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Xoom and the Android tablet experienceXoom and the Android tablet experiencePosted Apr 19, 2011 18:01 UTC (Tue) by dowdle (subscriber, #659)Parent article: Xoom and the Android tablet experience
Nice review Jon... BUT you guys at LWN really need to get with the times... and actually try some video reviews. See this one of the recently released ASUS eee Pad Transformer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxth_Sxfps
For all of you who watch that and drool... it isn't available in the US yet. I'd be happier with a stock Linux distro and would ditch Android in a heartbeat... but then again... Linux distros have a little ways to go in the touchscreen area... but Canonical and others will change that real soon now.
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Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 18:12 UTC (Tue) by Trelane (subscriber, #56877) [Link]
...until MSFT pays them off again to discard linux. :(
--sour former eee fan.
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 19:26 UTC (Tue) by sailorxyz (subscriber, #52650) [Link]
I am totally deaf. I hope LWN never goes into video reviews. This video thing as it currently is, is slowly destroying a lot of the value of the Internet for people who are deaf (not to mention the blind but at least most of them can hear, so they still get the dialog and so some value) if every video article had a transcript attached, then they would be truly useful but as things are, I cannot help but hate them.
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 20:20 UTC (Tue) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]
Just to clarify:
1) Written reviews can still be done (I don't want them stopped) but video reviews can augment them in a good way
2) Text captioning can be added to videos for the audio impaired
3) Blind people can't see text or video... so they want audio anyway... and a video can provide the audio in addition to a screen reader
For this particular review, of a hardware device... showing the physical buttons and the items on screen in a video makes it so much more crystal clear. I'd certainly not want to see a video report of the latest kernel function on the kernel page. :)
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 20:27 UTC (Tue) by lambda (subscriber, #40735) [Link] I am neither blind nor deaf, and I hate video reviews, or when people link to a talk on a subject instead of a paper. It is a lot slower listening to someone talk than it is to read, I can't skip around easily, I can't search it, I need to find a pair of headphones so I don't bother anyone who's around me, and I frequently need to enable Flash in order to watch them. Now, there some cases in which a video is more valuable than a text review; if you're showing off some kind of physical interaction, a video can sometimes get your point across much more easily than a paragraph of text describing what's going on. But on the whole, I'm in favor of keeping more information in a text format; it's more accessible, even to those without any disabilities.
Video reviews? Posted Apr 19, 2011 21:52 UTC (Tue) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]
I don't know if you visit the gaming site IGN but they typically offer written reviews for everything and augment the more popular games with a video review. The video reviews are always shorter and they say for more in-depth coverage, read the written review. Games are very visual so seeing it in action helps out a lot and really enhances the written review.
For me and this review... having Jon describe the buttons and where they are on the screen... and how they operate, especially when he was throwing in Android phone references too (and I don't have one of those either)... a video of it in action would do a much better job. But yeah, save the in-depth stuff for the written review.
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 22:01 UTC (Tue) by linuxjacques (subscriber, #45768) [Link]
Please DO NOT go down the video review path.
Many sites are useless to me now because I am blocked from streaming video at work.
Also, I would rather read and look at pictures than watch a video of a guy saying "Um" about 100 times.
Video reviews are the road to hell. Can't write / spell / use proper grammar / organize your thoughts logically?
No problem! Just start the video camera.
No thanks.
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 22:13 UTC (Tue) by a9db0 (subscriber, #2181) [Link]
Seconded.
While I've seen Jon speak, and seen videos of his talks and have no doubt that he would be able to carry videos off intelligently, I still vote against them.
They make surfing difficult in quiet environments. They require more bandwith. They require shutting off other audio. And they are rarely worth the effort.
LWN is a joy because it has a simple, text based layout that loads quickly and presents information clearly. No Javascript, AJAX, or any of that nonsense that makes so many other sites (Gawker, I'm looking at you) so annoying to use.
Video reviews Posted Apr 19, 2011 22:18 UTC (Tue) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] We don't really have time to create the content we put out now; I can't imagine how we'd try to put video production into the mix. So I don't think there's any threat of us going in that direction anytime soon.
Video reviews Posted Apr 19, 2011 23:11 UTC (Tue) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]
Screw those guys... conform to my wishes now Jon!!!
(waves wand)
Hmmm... it didn't work. I guess I have to wait for wand 2.0 to come out.
Regarding video reviews, I say watch a few on IGN or gt.tv. Their video reviews are very high production value and missing the umms and other flaws those guys are groaning about. They are scripted. Of course they are video game reviews and you might not be interested in that, but hey, they are the best example I could think of.
But really... a video for special stuff would be a bonus!
I post lots of videos on my website... mostly from talks I didn't get to go to. Some are screencasts I made myself... and they rule... so don't me otherwise. I won't listen. (sticking fingers in ears)... la la la la... la la la la.
I also enjoy brianmadden.com's video work... Brian Madden TV... and their vendor interviews.
For you guys to say that "video sucks and is for stupid people" and "written reviews are the only way"... yeah, it gets Jon off the hook. :) Brown nosers!
Video reviews Posted Apr 21, 2011 10:17 UTC (Thu) by farnz (guest, #17727) [Link] I've gone and looked at IGN's Portal 2 for XBox 360 video review, and frankly, it's convinced me that video reviews are not the way to go. It's not production values - the production values on the Portal 2 review are high. It's the sheer amount of time I spent watching it, compared to the amount of information conveyed; I'm a fast reader, so this article took me about a minute to read and digest. The IGN video was nearly 5 minutes long, and didn't convey as much about how the game feels to play (as compared to how it looks and sounds) as this article conveys about the daily experience of using a Xoom. Basically, I'm not interested in a review telling me how it looks - the manufacturer will do that for me quite happily, or I can choose to spend the extra money and buy from a bricks and mortar store that lets me fiddle first. I want a review that tells me whether I'm likely to find a use for it, what the niggles are (so that I can check if they'd annoy me before I bought it), and generally give me an impression of what it's like long-term, not how pretty it is.
Video reviews Posted Apr 21, 2011 15:15 UTC (Thu) by cdmiller (subscriber, #2813) [Link]
Video replacing reading? Fahrenheit 451 much?
Video reviews Posted Apr 20, 2011 5:20 UTC (Wed) by avik (guest, #704) [Link]
What we really want are video comments (replacing the existing system)
Video reviews Posted Apr 20, 2011 6:56 UTC (Wed) by elanthis (guest, #6227) [Link]
But that means I'd have to put clothes on before commenting on LWN! :(
Video reviews Posted Apr 21, 2011 20:13 UTC (Thu) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953) [Link]
I can imagine how you would do it. Just like the other sites and as previously alluded to, you would sit down, turn the camera on and start talking without a script. After a few hundred ums and 5 minutes of video you end and post the video without post processing it.
Video is the death of intelligent articles. It's a bane imposed by those with short attention spans. Not that my vote counts but don't go down that path please.
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 19, 2011 21:46 UTC (Tue) by boog (subscriber, #30882) [Link] Second those who like their information in text. Quicker, more effective and quiet.
Xoom and the Android tablet experience Posted Apr 20, 2011 0:09 UTC (Wed) by cmccabe (guest, #60281) [Link]
I'm not a big fan of video reviews of products.
When I look at a product review, I often want to skim it. I may only care if the Foo has feature Bar, but not want to hear about the rest of it. LWN's reviews are pretty good and I usually read the whole thing. But still, some days I have more time than others. That time may also come in small chunks while waiting for something to compile or finish. With a video, I have to listen to the whole thing.
What if I want use Google to search for a product review? Google is pretty good at searching text, but can't search video at all.
If there's some aspect of the product that really is best described by a video, then sure, it's nice to see a video. Having the whole thing be a video is like having the whole thing be a giant picture. At the end of the day, text is still the best at doing the things that text can do.
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