Author: Jose Salviati

Search “tablet” within Androidguys and you will find 63 results dating as far back as July 2008. No, the idea of a tablet isn’t new. The biggest question revolving around these devices that fit somewhere between a smart phone and a laptop was, would anyone buy one?

The answer initially was a resounding “not really”.

On paper, the idea of a tablet makes sense. We get our data on our laptops or desktop at home and at work. While we are out we can get the information we need from our phones. The gap in our I.A.A. (Information Access Ability) was our time spent on the couch.

Sure, we could lug the laptop in there with us.  However, after a while the heat would get to us or we would have to find the power cable. In short, the laptop wasn’t really made to lug around from the couch the bathroom and back.  I guess you could use it for that purpose but that’s not what it was built for.  I bet many of you have anyways.

Companies that make their money from consumers accessing information online want to close that I.A.A. gap. Thus, the idea of the tablet was born.

Apple has led the charge before in terms of creating and/or legitimizing devices and is doing it again with this week”s release of the iPad. The iPad could be viewed as “just another tablet computer”, but it comes from the company with the aforementioned success at creating buzz behind its devices. Going forward, it will be impossible to deny that tablets are now here to stay.

Tech companies have long had followers in the same vein as a Trekkie who would travel to Fresno in June for a sneak Peak at William Shatner as Captain Kirk. When tech companies talk, geeks listen. When Apple talks, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average listen.  I have no doubt I will be asked tonight at home by my wife and kids about today’s announcement, that’s the power of Apple.

The tablet is now legitimized.

What makes today’s release unique is that Apple isn’t introducing anything necessarily revolutionary. As mentioned earlier, tablets have been done before. The bar is raised by the iPad, but not to the degree that it will take years before we see alternatives worthy of it like it took for a device to seriously compete with the iPhone.  What remains to be seen now is which hardware maker will meet the challenge to build a better tablet.

With the Nexus One Google has shown a willingness to step up to the plate and out-Apple Apple. Their announcement of the N1 was done in a way modeled by Apple. Doesn’t it makes sense that Google explores the possibility of raising the bar on the tablet computer next?

All the screenshots of the iPad remind me of Android 2.0 in that it could also make for the basis of  a great tablet. All Google needs is a hardware manufacturer and some additions to its software. An improved music player and an ebook option should be enough to match the functionality of iPad. Find someone to build a thin device with at least a 10 inch screen and the bar is raised again, only this time by Google and Android.

I bet we see the “iPad killer” sometime during the Summer, possibly from Google. Thanks to Apple for raising the bar and legitimizing these devices. Their stay at the top of the tablet hill will not be as long as their stay on the smart phone hill was.  I guarantee it.

I began to click refresh on my browser while sitting on www.google.com/phone at 10:01am on the day of the announcement for the Nexus One. No, I’m not ashamed to admit I am a full-fledged, card-carrying geek.

As soon as the page came up I began to answer the questions posed. Yes, I want the phone. No, I don’t want it engraved. Yay, I qualify for the $179 price. Everything was going according to plan.

Then that blasted conscience of mine kicked in. “Um, dude, you have four kids and just bought all of them plus your wife stuff for Christmas. You can’t afford this right now.” I argued back “I know, but if I sell my G1 for $100 it will mostly offset the price, I’m good”.

I even emailed my wife. I needed her on my side because my conscience wouldn’t stop pestering me.

Part of why we are about to celebrate our 19th year together is because my wife accepts the geek in me. She said if I wanted it, I should get it! Ha, take that conscience.

“Do what you want, but you know this will come back to hurt you later,” it said.

All that was left was a click on the final button and the phone would be mine. It would ship that same day. I was beyond excited at the thought!

Then, I closed the browser.

My conscience won again.

Since then I have scoured AndroidGuys.com and more for updates on the phone I should of been experiencing first hand. Reviews were positive and the issues about a lack of support didn’t bother me because, well, I feel pretty comfortable around Android. I figure I could fix or work around whatever issue that might come up.  I’m a cocky, full-fledged, card carrying geek!

I began visiting the T-Mobile store with greater regularity. I wanted to know exactly what my cost would be both for the phone and the plan. My budget was being tweaked a little so I could buy the Nexus One for both my wife and myself in March, maybe.

Everything was coming together. Then, I held one.

UGH!!

A guy here at work noticed me carrying around my G1 and asked if I had bought the N1. I think he chuckled when I told him I hadn’t. He said he loved his.

He was walking into the bathroom and I did the unthinkable, I followed him.

I couldn’t believe he actually had one. This guy wasn’t an Android fanatic. He wasn’t a contributing writer for the best Android portal in all of cyber space. He didn’t deserve that phone, I did!

He said I could go to his desk to see it if I wanted.

I wanted.

Wow. The reviews about the screen were dead on. I have never seen a screen like that on a handset. At the risk of being corny, it was stunning.

I unlocked the phone figuring I only had a few minutes to play. I moved from screen to screen with ease. I opened the browser and the animation was slick; pages came up quick. I launched Google Maps and was about ready to check out the voice recognition component and keyboard when he walked up.

“I don’t like you anymore,” I said, smiling, as I handed him his phone.

I’m pretty sure he thought I was kidding. I mostly was.

We chatted a bit about how much he loves it. How he has had no issues with the phone. Then I left.

I was OK until I got a call and pulled out my G1 to answer it. My beloved G1 looked so old now. So slow, so clunky and thick, so 2009.

Sigh.

If I sell the G1 and get a payday advance loan I might be able to get my very own Nexus One in February!

SHUT UP CONSCIENCE!

A few months back I wrote an article that pointed out how odd it was that we continue to refer to our handsets as phones.  I likened it to a car being called a music player.  With 99% of all cars on the road sporting a radio why don’t we refer to our new ride as a shiny new music repository?  Silly, right?  But it makes just as much sense to call your Droid, Nexus One, Cliq, G1, etc. a phone when it is so much more.

The battle here is a “chicken and the egg” one in that it is all about what came first.  The car came first so no matter what we end up putting in the car it will always be a car.  Same with our phones.  Everything started with the cellular phone so no matter what more we cram into the devices they will always be phones.  With cars it makes sense, with our handsets it does not.

Google showed it understands this evolution of the phone when they dubbed the Nexus One a “super phone”.  I am not a fan of the moniker at all (whats to stop Apple from dubbing their next piece of hardware a “super-duper-phone” for example; it’s silly) but I appreciate the step away from referring to these devices as phones.  The truth is that the Nexus One is no more super than the Droid or even the G1, but what it does do is up the ante and gets us closer to the vision of what these devices need to be.

In the previously mentioned article on this subject I wrote that what we today call phones are in fact information hubs.  We keep our contacts, calendars, pictures, and so much more in there.  They are, for most, our central source for information.  Of course they also serve as a GPS system, alarm, entertainment system, web browser and more.  “Phones” have been doing all of that and more for some time ,so what is so “super” about the Nexus One?  It’s not what it does at all but how it does it.

The next step in the evolution of handsets is speed.

As a society we were all pretty chill initially.  The speed limit was lower, we waited for our food to cook and we were OK kicking rocks or playing ding-dong ditch ’em as kids.  Then, fast-food places started to pop up.  We began to get upset when we waited a full, gasp, 2 minutes for our fries.  Microwaves invaded our homes depriving us of the fun watching the aluminum foil rising in our jiffy pop popcorn.  Give a kid a rock today and tell him to play and you better duck cause that kid is throwing it back at you.

We demand speed and “phones” have rarely delivered.

Sure apps like Google Maps, Places Directory, Sherpa and more are great, but are they fast?  No.  My wife has regularly pointed out that in the time it takes me to launch the app, type in my query and wait for relevant results she could have rolled down the window and received the same information from at least two to three people.

This is where the Nexus One excites me.  I envision a time where my wife and I are in some far off city watching one of our kids play soccer and the caffeine addiction kicks in.  Before she can roll down the window I will have pushed a button on my Nexus One and said, “Find the nearest Starbucks,” and within seconds the screen lights up with locations.  It will offer me phone numbers, directions and even reviews so we go to just the right spot.

No launching an app, no typing in a request and most importantly no waiting for results.  Husbands everywhere rejoice!

Having not had the privilege of handling the Nexus One as of this posting I am not sure if it can deliver on this promise, but I feel certain it is the first step in that direction.  No, the Nexus One isn’t “super” and in my opinion it’s not even a phone, but it does represent a change in the mobile game.  Before the N1 the focus was on more and more information from our tiny handsets.  With the N1, Google shifted the focus to speed.

Let’s see if everyone else can keep up.  Either way, we consumers are the winners!