I hate tablets. I don't like the iPad, I don't like any of the Android examples, I don't like the Blackberry. I hate them all.
I hate them because all of the tablet fanatics out there, perhaps intoxicated by Steve Jobs exaltations, believe that tablets will one day be the predominant form of computing. At least for now, this is total nonsense.
Every time you talk to a developer, they talk about one of two things: "specific considerations" of tablet development, if they're careful about the words they use; or "limitations" of tablet development, if they aren't. I prefer to use the term "limitations" of the tablet platform. Essentially, until we have neural connections with our computers, tablets are a much more limited form of communication between user and device. That is undeniable. There are simply fewer channels of interaction.
Moreover, the media community and even the tablet developers continue to make those limitations even worse! First was Apple's exclusion of Flash, which was a real bummer, since the iPad's best at media consumption, and that means Flash. Then, it was the media companies trying to block pretty much everything from the mobile browsers. Even on Android, you can't watch music videos on YouTube. You can't watch Hulu.
That is in no way a comparable experience. It's not even different. It's inferior.
When Windows is on tablets, I'll bite. That way, a tablet will be an actual computer. Not a toy.
3 comments:
Windows on a tablet may turn it into a real computer, but, more likely it will be Tortoise slow because of the resource hungriness of the Microsoft Operating System. I think a Linux netbook would have the optimum level of portability and usability.
Oflameo,
I hadn't even really thought about that. It depends on how bulky a Linux distro was used, but I agree. I think that a polished Linux would do very well on a tablet.
Putting a bulkier OS like Windows or full-blown Linux will not make tablets less awful. It will make them slightly more useful, and much much slower. They will still stink. I hate tablets too!
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