Asus Transformer Prime vs iPad2 ?

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Steve CDN

Steve CDN

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Considering my first venture into a Tablet.  Have been reading the "Rave Reviews"  as well as the Comparison of Specs for the Asus TP vs iPad 2 vs. Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet and feel there is a good case to be made for the Asus tablet.

Based on your experiences with tablets, what advice would you give?

Is there anything about an Android Tablet that should cause concern?

For example:
The Transformer Prime won?t come with the latest and greatest Android software (4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box. It comes with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and Asus says that it?s going to get Ice Cream Sandwich at some point.
Click to expand...

Asus homepage
 
There are reasons the iPad dominates the tablet market - but then I am an Apple fan boy.
 
I've been also considering getting a tablet.  My son has a really nice Samsung Galaxy,  I wanted an Ipad2.  While researching I found out that there are somethings that I can do with my PC or Mac that I cannot do with a tablet.  My husband and I like to play online poker and you cannot download a site directly from the internet, it has to be part of the permissible apps that come with whichever tablet you buy.  I guess for those of you that only want to use the apps that come with the tablet be it Android or Apple this would work out for us it won't... So, for now I guess I'm staying with my computer.
 
Steve said:
And they would be......?
Click to expand...

They were first, but Android is gaining fast.  Amazon is selling a million Kindle Fires a week.

If you want a tablet and not just a color ebook reader then skip the Nook and Fire and get a full blown tablet.  I've read good reviews of the Asus Transformer, it's one of the top rated Android tablets today.  There is nothing that an iPad can do that an Android tablet can't for hundreds of $ less.  If I were in the market I would be looking very hard at the Transformer.
 
Thanks Ned!

How would I manage and / or transfer the music collection that is currently managed with iTunes on an Android tablet?

Because I don't have tablet experience, am I correct in my understanding that a the storage on a tablet is used primarily for apps, and that data is always stored in the cloud?

The Asus accepts an SD chip, and the dock has usb ports, which I presume can be used for data storage, right?

 
The tablet should have an SD card available for media storage.  You would use USB to copy over your entire music library to the tablet and it would then be available in the music player.  That's how I manage the music on my Droid.  Or you can use a program like Songbird to manage the music on the PC and to synchronize it with the tablet.  On my Bionic SD card I have a folder named Music and one named Photos and the appropriate apps find the files just fine.

While you could use Amazon's cloud music service, it's not necessary.  You're not locked into one way of doing things, as you would be with Apple.
 
If an app is advertised for use on an Android phone, can it be used on a wi-fi device such as the Asus?
 
I believe that any app written for Android will work on either a phone or tablet, assuming the version of Android is supported, but if it was targeted for a phone, it may not look good on the larger screen of a tablet.
 
Yes, the Android apps will work on both phones and tablets. A few are designated for only one or the other, usually based on screen size or shape rather than any software difference. I have an Android tablet (motorola Xoom) and an Android phone (Droid X) and use many of the same apps on both.  My Xoom is a wifi-only device and it readily connects to wifi networks for all communications.  The tablet also makes  a decent ereader, but only for use indoors.

Loading music is as simple as connecting to a computer and copying the files over to the tablet storage. But if you now manage all your musinc thru itunes, you can install the doubletwist app which bridges itunes to android devices.

It is NOT true that the tablet storage is mostly for apps. Any decent tablet should have 16GB or 32GB of storage, more than enough for the os, apps and a huge amount of data.  Better tablets will also have an SD card slot (typically a microSD) for both expansion and for portable data. Even most smartphones today have 8 GB, which will hold a lot of apps and data.
 
I bought a Android phone, but DW wanted an Ipad2.  IMHO now that I have played with both I would go for the android tablet in a heart beat.  The Ipad is nice, but because you are limited to the Apple store there are some apps that I wanted that cannot be used on the Ipad.  When time comes for me, I will more than likely get an android.
 
"Yes, the Android apps will work on both phones and tablets"

That is not true. Case in point. My scrabble app will work on my android phone. But there is not one for the xoom android tablet. They have not figured out how to get to work.

I have a few other apps that will not work on the xoom. 99% of the time i apps are updated first. 

You need to figure out how your going to use a tablet. If just for a reader. You can read kindle books on your pc, and not have to purchase a device.

Take some time and read through the app store, and android market. So you can make sure apps are available for what you plan on using a tablet for.
 
Another question that comes to mind is the internet browser. 

If I get, say the Asus TP, does it come with a proprietary browser that I must use, or are there alternative browsers that can be installed on Android tablets?

Do web pages see tablet browsers as mobile devices and consequently load the website in its mobile version?

What if the website doesn't have a mobile version?
 
There are several browsers for the Android platform, Firefox, Dolphin, Dolphin HD, even LastPass has a browser using their password storage.  Whether a web site recognizes a browser as being a mobile version depends on the information the browser sends to the web server.  On a tablet, viewing a web site in it's full format isn't too bad as you can use the pinch zoom feature to expand the display when needed.
 
What about email clients?

Do you have to check email using a web mail interface or are there Android POP3 email clients?  I monitor several email accounts I use for various purposes....are the email clients (if they exist) complex enought o monitor several accounts?
 
DW's Ipad2 is setup with my two email and her one email accounts.  All of them show up when we get mail.  So yes, you can have any number of email accounts attached to a single device.  Think of a tablet as a simpler and slightly dumber version of your desktop.  Once I figure out how to do a few more things on the tablet, I will probably give back the loaner desktop I am currently using and simply get another tablet to supplement my laptop.  Or turn the laptop into a desktop.
 
Android comes with built in Gmail as well as a very good email client for handling both POP3 and IMAP.  You can have as many email accounts as you like.  If you don't like the included email app, there are 3rd party apps available through the Market.
 
"Yes, the Android apps will work on both phones and tablets"

That is not true. Case in point. My scrabble app will work on my android phone. But there is not one for the xoom android tablet. They have not figured out how to get to work.
Click to expand...

Barb,
You may be out of date. There were some apps that had sensitivities to screen size several months ago, but those have been long since corrected. I have both Words with Friends and Wordfued running on my Xoom. And on my Droid as well.

But I didn't mean to claim that every single app works in both formats, or that the user would be equally happy with both. Of course there can be individual idiosyncracies when you have such a wide variety of platforms and apps. But I will venture that 99.9% work well on both tablets and smart phones.
 
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