Nvidia Tegra Tab Specs Leaked via FCC Documents

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chumly

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Am I the only one who feels like Android is a step in the wrong direction? It's a PHONE OS. It simply cannot do what Windows does (or even Apple OS for that matter) as far as what I personally want from a device in terms of performance capability and security.

nVidia is not competing with a market, they're buying into it. With all of the AMAZING things they can do with graphics, it surprises me that they're willing to build on a platform that is 10 years in the past.
 

teh_chem

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The forward-firing speakers are literally the only thing I care much about in this device. Otherwise it's not really any better (or worse) than other tablets you can already get. Nvida is going to need some mega-marketing or some uber-competitive pricing for this to gain much traction, since the tablet market is already pretty competitive and chock full of device options.
 

teh_chem

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What are you expecting in terms of performance capability and security?

Android's advantage is its vulnerability--a "free" and "open" (yes, in quotes for a reason--it's neither free nor totally open) OS that "anyone" can put on a device. You're not locked into one device manufacturer, so it properly fosters competition. On the other hand, you're at the mercy of whomever you get your device from, and no one is really making any efforts for equal user experience or security across the entire "android" platform. But I would not call it any less secure or incapable of delivering performance than iOS. On the contrary, I think 4.1+ is quite a bit ahead of iOS in very many areas.

Relative to windows tablets, which are more-tuned for productivity, android faulters. While they can be used for taking notes and composing documents, most android tablets have horrible user experiences for productivity. Google Doc's (Drive) is actually pretty good for document creation and editing, but it still requires an internet connection on Android. But I don't think android tablets are typically marketed as productivity devices, so those who buy them are already knowledgeable of this point, and generally use them as mobile media consumption/entertainment devices.

Though I didn't buy one, I'm hopeful for the next revisions of MS's surface tablets. I think bay trail atoms will be a great addition to this space, and I think Surface RT (if it does get a refresh), will benefit greatly from the improved SoC's after Tegra3 (which was another lackluster release). I think Surface can be the proper marriage of entertainment/media as well as productivity. Just get rid of that dumb goddamn kickstand and magnetic base attachment, and get a proper docking keyboard with a secondary battery.
 

Android is Linux. A cut-down version of Linux with an even more restrictive GUI, but it's Linux. If you grab a terminal emulator app from the Play store, you can get a Linux command prompt with most of the Unix command line tools available.

So conceivably, with some work, Android can do anything Linux can do. Which is a whole lot more than what iOS or even Windows can do. For that reason I think it's a good choice for the future. As phone processors become faster and more sophisticated, the huge library of open source Linux tools could eventually be ported to Android. (Course we need GCC to be ported first...)
 

chumly

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...and this is why everyone uses Linux. Right? Oh wait... No one uses Linux. And it's FREE. What's that tell you about Linux? "With some work" doesn't do anything for me right now.
 

teh_chem

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To be fair, most people don't use linux because it isn't pushed in their face with the purchase of every personal computer since the 80's like Windows was. Most people don't "pay" for windows (though technically the cost of the OS is built into the sale price of a computer)--psychologically, it's just as "free" as if they had linux.

Regardless, this android = linux statement is horribly overblown. Android is android. It has its own code and libraries (separate from core linux--Google has its own proprietary code in android that it retains as proprietary and does not make available under "open" platform ideals). It also has its own support and app/development ecosystem. Having used linux to build it doesn't equate it to linux, and linux's qualities don't necessarily transfer to android's qualities. It's just a fact of the matter that tablets gained traction as recreational devices, not productivity-replacement devices. You still never specified what is so insecure about Android vs. any of the other operating systems you can choose from.
 

Vladislaus

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What makes a OS linux is the kernel, independently of the app ecosystem, and libraries. So as long Android continues to use the Linux Kernel, it will be a Linux OS.
 

teh_chem

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So does that make OSX unix? No, it's OSX, even though it was built upon unix. Like android, it integrates its own code into the core. Change that, and it's no longer unix or linux. Regardless, the point was that correlation the person was trying to make is not true; the perceived down-sides of desktop linux do not necessarily transfer to android because they're completely different platforms; regardless of what they were built upon.
 

Vladislaus

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Actually Apple is a Unix system. They themselves have stated this quite a few times, but not because of the kernel. Unix isn't an OS anymore, it's a collection of standard. If a system complies completely with the Single UNIX Specification, then it's a UNIX system, which is the case of Mac OS X, Solaris,...
 

Filiprino

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The number of ROPs haven't been disclosed. People is saying it has 64 ROPs, which is awesome given the target resolution and increase in TMUs.
 
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