That's bad for movies, better for ebooks and the web. And frankly, you don't notice the bars when you are watching from close up. Either ratio would be a compromise, and Apple did what it did.
You got me on the SD card thing, although frankly, hooking up the Camera Connection cable is just as easy as popping in an SD card. I, myself, think removeable storage would be a Good Thing. Clearly, most consumers don't care, which is why Ipad sells in the millions and hardly anyone buys a Toshiba Thrive-a product that I had not heard of till you mentioned it.
When Apple rolls out Ios5 and ICloud, the whole removeable storage issue will be less important. As it is now, I drag my files into Dropbox, open them in thje Ipad Dropbox app, and as you so eloquently put it, whoop te do.

I would disagree that 4:3 is better for web use etc. Almost all newer monitors sold are 16:9/10 widescreen.

Watch a movie shot in 2:35.1 on an iPad and look how huge those black bars are and how small the picture is cramped, then watch the same movie on a Samsung or Toshiba, Xoom etc. then come back and tell me you don't notice the difference. I call BS on that.

I'm not sure what trouble you have with your phone, with mine I connect it to my computer both my WMP and Media monkey pick it up as Droid X, drag and drop, eject, no different than any other MP3 player or my nook for that matter.

I honestly don't see how hooking up an photo dongle accesory is anywhere nearly as easy or convienant as just popping in your card directly.

As far as cloud service, you do know both Amazon and and Google offer cloud service right? And for the record were out before Apple's
I buy a song from Amazon mp3 on my Droid X, it automatically goes not only to Amazon cloud, it automatically gets download to my stock player on my droid, my google cloud and when I turn on my pc it's waiting for me to hit download and it goes straight to WMP and media monkey. That's easy and much more spread out and flexable then iTunes

just sayin

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

So, just to be straight, equivalent Xooms and pads are identically priced. iPad is better because it offers cheaper , lower specified options? By that logic, Fords are better than Rolls Royces, simply because they offer lower priced, lower specced, alternatives?

Wrong analogy. He's not saying that the iPad is better. Just that it sells more because it's cheaper. You see a lot more Corollas and Accords on the road than BMWs or Mercedes. It's the same concept.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Wrong analogy. He's not saying that the iPad is better. Just that it sells more because it's cheaper. You see a lot more Corollas and Accords on the road than BMWs or Mercedes. It's the same concept.

IT IS NOT CHEAPER.

For the same thing, it is the same price. How difficult is that to understand?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

IT IS NOT CHEAPER.

For the same thing, it is the same price. How difficult is that to understand?

Okay, poor choice of words. It's not cheaper. Similar hardware, similar price. However, Apple offers cheaper models and the Xoom only has one price tag (assuming you don't want to be tied to an expensive contract).

[Ixt]

This will still be e-ink?
If so, how can that be compared to iPad?
E-Ink is perfect for reading purposes. But it clearly narrows down the market. Unless someone came up with a fast and responsive e-ink that could show motion in all it's subtle frames.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Okay, poor choice of words. It's not cheaper. Similar hardware, similar price. However, Apple offers cheaper models and the Xoom only has one price tag (assuming you don't want to be tied to an expensive contract).

OK, I see your point. It's not true that the XOOM only has one price tag though, there's the wifi and wifi\3g (exactly the same as the iPad) at different price points. The point about contracts applies equally to the iPad (in the UK anyway).

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

OK, I see your point. It's not true that the XOOM only has one price tag though, there's the wifi and wifi\3g (exactly the same as the iPad) at different price points. The point about contracts applies equally to the iPad (in the UK anyway).

Maybe this was different in the UK because the Xoom came out later, but when it was offered in the US, only one model was offered - the 32G 3G, for $700. There was no option to buy a 32GB wifi model, nor for a 16GB model in any variety. The wifi only model didn't come out until a month or so later.

To recap, when the Xoom came out in the US, it didn't support flash (although it was promised for later), it didn't support an SD slot (although that was promised for later), and there was only one model you could buy - the 32GB 3G model.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by stonetools

However, Flash just simply does not run well on mobile devices. Mr. Jobs was right on that.

It ran fine on my Android tablet since I bought it in March.

Originally Posted by stonetools

As to the 4:3 ratio? That's bad for movies, better for ebooks and the web.

Actually, I see no reason why it would be better for ebooks and the web.
And 16:9 or 16:10 corresponds better to the natural field of view of the human eye.

[molman]

Originally Posted by SCION

Gotta agree. I don't know how many times I've been tempted to buy from day one. Well, not day one. Was initially disappointed it didn't run OS/X. Took a few months to get over that.

You know there is a solution for that => http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook

Originally Posted by afa

Take a bow, Microsoft. You're the undisputed King of Just A Little Too Late.

I think their Entertainment & Devices guys (i.e., the ones in charge of XBox) are the only ones who see the value in being the leaders rather than the followers.

Is the Xbox (entertainment) division the leaders? I know they have had some nice recent quarters and that the Kinect sold well, but I thought in terms of market share for this generation Wii was still dominating (even if many are covered in dust), and Xbox360 and PS3 were rather close on total units sold.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

IT IS NOT CHEAPER.

For the same thing, it is the same price. How difficult is that to understand?

They were the same thing? I thought they were different things. I'm surprised nobody got sued for selling the same thing.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Do you really need to boost your self-image by putting others down?

Reread my post, nowhere put Apple users down in that post.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

It is okay for you to not like Apple products, or the iPad in particular.

It is offensive, insulting, and stupid for you and people like you to keep insisting that people who buy iPads are idiots who are swayed by marketing and are only interested in looking cool.

Again, reread the post. Nowhere did I call Apple users idiots, or otherwise insult them. I did conflate buying Apple products with telegraphing coolness as opposed to being a geek. I want to be cool, don't you?

There are many people who use their Apple products for geeky endeavors. They are many times more that use alternative computational products because they are, in many cases, better for specific uses.

Originally Posted by stonetools

Let's not rewrite history here. One of the major objections the tech crowd had to the IPad was that it didn't do Flash. Apple was attacked for its "arrogance" and and major tech pundits predicted that the Ipad would fail because Flash was a major part of the Internet and that consumers would reject a no-Flash Internet experience.
A major selling point for Android was supposed to to be that its tablets would run Flash. AS it happened, consumers embraced the Ipad from day one, its lack of Flash notwithstanding. When Andriod tablets did appear, their Flash implementation was uniformly awful, thus proving Apple's point.
I guess the new anti-Apple talking points are that HTML 5 was always the future and that Apple somehow shortchanged once again the sheep who bought Apple products by not including Flash on the Ipad. They can't just admit that Apple was right about Flash for mobile devices.

Wait a minute, the TECH crowd as a whole agreed on something!?! You can't assign a singular opinion to a group so vast, particularly when it encompasses many 'tech' journalists that don't know the first thing about technology.

Flash sucks. I agree that it should die yesterday. I won't put it on my Linux (NOT Ubuntu) box. But assuming the general consumer dislikes Flash and only geeks support it is... well... living in a fantasy world.