Well, that’s a very good question Mr Hodge. There’s not much on the market just yet, but let’s see if we can answer that.

Dell Streak

This first tablet from a big name to become available on a network in the UK, the Dell Streak is really a large Android phone. Running 1.6 (slated[1] to move to 2.2 soon-ish), this is still a phone, but capable of being used as a tablet. Dell are certainly marketing it as such, and is now available from O2.

Dell also have plans of releasing bigger versions of the device in the near future to complement the product line.

Motorola Tablet

Motorola have been busy, with a good run of Android handsets over the past year. They’ve hardly been able to keep the Milestone/Droid in stock, partly thanks to an aggressive and quite clever marketing campaign in the US.

At CES 2010, Motorola waved around a 7 inch tablet running Android, with an expected launch date of July. We don’t know a lot, but we do know it’s running a NVidia chipset, probably Tegra 2.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Described as a “Galaxy S on Steroids”, it’s not far off… The big brother to the Galaxy S, the Galaxy Tab is scheduled for a release in November and (should be) shipping in three sizes (initially 7 inches), so suit all suitcases.

There’s also a promise of a tweak to the UI, on top of TouchWiz to better support the larger format. Not sure where that’s going yet, but I’m quite curious to see.

Notion Ink Adam

The geek in me gets a little wet over this one. The device was waved around at CES last year and promises some goodies that make is stand out from the competitors:

• 1GHz nVidia Tegra 2 Dual-Core A9.
• Dual mode screen – LCD for full functionality and a reflective e-paper mode for reading in sunlight.
• 3 USB ports (USB, not some random dock interface)
• Android by default, support for Chrome OS and Ubuntu.

There’s been quite a lot of hype around this device and expectations are high, it’s very much a toy for the geeks. Plenty of juice, plenty of expansion, and the ability to run multiple OSs on it make it a good choice for the true mobile geek. And the screen is a god-send.

This is the tablet I am waiting for. I will be one of the first in-line when it is finally released.

[Update] – Eken M001

After I made this blog post, Orinoco popped his head up to say:

A quick google shows this to be a WIFI only tablet device running Android 1.6 with a 7″ resistive screen and a 600Mhz processor, but the nice part is the price – $100. Orinoco bought his for £65 from eBay, 1/6th the price of an iPad. It looks great if you use it as nothing more than a mobile web browser.

[Update] – Roll Your Own

One of the niceties about the Android OS is it’s (mostly) Open Source and there’s been a great hacking community built up around it with people porting it to all sorts of unexpected devices, including legacy HTC Windows Mobile devices and even the iPhone.

The Android-x86 project has been working on a version specifically tailored to working on x86 devices making it perfect for existing notebooks and tablet devices. You lose Google Market (only available to official devices and builds) but you can still happily run third party apps through other sources, since you can happily install any .apk that meets the system requirements. It looks like they’re working on 2.1 at the moment, cool times.

The one piece of kit screaming for this attention is The Asus Eee T91, which is supported (alas at the moment with VESA modes). This is a netbook-tablet with a rotating top which allows you to switch between the two modes. Who needs a separate keyboard when you can do that? Yummy.

Everything Else

There’s plenty in the pipeline. Unlike the iOS platform, which needs a dictator to steer the direction – creating the market for new devices as they go, Android devices turn up as the market demands. If people want them, they will be made. A quick search for the word tablet on Phandroid shows plenty of interest from manufacturers. Like Android phones, expect them to start popping up in quite serious numbers shortly towards the end of the year, and some understanding and development of the market (read second generation models) next year.

Of course a device is only as good as the software which runs on top of it. There’s been very little serious interest from Android developers in writing applications for the tablet format yet (well why would you when there are so few out there), but hopefully with a serious crop of tablets turning up in the next 12 to 18 months, that position will change. Unlike the iOS eco-system, there’s not so much fan-fare around device releases, it’s up to individual developers to decide when there’s enough demand in the market for them to port their app to better support the bigger platforms. I personally reckon it’ll take 18 months to 2 years for Android tablets to really take off in a useful way and start upsetting Steve Jobs again.

[1] pun intended.

One of my clients has recently been developing an iPad application for one of their major clients, and I’ve helped with the planning stages and keeping an eye on the delivery of the project. As such, we’ve had a few of these things knocking around the office and I’ve had my hands on them and played with them a bit.

My first impressions are underwhelming. If I put on my uber-geek hat, it’s a giant iPhone. It comes with the iPhone limitations and strengths. You can’t really tinker with the thing, it’s locked down tighter than a nun on retreat, and you can only really do what Apple says you can do with it. It’s less portable than an iPhone, and (I) found it quite heavy to hold for an extended period of time. The technical geek in my says “for the love of God – WHY?”.

But when I take off by technical-geek hat and put on my consumer hat, it’s a different game. Yes, it’s a giant iPhone[1]. And the iPhone has two major things going for it – App Store apps and Mobile Safari. Now the apps are pretty cool, and I’ve seen some that I’ve been suitably impressed by for mobile productivity (Things for starters, Mail is a definite improvement). The drawing apps are also suitable impressive and I was definitely tempted when I saw the venerable Omnigraffle on the iPad (for those unaware, I toiled with Visio for years. Then was shown Omnigraffle and cried tears of joy).

But for me, the biggest, the biggest and bestest (I know that’s not a word, but I don’t care) thing about the iPad is having a nine-inch, decent web browser. Because that provides a portal to stuff that Apple don’t have control over (not yet). Steve Jobs said in the WWDC keynote yesterday that HTML5 was their first platform, and the App Store second. With Android looking to go the same way, all bets are on HTML5.

And a nine-inch iPad is just about the right size to throw down in a meeting and have a small table of people peer over. It makes a great collaboration tool. I’ve used it a couple of times now in planning meetings for sprints and despite a couple of glitches JIRA and Greenhopper works great on the format. The format allows you to throw ideas together and plan sprints collaboratively without needing to lug a laptop, projector and designated minion to manage it all. You can put the screen flat on the table, making people feel part of the process rather than just talking to the man with the laptop.

So whilst it’s a great personal productivity tool, for me the great benefit is collaboration. I can see Balsamiq or Omingraffle (not tried it yet) being the next move for collaboration, getting people around for throwing UML use cases or interface designs together and getting all that lovely input together.

It probably goes without saying that I won’t be getting an iPad for myself. I’ll be waiting for a device like the Notion Ink Adam, running Android of course.

[1] I’ve just been corrected by Caius the pedant that since the iPad does not make calls, it is infact a giant iPod touch, not a giant iPhone. I stand corrected.

In return, they’ve only asked for one thing which has been denied of them – to be hated. So far, they’ve not received a single complaint. They’ve even gone so far as to shoot a clanger (artist’s rendering above) in an attempt to generate complaints.

So if you’ve been enjoying the broadcasts, please show your support for The Vote Now Show by registering a complaint with dear aunty.

For added humour, why not treat it as the traditional audience question? If you complain, leave your “complaint” in the comments section below. Mine is…

Summary of Complaint: Shooting of Clanger – Contravention of Hunting Act 2004 Full Complaint: I had tuned in to the nightly Vote Now Show expecting pleasant and perfectly middle class humour. I was disgusted to hear the live shooting of a wild clanger, which had been outlawed since the passing of the Hunting Act 2004. The vile and insensitive performers of the show should be made to issue an immediate apology – as THIS white, middle-class worker is shocked and distressed. Yours, Kian Ryan

Over the past few weeks, you’ve been a little bit shocked in the rise in popularity of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. Clearly you feel threatened since the Torys briefed the Murdoch papers on smearing the Lib Dems (which backfired) and Labour clearly have it in their mind that a Lib Dem vote is a protest vote (I’m looking at you Mr Milliband). For a long time power has bounced between red and blue, changing sides like a game of cricket. A major influence in this has been the media who tended to pick the winner and then smear all other opponents; but its not worked this time. Often discussion has been how it is the turn of “the other side”.

A Lib Dem vote is not a protest vote, we are not voting against something – we are voting for something. A Lib Dem vote is not a wasted vote, enough people vote and constituencies change – even “safe” ones. We are not the naughty children, nor are we “anti-politics”; in fact – this campaign has been the most attentive, pro-politics we’ve seen, with leaders debates on TV and open discussion on free new media. We are the people who didn’t really have a say, since we are not in traditional occupations to influence voters. Scientists, engineers, geeks, bloggers and more, we’ve always been here and been a significant number of people, but we are no longer the group of people who just keep quiet and accept the given situation.

We want change. We want our politics to keep up with the changing pace of technology. We want our freedom of speech, we want to be who we are (goth, gay, punk – whatever), and we want our vote to matter. We think the idea of a hung parliament is possibly a good thing, since it means MPs will have to work to pass their policies, and we are intelligent enough to see the potential impact it may have (economic and otherwise). We want open debate every year, not just every five years. We are intelligent and educated – not by Eton or Westminster, but a lot of us are educated to at least the same level as you – smear and fear campaigns just irritate us. We want electoral reform so that we know every vote really does count in the most important way possible. In many ways we don’t care what colour your policies are, just that they work for us. Tom Watson, despite being Labour, became a hero to many during the recent DEB farce.

There’s a couple of weeks left to this campaign. Your traditional tactics have failed to work. What can you do to rescue yourselves in our eyes in this campaign?

1) Engage in honest debate on policies. Stop the fear mongering – its just getting ripped apart and parodied online (and the beeb are going a good job on picking it up as well). 2) Talk about your own policies. It’s almost shocking how much time is being spent talking down the policies of other parties rather than talking up the policies of your own. Tell us why we should vote for you, not why we shouldn’t vote for the other parties. 2) Talk to the people you want to represent – a good proportionate sample of them. Get out of your comfort zone and see what the entire field is like. 3) Accept this is a three way race. Stop trying to marginalise the third party – its not working. The numbers are indeed nuts. So start fighting for those voters.

That’s it! Fight an honest fight and we will respect you for it. And an MP without respect might as well have a duck-house.

Yours,

A Voter

I e-mailed HTC and T-Mobile asking when the situation is going to be rectified. I got the following response from HTC (none from T-Mobile).

Dear Kian, Thank you for contacting us. We are aware of this issue and will be pushing out an update to rectify this issue. Please check your phone for updates, As these will be made available via an Over The Air update once they become available. Kind Regards, HTC Europe

I think that’s a reasonable enough response. Admittedly, it’s a cock-up that shouldn’t have happened, but they’ve responded with a reasonable answer. Now can we have some accessories please?

For those following my Twitter stream probably already know I’m impressed with this handset. I loved my G1 (running Android 1.6), but the advances in 18 months are just amazing. The look and feel of the device alone is significantly more polished than its predecessors and Sense UI just adds some nice overall touches to make a truly complete experience.

Looking at the hardware, the casing is very solid and quite gripped, with an almost rubber texture on the back. It doesn’t have the plastic feel of the G1, myTouch or Hero whilst being significantly thinner and lighter. The difference in weight is pretty significant, I keep having to check my pockets to make sure its there. The screen is possibly the best mobile screen I’ve seen – looking at photos and watching videos has an amazing feel to it. It does suffer from the direct sunlight problem that all screens in this class do, but so far its not really been a problem. The snapdragon processor is certainly snappy – its put up with everything I’ve thrown at it so far and not really battered an eyelid. Audio is … impressive. Normally I am completely underwhelmed by audio on mobile phones, music is something I’m very picky about. My usual mp3 player is a Sansa clip, paired with Sure SE-210s and my listening tastes range from Rock to Classical and Spoken Word. Hooking up the headphones to this handset I was impressed. It’s about as good as the Sansa clip, which is am impressive standard in itself. Im probably going to be switching to the Desire for day to day listening, and keeping the Sansa for trips away, where I might need to conserve battery. My only complaint about the audio is that its a tad quiet. I don’t usually expect to need to top out the volume for music playback, but I’ve got a feeling that’ll get addressed in the next firmware revision.

Battery so far has been fine. Just don’t be a numpty and leave everything turned on all the time.

The software experience is solid, with all the usual stuff you’ve come to expect from Android with some 2.1 niceties thrown in. The social integration which comes with Sense UI is surprisingly good, I’m using the Twitter integration (widget and app) now and the ability to link contacts to various social networks is great. The software keyboard is pretty darned good as well – I’ve written this entire post in the Wordpress application, and its guessed happily at most of the words with only a few corrections. Coming from a G1, I wasn’t sure how I would cope with no hardware keyboard by so far the larger screen and excellent software make up for that.

So yes, colour me impressed.

It’s bloody confusing.

I don’t watch BBC Parliament that often, but I’m usually capable enough of following what’s going on. But as this evenings clauses were being voted on I a admit to struggling keeping up with which clauses were which and at one point both @thehodge and I were wondering what on earth was now being voted on and whether the desired response was yay or nay. The whole process is wrapped up in so many layers described as “tradition” and “process” that from the outside, it looks completely archaic and more about posing than genuine debate. Many of these layers also take up time, precious time.

The numbers didn’t add up.

189 aye, 47 against. There had to be … 40 in that chamber at most? I believe the other 190 odd were hanging around outside. If this is so, why did they not partake or at least sit in on the debate? 20,000 people wrote to their MPs – at least some of those outside must currently represent some of those constituents. Did they not feel it part of their obligation to partake on their constituents part? Or did they just not want to show their face on camera and be noted as present? Have we got a catalouge of who voted and who was present as we did for yesterday? I think this is a major failing of the system, that MPs can just turn up and vote, without partaking in any debate on the issue.

The house was packed earlier in the day for PMQs

BBC News photos show a packed house for what was nothing more than posturing and arse-waving. Those MPs were there then, where were they for the DEB debate? People are losing trust in their MPs for reasons like this. A friend wrote in his blog that politicians have “lost track of what is actually meant by trust” (I’ll link once I get permission). In the whole, we don’t care if you’re sleeping with a footballer’s wife or dating one of the cheeky girls. What we want is for MPs to take an interest in matters their constituents have an interest in, to engage the house on those issues and work for us. It still feels like, even after the whole debacle of the MP expenses that MPs are failing to understand that they are there to represent constituents. Constituents are not just a by-product. There is an election coming up – it would do well to remember that.

How many MPs actually understood the bill, or the implications of the bill?

Some of those that spoke clearly had no real understanding of technical, social or economic issues of the bill before them. A few did, and Tom Watson really must be applauded for being one of the few voices (along with around 20 others) who genuinely understood what this would mean in a few years time. As some of the blog have already pointed out this morning, certain clauses will certainly cripple aspects of a growing economy – the complete opposite of what this bill was meant to achieve. It fails to help promote potential new business models and revenue streams and actively works to support pre-existing industries. Clause 8 is potentially disturbing as we now have the potential for a “great firewall” of our very own. At least there’s the protection of a judge, but considering the way our current libel laws work I can see this heading in the same direction very quickly.

Something else which actually dawned on me is that if this is how the DEB bill is debated (an area I have at least some knowledge on, so therefore can comment from an informed position) – are other bills handled the same way? Are bills on energy or economics debated with the same lack of understanding by politicians, and then voted on by a horde dragged in by the party whip? Quite a log of those debating the DEB were only given one side of the argument – the statistics given to them by the record industry, which have been debunked time and time again. Is politics simply a case of those with the most money winning all the time by being the voice in MPs ears? That has horrible implications.

My MP is Ruth Kelly. Who didn’t turn up for the vote or debate. Unsurprisingly since she is standing down at the next election, as many others are. But until the election they’re still our MPs. I would have had a little more respect for her, irrespective of her vote, had she actually turned up to the debate.

There’s a general election coming up on May 6^th. So far, I’m feeling “stitched-up” by all of the major parties. The party I had expected to stand up for my rights, the Lib Dems, failed to do so. Quite a few vocal Lib Dem supporters are also feeling rather stung and disillusioned with their own party. One blog post won’t make a blind bit of difference and I don’t really expect anyone of note to read nor take notice of this, but one hopes ever so slightly that this may be my Cesspool of the Potomac.

my apologies for not being diligently working as I probably should have been today. If you were not aware, it’s been snowing the past few days and being the rather large kid that I am, I decided that we were unable to get to the office (despite it being eight steps from my bedroom).

To compensate for this, I did something much more productive. It’s a prototype implementation of a Briggs inspired solution to the classic winter design problem:

Yep, I engineered a freakin’ snowman. He’s 5ft 8in tall, a few feet across the shoulders and should hopefully last at least a few days.

Normal service will resume tomorrow.