
Apple iPad? How about a little German innovation instead - biafra
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/03/19/apple-ipad-how-about-a-little-german-innovation-instead/
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ptomato
Few points... MHZ are (somewhat) irrelevant as a judge of actual CPU
performance, supporting flash isn't really a positive thing, at least in my
book, and certainly will kill the battery life unless adobe has pulled far,
far better linux flash player performance out of wherever they were hiding it,
and the lack of any mention of price for something that's supposed to ship
sooner then the iPad makes me suspicious.

~~~
biafra
Let's hope Adobe is as interested in this device as they should be and help
keeping the power consumption as low as possible.

I am a bit puzzled about the combination of Android and Air. I did not yet see
any device doing both.

~~~
tvon
If Adobe isn't interested at this point then they have reserved their own
special circle of hell.

~~~
olefoo
Not hell, merely irrelevance.

The web standards (SVG, SMIL, etc.) are far more important. Having something
that multiple parties are free to implement means that the problem space can
be searched in parallel and much more efficiently.

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wmeredith
Apple's competitors have always had them beat on the spec sheet. It's the user
experience they can never match.

~~~
tvon
Yeah, there were a lot of feature grids and checkboxes presented as evidence
to the impending failure of the iPhone when it was first introduced,
apparently nobody learned from that.

The WePad looks like a fun device to tinker with, and I see potential for
resellers or commercial use, but it's not playing on the same field as the
iPad (yet).

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astine
Apparently this is already part of their naming scheme, but 'WePad' makes them
sound like such a knock-off. I wouldn't want to be seen as a knock-off of a
brand as recognizable as Apple.

~~~
metachris
I think the term "pad" describes a product like this very well.

Apple was now first, but after the wePad, xPad, multiPad, netPad, etc.,
related names will just be other generic terms...

~~~
joshhart
I'm not sure about that. My girlfriend and her coworkers complained about the
name instantly because of similarity to a certain female product.

~~~
tvon
It's odd that the iPad invites that comparison, but the ThinkPad and CruchPad
apparently did not (at least not that I recall).

~~~
cool-RR
Probably the "pad" is more dominant in iPad than in CrunchPad or ThinkPad.

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Estragon
Yay! I was fairly sure I would only have to wait a little while for an open
device in the same space as the iPad!

~~~
Periodic
I'm waiting for a good portable tablet that someone has verifiable root access
to. As long as I can get root (and preferably compile a kernel), then
everything else should fall into place as root access is the ultimate in
customizability. I hear Android provides this, but I don't know.

If we have root access, we have control.

~~~
jrockway
Android has a root user, of course, but the person controlling the touch
screen doesn't need to be root. So if the device manufacturer doesn't want you
to control your own property, they can ensure that.

Archos does this with their Archos 5 with Android tablet. They think they are
Apple and are going to one day have a movie store, so for DRM reasons, you are
locked out of your own device. They also won't release any documentation on
how to program the DSP, so you can't replace the horribly broken media player
software they include.

So basically, Android will not save you. The company needs to not be on a
power trip, and they need to care about openness. It unfortunately seems that
any company that can afford to design nice hardware is unable to hire anyone
with a clue about software, so my guess is that this will never happen.

It's too bad, too, because the Archos 5 is an amazingly good piece of
hardware. It just has buggy software that I could be fixing instead of whining
about here!

~~~
Periodic
I remember being surprised when I first figured out that Apple didn't really
bother with license keys for upgrades to OS X, and academic upgrades are free
or have hardly any license fees. I was also surprised when the Intel version
wouldn't run on non-Apple hardware, when they could easily have sold it for
use on Dell boxes. It was explained to me that Apple is a hardware company.
They want to make a great operating system and great applications so you will
buy more of their hardware. It was the first example I saw of software selling
the hardware, where generally the two were sold separately.

Mobile devices has always been a little different. The hardware is very
different from device to device and screen realestate is precious, so each
handset has its own software. Some might argue that the reason many mobile
phones have crappy software is because the companies are hardware companies
tacking on some software, but it's always been that the software and the
hardware are sold together and are under heavy constraints.

Until recently. Now we have much more powerful devices in our pockets and our
purses. When your "phone" can run a browser, email, games, and media player,
you can start thinking about what other software you could run. We have enough
power and flexible inputs such that we can handle the overhead of generic
software. Suddenly there's the opportunity for phone hardware and software to
become separate markets.

It would if it there wasn't the rise of media stores and DRM. To have good DRM
you have to own the whole device. To sell the media producers on digital
distribution you have to have DRM.

I think that the popularity of these media stores (ebooks, movies, music) is
the largest reason why we won't have root access to our (semi-)mobile devices
any time soon.

And that's why I think iTunes is locking me out of my tablets.

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nym
I can't wait until someone comes out with a tablet that has a camera on the
backside, so you can do proper Augmented Reality. Imagine being able to walk
around with a window into another world - now that's revolutionary.

~~~
huhtenberg
I can't wait until someone comes out with a tablet that has a camera on the
_frontside_ , so that I can video-chat from the couch. _This_ would be really
awesome.

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blehn
can't you do that with a laptop?

~~~
huhtenberg
I can do it even with a desktop computer and a 29" monitor :) It comes down to
the matter of convenience.

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edd
If only it was just a piece of hardware Apple are launching. Its so much more
than that, its the whole experience. Comparing physical hardware
specifications with a company like Apple doesn't really show you the whole
picture. I am not saying it can't be done and I wish these guys every success.

~~~
zyb09
Yeah the "whole experience" of reality distortion field.

~~~
CapitalistCartr
Apple designs great interfaces. I accepted the interface of 'smartphones' as
an unpleasant necessity until the first time I tried an Iphone. The interface
design was a spectacular improvement, on the scale of going from a bicycle to
an automobile for transportation.

While I didn't buy an Iphone as I don't care for the rest of the Apple
package, their products are mostly the pinnacle of interface quality. I do own
an Ipod, although not until I had software that allowed me to really own it.

~~~
Qz
I think Apple's reputation for interface design is overhyped. iTunes is a bit
of a nightmare. The last iPod I owned was also annoying to use (first one with
click wheel).

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huhtenberg
Is this a real device? Or is it still just a 3D Max sketch and a Fact Sheet
PDF?

One of TC commenters said he saw it on CeBit, but he did not sound nearly as
excited as he should've if the specs are true.

~~~
Xichekolas
I was excited too until I saw the battery life.

To me, a tablet needs to have the stamina to last at least a whole day without
being charged. Six hours isn't quite there.

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jonknee
What consumer is going to use their tablet all day?

~~~
Xichekolas
Well if you buy into the idea of doing productive work on it (which Apple bent
over backward to push during the unveiling), then all day shouldn't be out of
the question.

But personally, I just read a lot (research papers, online, and
recreationally), so something that would get me from 6pm to 3am without
running out of battery is a requirement.

~~~
Qz
You're not going to be near a power outlet from 6pm to 3am?

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orc
It says they're trying to compete with the kindle too, but I couldn't tell if
the WePad can do e-ink?

~~~
ugh
Since when do kindle competitors have to have e-ink?

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orc
If I was going to read an entire book on a monitor, it would have to be e-ink.

~~~
Xichekolas
I'd read it on anything without a backlight, it doesn't necessarily have to be
e-ink. (Mirasol or Pixel Qi come to mind.)

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Groxx
Interesting. I do have to wonder about the video card, though, as the iPad
boasts a bit of a beast for such a small device. And I have to say that
battery life is a REAL selling point for me, and likely for many others.

I'm interested in how it sells, but if given the choice _now_ , I'd choose the
iPad, regardless of how much cheaper the WePad may be. Plus, I shudder to
think of all the Air apps...

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shadowsun7
I'm actually waiting for a camera-enabled iPad. Imagine being able to Skype
with friends/family while lying back on your couch. Or even docking it at the
dining table, with Skype turned on, while eating dinner. (That way you'd still
be able to have family dinners, even while separated by distance.)

It's unlikely that the WePad would have Skype installed, with that
Android/Linux OS. Sigh.

~~~
hackoder
Why is it unlikely? I regularly skype from my Linux desktop.

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shadowsun7
Seriously? Hrmm! I wonder if that's possible within Android within Linux ...
(goes off to Skype website)

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dzlobin
This is the second product with a better specsheet, but we will have to see if
they can come close to apples design and UX skill. on another note: was nobody
reminded of these?
<http://www.1800petmeds.com/images/products/420/10860_420.jpg>

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jsz0
I know we throw around the word innovative a lot these days but what exactly
is innovative about this? A webcam? Memory card slot? There's no details on
the software so that can't be it. Not that the iPad hardware itself is
innovative either -- just evolutionary.

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tvon
I'm annoyed that my comments on the TC story were apparently removed.

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david927
I love it! Jetzt geht's los!

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ahk
Highly unlikely that a German company will be able to muster a global mass
market audience. They just don't think that big.

Apple is not going to be too worried of losing their base over something
that's likely of the same quality as a windows beige box

~~~
Robin_Message
Germany is only the largest exporter in the world in 2007:
<http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_exp-economy-exports> and the second
largest in 2009: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports>

So it is not "highly unlikely" that a German company will muster a mass market
audience.

I agree however Apple definitely wins on the quality of products and the
seamlessness of the experience, but that doesn't mean no company can compete.

~~~
jessriedel
He's referring to the consumer tech market place. When's the last time a
German company launched a piece of consumer hardware that had worldwide market
share?

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jonknee
Gigaset (Siemens' phone company) and T-Mobile come to mind as large German
global consumer technology brands.

~~~
jessriedel
T-Mobile is great example, thanks.

