HOUR 2:
Tech News & Commentary
Anthony in Nashville, Tennessee calling in via our Free App: “I was calling in to find out about the tablets that are on the market and are also coming out on the market. I know the iPad is one of the best out there, but I wanted to know about the other ones that are on the market. Are some of them as good as the iPad or better? What’s your take on it?”
There are plenty of tablets on the market and they range from good to… disappointing. For the most part, we think the larger Android tablets are good enough to compete. The new ones come with a proper tablet operating system, and are generally responsive and can do what you’d expect a tablet to do.
The smaller tablets are a different story, a lot of them are just big phones, they run a phone operating system, phone apps and can be a disappointment, specially to users who already have a smartphone.
If you’re interested in looking at non-Apple tablets, Android is definitely an option and the Motorola Xoom seems to be a popular choice, it’s considerably heavier than the iPad 2, it has far less apps and it’s wider, but it’s got a tablet OS, the app selection is slowly growing, it has a good, responsive multitouch screen and a dual core processor.
Recently, HP released the TouchPad, an interesting tablet running a version of webOS, it multitasks beautifully, the operating system is very nice and polished looking, but there are only a handful of apps available for it at the moment and there’s not a huge community of developers waiting to make apps for it at the moment.
We should also mention the BlackBerry Playbook, it’s out there, it’s an option mostly for people with BlackBerry phones, but it’s not really setting the world on fire…
So, you definitely have options, some of them are better than others, if you want a tablet and don’t want to go with Apple, we’d say focus on a large Android tablet… they seem to be the best non-Apple option for now.
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
“This Week in Tech History” Weekly Feature with Chris Graveline.
Facebook friend Ernest in Washington, DC asked: “I want to pluck your brain for a minute: Do you know of any cell phones that one can order, of which the RAM exceeds 16gig and with a refresh rate to match? I’m dumping T-Mobile and the choices out on the open market, for lack of a better work, stink.”
There are some smartphones showing up with 16GB of RAM now, but they aren’t very common. One model is the new dual core processor, QWERTY sliding keyboard DROID phone from Motorola. It has 16GB of RAM and supports up to a 32GB media card. We’re not sure what you mean by “refresh rate to match,” but the DROID ‘s dual core processor should give it plenty of oomph for running multiple apps at once, thereby taking advantage of the expanded memory.
One thing to keep in mind is that many smartphones do not distinguish in their advertising between RAM and media storage, which may or may not be on a removable card. For example, the 16GB iPhone 4 has 16B of memory, and while that’s not on a media card but rather on fixed memory in the phone, only 1GB is RAM for running programs. Given the limited and very controlled multitasking that the iPhone 4 supports, the lack of RAM isn’t really a problem, but it’s a good illustration of how you have to dig a bit to find the specific answer to your specific question.
When you say you’re looking for phones on the “open market,” we assume you mean unlocked phones that can work on a variety of wireless carriers without a contract. You should know that you will never see the latest and most powerful handsets available as unlocked phones, at least in the North American market, until the phone has been out for quite a while. Unlocked iPhone 4 models are just now being “officially” sold.
That’s because the handset manufacturers need the wireless carriers as advertising and sales partners, and those carriers aren’t willing to do that without some exclusivity on the handsets. The bottom line is, if you want the latest and most powerful smartphones, you will probably need to shop at Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint once you’re clear from T-Mobile.
Good luck, and we hope we’ve helped!
For more information, tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.
Guests in this hour:
Ken Grunski, President – Telestial
How many times have you suffered from Bill Shock, after a trip outside of the US? Telestial may be a solution to the out-of-this-world voice and data roaming rates.
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT with Rob: Dragon Go!
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 Android phones do some things better than iPhones, like voice-search & texting. Now there’s a new voice-search app in town that is making the iPhone smarter and … more productive.
Features: – Exceptional voice-Search for iPhone – Easy to search for everything on the mobile Web – You can easily browse thru search results – Great for planning a date night –> Dinner reservations (OpenTable), read local reviews (Yelp!), movie tickets (Fandango), Nightclub/lounge search (Google + Yelp), Shop for an outfit or shoes near you (Milo), and even check the weather!
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This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Microsoft: Copies of Street & Trips Software with GPS receiver
VSO Software: Copies of Convert-X-to-DVD 4 – Lets you convert videos to DVD and watch on any DVD player.
wEASEL: Several wEASEL Easel Smartphone Stand with Hanging Loop in Black or White