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Take that, iPad! (1 Viewer)

Hanson

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Android tablets from unusual sources:


http://micgadget.com/4733/the-badass-ipad-knockoff-thats-powered-by-android-2-1/


Actually, I wouldn't mind picking that one up. I saw it on sale for $238, not sure of the shipping, but it's still on pre-order.


Hurry up legitimate vendors!


The entire micgadget site is actually pretty funny. Well, maybe not so much if you're Steve Jobs. KIRF stands for, "keepin' it real fake".
 

Hanson

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I caught the Seaparks reference in your sig because my wife and I are huge fans of The IT Crowd, but I only just noticed your avatar is Moss from the Bad Boys episode.


It turns out there are a crapload of Android tablets being produced in China, some that dupe the stylings of the iPad and others that are doing a more than passable job of mimicking functionality:


http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/bandit-gadgets/tablets


So my questions is... why aren't we getting these in the States from the more established manufacturers? What's the hold up? If the general public's first experience with an Android pad device is the Augen Gentouch, it's gonna get a big black eye before it's even out of the gate.
 

mattCR

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Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo

I caught the Seaparks reference in your sig because my wife and I are huge fans of The IT Crowd, but I only just noticed your avatar is Moss from the Bad Boys episode.

Great show. Have family there.. and that's what Slingbox is really for ;)


I do have to admit, these knockoffs are potentially very interesting. I've been struggling with 3 iPads back on my back bench to see if I can convert them and get a VPN client to run.. I have no problem getting an RDP client to go.. but managing to authorize to the VPN is the hitch, and so far not a lot of great answers.


There is supposedly a good Android VPN client.. If I could make these authorize to the PIX, and I know android has RDP, it would be awesome.


Price is right, wonder if I could find one to guinea pig with..
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo That doesn't make any sense. This is basically an Android phone with no phone but a much larger screen. And presumably an Android phone costs about $500+, given the two-yr contract subsidy.


iSuppli guesstimated the iPad manufacturing cost at $230 (16GB, wifi).

That price doesn't seem right.
 

Hanson

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I'm sure they're cutting costs using resistive instead of capacitive screens, 256MB RAM instead of 512MB, and, let's be frank, labor costs are probably lower. And there's probably a lot of costs savings when you use off the shelf parts that are no longer cutting edge.


And who knows? Maybe it falls apart in two days.
 

DaveF

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Is this a cheapo crap knockoff, or something I'd see in BestBuy?




I'm not familiar with the world of Chinese clones / knockoffs.
 

Hanson

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If you wanted to buy this specific model, you'd have to import it. If some distributor wanted to, they could import a bunch of these and re-badge them for sale at KMart or whatnot. I think that's what the Augen Gentouch is.
 

DaveF

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That makes more sense. That's a pretty low-spec, basic feature device (built on free software). It will be interesting to see how these do.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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As w/ most Chinese knockoffs, I'd recommend steering clear until they are actually ready for primetime, which may or may not ever happen.


_Man_
 

Hanson

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Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong


http://www.wyse.com/products/software/pocketcloud/index.asp


The software is actually really impressive. After a few weeks with it, I'm plowing through my remote sessions as quickly as I ever did with a physical keyboard, and it's zippier than the Winmo RDP client ever was. Plus, I can have an 800 X 600 session scaled to fit my screen with no loss in readability. The problem with full screen 800 X 480 is that I frequently get menus cut off at the bottom with no way to get at them.
 

Hanson

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Here's a linkto the site that sells these tablets:


http://www.wiipad.us/
 

EricW

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is this supposed to be an ipad killer?

 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/16/toshibas-dual-screen-libretto-w100-laptop-on-sale-in-america-fo/

 

it seems to me to be the worst of both worlds

-no physical keyboard? even the staunchest ipad supporters (me included) will concede that the typing sucks on it, and is the biggest thing that prevents it from being a total laptop replacement.

-2 small screens is not better than 1 big one

-it's in between pocket size and... well, ipad size :)

-PRICE --> $1,100?!?!?

 

 

-but then i've never had a nintendo DS or a netbook, so maybe it's for that market

 

the youtube clip is almost comical: "you want me, you need me!"
 

DaveF

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There's a whole of high-tech jammed into that gadget. But it feels like tech for the sake of tech without consideration for usefulness. More importantly, it's a "touch" device using an OS not fundamentally designed for touch.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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With the prices of basic laptops dropping like a brick (seemingly to compete w/ netbooks and the onslaught of the cheaper, poorly designed/made tablets), think I'll probably just sit this battle out for an extra round or two until they all mature a good deal more (and maybe become more affordable as well).

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003N19784/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1M05CJXFWY1BK0MMR2E5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

 

Dang! At that price, I could get one for each kid in the family (for the price of a mid-level iPad that I'd actually care to own) -- and each can have his/her own "dedicated" 15" DVD player on roadtrips in the minivan.

 

How the heck are they slashing prices like that? I hadn't paid attention, but did Microsoft recently slash OEM pricing on Windows 7?

 

_Man_
 

Sam Posten

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For $279 that seems like an excellent deal. You are into netbook price territory but still have a full size laptop to work with. 15" is a nice compromise size.

 

Still, the parts are extremely flimsy, is only mono, it's full of bloatware (I consider WildTangent to be malware personally!), you don't get a reinstall disk, and its 6 pounds with a 3 hour battery life. Are those downsides too much or not for you, that's what you'll have to decide.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WildTangent

http://www.pchell.com/support/wildtangent.shtml

 

Personally if I were to buy one for a family member I would nuke it from orbit with a clean Windows 7 install.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Oooh... so I guess Wild Tangent may be partially funding the price slash then -- maybe they're basically paying for part of the Windows 7 licensing costs given how it's built-in.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking of just getting one for the family to use -- and I'd only use it casually myself, particularly during very occasional roadtrips. We could probably use some sort of mid-sized laptop anyway to go w/ a main desktop (or two), etc. besides eventually adding something like an iPad (or two?).

 

I originally thought about a netbook (before the iPad came along), but those things are rather clunky and unsatisfying IMHO. To me, they're kinda in no-man's land territory. Then again, I don't really need to do work on-the-go like some nor do I personally need (or care to use regularly) a 10" portable video player or similar -- actually, I'd think doing real work on a netbook would be painful, but maybe that's just me. Most of this stuff would be more for general family use than anything in my case -- I'd only use it casually. That's why the iPad (w/ some improvements) or something very similar would probably make sense for me/us.

 

I don't need a portable that lets me install Linux or anything like that -- heck, I had briefly toyed w/ that idea for our PS3, but never got any further than just toying w/ the idea although maybe I should do that now that the optical drive is "dead" anyway.

 

_Man_
 

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