I’ve always been puzzled as to why there isn’t an official Google Reader app on Android. I mean, Android has built-in RSS functionality, but why would they keep that separate from their massively popular and wildly useful Google Reader? When it comes down to it, I need to have my RSS solution synced across all devices, not stuck on one device. Google Reader has been a solution to that issue, but until now there was never an official Google Reader app for Android.
Sure, you’ve always been able to access an admittedly good Google Reader web app at www.google.com/i, but this web app was originally designed for iOS devices and, in fact, still uses graphics which are designed for older generation iOS devices, leaving them pixelated on modern iOS or Android devices. Not to mention that you don’t have access to some of the features that the native app now offers.
The Google Reader app will run on any Android device with Android 1.6 (Donut) or later, and includes many of the core functions that you can do with the desktop version that we’ve come to know and love. Most of your settings will sync between the two which is nice. Some of the features include:
Multiple accounts
Synced preferences
Ability to subscribe and search for subscriptions
Search through your feeds
Volume key navigation (awesome!) – allows you to navigate between items using the volume buttons on your device
Share items using Android’s integrated sharing menu (let’s you share with Gmail/Facebook/SMS/Bluetooth/Reader/Twitter and other third party apps)
Initial testing on the Samsung Continuum [tracking page] shows great core functionality. Speed is decent but I’m not quite sure if it’s as quick as the web version.
The only issue I’ve seen so far is that when you rotate between landscape and portrait orientations, the view is reset to the top of the current item. This is annoying if you decide to switch orientations in the middle of reading. Also for the time being there’s no way to get notifications which some will surely want, but if you follow a high volume of sites you’ll realize why this would only be bothersome. Still, I could see an update every 4 hours or so showing how many new items you’ve received being useful, but we’ll just have to wait and see if an update eventually brings such features.
If you can’t stand typing, hit up the barcode below with your Android phone to jump straight to the app in the Android Marketplace, or just search the Marketplace for “google reader”:
While I wait for my (6 hour) delayed flight here in Frankfurt it’s probably worth putting some text down about how the Tab has performed today, a day of snow, cold and cancellations.
Unplugged at about 10am today the Tab was fully charged and performed its first duty by giving me the time of the next bus the the main station. From that point onvit’s been non-stop tabbing. My day has been turned upside down and the Tab has been the hub of my communications. Emails to family and customers to keep them up to date. Sms’ and tweet all the way, looking up my hotel details, phone numbers for the hotel, more train times and status updates, flight information and of course, keeping up with news and RSS feeds. It’s coming up to 2000hrs and that’s ten hours of work with wifi on, Bluetooth in use, 3g on and a bunch of apps (Facebook, email, twitter, wordpress, contacts) updating regularly in the background.
The experience has been great.
But I also had a phone with me! The old N82 was critical for calls to travel agents, hotels, family and customers. It was also my camera for the day.
The Tab is good but not 100% converged. I just couldn’t be bothered to plug in a headset and the camera, in comparison with the N82, just sucks.
So as I hot the last 10% of battery I’m pleased that I can send you all this little blog. Written on the Galaxy Tab portrait mode woth the on screen keyboard and the WordPress application!
Typing error left in so you can see how good/bad it is!
Customer satisfaction during product purchase and ownership is a complex science and I wouldn’t suggest for a moment that I know a lot about it. Personally I can get very upset if a product fails to deliver on marketing promises and wildly passionate if a product does more than expected. That’s something I keep out of my reviews though and I always aim to project my thoughts from various target customer scenarios. On a personal note though, the Galaxy Tab experience has been extremely positive for me and I’ve spoken to many others that are happy too. If you go to the UMPCPortal sub-forum for the Galaxy Tab it doesn’t take too much effort to find a happy customer. I plan to keep using the Galaxy Tab and expect to be using it well into 2011 but as always, there are people out there for which the Tab will be a total misfit and a total disappointment.
In this article and video I want to highlight the limitations and issues of the Galaxy Tab and bring in a few people that have already bought and sold their Tab. Why weren’t they happy?
In the video below you’ll see me talk about a number of issues. I’ve listed them here:
Camera and Video
DLNA
Video output
Reading newspapers and magazines
Printing
Web
Multitasking
User interface
The last three in that list have something in common wild users and wild operating systems creating an unstable and unpredictable experience.
By wild users, I mean almost everyone because we have a natural tendency to try things we find exciting and to push the limits of a device. This means, just like on the PC, you end up with too much running at the same time. Android makes it easy to try software and does very little to control the use of the system resources. What you end up with is an experience that can vary from excellent (when you first use the device) to flakey (I’m just 6 weeks into ownership and I’m seeing this problem.)
One of the problems is the size of the Galaxy Tab. Because it’s bigger than a smartphone, you expect more but in reality, it’s just a smartphone. Memory size, speed, storage speed, CPU and GPU performance are not ‘PC-class’ and if you treat the Tab like a PC, it won’t return any favors. This problem is going to catch out a lot of people in the coming weeks.
Aside from technical limitations there are the inherent limitations of the Galaxy Tab. The size and weight of the device mean it’s not pocketable. The performance won’t be anything more than what you get on some smartphones that do fit in the pocket. It doesn’t have a big enough screen to be able to run two applications in two windows. The performance isn’t anything like what you get on a PC. Printing is limited. There’s no USB port, no multi-user support and so-on and so-on. People looking to replace a laptop will have a problem, even when the keyboard dock ships!
I’ve been in contact with a couple of people recently that have ditched their Galaxy Tab and gone back to planning for the next device. There isn’t a huge number of people in this boat but it’s important to know why didn’t it work for them? Fabrizio, an ex Galaxy Tab owner has this to say…
…basically I think the Galaxy Tab is a good device. While being it a powerful and feature rich device, it’s somehow an oversized smartphone and does not really offer more. Yes, it has a bigger screen and higher resolution, but Android does not take advantage of that. You can read information easier since the screen is bigger, but while I love Android, it is NOT a desktop OS replacement, thus, you won’t be able to do really more than on a smartphone. With more I mean, serious productivity (writing, encoding etc.), not entertainment (listen music, watch videos). In short, the Galaxy Tab is a great device to “consume” content and not to create. But even when consuming, it is limited by the OS which is – in my opinion – not a desktop replacement OS and so it does not offer more than a smartphone –
‘EC’ another ex-Galaxy Tab user said this…
“…it was among the hardest decisions I’ve ever done on a gadget any time recently.”
But he had problems with the browser…
“The native browser, that is not a native Android browser but another Samsung custom job, will render most websites in the mobile format (when there is such a version) and while in some cases you can click on the normal website option on that website it not only doesn’t stay that way for the next time it also won’t affect any other websites you might visit in the same browsing”
EC also told us that he couldn’t get to grips with the on-screen keyboard and summarises as follows…
I was ready to accept a few lacks here and there like most of us did with the first generation of netbooks, but with the HW really lacking next to nothing I think my expectations for the OS were even higher. Yes the $600 does make a difference. If it was $200 even without any 3G I would still have it, but right now it doesn’t live up to it’s price tag for me personally. I am convinced that anyone perfectly content with Android but wanting a tablet that’s portable will love this device, for anyone coming from an iOS environment I would say get more familiar with Android before you get the Tab or you might not be too pleased.
There’s a huge huge problem here with overlap. Early adopters of the Tab invariably have a selection of other devices available to them. High-end smartphones and netbooks mean that there’s a huge overlap which removes some of the reasons you’d use to justify buying the tab in the first place. Others simply don’t like the quality of the UI or software stack. This UI issue is probably the most important issue facing Android devices right now and if people want to compete with the iPad in this respect, it seems like a hard problem to solve on Android. Stability and ‘self-control’ from a device perspective is also an issue. The wild operating system lets you do some wild things but don’t expect everything else to remain constant while you push the limits.
Have you got a Galaxy Tab? Are you happy? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.
Is there an answer to the problems of the leading Android tablet? Either Android implements a ‘restricted’ mode which preserves the user experience (limiting the number of concurrently running apps, memory usage, cpu usage etc. or it waits for much more powerful platforms. CPU, memory and storage speed need to increase at least two-fold and that means waiting for the next-generation of ARM-based platforms. Dual-core is coming and that will help but it’s not the only solution needed. With Android version 2.3 on its way we might see some of these issues solved if the Galaxy Tab gets an upgrade but by that time, the bar might have been raised even higher by iPad 2 or other tablet device.
In the meantime, Android tablet users will need to limit their expectations.
Well if you’re on an even tighter budget you may want to look at the identically spec’d Linx Commtiva N700 which is a full £100 cheaper than the £400 Viewpad 7. It still comes with the same lowly Qualcomm MSM7227 600 Mhz CPU and 7 inch 800 x 480 resolution capacitive touch display, but it also has Android 2.2, 3G connectivity and the all important access to the Android market.
The reason it looks so much like Viewpad 7?, well it is. Its the same reference design used by Viewsonic on the Viewpad.
If you’re in the UK the N700 is available at Tesco Direct, meaning you can cash those clubcard vouchers for even more discount, the same applies to the Galaxy Tab which they also stock.
Are you the adventurous type? Paul O’Brien has you covered over at MoDaCo with a whole host of various hacks, tips and tricks on the Commtiva N700 / Spice Mi700 / ViewSonic ViewPad 7 / Camangi FM600.
I like these guys, and not just because they’ve got a load of cool tech to play with! Shanzai.com appear to have some good contacts in the trade and a lot of experience with the market over there in the East. I’m almost in agreement with them on the ideal tablet size too. You may have a different opinion but check their article and video below before you make a decision.
Acer announced a set of Android tablets this afternoon that are sure to make people pause before they put an order in for the holiday season. The 7 inch Tablet looks like a belter and you can be sure that Acer will compete heavily on price.
The 7 inch model on the left (neither model has a name yet) will come with a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon CPU, 1280×800 resolution screen, 3G, Wi-FI and we hear, Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1. With front and rear cameras it looks like it will be suitable for Google application certification so we should see the Market and Google applications on this.
The 10 inch tablet on the right above, looks to be aimed at the home market and will also be a dual-core device. HDMI-out, dual-cams and ten-point multi-touch, indicate a high-end experience. Interestingly, reports are saying that this one has a dual-core Tegra 2 CPU at 1Ghz. Maybe there’s a gaming slant here.
There’s also a 4.8 inch super-wide-screen device with 1024×480 resolution on the cards. The strange resolution might be very good for landscape browsing.
Without full specs and pricing it’s difficult to position the devices but it looks like Acer is taking the tablet market seriously because Windows Tablets were announced too. I can’t believe all these devices are going to make it to the same markets but CeBit in March will certainly be interesting!
Acer announced a set of Android tablets this afternoon that are sure to make people pause before they put an order in for the holiday season. The 7” Tablet looks like a belter and you can be sure that Acer will compete heavily on price.
The 7” model on the left (neither model has a name yet) will come with a dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon CPU, a 1280×800 resolution screen, 3G, Wi-FI and we hear, Android 2.2 with Flash 10.1. With front and rear cameras it looks like it will be suitable for Google application certification so we should see the Market and Google applications on this.
The 10”er on the right above, looks to be aimed at the home market and will also be a dual-core device. HDMI-out, dual-cams and ten-point multitouch, indicate a high-end experience. Interestingly, reports are saying that this one has a dual-core Tegra 2 CPU at 1Ghz. Maybe there’s a gaming slant here.
There’s also a 4.8” super-wide-screen device with 1024×480 on the cards. The strange resolution might be very good for landscape browsing.
Without full specs and pricing it’s difficult to position the devices but it looks like Acer is taking the tablet market seriously because Windows Tablets were announced too. I can’t believe all these devices are going to make it to the same markets but CeBIT in March will certainly be interesting!
We’ve had the (final version) Viewsonic Viewpad 7 for 2 days now and last night we completed 3hrs of live testing in front of an audience of 480 people. We’re now in a good position to be able to bring you a good round-up review of the device. Live recordings of the stream are embedded below. Unboxing video is here. Thanks to Viewsonic Europe for sending the device over. UK customers can find details of a trade-in offer and retailers here.
Overall quality of the £400 pound tablet is good and we feel that Viewsonic have got the price/quality ratio right. This is a lot more than a £200 open-source Android tablet here and less than a £500 high-end 7 inch Tablet (e.g. Galaxy Tab) and it sits alone as the cheapest 7 inch 3G+Voice Google Android tablet on the market. ‘Google’ means that it really does have everything that you find on a Google Android phone including voice capability, compass, GPS, compass, capacitive touchscreen and the latest Android software. So why is the Viewpad 7 cheaper than the Galaxy Tab then?
Let’s start with the processor that tricked me. I was originally told it was a Snapdragon CPU at 600Mhz but despite some reasonable Web performance, it turned out to be an ARM11-based device. In real-use yesterday I was still quite happy with the browsing speeds and although I would never recommend anyone get an ARM11-based device for serious web work, when laid-back in a passive usage mode, it’s quite acceptable. You’ll see some browser tests in part 3 of the video review below. The GPU, Adreno 200 – the same as that found on the Snapdragon platform, is probably helping a lot here because UI actions seem smooth, if not ‘physical’ like the iPad. Android 2.2 helps too. It’s a far more efficient build than 2.1 and helps to pull everything possible out of the platform. This is probably as good as we’ll ever see on an ARM11-based device and at this point it has to be said that this is the best ARM11-based mobile internet device I’ve ever used.
There are more hints of ‘value’ though that don’t hide themselves so well:
Screen At 800×480 this isn’t the sharpest. Although Android apps are only designed for up to 800×480 screen, there are photos, videos, ebooks and browser pages to consider. A full-screen, page-to-fit web page is not easily readable and will require a pinch or double-click to zoom to readable quality. It’s bright enough but there are differing results from vertical and portrait viewing angles. This is a typical horizontal-optimised LCD. I won’t go into detail here but portrait mode is not perfect. Text seems to stretch vertically too indicating that the pixels aren’t square. It’s a good screen, but not top-of-class. Note: After measuring the screen, pixels are indeed not square. Resolution ratio: 1.666:1 Size Ratio: 1.78:1
CPU Mentioned above. Don’t expect to squeeze much more out of this CPU in the future. There are already applications that aren’t supported on this CPU (Flash for example)
Software This is, to all intents and purposes, a raw Android experience. Some people will prefer this and at least the Market is there to help. In the live review we downloaded and installed about 15 applications suggested by viewers in less than 10 minutes. Try doing that on a Windows 7 laptop!
Camera The 3.0MP camera shouldn’t be regarded as anything more than a snapshot device and the results show high grain and huge traces of plastic lens. It’s easy to smudge fingerprints over the camera lens too so quality can degrade even further. Videos aren’t anything to get excited about either.
Video Playback There are quite a few video formats out there and each has variable bitrate and ‘profile’ levels. Codecs cost money and Viewsonic have chosen not to add them in. You’ll get 3GPP, MPEG4 (not Xvid/Divx support) and H.264 support for low bitrates and resolutions (sub 720p/1Mbps) but that’s it. Software players such as RockPlayer add new codecs in but the CPU isn’t powerful enough to deliver anything above about 1Mbps. Disappointing.
User Interface and touch While not up there with the best ‘physical’ user interfaces, this is a reasonable capacitive touch experience and fine for everyday use. It’s a lot better than a resistive touchscreen for this type of finger usage.
On screen keyboard – Typical of loaded Android systems on ARM11 CPUs, the response on the keyboard slows down if there are other things happening around the device. Coupled with a rather ugly layout (we loaded ‘Better Keyboard’ and found it, better!) and a hit-rate that doesn’t come close to the Galaxy Tab or Apple iOS devices, we can’t recommend it for anything more than micro-mails, tweets, SMS and other short-form messaging.
On the positive side, we saw great 3D performance in synthetic tests and games with Angry Birds and Raging Thunder Lite working perfectly. There are other high-points too.
3G throughput in our tests was good. We haven’t tested reception performance.
Battery life. In our 1-hour test with screen, Wi-Fi, GSM enabled and under testing conditions saw the battery drop 15% indicating a 6-hour heavy-use run-time. It matches the Viewsonic specs and in the rest of our testing over the last few days we were also seeing similar battery performance. We estimate the battery life to be 10-15% less than the Galaxy Tab but still, very good. Charging over USB is a slow process. Expect 8-9hrs for a full charge over a standard USB cable. We can’t get the supplied charger to work through our UK-EU adaptor but we’re told it does enable a ‘fast charge’ mode of around 3hrs.
Speaker quality is good which makes the Viewpad 7 perfect for radio, MP3 and podcast duties around the house. In a 20-minute speakerphone call, quality was very high. We also made a successful Skype call without headphones.
Other points
No heat or noise
Quadrant scores around the 250 mark
Launcher Pro works well (and is recommended) as a home-screen alternative. It enables portrait mode homescreen which the standard build doesn’t.
YouTube (tested with the latest player available in the Market) works flawlessly
Neocore benchmark returned 32 fps
Kindle reader and the pre-installed Aldiko reader work well.
PDF reading with the included, full version of Documents To Go, worked well
Again, note that Flash 10.1 is not available for ARM11 devices such as this
The Viewpad 7 is slightly smaller (about 4mm in width and depth) than the galaxy Tab. Same thickness. Same weight.
Storage on the device is limited to 512MB and after installing 20 applications, we were down to 24MB of storage space. Inserting an SD card is necessary in order to move some applications over (where possible) and to store audio, image and video files.
Wifi reception was average (b/g standards) We haven’t tested Bluetooth
Hotspot mode works. (Wifi sharing of 3G connection We expect 8-10hrs on this mode with screen off)
No stand. (Update below)
Case is plastic
No USB On-The-Go
GPS locked quickly (sub 10 seconds with A-GPS enabled) indoors, 1M from a Window
No video out (digital or analogue)
Skyfire (and included flash video playback) works
Update: Case will change for final retail versions.
Viewsonic notified me that the case has been re-designed for the final version. Its good to see that it now includes ‘standing’ capability.
At £400 we find the Viewpad fairly priced. If you’re in the UK and have a working netbook or laptop you want to trade-in, Viewsonic retail partners will give you 100 pounds cash-back which makes it tempting if that old EeePC 701 is gathering dust for you. Ultimately though, Viewsonic need to capitalise on the fact that this is a well-rounded ‘value’ tablet with a complete feature set, today. In 3 months time when Android devices 2.3 appear, when ARM11 becomes ‘end of line’ for some applications, when high-end applications start demanding more of a CPU and when the market fills with other device options, it may not look so attractive and at that point Viewsonic and their retailers will have to compete in a price war. We say, ‘take the risk’ and drop the price by 50 pounds to capitalise on holiday-season buying and make this an even more attractive package. Throw in a 4GB micro SD card, a cleaning cloth and maybe a free version of ‘launcher pro’ to solve that portrait mode homescreen limitation and you’ve got yourself a great little mobile internet device.
I’ve always been puzzled as to why there isn’t an official Google Reader app on Android. I mean, Android has built-in RSS functionality, but why would they keep that separate from their massively popular and wildly useful Google Reader? When it comes down to it, I need to have my RSS solution synced across all devices, not stuck on one device. Google Reader has been a solution to that issue, but until now there was never an official Google Reader app for Android.
The Google Reader app will run on any Android device with Android 1.6 (Donut) or later, and includes many of the core functions that you can do with the desktop version that we’ve come to know and love. Most of your settings will sync between the two which is nice. Some of the features include:
