Archives For tablet

Where I use my tablet

March 14, 2011 — 1 Comment

I’ve had many people ask the same question about the Xoom and the iPad 2 – “when would I use it?”. Here’s a few answers:

  1. In front of the tv. When I take a few minutes to chill in the evening, the tablet is much easier to use from a recliner then a phone or a laptop. On the other hand, Don Reisinger at SlashGear just posted why his iPad 2 is not very useful in the living room, so your mileage may vary.
  2. At sports practice. While most tablets (including the iPad 2 and the Xoom) are very difficult to see when you’re outdoors, tablets work great for indoor sports.  In particular, I find it quite useful when my girls are at taekwondo a couple times each week.
  3. At lunch meetings. Great tool to work through concepts with a client, since you can show PDFs, browse web sites, etc.
  4. At McDonald’s. My kids are in the play area as we speak!
  5. In the car. I’ve had a few times when I’ve been in the car (not driving — in a parking lot, post-meeting or picking up my daughter from preschool) and saw a semi-important email come through on my phone. It’d be too slow and cumbersome to dig out the laptop, but very easy to pull out the tablet, look at the document/website, and hammer out a quick reply. Google video chat over 3G from a parking lot has been useful (and surprisingly high quality) as well. This also works if your spouse is driving and you need to work on something while you travel.
  6. At church. Our minister (@IkeReighard) uses his iPad as his Bible when he preaches (he’s mentioned he loves the ability to use a huge font), and he encourages us to “take out your Bibles, iPads, Androids…” as he shares scripture.  Being able to quickly bookmark passages from the Xoom is pretty slick, and our church is working on setting up YouVersion Live for the church in the near future.

I think it’d also be quite useful in classroom settings and office meetings, though a laptop might be preferred for the faster input with a keyboard.

Where can’t you use it? Outside, pretty much ever. I had dreams of using it on the back deck, but unless it’s quite shady out it’s hard to see the screen. Even in the car can be a challenge unless you can get some good shade on your side.

Realize that these are all places where I would have used my phone in the past, and the phone is still a solid solution. The tablet just makes it easier. As I’ve said before, it’s mostly about convenience. For example, I wouldn’t have written this post from McDonald’s on my phone — I would have simply waited until I got home.

Where do you (or would you) use your tablet?

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Weatherbug for Honeycomb finally hits the market

March 10, 2011 — Leave a comment

Before the Xoom was released, there were a few cools apps that were shown off for it.  In particular, I remember seeing CNN, Sports Illustrated, Words with Friends and Weatherbug.

Prior to today, CNN is the only one that launched their official (and very slick) Honeycomb app.  However, Weatherbug just brought theirs out and it’s been worth the wait.  It’s really nothing more than weather information, but it’s presented in a very tablet-friendly format, and includes a nice widget that works like the built-in “books” widget, where you can flick through weather information for a variety of cities.

Still waiting on Sports Illustrated and Words With Friends to come out with their Honeycomb-optimized versions, but it should be soon.

You can get WeatherBug in the market here (for free), read more over on Droid Life, or check out the gallery below.

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Should you get a netbook or a tablet?

March 9, 2011 — 5 Comments

Netbook or tablet?

With all of my talk about the Motorola Xoom lately, you’d think my answer would be “tablet”, but it’s not that easy to say.  For the past year, I’ve had an Acer netbook that has been an awesome little device to carry around.  Similar to most tablets, it’s very portable and has an amazing battery life.  However, I’ve been using it a lot less now that I have the Xoom, so what would I recommend to someone that has neither?

90%

The problem with a tablet (from any manufacturer) is that it can only do about 90% of what I need.  That might sound like a lot, and it is, but that other 10% can be critical.  If a client sends me an image to post on their site, it can be tough to get it from your email up to a website while you’re on a tablet.  With a netbook it’s a breeze.  This is why when I bring my tablet to lunch meetings, I also keep the netbook in the car in case I need it.

Cover the basics first

With that in mind, I think most people need a netbook/laptop before they should worry about a tablet.  I’m finding that the Xoom is amazingly useful, and I’ve put a lot of mileage on it already, but it won’t replace my laptop for quite a while.  I think most people will find a few small areas where the tablet makes things difficult and having a netbook handy would be quite useful.  With prices around $200, netbooks don’t cost much and can accomplish quite a bit.

I was recently talking to a friend that was debating between a laptop and an iPad 2, and we eventually decided that for the price of an iPad 2 she could get a netbook and a used first-generation iPad.  For a lot of people, that might make the most sense.

Convenience can be money

The tablet is really about convenience.  I don’t think anyone would argue that.  Compare any decent laptop to any decent tablet, and the laptop is far more functional and likely costs less.  However, the tablet is easier to use on the couch, at a meeting with a client, waiting for my kids at taekwondo, etc.  It’s great for that.  But is convenience worth money?  It depends who you are.

I pride myself on solid productivity.  My systems aren’t perfect, but I always work to make things a bit smoother.  A tablet helps with that.

In most cases, the tablet doesn’t replace my laptop; it replaces my phone.  I love my phone, but a tablet is much easier to get work done on.  In the places where I use it (again, lunches, taekwondo, etc) I’m much more efficient that if I only had my phone.  Suppose it saves me one hour per week.  That’s 52 hours/year.  If your time is worth more than $10/hour, your tablet has effectively paid for itself.

So, netbook or tablet?

It’s not a question that can easily be answered, but for most people the answer is netbook.  However, if you already have a functional netbook (laptop, whatever), then a tablet might be a great device to compliment it.  If you’re at that stage, deciding which tablet to get can be a tough decision as well.  Check out my Xoom vs. iPad 2 post for some direction, but there’s no clear-cut answer there, either.

What do you think? Do you have a netbook, tablet, both or neither?  Why?

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My first thoughts on the Motorola Xoom

February 28, 2011 — 14 Comments

As many of you know, I picked up a Motorola Xoom from Verizon last Thursday.  It runs the latest version of Google’s Android Operating system, version 3.0, known as “Honeycomb”. The timing worked out well, because I had my wisdom teeth taken out Friday morning and was laid up in the recliner all day with the Xoom at my side.  A netbook or phone would have worked in that case as well, but a tablet works so much better.

So what do I think?

For starters, I love it, but it’s not perfect.  There are a few missing pieces that will be fixed in future updates — sd card, Flash, 4G support — and a variety of minor bugs.  The biggest problem at this point is a lack of tablet-focused apps.  It handles the Android phone apps quite well, but there’s a big difference between a scaled up phone app and a native tablet app.  The Xoom handles phone apps better than the iPad does, but the iPad has about zillion iPad-specific apps, making it the clear winner in that category.

Video Review

Here’s a quick video to show you around the system:

Battery Life

While I’m sure there will be some official tests, but Friday gave me a chance to give it a good run for its money.  Laying in the recliner all day, the Xoom was on my lap about 90% of the time, and running about 75% of the time.  After 10 hours of email, browsing, various apps, watching some videos and doing some video chat, the battery was down to 36%.  That seems pretty good to me!

Compared to the iPad?

The Xoom is better than the existing iPad in almost every way — larger screen, higher resolution, faster processor, dual cameras, more memory, etc.  However, the iPad 2 is set to be unveiled on Wednesday and will probably knock down a few of those, though they don’t have a release date set for it.  I’m thinking it’ll probably be a few months before it comes out, but we’ll find out soon.  At that point, the Xoom should have sd card and Flash support, and many more apps will have been written to take advantage of the tablet format.  The battle between the iPad and the various Honeycomb tablets should be fun to watch, and we’ll all benefit from the added features that both sides develop.

Should I buy one?

For most people I’d at least wait two more days to see what the iPad 2 has to offer.  I’m expecting that I’ll continue to suggest Honeycomb/Xoom as the tablet to get, but you never know what Apple might come up with. Much like my initial reasons for switching from the iPhone to the Nexus One, email is one of the top criteria.  The iPad email is certainly solid, but if you use Gmail it’s a much better experience in Honeycomb.

Do you have a tablet yet?  Looking to buy one soon? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

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