Tag Archives: Android

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March 30, 2011

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Farewell Latitude (for now) (update: it’s back)

So that’s it then – no more Google Latitude on my phone or the wifey’s.

It’s not that Latitude has lost its usefulness.  Far from it – it’s quite handy.  Rather, it has lost its practicality.

For whatever reason, Google took it upon itself to change the update frequency of Latitude, and this has had a noticeably-adverse affect on battery life.  Google’s own search engine will yield results explaining that the frequency went from something like 42/1 to 6/2 – ie, a 42 minute period when not moving and 1 minute when moving, to 6 minutes when not moving and 2 minutes when moving.

Now I don’t know if these numbers are correct, but I do know that something has definitely been amiss in the Latitude department for the past month or two.  It started when Shelly’s S60v3-based phone would no longer post Latitude updates.  Google seemed to have resolved this issue about a week ago, but in looking into the problem I came across other posts talking about increased battery usage, attributing said increases to the change in update/polling period.  So once functionality was restored on Shelly’s phone, I noted that she seemed to have gone from two or three days between requiring a charge, to needing to charge each night.  Hrmm.

So the first phone to have Latitude disabled was hers.  And wouldn’t you know it, battery life was magically restored.  And while I’ve always known that Latitude used some of our precious mobile battery life, I certainly couldn’t justify a 33-50% reduction in said life.

Battery life on my own phone is harder to characterize, as I tend do Do More Things(tm) on it, and I also tend to update my apps regularly.  Nonetheless, even with charging my phone in the car for one or both of the daily commutes, I was still getting alerts every night warning of 10-15% battery remaining – and I distinctly recall the ability to do a good amount of web browsing without any battery concerns in days past.

So today is the first day that I’ve disabled Latitude on my phone as well, and I have no intention of charging it in the car today either.  We’ll see what happens this evening.

It’s unfortunate really, because I’ve found that Latitude is one of those things where you like to Fire and Forget(tm) – that is, turn on the tracking service (privacy concerns notwithstanding) and it’s always available when you need it.  Sometimes it’s a safety consideration, other times it’s a simple matter of convenience.  I’ve even taken to using the Location History to do some data mining.

But until the battery life issues are worked out, it’s no more always-on Latitude for me.

[update 2011/04/06] Well Latitude is back on my phone.  As usual a number of variables have changed on my phone – WiFi is being turned off by Tasker unless I’m on a “home” cell tower, and I’ve upgraded Maps to the latest and greatest (v5.2 I think).

Anyhow, battery life is acceptable at this point (although a Mugen 1800mAh battery is en-route).  And it would seem that updates aren’t going out every 6 minutes – on my phone at least.  Looking through the data logs on Shelly’s phone I was dismayed to see packet data activity every 6 minutes throughout the day – surely an indication of Latitude phoning home.

You may wonder why Latitude is again active on the wifey’s phone.  Hey, you’ll have to ask her – I turned it off a few times and it’s magically gone back on again each time.

So I’ll have to take a look into the WiFi settings on her phone.  I was under the impression that Symbian is very sane about powering the WiFi module, only doing so when an application explicitly requests data access.  And while this could still allow Latitude to request WiFi when it wakes up every 6 minutes, I was of the belief that the user had to explicitely select a predefined WiFi “access point” to use, or else tell the phone to go searching for an available WiFi network.  Which is to say, unless their’s human intervention, the phone shouldn’t be turning the WiFi module on.

So either my understanding of WiFi on Symbian is wrong, or Latitude on Symbian is a just a different beast altogether and it’s misbehaving badly.

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January 13, 2011

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Apps that make my life easier (Droooooid Part 3)

I’m still in the process of loading up my Desire Z with cool and useful apps.  Here’s the list of ones that have made the cut, and are worth a mention.

XiiaLive

Trés useful for streaming audio from home.  You can’t change the streaming settings in the “Lite” version, but even with an 8-second buffer it’s entirely tolerable.  And the audio quality over Bluetooth A2DP is very good, much better than it was on the Touch Pro (and this is without having to tweak anything – and that’s a Very Good Thing(tm))

k9mail

Built off the source code of the native Android Mail application, this app adds such useful features as being able to specify your Sent and Trash folders when using IMAP.  This is a boon for me, since I use IMAP extensively for my personal mail.  This program finally plays nice with my mail server after some initial struggles.

KeepScreen

I couldn’t understand why my Z would turn off when Google Maps was running.  The Touch Pro never did this.  It makes sense that if you’ve got Maps open, chances are you’re navigating somewhere and you want Maps to stay open.  [Personal note: see if Google Navigation keeps the screen on]  Keep Screen will keep the screen on when certain applications are running in the foreground.  Works a treat.

PaderSyncDAV

This program allows me to access the files on my home network.  I recently uncovered a bug where I seem unable to upload files from this app.  I’ve contacted the dev and I’m hoping for a (speedy) resolution. [Update Jan 21, 2011: Worked with the dev to get this problem fixed, so it’s all good!]

Tasker

Back in the WinMo days I used Mortscript and some custom C programs to perform event-driven tasks.  In the Android world, I’ve found that Tasker can do many things I did with Mortscript – and more.  So far I’m using it to unlock the orientation sensor when I’m in the car, and to start Google Navigation when I’m in the car and external power is connected.  These two tasks alone are worth the US$6.

Pure Calendar/GridCalendar/Messenger Widget

This trio of widgets fulfills my desire to see consolidated info at a glance on my homescreen(s).  Pure Messenger Widget, in particular, is quite useful as a means to get my incoming Twitter, Facebook, GMail and SMS updates all in one place, as a scrollable list no less.  Think of FriendStream for HTC Sense, only more customizable.

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January 7, 2011

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Droooooooid – Part Deux

Many, many, many hours of work has been done since this post was posted.

The results are mostly good.  As it stands now, I’ve basically got all of the core functionality I had on the Touch Pro – plus more, obviously.  And a nice consequence of this work is that much of the processes I’ve used in the past are now somewhat simplified.

In particular, I’m quite stoked about the uber-quick WebDAV access and client-less access to the intranet.  That last one needs some security work, but it’s there and it’s a beaut.  I’m yet to test streaming from the Home Audio streaming zones, but that’ll likely happen in 1 hour or less (once I go out for lunch).

I also made some useability improvements to the fileserv, which is what allows me to send links and files to the phone.  Google has a Firefox and Chrome extension that allows you to do this, but I prefer to roll my own solutions.  Additionally, this one doesn’t require any special software that somebody isn’t likely to already have.

Truthfully the fileserv stuff has had a “todo – enhanced security” line item for some time now.  That’s not resolved yet, but I imagine I’ll be using this facility more going forward and that alone may prompt me to get all this security stuff nailed down.

So what’s not working?

Mail isn’t 100%.  I worked with the developer of my server software to iron out one bug, and that was great, but as it stands now the native Android Mail client is missing some core functionality (ability to set trash/sent folders is the biggest, and the ability to filter IMAP folders) so I’m using the k9mail client instead.  Unforunately that client isn’t doing two-phase deletions/moves properly.  So for now I’ve got to use both clients.  A bummer for now, but hopefully it will get resolved soon.

What’s changed?

My particular brand of push notifications have changed.  You may or may not know that certain events (types of mail, surveillance) generate notifications on the phone.  In the WinMo world these notifications were delivered via SMS. Some would automagically (courtesy of PushEffect) tell Outlook Mobile to connect and sync my mail.  That last little bit simulated push email, and while I have no such facility now (but may again play with IMAP IDLE) it’s sort of a moot point now; both Mail and k9mail are so fast to sync folders that I now do the process manually, which is really no more effort than opening Outlook Mobile to read the mail I just got notified about.  I could probably spend some time in the future to replicate the sync functionality on Android, to operate in the same manner it did in WinMo.  Chances are that that won’t happen any time soon though.

So anyway, the notifications were delivered by SMS, by way of an Email-to-Text gateway supplied by my mobile carrier.  And they being the gougers they are, they decided that I had to pay for the privilege of getting these missives directly instead of having their own servers cache them and send me stupid “you have mail, reply R to read” SMS messages in their stead.  That always bothered me, and while I took some baby steps in the past month or so to get around that in Windows Mobile, I now utilize a GMail account in Android to get around it completely.

Both methods offer quick delivery of said notifications.  The GMail method has no length restrictions, which is good, while the SMS method had no data usage, which was good.  But with 6GB of data allotment each month, data usage isn’t really a concern.  What is a concern is roaming data.  With data-based notifications I simply won’t get any notifications at all if data is off due to roaming.  So I’ve got to think about this one.

Nevertheless, being able to get of the monthly charge is a  Good Thing(tm).  Worst case?  I switch back to SMS-based notifications while out of the country, and use a little hack to deliver the essence of the message without the direct-email-to-text feature.

So that’s that for now.  I feel that a Part 3 will be coming soon.  Stay tuned.

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January 2, 2011

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Droooooooid!

Okay, so I’m not rocking a Moto Droid, but I am now rocking an HTC Desire Z.  The wifey helped to make this happen so thanks go out to her.

It’s currently 2:47AM so this will be short to begin with; I’ll have to come back later to flesh out this post a little more.

First impressions:

  • I will not be rocking CM6.1 or CM7 (?) on this device.  As it turns out, HTC Sense is cooler than I thought, and it’s a more polished experience than standard Android.  Yes, I realize that this places me at the mercy of HTC/Bell to feed any potential update craving that may arise in the future, but for now I’m willing to live with that
  • The screen is beautfil.  Nuff said.
  • Hinge isn’t the snappiest but I can definitely live with it.
  • It’s really nice to have a phone that actually hangs up when I tell it to (and not a few seconds later – Touch Pro, here’s looking at you kid)
  • It’s a little weird going into so many apps and just… leaving them to go elsewhere.  I could do this with the Touch Pro as well, but given the speed of that device it wasn’t often that I’d go into 6-7 apps in one sitting.  Perhaps it’s the new-car-small of the Z that’s got me bouncing around in apps (particularly as I’m still trying to get the thing setup to my liking).  However, I will say that some apps do seem to restart when you go back to them, and that’s definitely weird coming from WinMo, which would leave apps open until memory constraints forced them closed.  I don’t think I’ve hit any memory issues on the Z yet, so it may just be that Android is a little more aggressive in the task management department.
  • Battery life isn’t as good as the Touch Pro.  Again I’ll say that I’m using the device extensively in order to get it setup, and I have a feeling that two mail apps were trying to IMAP IDLE on my mail account – a consequence of not having my mail setup correctly yet.
  • I never thought I’d say this, but I like that I can link my local contacts to my Facebook contacts.  Having this integration – provided by HTC Sense – is nice, although I’m still adamant that I wouldn’t go so far as Windows Phone 7’s penchant for throwing Facebook photos into your local photo gallery.
  • L-O-V-E the way that the notification bar works.  Very cool to finally be able to see what a notification is  about without having to make any overt gestures or load the relevant app.
  • Maps on Android is AWESOME.  Especially Maps 5.0.  Check it out if you’re rocking an Android phone.

I’m sure there’s more, and they’ll come when I follow-up on this post.  It may be possible that many of these enhancements could be had on the WinMo platform, particularly considering that HTC Sense is available (indeed, was conceived) on Windows Mobile.  Still, the speed of my Touch Pro can’t compare with the Z, not to mention the screen resolution, vibrancy and size.  I will say that for now I prefer the layout of the hardware keyboard on the Touch Pro, but that could be a case of a year’s worth of familiarity with said keyboard.

One negative I noticed today – and I hope that this is was an isolated occurence – was trouble staying connected to the Bluetooth kit in the car.  I had problems like that on WinMo, where Bluetooth on the phone would actually turn off.  My solution was to write a native program and some Mortscript to force Bluetooth on whenever it inexplicably turned off.  Well, it seems that the Z’s Bluetooth is staying on, but the connection is dropping.  Will investigate more later.

Off to bed now.

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December 8, 2010

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Fateful decisions

Fear not, there will be no dark foreboding here 🙂

I’ve made a couple of game-changing decisions recently.  One, is that Android is definitely in my smartphone future.  Two, is that UPnP is in my Home Automation future.

We’ll look at each decision in order.

Android

My PDA/Smartphone history started with Palm and has been mostly devoted to Windows Mobile.  Then, Microsoft decided that its mobile future lay in Windows Phone 7, thereby rendering Windows Mobile 6.x a parent-less drifter.  This isn’t entirely true, as they’ve pledged to support 6.x in the enterprise space; but for consumers, Windows Phone 7 rang the official death knell for WinMo 6.x.

I honestly can’t recall the timing, but around this time last year I decided that my TyTN wasn’t cutting it anymore and I sourced a used HTC Touch Pro, which I promptly upgraded with a WinMo 6.5 build.  It was never my intention to use this device for Many Years To Come(tm), but I think I was looking to get maybe two years out of the thing.

And, if push came to shove, I probably could deal with the software limitations.  But I’ve been getting increasingly frustrated of late over touch sensitivity, system lockups, speed… the gamut of issues that people typically cite when thumbing their noses at Windows Mobile.  Add to that the GPS that I’ve all but abandoned, since it seems almost impossible to get a lock these days.

It’s a crying shame, to be honest.  I don’t have money to be throwing around on phones, and I never want/wanted to be one of thoese people who buys a new phone every year.  I was either blindsided by Windows Phone 7, or didn’t take the threat seriously, but when that OS was announced and devices actually started shipping – well, my 2-year investment dead-ended rather quickly.

The larger problem is the dearth of development activity.  No reputable company is releasing WinMo apps anymore.  It goes without saying that iOS and Android are occupying the hearts and minds of mobile developers across the globe.  More accurately, Windows Mobile is on nary a developer’s lips.  So the gist is that I’m stuck with buggy/slow versions of mildly interesting software (Facebook, Twitter), and staples – like my software keyboard and UI shell – are frozen in time, bugs and all, and I’ve got to deal with said bugs every single day.

Don’t get me wrong.  When the software is running smoothly, it’s All Good(tm).  Unfortunately, I get hair-pullingly frustrated even after 2 or 3 soft resets in one day.  Nobody should have to reset their phone 2 or 3 times a day.  And then there’s the one thing, the most intrusive and dasterdly demon of them all – the resistive touchscreen.

Sure, pinch-to-zoom would be nice.  I can live without it – for now – but what I can’t live without is accurate touch response.  I’m sick and tired of trying to scroll but selecting an item instead, or trying to select an item but scrolling instead.  And this isn’t the sort of thing that happens, oh, once or twice a day.  It’s a regular occurence!  It’s so annoying that I toyed with the idea of writing a touch driver to smooth out inputs, but that’s a large undertaking whose value is severely lessened by the diminished attractiveness of the platform as a whole.

My recent foray into tablet research opened my eyes to the wondrous world that is a modern mobile OS.  Even Shelly’s Nokia E71 has outshined my Touch Pro since the moment her phone came into our house.  She has jokingly said to me – on more than one occasion – “It’s okay Deryk, you can have my phone”, as a result of my penchant for Getting Things Done(tm) on her phone quickly and easily.  The problem with her phone is that it’s not a touch device, and it’s not a slider.  Those things aside, she has nothing to be ashamed of for wielding that thing.

Although, she’s pined for an Android device herself.  I think she’s been starstruck by the touch experience in general, with all the whiz-bang animations and such.  But she’ll also put on her Practicality hat, and realize that nothing beats a hardware keyboard and numeric keypad when it comes to calling people and texting/emailing.  I can even navigate faster in Opera Mobile on her phone, with the D-Pad, than I can on my phone using touch or the D-Pad.

But I digress.  Being somebody who values functional technology, rather than having the latest and greatest (witness my T1i when the T2i was already out), I was rather impressed at how easy it is to get things done when using a modern mobile OS.  And there are two pieces to that particular puzzle: a capacitive screen and properly-tuned touch driver, and native apps that are constantly refined under the banner of getting things done easily and accurately.  My Touch Pro has neither of these things going for it, and it shows.

This culminated quite nicely (and shockingly) the other day when I realized that I don’t want to have to tweak my mobile phone anymore.  It should just do what I want, period.  I’ve never been big on custom wallpapers and ringtones – everything I’ve tweaked on my Touch Pro has been to make it useable, not to make it fancy.  I decided that I want my device to be useable from Day One(tm), and I want somebody out there working to make it useable throughout its useful life.

I also like a pure experience.  And it may surprise you to learn that, if I did get an Android phone, I’d either want to flash a stock, non-branded ROM – or install a credible custom ROM like CyanogenMod 6.1.  But really, that’s as far as I’d want to take it.  I thought I’d be able to do the same sort of thing with the Touch Pro and the Energy series of ROMs, but again – people are moving away from WinMo, certainly from the TouchPro.  Regardless, you can’t tweak away a resistive screen, or the other things that probably could be nailed down in time by the ROM developer but which won’t be nailed down by the ROM developer since nobody wants to develop for the platform anymore.

So why Android?  I played with a Windows Phone 7 device in the stores, but from the first set of leaked videos it was apparent to me that Windows Phone 7 would not be in my future.  I’m a developer at heart – and I have a very strong feeling that Android is the closest you can get to development/tinkering nirvana.  Windows Phone 7 is getting a very glossy treatment as a social, consumer device – just look at the supporting ads that are airing, citing the ability to get in and get out quickly.  But it’s a guided experience that I don’t care for.  I’m quite content to run a Facebook app when I want to see what’s going on on Facebook.  I would not be at all content to have Facebook’s crap smeared all over my phone in every nook and cranny.

And iPhone?  You should know how (un)impressed with the whole walled-garden approach in general.

Really, I probably would have skipped the Touch Pro and gone straight for a Milestone if not for a few reasons:

  • holding out for carrier promotional pricing (the Milestone never showed up on Rogers)
  • a preference for HTC hardware vs. Motorola hardware
  • wanting to see how dominant the Android platform became

Let’s face it though – what I’m really talking about is obsolescence.  And it’s true that every piece of consumer electronics out there is obsolete as soon as it hits the store shelves.  Wouldn’t it be the case that anything I got now – Android-based or otherwise – would suffer the same fate, and I’d find myself back here in a year?

I’m not entirely convinced of that.  I pride myself on having a particular set of criteria, and not compromising on that core set.  I’m not trying to chase the latest and greatest, I’m simply trying to get something that works for me.  I never believed that the Touch Pro would be my main phone for the forseeable future; rather, it is/was a stopgap since the TyTN couldn’t get my basic needs accomplished anymore.

Well as it happens, the Touch Pro now has certain limitations – some of which are inherent, like the finicky GPS and crappy camera – and others which only became apparent after trying to make the device do what I had envisioned it doing.  My expectation of the Touch Pro is that it’s finger-friendly, as this was one of the primary reasons why I sought to replace the TyTN.  And while the Touch Pro is more finger-friendly than the TyTN, it has become apparent – after a year of using it in a manner that the TyTN could not support – that a resistive touchscreen simply cannot get the job done.  This is not something I would have known implicitely from using the TyTN in this capacity, as the TyTN had other problems which restricted its finger-friendly usefulness.

Basically, the software and hardware of the Touch Pro was never designed for a seamless touch experience.  Even the latest versions of WinMo cannot make this claim, as the shell itself simply is not designed appropriately.  However, even a device like the HTC G1 – with a capacitive screen – has a leg up, despite its age.  And yes, you can flash CM6.1 to a G1 and have the latest Android kernel on your old device (well, the latest up to a few days ago, when 2.3 was released).  The hardware wouldn’t be as svelte as a G2, the camera not as nice, the processor not as speedy – but assuming you could live with those things, the fact of the matter is that you would not be left behind in the software world.

Yes, you have to consider things like available memory, and that’s something that you can never beat without investing in new hardware.  But for comparison, here it is that I’ve installed all my apps to the Touch Pro’s internal memory and I haven’t really had any memory issues to speak of.  I think it’s the case that most modern smartphones have way more memory available than you actually need – particularly somebody like me who is very adverse to storing media on my phone.

Ultimately, the undeniable truth here is that it’s time for me to switch platforms.  And I have to tell you, the prospect is exciting, if only because it means learning something new – and if you know me, you know that I like to learn.  I don’t often do an “out with the old, in with the new” paradigm shift, but when it happens it does make me quite giddy at the prospect of building a whole new suite of solutions that I simply could not do before.

Android is now mature, in my mind, and the hardware is at that point that I believe it could serve me adequately for the next three years.

UPnP

This is another doozy.  I’ve spent the last, what, 3-4 years (longer?) designing this Home Audio system and making incremental updates to the interface and backend. I had visions of a very dynamic interface with DHTML transitions galore and loads of AJAX.  And that’s admirable, but it’s time for more.

Again, this was partially spurred by my tablet research, and a major dislike of placing media – music, photos, videos – on any one particular device.  My belief is that those things should be “in the cloud” and accessed on demand.  Not the Google cloud, not the Amazon cloud – rather, my own personal cloud.

My approach has always been network-centric, where devices are simply clients to my network.  The Home Audio interface is an example of a project that encompasses both the network – the DBMS, the filesystem – and the client – the physical zones and SHOUTcast servers.  But it’s still closed in that you can’t take full advantage of the network unless you pass through the web interface first.

And for physical zones, this is fine.  For consuming media on tablets, not so fine.  But I don’t want to just throw a media server on my network and let it have at my filesystem.  One – that’s not very challenging.  Two – it sidesteps years of development work on my part, and it doesn’t allow any future development.

I realized the other day that my approach to my Home Audio setup may have been the Right One(tm).  It’s all HTTP-based.  It’s all database-driven.  A new media server would have to catalog my filesystem in its own native database in order to function.  Well, why reinvent the wheel?  Why throw away design and useability decisions that I’ve made?

In this modern age of standards, there’s no reason why I can’t take the work I’ve done and evolve it to support different types of clients.

That’s where UPnP comes in.

So my current design goals are to add UPnP support to my Home Audio system.  And by extension, this will actually allow my media to be consumed by a UPnP client device.  I can finally rip my movies to disk and play them on a wide array of devices.  I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but even without a single UPnP client on my network today I can say that I firmly believe that this is the correct direction to go in.

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December 3, 2010

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Tablets – ready for (my) primetime? [updated 01/27/12]

I’ve heard a yearning for a tablet for a long time.  I made a (misguided) foray into the world of pen computers, scoring a used device on eBay some number of years ago.  Suffice it to say that that particular puppy hasn’t seen the light of day in some time.

The iPad is now all the rage.  And while I understand the allure of the device, and the particular niche it fulfills, the more I look at the iPad for my intended purpose the more I’m realizing that there are way too many shortcomings to even consider dropping $600+ on the thing.  And unfortunately, the same goes for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the current champ in the non-Apple tablet world.

Here’s the thing.  I’m not looking for a device to carry around with me.  That’s what a smartphone is for.  Which isn’t to say that I wouldn’t want to travel with the tablet; rather, it would tend to “live” mostly at home.  So I’m not particularly adverse to the 10″ form factor; weight may be an issue, but if we’re talking solely about “portability” then there’s nothing wrong with 10″.

Now, I decided a long time ago that every portable device deserves a wireless connection.  I didn’t spend long with my Compaq iPAQ 3630 before an expansion sleeve and PCMCIA WiFi card were ordered.  Fortunately, any modern computing device worth its silicon has a myriad of wireless connectivity options – one of which is “3G”.  The carriers love to push this, as more 3G-toting users means more revenue.  But again, given that my intended use for a tablet is for home use, I’m pretty sure I can get by with WiFi – and tether to my smartphone whenever truly mobile connectivity is needed.

So what of these shortcomings?  I’m getting to that.  And in order to get to that, I have to talk about the fact that these devices are actually quite capable little devices.  The Tab, in particular, feels very powerful to me.  It screams “computer” much more than the iPad, and that’s not a bad thing.  It does its job so well, in fact, that I’m chomping at the bit to cram an Android smartphone into a pant pocket.  As a mobile platform, I must say that Android is getting it done quite nicely.

The iPad, on the other hand, still comes off as a large toy.  I just can’t shake the feeling.  Sure, you can run cool apps, but I’m not looking to run cool apps at home.  My home needs for a tablet are quite modest – surf the web, control my home automation systems, check email.  It really doesn’t have to get more complex than that.

And in that vein, the Tab also falls short.  Every time I pick up a Tab I feel like I should be putting it in my pocket and carrying it around with me for the entire day.  This is not a feeling I want to get from a device that’s supposed to live on the living room table.  I think that Samsung is intending the tab to be a mobile, portable device – but that’s not the niche that I want it to fill.

Then there are more tangible shortcomings – like the complete and utter lack of multi-user support.  Some of the coolest things you can do with the iPad and Tab come from using the native apps, which are the most pure reflections of what the manufacturer intended you to use the device for.  And some apps, like email, are very personal in nature – do I want some house guest to pick up my tablet and start reading my email?

And so… I’m conflicted.  On a few fronts.  I don’t like Apple’s walled garden, but I think I do like the 10″ form factor.  I like Android’s utility, but I don’t want/need my tablet to be that powerful.  So what am I saying, really?

One, is that none of the tablets on the market now are going to get the job done for me.  I mean, I’d take either one if I won it (though I’d probably sell the iPad), but there’s no way I’m paying $600+.

Two, is that I know what I need:

  • multi-touch interface
  • capacitive touchscreen
  • tabbed browser with Flash support

I think I’d like a capable built-in media player, but I do not want to store media on the device.  Not even pictures.  Any media should be streamed over the network  – perhaps using UPnP or DLNA.  And while I’m not adverse to accessing a marketplace and running other native/3rd-party apps, I think that this capability must go hand-in-hand with the some sort of fast-user-switching ala Windows XP Home.

Until these criteria are met, I may find myself sitting on the sidelines of the tablet game.

[update 2011/08/30]

Interesting article from Engadget, questioning the tablet’s position as a productivity device and the real necessity for a “third device”.  At this point I really wish I had scored a $99 TouchPad – not quite “taking one if I won it” that I mentioned above, but close enough.  Oh well, so it goes.  I figured I could move run an Android port on it as soon as that technical feat was accomplished.  Surely it wouldn’t be long, right?  But something strange happened when I played with a TouchPad in-store for 30 minutes or so, followed by a couple of Honeycomb tablets – I was far more impressed with WebOS than Honeycomb.  In fact, Honeycomb felt like the cross between a media device and a mobile computer that I alluded to earlier in this post, to the point that the promised functionality belied the limitations of the device (reported so well in that Engadget article).  I suppose that experience reaffirmed an earlier tweet I had made that WebOS on a tablet would be killer.  It’s unfortunate that software support will be lacking though; I did note some issues with the native web browser, and it’s very questionable how timely updates would come out (if at all) to address such issues.  If a port of Honeycomb or even Gingerbread ever surfaced for TouchPad, then certainly updates would be frequent – but again, Honeycomb felt like an entirely different beast, with WebOS wearing the tablet pants much better than Honeycomb.

So it seems that not much has changed.  My requirements still remain the same – multitouch with tabbed browsing and Flash support.  If anything, I’m now more convinced of the things that I don’t want – ie, a tablet with a complex interface.  Keep It Simple Stupid.

Even the multi-user conundrum has a workable solution on WebOS.  Firstly, I imagine that the only player who will solve this problem outright is Microsoft with Windows 8.  And I already know that such a tablet will be insanely expensive and too powerful for the light duty I’d want it to perform.  Secondly, a tablet’s increased real-estate means that visiting webpages is a very practical alternative to running the dedicated app (think Facebook, Gmail, etc).  Thirdly, I’m not of the mind that – even at $99 – it makes sense for a household to have multiple tablets for the sole purpose of casual usage; quite simply, it’s an unnecessary indulgence and a real distraction.

So how is the conundrum solved?  Whether through fast-user switching (ala Windows) or actively logging in/out, the fact is that a multi-user system requires a user to reauthenticate and “unlock” the device.  Now, if you’re working on a tablet that’s little more than a casual media consumption device, I can imagine that it’s enough to do this un/lock dance on a per-“app” basis.  And the ability to login and logout is something that every website application presents as a matter of course, but no native tablet app presents as a matter of course.  Many people are probably used to doing so within their web browsers.  So right there, the “requirement” to run the web version of your “productivity” apps – and crucially, the ability to do so on a generously-sized screen – means that you don’t have to worry about somebody sticking their nose into your private data.

But here’s where WebOS shines.  If I’ve got a video open on the family tablet, or a series of webpages – neither of which are “private” – then somebody else can pick up the tablet, stack my open apps, and open their own apps and webpages.  And so you end up with a shared user space, where each user’s resources are sitting in their own stack.  When I want to use the tablet and restore the state of my “apps”, I stack all other apps and unstack mine.  And finally, since we’re talking about a simple tablet here, I can imagine that each stack would only be a handful of cards deep – ie, very manageable for both user and system.  I certainly wouldn’t have 10-15 apps open simultaneously like I tend to do on a desktop computer.

I’ll say it – it’s unfortunate that TouchPad went from overpriced at $500 to unsupported at $100.  A happy medium may very well have been $150-200.  Here’s to hoping that WebOs lives on and that somebody picks up the hardware mantle.  Certainly everybody has seen that there’s demand for a non-iPad tablet at a lower price point?  It doesn’t have to compete with iPad; rather it just needs to fill the niche that the $99 fire-sale flushed out.

[update 2012/01/27]

Well well well…

That may change things.