Blog Archives
Android Review Recipe – PWN
My favorite PWN of the week.
From Stephen M. Hackett @ 512 Pixels:
“Unlike Apple’s once-a-year release cycle with the iPhone, Android OEMs and carriers have gone crazy, releasing as many new phones as possible, as quickly as possible.
As a result, there are a ton of Android phone reviews written. I want to make it easier for tech writers, so I’ve created a list — a recipe, if you will — to help make this easier.”
He lists 9 points here are my favorite two:
•”This may be the best Android phone yet, but if not, just wait a week or two.”
•”The current version of Android lacks some polish, but the next version of Android will be the one to have, we promise. It’s going to rival iOS. Granted, this phone probably won’t ever get to run it.”
“These aren’t “beta” tablets” – Gruber calls it
In case you missed it, the next great “iPad killer” the BlackBerry PlayBook was released this week to a collective thud. Many reviews have been soft by excusing this device and others (like the Motorola Xoom) as “beta” or “rushed to production”.
In response to those excuses John Gruber @ Daring Fireball lets em’ have it:
“I don’t understand why so many reviewers bend over backwards to grade these things on a curve. If the iPad 2 had the problems and deficiencies the Xoom and PlayBook have, these same reviewers would (rightly) trash it, and declare (again, rightly) that Apple had finally lost its Midas touch.
These aren’t “beta” tablets. They’re bad tablets. It’s that simple. It’s true that their hardware seems closer to iPad-caliber than their software, but improving software is the hardest part of making products like these. By the time RIM releases “a serious software update or three” the entire market will have changed. The truth is, Motorola, Samsung, and now RIM have released would-be iPad competitors that pale compared to the iPad. Just say it.
The mass market doesn’t buy, and doesn’t want to buy, products based on what they might become months from now if these companies somehow dramatically improve the software. They buy products for what they are today, out of the box. Motorola and RIM and Samsung are Apple’s industry peers. These are the big leagues, this is The Show. They’re charging customers real money to buy these things. They should be judged by the same standards.”
Thanks for calling it like it is Gruber.
Here’s my thoughts about the current onslaught of wannabe iPad rivals:
I believe one of the biggest reasons for the success of the iPad was its very long design gestation. Jobs has said in interviews that Apple came up with the concept of the iPad before the iPhone and not the other way around.
Because of that progression by time the iPad was released it was really more of a 3rd generation product than a 1st generation. Apple prepared the market perfectly by educating millions of users about iOS (getting them hooked) with the iPhone as well as with the not often mentioned iPod Touch (which it still a great product in it’s own right, and to this day does not have a single equivalent competitor in the US).
Sure, no one knew exactly what the iPad’s release would do to the tablet market but all these companies that are now rushing inferior products to catch up, really should have been paying more attention and or taking Apple much more serious. It was long rumored that the iPad was in the works but apparently no one really believed it was a threat.
So now we have all these competing devices that aren’t quite ready for release being sold because their makers are scrambling to catch up (because Apple’s making a killing). Instead they should take a strategy from Apple’s playbook (sorry, couldn’t resist) and be thinking about what’s next and design for future instead of the past.
I guarantee you that’s what Apple is already doing.
Still thinking there is no Adobe Flash on iOS just because Steve Jobs is a Jerk?
From: ‘BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Lacks All the Right Moves’ @ Wired.com
“Any tablet debuting more than a year after the Apple’s market-dominating iPad needs an edge. For the PlayBook, that edge is support for Adobe Flash, a feature that the iPad is famously lacking. RIM says it took over two years of working with Adobe to bring Flash to its tablet.
Two years may not have been enough. During a round of Plants vs. Zombies, gameplay bogged down whenever the animation got intense. Every time I tried to access a Flash game on Facebook, the browser crashed. Yes, every single time. Say goodbye to your well-tended crops, Farmvillians.”
From: ‘Flash on Android: Look but don’t touch’ @ InfoWorld
“As it stands, Flash support offers no reason for buying a Xoom instead of an iPad. If you were hoping the Flash player would enable a whole new world of content, you will be disappointed. Flash sites on Android devices are utterly hit or miss. And if you’re deploying Flex applications for your business to be accessed on mobile devices, my advice is to switch to HTML immediately. On the other hand, if you’re enthralled by animated Web advertising, the Flash Player will be right up your alley.”
Steve Jobs may be a jerk. I really didn’t know because I’ve never met him. But at least he’s a jerk that is willing to give you the best user experience possible on iOS. As these negative reviews continue to roll out concerning Flash on Android I think it’s apparent Flash as it exists is not worth the headache.
Need A New Wireless Router? Have You Considered The Airport Extreme?
Great article over at TUAW summing up Apple’s Airport Extreme wireless router. I agree with every point the author has to make. Personally I’ve been using an Airport Extreme and an Airport Express (for wifi extending) for at least 3 years and I’ve found it to be very reliable and Apple’s setup software is extremely easy to use.
Macalope vs. Ms. Noyes – Tablets are Just a Fad – commentary
Loving this hilarious commentary by the always funny Macalope, who takes on PCWorld’s Katherine Noyes’ ridiculous iPad 2 opinion piece.
Now, the Macalope’s not gonna lie to you. This is going to be a hard one. Almost every syllable of this piece contains more than the USDA recommended daily dosage of stupid. Even the title could put you over a week’s allowance. Ready?
Why Tablets Are Just A Fad
Children, pregnant women, and anyone with a heart condition should go read some nice how-to by Chris Breen. The rest of you brave souls, just breathe through your nose and stay hydrated. If you need to take a break…that’s OK.
Here we go.
Ever since rumors of Apple’s first iPad began to look credible back in 2009, I’ve been watching the tablet space with a mixture of wonder and confusion.
As in “I wonder what’s going on? I’m really confused!”
After all, the devices really don’t offer anything you can’t get on a smartphone or a notebook computer, and their form factor is inconvenient, at best.
“Inconvenient”? Have you ever even used a tablet, Katherine? Or seen one?
Yet strong sales are backing up the hype—at least for now—suggesting something about the devices has caught on with consumers.
That is marvelous. Because the iPad is selling by the metric ton, this suggests people like them.
But they don’t. They secretly hate tablets and Apple, for making them buy tablets! Katherine’s the only sane person in a world gone mad!
What is that mysterious “something”? Purely marketing, I believe.
“I have no idea what’s going on and no interest in trying to figure it out because I’m very angry!”
Mark my words: The device—and all the others of its ilk that have sprung up for a piece of the action—are nothing more than a passing fad, at least in the mainstream.
Oh, those words are marked, Katherine. Marked with a big circle around them and the words “KOO-KOO CRAZY BANANAS” written next to them.
As far as I can tell, tablets do not offer any significant functionality that’s not already available on a smartphone or notebook computer, yet they lack critical components like keyboards.
As far as you can tell? You really have never used a tablet, have you?
So why the hysteria? It’s a fancy new toy, and—in the case of the iPad—one from Apple, at that. Never underestimate consumers’ desire to impress each other with the latest and greatest gadget, especially if they’re Apple fans.
“I have no idea what’s going on and no interest in trying to figure it out because I’m very angry!”
I just don’t see why you’d be willing to carry one of these things around—in addition to a phone, most likely—when you could have something convenient (a single good smartphone) or powerful (a laptop).
This is the kind of inquisitive mind that goes into technology punditry…
I see no reason to own a tablet, and fully expect them to fade out of the mainstream over the next few years.
This may come as a shock to Ms. Noyes, but she is not the Lathe of Heaven. Her dreams do not make reality. This is simply fingers-in-the-ears denial, possibly caused by Android-based tablets continuing to have their butts handed to them by the iPad.
There’s a principle any first-grader can tell you: When you’re losing the game, you call the game stupid, flip the board and go home.
Why PCWorld would publish that as “analysis”, that’s the mystery.
