My Big 10″

On Tuesday, my 10.1″ Galaxy Tab arrived.

I’ve only had a few days to play with it, but I can already see that it’s going to be yet another life-changing device.

As someone whose life literally revolves around technology, especially mobile technology, incremental updates such as this literally change the way I do everything, from blogging, to working, to coding, to sketching, to recording, to organizing, to playing games, to … well, seriously … everything. The device I carry with me becomes an extension of myself, and because of this, it’s in nearly-continuous use.

Shortly after 3pm on Tuesday, I plugged my new tab into the wall, powered it up, typed in my WEP code, typed in my email address, typed in my password, and I was completely ready to go. Unbeknownst to me, the last version of Android syncs everything, and when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING.

Three minutes after typing in my password, my contacts were synced, as was my calendar, my email, my music, my wallpaper, my Chrome bookmarks, all 200+ apps I had downloaded previously, and the settings for those apps. Google seemlessly cloned my 7″ Tablet to my 10″ Tablet, and it was all done in the background … no iTunes, no cable, no wait.

When the configuration process was finished, I launched the web browser to surf a few of my favorite sites, and I was exceptionally pleased with the results. The tab has the exact same resolution as my laptop, and the Android 3.2 browser is basically a touchscreen version of desktop Chrome. Suffice to say that 90% of my surfing from this point forward will be done on the 10.1. It’s an outstanding experience, and I am especially impressed with the fluidity with which the tab handles multimedia content such as Flash.

Speaking of Flash … it’s not my intent to write another Apple dis post. After all, I’m typing this post on my MacBook Pro while I’m giving the tab its first full charge.

That said, I cannot fathom, not even remotely, the depths of brainwashing that one must succumb to in order to be “glad” that one does not have access to a web standard such as Flash. It’s arguably the main reason that I have absolutely no respect for iPeople.

Flash was a huge technological innovation, and one could make the legitimate argument that Flash WAS Web 2.0. Flash enabled cool things to be done with a web browser that were theretofore not possible, and while many developers abused the technology, the same can be said of ANY technology … including HTML (am I the only one who remembers the ‘blink’ tag?).

The fact that we now have millions of people who own Internet consumption devices that do NOT display Flash, and the fact that these people tout this lack as a benefit, is a testament to the absolute folly that is the iPerson. It so viciously holds the person’s intellect to ridicule, that to this day, I do not know how anyone can even take the position without feeling the immediate pangs of abject humiliation and shame.

It’s fine to like the iPad for a variety of reasons. It looks nice, it has cool apps, and it surfs 75% of the Internet. I’m sure if someone handed me one, I would put it to good use.

To be glad that you don’t have Adobe’s ubiquitous technology, however, simply because Steve Job’s didn’t like it, is every bit as backward and grotesque as a Mississippi pauper’s tireless support of the Republican Party. With such a glaring hole as the absence of Flash, a technology almost as instrumental to the growth of the web as any other technology, I didn’t, don’t, and never will respect anyone who touts the superiority of iOS over Android as it pertains to web surfing.

I digress.

While I am an Android fan, and I love my new tablet, I will be the first to acknowledge that Android is not perfect. Many Android releases are extraordinarily buggy, mostly due to carrier malfeasance. Un-rooted Android phones are a bloody mess of shitware and carrier updates which cause the devices to misbehave in all kinds of terrible ways.

When the big companies get a hold of an open platform like Android, they begin frothing at the mouth. They just can’t contain themselves. The customer-abuse possibilities are endless, and thus, we are endlessly abused.

Fortunately, the 10″ tab is not tied to a carrier, which means that I only have Google and Samsung’s spamware to deal with, and while it’s still annoying, it’s not as bad as the pain the carriers put you through.

All things considered, however, this new tab is arguably the most useful thing I’ve ever owned, and it is already opening up new possibilities.

This afternoon, before heading to Pike Place Chowder for lunch, I bought a stylus. Afterward, as I was sitting at a table, testing out my brand new stylus by randomly doodling in Evernote while eating my seafood bisque, I noticed a woman looking through the dining room’s plate glass window, staring down at the illuminated rectangle in front of me. Figuring that she was admiring my new device, I looked up and gave her a little smile … a smile that she did not return.

When I looked back down, I immediately realized why the woman was not terribly happy to see me. While the right side of my brain was eating chowder, the left side had sketched the following:

Oh yeah, this Galaxy Tab is going to be fun.