The Toshiba Folio 100 Android Slate

 Computing  4 Responses »
Nov 062010
 

Well it’s here! An android slate that is – something I’ve been after for quite a while. And it turns out to be a Toshiba Folio 100. Perhaps not the best picture, but at least it hasn’t been stolen :-

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Hardware Thoughts

Supposedly some people thinks it feels cheap, well I can say it doesn’t. Admittedly there is a fair amount of plastic involved in the case, which is perhaps where the thoughts come from but it’s pretty good plastic. Perhaps it compares a little unfavourably with the Apple iPad or iPhone4, but for a half plastic device it’s not bad at all. The back is textured plastic which is perhaps a slightly dated design feature, but it does mean the slate feels less likely to slip out of your hands – that iPhone experience of the slick metal and glass (for the iPhone4) and slick plastic (for earlier iPhones) feels good out of the box, but most people end up sticking it inside a case and the need to feel it securely in your hands is at least part of the reason for the case.

The back is slightly smaller than the front, which makes it look a tad slimmer than it really is, but the thinner edge makes it easier to hold onto the device. The 25cm screen sits within a larger area leaving a 2cm border around the device. Again a slightly dated design feature, but it does mean that when you hold it with your thumb on the top surface for a more secure grip, you don’t obscure any part of the screen.

The top of the bezel holds the tiny lens for the built-in webcam and a hole for the microphone. The right edge holds in order, a battery/power light, and a series of four touch sensitive buttons which are quite possibly just sensitive areas of the touchscreen – the LCD panel doesn’t extend to the edge of the device, but the glass of the touchscreen does. The top edge holds the only physical buttons – an on/off switch, and a volume control rocker switch. The on/off switch feels a little loose, which isn’t good, but the volume buttons seem to work fine.

Connectors can be found on the right edge and bottom edge with some covered by rubber covers. After having seen so many devices that recharge through a USB connection, it seems oddly old-fashioned that Toshiba have included a conventional powerbrick to plug into an old-style proprietary power-jack. This is one place where being dated is not good – why not use the USB ports for power like everyone else ?

Without commenting on the software (yet!), in use the device works pretty well. The screen is nice and clear; the touchscreen is pretty responsive and accurate although there’s always room for improvement. The only oddity is those touch sensitive buttons on the right – they sometimes seem reluctant to activate. Of course the screen is both reflective and subject to getting greasy fingerprints on it.

The Software

Before I start making any comments, please be aware of two things that may influence my comments :-

  1. I haven’t used an Android device before so I won’t be aware of how this device compares in use to other devices. Plus of course nobody (according to Google) is supposed to be using the current Android builds for tablets!
  2. My home Wifi network is especially flaky so some problems may have been down to this.

The Toshiba may be running Android 2.2 but it isn’t quite the full Google experience – there are no Google applications, and the real Android Marketplace isn’t there. Of course Toshiba has bundled in some applications to get started with, including it’s own Marketplace application, but it would be nice to have a choice. What is missing from the bundled applications is a map viewer (admittedly this would have to be manually driven given the lack of a GPS unit, but even so), and a game or two. It may also be sensible to have a more obvious “widget” on the home screen(s) to lead into a quick overview of the device. And please explain the different power lights in that quick overview!

The Marketplace. Well it looks fine at first glance, but is a little flaky in operation. It is subject to frequent crashes, and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot in it – for instance where is the Kindle app? And what there is in there seems to be very haphazardly arranged with some rather startling choices of categories.

Ok, perhaps Toshiba have restricted apps to things that will work well on the Folio which would explain the limited numbers. Well, no. At least two of the apps I downloaded turned out to restrict themselves to a phone-sized display which looks very silly. I could understand that sort of thing on the main Android Marketplace as Android slates are so new, but in Toshiba’s “walled garden” ?

The photo above shows that at least some applications originally written for a phone-sized display work “correctly” on the larger screen of a slate, although perhaps resulting in a somewhat humorous result. Although I can imagine some people would find calculators with such big buttons useful. What Toshiba needs to do is :-

  1. Debug their marketplace app so it doesn’t crash (and doesn’t have so many issues with long lists of apps!).
  2. Restrict apps in their marketplace to those apps that work well on the Folio, and categorise them much more carefully.
  3. Allow the use of the standard Android Marketplace – perhaps with the addition of a quality warning screen. Or indeed with an option in the settings to allow it’s use.

Despite claims that this device supports Flash, the Youtube experience shows that it isn’t quite there yet – you get a screen saying you need to upgrade your version of Flash. There was a slip of paper put into the box telling me to check the Toshiba Multimedia website for a Flash download, which doesn’t seem to be there. But why can’t the Flash update be included into the standard update mechanism ? This all has the feel of a slightly rushed product. In some ways this is fair enough, providing that there are frequent updates online (through the “Toshiba Service Station”).

Over a few days, my initial impression of it being a little rushed have been reinforced – there after frequent crashes of the Toshiba applications, and the system has a habit of slowing down to a crawl from time to time. The only update that has been provided so far has been to the Toshiba Marketplace application – which didn’t come through the “Service Station” app, and that has made things worse. Now there are no applications available at all!

Apparently Dixons have gotten so many returns, that they are effectively refusing to sell any more (see the article from The Register). Toshiba needs to buck up it’s ideas pretty quickly here. Even if it is just an update to :-

  1. Provide the standard Marketplace application.
  2. Provide an option to remove all of the added Toshiba applications.
  3. Provide an explanation that the Toshiba branded applications are being temporarily removed for quality issues.

At the very least they need to send out a message either on the device itself, or via an email to urge customers to apologise, be patient and announce expected dates when updates will be provided.

Final Words

Well, even after the long awaited update the Toshiba software was still sub-standard. The best option for anyone who hasn’t lost patience and returned their Folio is a community-hacked up ROM.

Will We Get A Better UK Plug ?

 Computing, General  No Responses »
Oct 262010
 

The UK plug (for connecting to electrical outlets) is kind of big and awkward. Dating back to 1947, it may well be one of the safest standards for electrical outlets out there, but is beginning to look a little dated. With the increased use of electrical devices, it would be nice to see some improvement to the plug to make it a little more slimline. Indeed with portable electrical devices (such as laptops) the large size of the plug has become inconvenient – when I pack my backpack for work a little fuller than normal, I sometimes find myself leaving the plug outside (peaking out of the top!).

Of course with any new plug design, there is the problem of what to do with the existing sockets in the wall – rewiring a house for a new style of plug is a little unrealistic!

As it happens, someone has come up with a new design that looks pretty good. It is a foldable plug – itself not a new concept, but this one allows operation in either folded mode, or unfolded. So it can be used in a conventional outlet, or folded up and plugged into an adapter.

Unfortunately this product isn’t available as yet, but the rumour is that it should appear towards the end of 2010 … which we’re rapidly approaching! Keep an eye on the company’s website:- MadeInMind

Thoughts On The New Apple Macbook Air

 Computing  No Responses »
Oct 232010
 

I have not had the opportunity to fiddle with one, but if Apple wants to send me one to review I am more than willing to do that! But I do have a few thoughts on the new Macbook Air. Both the 11″ one and the 13″ one. If you want something closer to a review (although nobody has had one long enough to review it properly) you can do worse than have a look at this article.

It is amusing to see the reactions to various articles published on the new Air from the “Apple is Satan” crowd, and the “Apple can do no wrong” crowd. Both as it happens are wrong.

If you look at the raw specifications of the Air – especially the 11″ model, you will see something that looks more or less like a netbook. Which of course it cannot be because Steve Jobs thinks netbooks are snake oil and useless at that. In fact it is a little bit better than that – the CPU is a little quicker, the graphics are a little better supported with a faster chipset, and there is a touch less storage (unless you go for the really expensive 256Gbyte model!).

So it’s just a very expensive netbook then ? Well, more or less. It fills roughly the same need – most people are not going to use one of these as their main machines, but will carry them around as ultra-portables. That is the kind of mobile computer you can take anywhere but once you are at your desk it sits in the drawer whilst you use a “proper computer”.

Sure the CPU is a little light-weight, but a couple of years ago a Core2Duo CPU was fine enough to get Real Work Done, so it’s still perfectly adequate to do a bit of light word processing on the train, throw up a presentation on a screen, do a little light web browsing during a boring meeting (ps: I never do this), and of course perfectly adequate for running kermit to connect to a Cisco router whilst balanced on top of a boring blue box.

Most of the compromises made in the specification are to get the size and weight of the laptop down to increase portability – that’s what a laptop is for after all! If you want power, go back to your desktop.

There is a fair amount of criticism around the cost of the Air being as it is very much more expensive than most netbooks. So ? Apple is hardly known for tackling the low end of the market where margins are small, so it is hardly surprising that things have not changed here. And of course this machine has a better specification than any netbook, whilst retaining the characteristic that Apple thinks is important in a netbook – portability.

Of course Apple is hardly perfect. Why must the battery and the SSD be fixed ? And why is there no possibility of swapping out the memory ? Whilst making these devices swappable may well make the laptop just a bit bigger and a bit heavier, it won’t be enough to ruin the portability, and will be a lot greener.

There is of course the usual criticism of Apple that their UK prices are over inflated compared to their US prices. To do a fair comparison, lets take a look :-

Cheapest Air on the US Apple Store $999
Cheapest Air on the UK Apple Store £849
US price in pounds where exchange rate is according to Wolfram Alpha £636.89
Plus UK “sales tax” (VAT) at 20% (to start in January 2011) £764.27
Penalty to UK purchasers for buying Apple £85

So why are we paying that extra £85 ?

We all know that laptop batteries fade over time to eventually give such a short running time to make the laptop unusable as a portable device. And of course circumstances change so you may suddenly need more than 64Gbytes of storage to get your work done on the move – or you just have to run a virtual machine because work has come up with the Ultimate Application that only runs under Windows, so you need a touch more memory.

Or heck, perhaps you just want to give your laptop a midlife upgrade to make it a bit quicker.

Apple want us all to throw away our old products and buy new ones – very capitalistic, but not very green.

And for all those pro-Apple and anti-Apple people out there who get so wound up by product announcements by Apple, please grow up and get a life! It’s a laptop; not a revolutionary change in the way that humanity exists.

Desktops, Laptops, Netbooks, and Slates

 Computing  No Responses »
Oct 052010
 

It is always funny reading articles trying to gaze into the future of computing especially when they start trying to figure out the form factor of future computers. The “desktop is dead, long live the laptop”, the sudden emergence and roaring success of the netbook, the gradual improvement in specification and increase in price of the netbook to encroach on laptop territory.

And of course the “new thing” – the slate (I refuse to call it the silly name that Applie chose).

Everything we read leads us to believe that this is going to beat that and there is no market for this other thing. The truth of the matter is that there is no reason why there should not be a reasonable market for all the different form factors.

For instance, I own and use :-

  • Two desktop machines (one dedicated to server duty)
  • A work-provided laptop for heavy duty work on the move.
  • A netbook for a portal “toolbox”.
  • An ‘all-in-one’ that sits on my coffee table and serves as a web browser for in front of the TV. Quite possibly to be replaced with a slate once decent 10″ Android slates start appearing.

Now I’m an extreme example, and it is unlikely that normal people would want all that. But it is quite possible the average family might, or even more.

But even more importantly, someone who has a desktop machine at home (and work) probably doesn’t need a powerful laptop, but may find a netbook useful. Or someone with a powerful laptop may not want a netbook, but may find a slate useful for random bits in front of the TV.

Different people have different preferred ways of interacting with computers. And the market is now large enough to provide different environments. So whilst the slate may eat away at the market share of netbooks, as indeed laptops have taken market share from desktops, there is no ‘death of the netbook’ coming anytime soon.

Retail Therapy – Online and In The High Street

 Computing, General  No Responses »
Sep 262010
 

This is a collection of a few thoughts mostly in relation to online shopping – I’ve been doing it for quite a while now; for over 10 years.

Online Shopping

There are two kinds of online shopping – those items that you really want and are prepared to go to the extra effort of finding, and those items that you’ll pick up online if it is convenient.

It seems that nearly all online retailers  want to build a relationship with their customers; complete with yet another username and password to remember, and yet more promotional emails cluttering up our inboxes, Frankly many of us do not want a relationship with the people who sell us stuff – we just want the stuff.

The effect of this, is that many of us have a tendency to stick with a relatively few online retailers (think Amazon), and only build new “relationships” when the special purchase crops up. This gives smaller retailers and those new to the marketplace a bit of a disadvantage. Although I would naturally prefer smaller retailers rather than the huge multi-nationals, I would rather not go through the hassle of creating a new account with a new retailer and deal with a bunch more “near spam“.

Plus of course there are people who are more cautious about online purchases who might stick to the larger online retailers as a way of avoiding risk.

What would benefit both the consumers and the smaller retailers is some sort of ‘meta-retailer’ who deals with the authentication, the “near spam” (by sending out a single digest collecting together multiple messages once a week please!), and serves as a clearing house for complaints. You might immediately think of eBay (or Amazon itself), which resembles what I have in mind, but the weighting is in favour of the ‘meta retailer’ rather than the business actually doing the selling.

As an example of what I have in mind, think of a retailer like Blacks (with whom I have a “relationship” for buying boots every few years). Whilst the process of choosing what to buy would be the same – by visiting the retailer’s website and picking out the chosen products, the process of buying would be different. You would select “Buy Now” which would take you to a different website, where you would authenticate using a username and password used for all the retailers who choose this service.

Such a service would benefit the smaller retailers by encouraging their use, and benefit the consumers who want reassurance and less hassle.

Delivery

Delivery of online purchases needs to be fixed. Some of the companies that perform deliveries are less than competent. I’ve taken days off work to wait in for deliveries only to be left sitting in my flat all day without a delivery being made.  And often when such deliveries fail to appear, the delivery company is less than flexible about making alternative arrangements – for example refusing to making a second delivery attempt on a Saturday requiring me to take a second day off, or insisting that the goods are returned (which I have done, and encourage others to do when the delivery company tries to pull a fast one).

There are two immediate solutions that come to mind :-

  • Firstly, online grocery shopping is often delivered in a way that all deliveries should be made – you get to choose a time slot when the delivery would be made. I would much rather have a window between 18:00-20:00 in three days time than a next day delivery “sometime” when I’m at work.
  • Secondly, retailers should offer a choice of delivery agent. I know which delivery companies are good and bad in my area, and I would always choose the Royal Mail (or Parcelforce) if given the choice as even when they fail to make a delivery, the package can be left at my local post office which happens to be conveniently close.

The High Street

Some people like shopping on the high street in genuine bricks and mortar shops where you can touch and feel what is on offer. Fair enough, but there are those who hate it too. In addition, the high street is under threat from online shopping which offers a greater choice, and more convenience … especially for those who do not like shopping on the high street.

What strengths does the high street offer to give it an advantage over online shopping ?

First of all, there is the possibility of getting something right now. If I need a pair of socks urgently (!), then I need to pop into a shop and get a pair suitable for my size of feet (12). I don’t need a wide variety of socks to choose from – I need an ordinary pair of socks in my size.

Reduce the variety of socks available slightly and introduce a proper range of ordinary socks in all sizes. So what if the size 12 socks don’t sell in great quantities ? An occasional sale will serve as good publicity and keep people coming back to the high street. And who knows ? Whilst buying my size 12 socks I might pick up a silk scarf at the same time.

Secondly there is the ‘touch & feel’ factor. In many cases, it is possible to deliver goods from a distant warehouse at a later date or time leaving the shop as a showroom for the goods on sale. This especially works for larger goods – TVs, washing machines, and the like. But could work equally well for smaller items given that a shop with less storage has more room for goods on display.

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