

The Toshiba Tablet - talbina
http://thetoshibatablet.com/

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YooLi
If you visit from an iOS device, you get redirected to this page:
<http://thetoshibatablet.com/mobile/apple.html>

Wouldn't it make more sense to advertise the device and list its features to a
potential convert (I am visiting the site to check it out after all), than
show me a "haha you can't see flash page". As soon as I saw the page I just
hit back and moved onto something else, as most probably will. A red page
without even an image of the device so I might later recognize it as the
tablet that does flash isn't helping them much.

~~~
glhaynes
Sounds like they don't think they have much chance of getting switchers from
iOS.

~~~
Niten
You say this based on what, exactly? It sounds to _me_ like they just need to
finish working on their web site, and one can't really take more from it than
that without inserting one's own personal biases.

~~~
raganwald
The page I saw insulted me. It didn't say "Hang on while we finish up here." I
reserve the right to draw conclusions based on their tone, not just on their
decision to skip building a cheap and simple web site.

~~~
zmmmmm
I suspect you are fulfilling exactly what they want out of the page - insulted
iOS users foaming at the mouth, expressing their anger and propelling their
new site into the headlines with accompanying controversy lasting several
days. This will lead to yet more discussion about Flash and the iPad not
supporting it which will trickle down to even non-tech users who will slowly
absorb the controversy as a simple equation of "the iPad can't do something
the Toshiba tablet can".

I think it's a brilliant move.

~~~
evilduck
It hasn't even launched yet. I'm sure the publicity will die down before they
ship a single unit.

~~~
dkarl
Toshiba is a major company, and this is a major product launch. I don't think
unveiling a single video on their web site is their full advertising plan.

~~~
evilduck
I was referring to the "controversy buzz". Unless they keep reiterating it, I
don't see it helping enough to be a huge sales strategy.

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btipling
That's an ad full of win. It's very different from the off putting DROID eats
your lunch and is smarter than you stuff from Verizon, doesn't look at all
inspired or a derivative from Apple marketing and lists features that are
interesting instead of attacking Apple.

~~~
Stormbringer
I found the music very jarring and unsettling. I didn't care for the little
spinning wheels/arrows everywhere, I have a really fast connection, I wonder
if they could have loaded their flash faster somehow?

I wanted to look for the resolution and it told me 720p, which I then had to
go look up what that meant (I mean, I know it's a tv display format, but if
someone had said WXGA I'd have needed a translation to pixels for that too).

It didn't make me want to recommend one to someone else or buy one for myself.
I don't recall a price. There are a lot of ways this could be improved.

But hey, I thought the Seinfeld/Bill Gates ads were interesting, so what the
heck do I know, eh?

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senex
I just tried to read this on my iPhone and it redirected me here:
<http://thetoshibatablet.com/mobile/apple.html>

Such a shame :)

~~~
raganwald
Oh, THAT is going to get me to tell all of my friends not to make the mistake
of buying an iPad. And I ask: Is brochureware for a product shipping Real Soon
Now really an "Interesting site on the Internet?"

I don't think they're eating their own dogfood, I think they're drinking their
own kool-aid.

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seltzered
Is it just me, or did anyone else not see anything that makes it stand out
from the rest of the android tablets coming out.

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mcav
I had a Toshiba tablet (a Tecra M4). It now hangs on my wall as a Star-Trek-
styled dashboard: <http://d.pr/8Dyk>

~~~
e1ven
Nifty! Are you using an App for that, or is it custom?

~~~
mcav
It's a webpage running full-screen on Chrome in Ubuntu. You can actually see
it here: <http://marcuscavanaugh.com/dashboard/>

I tried using Geckoboard, but it wasn't customizable enough for what I was
trying to accomplish.

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j15e
I am on my iPad and now that I clicked on that link and could not browse back
because of the redirect I dislike toshiba even more. An on the ugly page is a
ugly message.

Trying to get Apple users to like Toshiba products : fail

~~~
CamperBob
Incredibly stupid. "Hey, I've got an idea! When any one of a group of over ten
million wealthy, technologically-inclined consumers visits our site, _let's
insult them!_ "

~~~
drivebyacct2
I'm what many might call an Android fanboy, but I have a hard time
understanding these sorts of decisions made by companies. What iOS device
owner is going to see that message and think "OMG I WANT A TOSH-TAB"?

~~~
zmmmmm
To me it looks like an attempt at viral marketing. Their market? Android fans.
How do you get Android fans to look at your page? By putting up a
controversial page making fun of apple users.

I suspect that the kind of person who owns and iPad AND is offended by this is
probably a market they are willing to write off in trade for huge publicity in
Android circles - they might just be right.

~~~
drivebyacct2
I guess I'm having a hard time taking this thing that seriously compared to
the Xoom. I mean, if Toshiba told me they were releasing full source at launch
and include flashing utilities, I'd be ecstatic and would buy in a second.
Like I said, I like Android and tinkering. I recognize that I'm a minority and
I suspect Toshiba wants to move these puppies.

-1? Really? The hardware looks inferior to the Motorola Xoom. The Toshiba has that awkward chrome and has hardware buttons when Honeycomb is eliminating them or making them redundant. I guess others are just uh super into Toshiba?

~~~
dkarl
I downvoted you because you jumped right in at the beginning of the thread and
made a bunch of posts about the Xoom, all of which sounded more like excuses
to mention it than like informative posts. Acting like a marketing bot is as
bad as being a marketing bot in my book. If people are interested, they'll
respond or upvote. If they ignore you, they're not interested. There's no need
to repeat yourself all over the place. (However, if this stupid pagination
thing keeps going, I will start to be more sympathetic to thread-spamming.)

~~~
drivebyacct2
So two constitutes a bunch now? Especially when one is in reply to the notion
that "techies" are going to buy it when it has an inferior build, inferior
specs and a bulkier size, and the other was a general comment at the top level
of comments?

"all over the place is an exaggeration". Clearly I'm not a marketing bot,
that's equally absurd.

~~~
dkarl
I count three, with no information about the Xoom (before you got downvoted)
except that it would "slaughter" the Toshiba and its UI was "better." I think
the downvoting was consistent with HN standards. When a particular web site is
under discussion and a guy posts a plug for a similar site, he doesn't get
downvoted. Three in the same thread without an informative comparison, he gets
downvoted.

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brownleej
I notice that, once you get through the video, it shows a bunch of bars that
you can hover over to see previews. I wonder how their tablet is going to
handle that, since the concept of hovering doesn't exist without a mouse.

That bit of snark aside, this looks like a really impressive device. The
cameras are a great addition, and if they put together some demos of video
chatting, it could help them explain how they're better than an iPad in a way
that really resonates with people, more than Flash and ports.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Touch works on the rollover menus, it only fires on finger/mouseup.

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angryjim
Really sharp looking flash advertisement.

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Tichy
How much will it cost?

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drivebyacct2
Unless they have a really competitive price point, it seems like they're going
to be slaughtered by the Xoom.

