Well, Jelly Bean doesn't support flash. I occasionally run into sites where it pissed me off because I couldn't view the video. The heavy content sites load fast enough. I don't notice a problem where I have to wait a while for a page to load. It'd be better if it supported flash until flash died and went away, but that won't happen. I am sure it's a big deal for some, not so big of a deal for others.

Games and such work great. App updates download and install fast.

I love mine. Definitely would recommend it.

you can install Dolphin HD and find flash for android out in the internet land.

it still runs flash

I have it installed on my Transformer Infinity with Jelly Bean


I thinking of getting a nexus 7 for someone for christmas. I just don't want to get one if it's a POS.

Yep, you can find flash anywhere. Just google search it.

Hella easier to cut and paste between apps, that's for damned sure.

If you have the Transformer Infinity, you should know what to expect...

It's not a POS at all.

HC: When I use "you" or "your" below I'm not necessarily talking about you personally. I'm talking about IT Management and using your words because they're illustrative of what I'm hearing in many other places. I'm sure you're a gentleman, scholar and a pillar of your community desrving in no way to be the direct target of such vitriol from someone who has the audacity to think that he knows the tools that would help him do his job better than the mid level IT manager who makes decisions based on "webinars" and meetings with their Microsoft rep.

I just get sick of putting up with management that doesn't want to take on the challenge of delivering the next generation of technolgy to their users.

Here you're giving a line that's coming from Corporate IT worldwide. It's led to this terrible buzzword of "consumerization" which diminishes and deflects from the core problem. Employees started to want to bring their own devices because the ones that were provided for them by the drones in IT managmenet suck.

If you're one of these managers that keeps talking about stuff like iOS and OS X in these terms, as Fish pointed out, you're going to be left behind. You can sit there and wring your hands about how hard it's going to be, but if you can't deliver a platform to people that equals or exceeds what they're used to using at home you're going to be out of a job.

You're exactly right. The BYOD movement is a sign that the product that you're providing to the consumers of your IT services is failing. It's time to start figuring out why IT is almost as unpopular in your company than legal or HR and fix the problem.

That's right. It's also important to understand that the people that work for the company don't generate revenue to support IT and don't work at your behest. You can cite that OS X hardware is more expensive, but when you factor in decreased headcount from the Help Desk, anti-virus licenses, third party patching tools then it may not be all that much cheeper. Oh but there's a problem with actually admitting that, right? If you put in systems that require fewer add ons and less support than your kingdom is being diminished. Well here's the thing..

The people running businesses are looking at their cost centers and see IT as being a huge chunk of dollars with high head counts that still can't get the executives' brand new Dell laptop to be as stable and quick as their home computer. Whether you've got your reasons that it's slow or not, someone else is setting the curve that your'e now being judged against.

If you're not generating revenue then you're on the chopping block. Make the users happy or start looking for another job.

Let me tell you what that sounds like to someone who pushes technology for a living but doesn't live in IT Managment. "This works with our current setup. If I give this to people, I don't have to change anything about what my job looks like. Every one of my software reps will buy me so many more shots next year because I'll be buying more of their crap. I don't have to learn anything new, and if anything I'll be able to increase the help desk staff and therefore continue to protect my kingdom. All this while looking totally cutting edge by telling people we're giving them tablets, even though they asked for iPads. The Surface really is the best of both worlds."

Is that probably off base? Sure it is. But that's the perception you're creating when you get so excited about something that fundamentally is no different than the crap you've been pushing for years that people started to rebel against.

No it isn't. It's a shitty idea. If people wanted the same OS on their laptop as on a touch screen device then the touchscreen edition of Windows XP on touchscreen laptops would have sold. They didn't. It was a failure.

The tragic thing for Microsoft is that by trying to merge these, they've ended up taking a pretty great touch interface in Metro and jammed it onto the desktop. Now people won't want to upgrade their traditional computers because Metro is best suited for tablets but the classic desktop is best suited for desktops.

The only thing the Surface is good for is IT Management.

I read your "middle management" rants and agree, middle managers (typically) suck, but they are NOT the people making the decisions: executives are. Why is it the executives are foregoing Apple products for Windows? (Rhetorical question; we all know why: broader hardware base, much better price point, lower TCO, greater ROI, MUCH broader application support base).

I have Apple products (MacBook Pro, MacBook, iPhone, iPad), I have had PCs running Linux (great for playing around; tons of potential, excellent if you're running a startup), and I have Microsoft products. Apple was great...in comparison to Vista (total POS). Compared to W7 and W8, it is sllllloooowwww aaaaaasssss ffffffffaaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkk, and severely limited in functionality (unless you load W7 or W8 in Parallels/dual-boot/VMware).

The iPad is a great form factor, but it is ultimately a trendy high-tech toy. There are lots of cool little apps for diversion, but not a lot of practicality. It has a ton of potential, but may (Microsoft's bet is it will) eventually be eclipsed due to its limited acceptance in the corporate world.

As for "rebelling against Microsoft", it's the same old story since the antitrust proceedings due to Microsoft having the nerve to *gasp* include a browser with their OS. :D Haters are going to hate, nothing anyone can say to change that. Fact is no one has been able to make much of a dent in their dominance. Google has been a massive failure on that front; Apple has been successful with their smartphone (revolutionary), and their tablet....in the consumer space. They have made moderate inroads in business with each, but they are still a minority in terms of phone for business. The iPad, on the other hand, was really the only game in town...until now.

From a purely OS standpoint... Apple is behind the 8-ball now. Windows 8 has the runaway advantage in the corporate world(obviously) and Android is set to make a huge jump forward with Jelly Bean 4.2. Why do I say that? Because now you have both competitors to Apple with support for multiple user profiles. That's a pretty huge step forward.


Oh, another great thing in Jelly Bean 4.2... native support for Miracast. For those who don't know what that is.. it's an open source, standards based alternative to Apple's AirPlay. It can support 1080p streaming to any Miracast certified device.. which are few and far between right now, but Samsung, Intel , etc have all just signed up and are pushing it hard.

The multiple user thing is HUGE for education use. As in, if iPad doesn't come out with their own in the next year or so, I can see way more classrooms moving away from iPad. Of course, I'm pretty confident that Apple will have implemented it within the next year or so.

The way I see it, they have to implement it by late July of next year or they will see some serious blowback from education purchasers moving on to better and cheaper Android tablets.

Something else people fail to consider...

Why would a consumer buy an iPad instead of a Nexus 10 (or similar) when they already have an Android phone? The answer is ... in most cases, they wouldn't.

Last quarter, Android topped 75% market share of all smartphones sold... Apple fell below 15%. That may be a serious problem for Apple's future.

On a related note... Windows 8 will probably work in the exact opposite direction. The Windows 8 tablets will make some headway (especially in the corporate world) and drive sales of Windows 8 phones.

Ehh, maybe. The Nokia devices are solid, but the others are pretty Meh, IMO. HTC's new W8 phone w/ Beats Audio may be okay; need to check it out.

I think you overestimate the adaptation timeframe for education (and many institutions). You're not talking about a massive switch. It's always going to be a slow paradigm shift. I'm not convinced that, from a detached evolutionary perspective, Apple won't end up in the tablet/phone market in the same place it's ended up in the PC market. I just don't see it happening in the NEAR (next couple of years) future, which is where I part with Apple haters and Droid enthusiasts.

apple is without Jobs...again. Last time that happened...

just sayin'. ;)