Apple introduced their iPad back in April. I personally didn’t find it particularly interesting, much in the same way that I don’t find a whole lot that comes out of SteveCo very interesting.
Sure, they make nice things but they always fail me for the same reasons: they’re all gilded cages. This is especially true when it comes to the portable devices made by Apple. While you as a user have a certain amount of control over a Macintosh-computer (even though it’s not free in any sense of the word) you have little or no actual control over your iPhone, iPad or even your iPod. You are not the one who ultimately decides what goes on there, it’s Steve and Apple who does that.
This is a big issue for me. While I’m not a complete FOSS-fiend I still find it extremely distasteful how corporations feel they can sell you a product and then limit what you do with it. I’m also of the opinion that as long as we don’t have access to source-code we cannot in any way trust the device itself, or what it does.
But alas, the real world works differently and I accept that sometimes we have to make compromises. Which is why I accept the closed-source and proprietary ATI/AMD-driver in my Ubuntu operating system.
Another thing I found somewhat distasteful with the iPad was that it was launched as some kind of revolutionary device, rather than a neat product that might fill a niche previously unheard of. That is, however, more a problem with Steve himself than his products, and he is very good at marketing them.
Recently though I’ve discovered that tablets/pads running Android –the free operating system for mobile devices that is sponsored by Google and based on Linux– have started appearing in the wild. Smartphones running Android have proven to be a very strong competitor to Apples own iPhone, often outperforming it in many ways thanks to the freedom you get with Android.
While I have very little interest in a smartphone (I still cling to my trusty old K750) I’ve begun to like the idea of owning an Android-based tablet. For reading ebooks/comics, doing light websurfing and other similar activites.
The problem though is that it’s a jungle, and since Android-tablets are a new breed of technology there’s no organized way to find them. That’s why I’m putting this question out on the internet. Where can I find a decent tablet running Android?
It should preferably be running Android 2.2. It can get away with 2.1 provided an update will be available, but nothing older than 2.1. One thing it definitely needs to have is a functioning Android Market, and preferably the ability to play movies and music as well.
If it lacks GPS or Bluetooth doesn’t make it a dealbreaker, but it would be nice having those things. I looked at the Wits A81e but it lacks an accelerometer and that’s annoying. Other than that the Wits looks perfect to me, but I would like it to have an accelerometer so I don’t manually have to rotate the screen.
Of course it should have WiFi, and if it has a slot for a 3G SIM-card then that’s a nice bonus but nothing I absolutely require. It should have a slot to expand storage as well. I noticed that the Wits-device had a micro-SD slot and that’s perfect for me.
Price should preferably be in the US$200-250 range. Display size is preferably a 7 inch unit, but if I can get away with bigger provided the price doesn’t shoot into the skies then that’s fine too.