News - Apple pulling away as Google releases Android 3.2

[mikerr]

At work, during a meeting, the guys macbook diddnt work for the conference meeting so he had to use a windows laptop.

My other co worker is using a macbook and he couldnt get skype working on it.

Apple laptops can (and should) dual boot windows too.
Still hate the fact you have to have a converter cable just to use dvi or vga though.

[crossy]

(oh and my old Dell 620 gets 3.5hrs+ on a single charge) Bit poor that

True, but then again it's a fastish C2D, I've maxed the memory and it's got a 7.2k rpm disk - none of which are conducive to saving power. Plus I'm doing development work rather than merely browsing the web.

Actually I'm not being catty, but I've heard Appleista's waxing lyrical about how incredibly long their battery lives are on their MBP's. In which case how long is "long" - I would have thought 3hrs+ for a reasonable level of activity (not just gazing lovingly at the desktop and stroking the case) would have been pretty acceptable.

Back to the article - hopefully I'll be able to get this .2 release on my Asus Transformer soon.

[phoenix198]

True, but then again it's a fastish C2D, I've maxed the memory and it's got a 7.2k rpm disk - none of which are conducive to saving power. Plus I'm doing development work rather than merely browsing the web.

Actually I'm not being catty, but I've heard Appleista's waxing lyrical about how incredibly long their battery lives are on their MBP's. In which case how long is "long" - I would have thought 3hrs+ for a reasonable level of activity (not just gazing lovingly at the desktop and stroking the case) would have been pretty acceptable.

Back to the article - hopefully I'll be able to get this .2 release on my Asus Transformer soon.

I lol'd, and I'm typing this on an MBP (I took a break from gazing lovingly etc ...)

[jjgreenwood]

Nice run-down, here's my equivalent:
phone = Sony the case design, Nokia everything else. Not that bothered about OS just as long as I'm not forced to get iTunes on a WindowsPC.
laptop = intel based, not apple because they're way too expensive. (oh and my old Dell 620 gets 3.5hrs+ on a single charge). OS I'm not bothered about - mine runs Ubuntu.
tablet = not sure here, iPad2 is probably a no-brainer for most folks, but I don't regret buying my Asus Transformer (had it two weeks, charged it twice and the battery's never fallen below 80%) and I get to use it as a netbook too - something not really possible with iPads
desktop = linux pc or a windows one if I need to play games (I have both).

snip

lol love the fact you responded
can't comment on phone as haven't had a recent sony
laptop = comment still stands your battery life is rubbish and design of any other laptop is rubbish
tablet = transform doesn't have 3g yet making it redundant for what I (trying to avoid smartphone battery life problem) want it for
desktop = we agree

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Phone: android
Laptop: windows based intel
Desktop: custom made intel with windows 7
Tablet: waste of ****ing money, laptops are better

[miniyazz]

design of any other laptop is rubbish

Come on now, that's just patently untrue.

[crossy]

Phone: android
Laptop: windows based intel
Desktop: custom made intel with windows 7
Tablet: waste of ****ing money, laptops are better

That last part I would have agreed with a month ago, now I've had a tablet for a while I'm not so sure. Granted if you're talking about a reasonably spec'd laptop then I'll agree 100%, no way I'd give up mine, although my netbook is now gone. On the other hand, if it's the low-powered "just want to read me emails" type devices then I'd argue that the tablets are in with a shout - the faster boot times (and yes, I know you can tweak and pamper a proper Win7 box to boot < 30 seconds, or less if you use hibernate) and longer battery lives are big pluses.

Note, I'm not saying you're wrong - undoubtedly for what you want to do (I guess) then a laptop makes more sense. Oh, and by "proper" Win7 box I mean one that's been setup for more than a month, so it's had time to acquire all those "wonderful" time-sapping add-ons, like AV, software updaters, etc.

What still does escape me though, is these folks who flash around their bit of kit (sorry Apple-fans, but these deluded folks are always iPad owners) and claim it'll do everything and anything as it is. I've tried typing on an on-screen keyboard, and while it's okay for a tweet or two, anything more than that is a real trial. So you need the availability of a proper keyboard. Secondly, tablets with little/no expansion also make zero sense - at a bare minimum a USB slot (preferably more than one), and I'd argue that an SD slot would be #2 on the list of requirements (MicroSD is barely a pass, you need the full blown size). Given that, I'd politely suggest that the folks that followed Apple's lead - like HP, Motorola, Samsung, Asus, Blackberry, etc are probably "better" devices than the iPads are - irrespective of how many gazillion apps the iOS devices have, or how much better the user experience is - to be honest I can't "clear blue water" between iOS and a good Honeycomb device, although I'll cheerfully admit that Honeycomb still feels like a "beta" (software, not Lancia). A keyboardless, expansionless tablet for me is a non-starter - sure it's an eReader/social game console/web gizmo, but they're asking a shedload of money for such a narrow focus imho.

What I do like the tablet for is the get-up-and-go of it. Sort of like the immediacy that you get with a smartphone. The reduced form factor also makes it physically "better" - less weight and smaller. And yes, I realise that at thing point the Apple fans are going to point out that the Air is not much heavier than an After Eight mint. What I'm hoping is that Google stop futzing around and really put some effort into their tablet offering - maybe Honeycomb is just "version 1.0" and we'll see great things for Ice Cream Sandwich?

Rant over...