Tag: Tablet

Kindle Thoughts: A Day Later

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SANTA MONICA, CA - SEPTEMBER 6: Amazon CEO Je...

Yesterday, we quickly wrote up a few stories reporting the important details of the Amazon Kindle announcement. A day later, it is time to reflect.

Amazon has said it is about content. And they are. They started out as a bookseller, and despite being very technically adept, they’ve always used hardware as a way to move along their various content ecosystems. But we don’t quite believe them they aren’t being shrewd about the hardware too.

  • The base Kindle is now $69 with offers. We had thought it might go as low between $30 and $50, but at $69 it is still in the impulse buying range. It is almost disposable.
  • The Kindle Paperwhite is $119 with offers. It incorporates Amazon’s latest screen improvements, including a new lit design that allows for night reading as well as better contrast during the day, and still with amazing battery life. (8 hours). The 3G version is $179 with offers.
  • In the case of all three, to disable the offers is an additional $20.

So, let’s talk about a few things in the e-reader family before moving on to the Fires. Text to speech, a formerly touted feature, is gone on all Kindles(the Keyboard is still being sold, but that is legacy).

This appears to be because they will be offering Audible/Kindle book bundles in the future. To be honest, an e-reader really doesn’t need audio capability, and few people wanted to hear a book read using text to speech. More would prefer a human. So we’d imagine there wasn’t much interest in the feature, although vision impaired individuals are likely trying to figure out what they will do.

The Kindle DX is dead. No surprise there. A larger e-ink screen has its place, but there wasn’t sufficient interest.

Moving on to the Fire Line.

  • Kindle Fire(2nd generation) – $159. This is basically the same as the old Fire, but boosts the performance, memory, and battery life, also adds stereo speakers.
  • Kindle Fire HD – $199/(16GB), $249(32GB) 1280×800 resolution compared to the Fires 1024×600, Dolby Audio Speakers, dual-band/antenna wi-fi, bigger battery and more sensitive touchscreen.
  • Kindle Fire HD 8.9 – $299(16GB), $369 (32GB) – 1920×1200 display with anti-glare technology, faster processor
  • Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G – $499(32GB), $599(64GB), adds 4G LTE and the option of a $50 a year 250MB data plan.

Some interesting facts about the new Fires.

  • Cloud Drive Storage included
  • Ads on the Lockscreen
  • Bing is the default search engine
  • Based on Android 4.0. Original Fire based on 2.3

A lot of the features that Amazon focused on were improvements to their content.

  • Whispersync for Voice, and between Audible books and Kindle books…this is just smart marketing. You can sell people the book twice by bundling them together and allowing them to switch back and forth.
  • X-Ray for Movies – They do own IMDB, and this allows them to use that data to make it easy for people to find more content…which they can now sell to you.
  • Kindle Serials – a serialized model for selling stories. A good move for a different product they can offer individuals as part of the book market.
  • Kindle FreeTime – Custom Profiles for users to restrict usage…an upgraded parental control
  • Whispersync for Games – Allowing you to sync your game data across platforms. Developers will have to build this in, but an API is likely out or will be.

There’s a lot there, but we can’t believe Amazon’s insistence that they want to be everywhere. The Kindle Fire has been out for a year, and yet there is still no native Android app for Amazon Video, and the Amazon Mobile app is not even tablet compatible. If Amazon wants hardware to advance content, they also have to release their software. The Kindle app, in varying qualities, is on everything. They should innovate features so that every device has access to the full range as soon as possible.

Then, they can truly be the indispensable source for content.

More on this in the future…but…who is going to order one of these?

 

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The Asus Transformer as a Productivity Device

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Asus_EeePAD_Transformer_TF101_49
Asus_EeePAD_Transformer_TF101_49 (Photo credit: blogeee.net)

Last time on Gadget Wisdom, we were asking the question of whether a tablet can be your primary computer.

After we wrote this, we headed off on a long weekend with only an Asus Transformer. This is the original Asus Transformer TF101, not the newer Transformer Prime, but the concept is basically the same. If you want the benefits of a tablet, with the option to produce longer form content as needed, this is a perfect choice.

The tablet is wonderful for consumption of content. There are not enough tablet apps for Android, but there are enough to make us optimistic for the future.

Let’s go over a few of the apps we’ve started to use…

 News Reading

  • Reader HD (Free Version, Ad Free Version) – The best Google Reader app for Android tablets, in our opinion. The developer is very responsive with bug and feature requestss

There are a variety of magazine style news readers that draw from a variety of sources. Even Reader HD offers a magazine mode. We hope the promised version of ReadItLater Pro for tablets arrives soon, but the current version is adequate.

Word Processing/Document Creation

We have yet to find the best document suite for Android tablets. The Transformer comes with Polaris Office, which is not offered in the market. We also have copies of QuickOffice HD and DocumentsToGO.

We’ve actually been using a simple text editor, DB Text Editor, which is built into the Dropbox Android client.

We blog, and use WordPress, and WordPress for Android (Market Link) was recently updated and now supports tablets. It is still, like many things, not perfect. Nor is using WordPress in the browsers, but these things continue to get better..

Browsers

There is a build-target for a full build of Chrome for Android, but so far, there isn’t a full browser for Android. But the choice of browsers is not bad. While there is a tablet version of the popular Dolphin Browser, it is still in beta and has not been updated in a while. The HD version works fine for now, as does the Android version of Firefox. We hope to see more in this category in the future.

Email

Gmail is an example of what a good tablet app can be. It works nicely, efficiently, and it is a reference for many other apps.

Finance

Mint’s Android app(Market Link) just updated this week to support tablets. It shows that any app can become an indispensable part of one’s productivity if properly designed.

In the end, the market for tablet apps on Android is expanding. There are many good apps so far, including many we haven’t mentioned. There will be more, and the ones we have will only continue to improve.  So, what is the conclusion?

An Android tablet is one of the best options out there for content consumption and simple productivity. For word processing, with the addition of the Transformer’s keyboard dock, it means you can handle your on-the-go and travel word processing. We wouldn’t use it as our primary computer, but having it around means you can use your primary computer less and be more mobile around your house.

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Can a Tablet be your Primary Computer?

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Asus TransformerHarry McCracken, who write the Technologizer blog, wrote a story in December entitled: “How the iPad 2 Became My Favorite Computer.” In it, he asked whether or not an iPad can replace a PC? Being as we’re Android people, we decided to look at that from a broader perspective.

The simple answer is no. The distinction between a tablet and a full-fledged personal computer is being blurred, but they are still very different animals.

The primary built-in input of tablets is the touch-screen, which is not conducive for creation of long form content. The occasional brief email, but even that can be a chore.

Having acquired an Asus Transformer, we know there are markets for tablets that offer an optional keyboard dock. For other tablets, there is the option of a variety of bluetooth keyboards, which is what Mr. McCracken uses for his iPad. These keyboards, dock and other tools add the typing ability needed to turn a limited device into a full device.

Once you have the keyboard, you can start long-form typing. As pointed out in our referenced article, “You’re typing into a radically different set of apps than are available on a notebook.” You have to find out how to perform everyday tasks you would use a computer for normally.

Tablets and their lower power processors allow for hours of battery life, and the manufacturers are always searching for better battery life..So, you pair a screen the same size as a common netbook with an optional keyboard, long battery life, and functionality equivalent to many computers…What is missing?

When you add a keyboard to a tablet, what you essentially get is a netbook. But a netbook that costs more and has limitations in comparison to an actual netbook sized computer. In the end, what is missing is the larger screen and increased flexibility. But, maybe it can’t be your primary computer, but could it be your primary travel computer? What about on the go?

We’d like to hear your opinion? Where is the line and what do you do?

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