Amazon Tablet May Cost Hundreds Less Than iPad

[=X=]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

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

Don't be

Apple has in fact sued Motorola in Europe, claiming that the Motorola Xoom tablet infringes upon the design of Apple's products (more...)

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by =X=

Don't be

I suppose I shouldn't have been.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by SCION

They offer other reader apps in their app store now. B&N NOOK isn't there, but that's not surprising. My favorite, Mantano Reader reads Adobe DRMed ePubs for those who don't want to liberate their library.

Very interesting. I am now eager to see what they come up with.

Thanks Scion!!!

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by boswd

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

Well, 29 million people disagree that view ratios or SD cards are important features for tablets or that that the media features on Android tablets are better than those on the Ipad. That's not me just sayin': that's the tablet buying public.
To put it bluntly, its the software and the ecosystem: the hardware and the specs are secondary. Frankly, even Stevie Wonder can see that now, although the techies are still insisting that SD cards are SOOO important.
Itunes gets a lot of stick from the tech crowd, but most think its better and more capable than the Android media player and is better integrated with the iTunes store. The iTunes store is a one stop shopping media solution that is absent from the Android platform . The App Store >>> Google Market.
Now Amazon did have its cloud player up first, but Apple has a way of providing not the first solution, but the best solution. We'll see what Apple does in October

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by stonetools

although the techies are still insisting that SD cards are SOOO important.

You keep using that word [techies]. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by molman

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


...

Interesting. Wasn't aware of that. Too heavy for that form factor. Makes it seem like cast iron at 5 pounds. My NOOKcolor is too dang heavy NOW. I should have never played with the Galaxy Tab 10 inch.

[molman]

Originally Posted by SCION

Interesting. Wasn't aware of that. Too heavy for that form factor. Makes it seem like cast iron at 5 pounds. My NOOKcolor is too dang heavy NOW. I should have never played with the Galaxy Tab 10 inch.

Yeah it is a rather niche solution, but still kind of cool that someone went out and did it. They've been around for a while now. It could be interesting if they did an updated model based on the Air... though if that NOOKcolor is too heavy I think you’re out of luck.

Anyway this thread sure did degrade. I'm still curious what peoples assessment of Amazons UI prowess is with regards to what they've seen them do with the Kindle?

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by molman

Anyway this thread sure did degrade. I'm still curious what peoples assessment of Amazons UI prowess is with regards to what they've seen them do with the Kindle?

A UI essentially designed around the function "select book" is probably not the best showcase for design. Samsung's UI design team probably isn't the same for the Galaxy Tab as it is for their microwave ovens, which like the Kindle also are not personal computing devices.

[molman]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

A UI essentially designed around the function "select book" is probably not the best showcase for design. Samsung's UI design team probably isn't the same for the Galaxy Tab as it is for their microwave ovens, which like the Kindle also are not personal computing devices.

I don't know they aren't as divergent as your Samsung analogy. Amazon's Lab126 is likely the same group working on a Tablet, so I'd imagine some cross over such that I think it is quite relevant.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by molman

I don't know they aren't as divergent as your Samsung analogy. Amazon's Lab126 is likely the same group working on a Tablet, so I'd imagine some cross over such that I think it is quite relevant.

Fair point. All I can say is that the UI on the Kindle seems to do an adequate job of moving up a list of book titles. It also seems to move down just as well. There isn't a whole lot of sideways movement so I can't comment there. Moving the cursor to a word in order to bring up a dictionary definition is a little trickier, but their use of a little straight line is about as well executed as I've seen anywhere.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by stonetools

The iTunes store is a one stop shopping media solution that is absent from the Android platform . The App Store >>> Google Market.

The reason you aggravate people is because of blanket statements like this. Blanket statements of opinion stated as fact.

As far as itunes, my wife struggles with itunes all of the time. Frankly it's probably because she understands computers well enough to be a danger but not enough that she doesn't need my help sometimes. She had problems figuring out how to only send some songs (not sync her entire collection) to her ipod touch from itunes. I had to google it and show her (I find itunes to be a very unintuitive application...stuff like that is hidden in weird places...maybe it's the Mac roots that make it feel weird).

She had trouble with some of her old ripped mp3s - for some reason they kept vanishing from her itunes and wouldn't sync properly. Never did figure it out. I eventually told her, "I'm not going to be your iTunes support desk. I think it sucks. Use Media Monkey or Winamp or something."

She got locked out of her itunes account for too many computers a few years back, and it would not unlock - Apple had to allow her to re-download *most* of her stuff (which I promptly DRM stripped and told her to NOT BUY DRM'D music and videos from itunes!!).

She uses Amazon and Winamp these days for music, and manages that just fine. It's pretty easy to use.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

The reason you aggravate people is because of blanket statements like this. Blanket statements of opinion stated as fact.

As far as itunes, my wife struggles with itunes all of the time. Frankly it's probably because she understands computers well enough to be a danger but not enough that she doesn't need my help sometimes. She had problems figuring out how to only send some songs (not sync her entire collection) to her ipod touch from itunes. I had to google it and show her (I find itunes to be a very unintuitive application...stuff like that is hidden in weird places...maybe it's the Mac roots that make it feel weird).

She had trouble with some of her old ripped mp3s - for some reason they kept vanishing from her itunes and wouldn't sync properly. Never did figure it out. I eventually told her, "I'm not going to be your iTunes support desk. I think it sucks. Use Media Monkey or Winamp or something."

She got locked out of her itunes account for too many computers a few years back, and it would not unlock - Apple had to allow her to re-download *most* of her stuff (which I promptly DRM stripped and told her to NOT BUY DRM'D music and videos from itunes!!).

She uses Amazon and Winamp these days for music, and manages that just fine. It's pretty easy to use.

Well, I didn't say Itunes was PERFECT now. I had some of those same issues. The auto synch feature can be tricky. I said MOST people found it better and easier to use than the stock Android player.
Many people here think that I am saying that the iPad is the God tablet. I'm not. The iPad could clearly be better, hardware wise. But the reason most people are buying iPads over Android tablets is NOT SD cards or Flash or USB. Many people thought that offering Android tablets with those features would stop the iPad in its tracks. Obviously, they didn't-which is why i found it odd that people would still be insisting that these features were key disadvantages for the iPad. Not is it " superior" Apple marketing. Amazon would be going down the wrong road to focus on those things. I think price is important, but even that's not fundamental. Its a lot fuzzier just to point to overall user experience, but its more that than any one spec.

[molman]

@GreenMonkey:

Having recently helped my father inlaw use iTunes to rip his CD collection and manage his digital music I actually tend to agree. iTunes really isn't all that nice of an application. I think the vast majority have been using it for so long that they make allowances for it, but really it isn't the shining example of elegant UI design - it's actually rather retro if you reflect upon it. It has also turned into a bit of a beast as they have shoehorned on more functionality to belies the name iTunes.

[joenunya]

iTunes is a pretty bad option for playing Audible books as well. But then again WMP is also, not great. I wish Winamp could play them. Heck, I wish Audible would let people write apps to play the stinking books on a PC as their own software is not exactly good either.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

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.

It was different in the UK. We had both the 3g and wifi only versions at launch and both supported flash (but not the SD card) at launch.