what's next in tablet tech?

[excav8ter]

So i am not a tech smart guy, but since getting my first Android device, an HTC Here, I have been fascinated by the development of the Android "community ". I bought an Acer Iconia as soon as it came out, and love it! I use it every day for keeping track of my jobs, emailing quotes for new jobs, using my Quickbooks 2012/Intuit app for billing and keeping tabs on my customers payment progress.

How far away are we from seeing a tablet, all but eliminate the need for a laptop? There are things that i still need a laptop for, but I hardly ever use it any more. I can easily see a company developing a tablet with a capability of playing and reading CD's for copying files and loading data.

I am excited to see this happen. For me, the Android tablet has allowed me to feel like I can easily learn to keep up with technology, and in some cases, even teach some of my friends how an Android device, be it a tablet or phone, can help them with their small business needs.

I am giving my 11 year old a Toshiba Thrive for Christmas with the Dataviz app on it for doing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for school projects. I can wait to see what she can learn with it, and subsequently teach me.

 

[tauran121]

hasn't it already happened?
i.e. the asus transformer prime, with the dock it is essentially a laptop.

 

[Chrome Cat]

I've been looking around at everything that's at the conventions, etc. and my jaw is dropping and I'm like "the future is here!" I used to watch this stuff on the Jetsons in the 80's and here it all is and then some! It's amazing.

I want a tablet so badly but I'm trying to wait it out because there isn't a single tablet that has everything I want. Ironically, the cheaper tablets have more of the features I want but they only have 256 or 512 G RAM, which my husband refuses to buy me anything with less than 1G RAM.

I hope to see a 7" portable with standard USB, miniUSB, microSD or standard SD expandable memory, speakers for landscape mode not just portrait, 1G RAM, and at least a 1280x800 resolution.
As far as I know no 7" tab exists yet with all these features. It's a little depressing because at this point I have to weigh the options and decide which features are sacrificial to others. Should I wait? Or should I just go with what's out there now?

 

[El Presidente]

I've been looking around at everything that's at the conventions, etc. and my jaw is dropping and I'm like "the future is here!" I used to watch this stuff on the Jetsons in the 80's and here it all is and then some! It's amazing.

I want a tablet so badly but I'm trying to wait it out because there isn't a single tablet that has everything I want. Ironically, the cheaper tablets have more of the features I want but they only have 256 or 512 G RAM, which my husband refuses to buy me anything with less than 1G RAM.

I hope to see a 7" portable with standard USB, miniUSB, microSD or standard SD expandable memory, speakers for landscape mode not just portrait, 1G RAM, and at least a 1280x800 resolution.
As far as I know no 7" tab exists yet with all these features. It's a little depressing because at this point I have to weigh the options and decide which features are sacrificial to others. Should I wait? Or should I just go with what's out there now?

Have you looked at the Asus Transformer? I suspect it will be coming down in price with the imminent release of the Transformer Prime.

The Jetsons, I quite like that comparison btw!

 

[Chrome Cat]

Yeah, but that's 10" that's too big for me. I want something I can carry with me everywhere!!
I'm getting my panties in a bunch because the 10" tabs have everything I want except size and the inexpensive tabs have everything I want except RAM, which I believe I'll need for smooth movie playback.

Yes, The Jetsons. We've got people-movers/skywalks. Robot vacuums that do the floor themselves. Hologram phones are at the cons already.
We don't drive in the sky, or hover, or eat meals in pill form yet, but with our "obesity epidemic" I think that one's next. LOLOLOL!!!

 

[excav8ter]

I think the Asus prime is pretty cool..... I wonder when we will see a disc drive in a detachable keyboard....that way I can have the "simple" form factor of the 10" tablet and add the keyboard with disc drive when i need it.

 

[mikedt]

So i am not a tech smart guy, but since getting my first Android device, an HTC Here, I have been fascinated by the development of the Android "community ". I bought an Acer Iconia as soon as it came out, and love it! I use it every day for keeping track of my jobs, emailing quotes for new jobs, using my Quickbooks 2012/Intuit app for billing and keeping tabs on my customers payment progress.

I thought about getting a reasonable but not too expensive tablet for home use, as an additional device to my computer. Maybe a Huawei Mediapad, which is a 7 inch Honeycomb device. Probably be able to get one for around 2400RMB. Would be suitable for bedtime and armchair browsing, IM, e-books, games, watching videos etc.

How far away are we from seeing a tablet, all but eliminate the need for a laptop? There are things that i still need a laptop for, but I hardly ever use it any more. I can easily see a company developing a tablet with a capability of playing and reading CD's for copying files and loading data.

At the moment a tablet couldn't replace a laptop for my current work, out-and-about and/or travel needs. There's a few things that a laptop/netbook or UMPC has, that I require.

Tablets can be awkward to use and view on a table or desk, unless one has a way to prop them up.

A good office suite, so I can create and work on presentations(PPTs), documents and spreadsheets.

Real physical keyboard, I find it very laborious to type on a non-tactile virtual glass keyboard.

Ethernet port, sometimes the hotels I stay at have no wifi, but they always have an Ethernet cable in the rooms. Same with my place of work, no wifi but there is Ethernet.

USB host mode, plug in USB storage devices to swap documents, MP3s, photos, movies, with friends and colleagues, can download pictures from my camera and Android phone to it, a USB 3G EVDO modem.

VGA connector for a projector, as I often use my laptop in the classrooms for teaching.

Complete language and font support, namely Mongolian and International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA). The only OS which seems to be complete in this respect is Windows.

I'm currently using a Fujitsu UH900 UMPC running Win7 as my mobile device of choice at the moment, as it does all of the above.

 

[Bob Maxey]

So i am not a tech smart guy, but since getting my first Android device, an HTC Here, I have been fascinated by the development of the Android "community ". I bought an Acer Iconia as soon as it came out, and love it! I use it every day for keeping track of my jobs, emailing quotes for new jobs, using my Quickbooks 2012/Intuit app for billing and keeping tabs on my customers payment progress.

How far away are we from seeing a tablet, all but eliminate the need for a laptop? There are things that i still need a laptop for, but I hardly ever use it any more. I can easily see a company developing a tablet with a capability of playing and reading CD's for copying files and loading data.

I am excited to see this happen. For me, the Android tablet has allowed me to feel like I can easily learn to keep up with technology, and in some cases, even teach some of my friends how an Android device, be it a tablet or phone, can help them with their small business needs.

I am giving my 11 year old a Toshiba Thrive for Christmas with the Dataviz app on it for doing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for school projects. I can wait to see what she can learn with it, and subsequently teach me.

Not sure when a tablet will replace a laptop. I am quite productive with my iPad; from document creation through billing, payments, deposits and customer support. I still need a laptop, however. As I see it, the more features you cram into a Tablet, the bigger and heavier it becomes and then a laptop wins. Or they purchase a netbook.

I think many people in love with tablets dislike the fact that their tablet cannot replace their laptop.

Some tablets could read CDs, but that requires more battery life. Frankly, I can see solid state drives eventually killing off CDs. Prices for terrabyte drives are dropping every day and I can see cheap SD cards being used for distributing media. I work with a company that has started using Flash Drives to distribute catalogs to their customers because FDs are cheap as hell.

I happen to use a AirStash drive that creates a WiFi connection to my iPad and it is good enough to stream video to my iPad. It gives me unlimited storage. For other crap, I can use Dropbox. Seagate offers a 500GB wireless drive capable of streaming to my devices as well.

For some people a tablet is a great replacement for their laptop. For those of us that pound keys all day to earn a dollar, we still need our laptops. For many users that want to show images, play videos, a few games, send email and update Facebook, a tablet works well and they can replace their laptop/desktop.

I know a graphic designer that loves her iPad but for serious work--day in and day out--her iPad is a waste of her time. She can add a mouse, jailbreak for storage on external media, add an external keyboard, and before you know it, her iPad becomes as bothersome to carry as her laptop.

 

[Chrome Cat]

mikedt, I want you to make me a tablet please!!!

Actually, I kind of hate that these are new to market and still having all the kinks worked out. Because my only real option toward getting what I want is to wait for it or to buy one now that will be obsolete in 2 years. This is why it's so important that I get one that has expandable memory capabilities. I have to be able to get my files and things out of it once it's no longer up-to-date.
I just hope these tablet makers will listen to what we want. It's apparent that consumer demand wasn't really a part of the process this time around.

 

[mikedt]

mikedt, I want you to make me a tablet please!!!

The Fujitsu UH900 I referred to earlier does have some tablet functionality. In that the screen can be pushed right back so it's flat and it is touch screen, albeit a resistive one and best used with a stylus, that's attached to the machine with a lanyard. TBH though Windows 7 is not an ideal tablet OS, despite the fact it has touch screen functionality. I'm actually using it now to write this post at my office desk, got it plugged into a desktop VGA monitor.

I bought the UMPC in Hong Kong last summer, at the time I was looking at getting a 7 or 10 inch Honeycomb tablet, but was thinking of my particular requirements in a mobile device for travel and work. Often in China wifi is not readily available in many places, like hotels and offices, hence the requirement for Ethernet and the ability to use China Telecom's 3G EVDO service, which requires a USB modem.

Actually, I kind of hate that these are new to market and still having all the kinks worked out. Because my only real option toward getting what I want is to wait for it or to buy one now that will be obsolete in 2 years. This is why it's so important that I get one that has expandable memory capabilities. I have to be able to get my files and things out of it once it's no longer up-to-date.
I just hope these tablet makers will listen to what we want. It's apparent that consumer demand wasn't really a part of the process this time around.

I think it all depends on ones needs, sure for many the current tablets are already OK. Many just do browsing type activities with their computers, things like Facebook, for this I think tablets can be ideal.

EDIT:

In HK one will see many people using tablets, whereas two or three years ago they might have been using netbooks and laptops. They seem to have really taken off there. Although most people I saw there appeared to be doing Facebook and playing games.

 

[Chrome Cat]

I think it all depends on ones needs, sure for many the current tablets are already OK. Many just do browsing type activities with their computers, things like Facebook, for this I think tablets can be ideal.

.

I caved and bought a Chinese tablet from merimobiles.com last night.
It's a Meiying M11 8" 1024x768, USB port, microSD port, 16GB, 1G RAM and two front-facing landscape speakers. THESE are all the things I wanted in a tablet (except that it's 8" not 7", but I think I can live with it).
Only $255 (with an upgraded shipping option so I'll have it by Jan. 5th).

My issue is that with namebrands you're paying them for their name, as well as their superiority (which is mostly their name). I knew, if I kept looking, I'd find a clone/knock-off tablet that would have everything I wanted and cost less than a namebrand that didn't offer everything I wanted.

The tablet I bought only has Android 2.3 I'm not exactly sure what that means with regard to functionality. I will use a tablet mostly for playing movies/tv shows, a little bit of music, web browsing, and pictures.

For me, the most important feature was expandable memory ports (USB and SD or microSD). This tablet has both! Something I was being very picky about was a tablet that had landscape speakers, most of the expensive tablets have two speakers on the bottom in portrait mode. How does that make any sense when people will use these devices in landscape at least 80% of the time, especially if watching movies I'd hate to have sound coming from only one side.
Also, it was important to have something of a portable size. While this tablet is 8" instead of 7" I think we'll get along just fine.

 

[Bob Maxey]

For me, the most important feature was expandable memory ports (USB and SD or microSD). This tablet has both! Something I was being very picky about was a tablet that had landscape speakers, most of the expensive tablets have two speakers on the bottom in portrait mode. How does that make any sense when people will use these devices in landscape at least 80% of the time, especially if watching movies I'd hate to have sound coming from only one side.
Also, it was important to have something of a portable size. While this tablet is 8" instead of 7" I think we'll get along just fine.

FYI: my iPad has speakers on both sides in landscape mode.

Lots of tablets from China. Hope you have luck with yours.

 

[Bob Maxey]

I caved and bought a Chinese tablet from merimobiles.com last night.
It's a Meiying M11 8" 1024x768, USB port, microSD port, 16GB, 1G RAM and two front-facing landscape speakers. THESE are all the things I wanted in a tablet (except that it's 8" not 7", but I think I can live with it).
Only $255 (with an upgraded shipping option so I'll have it by Jan. 5th).

I am curious about duties and import taxes. According to the site:

"Tax and import duties are not included in the price total of your order. We cannot calculate or predict the import fees and duties that you might have to pay in your country. We suggest you find out about these additional charges and the rules that apply in your country when importing products. Merimobiles.com cannot be held liable for any import fees at the receiving country."

Did they at least give you a general idea about costs?

 

[Chrome Cat]

I am curious about duties and import taxes. According to the site:

"Tax and import duties are not included in the price total of your order. We cannot calculate or predict the import fees and duties that you might have to pay in your country. We suggest you find out about these additional charges and the rules that apply in your country when importing products. Merimobiles.com cannot be held liable for any import fees at the receiving country."

Did they at least give you a general idea about costs?

A lot of overseas countries, like the UK, charge import duties/taxes based on the value of the item.
If you are in a country that doesn't charge you to, basically receive your mail, then you have no worries. America doesn't charge those taxes so I won't have to pay for it to arrive.

 

[Bob Maxey]

A lot of overseas countries, like the UK, charge import duties/taxes based on the value of the item.
If you are in a country that doesn't charge you to, basically receive your mail, then you have no worries. America doesn't charge those taxes so I won't have to pay for it to arrive.

That is why I asked if you knew.

Although you do not have to pay duty fees and import fees on some items, you do on other items. I pay these fees on materials that come from Germany and other places. I know a very large importer/exporter (Loftus Novelty and Magic, SLC, Utah) and they pay all sorts of fees.

Not sure if you understand this or not. Can you give me a link to somewhere that tells you America does not require you to pay these fees? For all I know, you are correct in that one item like a tablet would not require that a fee be paid. Seems reasonable that if there were a fee, the seller would make this clear.

 

[El Presidente]

A lot of overseas countries, like the UK, charge import duties/taxes based on the value of the item.

As I've found out to my peril, anything over

 

[Bob Maxey]

As I've found out to my peril, anything over

 

[Chrome Cat]

I'm in America and have never paid to receive my mail. I can't help you on figuring out the cost other countries pay for mail delivery services.
The conclusion I reached from their statement on the website is that maybe Canada also pays such taxes or they have had trouble with customers about the cost of import taxes.

I know, personally, that when I sell online sometimes people from overseas will ask me to de-value an item so that they don't have to pay a higher import tax. The less expensive the item, the cheaper the import tax.

 

[Bob Maxey]

I'm in America and have never paid to receive my mail. I can't help you on figuring out the cost other countries pay for mail delivery services.
The conclusion I reached from their statement on the website is that maybe Canada also pays such taxes or they have had trouble with customers about the cost of import taxes.

I know, personally, that when I sell online sometimes people from overseas will ask me to de-value an item so that they don't have to pay a higher import tax. The less expensive the item, the cheaper the import tax.

We do pay, in the form of a postage stamp. Smiley!

The issue is if the buyer will end up paying some extra fees. As for devaluing a product to save duty fees, bad idea.

 

[Chrome Cat]

Yeah, I don't de-value the items because it compromises the insurance value and most items I ship are expensive. But people do ask. And it's awkward sometimes because it could mean the potential loss of a sale.

As for the tablet. I did put my purchase through last night and was only charged what I expected to be. Everything was clear. My order confirmations came to my email. And now I look to just wait for its arrival. I am confident that my mailman will not ask for any fees when it comes.

If you're in the States I really don't think you have anything to worry about and also, their hours are M-F 10-3 so you could certainly LiveChat them or email them about it I'm sure they'll tell you.

 

[mikedt]

FYI: my iPad has speakers on both sides in landscape mode.

Lots of tablets from China. Hope you have luck with yours.

Lots of tablets in China and I'm in China. But TBH there's only three makes of China tablet I would probably buy, ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo. Because I'm more confident I'm going to get better long term support from these makes, like warranty service and software upgrades,

 

[mikedt]

I caved and bought a Chinese tablet from merimobiles.com last night.
It's a Meiying M11 8" 1024x768, USB port, microSD port, 16GB, 1G RAM and two front-facing landscape speakers. THESE are all the things I wanted in a tablet (except that it's 8" not 7", but I think I can live with it).
Only $255 (with an upgraded shipping option so I'll have it by Jan. 5th).

My issue is that with namebrands you're paying them for their name, as well as their superiority (which is mostly their name). I knew, if I kept looking, I'd find a clone/knock-off tablet that would have everything I wanted and cost less than a namebrand that didn't offer everything I wanted.

The other thing with name brands is that you're also paying for them to have a US presence and maybe decent customer support (in English), and the fact you wont have to be sending it back to China if it goes wrong. It's part of why Apple products are so expensive, one is paying for a proper local tech and warranty support(Genius Bars and Applecare). Many cheaper computer manufacturers offshore their tech support call centres to India.

I can't even find who actually makes Meiying tablets on the internet, certainly no website or contact details for them. Where's one supposed to get software upgrades and bug fixes from?...you don't probably, which is usually the way.

 

[Chrome Cat]

Well, when I was a Sprint customer I was directed to call centers in India. Same with Cingular.

I couldn't find who makes Meiying tablets either. But I've already tested out merimobiles support and so far it's not too shabby. They have a 1-year product warranty on devices which is why I decided to buy from them. If this tablet shows up and is a complete disappointment - it goes back. Easy fix.
Also, merimobiles has firmware updates from their site. I don't know what the heck a firmware is but if I need an update I know where to get one. Plus, I've joined some other forums that tell you where to find upgrades for this tablet.

Trust me, I'm a college kid, I'm good at doing research if I'm good at anything.
Lenovo is up and coming and I think they are working on being one of the namebrands people will turn to. They're doing a good job. But their tablet didn't cut it for me.
I'd love a 7" iPad!!! But a 10" is just too big for me.

I don't mind paying for namebrands, because I know what I'm getting, they're "trusted" for a reason. I love namebrands, actually. But I also try to support the little guys. And I try to save a dollar where it isn't always necessary to spend big.
I wasn't putting anyone down. Samsung and LG are two of my favorite companies because their products and services are dependable.

I'm just not sure I NEED an expensive tablet, if I can get one more reasonably, to do the things I want it to do.