Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and
Speaker 1: I am an editor here at how staff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: The pit is completely enclosed and it's full of leathery
Speaker 1: objects like eggs or something. Wow. I might even know
Speaker 1: where that came from. Really I haven't. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: it all, but I've seen parts of it. Yeah, Na
Speaker 1: clause the movie right, that is not where that's from.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with what we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about today either. Nope, we have done a podcast. Actually,
Speaker 1: I think we've done a couple really, either directly related
Speaker 1: to or tangentially related to the Apple iPad. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: actually talked about it to when we were still doing
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff Live, the video show. Um, we talked about
Speaker 1: it because we were doing news topics and it was
Speaker 1: trending right about the time we were finishing up that show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was back when it was just a rumored device.
Speaker 1: And then of course it turned out the rumors were
Speaker 1: in fact true, and the iPad hit the market. And
Speaker 1: you may recall, and we'll talk about this again at
Speaker 1: the end of the year, that at the beginning of
Speaker 1: last year I predicted that the iPad would come out,
Speaker 1: which was correct, but that it would totally flop, and
Speaker 1: that was about as wrong as you can get. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, I read just today, the
Speaker 1: day we are recording this, that the rate of adoption,
Speaker 1: according to mp ARE, the rate of adoption for iPad
Speaker 1: UH users is faster than that of DVD. And of
Speaker 1: course they I don't know why. I guess the DVD
Speaker 1: was one of the fastest adoption rates for new technologies. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they always they it seems like they always
Speaker 1: use DVDs as a benchmark. But I think four point
Speaker 1: five million iPads they said in a quarter, which is
Speaker 1: pretty significant. Well, you think about DVD d s when
Speaker 1: they first when the players first hit the market, they
Speaker 1: were incredibly expensive. Yeah, they were. Well, it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of the different technologies to CDs were the same way, right,
Speaker 1: But the point being that that the iPad can do
Speaker 1: more than a DVD player could At the time when
Speaker 1: DVDs first came out, that's true, and the iPad is
Speaker 1: less expensive than the initial DVD players when they hit
Speaker 1: the market and far more portable than those initial DVD
Speaker 1: players as well. But this is not an ad for
Speaker 1: Apple iPad because they don't need it. Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: Once you come out with a successful technology, other people
Speaker 1: will seize the opportunity to come up with a competitor
Speaker 1: and uh try their hand at the market. And we've
Speaker 1: actually seen a few of these competitors at the market.
Speaker 1: Some of them tried to hit the market before the
Speaker 1: iPad came out, and you don't hear about them very
Speaker 1: much because they just didn't really make a big splash
Speaker 1: in the consumer marketplace. So like the Arcos tablets for
Speaker 1: for example, those are um those are tablets that run
Speaker 1: on either Android, Linux, or Windows. They have models that
Speaker 1: run on each of those operating systems, mostly Android recently,
Speaker 1: because that seems to be the new approach to tablets,
Speaker 1: because the tablet form factor is not new, No, not
Speaker 1: in the least. It's been around for a decade or so. Oka.
Speaker 1: The only place that I've really encountered the traditional tablets.
Speaker 1: And when I say tablets, uh, they don't look if
Speaker 1: you haven't seen these, they don't look like the new
Speaker 1: crop of tablets. These are almost full sized PCs. Most
Speaker 1: of the ones I've seen are essentially a notebook form
Speaker 1: factor with a screen that will flip over and allow
Speaker 1: you to fold it back on top of the computer
Speaker 1: so that it it functions as a tablet. But it's
Speaker 1: the size it's got, you know, I guess probably around
Speaker 1: fifteen inch, well maybe not fifteen twelve thirteen screen. It's
Speaker 1: big compared to these newer tablet and there's there's still
Speaker 1: a few of those out there, and we used a
Speaker 1: lot of medical professions. We saw like the was it
Speaker 1: Dell that had the duo the duo that's coming out,
Speaker 1: which is it looks like a netbook computer or a
Speaker 1: notebook computer. The the screen swivels within the frame, and
Speaker 1: then you can fold the frame down so the screen
Speaker 1: is face up and it becomes a tablet. Although as
Speaker 1: you know, the big problem there is that you've just
Speaker 1: doubled the thickness of the screen. It's not as lightweight
Speaker 1: or portable as other tablet form factors. And then you have,
Speaker 1: like the Lenovo. You one idea of which may or
Speaker 1: may not ever see the light of day. It was
Speaker 1: something that blew me away at CES two and that
Speaker 1: one again look like a notebook computer, but you could
Speaker 1: detach the screen and the screen would become a new
Speaker 1: tablet computer. Back at CS when they showed it off,
Speaker 1: the entire device, when it was together, the keyboard and
Speaker 1: the screen ran on Windows seven. When you detached the screen,
Speaker 1: it switched to a Linux operating system, and then when
Speaker 1: you would reattach it, it it would go back to Windows.
Speaker 1: It would supposedly sink whatever application you were in, so
Speaker 1: that let's say you're watching a movie, well you might
Speaker 1: be watching the movie in one movie player in Lennox.
Speaker 1: When you plug it back in, it would switch to
Speaker 1: the Windows based movie player and pick up at the
Speaker 1: same place where you left off in the film. That's impressive. Supposedly.
Speaker 1: I did not see it work when I was at CES,
Speaker 1: but that's what that was the goal. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think they were still working on the synchronization. And back
Speaker 1: over the summer of two thousand ten, the word got
Speaker 1: out that Lenovo was was abandoning at least part of
Speaker 1: that strategy. Uh, there's now a rumor that it will
Speaker 1: come out the Lenovo you one will eventually come out.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to come out in the summer and
Speaker 1: it did not. There's now a rumor that it may
Speaker 1: come out with an Android operating system for the tablet
Speaker 1: part um. We'll have to wait and see. That would
Speaker 1: be very interesting to me if that did, because it
Speaker 1: answers a lot of the problems I have with the
Speaker 1: tablet form factor. So the question is, now that the
Speaker 1: Apple iPad is out and it's so successful, do any
Speaker 1: other tablets have in a shot of the same sort
Speaker 1: of success or even moderate success within the consumer marketplace?
Speaker 1: Or is the iPad a unique device? A few weeks
Speaker 1: ago we well, I don't know exactly when it's running
Speaker 1: compared to this one, So I should say earlier we
Speaker 1: discussed what early adopters are, and for the most part,
Speaker 1: I would say that a lot of the people who
Speaker 1: have bought iPads at this point are early adopters or
Speaker 1: radio stations using them for promotional purposes. Because there is
Speaker 1: a there's a radio station in the same building we're in,
Speaker 1: and I see people on the elevator with an iPad
Speaker 1: in its box, going downstairs from the radio station, and
Speaker 1: you know, they'll ask me how to get back to
Speaker 1: the interstates. So I'm going, okay, so you just picked
Speaker 1: up your price. I got it. There's almost a meme
Speaker 1: about it's kind of fun about iPads being prizes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot um, but yeah, I mean that
Speaker 1: the the iPad actually came out in uh in April
Speaker 1: of this year, hit store shelves, um, and it's starting
Speaker 1: to make its way to regular retail stores. Target just
Speaker 1: announced that it would be carrying it. UM just someone
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact this past weekend. UM. And Uh.
Speaker 1: The thing is, I think I'm not sure that anyone
Speaker 1: else was anticipating the iPad to be as much of
Speaker 1: a success as it is, because I think that's part
Speaker 1: of why, uh, some of them have been so slow
Speaker 1: to get a device out the door. But um, in
Speaker 1: in their rush to announce new products, I think they
Speaker 1: may have been I think now at this point the
Speaker 1: people who are developing tablets are on the right track
Speaker 1: because some of them rushed too fast and came up
Speaker 1: with sort of half maked attempts, and some of the
Speaker 1: newer models that that look like they'll be out in
Speaker 1: the in the coming months, I think may have a
Speaker 1: shot at at least taking some of the potential market
Speaker 1: share from the Apple iPad. So let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about some of those. Uh, the one I wanted
Speaker 1: to start with is the one I think is potentially
Speaker 1: the strongest. Okay, which maybe you agree or disagree, But
Speaker 1: the Samsung Galaxy Tab. As oft the time we're recording this,
Speaker 1: I would certainly say it probably has the strongest chance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's one other that we'll get to that I think
Speaker 1: has a pretty good chance as well, but it's hard
Speaker 1: to say because we know so little about it at
Speaker 1: the moment. But the Galaxy Tab is an interesting tablet device. Now,
Speaker 1: it's it's got a seven inch screen, so it's smaller
Speaker 1: than the iPad. iPad screen is I think nine point
Speaker 1: seven inches, so the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a little
Speaker 1: smaller than the iPad. Uh. And it's it's got it's
Speaker 1: running the Android operating System two point two, which is
Speaker 1: in Froyo for those of you keeping score. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: the that's the most recent Android build as of the
Speaker 1: recording of this podcast. Now it's um, it's going to
Speaker 1: in in Europe. It's got phone capabilities. We learned that
Speaker 1: when it comes to the United States, those phone capabilities
Speaker 1: will be stripped out, it will not run. You will
Speaker 1: not be able to make phone calls on a cellular
Speaker 1: system using the Galaxy Tab. Now you will be able
Speaker 1: to use something like Skype, so you can still make
Speaker 1: calls over the device. It's just it's not gonna have
Speaker 1: its own dedicated phone number in the US. In Europe
Speaker 1: it's a different story. And uh, you know it's gonna
Speaker 1: have all these other elements, like a sixteen It comes
Speaker 1: and I think either a sixteen gigabyte or a thirty
Speaker 1: two gigabyte version, and you can also get a micro
Speaker 1: SD card to give you up to thirty two gigabytes
Speaker 1: extra storage. Now that's a big difference between the iPad
Speaker 1: and the Galaxy Tab. The iPad comes in very specific,
Speaker 1: uh models, and you can't upgrade the memory on an
Speaker 1: individual model. If you if you've got the what are
Speaker 1: they are? They at sixteen and thirty two and four.
Speaker 1: So if you've got a sixteen gigabyte model of the
Speaker 1: iPad and you wanted to increase the memory to thirty
Speaker 1: two gigabytes, the only option you have is to go
Speaker 1: out and buy a thirty two gigabyte iPad. You can't
Speaker 1: upgrade that memory. This this has built the Galaxy tab
Speaker 1: is built so that you can upgrade the memory yourself. Uh.
Speaker 1: It also will run flash because Android two point two
Speaker 1: does UM, so that sets it apart from the iPad.
Speaker 1: And it has cameras built into it, which the iPad
Speaker 1: does not, although we expect the next iPad probably will have.
Speaker 1: It would shock me if the next model the iPad
Speaker 1: does not have cameras. Yeah, and I would like to
Speaker 1: point out too that for those of you who are
Speaker 1: going to write in and tell us that about the
Speaker 1: newer developments with Apple related to flash, yes we are aware.
Speaker 1: For those of you who are not familiar with this um.
Speaker 1: Apple announced a few weeks ago that they would permit
Speaker 1: um people who are using flash to develop applications for
Speaker 1: the iOS which runs the iPod, Touch, the iPhone and
Speaker 1: the iPad. They can they can go ahead and do that.
Speaker 1: They weren't allowed to do that. But it is not
Speaker 1: the same as opening Safari and running going to a
Speaker 1: website that uses a lot of flash and watching a
Speaker 1: flash video or something on it. It's a little different,
Speaker 1: right like, so if you if you want to make
Speaker 1: it a concession. The thing I always run into back
Speaker 1: when I was back when I still had my smartphone.
Speaker 1: My smartphone died, so we can have a moment of silence. Anyway. Uh,
Speaker 1: my smartphone ran Android one point six, which did not
Speaker 1: was not capable of running flash. So if I went
Speaker 1: to any restaurant website where the menu was programmed in flash,
Speaker 1: I could not see the menu. It was very irritating
Speaker 1: because that was one of the really useful things of
Speaker 1: a smartphone. You're out, you're out, you want to check
Speaker 1: and see what this restaurant's menus like. You don't want
Speaker 1: to have to actually go to the restaurant to find out,
Speaker 1: and then you discover that they've put their menu and
Speaker 1: flash and you can't view it. Very irritating. Anyway, Samson,
Speaker 1: Galaxy Tab not a problem. You could be able to
Speaker 1: You would be able to see that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: And Uh, in the US, we don't know how expensive
Speaker 1: it's going to be yet as of the recording of
Speaker 1: this podcast, it will probably be that information will probably
Speaker 1: be available by the time this publishes. But in the
Speaker 1: UK it was just announced, uh that it will retail
Speaker 1: for five pounds almost six pounds expensive, right, so uh,
Speaker 1: and the article I read pointed out that that is
Speaker 1: seventy pounds more than the highest, uh than the most
Speaker 1: advanced iPad that's on the market in the UK, So
Speaker 1: it costs more than the iPad. Now granted, this is
Speaker 1: an unsubsidized price. As far as I can tell, it's
Speaker 1: not linked to any particular carrier. So it may be
Speaker 1: that there are subsidized versions of the Galaxy Tab. Like
Speaker 1: if you went to the was it Orange? Is that
Speaker 1: one of the ones in the UK? I'd say, you
Speaker 1: go to Orange and they're carrying the Samsung Galaxy Tab
Speaker 1: and you've got it through them, you might be able
Speaker 1: to find a subsidized price through them. I don't know
Speaker 1: because I don't live in the UK, So all your
Speaker 1: Brits can write to me and tell me whether I'm
Speaker 1: right or wrong, and maybe I'll pay attention and then
Speaker 1: uh So, anyway, anyway, the Galaxy Tab I think has
Speaker 1: the potential to really challenge the iPad. It's the Android
Speaker 1: operating system is definitely a different system than the iOS UM.
Speaker 1: I usually referred to it as you get out of
Speaker 1: it what you put into it. Like iOS works, Apple
Speaker 1: has such a firm grasp on the all the apps
Speaker 1: that can go into it, and uh and the standards
Speaker 1: they have to meet in order to become an app
Speaker 1: for the iOS that the benefit for the consumer is
Speaker 1: that whenever you get an app, it's going to do
Speaker 1: what it's supposed to do, or at least there's a
Speaker 1: very good chance for it, because Apple has very strict
Speaker 1: about that. Uh, Android, it's more of a coin flip
Speaker 1: type of situation. Sometimes things aren't gonna work the way
Speaker 1: you thought they would because Android wants a more open environment. Well,
Speaker 1: that means you have more flexibility and more choice, but
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily the things you choose may not necessarily
Speaker 1: work the best way right. As with many things, there
Speaker 1: is an upside in and downside to both models exactly. So,
Speaker 1: I think the Galaxy table appeal to people who are
Speaker 1: a little more do it yourselfers than the iPad does necessarily.
Speaker 1: Plus the camera I think makes a big difference until
Speaker 1: the iPad comes out with a camera model, Um that's
Speaker 1: gonna I mean you think about things like video conferencing,
Speaker 1: like the FaceTime technology that Apple has designed, that's ideal
Speaker 1: for something like the iPad. You know it, you'd be
Speaker 1: it'd be easier to see someone on that screen than
Speaker 1: an iPhone or iPod touch screen. Um, yeah, you know it.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of the things that you mentioned about
Speaker 1: the Samsung Galaxy Tab are common to uh the Android tablets.
Speaker 1: Um that I've read about devices even even what I
Speaker 1: consider regional at least at this point, UM, devices like
Speaker 1: expansion ports in some cases USB ports. These are things
Speaker 1: that some of the people have complained about not being
Speaker 1: on the iPad or even h d M. I out, yeah,
Speaker 1: exactly that that kind of stuff where you have standard
Speaker 1: ports like Apple hates standard ports. Apple likes proprietary ports
Speaker 1: where you have to have connectors in order to to
Speaker 1: use that. Not on reproduct, but on many products, you
Speaker 1: have to have a special pin connector and then uh
Speaker 1: an adapter or a dock of some sort in order
Speaker 1: to be able to attach it to other technology. I
Speaker 1: see what you're saying. I see interesting, Um, But now
Speaker 1: I was I was thinking specifically two of some of
Speaker 1: the tablets that were at least not for a while
Speaker 1: going to see like the we tab in Germany originally
Speaker 1: called the we pad get it iPad we pad um
Speaker 1: developed by a company called meg and then I have
Speaker 1: to buy wee pads from my puppies. The Olive pad
Speaker 1: uh in India. Um, these are all devices that are
Speaker 1: coming out around the world that are using UH Android's
Speaker 1: operating system. And there's also the Dell Streak, which is weird.
Speaker 1: Dell Streak kind of walks the line between tablet and smartphone.
Speaker 1: Now I am totally singing the Man in Black in
Speaker 1: my head right because it walks the line. It does
Speaker 1: walk the line the But the Dell Streak has a
Speaker 1: five inch screen, which is you know, that's the it's
Speaker 1: a it's a little too big for for it to
Speaker 1: be like a smartphone, but it's a little too small
Speaker 1: for most tablets. It's a weird size. It's interesting that
Speaker 1: they went with that. It also runs Android one point six.
Speaker 1: It was one of the things that Jason Heiner was
Speaker 1: complaining about his review in August of back on zd net.
Speaker 1: He was basically saying, it's a little large for a
Speaker 1: smartphone and a little small for a tablet. Plus it's
Speaker 1: running an older version version of Android. Yeah. However, from
Speaker 1: what I understand, Dell intends to upgrade that to frow
Speaker 1: you by the end of yes. Yes, and it has
Speaker 1: a it does a Giga Hurts snap Dragon processor, so
Speaker 1: it's it's got a lot of PEP to it, but
Speaker 1: the same sort of thing as a lot of smartphones
Speaker 1: have right now. Uh. And it's got the rear facing
Speaker 1: in front facing camera. It's it can hold up to
Speaker 1: a two gigabytes of memory, and it's SD card that's
Speaker 1: just memory, not not storage space. Five twelve megabytes from
Speaker 1: five and twelve megabytes RAM and then two gigabytes of
Speaker 1: microSD memory. It's got a microst card slot that can
Speaker 1: allow you to store up to sixteen gigabytes of are
Speaker 1: Actually I'm sorry, sixteen gigabytes are included with the Dell Streak.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much it can it's capable of holding. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I know what retails for like five fifty bucks,
Speaker 1: which is pretty expensive when you compare it to again,
Speaker 1: the iPad. Yeah, you know, when you're looking at the
Speaker 1: size of it. There are some other things too. Apparently
Speaker 1: the WiFi built into the Dell Streak is eight or
Speaker 1: two DOT eleven, B and G not in UM. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't support flash in the browser at least this
Speaker 1: is according to the chart. It's Android one point six.
Speaker 1: It won't Yeah, yeah, so you know. This is according
Speaker 1: to a j S Shindies article in PC World India
Speaker 1: as of October five. Um. But it does. The Dell
Speaker 1: Streak does have one feature that I think is pretty useful.
Speaker 1: What's up? And it's not even a software feature, it's
Speaker 1: a hardware thing. What is it? It's got gorilla glass, yes,
Speaker 1: which I think is really awesome. Grilla glass is a
Speaker 1: very um strong impact resistant from what I understand the
Speaker 1: form of glass, which is good if you're going to
Speaker 1: carry around a small device that is easily dropped, as
Speaker 1: many of us have with them of these things. The
Speaker 1: Samsung Galaxy Tab may end up having gorilla glass as well.
Speaker 1: I've read a report on that the and Dell also
Speaker 1: plans on coming out with a seven inch tablet later
Speaker 1: in and then possibly come out with a ten inch tablet.
Speaker 1: So we it. Maybe it was like Dell is gonna
Speaker 1: try and pepper this market with devices going all the
Speaker 1: way down to three inches, which presumably would be a
Speaker 1: smartphone up to ten inches, So they're really looking and
Speaker 1: maybe that this is one of those things with strategy
Speaker 1: of throw everything against the wall and see what sticks
Speaker 1: and then concentrate on that. Yeah. I think. Um, I
Speaker 1: think the iPad has proven that some people uh like
Speaker 1: the form factor of a tablet. I mean, obviously, we've
Speaker 1: we've proven that the smartphone is a good size and
Speaker 1: form factor. So um, I think as far as tablets go,
Speaker 1: we've reached the point at which the manufacturers are ready
Speaker 1: and willing to go ahead and give it a try.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna see a variety of sizes, um and
Speaker 1: feature sets come out for you know, another probably year,
Speaker 1: maybe even two years, until people figure out, oh, well
Speaker 1: they like this size, that size and that size. And
Speaker 1: you know, we're only going to make so many of
Speaker 1: this one size because we can only sell you know,
Speaker 1: ten thousand of them a year. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: enough where we can capture part of the market. Based
Speaker 1: upon what I've heard from my pad users, I would
Speaker 1: say that the size is less important than the weight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a heavy little piece of equipment. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: think a seven inch device, if it weighs less than
Speaker 1: the iPad, if it's less dense, then that might have
Speaker 1: an advantage. We should probably talk. I'm sorry you're about
Speaker 1: to say something, well, I wanted before we move on
Speaker 1: from the Google Android stuff. I think that's something very
Speaker 1: apparently fairly recent. Um, that's very interesting. Uh, and It
Speaker 1: came from an article actually, an of view that Gareth
Speaker 1: Vivas of Tech Grade ar H did with Google's director
Speaker 1: of Products for Mobile, Hugo bearra Um. And Google is
Speaker 1: saying that Android isn't ready for the tablet scene as
Speaker 1: of right now. Um, they're saying that now I should
Speaker 1: point out that Google Android operating system. Uh. If you're
Speaker 1: wondering where froyo comes from, it's frozen yogurt slang. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they name their stuff after I guess. There are
Speaker 1: releases after I guess desserts. Would you say, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're old desserts like a Claire donut goes and they're
Speaker 1: going in alphabetic order. So yeah, the next version is
Speaker 1: is cupcake. Oh yeah, the next version is gingerbread, and
Speaker 1: the version after that is supposed to be honeycomb from
Speaker 1: what from what I understand, but um, basically, uh, Mr
Speaker 1: Barras said, you know, look, you know, Android is a
Speaker 1: great operating system, but really the Android market is not
Speaker 1: ready for devices larger than a smartphone. Um, they're the
Speaker 1: applic the applications are not there yet, um. And Froyo
Speaker 1: is not designed to used on a tablet. But there's
Speaker 1: a probable probability that Gingerbread the next release will be
Speaker 1: and probably honeycome, I would imagine if not, you know, Gingerbread,
Speaker 1: so it I think some of the from what I've read,
Speaker 1: LG has backed out of releasing UH an Android tablet
Speaker 1: because of this. Essentially, look, we can't deliver the optimum
Speaker 1: user experience. Um. This goes well with the Galaxy Tab though,
Speaker 1: because it's a you know, closer in size to a smartphone,
Speaker 1: and the Dell Streak as well, it's very very close
Speaker 1: to a smartphone size. So UM, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think that's not going to UM. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: going to set the manufacturers back in a big way,
Speaker 1: but it may be enough of a stumbling block to
Speaker 1: allow someone else to sweep in. Yeah. Yeah, And were
Speaker 1: we going to mention that someone else? I was going
Speaker 1: to mention, Well, you have something else you were gonna say.
Speaker 1: The Samsung Galaxy Tab is one of the ones I
Speaker 1: think as a strong contender. The other one I think
Speaker 1: that could potentially be a strong contender for totally different
Speaker 1: reasons is the recently announced BlackBerry Playbook. Yes, I agree
Speaker 1: with you. The Playbook is another seven inch tablet device.
Speaker 1: UH released by RIM. That's Research in Motion, a Canadian company. Ye,
Speaker 1: and it's Uh, it's closely tied to their BlackBerry platform,
Speaker 1: although it's it's running a different operating system than the
Speaker 1: BlackBerry smartphone operating system. Yes, it is one that we
Speaker 1: don't know much about. I know probably more about it
Speaker 1: than you do, for reasons which will become clearer to
Speaker 1: you in about twenty five seconds. You have one? Yeah,
Speaker 1: see this is apparently No, seriously, you have one? What? No,
Speaker 1: I don't have one. I almost had. I almost had
Speaker 1: a eight. No. Sorry, you're freaking me out there for
Speaker 1: a reason. Not a tablet. How the heck did you
Speaker 1: get that? Does this mean the mount user after us?
Speaker 1: The playbook was announced on September this year. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: and it will be running on a kernel of software
Speaker 1: called from a company called q n X. Yes and um.
Speaker 1: Yeah and this is an Ottawa based company that's been
Speaker 1: around for quite some time. But they were acquired by
Speaker 1: RIM on April ninth of this year, which coincidentally was
Speaker 1: the day after I bought my iPad. Um and uh.
Speaker 1: The thing is, for those of you who have never
Speaker 1: heard of the company, they have been around for quite
Speaker 1: some time, more than thirty years. Part of that time
Speaker 1: they were developing an alternative operating system for the Amiga.
Speaker 1: And uh, this is back when Gateway owned the Amiga.
Speaker 1: And now those of you are new to the podcast,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I'm a Rabbit. I'm still a
Speaker 1: Rabbit Amiga fan. Yes, you now, I'm not excited anymore.
Speaker 1: He no longer has a playbook, he just has an Amiga. Yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: uh no the uh Unfortunately, the q n X or
Speaker 1: Qunix guys never really could work with Gateway UM to
Speaker 1: get the new operating system rolled out, although it was
Speaker 1: supposed to be really, really promising at the time. We
Speaker 1: were all excited, those of us who were still in
Speaker 1: the Amiga bandwagon. So I had heard of them before,
Speaker 1: and I was really excited to see that the uh um,
Speaker 1: this new BlackBerry tablet would be running in the q
Speaker 1: nix kernel. Um. But again, this is this is a
Speaker 1: Unix like operating system, not unlike UH Android or the iOS. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe I should have gone so far as to say
Speaker 1: not that we wouldn't know so much about the operating
Speaker 1: system as we don't know much about the UI. That's true,
Speaker 1: that's user interface because you're unfamiliar. I'm sorry, I didn't
Speaker 1: mean in that's because it's not the BlackBerry operating system.
Speaker 1: This is an entirely new thing, or sort of new thing,
Speaker 1: at least for BlackBerry users, right, and so it's, uh,
Speaker 1: let's tell you a little bit more about the tablet itself. So,
Speaker 1: like we said, it's a seven inch screen. It's got
Speaker 1: a giga hurts dual core processor in it. I think
Speaker 1: that's cool. Yeah, so it can dual core processors for
Speaker 1: for tablets are a fairly new thing. Uh, it's got
Speaker 1: a gigabyte of RAM, it's got built in camera, has WiFi.
Speaker 1: There's no cellular support, at least in the initial playbooks.
Speaker 1: The one that they unveiled was WiFi only. It could
Speaker 1: tether with a BlackBerry device though, So in fact, it
Speaker 1: seems that the intent of the playbook is to really
Speaker 1: tie in with the BlackBerry phones, and that you could
Speaker 1: sink information between your phone and your your playbook and
Speaker 1: be able to view the stuff that you would get
Speaker 1: normally on your phone on a much larger screen and
Speaker 1: be able to to navigate more quickly that way. And
Speaker 1: it supports both HTML five and flash, which sets it apart,
Speaker 1: of course from again the iPad, so the camera and
Speaker 1: the HTML five and the flash stuff really kind of
Speaker 1: sets it apart. But there's there's some problems here too.
Speaker 1: One is we don't know when it's coming out and
Speaker 1: we don't know how much it will be. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Um, did you did you mention the I
Speaker 1: was checking my notes to did you mention that it
Speaker 1: will it has true multitasking capability? Apparently did not mention
Speaker 1: that that is a pretty neat featured to one of
Speaker 1: the things that people have complained about for the iOS
Speaker 1: for most of its existence. Now that it's starting to
Speaker 1: roll out to different people, but it's still as of
Speaker 1: this recording not available on the ipaddle, though I should
Speaker 1: have it sometime in November. From what I understand, that's
Speaker 1: a pretty neat feature that's got and it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know blackberries uh sphere of influences the enterprise market
Speaker 1: business people, so they are going to be extra sensitive
Speaker 1: to people who are going to be using this for business.
Speaker 1: Although you know, BlackBerry has been waiting in as as
Speaker 1: Apple tries to make inroads with the enterprise market, Blackberries
Speaker 1: trying to reach out to consumers, So this is going
Speaker 1: to have more crossover than past efforts I think, which
Speaker 1: we look tablets, you look at devices like the Curve
Speaker 1: and the Storm and the Pearl that they're very clearly
Speaker 1: aiming at the consumer market. Well, there are a couple
Speaker 1: of other os as we should talk about really quickly, okay,
Speaker 1: because we've now we've talked about the q nexs, and
Speaker 1: we've talked about UM, Android and UM. But there are
Speaker 1: other devices that are also out there. There are Windows
Speaker 1: seven tablet devices, most of which haven't gone very far.
Speaker 1: There's one that's that I wanted to mention called the
Speaker 1: Toshiba Libretto. Yeah, I'd heard of it, but I don't
Speaker 1: know much about it. It's a dual screen tablet, so
Speaker 1: it opens up like a book, right, sort of like
Speaker 1: a certain device from Microsoft itself was supposed to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the rumored Courier is what Poltte is talking about, which
Speaker 1: if you saw the videos for the concept videos for
Speaker 1: the Courier, they looked really cool, and unfortunately the Courier
Speaker 1: got um shoved aside. It did not it did, it
Speaker 1: was not meant to be. But the Toshiba Libretto looks
Speaker 1: a lot like the concept of the Courier. It has
Speaker 1: dual screens. Uh, they're both seven inch screens. It runs
Speaker 1: Windows seven, It has WiFi, and it has webcams in it. Uh.
Speaker 1: It has an Intel Pentium processor, snap Dragon or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Uh. The big problem with the Tshiba Libretto,
Speaker 1: I would say, is the price. It's that that's really
Speaker 1: I mean, I think what the iPad really has taught
Speaker 1: us is that for the tablet form factor, the app
Speaker 1: model is enough. You don't necessarily need a device that
Speaker 1: can run quote unquote full blown programs. The apps tend
Speaker 1: to be smaller programs, smaller applications, right, They're not like
Speaker 1: these really advanced ones that you find on on desktop
Speaker 1: computers or laptops. So the Libretto may have more power
Speaker 1: than what's necessary. It may not need all that power
Speaker 1: for what people technically tend to use tablets for. So
Speaker 1: it would surprise me if it takes off, because that's
Speaker 1: expensive and it's going to be more complex. And a
Speaker 1: lot of people have complained that Windows seven seven is
Speaker 1: not the right platform for a touchscreen device. There seemed
Speaker 1: to be some issues with Windows seven and these tablets. Uh.
Speaker 1: The other os I wanted to mention is web os, Palms,
Speaker 1: web Os so you may have heard about a device
Speaker 1: called the HP Slate. Yes, it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: run the Windows operating Yes, it was supposed to run
Speaker 1: Windows seven. And well, the Slate kind of gut pulled
Speaker 1: off the development train. And now there's another device, which
Speaker 1: some are calling the Slate and some are calling the
Speaker 1: Palm Pad, that will be running the web OS operating system.
Speaker 1: HP of course purchased Palm back when Palm looked like
Speaker 1: it was going to go away, and so uh A
Speaker 1: lot of people said, well, the reason why they purchased
Speaker 1: them was probably so that they could enter the tablet
Speaker 1: market using a mobile operating system, much like iOS or Android. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's I think it's worth noting that upon its release,
Speaker 1: the new web Os, which replaced the older Palm os um,
Speaker 1: was received with pretty much from what I saw, a
Speaker 1: critical acclaim. But it was not a commercial success, at
Speaker 1: least not as quickly as they wanted it. The problem
Speaker 1: was that it was an veiled at c e S.
Speaker 1: Everyone went gaga for it at c S, and it
Speaker 1: was another three months before we ever saw anything else
Speaker 1: about it. And in those three months, enough of the
Speaker 1: fervor had died down that they couldn't ride that wave,
Speaker 1: and the palm phones didn't make the impact they were
Speaker 1: hoping for. Yeah, So this this device, the Palm Pad,
Speaker 1: is supposedly going to launch in early so early next year.
Speaker 1: We don't know how much that's going to cost either.
Speaker 1: So really I think, I think what's going to boil
Speaker 1: down to can these devices compete against the iPad. It's
Speaker 1: going to boil down to two different things, and it's
Speaker 1: really basic features and cost. Yeah. Yeah, And I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the cost is one of the things
Speaker 1: that keeps the uh that's going to keep the netbook
Speaker 1: market afloat, because netbooks in general have been cheaper than
Speaker 1: um than the tablets, you know, because they don't have
Speaker 1: to have the the touch screens, the capacity of touch
Speaker 1: screens and um. You know, those have been traditionally very
Speaker 1: expensive and you usually don't have as many features even
Speaker 1: as the tablets do. And Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane
Speaker 1: pointed out to me the other day from the recording
Speaker 1: of this podcast anyway, that that really the tablet isn't
Speaker 1: meant to replace any device. It's a supplemental device. So
Speaker 1: you're always going to have a need for some sort
Speaker 1: of computer where it's easier to input data. And the
Speaker 1: tablet is something that you don't may not necessarily need,
Speaker 1: but you'll find a place where it fits in your
Speaker 1: lifestyle and then you wonder how you got along without it.
Speaker 1: But it's not replacing something you already have. So netbooks
Speaker 1: are not gonna go away necessarily, as are you know,
Speaker 1: the other form factors are pretty safe to the question
Speaker 1: is if these tablets are compelling enough for people to
Speaker 1: actually go out and buy them. I think, like I said,
Speaker 1: the Samsung Galaxy Tab has at least a chance, a
Speaker 1: fighting chance of getting some people to adopt it, especially
Speaker 1: people who are already familiar and fond of the Android
Speaker 1: operating system. Uh. Same with BlackBerry, um the others. They're
Speaker 1: gonna have to come out with a really compelling, sleek
Speaker 1: and and uh price efficient model to compete against the iPad.
Speaker 1: And you've got to keep in mind Apple usually updates
Speaker 1: their line of products yearly, So the next spring we
Speaker 1: should see the next if the if the trends follow
Speaker 1: the way Apple has done things in the past, we
Speaker 1: should see new iPads next early next year, I would
Speaker 1: imagine so, or even announcement late. I would say probably
Speaker 1: uh I would say probably early January, around the times
Speaker 1: early January, maybe maybe as late as early February. I
Speaker 1: think February is when they announced the iPad last time. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll see. Uh, I'm kind of curious. I
Speaker 1: I gotta admit the Samsung Galaxy Tab had me interested
Speaker 1: enough to actually think, well, depending on how expensive this
Speaker 1: is and whether or not i'd have to have a
Speaker 1: contract if I bought it, maybe i'd be interested in it.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure yet. We'll see. I still haven't convinced
Speaker 1: myself that I have a place for a tablet in
Speaker 1: my life, but that doesn't mean that our listeners don't.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious, listeners, do you have a place for tablet?
Speaker 1: Do you already own a tablet device, whether it's the
Speaker 1: iPad or something else. What's your experience been like, or
Speaker 1: if you're thinking about getting one, what sort of things
Speaker 1: are you looking for within the whole realm of the tablet?
Speaker 1: Give us a give us a shout out. Let's know.
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