Device for reading Go World Magazine in Digital Form

tchan001 · **#21**

Boidhre, what do you think of the newest Chinese android tablets out now with 9.7 inch retina quality screens with the same resolution as iPad?
Stuff like this
http://www.tabletreviewspecs.com/pipo-m ... eview.html

Boidhre · **#22**

tchan001 wrote:

Boidhre, what do you think of the newest Chinese android tablets out now with 9.7 inch retina quality screens with the same resolution as iPad?
Stuff like this
http://www.tabletreviewspecs.com/pipo-m ... eview.html

I've read quite a lot of reviews commenting on rather uneven hardware quality (generally things like headphone ports not working and similar), poor firmware, a lot of apps refusing to install and other problems. I'm holding my opinion until a couple of people who've ordered them get theirs and have time to put them to the test. I'm really not impressed by the lack of reputable reviews of the tablets in question.

As I've said before, the issue isn't the hardware with Android vs iPhone, the top end Android stuff is the equal if not superior to the top iPhones. The issue is iOS vs Android and specifically the two app stores.

alejo · **#23**

Boidhre wrote:

Crisper text because of the greater resolution with the Retina display over the Galaxy Tab display.
The iOS App Store has exclusive go apps whereas Android doesn't have any that don't have equivalents on iOS.

Either of these might justify the much greater cost of the iPad for you or they may not

1. High end devices, such as Nexus 10, offer the same or even better resolution than the iPad.
2. While this used to be true, it's no more. One sample in Go is the KGS app, which doesn't exist in iPad. However, there are still some apps which exist in only one market and not the other, but this works both ways nowadays.

Lastly, and this is just my personal opinion, the only fact which currently justifies the greater cost of the iPad is the apple logo at the backside

Boidhre · **#24**

alejo wrote:

Boidhre wrote:

Crisper text because of the greater resolution with the Retina display over the Galaxy Tab display.
The iOS App Store has exclusive go apps whereas Android doesn't have any that don't have equivalents on iOS.

Either of these might justify the much greater cost of the iPad for you or they may not

1. High end devices, such as Nexus 10, offer the same or even better resolution than the iPad.
2. While this used to be true, it's no more. One sample in Go is the KGS app, which doesn't exist in iPad. However, there are still some apps which exist in only one market and not the other, but this works both ways nowadays.

Lastly, and this is just my personal opinion, the only fact which currently justifies the greater cost of the iPad is the apple logo at the backside

1. We were talking about a specific model of Galaxy Tab. The Nexus 10's got better dpi but from reviews it's very hard to tell with them side by side unless you look at them from a couple of inches away. The colour is also more vibrant on the Nexus 10 which is either a plus or a minus depending on your tastes (personally I prefer less vibrant so I was very happy with my Galaxy SIII after the SII)

2. This isn't true. Sorry, I own devices with both operating systems and the Android app store is still poor in comparison. Apart from KGS, which is irrelevant with a HTML5 version coming, I don't see anything Android specific in go apps that iOS doesn't have an equivalent for. On the other hand there aren't Android equivalents to SmartGo Books, Easy Go, Go Eye etc. There are others like Tygem that only have their iOS version in English, though this may not matter to you.

tchan001 · **#25**

Boidhre wrote:

1. We were talking about a specific model of Galaxy Tab.

No, this thread is about suggesting devices which would be good for reading go world magazine in digital form. It's not about Samsung vs Apple. My main point about the benefits of my Samsung Note 10.1 is that I can store the whole of Go World Magazine archive along with a host of other things externally on a micro SD card and that this option is not available on the iPad. It's not about SmartGo Books or other apps which are specific to the platforms. That would be a different topic.

Boidhre · **#26**

tchan001 wrote:

Boidhre wrote:

1. We were talking about a specific model of Galaxy Tab.

No, this thread is about suggesting devices which would be good for reading go world magazine in digital form. It's not about Samsung vs Apple. My main point about the benefits of my Samsung Note 10.1 is that I can store the whole of Go World Magazine archive along with a host of other things externally on a micro SD card and that this option is not available on the iPad. It's not about SmartGo Books or other apps which are specific to the platforms. That would be a different topic.

This thread is about devices in general, my post was about a specific device mentioned in your post which was clear due to my mentioning of said device.

tchan001 · **#27**

Boidhre wrote:

tchan001 wrote:

So you are saying my Samsung Galaxy TAB 10.1 is not a reasonable choice because it is not iPad with Retina.

There are only two issues really:

Crisper text because of the greater resolution with the Retina display over the Galaxy Tab display.
The iOS App Store has exclusive go apps whereas Android doesn't have any that don't have equivalents on iOS.

Either of these might justify the much greater cost of the iPad for you or they may not. Also this only considers go and ignores other reasons you might favour Android over iOS as an operating system.

So what does this have to do with whether the Samsung is a reasonable choice of device for reading Go World magazine on a device? You may argue that the iPad has greater resolution, but does that make the Samsung unreasonable as a reading device for Go World magazines?

Gorim wrote:

my main motivator for a purchase is reading the Go World Magazine, I am mostly interested how these devices would cope with it, the diagrams it consist, etc.

The OP is not concerned with additional exclusive go apps.

Boidhre · **#28**

tchan001 wrote:

So what does this have to do with whether the Samsung is a reasonable choice of device for reading Go World magazine on a device? You may argue that the iPad has greater resolution, but does that make the Samsung unreasonable as a reading device for Go World magazines?

Same as a Nexus 10. I'd always go for the higher resolution tablet if I could afford it because of the better text quality. It doesn't make the Galaxy Tab unreasonable, just less preferable.

tchan001 · **#29**

And the Pipo M6 has the same resolution as the iPad and is much more affordable and has a micro SD slot

Boidhre · **#30**

tchan001 wrote:

And the Pipo M6 has the same resolution as the iPad and is much more affordable and has a micro SD slot

I'm wary of the new influx of budget Chinese tablets promising superb specs at prices that are well out of whack with the main Android tablet makers. Usually you don't get those deep discounts in price without compromising somewhere else. The Nexus 10 is cheaper than the iPad and is a very high quality device, stick with recommending that one until more reviews are in for the Pipo et al.

tchan001 · **#31**

What it says to me is that the "deep discounts" are actually much smaller gross margins accepted by manufacturers who are selling almost direct and don't have to spend heavily on advertising to justify high gross margins. I'm actually debating whether to buy a Pipo M6 myself as the specs seem to be quite good for what I would get. I really don't want to root my Samsung and void my warranty, but with the Pipo M6, I am tempted

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/11/ ... -for-apple

Boidhre · **#32**

tchan001 wrote:

What it says to me is that the "deep discounts" are actually much smaller gross margins accepted by manufacturers who are selling almost direct and don't have to spend heavily on advertising to justify high gross margins. I'm actually debating whether to buy a Pipo M6 myself as the specs seem to be quite good for what I would get. I really don't want to root my Samsung and void my warranty, but with the Pipo M6, I am tempted

http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/11/ ... -for-apple

Other similar tablets to to Pipo have had users reporting problems with poor firmware and poor quality components which are "off the spec sheet," e.g. the headphone socket. There are compromises being made other than the margin, and remember it's not just advertising that margin is paying for with Apple but tech support and iOS development, Android tablet makers get the latter for free and the cheaper brands skimp heavily on the former.

They're cheap enough to take a gamble alright but I would hesitate before recommending one to someone as their only tablet. I'd go for a more proven brand in that instance.

alejo · **#33**

Boidhre wrote:

alejo wrote:

Boidhre wrote:

Crisper text because of the greater resolution with the Retina display over the Galaxy Tab display.
The iOS App Store has exclusive go apps whereas Android doesn't have any that don't have equivalents on iOS.

Either of these might justify the much greater cost of the iPad for you or they may not

1. High end devices, such as Nexus 10, offer the same or even better resolution than the iPad.
2. While this used to be true, it's no more. One sample in Go is the KGS app, which doesn't exist in iPad. However, there are still some apps which exist in only one market and not the other, but this works both ways nowadays.

Lastly, and this is just my personal opinion, the only fact which currently justifies the greater cost of the iPad is the apple logo at the backside

1. We were talking about a specific model of Galaxy Tab. The Nexus 10's got better dpi but from reviews it's very hard to tell with them side by side unless you look at them from a couple of inches away. The colour is also more vibrant on the Nexus 10 which is either a plus or a minus depending on your tastes (personally I prefer less vibrant so I was very happy with my Galaxy SIII after the SII)

2. This isn't true. Sorry, I own devices with both operating systems and the Android app store is still poor in comparison. Apart from KGS, which is irrelevant with a HTML5 version coming, I don't see anything Android specific in go apps that iOS doesn't have an equivalent for. On the other hand there aren't Android equivalents to SmartGo Books, Easy Go, Go Eye etc. There are others like Tygem that only have their iOS version in English, though this may not matter to you.

1.After re-reading the original post, just to check I wasn't wrong, the author asks for any device. Not specifically Galaxy Tab X vs the latest ipad. And yes, any device with a dpi over 250 will fool us into looking at it at two inches of the screen. Otherwise, it's hardly possible to realise the difference.

2."Android market is poor in comparison"... and ipad users are rich, since they are willing to pay 11 euros for Easy Go + 5$ per book for SmartGo books. Moreover, more than half of the apps listed in SL for iphone related to Go aren't free. Well, that was a "cheap" joke :lol:

Though Android has KGS and some other options (like flash, for goproblems and such), I must confess I miss some of the ipad apps. Though I'm not a iphone/android GO developer, I wonder why certain apps are only on ipad since android owns a bigger market share in the US. And the difference in share in Korea or Japan are much larger in favor of Android.
Piracy is certainly not an issue here, since go-related piracy is scarce. How many people are actually using the KGS on android but not willing to pay for it? Little if any.
Even if some developers are switching more and more to android and leaving iphone as a second priority, this is not true in the go sphere.

In the end, I like more android over iphone/ipad BUT, if I was to recommend NOW a device ONLY for Go for someone rather wealthy, I would go for the ipad. However, if I had to do anything else with the device (read newspaper, weather, pdf...) I'd go for the android.

Boidhre · **#34**

alejo wrote:

1.After re-reading the original post, just to check I wasn't wrong, the author asks for any device. Not specifically Galaxy Tab X vs the latest ipad. And yes, any device with a dpi over 250 will fool us into looking at it at two inches of the screen. Otherwise, it's hardly possible to realise the difference.

2."Android market is poor in comparison"... and ipad users are rich, since they are willing to pay 11 euros for Easy Go + 5$ per book for SmartGo books. Moreover, more than half of the apps listed in SL for iphone related to Go aren't free. Well, that was a "cheap" joke :lol:

Though Android has KGS and some other options (like flash, for goproblems and such), I must confess I miss some of the ipad apps. Though I'm not a iphone/android GO developer, I wonder why certain apps are only on ipad since android owns a bigger market share in the US. And the difference in share in Korea or Japan are much larger in favor of Android.
Piracy is certainly not an issue here, since go-related piracy is scarce. How many people are actually using the KGS on android but not willing to pay for it? Little if any.
Even if some developers are switching more and more to android and leaving iphone as a second priority, this is not true in the go sphere.

In the end, I like more android over iphone/ipad BUT, if I was to recommend NOW a device ONLY for Go for someone rather wealthy, I would go for the ipad. However, if I had to do anything else with the device (read newspaper, weather, pdf...) I'd go for the android.

1. As above, my post was in reply to tchan not a general post about Android tablets. I agree, like most things, once you go beyond a certain point the difference becomes hardly noticeable between devices. It's like trying to tell if it's a modern dual core or quad core chip in a PC just from running a web browser with a couple of tabs open. The technology has gone well beyond what's needed for everyday tasks excluding gaming.

2. I agree with you, the apps that iOS has that Android doesn't are not free normally. Usually they are quite expensive for apps. This would mainly be because pricey apps tend to sell better on iOS generally. I've seen studies looking at buying patterns and unsurprisingly if you compare high end smartphone owners (S4, HTC One, whatever) they spend as much on apps as iPhone users do. The issue is they only make up a relatively small portion of that install base, so while Android is on a lot more devices those devices aren't in enough hands that want to spend money on apps. If the Android tablet community were all Nexus 10 users I think you'd see a lot more interest in developers in putting out expensive apps on the platform generally (not that this doesn't happen now).

imabuddha · **#35**

alejo wrote:

2."Android market is poor in comparison"... and ipad users are rich, since they are willing to pay 11 euros for Easy Go + 5$ per book for SmartGo books.

Do you mean to say that $5 for a go book is expensive?

oren · **#36**

I did find that comment odd. I have an Android device and happily purchased all of John F's books for Kindle and would easily spend $5/book for SmartGo books if available.

alejo · **#37**

Well, 5$ per book it's not actually expensive itself. It's the fact that there are very few apps for free. It does all depend on each one...
In fact, in Spain people tend to buy 500 € devices (on a disguised monthly fee) but are reluctant to pay 1€ yearly for Whatsapp. So when whatsapp asked for the first euro a few months ago, thousands of users switched to Line or Viber or other apps. :scratch:

For me, it's nonsense, but that's how reality here works.
I'm among the Android users who either buy certain apps; or obtain piracy copies of others just to realise they're worth the money and end up paying; or just obtain piracy copies to confirm it's not worth it (15 minutes margin of google play isn't enough to judge certain apps). So, given the chance, I'd happily pay 5$ for certain books on SmartGo books for my tablet.

However, I find lots of apps on Android for free which aren't free for iphone. Lots of them. So, I guess that when someone buys an iphone/ipad he is willing to pay for them, which rises the already overpriced costs of the ipad a little bit further on. In the end, you must accept paying a little bit more on ipad or jailbreaking it, which voids your warranty and so on ...

Boidhre · **#38**

oren wrote:

I did find that comment odd. I have an Android device and happily purchased all of John F's books for Kindle and would easily spend $5/book for SmartGo books if available.

Are you the average person with an Android tablet though? In terms of income, propensity to spend money on digital goods etc.

imabuddha · **#39**

alejo wrote:

In fact, in Spain people tend to buy 500 € devices (on a disguised monthly fee) but are reluctant to pay 1€ yearly for Whatsapp. So when whatsapp asked for the first euro a few months ago, thousands of users switched to Line or Viber or other apps. :scratch:

For me, it's nonsense, but that's how reality here works.

{snip}

However, I find lots of apps on Android for free which aren't free for iphone. Lots of them. So, I guess that when someone buys an iphone/ipad he is willing to pay for them, which rises the already overpriced costs of the ipad a little bit further on.

That's true everywhere, not just Spain. ;-)

And this is the reason why developers favor iOS. They have to eat too. :grumpy:

There are many free apps on iOS too, but on both platforms (Android & iOS) free apps almost always cost users in other ways: advertising, personal info/privacy, or IAP.

Anyway, I didn't want to derail the thread. I agree with those who've suggested to the original poster either the 10" iPad or large screen Nexus tablet—both will work well for reading the Go World pdfs.

wineandgolover · **#40**

imabuddha wrote:

I agree with those who've suggested to the original poster either the 10" iPad or large screen Nexus tablet—both will work well for reading the Go World pdfs.

But, but, but... what about my favorite platform? Surely it's better than the one I didn't spend money on! Because I am smart. And folks who bought the other are stupid.

Funny thread. Simple answer.

Device for reading Go World Magazine in Digital Form

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