If you, like me, own a tablet running Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system you will have at some point come across an app that doesn’t work with your particular device. For me it’s a number of basic connectivity apps that just don’t work because they have not been verified or recompiled or some other, frankly, lame excuse. The whole situation is so reminiscent of the days of my 486-33DX that I want to pull what little hair I have left on top of my head out and stuff it down Sergei Brin’s throat. It’s not like I went completely el cheapo or anything buying some off-brand piece of Korean garbage for $50 and a Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPM) to the local water park and dinner theatre.
I bought a name brand tablet with all the bells and whistles for a good price from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). But god forbid I want to use the thing to talk with someone else via Skype, Whatsapp or Viber. No thanks. Note talking app I really like? Broken with the Ice Cream Sandwich update. Good thing I backed everything up to my SkyDrive account before doing that.
So, the idea of Google finally putting out a reference piece of hardware that doesn’t make me want to root it and put Ubuntu on it makes me believe that they might actually be taking this whole Android thing seriously as opposed to managing it like a bunch of frat boys at a rush kegger. And that’s on their better days. I’m still trying to figure out how they took Linux and turned it into Windows ME, honestly.
The Nexus7 tablet (love the name as I’m a huge Philip K. Dick fan) looks like a good piece of kit. And at the right price should satisfy anyone dissatisfied with their Kindle Fire and Amazon’s ham-handed attempt to be Apple. But, it’s not good enough for me to ever want to buy another Android device in the near future. Because, at the end of the day, portable hardware that is both practical and fun should be both practical and fun and not a friggin’ techies wet dream where they can rebuild it like its Steve Austin after the car crash.
Most people want stuff that works. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) finally heard us after 20 years and Apple kicking their tails all around the world without having to resort to extortion, a la Windows. So, for me I can’t wait for a 7′ Windows 8/RT tablet that works. I’m finally happy with the stuff Microsoft is producing and have no desire to bleed over Linux for the first time in 10 years. Google should’ve done this last year from the beginning and we’d all be singing Windows eulogy.
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