MSI Will Launch iPad Alternative 756
itwbennett writes "Underwhelmed by the iPad? Don't give up on tablets just yet, says blogger Peter Smith. MSI has a tablet coming in the second half of 2010 that measures up on price and size and addresses a lot of the iPad's most noted shortcomings. 'The iPad runs iPhone OS while the MSI runs Android,' writes Smith. 'That means the MSI will multitask of course, and Flash support in Android should be a given by launch time (though that isn't certain). It has a camera. It's running on an Nvidia Tegra2 chip which Ars Technica suggests puts it on par with the iPad's A4 as far as computing horsepower. And of course Android doesn't live in a walled garden.'" The post notes that the MSI device does not support multitouch in its built-in apps. Still, would an Android-powered iPad-alike tempt you?
Update: 01/29 17:58 GMT by KD : Dave Altavilla suggests Hot Hardware's coverage of Asus's recently announced tablet, also based on the Tegra2 chip.
Update: 01/29 17:58 GMT by KD : Dave Altavilla suggests Hot Hardware's coverage of Asus's recently announced tablet, also based on the Tegra2 chip.
Only if it has an IPS panel. (Score:3, Interesting)
While Apple may prove that it is indeed possible to put a better-than-TN LCD panel in a small (laptop-like) form factor, MSI would do well to follow the lead on quality.
That might provoke Lenovo to bring something back to their laptops that has been missing for a while.
Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
I've yet to see a compelling reason to pay more for a tablet. My Acer Aspire [amazon.com] cost less than any tablet I've seen yet but does quite a bit more. The only thing it is missing is the touch component but I have yet to find an app that makes me care.
If someone comes out with a tablet that is prices competitively with notebooks and has the same level of features, I'd think about it more seriously.
Re:Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
For about $79.00 and a couple of hours of work you can make your Acer Aspire one touchscreen. I found a kit on ebay and made it fit.
it's not hard. give you touch which is actually really nice considering how crappy trackpad pointing is.
KDE4 is designed for multitouch... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not really (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not always how much something does, it's how easy it is to use. I'm going to be watching this very closely.
Re:Not really (Score:4, Interesting)
There is not enough memory (Score:3, Interesting)
Check out 1:12.
He is scrolling through the pics, he exits out, then tries to open the photos again. Instead of seeing the picture, he sees an error box stating
"There is not enough memory to load the photo".
Seems a bit... sad.
But when is fewer too few? (Score:5, Interesting)
You make a valid point - Slashdot is not the market segment Apple is aiming at with the iPad. Rather, it's the woman in my class whom I overhead saying "I was thinking about getting a Kindle, but now I might get the iPad - it looks cooler and can do more stuff" or my buddy whom I saw last night saying "The iPad looks so cool, and it's CHEAP! [for an Apple product]"
Problem is, I pointed out to my friend that since the iPad lacks flash, he won't be able to watch Hulu on it. He was very disappointed to hear this. Unless, of course, Hulu releases an iPhone/iPad app. There was a rumor about that last year, but nothing solid so far. ATT complains that the iPhone is already killing their network, think they will really want to let Hulu on the iPhone? How will Apple feel about Hulu as a potential competitor to iTunes? Yeah, there are other streaming apps, but still.
Re:Geeks miss the point again. (Score:1, Interesting)
Only the executable part of an Android application has to reside in the primary flash storage (still a ridiculous restriction to have designed in however).
A version of Android coming in the future will remove this restriction as well.
Doesn't negate the fact that comparing Android to iPhone OS 3.2 will be like night and day in terms of the software available and how it works in terms of ease of use. And I say that as an Android user. Multitasking is all very well, but having to open a task killer application to kill off background apps to free up memory is tiresome. All apps should quit when closed unless they need to run in the background, if they need to check periodically for tweets, email, etc, the underlying Linux has cron.
The iPad looks immensely compelling as a pick-up-and-use device that I don't have to think about, that does all of the things I want. There are even suggestions that it will support flash (farmville and mafia wars fans rejoice!), because the iPad videos contain web pages that have the flash operating (see 9to5 mac), but could be a fault with how the video was made (using desktop safari imagery).
Re:Depends on the price (Score:3, Interesting)
How would you like it if this hypothetical tablet of yours came standard with a magnet that would let you stick it to your fridge while you cook?
The Always Innovating Touchbook does just that. The problem? They are hand assembled in batches after enough orders are in to cover the cost of materials. So you would be looking at a 3+ month wait to receive one at the moment.
Re:Productivity (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want a real word processor or spreadsheet, then just bite the bullet and get N900 - it can actually run OpenOffice [maemo.org] (UI not optimized for small screen, though... but still usable). So far as I know, this is unmatched by any competitor today, and none of them have plans to get anywhere even close in near future.
iPad vs $300 Netbook (Score:5, Interesting)
1.0 Ghz processor versus 1.66 Ghz processor
128 MB of RAM (assumed like iPhone, not explicitly stated in specs) versus 1024 MB of RAM
16 GB of storage versus 160 GB of storage
No webcam versus a webcam
No keyboard versus a keyboard
No Flash veruss Flash
No multi-tasking versus multi-tasking
No Windows or Linux apps versus install whatever you want
$500 versus $300.
The iPad does have a touchscreen. Does that offset the $200 and all other disadvantages?
Re:Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm excited about this announcement. I was also on the "iPad sucks" bandwagon but not necessarily because it's "cool" to hate on Apple.
To explain.
I'm in the market for a new portable computer. I've been looking at netbooks, etc. (Currently I do _not_ own a smartphone.)
Requirements:
Full web surfing capability. This means, even for all it's evils, Flash capability. Hulu, Netflix, Web TV, etc.
I don't need gaming, or at least "real" gaming. I don't need it to run Crysis, or even Quake. Some fun puzzles, etc, would be nice.
Bluetooth support and video camera abilities for video conferencing would be a plus, but not required.
Basically, when I'm out on vacation, etc, I want to be able to read the news, slashdot, gaming sites, etc. I also want to be able to watch Hulu if I get bored and want to chill to a missed TV show at night. Being able to pay bills/access my bank account is very very handy.
DVD playing functionality is a plus, but not required (especially since it would eat into battery life). The ability to connect an external drive would be very nice though (portable movie player).
_No_ _vendor_ _lock_ _in_. No apple store only and no AT&T only.
WiFi alone is fine by the way. A separate data plan just seems, redundant even if you can use it while outside of WiFi range.
But again, I don't have a portable computer right now and I don't need a full blown laptop to do what I need. But I do want an open platform that does what I need it to.
iPad does _not_ fit _my_ bill.
This new device _might_.
One of the other "iPad clones" may as well.
Re:I've had a long-running problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Does your wife get into a car and complain that it doesn't drive itself? Or that back a few miles ago it didn't even bother steering around that poor pedestrian, just plowed right through?
Congratulations on b). Picking beauty over intelligence probably was a mistake. Which is why /. doesn't care about your wife.
Re:I can see you're great with non-tech (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a YouTube app. When you click on someone's YouTube link in Safari or something, surprise surprise, it opens the YouTube app and plays the video.
People who don't have one have a lot of notions about the limitations of an iPhone but a lot of it (missing flash, no multitasking, etc.) is a kind of semantic game: it does things in a new way, which means that the old terms don't quite apply. But then people assume that it's not capable, not just that it's not the same.
Re:I can see you're great with non-tech (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Safari stays active in the background.
2) Use the Facebook app.
It amazes me that Windows and Linux have dumbed down peoples' expectations of what user interaction is to such a degree that most everyone on Slashdot celebrates shitty UI instead of condemning it.
Re:Not really (Score:3, Interesting)
One thing to keep in mind with these ultra-portable devices is that it's bad to pass judgment on them before you've held one in you hands and used it for a while. Remember the initial response to the iPod (no wireless, less space than Nomad, lame.).
People who were expecting something other than an enlarged iPhone miss the point of the device. The point is that an iPhone's functionality can be significantly improved for many applications simply by making it larger. Apple's been watching people do things with the iPhone that no one would have considered possible on a cell-phone a couple years ago (photo editing, on you cell phone! really?!) and now they are asking if it makes sense to make it a bit larger but retain a lot of the functionality of the iPhone. They are betting that there are a lot of uses for such a device.
Now people are complaining that the iPad doesn't do enough. Over the years PC manufacturers have done irreparable harm to the image of tablet computing by trying to cram every feature they can think of into them. Apple's approach is to take things they know will work, and then add other features to the device if there is significant demand for them, and when they are fully ready to be rolled out. Apple's approach has consistently resulted in a better user experience.
Re:I can see you're great with non-tech (Score:1, Interesting)
So facebook and youtube have an app, do you need to load an app for every web site you plan on going to so it will work correctly with the iPhone? I'm sure someone will spin this as a positive thing.
Re:Geeks miss the point again. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not really (Score:1, Interesting)
Windows 7 handwriting recognition is great. You should try it. I just use a used Toshiba m200 (an m400 would be nicer) which I picked up on eBay for $300. You will probably want an external CD / DVD drive for it though.
Re:Not really (Score:5, Interesting)
A tablet? Too big to use one-handed or with thumbs, and no tilting screen.
I tilt my tablet all the time, why cant you tilt a tablet?
also I dare you to annotate an electrical diagram or blueprints on your phone with a client. OR better yet, take notes at a meeting. Everyone else is writing on their legal pad, I write on my tablet. I dont have to go to my desk afterwards and then get those notes into my system. In fact I can email my notes to others instantly with my 3G connection in the WWAN card or use the WLAN connection.
Stop trying to use a tablet as a PC and a lot opens up.
Re:On Par? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Tegra2 is pretty hot stuff... and cool... average power draw of 500mW. Seriously...
nVidia has done a very nice job on this. Consider that it can play back H.264 in 1080p without using much CPU.. the decoding engine was designed not only to offload the CPUs, but to do the decode using far, far less power than a CPU decode would. There's also a 1080p encoding engine on-chip, so any Tegra2 device with a video camera should be capable of realtime H.264 HD video capture.
The Cortex A9s are like the A8s, but with a slightly shorter pipeline and out-of-order execution of the two instruction streams. Some bets place it ahead of the recent Intel Atoms at the same clock speed (nVidia's doing 1GHz, but ARM does have a 2GHz core certified from TSMC's 40nm process).. regardless, it's pretty close.
In short, Apple's got problems trying to match nVidia's device here. Sure, they can license the same ARM cores anyone else can. They have the A9 in there... did they go multi-core? Is there anything for a multicore processor to do in an iPhone? I'll bet it's single core.
The rest of the Tegra isn't rocket science: ARM7 supervisor processor, audio DSP, etc. But nVidia really knows their graphics. Just about everyone else (even Intel, on the low-end) are using some version of the PowerVR core for their graphics. Nice, easy, licensed solution, but it's no nVidia. Apple's gone with the ARM MALI GPU, so presumably, they believe it's an improvement over the PowerVR they use in the iPhone 3GS. I haven't heard much of this, but it's hard to imagine it's much of a threat to nVidia... unless nVidia is slumming it on the Tegra2 (pretty unlikely... they're clearly looking at device computing as a monsterous future market, with their stuff at the high end).
And I'll also bet, given Apple's cash supply, that this is just a first step. They're licensing the ARM core, makes sense... Apple was already an ARM licensee, even before they bought PA Semi. But they do have a full chip design company there. They probably had an Implementation or Foundry license, but I would be really surprised if they haven't upgraded to an Architecture License. This would let Apple make significant changes/improvements to existing ARM cores, or even design their own from scratch.
Everyone thought Apple bought PA-Semi for the PowerPC they did, but I didn't buy it for a femtosecond. Apple just doesn't make enough Macs to justify anyone making a desktop-class CPU for it, custom. But look at how many frickin' ARMs they sell. Then consider that PA-Semi was founded by Dan Dobberpuhl, the chief architect not only of some of DEC's Alpha CPUs, but also their StrongARM chips (which became Intel's XScale, now owned by Marvell). The PA-Semi guys have to be chompin' at the bit to do their own super ARM. They're also wizards at low power.. that was one of the big selling points of their PPC. So the interesting part of this, in a big sense, had nothing to do with the silly iPad (not that Apple fanboys are smart enough to know when they're being snookered), and most it hasn't actually happened yet.