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38 pointsobsaysditto46 comments

I sometimes wonder if this fad of having a massive gloss mark right across screens will pass. It's like they're trying to say "You can be absolutely sure this will reflect everything so that you can't see anything on the actual screen".

When displayed on websites they just seem to take it to extremes. Half the device is black and half is white? :/

Hardware looks quite sexy.

This is also true of the bezel for flat-panel LCD and plasma televisions. Walk into a best buy and 95% of them have a super glossy bezel.

I've yet to buy a new tv (because I'm too busy reading HN!), but when I finally do, the bezel will be matt black.

They're cheaper to make and they look better at a first glance or when compared side to side with glossy displays.

Of course they look crisper. The matte finish is the necessary compromise to avoid reflections.

Why is a glossy screen considered a "good thing" in the first place? Is there any situation in which a glossy screen is desirable?

If you're in the right lighting conditions, blacks are far blacker, contrast is better IMHO than a matt display. But it's a very contentious issue as far as I know.

having had both matte and glossy macbook pros, my own observations seem to confirm this: colors are richer and display is brighter (across the same model) but glossy screens get smudged a LOT, and reflect just about everything

That's it. If you (the common person TM) are on a shop and look at two laptops side by side, one with a matte screen and the other with a glossy screen, I'm pretty sure that person will be more pleased with the colors on the glossy one.

The problems only appear when you start using it.

The problems only appear when you start using it. <In bad lighting setups>

I love the glossy screen on my iMac at work for one reason: I can see when someone is walking up to my desk behind me. The great expanses of darkness in the empty spaces of my text editor make the screen a gigantic mirror.

Details:

http://www.neofonie.de/files/product_specifications_WePad_10...

Positives: USB ports, Java, Flash, Android apps, built on Linux, Webcam

Negatives: Less battery life than iPad (6 hours vs 10 hours)

Negatives: touchscreen not implemented, months or years away from sale

I really don't understand a lot of these product comparisons. They read like every other iPod killer out there. All the iPod killers have more storage, FM receivers, smaller, more battery life, etc -- but they all had one thing in common: they never killed the iPod.

Not too shabby, but a few things concern me:

1. The air vent. Does this thing get hot? How necessary is the air vent? My iPad is always cool as a cucumber, regardless of what I do on it.

2. The size seems a bit big. Not only is the screen a tad on the large size (or the German pillow girl a tad on the small size), but it also looks pretty thick. The iPad is right on the edge of being to heavy, I wonder what the weight on this thing is.

3. How polished is this thing going to be? They have more features, ports, etc, but that also introduces complexity. Apple had three iphones with which to work out ui bugs, hardware problems, and other issues.

I'm excited to see how it's received, and also excited to see the upcoming android based tablets. But I'm not holding my breath.

I'm looking forward to the android tablets.

A website completely devoted to this:

http://www.androidtablets.net/

is it your site? it looks nice

I am very excited about prospects of 7" $200 tablets - they will make fantastic auxiliary displays around the house.

I think those were USB ports I saw in the back.

What so hard about building these kind of devices nowadays? It seems to me that all the components are readily available (there is no technological breakthrough in any of them, excepted maybe the screen), and the size of it should make it easier to pack more features or cheaper ones. Unless it's all about the software.

I'd really like a full-size laptop with these exact specs (and a full-size battery.) What really detracts from these things' portability is that they basically have to be plugged in every day. It's even the same with my Droid.

Runs Android: Excellent. Runs Flash: Too Bad. A year behind the market leader: trouble Will cost more than iPad: marketplace death

You just can't get away with charging more than Apple's offering unless you're providing some kind of genuine innovation. This is unlikely to offer anything iPad doesn't and even if it did, nobody would be inclined to believe it. That means it has to be cheaper, which shouldn't be so hard with Apple's typical margins.

Here in Europe the iPad will cost 499 Euro. So 449 is actually cheaper for us.

The best thing is:

At the presentation in germany they used windows mobile as operating system ;)

After 1 weeks they tell'd they truth about :P

I'm sure it's going to be well engineered like the iPad http://cdn1.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Joo-Joo...

oh wait... that was the Joojoo

http://s1.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/dDCyRZBNfZ1FxJbI.large

Does this exist, or is it just a late April Fools' joke? Because it seems awfully quick to come up with a real competitor to the iPad...

They were developing before the iPad came out, of course. I saw news about them in March, anyway.

They've been marketing to newspapers in Germany, but with the advent of the iPad it would appear they've seen a larger market. I wish they'd get more specific, though. If they're already on the market this summer in Europe, I'm probably going to pick one up.

The specs say in Germany they're going to soft-launch it in July and publicly launch in August this year.

more informative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO0XHMoylZ4

I know this is an early version, but why would you show people a competitor to the iPad that doesn't include a touch interface? Maybe to show off the USB?

It has touch. He shows it a little later in the video. One question though is that it appears that he's doing a lot of the touch with his fingernail, which makes me think that the sensitivity is poor.

Agh, shamed. The description said touch was upcoming, so I didn't bother watching the entire video.

I guess they say that because they only seem to have a rough prototype with touch right now — the one they were using looked a lot bulkier and more unpolished than the demo model.

I was actually wondering why he was padding around with a mouse to start with too.

I wonder though if it supports multi-touch? I really think that's important for tablet computers these days. The control over the device really is so much better.

They use touch later in the video, for interface and typing.

I'm looking forward to seeing if it actually exists, and if so, the price, which I noticed they haven't announced yet.

it's in the specs, starts at 449 with wlan, 16gb

So about $600 at current exchange rates.

but will be sold subsidized, so the price will be lower

Wait who's subsidizing it?

Afaik, the are making deals with news organizations.

Anybody notice the picture of the woman standing up and holding the device? I think it's the last picture in the roll. Not only does she appear somewhat uncomfortable holding it but she is using a pillow in her right hand while standing to kind of prop up the device. Very strange choice for a product shot.

I'm wondering what happens to ChromeOS long term if the future is Andriod for portable internet devices.

ChromeOS is for netbooks (direct hardware keyboard input, small screen) while Android is for touch devices (android phones, tablet devices, etc).

They're similar, but for completely different markets.

I'd pay for a ChromeOS pad - probably a fair amount. With some UI tweaks and a decent context-sensitive onscreen keyboard a ChromeOS pad would be stellar!

(though I am an oddity and only wanting a pad for internet use and nothing else :))

this is great news for me. I have already a couple of android apps that i am starting to port with the ipad with the iphone sdk, but my learn curve with objective-c has not been the best.

Does anybody know if the battery will be user replaceable?

The best thing is:

At the presentation in germany they used windows mobile as operating system ;)

After 1 weeks they tell'd the truth about :P

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