Android Tablet

[Richard Pieri]

On Apr 5, 2011, at 10:14 AM, Mark Woodward wrote:
> 
> Anyway, does anyone have any experience with any of the android tablets 
> out there? What about NextBook? The Viewsonic?

The whole "Android tablet" is a pretty new thing right now.  There isn't much out there that takes advantage of the larger display sizes.  That will change, surely, but right now I think it is best to wait unless you have a Pressing Need to get a Xoom.

> Also, I've seen Intel Atom based tablets that claim to run Android? I 
> thought Android is currently only available for ARM processors?

Android is a Linux kernel plus userland with a Dalvik runtime running on top.  If you can port the kernel and runtime, and provide useful drivers, then you can run Android on pretty well anything you like.

More accurately, Android(tm) is a hardware platform meeting certain requirements specified by Google, running Google's custom Linux distribution and Dalvik runtime. This is why B&N can't use the Android marks on NOOKcolor.  It doesn't meet Google's requirements for Android 2.x.  Specifically, there is no GPS and no cellular baseband, and it has only one button.


> full Linux tool set - Whether I have to put it on an SD card or what 
> ever, I want to be able to use the standard Linux tools.

Android is not self-hosting.  If this is a requirement for you then you should look at Linux netbooks instead.

--Rich P.