The touchscreen display is operated by gestures executed by finger or digital pen (stylus), instead of the mouse, touchpad, and keyboard of larger computers. [5] Thereafter, tablets rapidly rose in ubiquity and soon became a large product category used for personal, educational and workplace applications,[6] with sales stabilizing in the mid-2010s. [7][8][9] Popular uses for a tablet PC include viewing presentations, video-conferencing, reading e-books, watching movies, sharing photos and more. Throughout the 20th century devices with these characteristics have been imagined and created whether as blueprints, prototypes, or commercial products.
In addition to many academic and research systems, several companies released commercial products in the 1980s, with various input/output types tried out. [14] Another important enabling factor was the lithium-ion battery, an indispensable energy source for tablets,[16] commercialized by Sony and Asahi Kasei in 1991.
Tablet computers appeared in a number of works of science fiction in the second half of the 20th century; all helped to promote and disseminate the concept to a wider audience. In 1992, IBM announced (in April) and shipped to developers (in October) the ThinkPad 700T (2521), which ran the GO Corporation’s PenPoint OS.
The operating system and platform design were later licensed to Sharp and Digital Ocean, who went on to manufacture their own variants. Microsoft, the dominant PC software vendor, released Windows for Pen Computing in 1992 to compete against PenPoint OS. The company launched the WinPad project, working together with OEMs such as Compaq, to create a small device with a Windows-like operating system and handwriting recognition. However the project was abandoned two years later; instead Windows CE was released in the form of “Handheld PCs” in 1996.
Also in 1996 Fujitsu released the Stylistic 1000 tablet format PC, running Microsoft Windows 95, on a 100 MHz AMD486 DX4 CPU, with 8 MB RAM offering stylus input, with the option of connecting a conventional Keyboard and mouse. Intel announced a StrongARM[40] processor-based touchscreen tablet computer in 1999, under the name WebPAD. Sony released its Airboard tablet in Japan in late 2000 with full wireless Internet capabilities. [46][47] Microsoft took a more significant approach to tablets in 2002 as it attempted to define the Microsoft Tablet PC[48] as a mobile computer for field work in business,[49] though their devices failed, mainly due to pricing and usability decisions that limited them to their original purpose – such as the existing devices being too heavy to be held with one hand for extended periods, and having legacy applications created for desktop interfaces and not well adapted to the slate format.
An early model was test manufactured in 2001, the Nokia M510, which was running on EPOC and featuring an Opera browser, speakers and a 10-inch 800×600 screen, but it was not released because of fears that the market was not ready for it. The user interface and application framework layer, named Hildon, was an early instance of a software platform for generic computing in a tablet device intended for internet consumption.
Before the release of iPad, Axiotron introduced[55] an aftermarket, heavily modified Apple MacBook called Modbook, a Mac OS X-based tablet computer. The Modbook uses Apple’s Inkwell for handwriting and gesture recognition, and uses digitization hardware from Wacom. To get Mac OS X to talk to the digitizer on the integrated tablet, the Modbook was supplied with a third-party driver.
Following the launch of the Ultra-mobile PC, Intel began the Mobile Internet Device initiative, which took the same hardware and combined it with a tabletized Linux configuration. Intel codeveloped the lightweight Moblin (mobile Linux) operating system following the successful launch of the Atom CPU series on netbooks. In 2010, Nokia and Intel combined the Maemo and Moblin projects to form MeeGo, a Linux-based operating system supports netbooks and tablets.
Several manufacturers waited for Android Honeycomb, specifically adapted for use with tablets, which debuted in February 2011. In March 2012, PC Magazine reported that 31% of U.S. Internet users owned a tablet, used mainly for viewing published content such as video and news.
Hewlett Packard announced that the TouchPad, running WebOS 3.0 on a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, would be released in June 2011. [71] In 2013, the Mozilla Foundation announced a prototype tablet model with Foxconn which ran on Firefox OS. By 2014, around 23% of B2B companies were said to have deployed tablets for sales-related activities, according to a survey report by Corporate Visions. Android tablets were more popular in most of Asia (China and Russia an exception), Africa and Eastern Europe. Tablets can be loosely grouped into several categories by physical size, kind of operating system installed, input and output technology, and uses. Mini tablets are smaller and weigh less than slates, with typical screen sizes between 7–8 inches (18–20 cm).
[92] On July 24, 2013, Google released an upgraded version of the Nexus 7, with FHD display, dual cameras, stereo speakers, more color accuracy, performance improvement, built-in wireless charging, and a variant with 4G LTE support for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. That size is generally considered larger than a traditional smartphone, creating the hybrid category of the phablet by Forbes[93] and other publications. Further, 2-in-1s may have typical laptop I/O ports, such as USB 3 and DisplayPort, and may connect to traditional PC peripheral devices and external displays. PC games can also be streamed to the tablet from computers with some higher end models of Nvidia-powered video cards.
Examples include the Microsoft Courier, which was discontinued in 2010,[95][96] the Sony Tablet P (considered a flop),[97] and the Toshiba Libretto W100. For example, in hardware, a transportation company may find that the consumer-grade GPS module in an off-the-shelf tablet provides insufficient accuracy, so a tablet can be customized and embedded with a professional-grade antenna to provide a better GPS signal. [98] Such devices allow users to order food and drinks, play games and pay their bill. Since 2013, restaurant chains including Chili’s,[99] Olive Garden[100] and Red Robin[101] have adopted them.
[102] The devices have been criticized by servers who claim that some restaurants determine their hours based on customer feedback in areas unrelated to service. Intel’s x86, including x86-64 has powered the “IBM compatible” PC since 1981 and Apple’s Macintosh computers since 2006.
[105][106] In October 2013, Intel’s foundry operation announced plans to build FPGA-based quad cores for ARM and x86 processors. [108][third-party source needed] This dominance began with the release of the mobile-focused and comparatively power-efficient 32-bit ARM610 processor originally designed for the Apple Newton in 1993 and ARM3-using Acorn A4 laptop in 1992. This has helped manufacturers extend battery life and shrink component count along with the size of devices. [113] Intel chairman Andy Bryant has stated that its 2014 goal is to quadruple its tablet chip sales to 40 million units by the end of that year,[114] as an investment for 2015.
They allow a high level of precision, useful in emulating a pointer (as is common in tablet computers) but may require calibration. Most finger-driven capacitive screens do not currently support pressure input (except for the iPhone 6S and later models), but some tablets use a pressure-sensitive stylus or active pen.
The ARM Cortex family is powerful enough for tasks such as internet browsing, light creative and production work and mobile games. Other features are: High-definition, anti-glare display, touchscreen, lower weight and longer battery life than a comparably-sized laptop, wireless local area and internet connectivity (usually with Wi-Fi standard and optional mobile broadband), Bluetooth for connecting peripherals and communicating with local devices, ports for wired connections and charging, for example USB ports, Early devices had IR support and could work as a TV remote controller, docking station, keyboard and added connectivity, on-board flash memory, ports for removable storage, various cloud storage services for backup and syncing data across devices, local storage on a local area network (LAN).
In both cases, the voice input is sent to central servers to perform general speech recognition and thus requires a network connection for more than simple commands.
In both cases, the voice input is sent to central servers to perform general speech recognition and thus requires a network connection for more than simple commands.
[132] In late 2021, iOS has 55% use worldwide (varies by continent, e.g. below 50% in South America and Africa) and Android 45% use. Android is a Linux-based operating system that Google offers as open source under the Apache license. [138][139][140] Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), released in 2011 and later versions support larger screen sizes, mainly tablets, and have access to the Google Play service. [141] In 2022 Google began to re-emphasize in-house Android tablet development — at this point, a multi-year commitment. Prior to the introduction of iPadOS in 2019, the iPad ran iOS, which was created for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
[144] Although built on the same underlying Unix implementation as macOS, its user interface is radically different.
iPadOS is designed for touch input from the user’s fingers and has none of the features that required a stylus on earlier tablets. Tablets running Windows could use the touchscreen for mouse input, hand writing recognition and gesture support.
In 2012, Microsoft released Windows 8, which features significant changes to various aspects of the operating system’s user interface and platform which are designed for touch-based devices such as tablets. Several hardware companies have built hybrid devices with the possibility to work with both Android and Windows Phone operating systems (or in rare cases Windows 8.1, as with the, by now cancelled, Asus Transformer Book Duet), while Ars Technica stated: “dual-OS devices are always terrible products. Windows and Android almost never cross-communicate, so any dual-OS device means dealing with separate apps, data, and storage pools and completely different UI paradigms. So from a consumer perspective, Microsoft and Google are really just saving OEMs from producing tons of clunky devices that no one will want.
This can be used to reduce the impact of malware, provide software with an approved content rating, control application quality and exclude competing vendors. [164][165][166][167] Apple and IBM have agreed to cooperate in cross-selling IBM-developed applications for iPads and iPhones in enterprise-level accounts.
In 2012, Intel reported that their tablet program improved productivity for about 19,000 of their employees by an average of 57 minutes a day. [173] Tablets are increasingly used in the construction industry to look at blueprints, field documentation and other relevant information on the device instead of carrying around large amounts of paper. A 2014 survey found that mobiles were the most frequently used object for play among American children under the age of 12. The blue wavelength of light from back-lit tablets may impact one’s ability to fall asleep when reading at night, through the suppression of melatonin. [198] Experts at Harvard Medical School suggest limiting tablets for reading use in the evening. [203] In September 2014, EASA issued guidance that allows EU airlines to permit use of tablets, e-readers, smartphones, and other portable electronic devices to stay on without the need to be in airplane mode during all parts of EU flights, however each airline has to decide to allow this behavior.
[204] In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration allowed use of portable electronic devices during all parts of flights while in airplane mode in late 2013. Some French historical monuments are equipped with digital tactile tablets called “HistoPad”.
Some professionals – for example, in the construction industry, insurance experts, lifeguards or surveyors – use so-called rugged shelf models in the field that can withstand extreme hot or cold shocks or climatic environments. For example, United States Army helicopter pilots are moving to tablets as electronic flight bags, which confer the advantages of rapid, convenient synchronization of large groups of users, and the seamless updating of information. [208] US Army chaplains who are deployed in the field with the troops cite the accessibility of Army regulations, field manuals, and other critical information to help with their services; however power generation, speakers, and a tablet rucksack are also necessary for the chaplains.
List of Samsung tablets
Samsung announced its first tablet, the Android-powered Galaxy Tab 7.0, in September 2010. Samsung announced the original Galaxy View, an 18.4-inch tablet, in October 2015. [2] It was succeeded by the slightly smaller, 17.3-inch, Galaxy View 2 in April 2019.
Google Nexus
Google Nexus is a discontinued line of consumer electronic devices that run the Android operating system. Google managed the design, development, marketing, and support of these devices, but some development and all manufacturing were carried out by partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
The line also included tablets and streaming media players, though neither type of device are currently available. Devices in the Nexus line[2] were considered Google’s flagship Android products. They contained little to no manufacturer or wireless carrier modifications to Android (such as custom user interfaces[3]), although devices sold through carriers may be SIM locked and had some extra branding. All Nexus devices featured an unlockable bootloader[4] to allow further development and end-user modification.
With the expansion of the Google Pixel product line in late 2016, Google stated that they “don’t want to close a door completely, but there is no plan right now to do more Nexus devices. “[9] In 2017, Google partnered with HMD Global in making new Nokia phones, which have been considered by some as a revival of Nexus. It was announced that Google would cease support for the Nexus One, whose graphics processing unit (GPU) is poor at rendering the new 2D acceleration engine of the UI in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Nexus S and newer models have hardware designed to handle the new rendering. [14] The device’s support was ended after 4.1 Jelly Bean and no longer receives updates from Google. The device support was ended after 4.3 Jelly Bean and no longer receives updates from Google.
This device is known in Brazil as Galaxy X due to a trademark on the “Nexus” brand. Display: 4.7″ Corning Gorilla Glass 2, True HD IPS Plus capacitive touchscreen, 768×1280 pixel resolution, 16M colors The Nexus 5 smartphone, again manufactured by LG, was scheduled for sale on October 31, 2013 for US$349 at the Google Play store. Display: 4.95″ Corning Gorilla Glass 3, IPS LCD touchscreen, 1080×1920 pixel resolution (1080p) Battery: 2,300 mAh lithium polymer, wireless charging It was first announced on September 29, 2015, along with the Nexus 6P and several other Google devices (such as the Pixel C tablet). Colors: Carbon (black), Quartz (white), and Ice (mint) The Nexus 6P is a smartphone developed by Huawei originally running Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It was first announced on September 29, 2015 along with the Nexus 5X and several other Google devices (such as the Pixel C tablet). 8 MP front camera with f/2.0 lens Speakers: Dual front-facing stereo On June 27, 2012, at its I/O 2012 keynote presentation, Google introduced the Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet computer developed with and manufactured by Asus. Released in July 2012, it was the first device to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Keeping with Google Nexus tradition, it was simultaneously released with the latest version, Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It was made available on July 26, 2013 at select retailers and on the Google Play store in the United States. [28] On November 20, 2013, it was available from the Google Play stores in Hong Kong and India. On the same day, the Nexus Wireless Charger was made available in the United States and Canada.
[29] In December 2015, Google released Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow for the device. The Nexus 10, a 10.1-inch tablet manufactured by Samsung, was revealed in late October 2012 by the Exif data of photos taken by Google executive, Vic Gundotra,[31] along with the leaks of its manual and a comprehensive series of photos.
The leaked photos revealed a design similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, with a 10.1-inch 2560×1600 display, 16 or 32 GB of storage, Android 4.2, and a dual-core 1.7 GHz Exynos 5 processor. Display: 10.1″ Corning Gorilla Glass 2 with 2560×1600 pixel resolution
The Nexus 9 is an 8.9-inch tablet running Android 5.0 Lollipop, developed in collaboration between Google and HTC. Display: 8.9″ Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with 2048×1536 pixel resolution
CPU: 2.3 GHz dual-core 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 “Denver” The Nexus Q is a discontinued digital media player that ran Android and integrated with Google Play, to sell at US$299 in the United States.
After complaints about a lack of features for the price, the Nexus Q was shelved indefinitely; Google said it needed time to make the product “even better”. [35] In March 2018, Google confirmed that the Nexus Player would not receive the upcoming version of Android, Android Pie, and that security updates had also ended for the device.
Samsung Galaxy Tab series
For the Google branded tablet made by Samsung, see Nexus 10 The first model in the series, the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, was presented to the public on 2 September 2010 at the IFA in Berlin and was available on 5 November 2010. It was later split into three separate lines: the Galaxy Tab S series for high-end tablets, the Galaxy Tab A series for mid-range tablets, and the Galaxy Tab E series for entry-level tablets. The original Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro devices, released in 2014, were a series of three high-end tablets running the Android operating system.
In 2016, Samsung released another device in the Tab Pro line, the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S, although that tablet ran Windows 10 instead of Android. The Galaxy Tab S series is Samsung’s high-end tablet line, running the Android operating system and mirroring the Galaxy S series of smartphones.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab E series is a line of entry-level tablets. Name Model number OS Released Network Display CPU GPU RAM Front camera Rear camera Video recording Internal Storage External Storage Height Width Thickness Weight Battery Stylus Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) SM-T510 (Wi-Fi); SM-T515 (WiFi+4G) Android 9.0 up to Android 11.0 1 April 2019 LTE 700/800/850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100/2300/2500/2600
EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 1200 × 1920 TFT Exynos 7904 Octo-core (2x 1.8 GhHz ARM Cortex-A73) & (6x 1.6 GHz ARM Cortex-A53) Mali-G71 MP2 2 GB / 3 GB 5 MP 8 MP 1080p HD @30 fps 32 GB/ 64 GB/ 128 GB microSD (up to 512 GB) 245.2 millimetres (9.65 in) 149.4 millimetres (5.88 in) 7.5 millimetres (0.30 in) 465 g (1.025 lb) 6150 mAh Galaxy Tab A 8 (2019) SM-T290 (Wi-Fi); SM-T295 (WiFi+4G) Android 9.0 up to Android 11.0 1 July 2019 LTE 700/800/850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100/2300/2500/2600 EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 1280 × 800 TFT Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 quad-core (4 × ARM Cortex-A53) Adreno 504 2 GB 2 MP 8 MP 1080p HD @30 fps 32 GB microSD (up to 512 GB) 210 millimetres (8.3 in) 124.4 millimetres (4.90 in) 8 millimetres (0.31 in) 345 g (0.761 lb) 5100 mAh
Name Model number OS Released Network Display CPU GPU RAM Front camera Rear camera Video recording Internal Storage External Storage Height Width Thickness Weight Battery Stylus Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 SM-T230 (WiFi) KitKat, up to Android 5.0.2(Verizon – SM-T337V) only 1 April 2014 LTE 150 Mbit/s 900/1800/2100/2600
1280 × 800 TFT Marvell PXA1088 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 GC1000 1.5 GB 1.3 MP 3 MP 720p HD @30 fps 8/16 GB microSD (up to 64 GB) 186.9 mm (7.36 in) 107.9 mm (4.25 in) 8 mm (0.31 in) 276 g (0.608 lb) 4000 mAh Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 SM-T330 (WiFi) KitKat, up to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop 1 April 2014 LTE 150 Mbit/s 900/1800/2100/2600
1280 × 800 TFT Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 Adreno 305 1.5 GB 1.3 MP 3 MP 720p HD @30 fps 16/32 GB microSD (up to 64 GB) 210.0 mm (8.27 in) 124.0 mm (4.88 in) 8 mm (0.31 in) 320 g (0.71 lb) 4450 mAh Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 SM-T530 (WiFi) KitKat, up to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop 1 April 2014 LTE 150 Mbit/s 900/1800/2100/2600 1280 × 800 TFT Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 Adreno 305 1.5 GB 1.3 MP 3 MP 720p HD @30 fps 16/32 GB microSD (up to 64 GB) 243.4 mm (9.58 in) 176.4 mm (6.94 in) 8 mm (0.31 in) 487 g (1.074 lb) 6800 mAh
Nexus 7 (2012)
The first-generation Nexus 7 is a mini tablet computer co-developed by Google and Asus that runs the Android operating system. Design work on the Nexus 7 began in January 2012 after a meeting between Google and Asus executives at International CES.
Following a hectic four-month development period during which the device was modified to reach a US$199 price point, mass production started in May. The Nexus 7 received positive reviews from critics, particularly for its competitive pricing, premium-quality build, and powerful hardware.
In an interview in December 2011, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt announced that a Google-designed tablet computer would arrive in six months. During the interview for Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Schmidt stated that the software company would have strong competition against Apple, the designer of the iPad line of tablets.
After agreeing to manufacture the device for Google as the OEM, Asus was tasked with building a tablet that could sell for US$200 and would be “fast, cheap, and good”; according to the concept of the project management triangle, only two of these qualities can be achieved. [17] Former Android division manager Andy Rubin commented that Asus was the only company capable of designing such a product in four months. Having employees working in both locations allowed the engineering team to have a 24-hour development cycle, although Shih later needed to add 40 people to the project to meet Google’s requests. [18] The design for the Nexus 7 was based on a tablet that Asus had showcased at International CES that year, the Eee Pad MeMO ME370T. Among the component modifications were a new motherboard, revised system on a chip (SoC), laminated display, and rear casing with a grippier material. [20] The Nexus 7’s higher production costs were attributed to its use of a higher-quality display, a quad-core processor (instead of the Fire’s dual-core), and its inclusion of a camera and near field communications (NFC) functionality.
However, he also noted that both tablets were being sold at thin profit margins, primarily due to their respective ties to content services. One month before its unveiling, the tablet appeared on benchmark site Rightware, which revealed that it would be an Asus-produced device known as the “Nexus 7” with a 7-inch (180 mm) screen, a Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC, and version 4.1 of Android.
[22] On June 25, 2012, gadget website Gizmodo Australia claimed it had access to the tablet’s specifications and recommended retail prices, which turned out to be correct. The Nexus 7 was revealed on June 27, 2012, at Google I/O, an annual developer conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, and it became available for pre-order on the same day. [29] Barra announced that the tablet would retail for $199 for the 8 GB version and that it would come with a free film, e-book, several magazines, and a $25 credit (available for redemption until September 30)[30] to spend in Google Play, Android’s digital multimedia distribution service. Jelly Bean was an incremental upgrade from version 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”), incorporating software improvements to the pull-down notifications bar and camera, and changes to the homescreen. With Jelly Bean, Google significantly reduced latency (lag), one negative aspect of Android compared to Apple’s iOS operating system. It does so by employing “vsync timing” and triple buffering, improving touch responsiveness, and programming the display to run at 60 frames per second; this initiative was called “Project Butter”.
[18] The Nexus 7 is intended to take advantage of the different media formats available through the application store, including e-books, movies, music, games, magazines, and television programs. [59] Android 5.0 (“Lollipop”) was released for the Nexus 7 WiFi edition in November 2014, although users reported that the update rendered the tablet very slow. [17][65] Other features include a microphone, GPS, a magnetometer, a NFC chip with a Secure Element, and a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera. [7] The rear of the Nexus 7 features a dimpled plastic surface with a rubbery, leathery texture to help users to grip and hold the device.
[17] In order to maximize the device’s battery life, Asus engineers spent one month attempting to reduce electrical leakage by measuring heat and voltage at every point on the printed circuit board (PCB). [68] The tablet’s thin, lightweight form factor was achieved without sacrificing computer power through a special LCD design called Asus TruVivid. This yielded thinner display panels, but made production more difficult, as there was less tolerance for imprecision without affecting the quality of the screen. Contrasting with the company’s usual method for designing motherboards, the first components that Asus placed on the device’s PCB were the speakers.
Technology commentators drew attention to its high performance, responsive display and the inclusion of Jelly Bean, as well as to NFC support. [11][70] Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, David Pogue of The New York Times, and TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler acknowledged that Google and Asus had designed a serious competitor to Apple’s iPad.
[11][12] For the latter, an explanation from Asus claimed that the company decided to omit such a camera so as to not compromise the user experience and competitive pricing. Its construction has a high-quality look and feel”,[10] and The Verge columnist Joshua Topolsky declared: “Google’s Nexus 7 isn’t just an excellent tablet for $200. [80] Following release on July 13, 2012, retailers such as GameStop, Sam’s Club, and Kmart announced that they had run out of stock for the tablet. [92] In light of Google not releasing official sales figures, mobile industry analyst Benedict Evans [Wikidata] estimated that the device most likely sold between 4.5 and 4.6 million units in 2012.
Following the 2012 holiday season, analytics company Localytics reported that the Nexus 7 accounted for 8% of the global Android tablet market share, based on estimates of app installations. In 2012, the Nexus 7 won T3’s “Gadget of the Year” award, beating rival Apple’s iPhone 4S, Sony’s PlayStation Vita, OnLive, and others.
Google shares grand vision of tablets surpassing laptop sales, ‘tablet-first’ Android apps, more
During today’s The Android Show, Google discussed its recent work in the large-screen device space and its grand vision for the form factor, including “tablet-first” apps. The media players, the YouTubes, and other apps worked quite well just to scale up that video on a larger screen. However, Google started seeing large-screen tablet sales taking off in the second half of 2019 even before COVID, with the following year serving as an “accelerant” for growth. The belief is that tablets started to be just much better for things beyond consumption, and were being used for creativity and productivity and there was a need for more screens and devices to support that.
The analogy he uses is how in the early days of the smartphone people just brought desktop applications to mobile before realizing they have to build new experiences from the ground up for the new form factors.
How Android Tablets Work
” ” The Motorola Xoom hit the market in early 2011 and is the first device to run the tablet version of the Android operating system. While Google optimized the original build of Android for smartphone devices, the company continued to develop the mobile operating system. You can watch videos, listen to music, surf the Web, read electronic documents, play games and launch apps from a tablet.
Vivo Just Showed Its First-Ever Android Tablet
As you might have figured already, the Vivo Tab will mostly be limited to the Chinese market — with a slim chance of making it to India or Europe. As to what happens on Monday, chances are Vivo will announce the actual dates for its mega launch event and a couple of other teaser images.
The Android hardware truth Google won’t tell you
The company has its own platform-wide priorities and ways it wants its ecosystems to evolve, but it also has the goals of all the third-party manufacturers that create hardware for those virtual environments to consider. Well, it’s time to stop beating around the bush and just say what Google won’t openly acknowledge: You should not be buying an Android tablet in 2020.
Back in the early days, y’see, Google didn’t have a great way for Android to exist in a “big-screen” form.
So in 2010, after Apple unveiled its first magical and revolutionary iPad, Android device-makers desperate to compete in the newly established arena rushed to cobble together their own half-baked answers.
Most prominently, Samsung spewed out its inaugural Galaxy Tab — a 7″ slate that ran Android 2.2, worked exactly like a phone, and even let you make and receive calls with your own SIM card in certain scenarios. Apple had already made a serious splash with its iPad, and Google did its usual Google thing — first, failing to get developers on board quickly enough to make a good first impression with how apps operated in its newly scaled-up environment, then quickly losing its focus, pivoting away from its original vision, and ultimately just letting the idea of the Android tablet languish without any movement forward.
And despite Android’s growing dominance on the phone front and the endless array of advantages the platform possessed, it never managed to attract any meaningful number of takers in the tablet domain. It all seems commonplace now, but Chrome OS was doing this stuff way before it was in vogue (and at a time when most pundits were questioning and generally pooh-poohing its purpose). And here we are today: Chromebooks are now fully capable of running Android apps — an experience that isn’t always optimal, mind you, but is perfectly serviceable.
Take, for instance, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6 — the company’s top-of-the-line flagship tablet that’s positioned as a “PC-like” two-in-one productivity system. At the same time, any random $200 Chromebook is getting both major OS updates on a monthly basis and smaller security patches every two to three weeks and will continue to do so for another several years. Plain and simple, buying an Android tablet is setting yourself up for disappointment — when it comes to both performance and capability and when it comes to the critical areas of privacy, security, and ongoing software upkeep.
When it comes to productivity and actual work-friendly devices, though — situations where the computing experience itself matters and where having an optimally secure, privacy-conscious, and performance-optimized environment is important — the common advice out there is increasingly misguided. One last footnote to all of this: Remember that Pixel C we talked about a minute ago — the final Android tablet effort that Google put into the world? Signs suggest it was actually supposed to have run Chrome OS and that the software just wasn’t quite ready in time for its debut. And at this point, despite the companies that keep pumping out Android-running slates and putting ‘em on store shelves, the traditional Android tablet lives on mostly as a legacy holdout — and mostly for people who don’t realize that a better, more contemporary option exists.
Android versions: A living history from 1.0 to 13
Things were pretty basic back then, but the software did include a suite of early Google apps like Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube, all of which were integrated into the operating system — a stark contrast to the more easily updatable standalone-app model employed today. Cupcake also brought about the framework for third-party app widgets, which would quickly turn into one of Android’s most distinguishing elements, and it provided the platform’s first-ever option for video recording. Donut filled in some important holes in Android’s center, including the ability for the OS to operate on a variety of different screen sizes and resolutions — a factor that’d be critical in the years to come. Eclair was the first Android release to enter mainstream consciousness thanks to the original Motorola Droid phone and the massive Verizon-led marketing campaign surrounding it.
The release’s most transformative element was the addition of voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic info — something previously unheard of (and still essentially unmatched) in the smartphone world. And it made waves for injecting the once-iOS-exclusive pinch-to-zoom capability into Android — a move often seen as the spark that ignited Apple’s long-lasting “thermonuclear war” against Google.
Froyo did deliver some important front-facing features, though, including the addition of the now-standard dock at the bottom of the home screen as well as the first incarnation of Voice Actions, which allowed you to perform basic functions like getting directions and making notes by tapping an icon and then speaking a command. Android 3.0 came into the world as a tablet-only release to accompany the launch of the Motorola Xoom, and through the subsequent 3.1 and 3.2 updates, it remained a tablet-exclusive (and closed-source) entity.
Spread across three impactful Android versions, 2012 and 2013’s Jelly Bean releases took ICS’s fresh foundation and made meaningful strides in fine-tuning and building upon it. The releases added plenty of poise and polish into the operating system and went a long way in making Android more inviting for the average user. Multiuser support also came into play, albeit on tablets only at this point, and an early version of Android’s Quick Settings panel made its first appearance. Late-2013’s KitKat release marked the end of Android’s dark era, as the blacks of Gingerbread and the blues of Honeycomb finally made their way out of the operating system.
Lighter backgrounds and more neutral highlights took their places, with a transparent status bar and white icons giving the OS a more contemporary appearance. The release was Google’s first foray into claiming a full panel of the home screen for its services, too — at least, for users of its own Nexus phones and those who chose to download its first-ever standalone launcher. Lollipop introduced a slew of new features into Android, including truly hands-free voice control via the “OK, Google” command, support for multiple users on phones and a priority mode for better notification management.
How to Set Up a New Android Tablet
The steps here also work for older Android tablets which need to be set up after a factory reset. Samsung, for example, has a unique data transfer feature which replaces a step in the setup process. While the location varies between devices, it’s typically on the top or right edge of the tablet. It includes a drop-down menu in order to choose the default language. Alternatively, you may be able to use mobile data if your tablet supports it and you have a SIM card installed. This process requires a Google ID and password, as well as two-factor authentication if you have it set up on your account.
A variety of options may appear including a password, PIN, pattern, fingerprint, and face recognition.
The first great Android Tablet: Nook Color
But, the iPad may soon have a serious Android opponent: Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color While rooting a Nook Color is quite easy–watch huskermania’s YouTube video on how to do it if you don’t believe me–Barnes & Noble will be upgrading the Color Nook to being a real Android tablet in mid-April.
In its press release, the book store giant states only that, “NOOK Color will get even better this Spring when a major update to the device’s firmware will offer customers access to explore exciting new applications, e-mail and many other requested features.” That’s fine, but it still leaves lots of room for the mid and low-end market users and now, with this update to the Nook Color coming down the road we’re finally going to have a compelling, inexpensive Android tablet for the Toyota or Ford “drivers.”
Nook Color to receive ‘major’ firmware update, new magazine title
Be First to Comment