wow has no one here heard of the Asus eee2 slate? 4G ram, windows 7, Wacom digitizer....I run lightroom and CS5 on it easily. edit photos on the couch with a wacom pen on the tablet....its the closest thing to having a Cintiq with a computer attached.
aesnakes wrote:
wow has no one here heard of the Asus eee2 slate? 4G ram, windows 7, Wacom digitizer....I run lightroom and CS5 on it easily. edit photos on the couch with a wacom pen on the tablet....its the closest thing to having a Cintiq with a computer attached.
Uh, I don't think it's in the US, or at least it's not widely available from what I can see on the net. There's this too
"..... the $1,500 12.1-inch package...", and only "....64GB of storage". While some of the features seem nice, the price is out of line IMO. I'm not sure it's going to be a hit at that price, but it's hard to *over estimate* the buying public when it comes to tablets.
I'm in the "Why?" camp when it comes to tablets. Had an ipad2 32GB - ipads are the worst buy in any tablet available and ours sat in the corner - have used (frequently) an acer, my sister just got an 8.x" 32gb samsung, and I am fine without one....
Why have a device that can't do as much as a $200 netbook (that runs PS CS5, LR3, Corel, Indesign, et. al.), is largely non-upgradable, is lacking a file system (ipad, not android), and is only marginally more portable than the netbook? Since they have a large screen, they can work well if you want to use live view on them or do a remote capture, but post capture the interface doesn't allow for so many other things most people want to do.
jamesf99 wrote:
Uh, I don't think it's in the US, or at least it's not widely available from what I can see on the net. There's this too
"..... the $1,500 12.1-inch package...", and only "....64GB of storage". While some of the features seem nice, the price is out of line IMO. I'm not sure it's going to be a hit at that price, but it's hard to *over estimate* the buying public when it comes to tablets.
I'm in the "Why?" camp when it comes to tablets. Had an ipad2 32GB - ipads are the worst buy in any tablet available and ours sat in the corner - have used (frequently) an acer, my sister just got an 8.x" 32gb samsung, and I am fine without one....
Why have a device that can't do as much as a $200 netbook (that runs PS CS5, LR3, Corel, Indesign, et. al.), is largely non-upgradable, is lacking a file system (ipad, not android), and is only marginally more portable than the netbook? Since they have a large screen, they can work well if you want to use live view on them or do a remote capture, but post capture the interface doesn't allow for so many other things most people want to do.
As I mentioned in my original post, I'm on the fence as to whether I'll get one now or wait.
In the meantime, I hope the value proposition for them improves.
I'm sure the profit margins on these devices is astronomical; hence, the marketing push for them.
Let's see more posts about how people actually use their tablets and how these devices provide advantages over other devices (desktop, laptop, notebook, phone).
Dustin Gent wrote:
My advice if you are going to get one, is to get the iPad. I say that not because I am a "fan-boy", but because their customer service is top notch! The rest of the tablets you have to phone in for service, whereas Apple you simply just make an appointment with the genius bar. Supposedly the iPad 3 will be out in March - who knows. I just hope that they add a CF reader, or at least an adapter.
Be aware that most tablets don't have USB ports (some have a dongle you can buy that brings out a proprietary port's USB signals to a standard USB connector...but, that is another purchase, another thing to carry, and another thing to lose, and you can only buy it from one source)...ditto on standard HDMI outputs, ditto on card readers. Most tablets want to charge as much as an iPad but you may get some (all?) of these things built in. OTOH, who wants to pay the same as an iPad for a lesser tablet? Even with the iPad, count on ~$100 of 'accessories' if you want/need any of these things. I don't know why Apple doesn't catch on...build them in and I'd already own an iPod (it's a little hard to get excited about the Toshiba Thrive).
I got my 64G Asus eee here in canada for $900 so it must be available in the US.... Also I love the bluetooth keyboard that comes with it and for internet without wifi I just tether my iphone to it via bluetooth.
aesnakes wrote:
I got my 64G Asus eee here in canada for $900 so it must be available in the US.... Also I love the bluetooth keyboard that comes with it and for internet without wifi I just tether my iphone to it via bluetooth.
Very interesting... what kind of bandwidth do you get with your Bluetooth connection to your iPhone?
Many tablets have mini-USB ports which require a mini-to-standard cable, but those are cheap and easy to find. The more proprietary ones (Apple) and more locked down platforms are the ones where you see less ports.
Margins on tablets isn't terrific, especially with the discounting going on these days (I've worked in the industry for nearly 20 years). The marketing push comes as much from Apple's monstrous success with the iPad and a bunch of Android-based tablets coming to market to try to take share from Apple in a segment they pretty much created and are still dominant in. Windows 8 will probably be fully in the field by this time next year, and what I've seen on the web looks like it could be the start of something interesting.
I work for Lenovo. The ThinkPad Tablet has a full-size USB port, a full-size SDHC port and a digitizer pen which is pretty useful for editing (non-digitized pens are pretty much a surrogate finger, so no pressure-sensitivity, minimal precision, etc.). It is more of a business-class design (very rugged with Gorilla Glass, security features, etc.), but a very nice product.
I think it will take some time before a tablet fully replaces a "true" PC. There are a couple of generations of processors that need to be fast enough while consuming a small enough amount of power that you don't need fans and big batteries in the case.
That said, my ThinkPad tablet with a USB wireless keyboard and mouse plugged in via the standard USB slot makes a pretty productive little box.
It has been said that Tablets are good for "consumption" of information (e.g. reading books, browsing the Internet, et al) whereas other computing devices are better suited for "creation" of information (e.g. posting to the Internet, using productivity tools such as MS Office, et al).
Desktop-->Laptop-->Netbook-->Tablet.
I'm not sure if I've left an enabling technology layer out of that hierarchy, but that seems to be the new "pecking order." There are obvious overlaps between each layer, but Tablets seem to be occupying a fast-growing niche all of their own. (Just check your local Best Buy store.)
For the moment, I seem to have been "Nooked!" I bought a Barnes/Noble Nook "Color" Tablet yesterday, and it's been fun so far getting to understand how Tablets work. I plan to "root" the device so that it can dual-boot between the Nook OS and Android 2.3 (aka "Gingerbread").
Short trips (1 week or less) I travel with an IPad these days, works for me. We've got 3 Macbook Air's and a Macbook Pro which stay home these days. If I'm heading out for more than a week, I'll bring on the Air's.
I got a Kindle Fire (and also gave one to my wife -- both of us unknowing of the other!), if that qualifies.
My reaction is that it is pretty fun, and certainly bigger than my Droid Bionic. Screen touch is a little weird -- not as sensitive, but good. At the moment, the Eye-Fi Android app isn't available for the Fire, but I hope that changes soon and it works better than the Bionic for display (too slow uploading and low rez image display).
It's fun to have games, email, and internet for now!
Seems a good tool at the right price to get introduced to tablets.
Check the Nook Table from Barnes and Noble ($260 with tax), wonderfull for videos and photo galleries, and also plays websites with flash contents. Smaller than Ipad, less expensive, but is fast and the screen is very clear. I bought tone for my wife for Chritsmas, but guess who is the on using it.
It also supports external 32 gig memory card. I also use it to display my photo gallery.
Here is a picture of the Nook Tablet compared to the Ipod Touch
I have had my iPad for a while now. It is the iPad1 and it still works great. I purchased it with 3G and that runs me at $15 per month. I think the iPad has the best screen and it is smooth to operate compared to others I have seen.
The main thing to remember is that it is not a computer replacement but a lightweight tool to use for entertainment and I use it for photography. I do a lot of portraiture and also shoots a lot of sorority houses. I have a portable router I connect to and I can then shoot RAW + Sm jpg and have the jpg transfer to the iPad. Within a couple of seconds, the images are displayed and the user can select the image they want by doing a rating. I use it to display images which are great.
I am on a Mac for my main workstation and use Aperture. I can add images to Aperture then from the iPad through an app called Pixelsync, transfer the images to the iPad. I can then cull them on the ipad and make any ratings and then import back to Aperture.
There are apps out there that can do adjustments to images but do not really get myself concerned with making image adjustments on the iPad. If I wanted to do adjustments and wanted a lightweight computer then I would probably get the Macbook Air. I have used the DSLR Remote application and it does work great. You set the camera on a tripod, hardwire it to a laptop, there is a Server app on the laptop and you then connect the iPhone or iPad to the created network. You can then control the camera settings, take images and view the final image. For me it can be handy if you have a stubborn child. That way you are out of the picture when taking the shot.
It really is about what the individual needs from the equipment. If you want to be mobile and do all the editing then a tablet is not the answer. Treat it for what it is and it can be a great lightwight tool. I wanted something lightweight before the ipad came out and boughht a netbook. It was really a piece of junk as it would not even load the Canon software as the graphics card was not adequate.
When I am not doing photography the iPad is still a great tool for watching movies, getting on the Net, reading and responding to email, reading books. The battery lasts for 10 hours even watching movies which is very adequate.
