The year is early, but it's never too early to have some tech thoughts to take with you into 2012. I am now personally an owner of three tablets of three different OS flavors (maybe soon two, we'll see), and each has distinct advantages over the other. But, with all that said, here's some thoughts on them:
* The iPad 2 Is That Much Better Than The iPad 1 – On the surface, you wouldn't initially think that this was true. The screen resolution is the same, the apps (of course) look the same, and as of now, you're still getting the same updates. But, the speed difference is really astounding, and with the original iPad selling for a good amount (I sold mine to my dad for $300 and that's a gift price), and with the iPad 2 now constantly $450 at Micro Center, it's not an expensive upgrade, and even with an iPad 3 looming, worth it.
* The Nook Color is a Solid Android Tablet – Once you do the right [hacker] thing and remove the installed Nook software and give this tablet stock Android 2.3 via CyanogenMod, it really becomes a very nice, albeit slightly underpowered tablet. I bought mine off of eBay as a direct from B&N refurb for $150, and that price still looks pretty solid. The screen is really nice quality (1024×600), the battery still has good life on stock Android, and it ups the CPU speed to 1.1 GHz (and sometimes 1.2 GHz), as well as adds Bluetooth support. Plus, the reformat gives you over 4GB of space for apps, more than on any other Android device I have ever seen.
* Why Didn't HP Ship The Touchpad At 1.7 GHz? - I finally got around to overclocking my HP TouchPad the other day, and the difference going from 1.2 to 1.7 (and now 1.8) is pretty incredible, and it didn't kill battery life all that much. If they could have marketed this as a super-powerful 1.7 GHz (or even slightly less) tablet back in June or July when this launched, it would have absolutely been the fastest tablet in the world, and maybe that selling point could have helped it differentlate itself from the pack. As it stands, this likely is going to be a niche item in my house, but as it has a pretty darn good web browser (and maybe the fastest rendition of Flash that exists), I'll keep it around. And hey, it could have Ice Cream Sandwich soon!
I'd love your thoughts on tablets in the comments, have at it!
Scott’s Early 2012 Tablet Thoughts
The year is early, but it's never too early to have some tech thoughts to take with you into 2012. I am now personally an owner of three tablets of three different OS flavors (maybe soon two, we'll see), and each has distinct advantages over the other. But, with all that said, here's some thoughts on them:
* The iPad 2 Is That Much Better Than The iPad 1 – On the surface, you wouldn't initially think that this was true. The screen resolution is the same, the apps (of course) look the same, and as of now, you're still getting the same updates. But, the speed difference is really astounding, and with the original iPad selling for a good amount (I sold mine to my dad for $300 and that's a gift price), and with the iPad 2 now constantly $450 at Micro Center, it's not an expensive upgrade, and even with an iPad 3 looming, worth it.
* The Nook Color is a Solid Android Tablet – Once you do the right [hacker] thing and remove the installed Nook software and give this tablet stock Android 2.3 via CyanogenMod, it really becomes a very nice, albeit slightly underpowered tablet. I bought mine off of eBay as a direct from B&N refurb for $150, and that price still looks pretty solid. The screen is really nice quality (1024×600), the battery still has good life on stock Android, and it ups the CPU speed to 1.1 GHz (and sometimes 1.2 GHz), as well as adds Bluetooth support. Plus, the reformat gives you over 4GB of space for apps, more than on any other Android device I have ever seen.
* Why Didn't HP Ship The Touchpad At 1.7 GHz? - I finally got around to overclocking my HP TouchPad the other day, and the difference going from 1.2 to 1.7 (and now 1.8) is pretty incredible, and it didn't kill battery life all that much. If they could have marketed this as a super-powerful 1.7 GHz (or even slightly less) tablet back in June or July when this launched, it would have absolutely been the fastest tablet in the world, and maybe that selling point could have helped it differentlate itself from the pack. As it stands, this likely is going to be a niche item in my house, but as it has a pretty darn good web browser (and maybe the fastest rendition of Flash that exists), I'll keep it around. And hey, it could have Ice Cream Sandwich soon!
I'd love your thoughts on tablets in the comments, have at it!
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