Samsung: The new iPad is no work of art
In an e-mail sent to the media, Samsung declares that its Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet is far better at creating than is the new iPad. Why didn't Samsung make a huge Apple-bashing ad, though?
Author's note at 11:31 a.m.: I apologize for hitting the wrong Note here. As many of you have pointed out (thank you), Samsung is referring here to its pen-wielding big sister, the Galaxy Note 10.1, not the smaller, but equally pen-wielding, Galaxy Note phone version I had in my hands at CES. Please forgive me for being a very dumb bottom this morning. I have rewritten below with, hopefully, a slightly more alert brain.
Just when it seemed as if Samsung would no longer declare Apple the brand of a bygone age, the company changed its mind.
After the new iPad was launched on Wednesday with a slightly muted level of ballyhoo, Samsung sent an e-mail to the media to pooh-pooh Apple's latest tablet iteration.
You might imagine that this e-mail declared that Samsung had its own existing fine tablets, like the Galaxy Pad--sorry, Tab.
But, no. It was the new Galaxy Note 10.1 that Samsung believes offers a better comparison.
Some might think this a strange choice. Samsung, though, believes that the Galaxy Note 10.1 fulfills far more of your creative needs.
For example, it allows you to view two apps at the same time--and work with two apps at the same time. Yes, you have to optimize those apps--which, to a real person always sounds a reason to call one's hairy, odorous teenage neighbor for help--but, still.
Then, of course, Samsung's e-mail waxes beyond lyricism about the Galaxy Note's pen. It has 255 levels of pressure. Yes, your finger might have more than 255 levels of pressure, but Samsung declares that the iPad's screen only recognizes one.
Just as with the Galaxy Note phone with the 5.3-inch screen that I played with at CES, I can imagine liking this machine. Yet somehow, the presence of a pen makes it hard to imagine it could compete sturdily with the iPad.
With the phone, the machine fit perfectly into my large, double-jointed hands, but the pen felt a little cheap.
Though the 10.1's pen will surely feel more substantial, I still wonder about, well holding onto it. The point of gadgets is that they shouldn't infuriate. Yet losing this pen would surely drive people utterly potty.
And if you tell me I need a separate case for it, then that would drive me utterly potty too.
Moreover, when Samsung's e-mail offered that the Galaxy Note 10.1 is lighter and thinner than the iPad, a strange, soft murmuring plagued on my lips. For the difference is 0.15 pounds.
This poundage seems to me akin to three feathers and ten specks of dust.
I am delirious, though that Samsung has not given up on its Apple-bashing, because we need a little Tyson/Holyfield tickling our nervous systems. I had worried, only the other day, that the new Galaxy Note ad had not one bar of Apple-bashing.
I do wish, though, that instead of sending an e-mail, Samsung would have prepared a TV ad, in which Apple fanboys stood at the top of tall buildings and tossed their iPads from them, while declaring themselves to be 0.15 pounds lighter.
At the bottom of the buildings would be a topless Bob Dylan, singing a glam rock version of "The Times They Are A-Changing."
Now then I'd be persuaded.
Another author's note: The original is below for posterity. My sackcloth and ashes are clean and I am donning them now. My apologies again.
Just when it seemed as if Samsung would no longer declare Apple the brand of a bygone age, the company changed its mind.
After the new iPad was launched on Wednesday with a slightly muted level of ballyhoo, Samsung sent an e-mail to the media to poo-poo Apple's latest tablet iteration.
You might imagine that this e-mail declared that Samsung had its own fine tablets, like the Galaxy Pad--sorry, Tab.
But, no. It was the Galaxy Note that Samsung believes offers a better comparison. (Correction: It's comparing it to the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet).
Some might think this a strange choice. Though the Note is an entertaining little thing, it's hardly something most would naturally compare with an iPad.
In Samsung's view, the Galaxy Note 10.1 fulfills far more of your creative needs.
For example, it allows you to view two apps at the same time--and work with two apps at the same time. Yes, you have to optimize those apps--which, to a real person always sounds a reason to call one's hairy, odorous teenage neighbor for help--but, still.
Then, of course, Samsung's e-mail waxes beyond lyricism about the Galaxy Note's pen. It has 255 levels of pressure. Yes, your finger might have more than 255 levels of pressure, but Samsung declares that the iPad's screen only recognizes one.
This information might all seem pleasantly optimistic. I played with the Galaxy Note at CES and found it charming. A sort of Mini-Me iPad, Maxi-Me smartphone. I think I could find a use for it. I'm not sure, though, whether I could think of it as an iPad replacement.
However, when Samsung's e-mail offered that the Galaxy Note 10.1 is lighter and thinner than the iPad, a strange, soft murmuring plagued on my lips. For the difference is 0.15 pounds.
Which seems to me akin to three feathers and ten specks of dust.
I am delirious that Samsung has not given up on its Apple-bashing, because we need a little Tyson/Holyfield tickling our nervous systems. I had worried, only the other day, that the new Galaxy Note ad had not one bar of Apple-bashing.
I do wish, though, that instead of sending an e-mail, Samsung would have prepared a TV ad, in which Apple fanboys stood at the top of tall buildings and tossed their iPads from them, while declaring themselves to be 0.15 pounds lighter.
At the bottom of the buildings would be a topless Bob Dylan, singing a glam rock version of "The Times They Are A-Changing."
Now then I'd be persuaded.