Tablets Android tablets are dead

[sracer]

Android driving innovation from 2017 for Apple Stage Manager. Maybe Apple will adopt DeX-like feature next?

https://insights.samsung.com/2017/08/24/app-pair-a-new-way-to-do-more/

iOS/iPad OS is not structured to support something like DeX... but I do agree with you that Apple will take some incremental steps to mimic DeX-like functionality (in a kludgy way).

Although my current full size tablet is an iPad 9, my Galaxy Tab S6 (that I've passed on to my wife) w/DeX is amazing. There's more to DeX than overlapping windows. It's having a traditional (desktop OS) desktop as well. And there's the universally accessible filesystem that is integral to Android that is not available on iPad OS. It never will be.

With each incremental tweak Apple makes to iPad OS, the more convoluted the user experience becomes.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Waiting for Pixel Tablet to go along with my Pixel 6a. I love Google's Android.

Apple iPad is too locked down and boring.

I prefer Google-Free Android (AOSP) myself. Better battery life, better privacy (almost zero background data usage) and a lot of great built-in apps that never change UI every few days.

I would bank that the stripped down AOSP build running on my ZTE Cymbal is more private than GrapheneOS.

 

[exoticSpice]

With each incremental tweak Apple makes to iPad OS, the more convoluted the user experience becomes.

When someone does it well learn from them and copy it. Apple wants to "different" and thus iPadOS is the way it is.

When iPadOS first came out iPadOS 13 I loved it. Now it's a pain too much stuff to remember it's actually more confusing than an actual PC or Mac for me now.

I think Apple lost touch with what the iPad represents. A middle child to the iPhone and Mac. Also have you noticeing how buggy iOS and macOS are lately?

(Sure, Android 12 was buggy but that was because it truly was a total redesign so it was okay. Android 13 very stable and smooth now though)

Apple's software is in a fundamental crisis.

I would bank that the stripped down AOSP build running on my ZTE Cymbal is more private than GrapheneOS.

Yeah probably. Are you going to try the Pixel Tab with a stripped down AOSP?

 

[nickdalzell1]

Pixels are Google's version of Android with their crappy apps they keep killing and rebranding over and over again. No thanks.

I'm keeping my classic, 2011 and 2012 Galaxy Tabs and Notes. They can't kill WiFi to them like they killed connectivity to my old phones. I've just given up on smart tech.

I want no bloatware from Google so Pixel ain't even on my radar and I'm not consuming anymore. I'm keeping what I like and that's that. I don't see anything out there that's even an 'upgrade' in my eyes. Pixels lack expandable storage and IR blasters, two things my 2012 tablets have. Google keeps changing their apps and killing services left and right. To call their iteration of Android "AOSP" is a contradiction in terms. AOSP has little to nothing built into it (a browser, messages app, calendar, contacts, email, music player and settings at best. No package installer, no syncing capabilities, no app store). AOSP on my Cymbal is as bare bones as it gets. Results are a week long battery life, far more privacy, and less stress on my part. It's the simplicity of a RAZR V3i with the familiar UI of Android.

All I use tablets for is watching YouTube, Netflix, and reading ebooks. I don't need a 'modern' one to do that.

 

[Technerd108]

I don't agree with the recent comments on here. People are complaining about iPads and saying they are convoluted and that iPadOS is a mess. I just don't agree. Sure stage manager needs some serious work but it is the first iteration of having a better multi-tasking experience on a iPad. It will get better over time.

In my opinion Apple has lost it's way when it comes to trying to define what an iPad is. It will never be an all in one replacement for a laptop and it shouldn't even try to be and this is where I think things are going awry. The iPad was always supposed to be a companion device. Something to supplement you iPhone and use when a laptop was too cumbersome but not as a replacement for either device. That was the beauty of it for users and Apple. They could sell us another device on top of the phone and Mac's while we could use a device that could serve somewhere in the middle of our phone and laptop.

For creatives who like to draw digitally an iPad is one of the best choices out there and I think this is where Apple's focus should really be. Make it a better drawing tablet NOT an all in One. Make an iPad better at what MOST people use an iPad for. Better screen and even better speakers, better battery life, better pencil and latency, these are the things that really matter NOT stage manager.

However all the people complaining that the M1 chip and 8gb memory in an iPad Pro and Air or M2 are too much because the OS doesn't use all that power are just stupid in my opinion. It is like saying I don't want the fastest Snapdragon chip in my S8 tablet because I can't use all that power? Having everything run super fast and having way better graphics capability is great in iPadOS. Everything just flies and games are awesome. The M1/2 in an iPad is brilliant and I love it and I don't need multitasking beyond having 3 apps going at once. If I need more multitasking I will use a laptop or desktop for that.

I have an iPad air 5th gen and it is seriously the best iPad I have ever used. Everything is instantaneous and the software for my use has been super solid and reliable. Everything syncs effortlessly and I can message and make calls from my tablet when I am using it. Battery life could be better. The screen could be a little better like Pro-Motion, the speakers could be better although even with just two stereo speakers the sound is really good and loud.

Now my S8 tab has a better screen but no AR coating which sucks. The 120hz display is better. The quad speakers are louder but don't have as much bass. The Snapdragon 8 gen 1 is plenty fast and graphics are good. But the M1 is better and iPad OS has less glitches. I like both tablets a lot.

I think what is dead is Chrome OS. I had a few Chromebooks and my S8 works better. Sure I don't have Linux support and a full browser but for everything else the S8 is faster and works better. If I really need to multi-task Dex is not bad and better than Stage Manager. I really like Chromebooks but I find they are either too expensive for their specs or too crappy and cheap and there is no middle ground. Speakers usually suck. Battery life is average at best and android apps just don't work well a lot of the time.

So for now it is android and iPad and Windows and MacOS.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I never said iPad OS is a mess, I just don't like doing everything Apple's way. I can't use an older version of a specific app on iPad OS, and when they killed 32-bit support that EOL'd the ability to install many favorites from my purchases list on the app store. I also can't uninstall any updates to an app if I don't like the results. Cannot downgrade the iOS if I don't like the newer version

I can do all those things on an ancient Android tablet, even a modern one.

 

[Technerd108]

I never said iPad OS is a mess, I just don't like doing everything Apple's way. I can't use an older version of a specific app on iPad OS, and when they killed 32-bit support that EOL'd the ability to install many favorites from my purchases list on the app store. I also can't uninstall any updates to an app if I don't like the results. Cannot downgrade the iOS if I don't like the newer version

I can do all those things on an ancient Android tablet, even a modern one.

I don't like doing things any way I feel forced being Android or Apple. Samsung apps I can't uninstall is one. I can see your point to a point.

I don't know what tablet you are using but no modern Android Tablet allows you to go back to an older version that I know of just like iOS.

I believe the new Pixel 7 devices are 64 bit only so it is happening on Android too. Some Android apps also stop working if you have a device with old version of Android.

So I think most of your points apply to both platforms.

That being said I am not saying Apple is better and I do feel Android 13 at least on Samsung devices is a better update than iOS 16.

What I can't stand in iOS is the gesture support. It is a serious pain. You got to find the back arrow and depending on what you are doing that is not always easy. I love gesture support on Android just swipe. When I go back to my iPad or iPhone I sit there swiping and nothing happens and then I remember I am not in Android.

 

[Vegastouch]

I don't like doing things any way I feel forced being Android or Apple. Samsung apps I can't uninstall is one. I can see your point to a point.

I don't know what tablet you are using but no modern Android Tablet allows you to go back to an older version that I know of just like iOS.

I believe the new Pixel 7 devices are 64 bit only so it is happening on Android too. Some Android apps also stop working if you have a device with old version of Android.

So I think most of your points apply to both platforms.

That being said I am not saying Apple is better and I do feel Android 13 at least on Samsung devices is a better update than iOS 16.

What I can't stand in iOS is the gesture support. It is a serious pain. You got to find the back arrow and depending on what you are doing that is not always easy. I love gesture support on Android just swipe. When I go back to my iPad or iPhone I sit there swiping and nothing happens and then I remember I am not in Android.

You can uninstall updates on a app if you want or it isn't working well from a recent update. But if the app has bugs another update will soon follow.
I did this on my Pixel 7 when my camera wasn't working right from the box. During setup some apps updated
I uninstalled the update on the camera and it worked. Then the next day another update install and it's been fine.

 

[sinoka56]

Was considering an iPad but chose to get the Tab S8 due to the advantages for media consumption and emulator. I have an Android phone so no integration.

Advantages:
* Volume mixer (control the volume of each app).
* Multiple videos and audio sources. I have two videos playing but have the other one muted.
* Console emulation and side loading without AltStore workaround and JIT compiler, or paying $99 annual developer fee.

 

[Shanghaichica]

iOS/iPad OS is not structured to support something like DeX... but I do agree with you that Apple will take some incremental steps to mimic DeX-like functionality (in a kludgy way).

Although my current full size tablet is an iPad 9, my Galaxy Tab S6 (that I've passed on to my wife) w/DeX is amazing. There's more to DeX than overlapping windows. It's having a traditional (desktop OS) desktop as well. And there's the universally accessible filesystem that is integral to Android that is not available on iPad OS. It never will be.

With each incremental tweak Apple makes to iPad OS, the more convoluted the user experience becomes.

It still hasn’t sorted out its file structure after all these years. Saving a file on an iPad and retrieving it for later use is so frustrating.

I find android tablets to be better for productivity. They are straight forward and if you know how to use a PC you know how to use an android tablet or even an android phone. It’s shocking that as an iOS/iPad user I can assist my husband to save documents, retrieve, sign and send documents on his galaxy note phone in a matter of minutes. Yet the same task on my iPad would take significantly longer.

I started a new job earlier this year so had lots of documents to sign, fill out and return and let me tell you it was a nightmare on my iPad Pro. Took far longer than it should have done.

 

[jimimac71]

We aren't dead yet!
My Nokia T20 just updated today to Android 12 and the October Google Security update.
Some things look different. I use the Microsoft Launcher, so that part is the same.
For me, iPad has a few pluses. More apps rotate.
I removed the Apple apps as my 32 GB (iPad 2019) was almost full.
Okay, I do like the new Weather app for iPad. Would like to have it on Android.
On a day by day basis, iPad is just barely better than my T20.
I use a newspaper app to judge performance. It is resource hungry no matter what.
The app needs to adjust focus each time I move around a page or go to a new one.
iPad is just a little quicker.
I can do things with Android with ease. iPad, not as much.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I have owned pretty much every iPad made and owned several Android tablets. I have to say that at least Android tablets fair much better with less RAM than do iPad’s. My iPad with 2GB of RAM will reload like crazy where an Android tablet won’t. Safari is trash because it has problems with certain websites I go to.

I’m buying an M2 iPad Pro just so I can avoid these types of problems but Android to me somehow seems to avoid the problems the iPad‘s seem to suffer from. A couple of nights ago I was typing a comment on a website with nothing running in the background and the page just refreshed and I lost everything on the page. I nearly wanted to throw the iPad out the window.

 

[nickdalzell1]

My most used tablets are from 2011 and 2012. Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and 7.0, Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Note 8.0 LTE, (2012) and VisualLand 7" tablet (2011)

They're too old to get OS updates anyway and they're stuck in skeuomorphic land which is why I bought them. That's why I see lack of updates on Android as a feature and not a bug. They can't be flattened. But yes, you can downgrade the OS if you know root, and can even install unsupported builds (newer versions of Android, custom ROMs) and to an extent, even full mobile Linux. Try that with an iPad! Once I found out the hard way I couldn't undo iOS 7 on my iPad 3, I was done.

Recently I tried Apple again, with an iPad 6th Generation, and it's a nice enough device, but with 90% of my purchased games and apps not compatible due to losing 32-bit support, it makes me question 64-bit's purpose other than breaking a lot of excellent apps and games I loved that actually ran better on Apple hardware. So now if I want to play them again (the weren't made available on Android) I have to scour the internet for an old iPad 1 or 2, hoping they didn't get iOS 9, or 7, and retry the download/install. I can't find iPads that old yet. I'm still looking...

If Microsoft and Android can offer backward compatibility with 32-bit apps, why can't Apple? Darnit I hate futurists.

FYI the 'reloading' thing isn't due to RAM on Apple stuff. It's because even today iPads and iPhones don't truly multitask. They 'pause' apps in the background and they often reload or refresh on going back to them. Its jarring enough to be annoying. I remember when Android did that way way back in the 2.2/2.3 days because of RAM limits, but with Apple it's a feature, not a bug.

 

[jimimac71]

My Nokia T20 is running Android 12.
No big deal. Only one app is added.
I can't imagine using my tablet as a second screen.
My icons are round instead of square. Like that was worth waiting for.
Other things are different looking but if there are any OS improvements, I don't know what they are.
It's like I got a fresh coat of paint.

 

[ian87w]

I think what is dead is Chrome OS. I had a few Chromebooks and my S8 works better. Sure I don't have Linux support and a full browser but for everything else the S8 is faster and works better. If I really need to multi-task Dex is not bad and better than Stage Manager. I really like Chromebooks but I find they are either too expensive for their specs or too crappy and cheap and there is no middle ground. Speakers usually suck. Battery life is average at best and android apps just don't work well a lot of the time.

So for now it is android and iPad and Windows and MacOS.

ChromeOS imo is not dead, as it's not really intentioned to be an iPad competitor nor consumer facing. ChromeOS is Google's attempt to attack Microsoft from the enterprise and edu segment, where generic low-cost easily managed mini boxes/thin clients are often preferred. ChromeOS is surely gaining a huge foothold in education, especially since Google is offering Google classroom service as well. In my country, you can hardly find Chromebooks for sale at retail, but they're selling a ton of those through government contracts for schools.

And the after effects is highly beneficial for Google as well. Everybody is using Chrome browser. The brand and UI sticks and people want to use what they're familiar with. I mean a lot of mac and iPhone user in my country are using Google Chrome just because of the familiarity.

 

[nickdalzell1]

You know, I kinda feel sad for all the kids today who grew up with Chromebooks and smartphones in their faces at school and completely missed out on the charm of a lab full of //e's running Number Munchers, Odell Lake, Jenny's Journeys, and Oregon Trail

Tell me I'm not the only one who used to write the names of their crush on the Oregon Trail tombstones and hope they came across it in a later game? Or even better some of the 'memes' that were funny phrases we'd save on tombstones which showed up later on. The game 'remembered' previous losses like that.

 

[ian87w]

You know, I kinda feel sad for all the kids today who grew up with Chromebooks and smartphones in their faces at school and completely missed out on the charm of a lab full of //e's running Number Munchers, Odell Lake, Jenny's Journeys, and Oregon Trail

Tell me I'm not the only one who used to write the names of their crush on the Oregon Trail tombstones and hope they came across it in a later game? Or even better some of the 'memes' that were funny phrases we'd save on tombstones which showed up later on. The game 'remembered' previous losses like that.

View attachment 2112707

What should be done is educating/teaching these kids on the history of computing and tech. How things work and evolve through time, so they can appreciate what they have today and understand how we get to where we are today tech wise.

But most people simply ignores that and only yell "get off my lawn" at the kids while reminiscing the "good old days" without contributing their experience to the younger generation, leaving them at the beholden of the mega corps like Google.

Sorry, OT. Just need to get it off my chest.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I feel it's the reverse. Kids today don't have the attention span to play Oregon Trail at all. Thanks to smartphones and instant gratification, anything that's over 5 years old is ancient history to them. I still lament that they will never get the enjoyment they could. I always feel I missed out on a ton--I never saw Pink Floyd in concert, never witnessed Woodstock, and so on. While I can incorporate the 1960s into my home via vintage tech and interior design, I cannot experience a time I didn't exist in. Oh how I wish I could.

I tried to show my nephew my old NES with Super Mario Bros. He was interested in all of 10 seconds before he was drawn to Candy Crush. It's sad.

 

[jimimac71]

An annoying thing is The Oregon Trail is only on Apple Arcade.
That is changing this month (11/22) when it is supposed to come to Windows and Nintendo Switch. Would like to see it on Android/Apple without paying a monthly fee to Apple Arcade.

 

[nickdalzell1]

The Apple Arcade Oregon Trail is not the same. The //e version was the tops! Same with the original IIgs version of Crystal Quest with all of its suggestive sound fx left intact!

Oregon Trail was updated countless times over the years but nothing replaces the original Apple // version.

 

[jimimac71]

The Apple Arcade Oregon Trail is not the same. The //e version was the tops! Same with the original IIgs version of Crystal Quest with all of its suggestive sound fx left intact!

Oregon Trail was updated countless times over the years but nothing replaces the original Apple // version.

The 1990 version is my favorite. I have played the monochrome version too.
It won't play on my tablet! It requires a keyboard or mouse.
I watch "Wagon Train" on MeTV. That would make a fun game too.
The route was different as it ended in California.
Then again, it's fun to raft the Willamette River.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I always loved 'talk to tourist' or whatever it was called. You'd get some nice reading done and learn some cool stuff. Hunt for food, despite how I feel about it IRL, was always a laugh. "You shot 900lbs of food, but you were only able to carry 100lbs of meat back to the wagon"

Um, sir, ever heard of going back and getting the rest?! I never understood that line of code...

I did learn what Dysentery was though. Looked it up right after I lost to it.

 

[ozaz]

I kinda feel sad for all the kids today who grew up with Chromebooks and smartphones in their faces at school

For those who get introduced to Raspberry Pi or other low-cost physical computing options, it's not such a bad time to be growing up.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Maybe, but given how bland and boring everything is today, I am thankful I grew up before the internet, smartphones, and when computer gaming and computer labs were just starting to take off. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the 'surprise' is gone out of life. We can look anything up if we need to, anywhere. There's no experience when everything you need is literally a Google search away. The wonder is just...gone.

 

[sinoka56]

If Microsoft and Android can offer backward compatibility with 32-bit apps, why can't Apple? Darnit I hate futurists.

It's because most desktop and Android CPUs still have 32-bit support but mobile CPUs are starting to removing it in 2023.

"Pixel 7 the first 64-bit-only Android phone"

Google just made the Pixel 7 the first 64-bit-only Android phone

Google has removed 32-bit app support from the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro to turn them into 64-bit-exclusive devices.

www.androidauthority.com

TL;DR

• The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro now only support 64-bit apps.
• The Pixel 7 series is now the first Android phone to be 64-bit-only.
• This should provide a number of improvements like reduced memory usage and more security.