Confession Time

[Manchikeri]

I have a confession to make: I have transgressed against the Tenth Commandment. It's not my neighbour's wife's ass this time, but rather her iPad.

Now that I have got that off my chest, could I ask for some help or advice please?

1. How easy would it to be transfer data from a PC to an iPad and vice versa? FWIW, I am using Google Chrome.

2. Is there a comparable, non-Mac, iPad substitute available on the UK market, and

3. What other advice could other readers offer regarding the use of such devices, please?

[OFSO]

Android - a far superior OS. Not for nothing have Android phones 47% of the market (and according to last Saturday's FT, that will be over 50% by the start of next year). Have tried a few Android fondleslabs, great, I'd buy one, but I already have too much stuff (PC with XP, laptop with '7, Acer with Linux and Palm with something else.) Of all the OS's I use, Android has them beat hollow.

[Bushfiva]

I needed a Windows tablet, wasn't expecting too much initially but it's turned into a very pretty good experience. Cheap Acer W500 but put a larger SSD in it. In the office I access it over the network via a remote desktop connection. I use Microsoft"s cloud to keep OneNote in synch across several machines including the tablet, also Dropbox and Evernote.

The voice and handwriting recognition works extremely well. I take notes either on-screen or with a digital pen, and have a folding Bluetooth keyboard.

I've got the Android version too, and I did have an iPad for a short while.

[mixture]

Android - a far superior OS

Ahem cough.

It has its weaknesses too.

Two examples :

(1) The whole Android open source ecosystem thing. The software and hardware are separate elements, designed and implemented separately. So you don't get the tight, user-friendly, stable integration that you get on Apple iOS based devices. Using an Android device will be just like using a Windows device in terms of keeping up to date... you'll have to keep both Android OS and Device firmware up to date. Rather tedious I would say.

(2) Due to the above, there is an inconsistent user experience. Different locations for buttons, different icons. Different update mechanisms. Messy, very messy :yuk: , even more so for non computer literate users.

And I'm sure I could come up with more.

Sure Apple isn't perfect either, but the iPad is a great product, and together with the Apple iOS system make for a very intuitive and usable platform.

47% of the market (and according to last Saturday's FT, that will be over 50% by the start of next year

Yawn. :ugh:

Rule number one of consumer gadgets. Ignore "market share" stats.

Due to the nature of the devices and their users, the statistics are very volatile and can literally change overnight. You also have to ask yourself where they get the numbers from because the manufacturers are not exactly going to release such data to journalists (or if they do, it's probably padded up a bit).

Trust me, Apple R&D will be keeping up to date with every move of Android and making adjustments to their product pipeline accordingly. They're not stupid.

It's not like businesses who buy stuff on 3/5 year lifecycle ... if Joe Bloggs sees his mates using a fancy new gadget and he's got enough balance on his credit card, he'll go out and buy one on a whim.

Take another consumer market for example, gaming. There's Microsoft,Nintendo and Sony. All doing perfectly well in their own rights, carving their own niche and route to market in a very busy, incredibly volatile marketplace. There's no such thing as "marketshare" and no such thing as a dominant product that "killed off" the other manufacturers.

[Manchikeri]

Thank you for all your responses so far, but may I stress that I am asking for your recommendations for a tablet other than the iPad?

All advice and recommendations will be gratefully received.

[The Nr Fairy]

HP are selling tablets off REALLY cheap :)

[ohitsmonday]

iPad all the way for me, but...

Yes touchpad is cheap and may meet your needs, but as hp has dumped it and the OS, I don't see much in the way of apps/3rd party support. You judge based on what you want from the device.

If you use blackberry phone then the playbook?

Of all the android devices the ASUS transformer is the most interesting and generally receives very good reviews. If I was going non iOS, then this is where my money would be.

[vulcanised]

Morgan Computers were flogging some cheaply.

Sorry, didn't pay attention to the type/price. Have a look at their website.

[david1300]

Good that you are looking at other than iPad. I have an iPad (gift) and the only advantages over my iPhone are that it has a bigeer screen. Otherwise I hate being locked into Apple, and it can't even make phone calls! It runs faster than my phone, but really, I have no real use for it. Tried to give it to my wife but she said no thanks.

Sometime I'll look at replacing it with an Android-platform 'pad'.

[OFSO]

Due to the above, there is an inconsistent user experience. Different locations for buttons, different icons. Different update mechanisms. Messy, very messy http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/pukey.gif , even more so for non computer literate users.


Very true but which of us normal people has more than one device ? One phone will last me two years, when I buy a new one I'll get used to that.

Don't quite get the point about updates, hardwear updates, see above, software updates, same as my WIN stuff on permanently connected WiMax, updates are automatic if you set the phone that way. Wake up in morning, turn phone on, "oh, it's been updated, ho hum", etc.

But I must confess: hell would have to freeze over before I bought anything from Apple, and there's the truth ! P'raps that sort of sentiment only applies to us more knowledgable users who like to mess about with what we buy rather than accepting what we are given, sorry sold. (Expensively !)

[mixture]

OFSO,

Very true but which of us normal people has more than one device ?

You and your partner. You asking other people for help. etc. etc.

There are various circumstances I can think of. My original statement was based on support, for example, if someone came on here wanting help with their Android..... you'll very likely have a different device than they do and therefore your assistance to them may be as good as useless.

I can see you dangling a carrot, but I'm not going to bite as we could be going back and forth until the cows come home.

Suffice to say however, that your opinions about Apple sound like they are somewhat misguided. For example, you can mess about with Apple kit all you like, after all, OS X is BSD at heart, and similarly jailbreaking your iPhone/iPad will also yield you all the geek level access you desire.

Anyhow, I think we'll leave it at that and agree to disagree.

[Flying Serpent]

Second recommendation for the Asus Transformer. Very nicely put together and versatile piece of kit. Lovely screen and lots of options for connectivity and expansion of memory. The optional keyboard dock is a nice idea when you want to pen longer emails or such.
The Samsung galaxy tab likewise has good words said about it although there's no keyboard dock available that I know of!

Hope this helps.

[IO540]

Curiously, I don't find the Ipad user interface at all consistent.

Different apps (one has to buy quite a few apps to cover even basic requirements like decent email handling) work very differently, with different conventions, and different limitations.

Most things on an Ipad are severely cripples (inter app data transfer especially) but the crippling varies a lot from one app to another.

That said, an Ipad is the slickest "media player / web browser / pigeon English email writer" currently out.

[mixture]

inter app data transfer especially

I'm not a developer, and thus will take your word for it until such time as I get a chance to look into it.

However, assuming your statement is correct, it is obvious that you fail understand their reasoning behind it and why limiting API access to other apps is actually quite a smart move.

Three reasons to start you off :

Privacy :
Prevent one app snooping on another (e.g. a rogue app snooping your emails)
Security:
Prevent one app from being able to launch attacks against another.
Stability:
Prevent one app from being able to destabilise others. E.g. The ability of another app to destabilise critical apps such as the "phone" app.


The more power you give to developers, the greater the risk they misuse it through poor programming practices in the rush to get their products to market. There are innumerable examples of this (look up "buffer overflows" for example).


Different apps (one has to buy quite a few apps to cover even basic requirements like decent email handling) work very differently, with different conventions, and different limitations.

We're talking about the core product here, not apps. I'm sure what you said above could be said of your android apps (or whatever third party software is called under android).

[Manchikeri]

Thanks to all those who kindly offered their advice in my choice of tablet. In the end I took Flying Serpent's advice and plumped for the Asus TF101 Transformer.

Best wishes to all.