Ipad Vs Android Tablet

I recently received a Samsung Galaxy Android Tablet 10.1 and have also played around with the IPad 2. My main motivation for getting a tablet was the desire to write programs for it. And so the fact that there are development kits for android on windows, linux and mac appealed to me. But I expected to be let down by the android tablet and I expected the ipad to blow it away otherwise. However that is not what happened. I was blown away by how easy and straightforward the android tablet was and how awkward the ipad was in comparison. There was no need for a computer nor the need to install any special software to configure the android tablet. The ipad on the other hand refuses to do anything until it is connected to itunes. The ipad also won't let you install applications without an apple account which requires credit card info. I plugged the tablet into my pc dragged my music into the music folder and it just worked. Similarly I copied some video files into the movies folder and they played on my tablet without any conversion.

Also I can send pictures from my phone to my tablet using bluetooth. This did not work with the ipad 2. Additionally to get pictures from my pc onto an ipad I had to put the pictures in a folder, tell itunes to sync that folder as my pictures foldet and authorize the pc with ipad's apple account lest itunes delete all the apps on the ipad! Finally my tablet has a file browser where I can navigate the filesystem and see all my files. Ever since ms-dos a hierarchical filesystem has become part of my expectations. Also my tab supports flash, which is not that important to me practically but is very important ideologically. I don't enjoy being told what I can or can't do. Another minor win is that my tab supports user selectable and installable soft keyboards. So up until this point my tab beat the ipad hands down. Of course this is from my point of view as a technical user.

I like being able to copy files back and forth from my tablet to any computer without special software like itunes. This lets me connect to any computer, whether it runs linux, windows or mac, and whether or not it has an internet connection. But the applications in android are not good enough for my needs. To be fair I don't know that the ipap apps would be good enough. I want an email app that supports Imap with properly hierarchical folders. And I want to be able to select which folders to scan. Profimail which I use on my nokia cellphone does the trick, and there is an android version, but the full version costs $20. My solution is to use my own webmail. In the end after a week or two of messing around with both devices I have to say that I'm pretty happy with my Android device and that I would have been miserable with the iPad.