First, though, let's take a look at iOS, the operating system for Apple's super popular iPads and iPhones. Now I've never thought that Apple was anything all that special. It was good at doing one thing really well, and that's pushing and popularizing new technologies. It wasn't first on the scene with MP3 players, it wasn't first on the scene with touch screens and it definitely wasn't first on the screen with smartphones, but Apple did all of these things better than anyone else and so they became the gold standard of portable electronics. The same can be said for the software. But this isn't about what Apple does well, it's about where they've gone wrong, so let's dig in because, after all, not even Apple is perfect.
My first and probably biggest gripe with iOS is that the customization just isn't there. Take a look at any iPhone then take a look at any other iPhone and my bet is that short of the wallpaper and which icons are on which page, there isn't all that much to distinguish two iPhones from one another. Sure, Apple claims that by keeping these strict rules for the operating system that the OS itself performs better, but why couldn't I customize my icons or put useful things like the live widgets found in Android on the screen? Now I'll admit that I'm not anywhere near an expert in iOS but in the bit of time I've had a chance to play around with the iToys, I have yet to find this capability.
Next up is the multitasking. Apple has never really been one to run multiple tasks at once like you find in BBOS, but in iOS4, they added an app drawer that acts like a multitask management system. As I understand it, these are simply links to the most recent apps with some type of "save state" type functionality. This is fine for your average user, but there's one thing I really dislike about Apple's task management attempts - you have to manually kill background apps. Android has been really good about conserving resources by automatically killing unused apps after a period of time, so I was surprised to find that Apple doesn't do this. I'm not sure if this is one of the updates with the very recent iOS5 release, but it is a huge pain either way.
Finally, there's iTunes. Now iTunes doesn't just pertain to the iPad, but is central to the entire Apple ecosystem. That's my problem, though. I want to be able to use my device right out of the box without requiring any special software on my computer at home. With Apple products, in order to simply activate the product, you have to 1) have an iTunes account, 2) have iTunes installed on your computer and 3) plug your new device into your computer and run through the steps to get it up and running. Android has a simple setup process that doesn't require any special software to get up and running. Marvelous.
But Android isn't all amazing either. As the only other real competitor to the iPads of the world to date, Android tablets are just beginning their journey. My Motorola Xoom was the very first Honeycomb tablet (the 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab was the first Android tablet) and it's quite amazing. Other manufacturers have since come out with tablets more like the iPad 2, running the same Honeycomb with their own little tweaks but the Android tablet experience is still lacking.
First, the browser that comes stock with Honeycomb is crap. It's a very basic browser and although the Quick Controls from the now defunct Google Labs is a great way to save screen real estate, it just isn't enough to lift it to a Firefox or Dolphin HD status. It will synch your bookmarks with your Google Chrome bookmarks if you're using it on your computer of choice, so at least it has that. The bookmark preview page is broken and relatively useless as opposed to a simple folder/link system like on Firefox Mobile. I'd love to see some nice swipe in from the bezel actions for bookmark icons and and a simpler history interface to start with, but for now I'll just wait for Chrome mobile and hope the experience improves.
This second gripe will be very familiar: Multitasking. Android does a much better job of multitasking than iOS. For example, if I open up a game of Angry Birds and jump out mid level to go load up a web page, I can easily switch back to Angry Birds and pick up right where I was. Then I can switch back to the browser and see that the page has completely loaded. This is getting to be the right track but yet just doesn't feel as fresh as BBOS or even WebOS make it. My Xoom has a multi-core processor, so why can't it handle playing a song in Google Music and downloading the newest RSS feeds in Pulse without stuttering every time a new feed is refreshed? Get on this Google. ASAP.
The last problem is more or less transparent to the every day user, but is still a huge pain for developers and has negatively affected you, the Tablet user, whether you know it or not. This problem is called fragmentation which essentially is a flaw in Android app programming caused by the insane variety of different devices running different versions of Android with different hardware under the hood. (ExtremeTech.com actually has a good article on Android Fragmentation) What this means to users (who don't apply custom OS versions or sideload apps) is that there may be popular apps not available for their device but is available for some others. The best example of this is Netflix on Android which works for something like 25 devices (type Netflix into the Android store to see if you're one of the lucky users) none of which are tablets.
Next up is BlackBerry OS, featured on the BlackBerry PlayBook. The PlayBook gets a lot of things right. It is the gold standard of multitasking. The preview windows of what's open are live and actually play back games and movies even if they aren't front and center. The 7" size is arguably more user friendly than the sizable iPad and 10.1" varieties and the OS is surprisingly smooth. But even with these great attempts at a third OS option, the PlayBook is on life support. Now I haven't had a whole lot of time to play with the PlayBook outside of Best Buy and the BlackBerry store in the ATL airport, but combined with what I do know about the platform and the always superb Engadget review, I'll point out some of the misgivings of this platform in its last gasps for air.
The main issue with BBOS is the lack of developers for the platform. A search for "PlayBook" on BlackBerry App World shows a total of 1185 PlayBook optimized apps. I'm not sure about the number of Tablet optimized apps on the Android Store or on iTunes, but I'm pretty sure there are a hell of a lot more. This is a symptom of the lack of developers for the platform. If you are a developer and you were going to create a new app, which platform would you develop for? Certainly not BlackBerry because they just don't have the clout they once did. BlackBerry is attempting to make some last ditch efforts to increase the number of apps available to their users by having what could be considered an Android emulator. They have also recently released a tool that will translate Android app code to BBOS code, but I doubt this will make much of a difference overall.
The final entry of this lengthy discussion focuses on what will become Windows 8. This tablet friendly refresh of the current reigning champion of PC operating systems is due out sometime next year and to be honest, I'm excited about a Windows OS for the first time since I jumped from Win98 to WinXP. I haven't had the pleasure of playing with the Developers Preview on a touch screen device, but from what I've experienced so far I have a few gripes.
First, the Metro UI. You can check out this preview by This is My Next for an idea of what this looks like. Keeping in mind that this is a very early build, the main idea that I would change would be the tile size and overall arrangement. Adding another row and reducing some of the overall tile size could make the process of scrolling from one app to the next much less painful. In addition, taking the Windows 7 idea of pinning to the Metro UI and allowing for the most used tiles to be pinned to the left side of the screen while scrolling everything else around it could be a nice touch.
The other thing I'm confused about is the presence of the standard Windows desktop underneath the Metro UI. For laptops and desktops without the touch friendly interfaces, this makes sense, but for tablets? Why bother? The Win8 desktop is still present even if it's not being rendered, taking up clock cycles, processing resources and memory. This reduces the battery life of the device overall. I say drop the desktop and take some pages from Android by having a smart system menu and app drawer to help manage the variety of apps that are bound to be on the system.
Regardless of which horse you choose to ride for the tablet wars, it's clear to me that none of the OS choices have it quite right just yet. Don't worry, though, because this is surely a good thing. Seeking perfection means that everyone strives for a better experience, which means we all win in the end. It just takes time.
The last installment of The Great Slate Debate will look at the unwritten future of tablets, we'll talk about the sleeping giant, Amazon, and outline my ideal slate (hint: Microsoft came close...once).
Until then always remember
It is the Geeks that will inherit the Earth
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