Nexus 7 (Google Tablet by ASUS)...

Noticed most of the CERN folk's personal computers were Mac's...those dummies.

 

I found another bit of encouragement for you. Staples says they will be available mid-July

Staples Tips July 12 Google Nexus 7 Ship Date | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Let's hope they are right.

 

Reperability on an iPad isn't important, their customers are expected to buy a new versi0n and throw away the old one every 12 to 24 months to get the new packet of free Kool Aid.

 

Interesting that iPad has been out for two years and you don't see any needing repairs or even people running down the battery which does have a definite life span.

Idea of taking apart and repairing consumer electronics, Apples or Androids, is a bit silly. TV repair shops went out of business decades ago. All the consumer electronics are basically throw away vs. fix.

 

Boy howdy, there sure is a lot of Apple-bashing on this forum. Just like there's a lot of Prius-bashing on the SUV forums. Both for the same reason.

 

Adding in the hardware to make the battery accessible would create more bulk, more weight, more cost for something that is 4-5 years down the road. Easy enough for folks to send back to Apple or have Apple set up "Authorized iPad Battery" shops 4-5 years from now...even then likely only for the hard core users who run the battery down every day.

 

My first iPod had the battery starting to crap out after about 1 year. It was used everyday for about 8-9 hours, and charged nightly. It started originally lasting about 20-24 hours of playing, and in that year worked its way down to barely meeting 8 hours. I bought a battery online and it came with a plastic pry "tool", and in 30 minutes I had the battery replaced on my own. I still prefer to have this capability, even if it adds a miniscule amount of size to the case. If I had gone to Apple to replace that battery, it would have cost me enough to just get a new iPod. Some fixes are good to be able to do, but admittedly, most issues with a tablet are basically going to turn it into a fancy paper weight.

 

What do you mean? You got tons of choice with Apple! Just checking email and doing light web surfing? Get an iPad. Need to do serious work but don't want to lug around anything heavy? MacBook Air is the ticket! You need all the bells and whistles, and feel like watching a DVD? MacBook Pro for you!

And then there's the variety in desktops...

Don't like OS X for whatever reason? Fine, it's built on top of Linux - you can do with that what you want!

 

He means that Apple locks down the software so that you can't do what you want. Side load an app on iOS? no can do. Jailbreak is the only option. Change the keyboard, free tethering, requiring JB. Now, Apple is locking down the hardware. They use proprietary SSD for their new laptops. They glue down batteries to a point that removing them punctures the cells spilling toxic chemicals. That shiny new fully loaded $3,500+ Retina Macbook Pro is unrepairable when the touchpad fails. It earned 1 out of 10 on the scale of repairability. MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Mid 2012 Teardown - Page 3 - iFixit iPad3's repairability score is 2 our of 10. These ifixit guys are diehard Apple lovers. They hardly ever touch Android devices. Even they are pissed off that Apple is heading toward the throw-a-way direction on their hardware no matter how expensive it is. If you want to just checking emails and light web surfing, even the ipad is over kill. Why not buy a $99 Android tablet for that. Serious work can also be done on ultrabooks. A MacBook Pro doesn't have all the bells and whistles. That title still belongs to Windows laptops. Many MBP don't come with built in ODD. The only reason for buying a Mac is to run OSX. If OSX is not required or desired, buying an over priced Mac is a total waste of money. A cheap AMD setup for 1/4 cost of a mac will do just fine for running a Linux OS.
Apple products are not the top of my list of devices to buy due to the restrictions they put on their products, their business practice and their litigating happy lawyers suing everybody for any minute details which resulted in driving the cost of everything up. Just look at how many law suits Apple has filed against Google, Samsung and HTC. You know them lawyers don't do pro bono. That money's gonna come from somewhere.

 

Right, the Nexus 7 is 1mm thicker than it would be with a non-removable back. For anyone with hands like a 2 year old girl I can see that being problem, by kindergarten not so much of a problem.

I see no reason to enter the walled garden for the privilege have paying Apple some outrageous amount to replace a battery a few years down the road when I can replace the battery in a competently designed piece of equipment myself.. I keep most electronics a long time.

I recently got rid of a Sony Vaio laptop we had for 11 years. I replaced the battery a couple of times, added memory and replaced the CD burner with a DVD burner over the years. It was still a useful spare computer I didn't mind using it in the garage or dragging along in a car to run diagnostics. My 4 year old net book has been demoted to garage duty to replace it.

The Sony internal power supply finally died and wasn't worth replacing but 11 years was good run. We also have two cell phones that are about 8 and 4 years old. Both have had batteries and display glass replaced and the 4 year old one has had the case replaced because my wife was tired of the color and the hinge broke. Display glass for common cell phone runs about $3 on eBay and an entire many piece case including the frame for my wife's phone was $14 on ebay Both phones are still useful because they run on different network than our smart phones so sometimes get reception in the boonies where the smart phones don't. I also don't particularly care what happens to them so carry them places I wouldn't take a $400 to replace smart phone.

 

Nope, it's built on top of BSD plus some other UNIX derived stuff. Not the same thing at all except at a superficial *nix level. That said, it's probably the better choice for a basis for OSX

 

But Nexus advertises being lighter and thinner than iPad...go figure. The size and weight issues are not "do I have the strength to lift it" but "does it fit how I use it". By your logic, no one over the age of 12 would have a tablet at all since they have the muscle mass to handle a 17" laptop.

And here Apple wins all these design awards and everyone, including Google/Nexus is trying to imitate them. I would venture to say your viewpoint is unique and your market demographic very small. Most people want a great looking device that works great. Enter the i's. No one has paid Apple yet for replacing a run down battery and there's no hue and cry about iPad or iPhone batteries dying and phones/pads on funeral pyres. Even if batteries were running down in the lifetime of the product (not yet), even if they were replaceable by the consumer, the cost for the battery (probably $100) would have people looking at new devices since, at that point we are five years and five generations down the road. Who knows, maybe it will lead to the reincarnation of the "TV Repair Shop" as the "Apple iPhone/iPad Repair Shop" where techies make a couple bucks putting new batteries in old i's. It would actually be a cool deal for Apple to take them back in trade for "eco-recycling" and to put in new batteries and give away to economically disadvantaged kids in public schools. Not even offer cash but a "$100 charity deduction on your income tax".

 

Nexus 7 was never advertised as being thinner and lighter than ipad. All the official Nexus 7 videos I've seen have never mentioned i anything. Winning design awards doesn't substitute for designing a unrepairable, none sustainable product. You can design the most beautiful car yet design its so that you have to remove the engine in order to change the oil. There's a difference between eye candy and serviceability.
Unless Apple has a similar sized tablet to the Nexus 7, I wouldn't call it copying. In fact, rumor has it that Apple is making a smaller iPad similar in size as the Galaxy Tab 7.7.
TV repair shops existed because of the technologies used on the older TV made it viable for those repair shop to stay in business. TVs now a days are too bulky to transport and too expensive to repair. The cost for a new one has came down in price making repairing them not economical. Also, extended warranties and in home service are making TV repair shops mobile. You no longer have to bring the TV to the shop, the shop comes to you.

 

You're right - I meant Unix (just typed Linux out of habit). Still, the point is you can customize the feces out of it.