The HTC Flyer: No Fly Zone

This is probably the best looking tablet. Yes I said tablet. Most people don’t think the HTC Flyer deserves the tablet name. This is mainly because it runs android 2.4 instead of running the tablet oriented android 3.0. There is HTC sense to make it look like a tablet but that’s about it. So what we have here is a big HTC Smartphone. But before going further with the criticism we need to remember the ipad and the Ipad 2 are also big iPhones. Personally I like the HTC flyer. The sense UI on top of android gingerbread looks good on the Flyer. It has just about the right size due to its 7 inch screen and the only downsize to me is the price.
The HTC Flyer has decent specs. It has a 1.5GHz processor; sorry guys no dual core processing. There is a 5 megapixel camera which should be decent. Connectivity is all there including 3G and this should be good news. There is also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. I guess that is pretty much about the specs.
There is nothing much to say about the HTC Flyer. It is the first tablet by HTC and this is just geared to test the market and see what people want. So HTC don’t you think a survey would be much better? Tablets have also been here for a long time and if HTC was keen they would have known that people don’t want “just another android tablet”. Blackberry came up with their own tablet OS and people seem to like it. HP is using WebOS and I hope people will like it. Meego is eagerly being waited. HTC know their mistake and they have a new tablet lined up, well, at least according to rumors. It is a dual core tablet and it runs honeycomb. In any case the Flyer is a decent tablet and given the right price it can be a good buy. You also get access to the android market meaning that you have many apps to make your Flyer come to life.

Why we need Tablets

Do we really need tablets? The obvious answer would be no, at least for now. The same was the answer about phones just a few years ago but now a mobile phone is a necessity. The same applied for computers. Tablets are placed in between computers and phones and ideally it should have an edge over both the computer and the mobile phone. An advantage over computer would be its portability and the advantage over phones is that you now have more features.
Still many people don’t even know what tablets are but that will change with time. The smartphones for instance were considered phones for the executives and people high up the economic rank but the Huawei Ideos changed all that. Just as smartphones tablets are still expensive but companies like Huawei and Viewsonic are about to bring tablets to the masses. But the question still remains do we really need tablets?
Tablets are ideal for students. You can completely replace your note books if you have a good tablet. With the right stylus you can take notes just as you would on a note book and the advantage is that your notes are directly saved in soft copy. And as the lecturer yaps away you can easily research on what he/she is talking about. You may also choose to record the whole lecture or using the right speech to text application you can turn whatever the lecturer is saying into notes. Most tablets have the e-book reader application and reading any content feels like you are reading a book. Another advantage is that you get to pack all your different notes on a single device.
Education aside, when it comes to entertainment tablets are designed to deliver. The 7 to 10 inch screen of most tablets is ideal for movie watching, browsing YouTube videos, listening to your favorite music both in audio and video. Gaming on tablets is also enjoyable. For evidence ask Ipad 2 owners. In case the screen is too small for you then you can just connect you tablet to a television and view your content on the television. For those who love browsing the web a tablet is the device for you. You can view full web pages just as on a computer. Connect to any wireless network and browse the web. You can also just insert a SIM card on a 3G enabled tablet and with the right data plan you can browse as you wish.
Tablets will definitely not replace mobile phones but computers should have reasons to be threatened. Tablets fit almost perfectly in the day to day life and only time will tell whether we will hold on to them for our lives or just use them leisurely. If you ask me I will tell you that we need tablets.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab

It is one the few tablets available in Kenya and it will cost you dearly. If you are guy who has the money and simply wants to floss to friends then you should definitely go for the galaxy tab but if you serious about this whole tablet thing and want the best value for money then al probably be forced to discourage you. The galaxy tab is a decent tablet. At 7 inches it is just the right size and Android Froyo or Android 2.2 makes it a decent tablet.
So the galaxy tab has 7 inches with 600 by 1024 pixels which is a good resolution. The internal memory is either 16 or 32GB with 512MB of RAM. Memory is expanded by an SD card up to 32GB. There is the model that comes with 3G and Wi-Fi and the one that only comes with Wi-Fi. I would prefer the 3G+Wi-Fi model since you can use Safaricom or Zain or Yu or Orange to browse the web since Wi-Fi hotspots in Kenya are still limited. There is a 3.15 camera. The processor is ARM Cortex A8 and it is clocked at 1GHz giving it a decent speed. There is PowerVR graphics chip onboard to smoothen the games. There is GPS to enhance navigation. As expected there is also TV out.
The specifications above really make the Galaxy Tab a worthy contender but the Android 2.2 operating system isn’t helping much. It almost makes the Galaxy Tab fall into the “just another Android Tablet” category. Also the single core 1GHz processor may seem outdated considering newer tablets have dual core Tegra processors. But what will you use your tablet for anyway? I am guessing you will use it to browse the web, watch movies and listen to music and maybe play a few games. The Galaxy Tab does all that and much more. There may also be some good news for the geeks since there are reports of a Honeycomb port coming soon or probably its already there, I have to check on that one. That may make the Galaxy Tab one of the cheapest tablets running Android 3.0. And that will make the Galaxy Tab stand among the best tablets.
The Galaxy Tab in my opinion was Samsung’s way of testing the tablet waters and it is doing pretty well. Two other Tablets from Samsung are on the way and they are slimmer, faster and run Google’s latest OS. You may want to wait for them but due to uncertainties that may arise probably due to price it may be safe to just go with the Galaxy Tab.

The Ipad 2

They say the Ipad 2 has now set a new standard. They say that the original Ipad had first set the standard but for the Ipad 2 the original Ipad is no match. They say the Ipad 2 is brilliant at browsing….I agree. They say the Ipad 2 is good at handling media….I agree. They also say that the Ipad 2 is simple to use and I agree. Finally I point out that the Ipad 2 is great at gaming and this time they agree. We all point out that the Ipad 2 has a good battery life and this is incredible given that it is much faster than the original Ipad. So is the Ipad 2 the best piece of technology when considering tablets?
Well, the answer points straight to that but since I never really liked Apple I look for excuses and point out that the Ipad 2 is still a big IPhone and you could do the same things it does on any IPhone. But my point is not really a strong one considering that there is still no perfect tablet OS and we are yet to see what Honeycomb (Android 3.0) will offer. It might just turn out to be a big normal android operating system just as the case of Apple and IOS. Previous android tablets also used android 2.1 and 2.2 which were primarily used for phones.
What is really incredible is that I am not an apple fan and I find it so hard to point out the Ipad 2 weaknesses. The Ipad 2 has a nice 9.7 inch display. There is 512mb of RAM which seems small but somehow manages. The camera is nothing to write home about but the 0.7 MP snapper can do 720p. The processor is what makes the Ipad 2 come to life. It is a 900 MHz dual core Cortex A9 processor and the PowerVR graphics is like no other. There is GPS and TV out is disappointingly not through HDMI but does the job well. On the face value that is all the Ipad 2 has to offer but just try using it and you will realize its power, user friendliness, slickness, graphics processing and this goes on and on since the battery is never ending, 10 hours to be precise.
So in conclusion the Ipad 2 is definitely the device to beat. On face value it does not offer much and its Android competitors like the Motorola Xoom and the Iconia tab offer much more but if this harmlessly looking beast is to be beaten then Android 3.0 really needs to be exceptional and light. I say “light” since Android is known to demand too much hardware power including larger battery capacities. Experts say that Android might win the war EVENTUALLY but for NOW the Ipad 2 will just bask in glory. And just a thought what happens if before EVENTUALLY reaches Apple releases another tablet?

Tablets Ipad and Apple

Apple is doing it again. Just before people grasped the whole tablet idea Apple went ahead and threw in the Ipad. What this has done is that people think all tablets are Ipads and the same thing happened with touch screen phones where the iPhone ruled for quite some time. The interesting thing is that apple isn’t really an inventor, they just bounce on technologies that other companies are afraid to invest in. For instance funny enough touch screen phones may have started with Nokia and also if you consider tablets Nokia already had a number with the Nokia N770, Nokia N800 and Nokia N810. Anyway that’s argument for another day. Let me just try and define what a tablet really is.
Well, tablets are in between computers and phones and that’s it. But as it turns out the gap between computers and phones is really wide and complex. It is really hard to find the perfect balance between the two. Either it will be too near the phone world or it will turn out to be something else and nowhere near both the computer and phone. Yah, I know that last statement didn’t make sense but that’s really what a tablet is, it doesn’t make sense.
Initially companies used mobile operating systems such as Android 2.1 and Android 2.2 on tablets, while Apple used its iOS and what resulted were tablets which were extremely close to phones. People refer to ipad as big IPhone. So others tried to put windows 7 on tablets but that complicated things and because of that windows tablets are few if not none existent.
The good news is that recently Google launched Android 3.0 which is aimed at tablets and I must say it’s doing really well considering companies like Motorola, Samsung, Asus and others are literally scrambling for it and so far we have more than 5 honeycomb( android 3.0) tablets. HP is also doing well with WebOS and the same goes for Blackberry who recently launched their Blackberry Playbook.
In a nutshell a tablet should do the basic things you do on your computer like media consumption, office work, browsing the web and even playing games. For those who love games just get yourself an Ipad since it’s the best in gaming and according to some survey people use tablets primarily for gaming and that is why Apple is winning this war. A tablet should also be very mobile just like a phone and usability is also another key factor hence tablets are between 7 to 10 inches in screen size.
There is still no perfect tablet but Android 3.0 tablets, the Ipad 2, Blackberry Playbook and the HP Touchpad are close to that. Price-wise tablets are still expensive and it would be wise to give them about 1 year for the competition to intensify.