Designing the best tablet device

No one can deny that 2010 will be the year of the tablet. So many manufacturers have presented tablet designs during the last CES that some sites are now making tablet device roundups. This made me think about what the best tablet device would look like.

Tablet weight

Unlike a netbook that will be be sitting on your your lap or table, a tablet is made to be held most of the time. This makes the weight of the device pretty critical and in my opinion 2 lbs is the absolute maximum for these kind of devices, with a weight under 1.5 lbs being a major advantage.

Screen size

Tablet devices seems to fall in three categories: the 4' to 5', the 7' and the 9' to 10'. To me the 5' category is too small if you already own a smartphone. Why pay for another device just to gain one or two inches of screen real estate. The 7' category seem perfect to me: it is big enough to give a comfort level that is far superior to a smartphone screen, but at the same time stays small enough to preserver the device weight and battery life. The 9'+ category could be interesting if the manufacturers manage to fit such a big screen in a light enough device without sacrificing battery life, something possible if a PixelQi screen is used.

Screen resolution

800x480 seems to be the minimum to use a tablet device properly, but 1024*600 would be better.

Battery life

A tablet is a device that is not designed to be plugged in during usage. This makes battery life even more important than for netbooks. I think that an 8 hours battery is really a minimum, but a 10+ hours battery life would be a plus.

Processor

This would obviously be some ARM design. Tablet devices could be made with Intel Atom processors, but the current models would probably not be able to meet my current battery and weight requirements. Another factor is that most ARM designs also include 3D and video acceleration on the die, which is not the case for Intel Atom chips. To get the same feature set you would have to add an Nvidia Ion or a broadcom crystal HD decoder to your setup, which would degrade the battery life of the device and increase the price.

Operating system

Despite some rough edges the Linux based Android OS seems to be the most viable option. Android is free, stable, optimized for touch input and with more than 20,000 apps in the market the software ecosystem is fairly rich . Windows 7 could be a contender if it could run on ARM processors, consumed less resources and if the software library was better optimized for touch input. Windows CE is not really an option if you want to install third party applications as no "store" is available. The iPhoneOS could be an option, but I am not willing to invest in any Apple technology anymore because of their incessant changes of policy regarding what is acceptable on their devices. If Apple decided to give up its excessive control of the App Store content it could be an option in the future though. The other viable option is of course the other Linux based tablet OS: Meego. The only issue is that the project is still too new to allow me make an opinion of the OS, but this will probably be a contender in the future.

Price

This is difficult to estimate, but for me a price under $300 would be ideal. Like netbooks, tablets are meant to be secondary devices, not your main computer. The price should be low enough to allow most people to afford one in addition to a PC, and for me that means it should cost about half the price of your main computer. Since most PCs now sell for $600 that would make the $300 price point right. The Apple iPad would even follow this rule if we consider that the price of Macs is usually above $1000, however it would fare badly when compared to PCs.

Expansions

The most important expansion option for me is a SD or MicroSD card slot. Even on machines with a lot of on-board storage being able to plug in your camera memory card for a quick view on the big screen is a definite plus. Also with memory prices falling all the time this may allow for an easy upgrade in a few years time. A 16 Gb tablet may look impressive now, but it will look restrictive in two years time when 32 Gb SDs will sell for under $30. An USB connection to transfer files from your main PC is another obvious requirement. VGA, HDMI and USB ports are also nice to have, but they are not critical.

Input

A tablet by definition use finger as an input, so the software needs to be designed accordingly, and a multitouch screen is of course better than a "single touch" one but I do not feel it is mandatory. The possibility of adding a real keyboard through USB is also a plus if you intend to use the device for typing.

Software

Some software should be included with the tablet: capable audio and video players, a decent web browser with flash support, an e-mail client, a PDF and ebook (epub or mobi) reader, a picture viewer and a mean to install third party software and games. Most of the operating systems mentioned above cover most of these requirement  from the start except for the iPhone OS (no Flash and arbitrary limits on third party software) and Windows CE. As soon as Android gets flash support (currently in beta) it will cover all these requirements quite easily.

Conclusion

I think that we will see a lot of interesting tablets this year, and that I'll probably be able to purchase one that fits most if not all of my requirements. It probably won't be the iPad because to justify all the restriction Apple puts on the App Store their devices should be vastly superior to the competition in most other respects, and this is simply not the case with the iPad. The Archos Android tablets are currently the best contenders, but I expect many other to appear soon.

picture cc by nDevilTV

Apple insult their customers, women, free speech

Last Friday Apple decided to insult most of their customers, and the funny thing is that most of them did not even realize it. Apple has unilaterally decided to remove all "adult oriented" applications from the App store. Not only that, but it seems that to Apple a woman in bikini is considered adult material unsuitable for the Apple store.

Am I nine years old again?

I am the only adult owner of an iPod touch or iPhone that finds it extremely insulting to be treated like a 9 year old? I am 34 years old actually, and I feel that I can decide what level of sex I want on my iPod, thank you. Apple apparently does not allow anything that can be "sexually arousing". When did I allow Steve Jobs to decide if I could be sexually aroused or not? Beside that, women in bikini may seem "arousing" for a 9 year old, they are nothing especially new to me. Speaking of which:

Apple insult women

Apparently Apple considers that a woman in bikini is an unacceptable sight. As someone pointed out, what should the women wear in video games following Apple censors, the Burqa? In a country where women are fighting for the right to go out topless (like men) I would find it very surprising if most women did not find Apple stance on the issue insulting.

Apple insults our freedom of speech

A more important issue here is that Apple want to limit our freedom of speech. Yes, in my opinion video games and applications are a form of artistic expression, and they should be protected like movies, songs and books. When an institution appointed by our elected representatives apply some censorship at least there is some form of democratic control on what is censored, but when it is done by a private organization like Apple there is not control. Steve Jobs and Co are free to decide what you should and should not see, this is almost Stalinian and is completely unacceptable in a democratic country.


I didn't know I purchased a $300 toy

The only justification Apple seems to be able to come up with is that they want to protect the children. First, it is not their Job to protect the children, it is the parent's job. Second an iPod touch or an iPhone are pretty expensive items, not toys. The design as well as the location where these are sold clearly make them adult gadgets. If this happened to a Nintendo DS I could understand because the Nintendo is clearly marketed as a toy: It is sold in toy stores at a toy price. An iPhone is sold in the Apple store, not in the Toy'r Us.

My last Apple purchase

I think that the iPod touch will be my last purchase from Apple, personally I am too disgusted by their behavior to still purchase anything from them. Thankfully I puchased an Android powered HTC Magic as well as an iPod touch when I realised that I could have both for the price the iPhone is sold at without contract. I will focus on the Magic (despite Android current flaws) and just let my wife play with the iPod, but I will probably never buy anything from Apple again until they start treating me like an adult.

What is wrong with Android

I recently purchased an HTC Magic, my first device running Android, Google's Linux-based mobile operating system. Although there are a lot of things I like about Android, I also quickly realized that there are also a lot of things that either require urgent improvement or are going wrong altogether. Below is my not-so-small list of Android issues. A lot of them are related to the Android market because it is in my opinion the part of Android that requires the most urgent efforts.

The Android Market must be available internationally

Currently the paid apps are only available to a very few countries outside of the US, and the market itself is not available at all in many places. Google must urgently set up a worldwide market for free apps and bring paid apps to at least as many countries as the iPhone app store (currently they are FAR behind). The problem is that even in Brussels (which is one of the 2 capitals of the European Union, the second largest developed economy after the US) I can not purchase a paid application on the Android market. This makes the Android ecosystem look bad when compared to the iPhone and iPod Touch which do not face such issues. My only option is to install an alternative market like Slideme, but for most people finding the alternative market and installing client on their phone is a daunting task.

Create a computer interface for Android

The second issue is that they should really provide a computer based interface for the Android Market and for music management. It can be a website, an application or even a Songbird plug-in, but it is just not convenient for many people to browse the apps on their phone small screen and to manage their music by "mounting" the SD card. This would also allow Google to create a better front end for application promotion and maybe even to create an Open Source section in the market.

Force manufacturer to clearly state if the Android market is enabled

Another major problem with the Android Market is that some device manufacturers or operators do not include the market on their handsets or devices. This is very problematic because the main reason most people want to buy an Android device is to be able to install third party applications and games (otherwise they would buy a much cheaper feature phone). Google should reserve the term "Android" to devices that actually include the Android market and have devices that just use Android as an OS called "Android Lite" or "Android Powered". Currently when you buy an Android device you don't know what you will be able to run unless you scour the web for reviews.

Do not rely on OTA upgrades

Although OTA (Over The Air) upgrades of Android may be an acceptable solution in the US, it is not the case internationally. Some countries (like Belgium, where I live) require by law that the handset selling business is separate from the mobile operator business. This means that the operator that sells an Android handset has to sell it equally to user of all mobile networks, not only its own. This means that OTA upgrades are not possible because they would have to convince that other operators to upgrade also the devices on their network. Even in other countries, to allow an OTA upgrade to be deployed not only must the handset manufacturer accept to create the upgrade, but the operator must agree to distribute it. This means that a lot of devices won't be updated that way. This leads me to my next concern: fragmentation.

Do something about Android fragmentation

Currently the Android landscape is something like 20% Android 2, 25% Android 1.5 and 55% Android 1.6. This is obviously cause for concern for developers and users alike as it means that applications and games need not only to be coded for several screen resolutions, but also for different operating system versions. This makes it difficult for an user to know if he will be able to install the latest games and applications, and games and applications are what many people buy a smartphone for.

Fix Android 3D performance issues

As pointed out by Ars Technica, current versions of Android and of the Android NDK are not correctly optimized for 3D gaming. Nowadays a smartphone or tablet OS must also be a gaming platform, so these things are really important. Another issues is that versions of Android prior to 2.0 only support the mobile equivalent OpenGL 1.3. This may make it impossible for gaming companies to bring their OpenGL 2.0 iPhones titles to Android handset. What it looks like now is that Android handsets usually get ports of the phone versions of games rather than the more polished iPhone version. Look for example at the game Farm Frenzy on Android and on the iPhone, the difference is clear.

Android is still a good platform

Despite all this, Android is still my smartphone OS of choice because of the openess of the platform (at least compared to Apple offerings). I would however like to see all these issues sorted quickly so that Android has a chance to truly rival the iPhone and create real competition in the mobile and tablet market.

The death of Flash has been greatly exaggerated

Following the news that the iPad would not support the Flash plugin, some people have been clamoring for the death of Flash. Not so fast cowboy, that horse ain't dead yet!. Although it is true that Flash is far from perfect it is currently a necessary evil because so many web games and web application are written in Flash.

It is a fact that the performance and stability of the Flash plugin on OSX and Linux are not as good as on Windows, they still mostly work and are kept up to date by Adobe. Don't forget that Flash is also supported on the Wii browser (even if that plugin is outdated) and should soon be available for Android and Linux devices running on ARM processors. Expecting the plugin to deliver the same level of performance and reliability on all these platforms is overly optimistic. Of course the performance and stability situation would probably be better if Flash was an open source standard like HTML5 or Canvas, but I don't see these technologies replacing Flash anytime soon.

As stupid as it sounds, I couldn't have my wife use a device that can't play Farmville to access the internet because these kind of games are a huge percentage of her web experience, and it is the same for more than 100 millions other users. Farmville not working is THE reason I won't buy her an iPad.

Before we can do away with Flash there needs not only to be good support for an alternative (HTML 5, Canvas etc...) on multiple platforms, but also good development tools for that alternative that can rival Adobe Flash CS4 and a large ecosystem of web games and applications. That's the chicken and egg problem: you need a good ecosystem to be present before you can profitably use the new technology, but you need to use the new technology to develop a good ecosystem. It think that we'll get there eventually, but not before several years.

So, until Farmville is available in HTML5 and Canvas, we're stuck with Flash. In fact, I think that the Flash support present in Linux and soon in Android will allow competing tablets from MSI and others not only to compete with the iPad on an equal footing, but even to gain a significant market share in the tablet space. I'll concede that the iPad do benefit from a large library of games and applications inherited from the iPhone and iPod touch, but they are competing with pretty much the whole online games phenomenon, and tablets based on Android, Linux and Windows will also benefit from these platform's respective software libraries.

I can be satisfied by games from the App store and a limited version of the web for a phone or PDA, but for a tablet I want the full web experience and currently that means Farmville and Flash, so for now it sounds to me like Apple does not want my business...