First impressions of the Galaxy Tab from Tim Bray (Google Android Evangelist)
tbray.org
tbray.org
'The trade-off is obvious. You win because you can show a bigger picture, which is important, and you lose because it just won’t fit in many pockets, which is important. It’ll go in most purses, though.'
Anecdote: I have a friend who's completely uninterested in gadgets. She's a professional comedienne and talks mainly about childhood in her routine. We're out at a pub one day and she pulls out a giant 5 inch Dell Android phone, browsing the full (non-mobile) Facebook with her fingers.
How did she end up with a 5 inch tablet/phone? She likes the comfy web browsing, and there's room in her purse.
> [A] tablet is, crucially, a more shareable computer. A laptop, with its fragile hinge-ware and space-gobbling keyboard, is just not comfy to share. A tablet is easier to bring to the café, easier to hand across the table or along the sofa, easier to seize in the heat of the moment, easier to hold up in triumph, easier to set aside when you need to meet someone’s eyes.
> How big a market is that? Anyone who says they know is lying.
http://bens.me.uk/2010/ipad-software-demo-at-networking-even...
TL;DR - it works great, but stick to static screenshots for making the tour very quick.
It's way more natural than trying to pass over a 15" laptop.
I have young children, and occasionally one or all of them insist that I stay with them until they fall asleep. I've used smartphones to consume media and web pages in such circumstances, yet the obvious thought is "Wouldn't it be great if this were bigger?" (especially when interacting with dense web pages where you don't want to lose context by zooming). That is the purpose of devices like this, for all of those people who always say "But it's too big for my pocket!"
IMHO non-tech people have a love/hate relationship with their computers. They love the versatility (the fact that you can do more than play media or read email - it's "future proof" in a sense) but they hate the usability/bugs/quirks. As I see it, these two things are in direct opposition, and Apples model is the most recent successful way (not the only way!) of reconciling the two.
I have an Archos 7, and my daughter's going to be 2 years old tomorrow.
I think we'll continue to see a lot of diversity in screen dimensions, which will continue to be a design challenge.
On small devices, however, there is definitely a place for pixel perfect designs. The designer have to be real conscious about what fits on the screen and how to lay it out in a way which is understandable and good looking.
Someone should install the Kindle app on it and give us their impressions.
awkward