Toshiba tablet teaser site teases iPad, iPhone
You may have heard that iPad or iPhone/iPod touch devices don't do Flash. It's been mentioned a few times, and it's clearly the feature Android device makers are targeting when trying to answer the question "Why should I buy your device instead of an iPad or iPhone/iPod touch?"
Toshiba has a tablet that they claim is "coming this spring" (aka "it isn't shipping yet"), and it's tentatively called (are you ready for this?) "The Toshiba Tablet." A teaser website is up at http://thetoshibatablet.com. If you visit the site on an iOS device, you will be redirected to a mobile site that ends with /mobile/apple.html, describing itself as one of the "interesting places on the internet you can't see on your device. Of course, if you had a Toshiba Tablet you would enjoy the entire internet. Yep, Flash sites too." At the bottom is the name "Toshiba" followed by "Leading Innovation >>>," but if you're expecting that ">>>" to lead anywhere, you'll be disappointed.
First of all, instead of sending the message as HTML (after all, it's only text on a colored background), the whole page is one large image file. That wasn't innovative when people were doing it in 1998.
Secondly, if you change http://thetoshibatablet.com/mobile/apple.html to http://thetoshibatablet.com/mobile/, you'll find a nice iOS-compatible page that will take you to all sorts of handy information, including the specs page, which will tell you everything you might want to know ... except battery life.
Sean Hussey pointed out that if you visit the Toshiba Tablet page on a machine without Flash installed, you'll find default Flash text that Toshiba didn't bother replacing.
Look, Toshiba, your marketing guys did their job, because this has been making news across the Web. Good job. Unfortunately, you didn't show us any compelling reason why we need Flash. All you did was misappropriate browser user-agent sniffing to redirect people to a splash page that fails to link to other compatible content. The splash page is an image, the Flash video that it shows us doesn't really add any value -- although it does tell us that the battery is "long lasting" and "replaceable," which sounds like code for "you can carry two of them in case one of them doesn't get you through the day."
What's innovative about requiring Flash? (For that matter, what's innovative about the name "The Toshiba Tablet?") "Skip Intro" was a joke about lame web design long before the iPad came along. Rather than thumbing your nose at iPad users -- who have already shown that they're willing to pay big bucks for technology -- why not make that same video in H.264 and show iPad users what they're missing instead of telling them. (By the way "show, don't tell" isn't innovative either. They should have covered it in your freshman year writing class.)
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Source: http://thetoshibatablet.com/
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You may have heard that iPad or iPhone/iPod touch devices don't do Flash. It's been mentioned a few times, and it's clearly the feature...
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Here is our light-hearted response to Toshiba Tablet's "Such A Shame" page :-)
"It is one thing to trash-talk the competition when you can back it up with substance, but to throw out a challenge with nothing more than a CAD mock-up of the tablet and a non-specific release date...well, you are just asking for us to come take pot shots at you"
For the full article...http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2011/Home/January/Week4/RDMHomeJan2611.htm#SuchAShame
It's a shame for Toshiba which tries to axe other products to sell itself. Toshiba was a reputable brand back in 1990 but since then they're anything except innovative.
January 25 2011 at 10:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOn top of insulting iOS users, they left out visually impaired iOS users. If you are going to use an image instead of text, the least they could do is add an alt attribute so blind users know what's on the page.
January 25 2011 at 8:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI can just copy that. It's the trouble with taglines, they can easily work against you. Remember that "Computer is personal again"? - I can't see what HP exactly did for personalisation of a computer. But something as bigheaded as "Leading Innovation" is a guaranteed suicide.
Did you notice Apple uses no tagline at all?
Apple doesn't even use a name.
January 25 2011 at 6:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHmm. I'm an Apple fan (have an iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac, and MacBook Air) but I'm also a fan of choice. I'm a big boy, I should be able to choose whether or not I use Flash.
I'm bemused by the fanboys here who argue against choice. Reminds of of the Canon fanboys on the photography websites who used to argue against the need for spot metering on their Canon Rebels...at least until Canon finally relented and decrippled their products.
And for those fanboys who'll argue I should get rid of my Apple products and by a Toshiba tablet, don't bother. Although you may not be able to weigh the many pros and cons of a particular product and decide to live with it's limitations despite my dissapointment in them, I can.
The tablet market is in it's early stages. The handful of users willing to make the financial commitment and become testers for this new form factor have made themselves visible by purchasing an iPad. While it's not the first tablet, its the first good tablet. Perhaps Toshibas model is superior to the iPad. But ad campaigns like this will insure that the rather small group of techies who want a tablet bad enough to grab the first generation that comes along will not even consider trying out Toshibas model. For most people, a large cash investment creates a defensive attitude toward those who question the value of the purchase. We see it everyday in the PS3 vs. 360 arguments. They are essentially the same system(exclusives aside) but those on both sides argue viciously over the minutiae of graphical details in order to justify the investment to themselves.
They tell us the device that we shelled out five hundred bucks for is deficient, but what we hear is that we were stupid to have bought it and if we wanna smart up we can hand over another five hundred for their device. It's insulting. Insults are not an effective marketing strategy.
Guess what? I'm glad Apple doesn't allow Flash sites on my iDevices. I didn't like Flash sites before this Apple - Adobe brouhaha, and more importantly I still don't. I block Flash in my web browsers, because, generally speaking, Flash sites don't allow me too quickly see the content, which is the main thing anyway. Flash sites impede my ability to do so. Flash causes problems on my Macs at home, and the PCs I use at work. I'm better off without Flash. Thanks Apple.
January 24 2011 at 6:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBut does it have an HD-DVD drive?
January 24 2011 at 6:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI donât know anything about the Toshiba Tablet, but I do wish the iPad had stereo speakers.
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