Tablet recommendations for live use

[dboulden]

I was merely pointing out the alternatives to someone who wasn't happy paying Apples inflated prices, simple as that. Win8 is not released yet, but developer builds are freely available for testing.

[mojkarma]

I was merely pointing out the alternatives to someone who wasn't happy paying Apples inflated prices, simple as that. Win8 is not released yet, but developer builds are freely available for testing.

Whether Apples prices are inflated or not, a tablet with windows 7 is not an alternative. It just isn't. A netbook maybe yes, but definitely not a tablet which is intended to be used by touch. There are things where I would always prefer a mouse and a keyboard and there are situations where I'm just faster with a touch driven tablet.
And experimenting with some developer builds "freely available" is not what I would consider as a base for any halfway serious work. At least, not on stage.

[Artemiy]

I doubt Windows 8 supports the same amount of multi-touch gestures that are on the iPad.

[dboulden]

Whether Apples prices are inflated or not, a tablet with windows 7 is not an alternative. It just isn't.

With respect, that is just your opinion. There is no reason a Win7 application can't handle touch gestures. I recently started building an Adobe AIR based music app and it runs just fine using as touch interface on Windows 7. It depends on how you intend to use your tablet. If you have one single app you intend to use and the touch interface under Windows works well, then why not?

I would not advocate using a dev build for live work either. I am just pointing out ther ARE alternatives. Great though it is, tablet usage for musicians or anyone does not begin and end with the iPad.

Art... quite prossibly not, I guess we won't know for sure until it's prodcution release :-)

[Artemiy]

Dave, but why do you need an alternative in the first place? :-)

[dboulden]

Because the orignal poster stated they didn't like the idea of paying extra for an iPad, I was simply offering an alternative as it was asked for :-)

[Artemiy]

Well, I do think that there is no "extra" you pay for the iPad, if you dig deeper. The device is better made, and the OS is more mature, capable and updateable.

[dboulden]

It may well be better made than many tablets, probably more so the Android ones, but not necessarily all. I'm not so sure you can claim iOS is more mature than Windows or that it's any more updateable than other tablet OS's but I do agree it is probably more capable being purpose written.

I firmly belive you *do* pay extra for an Apple product. Why do they charge more? Quite simply because they can. Apple is an agressive busiess and if they think they can increase profits by making you pay more, they will. They are not alone in this, many businesses operate in this fashion including the likes of Micrososft and Intel, but in my opinion Apple is noticiably so.

[Artemiy]

Dave, it's my opinion that with Apple products I, and many many others I know, have a much better experience than with other companies. We are paying for their tremendous work on making things work in a very elegant, polished way. There are tons of little useful features which open up after months and years you use Apple products, and only then you see how deep they are. I do not mind paying a few hundred to brilliant people who do their work hard.

To dismiss any assumptions that I am an Apple fanboy - this is far from truth. But they make the best combinations of hardware+software I know today.

[mojkarma]

Whether Apples prices are inflated or not, a tablet with windows 7 is not an alternative. It just isn't.

With respect, that is just your opinion. There is no reason a Win7 application can't handle touch gestures. I recently started building an Adobe AIR based music app and it runs just fine using as touch interface on Windows 7. It depends on how you intend to use your tablet. If you have one single app you intend to use and the touch interface under Windows works well, then why not?

I didn't know that there are apps for the win7 which are streamlined to be used by touch technology. I'm just saying that from my experience, a lot of those apps on the iOS platform are done in a really good way and support gestures for doing certain tasks and my experience on the stage is a positive one. If that's possible on the win7 as the core, I'm fine with that. Of course if there is an adequate app support. For using scores, lyrics, reminders, creating set lists, sending program change data, there are a couple of very good apps for the iOS right now. Some of them are even free.

[dboulden]

I'm just saying that from my experience, a lot of those apps on the iOS platform are done in a really good way and support gestures for doing certain tasks and my experience on the stage is a positive one. If that's possible on the win7 as the core, I'm fine with that. Of course if there is an adequate app support. For using scores, lyrics, reminders, creating set lists, sending program change data, there are a couple of very good apps for the iOS right now. Some of them are even free.

Yes, I agree.

The issue I had personally with iOS was when I wanted to create my own apps. I have a long dev background in a whole host of technologies, settling mostly on those that are cross-platform. It seems Apple don't like this and will only allow Apple dev systems to be used to create iPad apps (unless someone can show me otherwise, which woud be very welcome!) ... something of a slap in the face to those companies and devs who strive to make cross-platform development better.

[Andy Keys]

Well, guess what? I got a good deal on one, so I bought an iPad2.
Finally managed to get it to talk to the PC and Mac through iTunes.
WHY doesn't this thing just appear as either a device or a drive? Oh yeah, Apple control-freakery. ;o)

It doesn't have the ability to read PDFs without downloading extra (admittedly free) software. So, I could do with some help.

Mojkarma:

I use a tablet for live use and it works great. It sits on the top of my Fantom G8, I see my set list, my scores, reminders and it sends midi program changes to my keyboard. I just need to send midi program change commands and the app does it as soon as I tap on the song in my previously created set list.

What apps do you use to display your setlists and scores and send MIDI stuff?

[Artemiy]

Andy, congratulations! :-)

Download iBooks, it's a free app from Apple for reading PDFs. BTW it can also display PDFs in Safari and Mail.

[Andy Keys]

Ah, thanks for the tip, Artemiy. I'll try that when I get in tonight. :)

[Artemiy]

Just to make it clear, iPad can view PDFs and other types of files (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint...) within Safari and Mail out of the box. iBooks is a separate app that lets you store multiple PDFs in a library.