Are Android tabs a viable alternative to Ipad 2?

[Faark Orff]

Been doing some more research on tablets.

I know there are far more Apple apps and many look great. I know Android 3 doesn't have as many apps yet, particularly for music making. Android is open source. Trends suggest it will develop significantly. Asus ee Transformer and Samsung Galaxy tab according to reviews I have read, say they are just as good if not better.

The more I read about Apple, the more I think no way!

I don't know how much is true, but here are somethings that put me off as result of doing a bit of research before buying..

1) Their Big Brother tactics. Blocking access to Wikileaks for example. That apparently is a fact. I am not comfortable that in essence they interfere with my freedom.

2) Rumours of radiation leaks affecting Ipad 2 isn't being addressed. Posts I have read suggest that it would be detected and not allowed. I don't buy it. Japan has suffered a blow, not being allowed to export would add salt into the wound. Let's face it, money makes the world go round and do you honestly believe big business gives a shit? Ethics generally comes second to profit.

Sure. It might be bullshit. But why no official Apple comment to assure consumers? Maybe because they can't give that guarantee.

3) Once on the Apple train, they pretty much decide what you buy and lead down the path they want you to follow.

Yeah. I realise this post comes across as panic merchant, gullible, conspiracy theory nonsense.

I'd like to know what you think.

[razorblade]

Yeah. I realise this post comes across as panic merchant, gullible, conspiracy theory nonsense.

I'd like to know what you think.

I think this post comes across as panic merchant, gullible, conspiracy theory nonsense.

[Tarekith]

If you want a tablet for music apps, you're crazy to get anything but an iPad.

[deepdirtydub]

If you want a tablet for music apps, you're crazy to get anything but an iPad.

[TheDriller]

Sorry OP, but every single point you raise is nonsense from the tinfoil-hat brigade.
I can get on wikileaks from my macbook and iPad no problem, and I certainly still retain the choice of what I buy and when.

Please, for the good of all that is rational, focus on legitimate issues rather than imagining Apple as a 3rd World dictatorship.

[crumhorn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaoxI1DO6Sk

I like the fact that Android tablets will likely be cheap as chips. Android is already the market leading smartphone OS with > 50% market share compared to Apples current 25%. It will be interesting to see how well it catches on in the tablet market. I suspect price will be a strong deciding factor for many people. Electronics manufacturers who don't get to play in the iPhone market are competing like mad to bring out new better/cheaper Android based devices. The Apps will surely follow.

But if you are looking for something that can run decent music apps right now, it has to be an iPad I think.

[Khazul]

3) Once on the Apple train, they pretty much decide what you buy and lead down the path they want you to follow.

This is true of every organisation that has an interest in expanding their user base and retaining existing users and or getting them onto other offerings as well.

For many people, I guess the iPod was the original trojan that made them take notice of Apple then when people get an iPhone (another trojan), then that kind of leads to all things apple simply because a load of apple gear works quite well together.

Same with Microsoft - I nearly always choose a Microsoft product for Windows in preference to another vendors option unless the MS product happens to be particularly bad - just because there is usually a better chance that it will work well with other MS products. On OSX, I would favour Apple products over others as a starting point for the same reason.

At this point in time, I think the iPad and iPhone have the best feeling user interaction - thats kind of important for controlling music software. Windows phones by comparison are horrible. Androids sit somewhere in the middle. On desktop computers, I have to say that a decent Windows 7 machine gives by far the most accurate and responsive mouse pointer driven interaction (which translates into easier and quicker mouse driven editing in Ableton Live on a PC for example), but OSX and iOS wins hugely when it comes to multi-touch user interaction.

[Anubis]

The problem with Android OS is that there is a very large inherent latency(45 ms!) that renders it unsuitable for real time music apps. I had a link to an Android developers forum where they were discussing their frustration with this issue. I'll post it as soon as I find it again.

Here:

"Windows Audio (NOT DirectSound) has a latency lower than 45ms on my PC
DirectSound often is around 20ms for most AC97 hardware (so I've
read), but is still too high for real time audio manipulation.
Core Audio (apple) is advertised at being able to be .2 to 1.5ms!
ASIO drivers for audio production usually are below 11ms, typically
hitting 5ms.
These new devices have _plenty_ of horsepower to copy a small array of
bytes (2,822 for stereo 44.1k) over to a hardware buffer every 16ms
without interruption. Apple has been doing it since the first iPhone
without problem, and that is now only a fraction of the speed of the
current batch of hardware.
Also I must note that the current generation of phones is very, very
sad with how big the smallest continuous buffer is.
My Samsung Galaxy S (vibrant) is one of my highest latency devices,
despite being one of the fastest I test on. (sounds like 100ms)
My Nexus One is also very high. (sounds like 75ms)
My G1 actually has _less_ latency then both of those!
My Droid is decent. (sounds like 40ms)"

Here's one from May 2nd.

"I must say I'm somewhat disappointed that this hasn't been addressed yet. We're looking to develop a music analysis application for tablets and are currently looking at minimum buffers for recording of at least 90msecs from HoneyComb tablets."

[Faark Orff]

Sorry OP, but every single point you raise is nonsense from the tinfoil-hat brigade.
I can get on wikileaks from my macbook and iPad no problem, and I certainly still retain the choice of what I buy and when.

Please, for the good of all that is rational, focus on legitimate issues rather than imagining Apple as a 3rd World dictatorship.

I guess one of the disadvantages of internet is once you start doing a bit of research, it can take you anywhere.
I am aware of how my post reads. I didn't say I believed those things. But I have seen enough James Bond movies to know it is plausible.

I wrote the post so people could prove me wrong. Just saying it is all bullshit isn't an argument. The Wikileak point should be easy enough to disprove. Any Ipad 2 owners out there care to try it? Macbook or Ipad 1 users don't count.

Don't get me wrong. I really want to have an Ipad 2. The music apps I've seen look great, but if any of that stuff is true, the moral principles that I try to live by don't allow it.

Prove me wrong. I really do want an Ipad 2.

The problem with Android OS is that there is a very large inherent latency(45 ms!) that renders it unsuitable for real time music apps. I had a link to an Android developers forum where they were discussing their frustration with this issue. I'll post it as soon as I find it again.

Thanks.

If you want a tablet for music apps, you're crazy to get anything but an iPad.

Technology moves fast. I am sure Android will catch up.

[TheDriller]

I wrote the post so people could prove me wrong. Just saying it is all bullshit isn't an argument. The Wikileak point should be easy enough to disprove. Any Ipad 2 owners out there care to try it? Macbook or Ipad 1 users don't count.

Don't get me wrong. I really want to have an Ipad 2. The music apps I've seen look great, but if any of that stuff is true, the moral principles that I try to live by don't allow it.

Prove me wrong. I really do want an Ipad 2.

Yes i can get on wikileaks with my ipad2.

now stop for a second and really think about the insanity of what you've suggested.

do you really think apple or any other company would hard-code a specific restriction, for a specific website,
into a specific model of their product?
if so, why?
what could they possibly gain from it?

is it not more likely, from a purely rational point of view, that the claim of "apple blocks wikileaks on the ipad" is simply pure and utter nonsense? the claim itself is so utterly demented that it barely warrants testing.

some friendly advice: a healthy sense of skepticism is necessary when dealing with sensationalist, alarmist claims.

EDIT: in case i need to clarify my point, Apple is company, nothing more and nothing less.
attributing to them actions that would fit a 3rd world dictatorship is retarded.
Soon enough we'll have claims that Steve Jobs is responsible for various war-crimes committed during the Balkans wars.

[cids]

Cheap Android tabs are rubbish, those that look like they have some quality are more expensive than an iPad...

[nathannn]

if some one gave me an android tablet for free i would want to know why they hate me so much.

[humnumb]

Faark orff with the irrational Apple hate. It's really annoying to see Android hype trolls litter the interwebz with so much utter nonsense and it's quite hilarious to see the gullibility of some people as shown by the OP.

Android is open source.

Nope. Android is not open source as of OS 3.0 "Honeycomb":
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/google/google ... -more/2845
It was never really that open source to begin with anyway.

Android OS itself is still not capable of handling realtime low-latency audio and the hardware fragmentation makes development insanely difficult and introduces huge obstacles like device-specific bugs. Have fun waiting for Android apps to catch up.

[Faark Orff]

Faark orff with the irrational Apple hate. It's really annoying to see Android hype trolls litter the interwebz with so much utter nonsense and it's quite hilarious to see the gullibility of some people as shown by the OP.

Once again, I'll say that I realise how my post reads. Please believe me that I am not trolling. I do not hate Apple. I was doing some research and stumbled upon those issues I raised. I'm not here to annoy anyone or cause trouble. I just want to hear valid points to contradict those claims. I want an Ipad 2, but if any of that stuff is true, then I don't. I am cautious by nature. Might explain why it took me a while to lose my virginity. I don't regret it now that I look back. Otherwise I would have ended up humping all those fat[some were] ugly girls at parties because they were just as desperate as me.

Back to the point.

is it not more likely, from a purely rational point of view, that the claim of "apple blocks wikileaks on the ipad" is simply pure and utter nonsense? the claim itself is so utterly demented that it barely warrants testing.

I disagree. If something is blatantly false, it should not be ignored because it doesn't warrant testing. Isn't it better to nip these things in the bud rather than let them grow uncontrollably? Thanks for testing the Wikileak site. I have since discovered that it is possible to go to the wikileak site, but it is impossible to download widgets from it.

some friendly advice: a healthy sense of skepticism is necessary when dealing with sensationalist, alarmist claims.

I couldn't agree more. Hence my post.I just want to hear valid points to contradict those claims. That's all. It's irrational only when you can prove it. Saying something is bullsit without a valid argument or proof is meaningless.

in case i need to clarify my point, Apple is company, nothing more and nothing less.
attributing to them actions that would fit a 3rd world dictatorship is retarded.

The rumour that there is radioactive contamination in some of the components is plausible. Why wouldn't it be? Since when has big business held the interests of the consumer above making profit? Here are some examples: Cigarette companies denying that their product is a health risk, nuclear agencies denying the significantly higher cancer rate of people who live near nuclear energy plants, food manufacturers adding poisonous additives to their food claiming it is safe, insurance companies constantly changing the goal posts, some may say even Ableton for releasing in some people's eyes an unstable product (it works fine for me, but I keep things simple) and so on.... Let's not forget governments either. America, the good guys, must be telling the truth. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Evidence was produced to justify invasion. Oh shit! There weren't any nukes...and so on.

I want an Ipad 2. I don't give a shit about wikileaks or not being able to download wikileaks widgets. Nor do I care about my buying habits being manipulated when on the Apple bandwagon. But i do care about radiation poisoning. All my research basically says the Ipad is the best at what it does. The Asus Ee Transformer may rival it if you believe the hype and much cheaper. But the latency issues I have read about Android bother me. I want a tablet as a new musical instrument. Maybe I should abandon the idea for now. But I have long holidays coming and I have ideas of taking a tablet anywhere I go and make music whenever and wherever I want.

[LoopStationZebra]

Anti-Apple bait acknowledged and taken.