Samsung Launches Galaxy Note 10.1 With Impressive Features(techpp.com)
techpp.com
Samsung Launches Galaxy Note 10.1 With Impressive Features
http://techpp.com/2012/08/06/samsung-galaxy-note-10-1/
9 comments
Good on Samsung for continuing the trend Lenovo seems to have started of bringing the digitizer pen back. The fact that people are buying aftermarket styli for devices that don't have pens is an indicator that there should be more devices with them, since nothing really beats an actual digitizer pen. To me it seemed like a step backward when Steve Jobs first asked "Who wants a stylus?" at the iPhone keynote.
IMO, at the time, he had to say that. If Apple had promoted an optional stylus on an iPhone, the UI would either not have been usable without one, or have been derided as 'a toy; they could have made fit more on a screen'.
Also, once the App Store opened, I think we would have seen a zillion straightforward ports of applications that did not work with a finger at all.
Now, times may have changed. Perhaps, customers are savvy enough to see which apps work nicely with fingers, and which require a stylus.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people who wonder whether Microsoft makes the right choice with Surface, giving developers the choice between TUFKAM (The UI formerly known as Metro) and supplying straight ports of Windows apps.
Also, once the App Store opened, I think we would have seen a zillion straightforward ports of applications that did not work with a finger at all.
Now, times may have changed. Perhaps, customers are savvy enough to see which apps work nicely with fingers, and which require a stylus.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people who wonder whether Microsoft makes the right choice with Surface, giving developers the choice between TUFKAM (The UI formerly known as Metro) and supplying straight ports of Windows apps.
Steve also removed the arrow keys from the original Mac keyboard to force developers to support the mouse, then put them back later.
Steve also said that native apps weren't needed because Web apps would be just as good.
Steve also said that native apps weren't needed because Web apps would be just as good.
I thought jobs was right to slam the stylus and still is because stylus (at least in my mind) isn't the same thing as a digitizer pen like a wacom.
When i hear stylus I think of a tiny plastic pen that exists because interface designers didn't want to know how to make finger friendly ui and hardware. At the time there had been many devices (anyone remember the ipaq?) where users were stuck in tap the tiny menu options with a plastic stick hell and I think that's what jobs was rightly slamming.
But a true pressure and tilt sensitive pen in addition to touch is a fantastic idea. Browsing, viewing, navigating are much better done with touch but writing and drawing can be better with a pen. There's a reason the masterworks of art aren't all finger paintings. Sometimes an intermediate tool is best but only in the right context.
When i hear stylus I think of a tiny plastic pen that exists because interface designers didn't want to know how to make finger friendly ui and hardware. At the time there had been many devices (anyone remember the ipaq?) where users were stuck in tap the tiny menu options with a plastic stick hell and I think that's what jobs was rightly slamming.
But a true pressure and tilt sensitive pen in addition to touch is a fantastic idea. Browsing, viewing, navigating are much better done with touch but writing and drawing can be better with a pen. There's a reason the masterworks of art aren't all finger paintings. Sometimes an intermediate tool is best but only in the right context.
> The fact that people are buying aftermarket styli for devices that don't have pens
Are you sure about that? My completely unscientific anecdote is that people buy the galaxy note for it's size, but end up never using the stylus at all. I see a lot of galaxy notes in the wild, but never seen someone who actually used the pen. People usually tell me they tried, found it terrible and gave up.
Are my anecdotes too off? Are you guys seeing something different? Maybe someone has some good data on this?
Are you sure about that? My completely unscientific anecdote is that people buy the galaxy note for it's size, but end up never using the stylus at all. I see a lot of galaxy notes in the wild, but never seen someone who actually used the pen. People usually tell me they tried, found it terrible and gave up.
Are my anecdotes too off? Are you guys seeing something different? Maybe someone has some good data on this?
People are buying styli. The Kagi Stylus is popular on the train I ride to work. I saw someone using one on their ipad with Notable and I asked her where she got it (it has a clear disk on the end so it feels more precise) and she said ebay. Right from China to your mailbox. But it turns out that this type of styli is hard to come by otherwise. In my email exchanges with the vendor they claimed they were selling thousands of them, but I would not expect them to say 'hardly any' so its not solid data, Ebay's 'how many are left' on their buy it now auctions were starting at 100 and working their way down to 0 pretty quickly (a few days).
That said, one of the things I really liked about the iREX Illiad (RIP) is that it used an honest to god Wacom stylus digitizer. That can capture tilt, pressure, and doesn't require a conductive connection between your finger and the tip. I've argued for a while that blending the two would provide a really useful combination.
The Wacom only allowed single touch so using capacitive touch as 'modifier' keys would allow for combined intent+action type things.
That said, one of the things I really liked about the iREX Illiad (RIP) is that it used an honest to god Wacom stylus digitizer. That can capture tilt, pressure, and doesn't require a conductive connection between your finger and the tip. I've argued for a while that blending the two would provide a really useful combination.
The Wacom only allowed single touch so using capacitive touch as 'modifier' keys would allow for combined intent+action type things.
Sure, AmazonBasics has a capacitive stylus that several iPad owners I know use, and my point was that this is a much less elegant solution than, say, this device or the ThinkPad tablet, which are designed for use with actual pens. I also know a number of ThinkPad tablet users all of whom love the pen and bought the device specifically for this purpose.
Can those pens work on other tablets as well, as long as the software/driver there supports it? Because I really wish Samsung started selling them off as accessories, at the very least for their other Galaxy/Nexus devices. The thing is I might want to use a pen like that, but with a Nexus tablet for example.
No, digitizer technology is built into the tablet itself as well as requiring a special pen.
Looking at the "note taking" screenshot, their virtual keyboard style is shameless.
Screenshot: http://cdn.techpp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Capture1.jp...
Screenshot: http://cdn.techpp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Capture1.jp...
Android has got a bazillion time superior keyboard than Apple's, not to mention other choices. Samsung just wants to continue game of lawsuits.
...not to mention the automatic typesetting of the handwritten diff. eq.
what do you mean by that?
I think he means it resembles iPad's keyboard to the unexperienced eyes[1]: light keys on a gray background, "blue" glow on shift key, essentially the same (though much uglier) graphic for 'delete' key and placing '!' on top of ',' just like iPad's (they have a number row at top; why didn't they add it to '1' key like all other keyboards on the planet have done for the past 4 decades? and they have lots of keys on that gigantic keyboard, why didn't they add the much-used quotation marks and went with just adding '?' and '!'?).
[1]: experienced eyes will spot readily that it's much uglier, and waaay less polished.
[1]: experienced eyes will spot readily that it's much uglier, and waaay less polished.
Well, everybody ripped off everybody, it's just the fault of the patent system
Not true. The last stock keyboard for Android doesn't resemble any other I know. Nor does the Windows Phone 7 / Windows 7 one.
This "there's no other way to do an X" argument is getting really tiring. I don't really care about this Apple vs Samsung nonsense (let the judge decide) but i think theres pretty strong evidence that you can do innovative and creative design if you put yourself to the task.
This "there's no other way to do an X" argument is getting really tiring. I don't really care about this Apple vs Samsung nonsense (let the judge decide) but i think theres pretty strong evidence that you can do innovative and creative design if you put yourself to the task.
They ripped off Apple's significantly contrasting, virtually elevated, rounded-corner button invention.</sarcasm>
Well, they did. And I say that as someone who really dislikes Apple.
That keyboard looks like someone took the iPad keyboard and beat it with an ugly stick a little bit. What makes this especially sad is that the default Android keyboard is really good and they should have just used that, but in an attempt to "differentiate" they basically just badly copied the iPad.
As much as I dislike Apple for the current lawsuit mess, I'm starting to dislike Samsung just as much because unlike most of the rest of the Android ecosystem Samsung clearly DO have a problem with badly copying Apple's design elements to a confusingly similar degree which gives an unfortunate truth to at least some of Apple's claims which then makes it harder for the layman to see when Apple is overstepping.
Fix your shit, Samsung. Hire a couple of real designers.
That keyboard looks like someone took the iPad keyboard and beat it with an ugly stick a little bit. What makes this especially sad is that the default Android keyboard is really good and they should have just used that, but in an attempt to "differentiate" they basically just badly copied the iPad.
As much as I dislike Apple for the current lawsuit mess, I'm starting to dislike Samsung just as much because unlike most of the rest of the Android ecosystem Samsung clearly DO have a problem with badly copying Apple's design elements to a confusingly similar degree which gives an unfortunate truth to at least some of Apple's claims which then makes it harder for the layman to see when Apple is overstepping.
Fix your shit, Samsung. Hire a couple of real designers.
Nah, I think it looks and functions as much like iOS keyboards as it does my G1's physical keys: http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/files/2008/09/android-open.jp...
Maybe even the G1 took hints from iOS, but I'd be dubious to believe Apple created or holds any merits over much of their design(s). Does Samsung lift Apple designs? I think so. Does Apple own much of the designs they have legal documents over? I think not.
I don't believe this is about confusing customers; I think it is about closing the gap with customer awareness. I'd love for most of these interfaces to share common grounds; I think it is a large reason to why Windows, OSX, and GNU/Linux <insert GUI> are so fragmented and unfamiliar to those that have to or are looking to move between platforms.
Maybe even the G1 took hints from iOS, but I'd be dubious to believe Apple created or holds any merits over much of their design(s). Does Samsung lift Apple designs? I think so. Does Apple own much of the designs they have legal documents over? I think not.
I don't believe this is about confusing customers; I think it is about closing the gap with customer awareness. I'd love for most of these interfaces to share common grounds; I think it is a large reason to why Windows, OSX, and GNU/Linux <insert GUI> are so fragmented and unfamiliar to those that have to or are looking to move between platforms.
I'd rather not focus on this because the video showed off some great features, but when the keyboard first came up I honestly thought it was an iPad keyboard (this coming from someone who doesn't own a single Apple product). Maybe it was the colors, or maybe it was the positioning of the punctuation, but this is just an invitation for more lawsuits. I really wish they would have kept the stock Android keyboard.
Sadly, the resemblance of the keyboard is going to be what generates the most discussion, not the new (and very impressive) features.
Sadly, the resemblance of the keyboard is going to be what generates the most discussion, not the new (and very impressive) features.
He means it looks like a total rip-off of some fruit company
I'm guessing that it refers to the similarity to the iOS keyboard look and feel.
Really interesting that the resolution is only 1280x800. This is just a little more than the 1280x720 resolution of my Samsung Galaxy S III phone.
It's also identical to the 5.3" Galaxy Note phone.
It's odd to me that no one seems to be noting that the video doesn't show a single second of actual use. It's all mockups and pre-rendered scenes. Is that not extremely concerning to the commenters saying that they already want to buy one?
Speaking as someone who does want to buy one, I am concerned that the video didn't include any actual use. That being said, I've tried out the original Galaxy Note several times. As long as the new one is a step up in terms of responsiveness and pen performance (which seems likely, though not guaranteed) I will be more than satisfied. On the other hand, I'm also not buying one until I can try it out for myself.
I understand strategically why Steve Jobs stood on stage and slammed the stylus, but I never really understood the practicality of being against a stylus. For many people, quickly jotting notes is natural, quick and easy.
I've spent a lot of time with Windows Tablet PCs and latency issues aside, they have excellent recognition capabilities, even reading my slop. Aside from latency, it would also help to get the digitizer physically closed to the actual display elements.
I'd kill for an iPad with a truly high-resolution digitizer. It would finally replace carrying a thin stack of index cards everywhere.
I've spent a lot of time with Windows Tablet PCs and latency issues aside, they have excellent recognition capabilities, even reading my slop. Aside from latency, it would also help to get the digitizer physically closed to the actual display elements.
I'd kill for an iPad with a truly high-resolution digitizer. It would finally replace carrying a thin stack of index cards everywhere.
The pinch-shrink keyboard might even top the different-sized keyboards built into webOS. Samsung has some innovative UI stuff going on in that video.
Love the stylus. I remember being able to enter text onto my iPaq about 10 years ago much faster than I can on my phone or tablet today. This brings tablets a step closer to being devices of creation as much as consumption. Call me a nerd, but I want to write code on this.
I wont buy Samsung again. I still feel burnt by my purchase of a 7" GTP1000. The hardware is great but the software feels unpolished, laggy and really ugly in places.
At the time I was expecting Samsung would follow Apples lead and ship updates for years to come. Instead... nothing.
I'm going to stick with Apple from now on.
At the time I was expecting Samsung would follow Apples lead and ship updates for years to come. Instead... nothing.
I'm going to stick with Apple from now on.
Has a price been released yet?
Not just a price... http://negrielectronics.com/samsung-gt-n8000-galaxy-note-10-...
$750 (list $800) for a 16 GB 3G version.
$750 (list $800) for a 16 GB 3G version.
http://www.nu.nl/gadgets/2877081/galaxy-note-101-week-koop.h... claims €479 for Wifi-only, and €599 for 3G.