Android 3.0 isn't the first version of Google's mobile operating system to power a tablet -- but it is the first designed specifically for the larger hand-held devices. It's also the version intended to directly challenge Apple's dominance in the tablet space. That's a tall order for version 3. Earlier this year, I saw a lot of potential for Android version 2.2 running on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but I also saw flaws and disappointed expectations for mobile lawyers.
To cut to the chase: Android 3 still carries the potential to challenge Apple's iOS, but there are still flaws and disappointments.
Google's Android 3.0 is now available on just one tablet, the Motorola Mobility Xoom, which is available from only one wireless carrier: Verizon. The Xoom is an expensive looking device that is, alas, priced accordingly: $800 for a 32GB 3G/Wi-Fi version; $600 if you're willing to commit to a 2-year service contract or settle for a Wi-Fi version.
The Xoom is a fast, solidly built tablet with some pluses (better cameras than those on the iPad 2; speedy web surfing over Verizon's 3G network) and some minuses (bad positioning of power and volume buttons; a so-far non-functioning microSD card slot; more bulk than the comparatively svelte iPad 2). A less expensive 16 GB version would have been nice, but don't sweat it; we'll likely see that on one of the many forthcoming tablets that will be running Android 3.
But as important as hardware is, the question on a lot of lawyers' minds (judging from the increasing numbers sporting Android-based phones) is whether the tablet-specific version of Google's OS really challenges the iPad. Short answer: It does -- in some places. And it doesn't in others. Like Android 2.2, version 3 continues to be a promising work in progress. And that's a bit of a letdown.
Let's start with the good stuff. No tablet operating system (and, yes, we're looking at you, Apple iOS) does a better job than Android at giving you a wealth of at-a-glance information. Take a peek at your tablet and you'll immediately see the information you want -- recent e-mails, upcoming calendar appointments, key contact information, flight status, weather reports. Android 3.0 gives you a canvas of five big tablet-size homepages -- and lets you design them anyway you like. Drop an Android widget -- a miniature application that can provide chunks of real-time information -- anywhere on the screen. Place bookmarks to favorite sites. Even lay down directions to places you need to go. The idea is that the second you power on your tablet, the information you need right now is available, right now.
This isn't a new feature. Earlier Android versions like 2.2 let you place widgets all around the screen, too. But in the new version, you get far more flexibility on sizing and placement. And of course, you get five screens to work with -- plenty of room to put a whole portfolio of essential information. For all the iPad's strengths, it fails miserably when it comes to at-a-glance information. An app icon might be updated to show you there are now 13 unread messages in your inbox instead of 12, but Android will actually show you the sender and subject headers of that new message. Handy stuff.
Indeed, notifications and status alerts are terrific on Android 3.0. Tap the lower right corner of the screen -- where the current time is displayed -- and a box will pop up giving you information on battery life, network status, links to recent documents you downloaded, notification of new updates that are available, and much more. Press the quick settings icon in that box and you can lock the orientation of the screen, set the display's brightness level, turn on Wi-Fi, go into airplane mode, and so on. All without having to hunt for a settings button buried somewhere among pages of apps.
THE LEARNING CURVE
There's a bit of a learning curve to Android 3 that can seem overwhelming. There are all those homepages and, like iOS, there are pages of apps. Then there is the OS's undying love of icons. Android's e-mail app has nine of them at the top of the screen -- and they're not always intuitive (we probably should have known that the icon that looked like a file cabinet was the archive message button, but we didn't and we wish we hadn't pressed it). But if you take a half hour to play around with the tablet -- or, gasp, read the manual -- the customization is both easy, useful, and unique. Yes, the iPad is simpler to use, but it requires more taps, more screens, more effort before you learn the things Android 3.0 just puts before your eyes.
Unfortunately, such thoughtful design doesn't extend to other aspects of Android 3. While the mail app -- nicely formatted for bigger tablet screens (as with the iPad's e-mail app, there is one pane to scroll a list of all messages and another pane to read an individual message) -- can handle Microsoft Exchange accounts as well as web-based e-mail like Yahoo Mail, there is no ability to search messages. For lawyers -- not to mention most users -- this is a major, arguably unforgivable omission. Oddly, the separate Gmail app (used only for Google's e-mail service) does let you search messages. Hopefully this will be fixed in an update -- and soon. The OS needs to support a hardware home button too (a la iPad), instead of forcing you to find and touch yet another icon.
We also had the browser crash on us a bit too often -- not regularly, but enough to be annoying. Support for Adobe Flash -- famously absent on iOS -- is here, but clunky. On some websites, Flash video looks great, but on other sites it doesn't work at all. And Google Market -- where you buy your apps -- is rather a mess, especially when compared to Apple's slick and well-organized App Store. While it's easy to home in on games (for what it's worth, the Android version of Angry Birds looked awesome on the Xoom), finding business-oriented apps is much harder.
That said, if you hunt around enough, you'll find some good stuff -- like Cerience's RepliGo Reader, a PDF viewer-and-annotation program, and DataViz's Documents to Go, which lets you view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files. But few apps are designed to truly exploit the larger tablet screens. RepliGo tries, putting thumbnail images of document pages on the bottom of the screen so you can jump around the file, but the thumbnails are too small to be readable, and thus are fairly useless.
To be fair, Android 3.0 is new and apps that more actively exploit tablet real estate are no doubt coming. But for now the iPad has the clear edge when it comes to breadth, variety, and functionality of apps.
Ending a review with advice to wait six months seems like a copout. But for all its strengths, Android 3 -- like the Xoom tablet running it -- seems a little rushed and incomplete. Until the kinks get worked out of Google's new OS and more tablet-specific apps and Android-powered tablets arrive, waiting isn't just a safe bet. It's the wise one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment