Android PMPs (was: Qi-Hardware Nanonote group purchase?)
Tom Buskey
tom at buskey.name
Thu Sep 9 13:16:08 EDT 2010
On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 10:34 AM, Lloyd Kvam <lkvam at venix.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-09-09 at 10:08 -0400, Benjamin Scott wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Lloyd Kvam <python at venix.com> wrote:
> > > We expect to see iPads getting used by patients in hospital settings
> > > filling out forms (multiple choice - little or no typing). Earlier
> > > attempts with other tablets (running Windows) proved unworkable.
> >
> > I'm curious; what makes the iPad better for that than the 'doze
> > tablet? I would think a form is a form, regardless of platform.
>
> Essentially the touch features were "bolted on". The issues were dumb
> things such as the touch area of a radio button being too small - still
> sized for a mouse pointer. It was easy for your finger to miss it.
> There was poor alignment between the touch sensitive spot and the screen
> image. Screen size handling still depended on the menus or touching the
> drag boundaries exactly right. I've heard that Win7 has improved the
> touch support, but I have not checked myself. The folks at the medical
> school are Apple fans anyway so once the iPad proved to be a nice
> device, I don't think they saw any point in checking back on the Windows
> tablets. (I have no Droid experience.)
>
Microsoft really missed out on the tablet market. OneNote is a fantastic
pen enabled, note taking app. But everything else seems like they bolted it
on. MS Office had a chance to really integrate Pen, but the director didn't
like tablets. You think having your CEO as a big proponent of Pen would've
been incentive. Also, Windows TabletPCs seem way too expensive.
>
> > (I've only used an iPad once briefly, in a store. I thought it
> > seemed like a neat toy, but couldn't see myself spending $400 just to
> > play an electronic marble maze game.)
>
> True.
>
> Still people buy digital picture frames, book readers, and such. The
> iPad is great at *all* of those kinds of uses.
>
>
FWIW - I have a SmartQ 7 MID (no keyboard). It runs a customized Ubuntu. I
can apt-get debian and Ubuntu for ARM packages. Some dialog boxes run off
the screen (800x480). An Xterm goes under the virtual keyboard (matchbox).
For the most part, it works decently w/ the pen. Nothing like an
iPhone/IPad or Palm. I've heard updates to the OS (firmware) or to Android
work better on the SmartQ. I'd imagine stock Ubuntu/Fedora would have
issues with dialogs on a screen that isn't 1024x768 (netbooks) too.
I mainly wanted a color ebook reader (comics) with some web browsing. The
SmartQ was ~$220 and it fits. There will be a number of Android Tablets RSN
that will be better and hopefully as cheap.
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