While every man and his dog is waiting for their preordered iPad to arrive, some Germans went their own way and yesterday presented a Slate that appears to have, well, better features.
The Neofonie WePad has similar form and function as the wet dreams of our Crunchgear editors, but facts are that the German Android device has a bigger multitouch screen and a faster CPU than the iPad. Also it runs Flash, has USB ports, an inbuilt card reader and expandable memory. Additionally it allows complete multitasking and has a webcam. Beat that baby.
The WePad is set to arrive sooner to German stores than its Apple counterpart and will be significantly cheaper than the iPad, says Neofonie CEO Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen. Preorders and deliveries are planned for next month and that’s no April Fool’s joke, he insisted in a small chat on the WePad’s Facebook site. At first I thought it was a fake, because some specs feel too great and the choice of OS sounds just weird: a Linux derivate with Android on top. That’s Linux with Linux inside, which makes it possible to install apps from the Android Market as well as special Adobe Air software from Neofonie.
| WePad | iPad | |
| Display | 11.6-inch (1,366 x 768 pixels) | 9.7-inch (1,024 x 768 pixels) |
| Processor | 1,66 GHz Intel Atom N450 Pineview-M | 1,0 GHz Apple A4 |
| Memory | 16 GB NAND Flash (optional 32 GB internal + 32 GB SDcard) | 16 / 32 / 64 GB |
| Webcam | 1,3 Megapixel | None |
| Ports | 2 USB ports, card reader, audio out, SIM card slot, multi pin connector | Apple connector for camera or card reader as peripherals |
| Flash / Adobe AIR | Yes / Yes | No / No |
| App Store | WePad AppStore + Google Android Marketplace | iTunes App Store |
| Multitasking | Yes | Restricted, allowed only for Apple apps |
| Battery life | 6 hours | 10 hours |
| eBook format | All open standards | Proprietary Apple format from iBooks store |
| Wireless connect | Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi N, 3G optional | Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, WiFi N, 3G optional |
| Body | Magnesium-Aluminium | Aluminium |
| Size | 288 x 190 x 13 mm | 242.8 x 189.7 x 13,4 mm |
| Weight | 800 g (850 g with 3G) | 680 g |
The company from Berlin, although unknown, is no newcomer. The 12 years old Neofonie GmbH is a software company that also runs a search enginge called WeFind and sells an epublishing platform by the name of WeMagazine. It makes newspapers and magazines readable on computers and smartphones, and that’s also where they see the real business for their WePad tablet PC.
The WePad provides elderly users in the core target group of newspaper and magazine publishing houses, who generally have little to no experience with PCs with intuitive and fast access to the digital world of their children and grandchildren (Internet, e-mail, social media, etc.).
For publishing houses, every reader gained with the WePad represents a direct and long-term customer relationship, the foundation for paid content, extensive customer knowledge and new forms of customer communication. While platforms like Apple iTunes and Amazon Kindle force publishing houses into the role of a simply a content supplier, the WePad allows publishing houses to retain access to and knowledge of their audience.
So the WePad doesn’t want to do away only with Apple’s iPad but also with the Amazon Kindle, reveals the latest factsheet. That’s a tall order. Publishing houses should acquire the device and brand it with their own labels to “move traditional print readers into the digital world in a targeted manner. Print brands can then become online brands, thus minimising the contact with established Internet players like Google Amazon and Apple.”
First commenters do already suspect an alliance between the WePad and Germany’s biggest publisher, Springer, which is also based in Berlin. The many screenshots with Springer’s Hamburger Abendblatt on the WePad would be a hint.
Springer is the strongest proponent of paid content in Europe. Since November, the company blocks users with iPhones and Android devices from reading most of their newspapers’ websites with the phones’ browsers. Instead they shall buy the apps for newspapers like Europe’s biggest daily, BILD, or Springer’s B.Z. Maybe we just saw the birth of a German newspaper tablet. A working prototype was on show at the world’s largest computer expo, CeBIT, two weeks ago.
Nice try, but no hype? That’s the part where Europe lags behind really.
Yes nice try, but like most of the people here, they want something more than a hype… IMO, I’m going for the Microsoft’s Courier Tablet
The Courier will never ship. Here’s why: Microsoft will never go head on with Apple in the Consumer tablet market with a product that doesn’t play movies. It’s viewable size is split in half by “the pocket”… It won’t ship in it’s current form. I still want one, cause I’m a creative, but I represent a very small slice of the whole pie.
It could be nice, more about its features: http://bit.ly/wepad-tablet-impressions
> want something more than a hype… IMO,
> I’m going for the Microsoft’s Courier Tablet
Courier is 100% hype. If that’s what you want, you already have it. It’s concept videos. Steve Ballmer himself said so. These are a form of internal Microsoft cheerleading and a externally it is FUD to keep you from buying an existing product.
The ipad doesn’t need to support flash, flash just needs to fuck off and die.
Chill, Snitzelglobin in liederhozen
The book format line in the table is wrong. Apple’s iBookStore uses ePub, not a proprietary format. And iBooks is just one of many readers in App Store. You can use Stanza, Eucalyptus, Classics, Kobo, many others. iBooks does not even ship on the device.
The line should read: open formats, plus Kindle and Audible.
To a gadget hound, this spec sheet seems to favor the WePad, but not to most consumers. They will choose App Store over Air, iTunes Store over DIY, iTunes admin (auto backup, easy restore) over DIY, Apple Store support over who knows, 10 hours over 6 hours, tons of accessories over none, shipping over vapor, the biggest computer hardware company in the world over one they haven’t heard of, the incredibly responsive and fast Apple UI over another clunky misfiring touch UI, and years of product maturity (leveraging iPhone, iPod, OS X) over just getting started. These are the key data points for consumers whose eyes literally glaze over at the sight of this spec table.
Probably the 3 most important details for consumers are: price, availability, and 3G data plan price, bandwidth, and contract terms. iPad is reasonably priced, available now, and offers truly unlimited 3G bandwidth (not a 5GB cap) for a dollar a day. If the WePad ships in 2011 with these specs it is not as impressive. If it costs $2 per day for 5GB/month cap it is not as impressive. And there are no hit Android devices with the possible exception of Verizon Droid, where there is no competition on the proprietary Verizon network from open phones.
Where are the real photos of it (these are mock-ups)? Basically there is nothing on this page that separates WePad from a hoax. Even the name is derivative. So it’s a pretty poor comparison at this point. If this ships in 6 months it will enter a world with 10 million iPads, all running iPhone OS 4.0 or 4.1. Mobile moves quicky so talking about a product with no ship date and price is really speculative.
I´m not planning on buying a tablet but if I have to choose from these two I will take the wePad just in order for NOT having iTunes. That damn program already made me sell my iPhone and as long as iTunes is mandatory (and as bad as it currently is) I will not buying any Apple anymore.
Good points, although in Europe the Apple iPad is neither ‘here now’ nor is it ‘reasonably priced’. Rather, it is ‘no-one knows when’ and ‘extremely expensive’.
@Hamranhansenhansen you should pull the apples out of your ass, little fanboy
The We PAd is still waiting where is it
its still not in my market nor any news
iPad rocks
i would had gone for it if i didnt buy iPAd
i had ipad for a while now. it is OK. not that cool compare to use mouse. it is good for my traveling
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This is just history and Darwinism repeating itself for the third time. In the late 90′s, there were so many different portable music players, but it took Apple and its iPod with its dead simple interface in 2001 to really popularize portable music patterns (and eliminate most of the competition). In the early to mid part of this decade, there were several different smart phones with different interfaces made by several companies, but it took the iPhone and its simpler interface to wipe most of them out. Similarly, tablet PCs have been out for almost a decade with their Windows XP interfaces, but very few people paid attention and purchased them until Apple announced its iPad, and now they are rushing to put out tablets with GUIs that superficially mimic the iPad. Sure, some people will buy them, but eventually Apple’s iPad and its simpler, uncluttered GUI will again wipe them out. Part of the reason why Apple has been successful is because of its ability to tie all three products to the iTunes Music Store, something that other competitors have yet failed to duplicate.
I bought a PMG Quadpad (800×600 TFT touch screen, Windows XP) back in 2005. Clunky device, stylus driven, must weigh more than 1kg at least, and runs Windows – not surprising it didn’t take off.
Actually, Apple has consistently waited out those trends, watching what worked and what didn’t, then launched the products that exemplifies what they saw the market needed/wanted. This is the first time they’ve been the first in on a market, the tablet market.
I think the iPad looks neat, but it has no pressure sensitivity. What I really want is a digital sketchpad. I will hold off on buying a tablet until one comes out with a pressure sensitive interface.
Not everyone wants a digital sketchpad, I know, but others might be waiting for a web cam or Flash video support.
In short, I don’t think the iPad is the end game of the tablet market. I think it’s a product that is going to kick off the game, but I expect someone else to release a much better, targetted device down the road, after everyone’s done making their mistakes and scrambling to copy each other.
“his is the first time they’ve been the first in on a market, the tablet market.”
What?? there we more tablets announced before Apple´s iPad and now there are more tables AVAILABLE before Apple´s iPad… so how you come by Apple being the first ??
While you can multi-task with a selected Apple created apps, what is nice about the WePad is that you can do whatever you want without Apple trying to control everything. This isn’t some no-name Operating system. It is Linux + Android (Google). Linus has been around for a really long time and is opened source, just like Android. What this means is that innovation happens much faster when anyone has access to the source code.
Apple is supposed to represent the latest and greatest. However, they take advantage of most “low-tech” consumer’s ignorance about technology specs since they assume Apple is giving them the best (and for the price Apple charges for it’s products, it should). No web cam? Seriously? Wait, that might be an accessory and a way for Apple to get more of your hard earned money.
The WePad represents a challenge to Apple. And for that, I salute you.
Neither there is any hype for the iPad in Europe.
Call me crazy, but what I really want is for it to slide into a keyboard dock that makes it function as a laptop. Then you can choose how to use it for the best of both worlds.
Lenovo has a pretty cool new device that looks like what you mention here, Lenovo IdeaPad U1… Can’t imagine what it will cost, but all these new techno gadgets are fun! My latest hobby is just checking out the new products being unveiled online daily!
there tons of new ‘slates’ coming out around the arrival of the iPad. Almost every one has better features than the one Apple will offer.
Adobe Air? That is really cool. I love tweetdeck.
I still think I am going to wait for the oversized phone Dell is going to offer, nicknamed the Mini 5. Great specs, amazing screen, and still portable.
Just a note about tweetdeck… There is an iPhone app for that. It supports multiple columns and syncs with the tweetdeck service. I imagine that the iPad version of tweetdeck will allow multiple columns displayed on screen.
Development platforms like Air necessary when you have a strong SDK platform. Even WIRED is developing their e-mag in Air and converting to iPhone OS app so that they can develop for multiple platforms.
Are they taking orders? I want one of these! It’s 100 times better than the iPad! and if the OS sucks I guess it will not be a major problem to install Vista on this device =)
is that a joke? if the OS sucks you’ll install VIsta? which what? doesn’t suck?
LOLWUT!
Are you one of those people that enjoys abuse?
Amazing!!
I was at the Cebit stand and it did look pretty neat. My first thought was the crunchpad.
Curious, did you get your hands on a physical device?
uh-oh not appearing
Perhaps, there’s some truth to this ‘wepad’ but me? I prefer something that’s for real. I’m talking about the notion ink adam.
delayed. Real deal FAIL.
I Wonder where do they intend to manufacture this so as to make it cheaper than the iPad with all this hardware inside.
different business model. perhaps they can afford to subsidize this more. plus apple over-charges to begin with.
Its definately cheaper but not worse
i think it would be a choice of different crowd
iPad is what i pad but wepad can be what we pad…
Looks great, good specs, but that name, “WePad” is no better than “iPad.” Instead of feminine hygiene products it makes me think it’s for infant or pet potty time.
How about WiiPad?
Very nice. When can we get it in the US?
I actually like the looks of this. It might turn out to be easier to replace my laptop with this than the iPad. Just give me a 100GB HD and I’m all set
Sounds Awesome. When can we get it in US and what is the price?
it will be obviously at low price….but my vote is for ipad only !!!
I’m betting that’s half the battery life, real world.
Let the PAD wars begin!!
Hopefully apple will adopt these cool features (usb port, camera, etc.,) for their next edition of the iPad.
very nice. add on a few more months of development to it. We’ll see it end of year
very nice…. but I already feel sorry for them; they’ll probably get a call from Apple Legal on Monday.
since when did the ePub format (used in the iPad) become proprietary?
Exactly. “Proprietary Apple format from iBooks store” is completely inaccurate.
Sure, it does use ePub but with Apple’s own DRM.
Therefore, you can’t view the books you bought without Apple programs and equipment.
Using ePub doesn’t mean anything if you’re just going to use your own DRM.
Wrong. You can view any of the free ePub books in the entire Gutenberg Project on an iPad.
It’s kind of telling that the screenshots included in this post basically looks like a jumbled mess. I’m not saying this isn’t a solid product, the UI, hardware and OS may be terrific, but it’s important to appreciate that the iPad’s limitations are a big part of why it will be successful. Like the iPhone it will be reliable and super easy to use, as such many users will purchase iPad apps, and as a result, plenty of great iPad software will get written. At that point, you have a self perpetuating cycle that already started with the iPhone (and arguably the iPod before that)
Admittedly the iPad’s lack of a webcam is a bummer, and I kind of feel like this is tied to a lack of support for background apps (if you have say, iChat, don’t you want that to be able run in the background). I’m less concerned about the lack of USB, since it seems like there may be accessories for that, plus how often do you really want to connect USB peripherals to your ultra portable tablet. Meanwhile, it seems all but inevitable that Apple will add both a webcam and some level of background app support, at which point ease of use and price become what 90% of consumers care about.
As windows has demonstrated over the years, a jumbled mess is the best way to build and to maintain market share, because it forces the development of a supply chain of endless layers of tech support. The average person is more comfortable buying a broken product than a functioning product, when you consider that the former is supported by an industry of umpteen hand-holding paradigms, each one customized to the particular needs of this or that average person, (and business) whereas the latter doesn’t come with as many flavors of hand-holding… A product that works is great, but you still need half a brain to get much use out of a product that works… And that’s asking too much of 95% of the population. A product that works simply won’t push hard enough for the development of an entire industry of hand-holders.
Apple made the GUI popular, but it took Microsoft’s incompetence to make any money off of it. Why should the smart phone or the pad be any different? As much money as Apple is making now off of these new paradigms, you can rest assured that it’s a small fraction of the money that people will throw at these devices once the appropriately jumbled-mess versions hit the shelves and build up their sales and support eco-systems.
Microsoft may not even be a contender in these new paradigms either… with this many years of experience hacking away at Windows, Microsoft may now be saddled with the burden of having become half-ways competent at GUI and OS design and implementation. Genius like the long line of optimally jumbled mess of Windows operating systems doesn’t happen on purpose, sometimes it takes just plain dumb luck. Bill Gates / Steve Ballmer = Forrest Gump.
I would describe the difference between Apple and windows more like a nice model car (Apple) and a model car made from (Technic) Lego (Windows). While out of the box the Apple may look beter, it may function better as toy car… but when you get bored of playing with the car you can’t change it in something new like with lego, if it breaks you will have to go to the manufacturer to get it fixed (instead of using just another of the shelf lego brick)
I can understand that there are people perfectly happy with the model car but I´m personally more of a lego girl, building/modifying it is half the fun already and if you spend just a bit of time you can create things never possible with the prebuild model car.
You’ve never used OSX then?
It’s hard to praise a company for offering a lot less just because 90% of the consumer base is made up of incompetent and lazy people.
Just make your product look shiny…
Very neat specially for the cards reader! When will it be at Amazon?
great competent for iPad
The specs are great. The interface…not so much. It’s not that I dislike competition, but why doesn’t anyone get it?
All those widgets!!! Ahhh! Pointless! It’s a cluttered mess and TC is hailing this as fierce competition. Good reporting, bad prognosticating.
Android maybe more prevalent in the future based on sheer numbers, but it sure isn’t helping Symbian. You have to remember Apple is the Porsche, BMW to Android/Symbian’s Toyota. They sell more units, but that doesn’t mean its better.
If you don’t like widgets… don’t install/use them? It’s better to have the option for people who want them no?
Where exactly did TC hail this as “fierce competition” for the Ipad? To the contrary, while hailing the specs of the WePad, the article suggests that defeating the Ipad and the Kindle would be a tall order for the WePad. Therefore the problem isn’t one of “bad prognosticating” by TC but rather poor reading comprehension by an Apple fanboy.
time for a change- Apple’s iPad is absolutely lame. At least this offers some glimmer of hope of a normal pad
Apple cannot offer the simplest of things:
Cannot listen to music while you read a book.
Yet, there will tons of them sold- stupid
have you ever used an iphone? you can listen to music and do everything on it.
You can read and listen at the same time, do your homework.
you have been able to read and lissen to music at the same time on a kindle since it first came out
Actually you can read a book and listen to music at the same time. Plus…what constitutes a “normal pad” in a yet unproven marketplace? I’m not sure you can state normalcy when this is really a new segment with little traction.
Uhhhh, of course you can listen to music while you read a book.
I think it’s pretty much a given that iTunes (like on an iPhone) will be able to play music in the background while you’re using other apps.
Actually, you can listen to music while reading a book on the iPad. The music app can run simultaneously to other apps, just like on the iPhone or iPod touch.
Where did you see that you can’t listen to music while reading a book? I do it on my iPhone every day.
“Apple cannot offer the simplest of things:
Cannot listen to music while you read a book.”
Odd, I’ve been able to do exactly that for as long as I’ve had a first-generation iPod touch.
Out of the box, never jail-broken.
“For example, give me the ability to buy movies, tv shows and music. But since it’s not an Apple device, i suppose it won’t be able to do that.”
Ask Blackberry how they manage to sync music from iTunes to their own devices. Adhering to the published guidelines for doing exactly that.
Don’t bother asking Palm, however, how not to do it.
I don’t know, Dave, but I listen to music while surfing the web or using using my other iPhone /iPod Touch apps on my iPod Touch all the time.
Stating that the iPad won’t play music while reading an ebook is just a wrong statement. (Since the iPad runs a modified version of the iPhone OS)
BTW .. I have my iPad pre-ordered but the WePad seems to be a good concept. Hope you enjoy the product.
“Cannot listen to music while you read a book.” – I thought you would be able to do that, as you would be able to multitask selected Apple apps at once?
Try doing that with Pandora or Last.fm. I do this all the time on my Nexus One and it is really great.
You can listen to music and read a book if the music is from iTunes. I assume parent is talking about apps like Pandora which (currently) cannot run in the background along with other apps.
The iPhone has plenty of multitasking, when it comes to the bundled apps, the problem is with 3rd party apps.
you can tell when someone has to lie, that they don’t have a point.
you can listen to music no matter what you do, on the ipad, just as you can on the iphone and touch.
On the iPod Touch, I have been able to listen to music while reading Shakespeare in an ebook format (Just as a test, mind you) and have verified that this is possible.
Select Apple apps using the iPhone OS (which the iPad uses) can “multitask”. For example, the mail, music, web browser, iCal and Address book apps, to name a few, can perform their functions in the background while the user uses a different application in the forground. (Note: The iPhone OS doesn’t use a “desktop with windows” metaphor for multitasking. In other words, you don’t have a separate “music program” window open on the screen at the same time with other app windows. (There are no windows … only one app is displayed at a time.) That doesn’t mean that other processes in “the background” are inactive.
Switching between the apps is not done by a “mouse click” between windows .. there is no mouse .. but rather by using a finger touch on another app icon.
Really .. just play with an iPod Touch for a few minutes and you will know how the iPad will work.
“multitask selected Apple apps at once?”
That is correct. Certain Apple apps can run in the background, so you can use iTunes for any music listening.
The other side of the coin is that you HAVE to use iTunes, and not any other program. It’d be nice to be able to pick another player, especially since I don’t think iTunes mobile supports web radio…
I can listen to music on my iphone while using apps, I don’t know why the ipad would be any different. When an app opens immediately and runs flawlessly why do you need 12 apps open on one small screen?
Correct, music can play the entire time other apps are running.
Um, yes you will. I bet you $1000
“Time for a change”? What the hell are you talking about? The iPad isn’t even out!
Correction to the table is needed. According to Apple’s website the iPad iBooks app will display epub format books; and you can use iTunes to manage your existing epub books. You do not have to buy your books through Apple.
See here’s the thing with Android, if you don’t want the widgets you simply just don’t add them. You can have the same boring screen after screen of icons if you really want, but everybody I know with Android has widgets on their main screen because they are useful. It’s nice to have that option. It’s also nice to know this product will allow flash.
THIS.
Exterminate features!
That analogy isn’t working, Toyota owns the market….
The simple fact that it supports Flash makes it that much better, no need to go through all the other specs.
a more accurate analogy:
Apple = Cadillac (ie. shiny, slick, over-hyped, over-priced, under-performing, trashy)
Android = Tesla (ie. technically superior, performance-tuned, expensive, bleeding-edge, eccentric)
Symbian = Porsche/ BMW (ie. stylish, understated, unreliable, somewhat conservative)
This is way cool. I use a Flash based productivity app Zahood.com designed for touchscreen devices. I am waiting on HP slate but now I have changed my mind and will get the WePad.
You’ll jump to whatever tablet has the best specs at the moment which means you may not get one at all. You may not even want to pay what this company’s asking price is which is hard to say since they’re not telling you it’s price. While the geeks change their loyalty from device to device based on the number of features, the iPad will be selling in the millions of units and low-tech consumers will be more than satisfied.
Unfinished products don’t make money no matter how many features they’ll have. The Nexus One out-hardwares the iPhone, but Google can hardly give them away. It’s a known fact that geeks do not drive product sales. They’re in a little world of their own and they don’t represent the vast majority of users.
Yay… I’m not a sheep or lemming or whatever the “majority” is I think for myself & make my own decisions!! Anyone here ride motorcycles? If so, do Apple fanboys remind you of Hardly Davidson riders? Fashion of function?
Your spec about the ebook format for iPad is incorrect. It is not a “Proprietary Apple format from iBooks store.” All books in the iBooks store will be in the open ePub format, though some or all will have Apple’s Fairplay DRM if the publisher chooses. However Apple has said that any open ePub book from other sources can be synced into iBooks via iTunes.
“Proprietary Apple format from iBooks store”
yes. ePub is a proprietary Apple format.
and the only eReader app available is Apple’s.
please. do some fact checking.
ePub, the international E-book standard, is HTML (XHTML 1.1 with minor exclusions).
http://www.openebook.org/specs.htm
You need to do some fact checking.
He was, um, being sarcastic.
Pancake day at MySpace today…why didn’t u write about that TechCrunch ????
I actually like the interface.
Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen? That simply cannot be a real name.
any bookstore with this? weBooks maybe?
UI looks very very bad
Looks great from the specs. The UI and available software will make it or break it.
I am still looking for Adam which has this amazing 16 hours (With Backlight) to 160 Hours (Backlight off) battery power. With all the required features!
http://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized
let’s see now who comes up with youPad or uPad !
While the interface does look weird I think youll most likely be able to tweak it the you want it to look. However, the logo (its even bigger on the backside) looks horrible. Being a PC-user with many apple-friends Im sure none of them would even think of buying a device sporting all these funny yellow colored logos on the front and backside. So whatever company will buy and brand this: make it subtle!
I agree with Josh.
I own an Android phone. Like this tablet, on paper it sounds better than an iPhone: Physical keyboard, multi-tasking, microSD for expanded storage etc. but it just isn’t as good because of the software it runs.
Android is definitely getting better all the time, but the things people complain about the iPhone (and probably iPad) are actually it’s strengths. Multi-tasking slows down devices like this a lot and also are a huge drain on battery and make the whole thing more unstable. The closed iTunes Store means that all apps are vetted before they get onto your phone. I’ve had to factory reset my Android phone 3 or 4 times because I’ve downloaded and tried too many unstable apps that have broken some level of my phone’s functionality.
The WePad on paper already has 4 hours less battery life than an iPad, I’m sure that’s before you have an SD card in, your webcam on, some device plugged into USB and lots of background apps running.
I’ll still be getting an iPad…
This is a worthy alternative to iPad. I hope the Germans release it here soon.
WePad does not have GPS.
It is slightly bigger and heavier.
There will be two marketplace without clear details on what to expect for the WePad bigger screen.
The company has not made any product for mass markets to assess the quality of this one.
They have no distribution or maintenance agreement in place.
It’s not going to compete with the iPad in April 2010.
I’m pretty sure iPad 2G is already designed waiting the market reception and user’s feedback to get it finalized.
I am so glad it runs Flash and Air. I love my iPod Touch, but it’s so obvious that the reason Apple doesn’t want Flash is that they don’t want developers building free web apps. For any rich internet apps they want to force you to buy the app from their App Store so that Apple can keep 30% of the purchase price. As a result, you’re surfing the web and there are huge holes in web pages. The web on the iPad is not the real web — just the ‘kinda sorta looks like the web’ web.
> I am so glad it runs Flash and Air
On paper you are, but in real life they will eat up the battery. The Nexus One can play 7 hours of video without Flash. With Flash, it plays 3. iPad and iPhone can play 10. Basically, playing 1 movie in Flash wipes out half your battery, of you start with a full charge. You have to plug into AC to use Flash in any practical way.
did you read your comment before posting?
apple doesnt want flash because it doesnt want free apps???
MOST APPS IN THE APP STORE ARE FREEE!!!!!!!
flash wont make it to the ipad OR ANY OTHER touch device properly for one reason.
NO MOUSEOVER!!!
this means most flash apps will be somewhat busted.
flash wont make it to the ipad OR ANY OTHER touch device properly for one reason.
NO MOUSEOVER!!!
this means most flash apps will be somewhat busted.
i do love my iPad
but i seriously wish Flash could had made it to iPad \
Woow, I hope this makes it to the market. I like the fact that it is open and has many connection options.
I think a 12 inch screen is the minium required if any tablet is going to be a netbook replacement, so this is good.
But why doesn;t anybody realise these things need a kick stand so you don’t have to hold them in one hand all the time? And where is the digitizer pen for handwriting and drawing?
Lastly, sad to say, but if it doesn’t run Windows, this will never catch on with the mass market.
> Lastly, sad to say, but if it doesn’t run Windows, this will never catch on with the mass market.
Why? Lots of popular consumer devices don’t run windows, why would it be a requirement of a tablet/slate/pad thing?
People, including apple, have already announced stands for the iPad. I’m sure someone will happy to sell you a case with a kickstand. Also I think any stylus with an appropriate tip would work (i.e. google “iphone stylus”)
Hello Etrigan. Remember that the content for tablets are mostly “Windows agnostic”. One doesn’t require Windows for viewing the internet, reading ebooks or magazines, viewing mail or calendar appointments, listening to music or watching a movie or performing specialized apps. Whether its the WePad, iPad, HP Slate or any other tablet device, persons wishing to perform these functions can do so without using Windows as an OS backbone. Remember that the iPod doesn’t use Windows and it caught on with the mass market population.
As for a “built in kickstand” (which would be nice), the iPad, as an example, has an optional protective cover that functions a kickstand. I suspect the WePad could have a similar option for it when it launches.
Adding an optional inexpensive pen digitizer should not be a problem for the WePad since both the iPad (and iPod Touch) have the ability to utilize an optional digitizer pen for apps that require that type of input.
iPhone doesn’t run Windows and seems to be doing ok in the mass market. People don’t give a flying f what OS is running on the device – they just want it to do what they want.
> I think a 12 inch screen is the minium
The difference between 10 and 12 is negligible, especially if your OS can zoom and scale arbitrarily like OS X and its browser core.
> But why doesn’t anybody realise these things
> need a kick stand
Apple’s iPhone case has a kickstand. The iPhone and iPad are essentially naked, you customize them with one of thousands of cases and stands as appropriate.
> where is the digitizer pen for handwriting and
> drawing?
There are accessory pens for $10 that conduct electricity from you hand to the screen. At Apple Stores, you are offered one to sign your name on an iPod touch if you use a credit card. However, they are not strictly necessary on Apple devices. The touchscreen is so accurate you can draw 1 pixel lines with a finger. Try a drawing app like Brushes or Sketches for iPhone and see for yourself.
> Lastly, sad to say, but if it doesn’t run Windows,
> this will never catch on with the mass market.
In mobiles, iPhone OS has the leadership position that Windows has in portables and desktops. 70% of the I-T departments in Fortune 500 deploy iPhone OS. It’s the US Military’s favorite OS for soldiers. So the WePad will suffer because it doesn’t run iPhone OS, or something else that is just as good. Android is built more like Windows (complexity, malware, no hardware integration) so it is a long way off. Mobiles is very different from portables and desktops. That was proven by iPhone.
Uhm, no they do not. First reason is that it is not secure.
An exciting looking device, but one nit pick:
> The iPad will support the popular ePub format and authors will be able to embed multimedia such as photos, videos, and audio files directly into books.
- http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/27/apple-announces-e-book-store/
That looks like a really stunning device. I would seriously buy that over the iPad if it interacted with iTunes in the same way an iPad would.
For example, give me the ability to buy movies, tv shows and music. But since it’s not an Apple device, i suppose it won’t be able to do that.
But i don’t know about these sort’s of tablet devices, so i really wouldn’t know. Can anybody help???
I am sure it will be able to interact with the apple store, just not as closely as the ipad will. Think of a PC, I have itunes in my PC and I can still buy whatever I want from the apple store, except well, apps.
Maybe Amazon can convince the studios/networks to provide content the same way they were able to convince them to provide DRM-free MP3s…
Graned, you would have Hulu and Netflix, not sure how well they would work on such a device though.
This is apple, you know… They aren’t exactly cool with other people’s hardware interacting with their software — see the Palm Pre.
> This is apple, you know… They aren’t
> exactly cool with other people’s hardware
> interacting with their software — see the
> Palm Pre.
You’re 100% wrong, just like Palm.
iTunes stores its library as XML, a vendor neutral format specifically designed for applications to share data. Blackberry syncs with an iTunes library, Nokia syncs, there are even shareware apps that sync with iTunes libraries. iTunes stores its media in ISO standard format which is why any device can play it, the exception being video bought from iTunes which has DRM at the demand of movie publishers. But your own homemade video or indie video from iTunes can sync with your Blackberry.
What Palm did was spoof Apple’s vendor ID to pretend to be an iPod. Very different, and nobody in their right mind blames anyone but Palm for that.
Apple doesn’t need crutches like vendor lock-in. They make the most desirable devices. People choose them willingly, and they provide the best software and support so customers literally get spoiled for other vendors. No lock-in necessary. Even though their native iPhone apps are insanely popular, iPhone OS also has the best HTML5 Web app platform. They don’t sabotage the Web like Microsoft in order to make their native apps more desirable, they already are desirable based on features that the Web doesn’t have yet.
@Etrigan
“And where is the digitizer pen for handwriting and drawing?”
I think capacitive touchscreens are capable of handling finger and multi-finger only. (At least at present)
Any word on cost?
It’s the software and user experience that matters most. Granted, lack of flash is a big minus for the iPad (being unable to browse 90% of the restaurant sites in existence, for example), but the device itself will be a pleasure to use and others will feel a bit clunky (for time time being). Let’s talk about apps (because that is what matters most)… is Electronic Arts developing games specifically for this tablet? Is the Wall Street Journal developing a version of their newspaper specifically for this tablet? In the end it’s sort-of like mobile phones… there are plenty that are more feature laden than the iPhone from a hardware perspective, but that doesn’t matter because the iPhone is more feature-laden from a software perspective.
Kind of OT: Springer is an awful publisher. IMHO most of their newspapers are dull (especially BILD). It’s a really sad story.
the WePad is BETTER than iPad since 90% of the iPad/TabletPC users want a MULTITASKING OS as shown in this international POLL: http://alt-pad.blogspot.com/
> 90% of iPad … users want multitasking
This is a great case of statistics lying. Yes, every iPhone OS user has been occasionally inconvenienced by the way only one 3rd party app can run at a time. But if you follow up your question with the consequences, like so:
- how much battery life are you willing to lose?
- how much responsiveness are you willing to lose?
- are you willing to manually manage processes?
- are you willing to put up with the device stalling because it’s busy with background tasks?
Then iPhone OS users say no, no, no, no, no.
A key feature of iPhone is that all of the apps appear to be running at all times, and you just switch between them. You can literally run 50 apps in an hour and never have to quit one. That’s why users buy and use so many apps. There’s no real penalty to installing more apps except a cluttered home screen and a little more storage lost.
On this WePad, many iPhone OS workflows will not work. You won’t be able to run enough apps at once. That is the irony of iPhone multitasking. Booting 3rd party apps out of resources aggressively enables the user to run more apps, not less. The user multitasks more with an iPhone than other systems. This suits mobile use, where no matter what you’re doing, you may have to make a call NOW. You may need to look up a map NOW. You may be interrupted by any number of things. The device had to stay responsive.
Statistics don’t lie; but, you can easily manipulate statistics.
The only reason for your “consequences” with multitasking is because of the limitations with Apple’s hardware. They don’t use the best available. Heck, they even cut more costs by developing their own underpowered processor.
“You can literally run 50 apps in an hour and never have to quit one.”
Hrmm…? You have to quit one in order to open a new one… otherwise, we would call it “multitasking”.
Don’t make the naive mistake of thinking that clock speed is everything that matters for a processor’s performance. Today’s ARM cores can at half the clock speed outperform the Atom cores.
> Don’t make the naive mistake of thinking
> that clock speed is everything
Also, iPhone OS software is heavily optimized. An iPhone 3GS with 600MHz processor outperforms Nexus One with 1000MHz processor. Bulking up on a big CPU and slow software just drains battery and makes the device cost more. And OS X uses the GPU well, also.
Everyone who has used an iPad — without exception — has described it as surprisingly fast. Every Atom device is described as slow.
“An iPhone 3GS with 600MHz processor outperforms Nexus One with 1000MHz processor.”
I don’t own a Nexus One but youtube clips prove you wrong.
Not saying the iPhone is slow but where the heck are you getting this from?
I’m going for the Microsoft’s Courier Tablet. There’s more than hype.
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Sorry, since nobody else has yet I just can’t resist.
“Yo dawg, we know you like Linux. So we put Linux in your Linux so you can compute while you compute.”
Any word on the price? Isn’t that the key stat missing from the iPad comparison. Apple could have done a high-end iPad that costs the same as a Macbook, but it wouldn’t have sold.
It looks as a rip off. Come on, there are no more industrial designers other than Apple´s ? Even not enough imagination for an original name (wePad)
You have to consider the whole echosystem and not just the hardware. The complete (dummy) user experience. There is where Apple products shine.
> Come on, there are no more industrial designers
> other than Apple´s?
Unfortunately, no. Where Apple has product designers (creative people) and engineers, others have product managers (business people) and engineers. If they have designers at all, they’re just visual designers, who do colors and shapes.
Design is really looked down upon in tech. That is why it’s considered to be OK in so many circles to rip off Apple. Business people tell engineers to make a tablet and the engineers have no design to use but Apple’s.
It even used to be considered to be true that there was no other GUI apart from mouse and windows, until iPhone. Microsoft did 10 years of tablets without ever discovering this because they have no designers.
Entry of June last year: http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/crunchpad-the-launch-prototype/
If anything the iPad looks like a ripoff of this thing