Newbie confused

[gopanthers2]

So I just got my first Android tablet a few days ago, an Acer Iconia Tab A100. I am thoroughly surprised by a number of things. First and formost, I'm finding that nearly half of all apps in the marketplace will not let me install them, claiming that my device is not compatible. WTF? Please explain this to me. I intentionally got a tablet with the latest Honeycomb 3.2 OS specifically to ensure maximum compatibility.

So first, is my device not compatible because it is running Honeycomb or because it is specifically an Acer Iconia Tab A100?

If it is because of the Honeycomb OS then I truly don't understand what's going on here. If I buy a PC with Windows 7, all programs previously designed for older operating systems like Vista, Win 98, etc. will work fine on it - backwards compatibility. Is that not how it works in Android world? I'd hate to think it was the opposite and the older the OS the better. And besides all that, I thought that one of the big deals about Honeycomb was the pixel doubling that would allow apps designed just for phones to display better on a larger format?

Or if the problem is my specific device than I have a bigger issue with that. Does every app creator have to specifically approve ever possible device that it can run on? That would mean that people should only buy the top few brands. (Acer may not be one of the top but it's certainly a trusted computer manufacturer and not junk).

 

[leeshor]

Not sure if this will help but you should be using the Market app rather than a browser, (you didn't say how you were looking for the apps).. The Market app will typically show you what is available for a tablet rather than a phone. The reverse is true using the Market on an Android phone =, it won't display items intended for a tablet.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[Sledgejammer]

Unfortunately, that is how it currently works. When a developer creates a new application, they must specify what versions of android it s compatible with, as well as specify specific layouts for unique sized devices (or else the application will tile/stretch)... However, there are some work around for this, and it's not as bad as it may seem at first. Also, the new version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich) should solve this fragmentation problem (though its not for sure yet)...

It may seem like oh it works on a phone should work on a tablet? Right? Obviously! Well, not quite, and comparing a device like your desktop to your mobile tablet are two very different things. You did the right thing by purchasing an OS with Honeycomb, as using a tablet with a phones OS like Froyo or something wouldn't be nearly as rewarding (trust me).

The good thing about having it setup like this, is that by differentiating between the phone and the tablet, you can get tablet sized experiences from apps that run on both your phone and tablet! Now, for the most part, apps that are compatible for your phone should in theory work for your tablet, but not all of them. However, the apps that are worth having at this point should all work, and there is so much junk on the market that you should be happy that you can't install all of it

 

[rubixi]

Yeah its not really device or brand specific as it is just the fact that there are not many android tablet apps. Period. Some / many phone apps will scale up but many won't. I have same issue on galaxy tab. Gotta let developers catch up and it will get better. In fact, this is why Google is trying to make development for android as a whole easier than apple.

 

[cbill]

Panther: Apparently you have been using the Android Market, as you are getting "not compatible" notices.

Others have already covered the current situation Re. Tablet/phone apps. A good way to solve this problem, for the present is when you go to the market (Android or Amazon are best in my opinion), go to the "apps" page and do a "tablet apps" search.

You can also just specify "tablet" in front of your searches for specific app types. The apps you aquire in this manner will have the best appearance and functionality on your tablet. Believe me, if you stick with it for a couple of months, you probably will not want to use your phone for anything but messaging.

 

[solo1]

People just have to realize that our Android Phones are VERY different than our Android Tablets. I received as an early Christmas gift, the Toshiba Thrive and am very excited about it. In order to give a true exceptional tablet experience the developers adjust their current PHONE apps to be optimized on the tablet. Utilizing the screen size and functionality to make the user experience much better. I am spending most of my time today to customize my tablet so I do not have to carry my laptop EVERYWHERE with me ... From where I read there are about 1500-2000 tablet optimized apps out there and the good utility apps are always being cranked out ... I freakin LOVE my "Tab"itha and the more I customize it the better she gets.

 

[juliecurrie]

I think that I will consider the purchase of the Toshiba Thrive

 

[Xopher]

I would contact the developer and let them know. It may be as simple as them updating the app profile for newer devices.

Sent from my gTablet using Tapatalk.

 

[meatmack]

I am having the newbie issue also I haven't been able to get any app or my yahoo or old bellsouth email to come through on my tablet.

 

[merryculinary]

i think im having serious buyers remorse. I cant do anything with it-(nextbook9) no email set up- not many apps i care for. I thought this would be a good stand in until i can get a new laptop--im used to my iphone- am i in dreamland to think i would be satisfied with this?

 

[buttonstc]

I also recently bought the iconia. A100 and i rarely encounter an incompatible app. But almost all of mine are coming from the market app already installed on the device.

There is also a website you may find helpful. ( there is also a free app to access is directly rather than the website) its called Tablified and every app reviewed there is guaranteed optimized for tablets.

Tablified.com

You may very well feel much better about your A100 if you take a look at the Dec. 2011 issue of Consumer Reports. They had a really thorough featured article and specs chart on tablets. The Iconia came out very favorably and was the only seven inched running Honeycomb at that time. Afterwards Samsung came out with a 7 inch galaxy tab but its MAJOR BUCKS MORE.

Compare the specs and options list carefully and you'll see that the A100 compares quite favorably to the big boys. And its head and shoulders above the Nook or the Kindle. If you were able to get it for sale prices ( BF price was below 200) then you've got a much better value than the other two in that price range.

There are also good reviews on various tech sites. The only two major knocks against it are the shorter battery life and the relatively narrower viewing angle. Since I'm using it mostly at home and plugged in and not needing to have other people viewing it, those were not problems for me.

I must admit to not being that thrilled with honeycomb but we should be getting ICS. Upgrade within a month so hopefully that improves things.

 

[MeshiaSamurai]

I am not sure what people are expecting from their tablets to make them so disappointed when they get them. We all need to be good cnsumers and do our research before we buy.

No, Android does not work like Windows, with backward compatibility. Wait, even Windows doesn't have backward compatibility for everything. I remember trying to load a game I bought when I had XP on my laptop running Vista. It wouldn't run. Not in compatibility mode, not running it as administrator. Nothing. Went and checked on the web and I learned that, surprise, surprise, Vista was not supported, even though XP was.

Gingerbread is very different from Honeycomb. For that matter, phones are very different from tablets. We can't expect everything that runs on a phone to run on a tablet, and we can't expect what does run on a tablet that was designed for a phone, to be plesant to use on a tablet.

I've watched the Android Market since I got my ASUS Transformer back in September. There was very little that was optimized for tablets at that time. Now, there is quite a bit more, and you can bet that there will be even more than that coming. With the advent of quad-core tablets with pretty serious graphics capibilities, you can bet that more and more people will start adopting tablets instead of laptops. It's already begun. That will really start energizing the development community to get us some awesome apps designed for our tablets.

Google, of course, is trying to do what it can by creating a version of the OS which is optimized for both phones and tablets, which will make it easier for developers to design their apps to not only work on both, but look good on both. Of course, everything is going to be a mess for a while. There are currently very few devices running ICS. There will be phones, (and probably tablets too) running Froyo and Gingerbread, likely even Eclair, for quite a while.

That said, I am quite happy with what has been achieved for tablets already. I have more apps than I know what to do with. I rarely use my PC or my phone for much anymore. In many ways, I do more with my tablet than I ever did with my PC or my phone. We don't have to wait for every good thing until some golden age of tablets in the future, though that certainly gives us a lot to look forward to. We have quite a bit to be grateful for right now.