Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2011 > June > 10 > Entry
Tablet transition tips #3: Flash and good apps
Update, 6/13: you can read the American-Statesman version of the story here.
Yesterday, in part one of this preview of a story running in Sunday’s Statesman Life & Arts section, we began talking about the challenges of moving from a desktop or laptop computer to a tablet like the iPad 2 or a Galaxy Tab.
We covered the issue of typing on a virtual keyboard and this morning posted part 2, on accessories and data storage:
We conclude with this piece on dealing with Flash (or the lack of it on a tablet) and some app recommendations:
Flash and app fixes
Ask any Android tablet user what the iPad is missing and he’ll tell you it’s the ability to play Flash video or games. It’s true: The iPad doesn’t do Flash and probably never will. iPad users may find they need to run to a computer to view certain Flash-based content (or to a competing tablet).
The Skyfire ($2.99) app for iPad will convert a web page’s Flash video so that it can be viewed on the iPad. It doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s like a tiny miracle. (It’s also available for iPhone and Android.)
Tablets also are typically missing Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.), but Apple’s suite of apps, Pages, Keynote and Numbers can open files from Word, PowerPoint and Excel and export documents to them as well. They cost $10 each.
Documents to Go ($15) is a good office documents app for Apple’s devices as well as Android. OfficeSuite Pro for Android ($15) is another powerful option.
For those who use photo editing applications like Picasa or iPhoto, Photoshop Express (free) for iPad and Android tablets and Photogene for iPad ($2.99) are both excellent; you might even prefer editing pictures on a tablet with its easy-to-use touch-screen sliders and effects.
Other apps Muehlbauer suggests for new tablet users include the popular game “Angry Birds” ($4.99, but that price can vary), GarageBand for iPad ($4.99) for music creation and Austin-developed Gowalla (free) for using the tablet’s location features.
Eventually, you might run into a problem that requires a computer, but John Muehlbauer says that happens to him less and less as things shift toward mobile devices. “It does about 75 percent of what I need it to do,” he says of his iPad 2. “The other 25 percent is stuff I probably would never use on this anyway.”
User interface researcher Dave Yeats says that tablets are getting more adept at letting users create stuff (documents, videos, photos) and that e-book reading and easy Web surfing have made the current tablets seem ever more useful, even to skeptics.
“I don’t underestimate that, especially as Apple and some other (tablet makers) tend to not only anticipate what users need, but take a step beyond what people are asking for,” Yeats said. “We anticipate people are going to want to use this full-time. People adapt quickly.”
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