Google Nexus 7

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I wish they'd hurry up and do my idea of phones with expandable screens. I reckon that would kill tablets stone dead.

Glass "balloon" technology.  Maybe that's why some companies have tried to make curved screens into a desirable and familiar thing.

[Blumf]

Sony's Tablet P is a rough stab at it, but doesn't quiet beat the technological limitations:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/sony-tablet-p/tab/overview

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Nintendo have tried as well.




The future has to be holograms in thin air, surely?  No need for a screen or a fog effect to give the image something to "stick" to, just shine a projector for a display to pop up wherever you want it at whatever size.

[biggytitbo]

Not sure theres much up with the 7 inch tablet format though, its small enough to be portable in a man-bag or coat pocket. Once the tech gets better they can shrink they down even further so the bevels aren't quite as big.


7 inch isn't that much bigger than some of the phones samsung are bringing out either so there's clearly a bit of convergence going on.


Duel screen devices are shite[nb] Especially Nintendo game and watches which melt if your dickhead cousin leaves them in front of the central heating[/nb], essentially two crap screens instead of 1 good one.

[Ignatius_S]

...Duel screen devices are shite[nb] Especially Nintendo game and watches which melt if your dickhead cousin leaves them in front of the central heating[/nb], essentially two crap screens instead of 1 good one.

Not all Game and Watches were dual screen, were they? Nor did the screen quality differ in one screen or dual screen models.

When Nintendo released the DS, the dual screen approach meant that when it was closed, the screens were protected and it was compact enough to put in a pocket without the device coming to harm. Two factors rather important in a portable gaming device with a touchscreen. The original PSP took a leaf out of the book of Atari Lynx – bulkier and some kind of protection was necessary.

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Beautiful piece of engineering.  A satisfying "click" and you'd have this nifty piece of technology to slide into your pocket, both screens protected.




This is what biggy had instead:






And instead of a Nexus 7, he's actually bought one of these:

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Glass "balloon" technology.

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^ That's it, yeah.  Have a touch screen on one of those, make it somehow expandable and contractable at will, and you're fucking sorted lads.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

My idea was more akin to a roller blind, with the screen on a flexible membrane that rolls up inside the case.

Patent pending!

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My idea was more akin to a roller blind, with the screen on a flexible membrane that rolls up inside the case.

Yeah but then you'd have a flexible screen flopping around and it would be categorically rubbish.

The glass balloon is perfectly sturdy at all times.  Yes it'll get inconveniently large rather quickly, but we had CRT televisions for ages, didn't we?  First the glass balloon, then maybe 50 years from now somebody will advance glass balloon technology into something like making our eyes smaller so there's no need for big things.

[SetToStun]

You're all way out of date with these ideas, I'm afraid. Read it and weep.

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I greet that with substantial unenthusiasm because it is not even a glass balloon at all. 

Next attempt to impress me!

[SetToStun]

Maybe not, but it can project a touch screen onto a baloon of any construction; beat that, mister!

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Maybe not, but it can project a touch screen onto a baloon of any construction; beat that, mister!

Bollocks to it.  In addition to the balloon it'd require a separate device for the projection process so it can bog off.

[MojoJojo]

OK, just got one.
Nice, but lots of early adopter problems, with lots of apps not available or not working properly.

Particularly iPlayer - I knew flash wasn't supported, but hadn't connected it to iPlayer. I can't work out if I'm more annoyed with adobe not supporting it anymore, or the BBC requiring it.

Probably the BBC, since they give a lot of special treatment to Apple with iPlayer.

Edit - this keyboard is bit annoying. Need to change it.

[biggytitbo]

Yeah some of the 3rd party apps haven't yet been optimised for tablets, but all the Google ones, gmail, drive, youtube, maps, chrome are fantastic and much superior to the iPad versions.

There are some other good apps optimised for the 7 inch screen though, stuff like evernote,  music match and imdb look great.

Firefox isn't half bad either, actually renders HTML and CSS better than android chrome does at the moment, makimg it certainly the most advanced browser on any mobile device, although the interface isnt quite right yet.

[Ignatius_S]

Particularly iPlayer - I knew flash wasn't supported, but hadn't connected it to iPlayer. I can't work out if I'm more annoyed with adobe not supporting it anymore, or the BBC requiring it.

Probably the BBC, since they give a lot of special treatment to Apple with iPlayer....

There is stuff you would be able to do to get iPlayer working - e.g. installing Flash (just because it isn't support it, doesn't mean you can't run it).

The relationship between the Beeb and Apple has been fractious for rather a long time - things really kicked off when the BBC stopped using QuickTime alongside other formats (and IIRC, Apple then removed BBC worldwide from the channels in the QT player).

I believe that Auntie wasn't pleased by Apple's continued refusal for iOS to support Flash and eventually decided to provide native support out of necessity - it realised Apple wasn't going to budge and the Beeb is terrified of being seen as a bunch of Luddites.

Prior to that, there was very little love to Apple about the desktop iPlayer. When the Beeb launched iPlayer, it was just for Windows - if you used Linux or OS X, you had to wait over three years for a compatible version. When it was launched for the former, you could watch streamed content or download it (but only watchable for a week) - when the Mac version was first announced, the Beeb said it would be streaming only (which it then backtracked on).

Before the Mac/Linux compatible iPlayers were launched, just about all (if not) all of the blogs written by the suits involved in iPlayer made you think it was going to be Windows-only - e.g. there was huge amount of bullshit that hardly anyone would be using other operating systems - and certainly seemed no enthusiasm whatsoever. This was all a while ago, but I seem to remember quite a few Linux users got very militant and starting a campaign about this.

When the Mac version of iPlayer was announced the BBC had entered into a strategic partnership with.... Adobe. Arguably this was a sign of special treatment as Adobe and Apple hate each other with a vengeance.

....but all the Google ones, gmail, drive, youtube, maps, chrome are fantastic and much superior to the iPad versions....

I should bloody well hope so.

[Zetetic]

When the Mac version of iPlayer was announced the BBC had entered into a strategic partnership with.... Adobe. Arguably this was a sign of special treatment as Adobe and Apple hate each other with a vengeance.

Wasn't this just the introduction of the Flash-based website streaming service? It's not really a sign of anything except that Flash was the only sort-of-not-really-securish cross-platform-ish streaming solution around and that they presumably had to badger Adobe for a quite a while to get licensing (and support?) to something reasonable.

Edit: Or am I missing what 'special treatment' means here? Also, didn't they eventually give up on the P2P approach (for various reasons) and its reliance on Windows Media DRM (IIRC?) and move to an Adobe Air solution (again primarily because it's the closest to a cross-platform DRM solution of sorts) for every OS' iPlayer Desktop app?

[biggytitbo]

I know DRM is always seen as Flash' trump card, but is it really that big of an issue on a tablet or phone?


The average user is going to have no idea how to grab those streams, whereas those that are technically savvy enough to would be able to get it any which way.


Anyway, I hope the BBC hurry up and sort out iplayer on the Nexus anyway, it'll be lovely on that device.

[Zetetic]

I know DRM is always seen as Flash' trump card,

By idiots, though, right?

The average user is going to have no idea how to grab those streams, whereas those that are technically savvy enough to would be able to get it any which way.

Yep, idiots.

but is it really that big of an issue on a tablet or phone?

Idiots, I suspect, are the problem. I've really no idea what arcane rituals the BBC has to partake of to appease the various rights' holders.

[Ignatius_S]

....Edit: Or am I missing what 'special treatment' means here? Also, didn't they eventually give up on the P2P approach (for various reasons) and its reliance on Windows Media DRM (IIRC?) and move to an Adobe Air solution (again primarily because it's the closest to a cross-platform DRM solution of sorts) for every OS' iPlayer Desktop app?

My tongue was firmly in my cheek. The BBC certainly didn't go with Adobe just to wind up Apple - it just amuses me that the Beeb basically said there would be no Mac version and when it did a u-turn, it went with one company that Apple loathes (at that time, I can't think of anyone it hated more). However, one reason I did throw it in is because I think it demonstrates that Apple weren't getting special privilege - and as you cay, they were trying to go more cross-platform.

[Ignatius_S]

I know DRM is always seen as Flash' trump card, but is it really that big of an issue on a tablet or phone?...

I thought the trump card was that millions of websites use it and users can't get the all-singing, all-dancing Web experience without it.

[biggytitbo]

That's definetly not its trump card because a) virtually no website uses it anymore for anything other than video b) it's not needed at all on any mobile device for video and c) Its an atrocious, buggy, unstable piece of shit on virtually every device and browser other than ie in windows, and its shit on that too.


So yeah, pretty much the only reason it exists anymore is because of video, and the major (although not only) selling point for 'idiots' is its DRM abilities.

[Ignatius_S]

That's definetly not its trump card because a) virtually no website uses it anymore for anything other than video b) it's not needed at all on any mobile device for video and c) Its an atrocious, buggy, unstable piece of shit on virtually every device and browser other than ie in windows, and its shit on that too....

Again I was being tongue in cheek - what I posted was often used to explain why Apple was crazy for not letting iOS support Flash.

*edit* I'll tag it next time!

[MojoJojo]

From what I remember, the beeb were basically making apps for all mobile platforms (I had it on symbian) but around the time they got to android, people started asking why the bbc were writing software instead of making TV. I think there was probably some internal backlash against the idea of apps in general, after the shitty peer to peer app.

The beeb compromised, saying no more apps, but a standard mobile website based on flash. In fact was it flash mobile at the time? Can't remember. But they were allowed to keep the iOS support, basically because it was by far the most popular at the time.

I don't really see that the been had any choice but flash at the time. I guess they'll have to go with webm now.

I've installed flash now. Unfortunately, while Firefox looks very promising, it's far too buggy to use generally. Trying to type this post for example, every time I tried to delete a couple of characters, it would delete everything but the last word.

What's particularly frustrating is I just want iPlayer for radio really, so all this video stuff should be irrelevant.

[KLG-7A]

What's particularly frustrating is I just want iPlayer for radio really, so all this video stuff should be irrelevant.

TuneIn Radio probably has the stations you want.

[MojoJojo]

Thanks, but that's live radio. I want iPlayer, so I can choose a programming to listen to from the last week.

[KLG-7A]

Use a time travel app, stupid.

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The Back to the Future one is quite good.  Although it annoys me that the steam train option doesn't also have the plutonium chamber.  They should treat it as a modification of the Delorean in the second film, but they don't.

Anyway it takes you to any time you want.  Doesn't change your location though, just like that Red Dwarf joke.

[Ignatius_S]

From what I remember, the beeb were basically making apps for all mobile platforms (I had it on symbian) but around the time they got to android, people started asking why the bbc were writing software instead of making TV. I think there was probably some internal backlash against the idea of apps in general, after the shitty peer to peer app....

The Android app iPlayer was launched in February 2011, as was the iPad version. Support for iPhones and iPod Touches was ended at the end of the year. (There had been an iOS beta previously, but it wasn't anything to write home about.)

The backlash that the BBC had externally was over the lack of cross-platform support and that proprietary technology being needed.

From what I've been told, there was no internal concern over producing apps – people are moving away from watching television in the traditional ways (and have been for a long time) and there's a realisation that this needs to be tackled effectively. However, I think it's fair to say that there has been concern about the strategy.