HTC Flyer 7" note-taking Android tablet announced

Looks intresting, but I cant work out if its a restive touch screen or a stylus for capacitive or if its using the wacom stile digitiser, any guesses?

Looks like a very neat bit of kit. The size looks perfect and the guy doing the demo seemed to be able to be able to comfortably hold it in one hand for a good ten minutes so I'm guessing its pretty light too.

lol @ the geeky sounding guy asking all the questions in his desperation to get information

Nice software there. I think a squarer aspect ratio would help though - seems too narrow in portrait and too short in landscape.

And those netbooks with 600 vertical pixels are too short as well! So many interface elements are horizontal. I can imagine typing in a browser in landscape on a screen this shape doesn't leave much room for the rest of the page!

But, compromises have to be made as you shrink the screen, so I'm ok with it, really. And it might not be such a problem if this machine has good handwriting recognition.

Shame it carries on the tablet theme of having a huge bezel.

If they bring out a 9" version of that I'll be first in the queue.

Where would you put your thumbs if they weren't there?

You need one if you're going to hold it with your hands. Anything wider than a palm-width needs somewhere to put your thumbs.

I'm confident it wouldn't be the hardest thing in the world to code around.

I've got a feeling they are just using the extra space to save on costs.

It would be very hard to code around! How do you differentiate a resting thumb from a purposeful touch?

Time would be the first thing to factor in; you would be holding the tablet longer than a tap takes.

The next thing to take into consideration would be that your thumbs would only likely be in two areas. These you could make areas that consider the additional rules.

This would delay the reaction to any tap near the edges of the screen, while it waits to see if this is a hold or a tap.
Also, tap-hold is a valid and core interaction with Android. Your proposal would disallow any tap-holds on the edges of the screen.

A tap is two things, a contact and a release. A thumb hold would not release for a while whereas the tap would release after a fraction of a second.

If the release is over 0.45 second then it's a thumb.

...or something similar.

I just want a hi res, all screen 7" tablet, with removable battery and memory.

I think I may have to wait a while.

That's the first tablet that I could possibly justify owning. Everything else so far has been a bit of a frippery.

Anyone know how/if you could print from it?

Looks like the price will be more than how much iPads are currently (although not sure what version). Still, that might make me reconsider.

Will the corner be in the 'thumb zone'?

If not then as you were. If so, then if would come down to if the contact was a tap or a hold (decided by release time).

Or summit.

Seems like a useful thing to invent would be a strap handle which you could slip a hand under on the back. That way you could hold the device in one hand more securely.

How does it work? None of the apps (photos, notes etc) seem to have any printing options.

Do you have to download another app/plugin or something?

This is good, it strikes me as pointless getting a 3G one if you've already got a hotspot creating Android phone...