Tablets in use at the table

[egg_green]

Hello,

I know that you all are looking at which tablet OSes/hardware to support in forthcoming versions of Hero Lab, and I wanted to share some real-world data about tablets that are in use at gaming tables currently.

I attended Who's Yer Con this past weekend, and while I was there, I kept an eye out for whether people were using tablets and if so, which devices. Note that this is a completely unofficial survey, it's not scientific at all. It's just me walking around the Pathfinder Society room sometime during each slot, and seeing what tech people had out. I only tallied individual machines; if the same person used a tablet in multiple slots, it was only counted once.

The Pathfinder Society room at Who's Yer Con consisted of 12 tables, and had roughly 60 total slots over the course of the convention. During that time, here's what I observed:

7 iPads
2 Android tablets (1 Samsung Galaxy Tab and another I did not recognize)
2 Kindle Fires

Obviously, it's a small sample size, but it seems clear that the iPad is the leader, at least at this particular con. I would encourage anyone else reading this to keep an eye out at your local game groups and conventions, and post your findings here.

 

[berdman]

I use an iPad for my gaming. On a Saturday at one of the FLGS that I play at I have seen 3 or 4 other people on average with an iPad also. Have not seen/noticed any Android based tablets.

 

[Joshua]

At my gaming groups, only one person uses an iPad, and three other people use Android (one Acer, one Sony, and one Samsung). I think a lot of this is going to depend on demographics. Any individual look is probably going to be somewhat skewed.

 

[egg_green]

At my gaming groups, only one person uses an iPad, and three other people use Android (one Acer, one Sony, and one Samsung). I think a lot of this is going to depend on demographics. Any individual look is probably going to be somewhat skewed.

Well, that's why I wanted to encourage others to post here as well, so we can get a broader picture

Who's Yer Con was a local convention for the Indianapolis area. It was also free to attend, which meant that the attendees tended to be fairly young -- college-age, and even some high schoolers.

 

[drizztdn]

I use an iPad, but no one else in my group has a tablet so it's just me.

 

[cryptoknight]

Motorola Xoom here.. other folks game with their Android Phones... don't get that... screen is too small for me, but meh?

 

[enrious]

Ipad2 and Asus Transformer Prime for us.

 

[River Rat]

At my weekly game, three of us have iPads and 4 iPhones. At my monthly game, there are four iPads, 2 Kindles (one a Fire), and one Android tablet. While I use my ipad quite heavily during the game, the others not as much.

RR

 

[Rikhavok]

My game has 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, 1 Android tablet, and an android phone being used. I also use a Mac mini hooked up to a 47 inch Wide screen TV, but that's another topic altogether.

 

[senshikaze]

We have at least 1 Android (ICS 4.0) tablets, but it isn't used that often right now. We haven't found an app that does everything that we want. I bet my GM would kill for a good encounter app.

We also use phones (Mostly Androids) for a few different things as well.

 

[cryptoknight]

Just remember that Kindle Fires are android tablets. They just get a controlled experience from Amazon.

 

[egg_green]

Just remember that Kindle Fires are android tablets. They just get a controlled experience from Amazon.

Would an Android version of Hero Lab be able to work on one out-of-the-box, or would they need to make changes to accommodate Amazon? I assume they would need to submit it separately to the Kindle App Store, but can any Android developer just do that, or are there things that need to be changed before doing so?

 

[jlong05]

The biggest issue with android development is the inconsistency in device sizes. It makes for issues in being able to support all devices equally.

 

[Joshua]

The biggest issue with android development is the inconsistency in device sizes. It makes for issues in being able to support all devices equally.

Well, it'd be fairly easy in terms of tablets. Trying to include cell phone support would require a different approach, but tablets are fairly straightforward, even with their slightly different sizes. Most professionally programmed apps don't have problems running on different Android tablets, so I see no reason why it should be an issue for HL.

 

[cryptoknight]

Would an Android version of Hero Lab be able to work on one out-of-the-box, or would they need to make changes to accommodate Amazon? I assume they would need to submit it separately to the Kindle App Store, but can any Android developer just do that, or are there things that need to be changed before doing so?

It should work out of the box. You just need it to be approved for the Amazon App store in addition to the standard Google one.

 

[jlong05]

Well, it'd be fairly easy in terms of tablets. Trying to include cell phone support would require a different approach, but tablets are fairly straightforward, even with their slightly different sizes. Most professionally programmed apps don't have problems running on different Android tablets, so I see no reason why it should be an issue for HL.

I didn't say it wasn't possible, just additional work in providing screen support for the other sizes possible. If you toss phones in too it becomes an even bigger nightmare. Compare this to the iPad and you get something completely different. All iPads are the same screen size, only different resolutions are possible for the retina is play. Nothing that HL or even AB would need to be concerned with, and to add iPhone/iPod support there is even a standard for it as well. Just makes it easier to support is my point.

 

[Joshua]

I didn't say it wasn't possible, just additional work in providing screen support for the other sizes possible. If you toss phones in too it becomes an even bigger nightmare. Compare this to the iPad and you get something completely different. All iPads are the same screen size, only different resolutions are possible for the retina is play. Nothing that HL or even AB would need to be concerned with, and to add iPhone/iPod support there is even a standard for it as well. Just makes it easier to support is my point.

I don't think it's very reasonable to add in cell phone support as an issue, considering that Apple presents the same problem. And when it really comes down to it, all that would be needed in terms of "extra code" with different sized Android systems is a scalable background, just like any programmer has to include for different sizes or resolutions for desktops. If a programmer can't do that blindfolded and drunk, s/he shouldn't be a paid programmer. Basically, I disagree that it's a valid issue.

 

[jlong05]

You apparently have not done any development for a tablet based system. It really isn't that simple. The scale idea only works if the scale moves equally in both directions, but unfortunately that is not the case. The real issue isn't the restroom but the actual screen size. Programs such as HL and AB need to utilize the majority of the screen on this devices. The scaling of the images would cause text irregularities as well as graphical issues that would need customized for each screen size to be a polished app we would expect from Lonewolf.

 

[egg_green]

With regard to screen size, the Windows and Mac versions both handle scaling both vertically and horizontally quite well. I don't believe it would be significantly more different to handle that on an Android device than on a desktop OS. Apple's model of specifying the resolution would make development in that regard easier, but I have to believe that managing the screen layout is a relatively minor consideration compared with all the other stuff the app would need to deal with.

 

[Joshua]

You misunderstood my perspective, jlong. I didn't recommend scaling the entire application, but rather the background, essentially increasing just the window. Hero Lab already does this from a windowed view to the fullscreen view. You can simply fit in a bit more text in fullscreen. Neither the texts or the images scale from one to the other, so I don't see why you'd expect (or think it'd be a good idea) for it to do so on a tablet. It seems like you're just creating problems where there aren't any. And yes, it really is that easy.