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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

>> iPad 3 reviews that complain "all they did was improve the display" are clueless bordering on stupidity. Tablets are pretty much by definition all display; nothing is more fundamental to the tablet experience than the quality of the display.

While I agree that the display improvements are noteworthy, I would say that tablets are not "by definition all display." The tactile interaction is as much a part of a tablet's worth.

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Yeah, I went to Best Buy to take a look at the new iPad the other day. They didn't have it clearly labeled (iPad 2 vs. the new iPad) and so I didn't even realize I was using the new iPad at first. Granted, I've only used an iPad on 1 or 2 occasions in the past, but if there were some kind of new touch feedback functionality, I would have noticed instantly.

The iPad 3's display is notable mostly because of what you don't see: pixels. If you saw two of them running side by side, I expect you would have seen the difference immediately. However, a technology which simply removes a problem, even when it's a big ugly problem, is often invisible except by comparison. It's still a big deal even, nay because, it's not immediately noticeable on its own.

iOS devices have had there tactile interaction down since the beginning. They are so responsive compared to Android devices (from my experience), and so I don't see where Apple could have improved in this area.

I don't know which Android devices you've used, but I simply haven't found this to be the case. From my experience, the touch response on high Android devices (such as the Galaxy Nexus) is indistinguishable from iOS devices.

I'm on a Nexus One at the moment. The touch is good when it works, but it's buggy. The more quickly you tap it the more likely it is to into buggy mode where a big dead spot develops in the lower center part of the screen. It's absolutely infuriating, and it really makes me much more envious of iPhone users than any of the apps.

If the Galaxy Nexus is really on par with the iPhone (and I'm highly skeptical of that) then I might stick with Android for my next phone, but otherwise I have to go iPhone just based on touch characteristics alone.

Didn't the Nexus One ship with a notoriously poor capacitive sensor? I recall it being blamed for the N1 struggling with multi-touch compared to other phones.

EDIT:

http://androidandme.com/2010/03/news/is-multitouch-broken-on...

I have an LG Optimus, and the touch response is horrid. The phone works well in other areas, but UI responsiveness and text input accuracy aren't among them.

And yet, there are so many more things that can still be improved"

Quality daytime viewing, via LiquiVista (or similar)[1]; electrostatic haptic feedback for something better than a goddamn vibration [2].

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6tzaIgZKs0 (LiquiVista) 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiCqlYKRlAA (Senseg)

Having used the new iPad I did notice that scrolling felt more responsive[1], but that's just as a result of having a more powerful GPU onboard.

[1]: Although not to the extent of that Microsoft demo posted a week or two ago.

Not only the tactile interaction. The OS, the API, the user interface in general, the networking and communication devices, the battery, etc. The thing that is "by definition all display" is called a monitor.

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