5 Reasons Tablets Suck and You Won't Buy One

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wolfseeker2828

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I agree, I found it funny that people were complaining about an iPad when most of them had never even HEARD of a tablet before it, much less ever considered using one. The only thing it's good for is if you're a 3D graphics/modeling guy.
 
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I still think iPad will be a success and that the future for everyday tasks is touchscreen. You won't buy a tablet to replace a PC. You buy a tablet instead of buying a 2nd PC because most of the time you do things that don't require a powerful graphic card and complicated OS. I find the iPad perfect to replace my wife's laptop because she doesn't do games. At least not 3D ones. I will keep my gaming desktop... and this is how everyone's happy, including me when I'll come from work, want to pick my email or browse the net and I'll just fetch the iPad.
 

coopchennick

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I've never really seen a need for one. A guy in my class had one and he could write on it and turn it into a word document. That was the biggest up side I'd seen to date.
 
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wait until you see this http://eeepc.net/broadcoms-tablet-plans-are-high-and-mighty/ in the market. It fulfills all the weaknesses the current tablets have.
 

Capm

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I agree, it is all the apps and interface. It could be the way for me to eliminate paper altogether, but it has to be usable. As a cable tech, I have to carry around alot of paperwork for me to fill out and people to sign, and I have to take it all back to the office and file it, it would be nice to just get a customers signature or thumbprint on the tablet, and just sync with the office network and deposit my forms on a server that the csr's can then deal with. But if its clumsy and difficult to use, then it makes it less efficient than paper.
 

dickcruz

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that is true, now there's that one device that's a pen and it can record hand motions so when you write stuff it can later transcribe it into text and convert it into a word document or audio, that's pretty nifty
 

Nutjob

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Why I wouldnt get a tablet. I use my computer to surf the net, watch hd content (28 inch monitor), gaming and in my spare time I sometimes upload videos to youtube so I also do some video converting.

 

victomofreality

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I see tablets as a stage in the evolution of portable computing. Though unless I have money to burn I think I'll stay out of this incarnation and wait for the next hopefully they'll have figured out how to raise the portability and protect the screen.
 

blazeorangeman

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I couldn't agree more. Personally the reason why tablets aren't for me is simple: They're too large (screen size) to be considered a "portable" device, and the iPod Touches/iPhones are too small, underpowered, or too reliable on another computer/network to do what I really want to do with it.

The day tablet PCs (Apple or Microsoft based) become mainstream is when people will be able to build their own, or it fills a niche in the market where either the previously two devices can't go or do.

Give me a tablet that can successfully use my finger to work ALL applications in a 9" screen, with all the programs I can shake my AT&T iPhone with and then we'll talk.

Until then...
 

Arguggi

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[citation][nom]parvata[/nom]wait until you see this http://eeepc.net/broadcoms-tablet- [...] nd-mighty/ in the market. It fulfills all the weaknesses the current tablets have.[/citation]

Wrong link?
 

the associate

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I've always wanted a tablet but mostly never got one due to price/performance ratio. Stargate Atlantis made me want em even more lol
Here's to hoping windows 7's apparently better touch interface capabilities flourish on tablets...
 

AMW1011

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I strongly disagree with some of the points of this article.

I feel that this article is as much calling out the whole UMPC market as it is the tablet variants.

There are all forms of UMPCs, clamshells, slates, convetables, sliders, and more. Depending on your needs and what suites you, you can choose the best design for you.

Tablets are the most difficult to use, but they really are not that bad. I browse the web a lot on my Archos 5, and the only thing that is holding it back is speed and full flash. There are quite a few of UMPCs out there with the same screen size that can deliver those. Remember, I'm talking a 4.8" screen not a 9" screen. You make it sound as though these tablets are unusable, that's just plain stupid. Just like a desktop owner using their first laptop, it is a different interface that you need to get used to.

Look here:
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Viliv/S5
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Viliv/X70%20EX

Oh and for the record there is a great reason why the Archos 9 failed, not because of market demand or being a tablet, but because you would be lucky to get more than 2 hours of life out of it, which is unacceptable for a portable device.

As for UMPCs, if you simply can't stand the touch screen interface, there are still options. A clam-shell device, usually =
 

babybeluga

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Eh..in my opinion they need some kind of voice recognition software that works (would input a search into your browser or take notes in a word processor). That seems like it would be "new" enough to create a hypestorm for more technically inclined people. I would be interested in it at least.
 

aethm

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The only real practical purpose (for most people) will be students using them as book replacements / media / internet devices. For that they will need to be a lot cheaper.
 

thedipper

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I see this thread and say: The iPhone and iPod weren't exactly innovations either. PDAs were the smartphones of their day, guess how Windows Mobile is up to 6.5... it's been on these type of devices for a long-ass time. MP3 players... come on, these latest generations of fancy-pants MP3 players are totally unecessary, BUT it's the factor that an iPod is an iPod.

Apple brought mass popularity to these markets, not innovation. It also happened to come with price spikes across the board.
 

Charbax

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Laptops are considered useful. E-readers are considered useful. Everyone has a tablet in their pocket, it just happens to have a 3-something screen size only. Larger screens than on your phone IS useful because you get much more information on the screen, providing a much better web browsing experience, a better experience with certain apps that can display a lot of things on a screen (like Twitter), a better experience when watching videos.

Soon enough Laptops, e-readers and Tablets will be combined into one. Using a simple swivel screen mechanism, you can turn the screen to cover the keyboard, and using Pixel Qi, the screen will be as readable as e-ink.
 

tayb

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I've owned a convertible notebook, the T4220 from Fujitsu, and thought it was a marvelous device. It is nice to be able to hand write notes without needing pen and paper and there are some usual things you can do with pen (or finger) input but the thing that really made the T4220 a joy to own was that when I didn't want to use a stylus to control the OS I could pop the screen up, flip it around, and use it exactly like you would a regular notebook.

I don't see the usefulness of a pure slate tablet yet. Microsoft is going at it the wrong way trying to shove a full copy of Windows on the device. They are making strides by including touch features in Windows but it's not nearly enough. Apple is going at the wrong way by putting an overly simplified OS on their tablet. Somewhere in between what Apple and Microsoft is doing is the sweet spot where a tablet OS should be. We'll just have to wait and see who gets there first.
 

webdev511

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I have an HP EliteBook 2730p running Windows 7 Pro. It's convertable in that it has both laptop & tablet modes. I have two specfic uses for tablet mode.

1. Watching media & reading documents on the train. Neither of those two actvities requires more than a few pen taps to perform, so it's a perfect use.
2. Taking notes in meetings. Converting to tablet mode, laying it down flat and writing notes is a lot less intimidating than putting up the screen and creating a barrier between myself and everyone else in the meeting. The other benefit is I don't have to transcribe my meeting notes from papaer to PC. New tasks and documents are as simple as cut and paste.

With the exception of those two instances, it's just another laptop with a 2.13 GHz Core2Duo, 8GB RAM & 128GB SSD. It gets the job done.
 

Impulse Fire911

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the ONLY reason people "all of a sudden" are interested in tablets is because apple got in the game to make them and now everyone is flipping out about it. Apple really didnt do anythhing to the OS for it, its the iphone OS with slight modifications to make icons bigger and windows slide differently. personally here what i believe: The ipad will be like the ipod touch, sure, it comes with lots of apps, lots of features, and all the apple loyalists will come and buy one to please steve jobs. However, like what i have noticed with anyone havign ipod touch is tht the apps are not used very much and most of them are extremely pointless. Sure thy will play a game or two for 30 seconds to brag to their friends but they wont do it when theyre at home cuz its not even fun and most of the time its used to listen to music which can be achieved by a 30$ mp3 player. ipads will be used to go on internet, simple as that. after a while they will realize its slow, no flash, nothing really to it and will keep it around for a souvenir. but most apple fans wont realize and theyl spend their money on one just to be "hip and cool"
 

tayb

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[citation][nom]blazeorangeman[/nom]I couldn't agree more. Personally the reason why tablets aren't for me is simple: They're too large (screen size) to be considered a "portable" device, and the iPod Touches/iPhones are too small, underpowered, or too reliable on another computer/network to do what I really want to do with it.The day tablet PCs (Apple or Microsoft based) become mainstream is when people will be able to build their own, or it fills a niche in the market where either the previously two devices can't go or do.Give me a tablet that can successfully use my finger to work ALL applications in a 9" screen, with all the programs I can shake my AT&T iPhone with and then we'll talk. Until then...[/citation]

There will never be any substantial amount of people assembling their own tablets just as there aren't really many people (or any people) assembling their own notebooks. It's not going to happen.
 
I would buy the Archos 9 tablet at the drop of a hat, except for 2 problems.

1. The price is too high. $550 for a tablet is simply too much.

2. Not enough RAM. 1GB of DDR2-400 RAM is laughable. If you're only going to include that much, at least give the user the option to upgrade the RAM themselves (and make it easy to do so) without voiding the warranty.
 
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