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| Author | Topic: Anyone else here in the post-PC era? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Taz Member  Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
We all have heard of the ipad and ipad 2. Being a geek, I was excited when the post-PC gadgets were coming out. But I didn't get the ipad or ipad 2 because I couldn't justify getting it. For me, it was only worth it if I could be productive with it. But when I looked at the ipad and ipad 2, I couldn't see myself being very productive with it. Sure, it's a nice gaming platform. But that's about it. Well, recently, another company came out with something far better. I'm referring to the asus transformer. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about. I must say, I have not touched my laptop for 3 months now. The device is quite an engineering marvel. I can use it both as a tablet and as a laptop when I want to. Not only that, I am finding myself hating more and more the touchpad that comes with every laptop out there. Touch screen is 10 times more convenient. To add on top of that, I recently soldered in a 500 GB hdd into the keyboard dock as well as a little switch that turns on/off the hdd to save battery life. It's quite cool. Anyone else here has moved beyond the PC era?
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
You're not a hacker, are you? Hulu works just fine if you do a bit of hacking.
Haha, you missed the part where I soldered in a 500 GB hard drive inside my tablet.
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
Get the transformer. I am more productive than ever before with the transformer. And if you know a little bit about soldering, you can solder in a 500 GB or 1T hard drive inside the tablet. Heat is not an issue. Trust me. The keyboard dock has 2 usb ports and a full size sdcard slot. The keyboard is 98% full size. The problem the transformer is having is that apple has managed to convince the populace that the tablet platform is strictly for fun and games. There is no better demonstration of this than the people I work with. They'd take their ipad 2s out to play with, but when it comes time for work they'd take out their laptops. I just click my transformer into the keyboard dock and work. I also use my transformer for viewing autocad and pdf files. Using a dagi stylus, I can write straight into the pdf files using repligo. My wife is a therapist. She uses her transformer for pretty much everything she does. The thing is a work of art! Edited by Taz, : No reason given.
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
But there is no doubt that the asus transformer has transformed my life like nothing else. Instead of carrying around several reference books like ASTM and ACI, I now take everything with me in pdf format. I can actually look up things a lot faster, too, with all my pdf bookmarks. The transformer is not just a tablet. It's a tablet-laptop hybrid. It's not meant to replace a desktop. For those of us who are out of the house most of the day, the light weight of the tablet form coupled with the transformer's 16 hour battery life really is the best thing that has ever happened. My laptop has been sitting in my room collecting dust for 4 months now. Have not turned it on at all in the last 4 months.
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
(2) Regarding fragmentation, google has begun taking steps to pull all the pieces back together. If you haven't noticed, the source code of honeycomb has not been released and may never be released. (3) Have I mentioned iOS sucks
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
Anyway...
Didn't you know that apple advertises the ipad and ipad 2 as nothing but very expensive cool looking toys? At where I work, the guys all have ipad 2s. And they continually tell me I wasted my money by buying the transformer rather than the ipad 2. But when they had to do any real work, they would put away their ipad 2s and take out their laptops. For me, I just plug my transformer into my keyboard dock and work from there.
I have not touched my laptop for 4 months now. I either use my desktop at home or when I'm out of the house I use my transformer. It is probably the most productive post-pc device out there. And that's my main beef with apple in general. Their PR department for years have been dumbing down people by convincing them that they couldn't be productive with their very expensive toys. Of all the ipad and ipad 2 owners that I know and know of, none have figured out a way to be productive with them. But there are ways to be productive with them. The airlines have recently switched completely to ipad. Read the following stories. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/...-pilots-ipad-flight-manuals http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/?story=/tec... http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110830-711471.html http://reviews.cnet.com/...tas-test-flight-for-air-travelers http://www.ausbt.com.au/...dreamliner-s-entertainment-system http://www.guardian.co.uk/...2011/aug/24/ipads-paper-manuals My uncle is a pilot and he told us all about it. It is the most convenient thing that's ever happened to pilots. In fact, I've replaced all my manuals with pdfs on my transformer. I managed to find a very good deal and paid $380 for brand new transformer and keyboard dock. But most people pay $550 for both parts. Most people pay $500 for the ipad. To me, it just seems like a big waste of money if you don't find something productive to do with these new devices. When I first started using my transformer at work, some people actually laughed at me. Apple had convinced them that you couldn't be productive with a tablet. To them, they couldn't imagine the tablet being anything other than fun and games. Hear that, apple users? Until apple stop this bullshit about very expensive toys that aren't useful, I will continue to be anti-apple. Tell Steve Jobs to stop advertising the tablet pc as very expensive toys and I'll support apple. In the mean time, I will continue to not use apple products. PS - It is not a coincidence that almost all apple users I know are also computer illiterates. Edited by Taz, : No reason given.
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
I use my pc for heavy duty tasks like making really fancy presentations and autocad. But just to read autocad I can just use the transformer. And yes, having a physical keyboard makes all the difference in the world. It allows me to type up reports right there and then. I do a combination of concrete tests in the field and in the lab. One of the things we've been working on is an alternate material to act as reinforcement in concrete. Hence me being away from home most of the time. I hardly come here anymore these days. I don't know about computer engineer like yourself, but over here in the civil/structural, we have to use the ASTM and ACI standards a lot as reference. You wouldn't believe how big these books are. I just use the pdf on my transformer. And since my transformer + dock is only about 2 lb, I can pretty much take it anywhere I want. With 16 hr battery life, I can go through the entire day without even thinking about looking for an outlet to recharge.
Well, they're both pretty much the same if you ignore the transformer keyboard dock and the extra battery life. Again, everyone I know has an ipad 2, and none of them use the ipad 2 for productivity. They don't know how. There's no keyboard. It's a bitch to type with the soft keyboard. The transformer can act both as a laptop and a tablet. When I just need to quickly look up specs as reference, I just use the tablet. When I need to do more heavy typing duties, I just plug it into the keyboard and type away. The keyboard dock will always charge the tablet, so I don't even need to worry about that. And everything I do needs to be documented, so it's always nice to have something so mobile around. This is not to mention I can hand write directly into my pdf documents as notes for myself.
Damn, you're old. I'm still waiting for the big 30.
Not just the clutter, but also the fuel. My uncle's airline estimates that they'd save about $130 million each year on fuel.
In fact, they have several backups. I think overall they have like one for each pilot and copilot and a few extras. And in the very unlikely event that all of them failed, they can receive instructions over the radio. Progress!
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
You answered your own question. I have 1 thing to carry around that has a touch screen, 98% full size keyboard, 2 usb, a micro sd, full size sdcard slot, an hdmi out, and a 500 GB hard drive, all in one package. This is not to mention the 16 hr battery that I have. To achieve the same thing with the ipad or ipad 2, you need to carry around a separate bluetooth keyboard, an external hard drive, a charger, and that $40 hdmi adapter for the ipad 2. Oh wait, there's no usb slot at all for the ipad or ipad 2 so you can't even use an external hard drive. And there's no possibility of micro sd or sdcard expansion. Are you a fanboy? I've found that fanboys will try everything they can to put down everyone else's devices. Take my experience, for example. I was sitting on the train minding my own business when an ipad 2 owner sat down next to me. He promptly asked me which ipad I had and I said it's not an ipad it's a transformer. He then said, and I swear on my mother's grave, "oh, you have an imitation".
Because there's a lot of potential with the ipad and ipad 2. And I care deeply about my fellow man. Apple is dumbing down the population by making everyone think their $500 device is nothing more than a toy.
Well, I've known some pretty dumb windows users, too. But I have never known an apple user in my life that knows half the things I know, and I consider myself a dummy in the tech world. Added by edit. This weekend, I plan on installing ubuntu and dual boot with honeycomb in my transformer. Take that, apple fanboy Edited by Taz, : No reason given.
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
One time I built my wife's mom a pc. The following day, she called me with a panic voice and told me the computer was broken and she needed to do some things right away. I had to drive an hour to her place. You know what was wrong? She tried to open her browser in the morning and it failed to load because her internet probably was slow that morning. Rather than pressing the refresh button or wait a minute or two, she made me drive all the way out there for that. Now, I am not putting down old people. But it seems to me like they don't even try. The moment something unexpected comes up they assume it's "broken".
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
Who proposes this?
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
Hey crashfrog and other enthusiasts out there, check the following link out. http://www.onskreen.com/cornerstone/index.php I've been keeping track of this project for months now. True multi-tasking for android tablets. Their biggest problem right now is to convince manufacturers to include this in their update. Why? Simply because manufacturers and google are not convinced that people would want something like this. Why? Because only productive people would want to see multiple things at once on their screen, and gamers/surfers only want to see one window. Again, this goes back to my point earlier. Too many dumbasses in the world who are willing to pay $500+ for a strictly gaming/surfing device. And those of us who use the tablet for more productive tasks are left with the world asking us why would you want to use the tablet for anything other than gaming and surfing? My ipad 2 owner colleagues still wonders why I'm using a fun and game device for work. They just can't think outside the box for one moment. They can't imagine the tablet being anything other than fun and games. The fact that I haven't touched my laptop for 4 months now is proof enough that my transformer makes my life a lot easier. For once, I'd like to see manufacturers look past these other idiot tablet and ipad owners and see people like me. I have 1 game installed on my transformer. Goddamn idiots and dumbasses keeping me away from onskreen cornerstone. Edited by Taz, : No reason given.
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Taz Member Posts: 5017 From: Zerus Joined: |
Absolutely. Remember that when I'm at a test site I only carry around the tablet part to look at specs, take notes, etc. Then back at the office I'd click it into the keyboard to type.
You're absolutely right. Hence I said before that I believe the ipad has a lot of potential. My complaint is the vast majority of people can't see the ipad or any other tablet as anything other than fun and game. And manufacturers do notice this. Hence cornerstone's trouble with the manufacturers and google. Cornerstone was meant to run with gingerbread back when ginger came out. It got delayed because no manufacturer would host it. So, now that we're in the honeycomb stage, onskreen is having to ask people to give their perspective on on what they would want a multi-window tablet screen for. Since cornerstone can only run if it's integrated into the system, we can't just install an apk file. And onskreen is having a tough time convincing manufacturers that people would want this.
That's what you say. Yet again, manufacturers are telling onskreen to ask potential users why they'd want to see multiple windows on their tablet devices. Manufacturers just aren't interested in this feature because they don't think the general populace want this feature.
Well, to be fair, I think the ipad is terrible for what we do. My colleagues got caught up in the fad that apple created. That is their slogan isn't it? The ipad is the only true tablet out there and everything else is just an imitation. But I can see how photographers would want the ipad over something like the transformer. But for those of us who work in a paper hungry field, having the option to type really is much better. Edited by Taz, : No reason given.
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