Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

I can’t be arsed with an iPad. Do I get a Nexus 7? #seriousquestion

I find the iPhone clunky and I don’t like the closed ecosystem; I did once have an iPod Touch which was fun but essentially closed-off and gave me the same inert sense that I get from Windows machines – that it was essentially a single-tasking, read-only device. I’ve played with friends’ iPads and iPhones and – pretty though they are – I get the same sense, as if they are single-tasking devices for browsing content and not flicking back and forth rapidly between apps.

The device I’ve been happiest with for the past few years is my Galaxy S2; the only gripe I have at the moment is Skype’s inability to survive on the platform, but I don’t feel that’s an Android bug.

Hence I am wondering about the Nexus, currently the rave amongst my friends

Having a GPS is great but a bit pointless without online access to Google Maps when out and about – but I gather it can Bluetooth Tether to my phone which might fix that; or I could just use the phone.

And I won’t miss the rear-facing camera, I carry a Powershot.

And I have a real Kindle 3 – e-Ink and Whispernet FTW – so I’m sorted for e-books. Battery on that lasts for weeks.

And I have a MacBook Air – a real laptop – so I am sorted for development systems.

Hmmm… it’s nice, but what would it give me beyond a bigger screen and more battery life, but overall less function than my S2?

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Comments

6 responses to “I can’t be arsed with an iPad. Do I get a Nexus 7? #seriousquestion”

  1. Dave Walker

    Wondering if you’ve missed the multitasking tricks on iOS 5 (home button doubleclick, etc). I freely admit to bias here, as I love my iPad (and also have an 8″ Archos tablet with ICS, for testing stuff with).

    I maintain that the difference between a tablet and a PDA is the ability to get all 10 fingers down onto the on-screen keyboard. However, in practice, doing that results in occasional key droppage on iOS (which also seems to have better touch handling than Android).

    It seems Apple want you to start talking to your tablet instead – they’ve really beefed-up the dictation back-end between the releases of iPad 3 and Mountain Lion, the performance hike is huge – so the keyboard thing could become less of an issue. Speech doesn’t work for a bunch of classes of text entry and query, though.

    All I can suggest is “formulate some tests, go to Beastly World and have a play, and then buy it from the vendor of your choice if you like it”…

    I also think Viber is the new Skype, but that’s another discussion.

    Reply
  2. Carl

    I had an iPod touch and it struck me in exactly the way you describe. I have a 5th generation iPod Nano – does one thing very well, and does more things than you *expect*, whereas the Touch did a few things in a mediocre way and constantly seemed like a massive wasted opportunity. Couldn’t be arsed to jailbreak it so I gave it away.

    iPods, iPads, etc I can do without, what truly irks me is the way Apple have effectively abandoned the professional laptop user market with their MacBook “pros”.

    Lion is a total crock – so broken I don’t know where to start. They dropped the 17″ MBP, with the serviceable 15″ etc. soon to follow, in favour of the “retina” display ones. The main feature of those, the display, is surprisingly badly supported by Lion, mostly because Lion is heading towards being iOS with buttons, but I suppose Apple and its more diehard fans would claim Lion is perfectly OK.

    What isn’t really up for debate, though, is the non-removable SSD. This means the laptop is basically a disposable item for anyone working under NDAs. Can’t send it in for repair without violating client NDAs, unless it’s only broken in a way which doesn’t prevent you doing a low-level overwrite on the SSD. I suppose you could remove the logic board and stump up for another one, I doubt that would be cost effective. I foresee a lot of insurance claims as people gradually realize this, either for new computers after theirs got accidentally dropped into a concrete mixer, or against professional indemnity/liability cover as clients sue because client confidential material somehow got leaked.

    Since Apple flat refuse to supply spares for individual or corporate buyers to do their own repairs, I can’t see many companies buying these things for doing real work.

    Reply
  3. Darren Moffat

    Google Maps has offline caching now. I currently have Paris, London and SF Bay Area cached. Nexus I think is right for you. I have a 7″ HTC Flyer and find it a good size device, iPad is too big. If I didn’t already have the flyer I would have got a Nexus but it isn’t enough if an upgrade to justify at this point.

    Reply
  4. On Kindle and Openness… /cc @webmink @symbiat – dropsafe

    […] wrote about my iPad and Nexus 7 thoughts; Ajai responded on FB*: I find it odd you mentioning how closed iOS is and ye you carry a Kindle. […]

    Reply
  5. Michael Jennings

    The present iPad is not too big: it is too heavy. Apple chose to increase the thickness and the weight of the third generation device compared to the second in order to give us the retina display. If Apple had instead decided to give us a thinner and lighter third generation iPad and instead leave the higher resolution screen for another year, the present iPad might be more useful. As it is, you can’t really hold it in one hand to read a book on it, and when you pull it out for other purposes, there is a certain feeling that you will drop it. If the iPad had the same sized screen but weighted half as much, it would be the right size and weight.

    Reply
  6. Dave Walker

    Just heard a brief piece on Nexus 7 on today’s “You and Yours”, about 20 mins in. Apparently hardware issues are pretty common, mostly involving a number of display-related problems (peeling, “ghost typing”, backlight bleeding, backlight flicker). You might find it worth picking up on iPlayer.

    Reply

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