I think we'll have to disagree on this. I think he chose his words in such a way to allow the analyst/media people to misunderstand, but that would allow him to say "no, no... I meant..."


Which is certainly a valid opinion, even if not universally shared. I might, for example, want a 10" iPad for business use, but a 7" tablet for personal use while traveling abroad.


That I did find interesting...

Here's the problem with Jobs:

When Apple (and NeXT) was an underdog, his evangelism ("Insanely Great", etc.) was the mark of a spunky company trying to produce something different. Disparaging the competition is just grandstanding.

Now that Apple is a market leader (in many markets, to boot) his evangelism sounds like whiny bitching. It sounds like he's far more concerned with disparaging others' products than in promoting his own, and it comes across as tone-deaf whining. I feel like he might take his ball and go home at any minute now.

I guess that this is the best example: when you're an underdog, saying that your competitors' products are crap is promoting your quality; when you become a market leader, the same claim is just mudslinging. Is this a problem of perception? Of course; nothing has really changed about Jobs' attitude. But we're talking about perception.

That said, I do think that Apple continues to make higher quality products than their competitors (though their customer service is faltering, IMO), and I'm glad that quality can still sometimes win out over economics.

But why can't Jobs accept competition? He used to produce something that he believed filled a niche. Why are other companies not allowed (by him) to do the same? No company can produce a product that fills every possible role. I think Apple has made a good choice in producing fewer higher-quality products, at the expense of limiting choice somewhat. (For example, compare the PC configurator at Apple versus the ones at Lenovo and Dell.) But that doesn't mean that the products they make are going to suit everyone. Other manufacturers recognize this and try to distinguish their products. Jobs comes across as telling customers that other products are crap because if you don't like what Apple has to offer, then you're doing it wrong; Steve knows best.

Once I had some time to think a bit about some other elements of Jobs rant, I also have issue with his assertion that iOS is an integrated solution. You might say it's integrated because you get pretty much the same iOS experience across multiple devices, but iOS itself, especially the core pieces of software Apple ships with it, are anything but integrated.

Do you want to wake up to one of the songs stored on your iPhone or iPod? Sorry the built-in clock/alarm program doesn't do music of any kind and can't access your music library.

Maybe you'd like to set a particular song to act as your ring tone? Sorry, the phone application doesn't access your music library either.

Maybe you'd like to move some piece of data from one application to another... Oops, can't do that either unless it's something that can easily be Cut and Pasted.

iOS' built-in software all feels unfinished to me. There are some polished bits, but it's like a really shiny car missing door openings in some respects.

Still, it's the best of the worst - something I always say to describe Apple.

And the 7-inchers have responded.

Man. That headline. Utter sublime genius.

Too bad RIM's 7" is gong to fail miserably even in comparison to other similar products out there.

People primarily have Blackberries because they're mandated, not because they want them. I think the RIM CEO is putting a little too much stake in his brand power.

In the US/Canada maybe. For some reason in the UK Blackberries have become very popular with teenagers, don't really know why.

Did those same teenagers used to use Sidekicks before? Could explain it.

The big numbers for RIM still come from corporate use, their consumer-driven sales are't what keeps them alive.

I'm pretty sure the Sidekick never existed in the UK.

Or maybe it was:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/17/t-mobile_danger_sidekick/

I never seen anyone in the UK using one.

Very popular with teenagers in Italy as well. I can't explain why either.

I'm among those who would use it only if that's the only option provided by my employer. I've actually used an 8900 for a while, and did not mind it. Loved by many, here, but not my favorite.

Perhaps because they offer a similar range of features to the iPhone without costing as much? Plus they get name checked by knob-end rappers all the time.

I doubt there's much kudos in owning an Android handset in the 15 to 20 age demographic. Personally I'd rather go back to my Startac than own a Blackberry.

Agreed, there's not much caché in Android. Definitely not as hip as the iPhone. I'm not certain what that age range uses in my region...


Ugh, agreed again. The day I traded in my Blackberry for my G1 was a good day. The G1 may have been slow as molasses, but at least I had a decent smartphone OS. And I maintain that the Blackberry browser is the worst I've ever used. I had a Sony featurephone with a better browser.

Here is the first Samsung Tab review I've seen, over at TechRadar (horrible multipage review, but the content was decent).

Their main complaints seem to be the user interface speed at times wen web browsing, the device gets noticeably warm, and battery life was poor. They were mixed on the size, putting it as good in the summary due to the mobility, but bad in another part of the article due to the cramped keyboard.

One point they made in this review is the Samsung Tab may damage perceptions for future Android tablets due to shipping with 2.2 today, an Android release Google continues to indicate wasn't built for tablets. I wonder how quickly Samsung will get it updated to 3.0.

Hmm, starting to see a ton of reviews, I'm guessing an embargo recently ended.

The Engadget review seemed a bit more positive. They didn't see the slowdowns TechRadar talked about, though they too noted the browsing experience wasn't quite as smooth as the iPad. Battery life also seemed better for them, hitting into the 6 hour range, instead of the 4 something TechRadar reported.

They do say in the review that they see no slow downs. But then when you look at the review you can clearly see that scrolling when browsing is pretty crappy.

Looking at their video the scrolling has none of the immediacy of iPhone/iPad scrolling, it doesn't start scrolling until you've moved your finger a fair bit. Is this a general Android issue or is the Tab just struggling with throwing around those extra pixels ? Or is it due to Flash being enabled ?

Yeah, that was pretty bad. No, the Android browser is not typically like that. Maybe when the device is already heavily loaded, which is uncommon (generally speaking, there's not that much running in the background) or while it's still loading a complex page, but that seemed to last longer than that. Having Flash turned on might explain it.

That said, there's an option to have Flash installed, but not run anything in the browser until you click on it, like Flashblock. Except that once you start Flash on that page, all Flash applets on that page start.

It's entirely possible that, as before, Samsung has ruined their own product by messing with it down to the browser level. I'd love to see someone put Cyanogen on there or something and see if they have the same browser problems. Or even one of the alternative browsers like Dolphin.

I no longer read Gizmodo, but I found this link elsewhere...

The Tab is a pocketable train wreck.

Honestly, 7" is too big to make the product easily portable - just use an iPhone or similar device. And it's too small for a tablet experience, just use an iPad or some future Android 3.x product.

Even if the user experience was top notch, it'd still be something akin to the Newton MP2000-series. Awkward.

News from RIM about their tablet today as well - $500. I'm sure the two people that buy it are going to love it. It can handily beat Samsung in the number of devices that will need to be pulled from shelves and put into landfill if RIM produce enough stock.

Everyone has embraced the iPad, and while I don't think it's too late for someone to come out with, and make money with, other tablet devices, I'm quite confident they will be to the iPad as the generic MP3 player is to the iPod.

How long do you think we'll have to wait to see this on an Android tablet?

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/10/synth-fans-rejoice-rebirth-for-ipad-now-available/

BTW, it's frikken awesome. Synth/drum/loop machines on an iPad.

I went to Bluewater (one of the UK's biggest shopping malls) the other night so I also decided to take a look at the Galaxy Tab. A few of the phone shops had adverts in the windows at £499 and at least one of them had one set up for demo.

The insides of phone shops fill me with nearly as much dread as trendy clothes shops, so I went to Currys (think Best Buy on a smaller scale) to see if they had one.

They did, one single unit on display. I had quick play with it.

It seems a nice enough device, the UI is responsive enough. However that is about all I can say, because it didn't have a wifi connection setup and didn't have a SIM card in it.

Which of course makes testing it out in any meaningful way completely impossible.

It mostly looks/feels like a big phone, in a way that the iPad doesn't. The lightness of it was welcome though, the iPad could do with losing a little weight.

Ugh, I hate when they do that! These devices are all about connectivity, so why do these stores block the most important aspect of the device? I'll give it to my local Best Buy, when I tried the iPad out there, I believe that all 6 display models were active 3G units, and I was able to surf the web. That was very important to my trial experience.

The Best Buy here in town has free WiFi so you can test any capable device in store and use your own devices as well. It was nice not having to use 3G airtime on the iPhone the other day when checking something out online.

They have a couple of WPA networks in store for testing stuff, but for some reason it wasn't connected to it.

There's "news" (rumor) that Samsing has shipped 1 million Tabs to date. Smasing hasn't made an official announcement yet and I suspect I know why. Because it's bullshit. I don't care how many carriers are selling that turd, there's no way in hell Samsung has pushed 1 million units into the hands of consumers. I doubt very (VERY!) much they'd have even shipped 1 million units into the channel. If they had, that would probably leave some 900,000 still sitting on shelves.

Apt comment: " You can’t review a gadget based on some features it might or might not get in the future. And right now, the combination of the Tab and Android sucks."

If the new leaked? Android images are any indication of what the next OS version have in store, I wont' hold my breath for any serious competition for the one true tablet. Google's going to be splintering mind share a bit more in a few days with the announcement of Chrome OS as well. Who knows how that's going to turn out, but it looks like a dog right now. I suppose manufacturers can put out and sell millions of $200 netbooks that will eventually completely devastate their bottom lines. You have to have rocks in your head to keep pushing the floor on these products. Here's a clue. When you're not making money, volume doesn't help, it just makes things worse.

Dude, why are you so vitriolic about this stuff? Just relax for a second, ok?

You do understand that "shipped" is completely different from "sold," right? You seem to be saying they're the same thing. I can easily see Samsung shipping 1 million units to stores, and that doesn't mean they've sold anywhere close to that many. Remember that while Apple was initially selling them in their small number of stores and online, Samsung is starting off selling in the stores of three major wireless carriers as well as Best Buy.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to sell that many in the next few months. The features it'll have in the future is irrelevant, by the way. I've heard plenty of good things about the Tab, and that review you linked really wasn't very good. A lot of people had a lot of gut reactions to the device, and I think many of them didn't just chill for a second and review it for what it was, and not compare it to the iPad.

From what I'm hearing, there is one definite advantage that the Tab has over the iPad: Android apps simply scale better. That's not to say that there shouldn't be tablet apps. There definitely should, and the Tab (and all Android tablets) will be behind the iPad in that regard for years, frankly. But they're at least starting out half-way because the phone apps don't like like total crap on the tablets. (sorry, but iPhone apps look like garbage on the iPad ).

Anyway, I don't really care for the Tab. I tried it out in the store and it's nice and all, but it's ridiculously priced (at a level so clearly created by the wireless carriers), and I simply won't be locked into a contract.

Instead, I'm looking at getting an Archos tablet. No, they won't be in the same league as the iPad (or even the Tab), but they also top out at $350. They don't ship with support for the Market app, but it's a trivial fix to put it on there. For a device that I'm only using for reading comics and Google Reader (which just had an official app released! yay!), it'll be great.

Archos products have a place and they have been there for a long time and practically pioneered that space while everyone else ignored it. I'm happy to see them still around.

The rumor about Samsung is "sold" - what I'm saying is that I doubt very much that it's even "shipped" - the product at $200 less than what it is nor still wouldn't make for a decent poor man's iPad, but it's the same price. If an official statement came out tomorrow saying they'd sold 10 units since launch, frankly I'd be less surprised than if they said they'd sold half a million.

I need something to rag on. I'm having an otherwise great time with so many other things that I need to have at least one punching bag going at all times. I was kind of tired of slamming Apple and Boxee. Apple will always be Apple, always coming out with a lot of good stuff with these inexplicable flaws. And at least Boxee is being honest about where they are and how people have reacted to their product.

Samsung on the other hand... I'm really sick of their sub-par Galaxy product line. Look Samsung, any two-bit OEM could put that product together. They've been making the industry's worst mobile products for some 10 years or longer, they've finally gotten into the makeup game - but no matter how much makeup you put on that pig, it's still a pig.

BTW, think the best Android product out right now is the Barnes and Noble Nook Color. Android doesn't have to be crap.

As far as tablets go, I think the iPad is going to continue to define that category for at least another few years. It doesn't have to, but the writing is on the wall by just sampling the portable computer and mobile phone market over the past 3 to 5 years. I'm actually very curious what they're going to change/add - it should be a greater evolutionary jump than the bump from the original iPhone to iPhone 3G, IMO.

Keep it to yourself or take it somewhere else. You've lost all semblance of anyone giving a shit about anything you have to say about any product where Apple has a presence.

Are any of my points not valid? Any of them not grounded? Any of them unfounded? Sure, I may spice up the analysis a little and sometimes add a little hyperbole, but I'm still batting much better than most analysts in this respect, so while I respect you may not agree in many cases, I do have a point and the content is relevant. You could just not read the posts in threads that are likely to bother you. Those where Apple may have a market presence as you say. I'd never ask you to go (read) elsewhere though. This place wouldn't be the same without you.

I was "joking" about the rag part. Humor doesn't seem to go as far in here as it used to though. Too many people seem to be on pins and needles lately. Must be the terror alert status.

Sorry. I was having a particularly shitty day yesterday.

NP. BTW, I utilize very little filter when I write here - the same as if I would be talking or emailing with any other close friends. So you're getting the raw feed, so to speak, which is unlike what you might see in other forums (from me) or anyone else.

To me, this is like an online version of the local barber shop for gossip and trash talking tech.