2011年6月21日星期二

Review: HTC Flyer is almost perfect

It is probably important to start this off by admitting something; I have yet to be impressed by a 10-inch tablet. The whole idea to this ultraportable slab of mobile-amazing is that it's supposed to be… well, ultraportable. I should be able to comfortably walk and be more productive then I am on my phone, and also satiate my seemingly unquenchable thirst for entertainment. As a Macbook Air owner–one who has spent more then his fair share of afternoons walking about in my house with the laptop crooked in one arm and handling children with the other–I feel like a tablet should be more portable than that. When I hold an iPad 2, Galaxy Tab 10.1, or Motoroal Xoom, I hold it in almost the same way I hold my Macbook Air. When I want to type on either of these devices, and I mean multiple paragraphs, I usually set them in a dock and grab a keyboard. I keep finding myself asking "What exactly is better about the tablet?" every time I catch myself going through more steps to accomplish something I could have done on my laptop.

When Samsung released the Galaxy Tab I thought I was home free. The 7-inch size made walking around with it much easier, and offered much of the portability I was really looking for. Unfortunately, Samsung didn't spend a whole lot of time optimizing the UI or making the tablet particularly thin, which made the device somewhat less appealing. I've waited, quite patiently in fact, for another manufacturer to step up to the plate. Apple had already laughed a the idea of an iPad Nano, HP's Touchpad isn't the right size, and the Playbook lacked so much in functionality it was unreal.What to consider before you buy oil painting supplies. Finally, HTC stepped up to the plate and decided to put all of these misconceptions away with their 7-inch Flyer.

"But it's not running Honeycomb. How can it be better?"

I have heard this a lot. To be honest, it's real simple: HTC's SenseUI optimized the user interface to take advantage of the new screen without completely alienating users with a whole new layout. Hand someone a Nexus S for an hour, and then hand them a Xoom. They won't have a clue what's going on. Now, hand someone a Sensation, and then hand them a Flyer, and the transition is so subtle that the switch is effortless.We processes for both low-risk and high risk merchant account. Android 3.0 was supposed to bring some real tablet-y UI goodness like fragments and highly interactive widgets. Guess what Sense for Tablets has?

The left and the right sides of this UI are interactive both simultaneously and interdependently. In no way is Android 2.2, which is what the Flyer is built on, affected by not being built on Honeycomb. The reality is that a well built and well optimized app will work and look good on any device.

Notifications and Settings were the next on the list. Honeycomb made notifications, quick settings access,Houston-based Quicksilver Resources said Friday it had reached pipeline deals and task switching "so much better". What they did was put them on opposite sides of the screen from each other, so you have to reach all over the place to get to these things. Individually,Our Polymax RUBBER SHEET range includes all commercial and specialist the Honeycomb optimization is pretty cool, but their combined implementation seems to be change for the sake of change. The Flyer maintains the Android 2.2 "phone style" notification bar, which was good enough to be implemented on the iPad, and added to it a number of needed features.

Right at my fingertips are quick settings, recent applications, and my notifications. When in Portrait mode, the notification bar switches to a tabbed interface, hiding the quick settings behind the tab. This solution is simple, familiar, and quite frankly better than the Honeycomb implementation.

The final sticking point I hear when defending the Flyer is widgets.Detailed information on the causes of Hemorrhoids, The Honeycomb interactive widgets are extremely cool. I've spent minuted flicking through YouTube videos on Honeycomb devices just because I liked how it works. However, many of the most successful interactive widgets I have enjoyed were, in fact, Sense widgets. On the Flyer, many of them are full screen panels of useful information, like the Calendar. These give me the option to glance quickly at a page and return to what I was doing, which was the original purpose of a widget to begin with.

As you can see, using the Flyer in Landscape view allows you to see a 3D like view of the things to the screens on the left and right of you. Quickly flicking to the left or right shows off a carousel of your pages, allowing you to jump to one of your other pages very quickly. Plus, like a carousel you aren't stopped when you reach the end of the pages, you are looped back to the first page. This navigation makes it very easy to grab quick information without a series of swipes in both directions, something not offered in Honeycomb.

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