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.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/private/gnhlug-discuss/attachments/20100909/b0147aae/attachment.html 


More information about the gnhlug-discuss mailing list