iMOOSE wrote:
> In an iEnvironment, and with a little Settings play, all the portable Apple
> stuff is pretty nicely integrated. Much of my family had already gone "i",
> and we came a little late to the party. When everyone you do much
> communication with outside of email is on iDevices, it's very seductive. Siri
> and Message are a great combo, without paying for text service to the cell
> provider.
All present within the Googleplex, but I do agree that if you are 100%
iThingy, it works very well. Till they change it, but we know that
Apple never does that.
> With a WiFi printer with Airprint, printing is transparent. We have the HP
> model before Airprint, so have to rely on HP's iApp for printing, which works
> fine, if not transparently.
No app cost for printing from my Android phone. iThingy app costs
extra and is only available for very very limited models. Android apps
exist for working with steam printers.
> I was not that impressed with the Android environment. As reported, I bought
> a Toshiba Thrive last year...
Which was part of the problem as it was already an obsolete device and
rather poorly spec'd. That's understandable, though, because the
Android world is the wild-wild-west with absolutely no reasonable way
of knowing what is going to be dogmeat or not. I see no end in sight
on that.
> The hardware was capable of using SD card and external drive at once, but
> none of the 9-10 file management apps...
Yes, file management is not a strength. However, I've had reasonable
success with one of them. Doesn't matter much now because I use
Googledocs and Dropbox very heavily, as well as do my backups through
direct connection to my computer. However, as flawed as file
management is, it's better than what is available with Apple, which is
nothing.
> The screen was also not much, far dimmer, less saturated, etc. than Carol's
> iPad Retina screen.
To paraphrase Moose on multiple other subjects, the iPad is
essentially a couple generations newer than the Thrive. What are you
going to expect? The latest/greatest screens utilizing OLED and
super-high resolutions have addressed that and are no different than
the Retina, except many of us think they look better. My wife's Lenovo
Yoga computer/tablet thingy has one of these new screens and we did a
direct comparison to Apple's Retina equipped laptops and found it
better. Text on the screen is flawless and there are no visible pixel
frames.
> More recently, I looked at the market again. Things had changed. The iPad
> Mini now has a Retina screen with the same pixel resolution as the iPad3-Air.
> With my good visual acuity, that's a huge change.
Agreed. Mini v1's screen is decent but outdated. The Retina display
(or equivalent) is the only way to go now.
Just a point of comparison:
iPad Mini Retina: 7.9" 2048x1536, 326ppi display.
Note 3 OLED: 5.7" 1920x1080, 386ppi display.
I do really really like my Note 3. The Samsung display beats the
Retina display on the phones. Not by a lot, but if you know what you
are looking for, it is evident. The Note 3's display is just big
enough to be usable for a lot of stuff you can't do on a phone. I
rarely use the iPad now, except for my audio apps.
> But having excellent messaging, calendar coordinated with spouse, weather,
> banking, and so on, and on, immediately at hand is wonderful...
Again, all stuff that we are experiencing in the native Googleplex
world. In our case, there are four of us coordinating our lives, as
well as linking our lives in with everything from Facebook to
Wordpress websites. Google "Now" is giving us even more features. Yes,
I've swallowed the Google Cool-Aide. And I like it! I've got it
implemented on my phone, iPad, desktop and laptop computers. Even to
the point, with some of the new experimental stuff, where I can swipe
things from one screen to the next as though it's just one device.
> We have Nooks, vs. Kindles, for a couple of simple reasons...
I still prefer the dead-tree format of books. Call me crazy, but I
prefer ink on paper over virtual ink on screen. It's far easier for my
eyes and suits my ADHD tendencies better.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|