Google shows off Android 3.0, the 'Entirely for Tablet' Honeycomb (video)
engadget.com
engadget.com
Guys, that promised future is coming!
So a docking station for a tablet makes sense (effectively changing the form factor back to something more traditional). Holding the thing with one hand while typing with the other really doesn't so much. I think that's ok, the context dictates how you use the device.
Apple didn't stop making Macbooks for a reason:)
I'm not considering the fact that you can plug a tablet into a hardware keyboard because if I had a tablet I certainly wouldn't want to carry a keyboard round with me just in case.
I'd rather just carry my laptop around for content creation, and use a combination of my laptop and mobile phone for content consumption.
However, this all depends on the size of the tablet. If it was laptop sized (with Fn keys to allow for slightly smaller size even), I'd probably take the keyboard over Swype, but it would really depend on where I was typing. Swype is designed to be used one handed, and would be perfect for when you can't just set your tablet down. If the keyboard would be netbook sized, I might actually take Swype over it most all of the time.
For example, a docking station in the form of a monitor stand which turns a tablet into a monitor for a traditional mouse & keyboard. Or, laptop/netbook form factors with attached keyboards (this is not a new form factor, there are already touch screen tablets of this sort).
What makes the new generation of tablets novel is not merely their particular physical characteristics today, it's the method of interaction, the simplicity of the interface, and the simplified and streamlined methods for managing applications. All of those things will still be relevant if you add a mouse and keyboard.
Did you use it to type this comment?
While effective (indeed there are jobs i am hard pressed to imagine another model) this work environment is long in the tooth, and shows significant strain in knowledge and creative workplaces.
The current batch of smartphones, and pad computing had a profound effect on my life, and on the life of everybody I know who uses them, the lines between work and pleasure are blurring, you can only imagine when hi-res kinect like interfaces will be integrated into them. whats more, IT managers (myself included) are easing control over these systems, permit them and encourage them, it is cautious, but it will be a sea change.
Small "enterprise" apps, that do simpler tasks, might become more and more prevalent, The disparity between the desktop environment and pad for some tasks (like reading for instance) is getting bigger, and makes the older one seem outdated. The coming workforce shouldn't be expected to perform to the best of its abilities with outdated tools, or stay in their chair all the time for that matter.
There are many clouds I personally see in this horizon, DRM for one, the disappearance of material from a cloud resource (ala wikileaks) without any due process another. But for me, especially in the US, and here in NY, where the last mile everywhere is owned by Verizon, bandwidth, its cost, and control over it, is the biggest concern, these technologies are stymied by the draconian control of Telco's.
We are on the verge of another giant leap in computing, this one, apart from new usability paradigms differs from the previous PC revolution on its reliance on connectivity and bandwidth, without them, the devices are a poor experience.
Something got to give, Telco's cannot be allowed to control this future.
A quote from Steve Jobs comes to mind. "I think PCs are going to be like trucks. And this is going to make some people uneasy."
This competition between Apple & Google will bring forward an environment that is bring about a lot of opportunities.
Yes, Jobs has been predicting the death of the Windows PC (when he says "PC", he really means "Windows PC". He is offended if you call the computers he creates "PC's") for a while.
He's not very often wrong, but it's one of these few times.
Apple does the whole "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" thing, but where have you ever seen Jobs personally try to assert that Macs are not PCs?
Apple has the flash (no pun intended) and user interface.
Google has the platform and infrastructure.
It seems like a very different set of cultures, and it's not as if the stock-holders are revolting (no pun intended).
Personally I'd prefer some good healthy competition in mobile/tablets/HTML5 - as we saw what happened to the browser when left to one dominant player...
On the other hand, if Google were to have the only browser on the market, they have incentives to keep improving it.
Not that I'm advocating a one-player browser market with Google at the helm. I'm just stating that the goals matter. Having a single dominant player isn't necessarily the death of innovation, so long as they have incentives to keep innovating.
Conceptually I still like the IDEA of ChromeOS more but I just can't see a consumer choosing what is essentially a browser over something like this.
My only hope is that Google will try and move Android to a place where Web Apps are just as powerful as native apps on the platform.
Of course, kiosks / public access terminals may be as unnecessary as phone booths once we're all carrying personal tablets...
Strike the last sentence and I agree with your comment wholeheartedly.
Tablets may be similar enough to mobile phone to hope that the same economics apply and we might see the <$3-a-day majority benefiting by 2020. Hopefully.
The rest of the applications, one can't really tell in short clip. A lot of them - mail, video chat etc - seem very similar to what one would find elsewhere, except with the Honeycomb chrome (take it or leave it, as personal preference dictates). In others, I worry they've gone for eye candy over usability. For example, in "Books", the circular scroll is all very well, but I can't see any way of telling how far through your collection you are, nor where the book you want might be. Of course, the is prerelease promo, so it might be obvious in the real thing. What most people don't seem to get is that Apple tend to use eye candy only when it's useful - not just to look like something in Minority Report. Even they don't get it right all the time (I'm looking at you, Time Machine animation!). Eye candy is really cool for promotional videos, but when you're trying to use the application for the 4562nd time you really hope that it's added just to enhance usability, rather than impress CES visitors.
Eye candy is damn hard to get right. It’s easy to have too little or too much or to be kitschy. Apple seems to be really into kitsch and Google seems to be really fond of doing too much lately. (You can’t really tell from the video, though. I would love to see some extended demo or a guided tour.)
- They replaced the nice soft gray/blue Chrome UI with a harsh gray one.
-The keyboard buttons are flat and lifeless.
-Arrows for selecting text has no depth and high contrast border.
-The page turning looks like something from the 90s
-The Youtube videos pop in from the left
This has really set my expectations low for what was suppose to be a significant UI upgrade. As a designer this makes me cringe.
Everyone around me is buzzing about this. iPad2 had better come strong (Apple usually does, but Android is moving so fast!).
Is Google going to pull an Apple: temporarily bifurcating Android between tablets and phones, and then later reunite them? Or is Honeycomb going to ship for phones, too, but with less of the large-screen optimized UI goodness?
Anyway my contract is just about up and this CES is not making me look forward to renewal. CES has a way of blasting out announcements for really great sounding products and then what actually ships may be selective or may be cancelled entirely. No one ever remembers the products from the last CES that never arrived.
As far as ChromeOS being dead, I dunno. I have been playing with my cr48 a few weeks now and love it. Its a great system for most things. The things it prevents me from doing well right now (ssh to hosts and doing dev/support) are minor.
In general I have a browser, IM App, and terminal open on my computer. If a good and secure way to remotely manage hosts via ssh is added into ChromeOS it will quickly become my goto system that I drag everywhere with me. I doubt I would ever say that for a tablet, unless its really good and has fantastic keyboard support. I just hate having to deal with wireless keyboards and their aaa batteries that never seem to last long enough.
*edit: i can spell
- the size and density of the screen
- it has to have a touchscreen
- it has to have more than 128MB RAM and 150MB flash
- it has to ship with a 1GB or greater sdcard installed
- home, menu and back buttons required
- all kinds of restrictions on the accelerometer,magnenometer, gps, gyro, etc
- it has to have fast network capability
- the camera has to be 2 megapixels or greater
- it has to have USB
color nook
archos PMPs
archos tablets
viewsonic g
etc.
Google requires [for market access] “all hardware components have the same software APIs as defined in their SDK to be compatible,” says Kitagawa. “This provides consistency to third-party developers that access these components,” he says.
That means devices always need to have some key components, such as touchscreens with a specified minimum resolution, a certain number of navigation keys, Wi-Fi, camera and accelerometer. Devices such as the Alex e-reader or a digital picture frame don’t conform to these requirements.
API consistency for access to a Market based on those consistent APIs seems a pretty innocent requirement.
I bought the original iPhone on day one (my upgrade from the original Motorola Razr). I vociferously read about technology and gadgets, but am rarely compelled to act on my consumer desires unless I feel like I'm 'gaming' the system by buying at the optimum time and also by defeating the endless upgrade cycle prompts.
I succumbed last year and purchased an iPad while on holiday in The States (ostensibly because of the cheaper price compared to the UK and because my wife wanted to watch Mad Men on vacation).
In truth it was because even though the iPad just seemed to be an enlarged iPod Touch, Apple had certainly hit a home run with the (dare I say it) 'revolutionary' first iPhone, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
It immediately made my first generation iPhone obsolete for kicking back at home and mucking about on a touch-screen device, but it certainly wasn't a revolutionary device. It really was just a scaled-up less-portable (read: less useful) version of the original iPhone.
I got an iPhone 4 for christmas and it's a beautiful upgrade from iPhone 1. And it immediately relegated the iPad to 'sitting on the shelf' status in our flat.
This promo video, however teaser/vaporware-like it is, has me rethinking my current reliance on the Apple ecosystem.
It's feels a bit revolutionary... like the first iPhone. A re-imagining of on OS specifically designed for the new form factor. The iPad OS isn't that beast... Apple were first to market with a credible tablet because the initial iPhone OS, albeit upscaled, did a passable job.
For the first time in years, I'm interested in my next device being outside the Apple Walled City.
what would you like to see that would be unique to the tablet form factor?
I applaud Google for finally taking on the role of owning the whole OS experience, like Apple, but if they are going to do this then they'll also be judged on those merits. I give Android OS a lot of leeway for what it lacks by saying "a developer can fill that niche"... It looks like their tablet will be much closer to an iPad experience in having a singular vision.
It's a bit too early for 3rd party developers to be invited to the party I think.
That being said, I find the prospect of this not ending up on Android phones disappointing. Android 2.2 is fantastic to use but definitely needs some love in terms of UI.