Yep, I've gone tablet crazy. Just love the little critters. I have an original iPad, I have an Android Tablet (Acer Iconia A500) and I even have a Windows Tablet (Acer Iconia W500). See what they did with the Iconia model numbers? Darn clever these folks!
The iPad is definitely prettier. The Android has lots of options. The Windows is Windows, but with teeny tiny buttons to try to press. Good thing it comes with an attachable keyboard.
But time and time again, I find myself being forced to use the Windows tablet simply because I want to use a "Grown Up" browser, rather than the limited, constrained, features-missing browsers from IOS or Android. (You know, like making a blog post, etc.)
I haven't been a coder in decades, but I've gotta ask, is it really so hard to make a full-featured browser for either IOS or Android? The look is different, the feel is different, and the rendering is different between the desktop and tablet versions.
I downloaded Opera for the Android, and gave up with it after just a week or so. It seemed a little unfinished.
I really do see the Windows based tablet, with the keyboard attached (yes, like a cheap laptop or netbook) as the 'go to' machine for when I really want to get something accomplished, and not just browse within the limitations the tablets lock me into. If I want to see some video, I have to have FLASH available. If I want the pages to render well and not give me the stripped down 'mobile' version, I either have to try to fool the sites by changing arcane settings in the mobile browser, or by just going to the real, desktop, made for grown-ups, browser.
I know these limitations, and I work with them so I can be on the bleeding edge of technology. But I have many friends and family who just want the silly things to work, and let them see the content they want to see. Make that happen with a decent battery life, and the sales of the tablets might REALLY take off. Then again, I'm just a low-level functionary and not a tech company mogul who makes billions with every brain wave. I just know that every time I extol the virtues of a tablet to one of them, and let them try it out, they invariably go to a website that shows the flaws of these 'little brother' browsers. I can explain with lots of great reasons why that particular website didn't work right, but my friends and family don't care. They just want the silly thing to work and show them EXACTLY what they are used to seeing on the desktop/laptop screens.
Oh, and Google? A touch interface (that makes sense) for the desktop Chrome browser would REALLY help. I've got a machine that can handle it, and IE 9 can do it (with some IRRITATING limitations). So maybe you might want to try to make my life more wonderful? Please?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
If you're looking for a Google+ invitation, here's a link
:https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DwEIOhUfYpsI%3AmTlUwmNNcd4
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011
When More Tech Just Won't Help
This morning I stopped by the local Super Walmart to pick up a few things, and like always, I wandered around a little. I found a nice cover for the new Acer A500 Iconia Tab I bought several months ago. So I picked it up along the stuff I really came for and headed to the checkout.
The Tablet Cover has four different barcodes on the back, none of which were in the store's computer checkout system. So they were completely flummoxed. Rather than ask for a price check, or call a manager, the cashier asked if I remembered the price and was willing to take whatever I said as the truth and enter it manually. Of course I thought about saying $5.98 or anything other than what I thought I remembered as $39. But I didn't. I just said I thought I remembered $39, so she entered it and was willing to move along. But then I balked. What if I wasn't remembering correctly? I had looked at a lot of stuff. What if it was only $29 - then I'd be the one out of the money.
However, no one wanted to walk way to the back of the store to price verify this thing, including the 'manager' who came over to help. The goal seemed to be to get me through the checkout line, no matter if it cost me or the company to do it. So I asked to have the item removed from the list (she had already entered the $39 price). Well, that took a manager's override too, so again I waited.
After the purchase - without the Tablet Cover - I put the stuff in my car and went BACK into the store for the cover. I had the time, and I wanted the cover, but I wanted it all be on the up-and-up. So I hiked to the back of the store (the most exercise of the day so far) and found the covers again. They were $39.99. I took one and headed for the checkout lanes, and chose the Self Checkout. Again, the item wouldn't scan, and I needed assistance. This time it took even longer, involved a cashier and manager, and this time the manager made the trip to the back of the store to look at the item. She came back and tried more things on the checkout, but it still wouldn't register correctly. At this point, all the waiting around totaled about 40 minutes for me.
So I was wondering if the new RFID systems being touted would have helped. As I picked up the item and put it in the cart, it would have been scanned or not, and I would have had to deal with the issue right then and there rather than at the checkout. But this addition of tech probably wouldn't have helped.
First, I didn't use a cart. I only had a few things and I carried them. Second, there was no one in the section of the store where the Tablet Covers were located, so even if it hadn't RFID scanned correctly, there wasn't anyone around to help, and I would have had to wait until someone did come around, or once again head to the checkouts and deal with it all over again.
Nope, can't think of a way tech could have helped with this issue, because the main tech that should have worked, the barcode system, had failed at the start - the store's computers didn't know about the physical product in the store.
The Tablet Cover has four different barcodes on the back, none of which were in the store's computer checkout system. So they were completely flummoxed. Rather than ask for a price check, or call a manager, the cashier asked if I remembered the price and was willing to take whatever I said as the truth and enter it manually. Of course I thought about saying $5.98 or anything other than what I thought I remembered as $39. But I didn't. I just said I thought I remembered $39, so she entered it and was willing to move along. But then I balked. What if I wasn't remembering correctly? I had looked at a lot of stuff. What if it was only $29 - then I'd be the one out of the money.
However, no one wanted to walk way to the back of the store to price verify this thing, including the 'manager' who came over to help. The goal seemed to be to get me through the checkout line, no matter if it cost me or the company to do it. So I asked to have the item removed from the list (she had already entered the $39 price). Well, that took a manager's override too, so again I waited.
After the purchase - without the Tablet Cover - I put the stuff in my car and went BACK into the store for the cover. I had the time, and I wanted the cover, but I wanted it all be on the up-and-up. So I hiked to the back of the store (the most exercise of the day so far) and found the covers again. They were $39.99. I took one and headed for the checkout lanes, and chose the Self Checkout. Again, the item wouldn't scan, and I needed assistance. This time it took even longer, involved a cashier and manager, and this time the manager made the trip to the back of the store to look at the item. She came back and tried more things on the checkout, but it still wouldn't register correctly. At this point, all the waiting around totaled about 40 minutes for me.
So I was wondering if the new RFID systems being touted would have helped. As I picked up the item and put it in the cart, it would have been scanned or not, and I would have had to deal with the issue right then and there rather than at the checkout. But this addition of tech probably wouldn't have helped.
First, I didn't use a cart. I only had a few things and I carried them. Second, there was no one in the section of the store where the Tablet Covers were located, so even if it hadn't RFID scanned correctly, there wasn't anyone around to help, and I would have had to wait until someone did come around, or once again head to the checkouts and deal with it all over again.
Nope, can't think of a way tech could have helped with this issue, because the main tech that should have worked, the barcode system, had failed at the start - the store's computers didn't know about the physical product in the store.
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