iPad vs "the rest"

I'm glad that 20 years ago (when Jobs was not at Apple) a few decided not to "throw in the towel" and go with just Microsoft.

Give Apple a monopoly then I (and virtually most others) can see the outcome.

 

I like these particular folks for tablet reviews. One thing I find surprising right now is how many graphic artists that I know who are still tied to Apple. There are discussions about running Sketchpad on the iPad...but if you're illustrating on a tablet, a Wacom touch sensitive pen seems like a major advantage. Granted this tablet is more expensive, but it seems like a nice tablet/notebook replacement. When it comes to a direct comparison, Asus's Transformer tablet seems like a good competitor (HD aspect ratio, full Android support, cheaper...). With tablets like iPad or Androids, you're limited to particular software and hardware limitations...but these two systems are prevalent enough to have popular features. Tablets with WebOS were destined to be DOA...as they couldn't even support E-reading software.

At least one nice thing about various Android tablets being out is that you have a selection of features. One minor feature that I would like to see in more tablets is an IR port. Sony has come out with an Android that has IR and a good universal remote software...you don't see that in many tablets. Many have blue tooth, but being able to control the boob tube/stereo while surfing the net seems like a great feature to me (and many home theater components are going to be IR for awhile).

 

Galaxy Tab 7 Plus has an IR port. Some versions are full blown phone that can make voice calls and network SMS/MMS capable. The Tab 7 Plus would be a great iPad alternative if the US version can make network phone calls. Google Voice isn't so bad either but still, no VoIP can beat the call quality of a real cellular phone.

The EEE Slate EP121 has some serious hardware for its size. It's a very powerful tablet. However, Windows7 is the worst OS to be put on a tablet. It is not optimized for touch screen. It needs a mouse and a keyboard. If not the keyboard, at least a mouse. Because of this, the EEE Slate will be harder to use than iPad or Android tablets. The key to making a tablet successful is finger friendly, responsive, easy to use, and intuitive to use. Windows 7 is none of that. It's great as a desk top OS but not a tablet OS. There's a reason why Mac didn't use felines on an iPad, but instead they use iOS.Using a stylus pen on a tablet is so 10 years ago.
Windows 8 which is optimized for tablet would be much better choice. It'll be like using a giant Mango. Or, one can run a honeycomb emulator on top of Windows 7. I don't think the emulator can take advantage of the impressive hardware the the Asus has, the mic, stereo speakers, USB ports, HDMI ports, webcam, IR port, SSD and SD card. 3 hour battery life would render the tablet useless without plugging it to a wall.

 

Well the Slate EP121 proves you don't need a mouse. I would also think that since I do see a keyboard function on my tablet mode Win 7 interface...that you would be able to get a virtual keyboard for a Win 7 tablet if so inclinded. I constantly use a graphics tablet over a mouse because it's pretty convenient for me: I may wind up needing it for graphics apps and I like a pen over a touchpad or a pen stick for general windows functions. It's a different market then cheaper tablets that are meant more for basic entertainment and e-reading, granted. But I think it's a pretty good market for artists looking for a tablet...it's the same price as a 12" Cintiq, yet it's an actual tablet computer. It's good for general computing, actually supports Flash and many other *proprietary* functions, a larger screen then cheaper tablets, and it's a full OS (and not a limited OS as iOS is vs OSX).

 

Given a choice between the Asus slate and the iPad2, I'd get the Asus any day unless the iPad2 was given to me as a gift. I would actually use it instead of sell it and get something different. The Asus is a more powerful tablet and comes with real computer ports. I wish this tablet could dual boot into Android honeycomb like the Gigabyte and the Viewsonic. Both of those tablets have horrible specs.

 

Allow this bickering and I still can't decided which tablet to get that will also let me load the Torque app to hook into my OBDII port on the Prius. I'm not a Mac person but I would consider it if it is truly worth $100 more than the Samsung 10.1. Help! lol

 

On vacation, filling up 32 GB only takes a few days. You'd be surprised how easy that is to do with a GoPro camera. Being able to take advantage of the SD-card slot and USB port to review, organize, and transfer those files is a major plus with my tablet.
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When on vacation, I move photos using my iPad and the SD card adapter from Apple. My iPad moves them where ever I need them. I can even add them to my iCloud so they are on my Mac Pro at home while we are still at Disney. My DD9 and I also send photos from our iPhones to iCloud so that we can use them on the iPad if we are sending them to someone or want to edit. We like to add text and play with them before emailing.

 

Internet archive isn't realistic, not uploading 32 GB anyway.

How many mounts are available on the iPad? To go from one card to another, you obviously need 2. Thrive offers up to 8 at the same time via USB, plus the SD slots. So, it's a piece of cake to transfer and it's wonderfully fast with class-10 cards.
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The Thrive looks like a great tablet when you have WiFi available. But in the middle of Walt Disney World, you will quickly find that you have a very limited device. With the iPad, we can not only archive photos but upload them as well. We can check the ride times, park hour, consult the map, answer emails or well you get the idea. While you are seeking a WiFi signal.

Thrive appears to be a $379 device that performs as my HP Touchpad ($99) does or my DD9's Nook Color ($249). Flip it over, if there isn't an Apple on the back its just a wanna be.

 

Who carries a tablet while out & about? The smart-phone & camera are for that. That tablet is for when you get back to the hotel that evening and when you're in the car driving to the next state.
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Taking an ipad out and about for the sake of taking pictures is just ridiculous. If you wanna lug around a man purse to put your ipad, might as well loose the man purse and carry a real camera like a 5D MarkII. your memory will thank you years later. If you don't wanna lug around a DSLR or don't have a DSLR then pocketable semi pro cameras like the G12 or the S95 or S100 would be an even better choice.
If you absolutely have to upload your photos to the cloud the instant you took the pictures, use Eye-Fi and connect it to your smartphone for cloud sharing.

 

Especially since memory is so cheap these days...I don't feel limited to "film" or "battery" supply when taking my DSLR on trips (as I would a SLR). Heck, I'm enough of a shutterbug that my "portable" is a shoulder bag that holds a 5D with grip, several lenses (or flash depending on occasion), and backup batteries/memory/etc. I'd rather have that for a camera so that I can have a capable rig for every situation (I can take higher quality photos in daylight or night time situations). I'd rather have that gear and just a smartphone for my e-mail/internet/reference during day trips. When on vacation, I'll also have my laptop for transfering photos or more advanced computing when getting back to the hotel.

The iPhone is a good smartphone and you can get good interactive maps, schedules, etc (the only spec that seems long in the tooth is no 4G still). I think the iPad is good as a general web device when lounging in front of the TV, as a reference in a clinical office, or as a multimedia device on board an airplane. With these applications, it has some advantages and some disadvantages. The biggest advantage is its popularity: there is more productivity software being developed for it. However, there are a few features of it that would make me consider an Andriod tablet (like the Asus Transform) first. Some prominent functions: a better letterbox aspect ratio for movies, actual Flash support for many legacy internet sites that will not be HTML 5, and a base for Netflix and Hulu.

 

You would be shocked how many people are carrying iPads these days. I carry mine everywhere. We've went to WDW in December, March, May and October. Each trip I've encountered other iPad users in the parks. My DD9 and I also carry iPhones. There is even an app called LINES which is used by hardcore Disney fans where people "talk" and meet up in the parks. I have an app that gives me the menus of every restaurant in the park with prices. I have an app that tells me the wait time of all the rides.

When I purchased the camera bag for my DSLR camera, I made sure there was room to put an iPad in it comfortably. Since getting the iPhone 4, I've also found that we don't pull out the Sony a55 nearly as often. The camera on the iPhone is great for quick shots. The Sony is more for those special poses.

The thrive won't be any good when you are in the resort room at WDW either. No WiFi! Just $10 per day wired access. In the car? Again, the thrive won't be hitting on anything.

My DD9 loves to upload pictures to Facebook from all over the park. I love to shoot videos of her face while on rides using the iPhone's front facing camera. We have them on Facebook so that family can enjoy the vacation as it is happening. We both have our Macbooks in the resort room but don't find that we need them as much, just as additional back up.

 

WiFi is way too slow to upload 32 GB of data. Even with a wired connection, it would take hours. The point is using the tablet to review, organize, and backup the photos & video. None of that needs a connection of any kind.

It's only when you want to update something like Facebook. But the phone can be used for that too. Just bluetooth the selected few photos over, then upload.

When you start filming 1080p video with a $199 waterproof GoPro, you'll figure out quickly how little time it takes to gobble up GB. I also use the GoPro to automatically snap an 11MP photo every 10 seconds. That ends up burning up a lot of space too, but you rarely miss a moment and it's fun looking at them afterward.
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Even if wifi is slow, the whole iCloud thing is really nice. You take your pictures and upload then to the iPad, and leave it sitting in your hotel room all day, uploading pictures to iCloud as slowly as it wants. By the end of the day, everything is uploaded (and from there, already downloaded to your desktop), and you're ready to start a new batch.

It provides better backup and syncing than any other method. Otherwise, you're going to spend time after you get home syncing everything to your computer. And if something happens on the way home (your tablet gets stolen, or forgotten on a plane), you still have all your pictures waiting for you at home - the only thing you lose is the physical price of the hardware, not the data and memories you had saved on it.

For me, personally, any situation where i'm going to produce that much data, i'll be in range of some wifi, and be glad of the iPad's ability to back everything up to my computer at home. Any situation where I wouldn't be in range of wifi, I honestly wouldn't be bringing a tablet anyways (or a computer, or even my good camera - I'd just be bringing my cheap old camera that I'll never fill up in a week).

 

Most of our vacations are to Walt Disney World. A place that has no WiFi inside of the parks or resorts. However, it does have lines and other down time where an iPad comes in very handy.

My 9 year old daughter and I are always grabbing the iPad or our iPhones to check wait times for the attractions we want to ride next, the menu/price of a restaurant, upload a quick status change to Facebook or in my case to answer an email or two.

We also have an HP Touchpad and a Nook Color, but those stay in the resort room. The battery life of the iPad is great! Having iCloud has already saved our vacation pictures more than once. Once my daughter's Kodak point & shoot's SD card got corrupted. We already had uploaded pics/movies to the iPad to save camera SD card space.

 

If you're gonna take vacation pictures and back them up to the cloud, do it right the first time and don't half nice person it with cheap nice person cameras on the ipad or the iphone.
Get yourself a decent shooter and an Eye-Fi pro X2 8GB. At minimum a compact DSLR or mirrorless or a high end P&S, none of that $100-$300 cheap toy P&S. Jail break your iOS and tether your shooter to your iOS. No mods needed for most 3G Android. Once you got it setup, pocket your iphone and put that ipad back in the man purse. From now on, every picture you take gets stored in the 8GB Eye-Fi SD card, your iOS or android device and automatically uploaded to icloud or whatever cloud service you have, AUTOMATICALLY. The only time you need to whip out your phone or tablet is to check the wait time or a little game of pissed off feather ball. BTW Android has crap load of apps to check wait time, maps, restrooms, menu prices for Disneyland too. Since you're shooting with pro/semi pro cameras, every picture is poster worthy and none of that out of focus, blurry, washed out, shadowed face crappy pictures that camera phones take.

 

I have several cameras of various quality for different purposes, including a waterproof video cam that can shoot stills in panoramic modes. When I go on vacations I like to bring all my cameras along and shoot them according to needs.

But when I'm not on vacation, which is 99% of the time unfortunately, I don't carry all these cameras around all the time. Thus, my go to camera for the majority of occasions is the best one of them all: the one I have handy when the occasion arises, i.e. my phone.

I've learned that most of the times picture quality depends more on the photographer's proficiency than on the camera itself. Here's one taken with a lowly phone camera early one foggy morning.

 

I carry a Sony a55 for my shooting needs but we also have a Kodak Point & Shoot for my nine-year-old daughter to use. She's not going to be using the a55 for a while. In addition, we both have cameras on our iPhones. Last vacation we tried out an underwater point and shoot... It didn't do so well. The lens fogged in the pools.