iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet?

Re:iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? by MatthewPhillips on Saturday January 05, 2013 @09:15AM (#5012665)

One of the coolest things about Windows RT is that you have access to the filesystem like on any normal computer, and the integration with cloud filesystems like SkyDrive and Box.net. These are treated as just another drive and are available from the file picker. Dropbox isn't there yet but I imagine it is coming.

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Re:iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? by josteink on Sunday January 06, 2013 @06:53AM (#5016087)

I fail to see how this is different from any Android tablet, except artificially crippled.

The Windows RT tablets will have the "desktop" mode, but refuse to run any desktop apps not shipped with the device. You can't compile a standard Windows-application for ARM, copy it over and have it run. That's a no go.

On Android-tablets, you can whip up a terminal and execute any binary you like, no matter where it came from.

You can compile Linux user-land tools for ARM and use them as you please. In fact somebody already did that job for you so you can just deploy them on your tablet.

I fail to see how Windows RT offers anything which haven't already been here for years.

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Re:iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? by MatthewPhillips on Sunday January 06, 2013 @12:02PM (#5016797)

Android doesn't have a file picker. I can't open Random App and open a file from the internal storage or cloud providers.

I'm not saying Windows RT is perfect or even that good, I'm just saying that this one particular thing, they got right.

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Re:iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? by josteink on Sunday January 06, 2013 @01:03PM (#5017025)

Android doesn't have a file picker.

Maybe stock doesn't, but install any file-manager from market, and voila you have just that.

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Re:iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? by MatthewPhillips on Sunday January 06, 2013 @04:04PM (#5017717)

File managers aren't file pickers. 3rd party apps do not integrate with them.

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Re:iPad, Surface, Ultrabook: Are we there yet? by josteink on Monday January 07, 2013 @01:58AM (#5019812)

That is where you are wrong.

Just like gallery-app can be a file picker, so can a file manager be. Like cm's file manager is.

Or it can be something else entirely, like a dropbox frontend. You've just got to have a little bit more imagination ;)

In Android, 3rd parties don't need to integrate, the OS does it for them via intents. That's the number one thing which makes the OS so flexible and exciting.

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