Android Honeycomb Tablets

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Why the pathetically small default-sized widgets on the 10" honeycomb tablets? I don't get it; there are awesome Android widgets out there, why make them so small. When you look at a screen shot of the new Galaxy or of the Xoom, it seems like such a wasted opportunity to showcase what the tablet can do - and how it can be used; not to mention a great opportunity to showcase it in comparison with the icon-only iPad screen?
 
Split the development of Android apps into two tracks, instead of encouraging "universal" apps that could be easily scaled from smartphone to tablet; and the failure to develop a robust set of applications for Android tablets, pushing it further behind iOS.

Yeah, I knew it was a provocative statement. :)

I still like the fact that all my smartphone apps from Froyo/Gingerbread work without hiccup on the 7" Tab, and function better than on the phone given the larger space to work.

I just have been unimpressed with Honeycomb and what I have seen with Android development in the past six months as a result. I hope Ice Cream will enable android to bounce back in terms of the tablet environment.
 
rockymtnhigh said:
Split the development of Android apps into two tracks...
Click to expand...
Honeycomb was never designed to be its own branch but a foot-in-the-door attempt to counter iPad instead.

It has been known since day one that the 3.x line of Android is a placeholder.
To unite the codebase of both - smartphone and tablet - versions was always the plan.
This is what Rubin was saying, this is why they won't even release Honeycomb source code.

The question always was: How long will it take to merge those two?
And is there a chance Honeycomb will live on after Ice Cream is released?

The first was answered at Google I/O: end of 2011.
The second is answered now: No.

Come next year, Google would like to see the Honeycomb name completely forgotten, I think...

Diogen.
 
rockymtnhigh said:
Split the development of Android apps into two tracks, instead of encouraging "universal" apps that could be easily scaled from smartphone to tablet; and the failure to develop a robust set of applications for Android tablets, pushing it further behind iOS.
Click to expand...

There are areas where iOS has lagged android. iOS 5 now with magical notification bar. This was on the Donut (1.6) release a long time ago, as were cut and paste.

I'd bet the decision was made to release honeycomb to get out into the tablet space and not cede the category to apple. Looks like the same strategy that worked for smartphones isn't as effective for tablets, i.e. many manufacturers with a baseline + customization.

Right or wrong that was the decision.

I still like the fact that all my smartphone apps from Froyo/Gingerbread work without hiccup on the 7" Tab, and function better than on the phone given the larger space to work.
Click to expand...

I feel the same about my nook color, an excellent value for money.

I just have been unimpressed with Honeycomb and what I have seen with Android development in the past six months as a result. I hope Ice Cream will enable android to bounce back in terms of the tablet environment.
Click to expand...

Haven't done more than fiddle with HC myself but I've been pleased google has been largely heads down on the IC release.

I also have seen a fair number of GB releases for phones too bring them up to current.





Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
 
Anand reviews the HTC Flier
AnandTech - The HTC Flyer Review

A point that certainly deserves attention
Yet HTC clearly saw it as very important to deliver a tablet this year. I'm getting close to overusing this quote but I will never forget what AMD's Eric Demers told me: the best way to lose a fight is to not show up. The tablet battle has only just begun and only through tireless iteration will we see clear leaders emerge, so not showing up to this early fight isn't an option for most of the players.
Click to expand...

Diogen.
 
From the article:
...the platform is totally fragmented due to no one company taking ownership of it as a platform. Google certainly doesn’t,
and OEMs can’t. The end result is that Android tablet makers end up not competing with the iPad, the logical target, but rather with each other.
....
Consumers have no chance to make sense of this, so there will never be a uniform perception of the platform.
Perception of a product is hugely important, and unless Google does something it will never catch consumer’s attention...
Click to expand...

This guy would fit very nicely right here, on this forum, with "lack of a front-runner is detrimental to the Android market" philosophers...

Diogen.
 
Archos adds a hard drive to a standard 8" Honeycomb tablet
Archos G9 Android tablets sport hard drives, Android 3.1
Under the hood, both G9 tablets offer a dual-core OMAP 4 (ARM Cortex A9) processors... tablet-optimized Android 3.1 Honeycomb, and sport HDMI output with 1080p media playback. And... they rely on new 250 GB 7mm super-slim hard drives from Seagate rather than flash storage: Seagate claims the drives put 250 GB of storage in customers’ hands at the price of 32 GB of flash.
Click to expand...

Diogen.
 
Yesterday after I got my Evo 3D, I went home to configure with it and play with it. Then later on I went back to the Sprint Store to play with the Evo View tablet. Like every other tablet, except for the Motorola Xoom, it felt like I was using a giant cell phone. The Scribe is really cool and I was pretty impressed with that. The DOA 7” form factor still turns me off but once this thing gets Honeycomb I will seriously take another look at it so long as there aren’t any 10” HTC tablets available for Sprint in the pipeline. I really want a tablet to play with, but I also really don't want to be ‘that guy’ who buys a DOA tablet. One thing I didn’t check out that I should have was how much screen real estate is left with the on screen keyboard open when in landscape. I think most of my positive feelings about the Evo View come from Sense 3.0. I went to Best Buy to play with it’s brother, the Flyer, but the display model was not working. Not really interested in the Flyer since I see no point to having a tablet without a data plan, just wanted to see how different it was.
 
Steve Mehs said:
Not really interested in the Flyer since I see no point to having a tablet without a data plan, just wanted to see how different it was.
Click to expand...

Im the exact opposite. As long as I can wifi tether, which I can, I see absolutely no point in having a tablet with anything beyond wifi. Why would I pay more for the exact same capabilities that I already have?
 
msmith198025 said:
As long as I can wifi tether, which I can, I see absolutely no point in having a tablet with anything beyond wifi.
Click to expand...
I share this POV.
There should be one data plan that all your gadgets should use.
Gadgets and provider should be picked to make this work...

Diogen.
 
msmith198025 said:
Im the exact opposite. As long as I can wifi tether, which I can, I see absolutely no point in having a tablet with anything beyond wifi. Why would I pay more for the exact same capabilities that I already have?
Click to expand...

What if you want to talk on the phone and use your wirelessly tethered device at the same time if you have a CDMA provider and don’t live on a 4G area? Wireless tethering will kill the battery life on the phone. And I’m sure to do the crappy nature of wifi, the speeds you will see on a tethered tablet will be slower then if you used it’s internal 3G modem.
 
Steve Mehs said:
What if you want to talk on the phone and use your wirelessly tethered device at the same time if you have a CDMA provider and don’t live on a 4G area? Wireless tethering will kill the battery life on the phone. And I’m sure to do the crappy nature of wifi, the speeds you will see on a tethered tablet will be slower then if you used it’s internal 3G modem.
Click to expand...

Then ill reach and grab my wifes phone? Honestly, ive never been in a situation where it was vitally important that I do both. If I need to talk, I talk. If I want to surf, I surf. Important feature for some, but not worth the extra expense to me just to get that feature.

Wireless tether does drain the battery but I usually have my charger with me, and im not surfing for hours on end in this manner anyway so again, for me, it is a non issue.

As to the crappy nature of wifi, what can I say, never had a big issue with it. Wifi tether for me has been more or less flawless, and the speed has been just fine (I havent ran a speedtest this way, but I cant notice a difference in speed between using just the phone or using the ipad and tethering). Again, more than good enough, and it wouldnt be worth the extra monthly fee for me to be just slightly better in this regard, if any.
 
Steve Mehs said:
Wireless tethering will kill the battery life on the phone. And I’m sure to do the crappy nature of wifi, the speeds you will see on a tethered tablet will be slower then if you used it’s internal 3G modem.
Click to expand...

I 100% disagree with this statement. It is not like you are talking about 50MB or higher data service. With 3G Wifi is more than capable of keeping up with the slow speeds of 3G. Heck Wifi should also have no problems keeping up with any of the 4G services on the market today.
 

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