Acer unveils Windows, Android tablets to compete with Apple's iPad - Page 5

When Jobs said "If I ran Apple I'd milk the Mac for all it's worth and get busy on the next great thing"
those weren't the words of a guy looking at competitors with a mind to make what they're making but somewhat better.

Jobs and Apple are playing a long game with many parts, but they think in terms of big picture systems and skating to where the puck will be. You can't do that by reacting.

Apple scorned the way MS did multitasking. Apple favored multitasking that saved state and closed rather than having the application remain active.


But that has nothing to do with the discussion.



Did I ever call you a troll? No. Not once. I have no idea where that comment came from. Come on, dude, I'm not making personal judgments about you. Give me the same courtesy.

How can the competition "motivate" Apple in markets that Apple created? There was no competition. Competition has motivated Apple to improve iPhone and it will motivate Apple to improve iPad, but at the onset, there was no competition.

It is cool that you are putting battery life on top of your priority list, but someone else's top priority might be full compatibility with MS Office, or some other desktop application/suite. I can see that happening, especially for corporate users. And since some netbooks already have 10+ hours of battery life, I would expect smart manufacturer can fit, say, Atom platform with 6 hours battery life in form factor not much thicker than iPad.

Additionally, hardware is getting more and more power efficient (for the same amount of processing power). We just got one Toshiba Portege R700 with i5 CPU in the office and that thing - confirmed - will light work on 6 cell battery for over 8 hours. By the end of 2011, it is my opinion, we will have desktop-performance hardware that will be able to fit in iPad size case and work whole day on battery, negating any reason for sacrificing performance for power.

To make some more money?

This is hardly about what is more powerful - or even more useful. It is only about what people are buying these days.

Netbook sales are getting stale, though I think it is more due to Intel Atom not evolving much - almost at all - since its introduction back in 2008.

Last time I upgraded my PC, I went from dual core Athlon 64 to Core 2 Quad - and I did notice the difference. Hell yeah. If I'd to replace my 2 year old Atom based netbook with new one, there would be virtually no difference at all; I really don't have any reason to replace short of my old netbook going dead.

So lacking hardware upgrades for netbook, Acer is looking at form factor "upgrades". And of course, it appears that tablet form factor sells well, so I would really be surprised to see computer manufacturer not trying to make some extra profit on that.

Good point, but if I understand correctly, the Photo app mirrors over AirPlay, so there's no practical reason why Keynote could not do the same, particularly as the new version of Keynote mirrors.

Right on! My thoughts exactly.

OK!

1) I set up my AirPort Express with a manual IP address: 11.1.1.1

2) I designated it as the router with the same IP Address: 11.1.1.1

3) I set the AppleTV to use the Airport Express.

4) I set the iPad to use the Airport express -- In order to reliably select the Airport Express I had to forget both networks on my Airport Extreme Dual. I think the reason is that these 2 have a more powerful signal and the iPad goes for signal strength.

5) Once forgotten, I had no trouble selecting the Airport Express. The "forgotten" networks still remain defined -- they just aren't scanned for a signal.

6) Streaming from the video app and the photos app worked as expected.

7) I unplugged and replugged the AppleTV and the Airport Express

8) when the AppleTV and Airport Express became active the re-recognized the Airport Express -- though I think is there is too long a delay waiting for the Airport Express, the AppleTV will just act as if no network is available. Then, you must reselect the Airport Express,

9) It doesn't look like the iPad automatically re-recognizes the Airport Express -- you have to re-select it..

10) But it works, and is reasonably straight-forward to set up -- If you have access to an HDMI port on the HDTV * and a couple of wall outlets, you should be able to setup in 5 minutes or less.

* Some HDTVs have a handy HDMI port on the side of the TV making this a no-brainer.

.

Here are some things I noticed while fiddling with AirPlay (normal setup -- nothing to do with portable ad hoc WiFi network):

1) Both videos app and photos app stop AirPlay when you exit the app (iPad). I swear, that before, I could exit the app, continue streaming in BG and surf the web, etc.

Edit: I had a lot of apps suspended on the iPad, including: NetFlix, Air Video, StreamToMe streamers. After shutting these down, I can AirPlay and surf -- this from my iPad while AirPlaying from the videos app.

But, I can't AirPlay a slideshow from the photos app and browse in the bg.


2) When videos app or photos app finish a stream, the AppleTV selection is reset and you must reselect it after initiating the next video or potots set -- seems like it should stay selected,

Edit: Now I am trying to play a series of Music Videos from the iPod app on the iPad -- to see if it will go from one to another without reselecting the AppleTV... Kinda' a video playlist. Nope! The iPod app works just like the videos and photos app -- a single stream, then quit playing and connection with AppleTV.

3) with videos app, on the inert iPad display (while streaming) if you scrub the video on the iPad, the scrubbed still scene is visible on both the iPad and the HDTV -- I like this, Maybe with a dual-core CPU, or better GPU, the iPad could play the video concurrently with AirPlaying it to the HDTV.

4) A full-length movie takes longer to start. 15-30 seconds, than a short video clip, 3-5 secongs.

5) I started AirPlaying a video on the iPad. Then started AirPlaying a second video from my iP4 (iPod app).

6) The iP4 started playing on the HDTV. But, the iPad video held the connection to the AppleTV

7) I was able to scrub through the video on the iPad and the HDTV would respond to the iPad and scrub to the relative position on the video being streamed from the iP4 -- this really looked weird.

6) it appears that any iDevice can start AirPlaying and usurp any existing AirPlay activity -- there is a password, but that's not robust enough,



I have a friend who is a singer/composer/songwriter -- she has made about 30 music videos. She has an iP4, but no iPad or AppleTV yet,

I think I will make a video of an iPad AirPlaying her repertoire to the AppleTV / HDTV.

It seems like the iPad/AirPlay/AppleTV would be a natural for creatives.

You should probably use one of these IP ranges since the one you chose is a routable IP thus causing the delay. it is trying to resolve it but can't find a wan.

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

These are reserved for just such a situation and no router will attempt to forward them.

Make sure you have no DNS hosts defined. 127.0.0.0 if it requires one.