[Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]] FeedomFighter:
I think a 2Ghz CPU, as of right now, is over powered for android. I have a Gentouch78 tablet that runs at 600MHz and it seems to run OK. My 1GHz nexus one has had no issues, and I have it multi tasking several apps at once sometimes. It will get really hot, especially when I toss the car charger on it while its doing all that, but never seen it slow down to unresponsiveness. As for the HDD space. I dont use mine much for multi media, so 50gb would be overdoing it for me. Just the ability to have an SD card slot would be enough for me, that right there is 32 gb.

Now dealing with the android OS itself, this is where things are starting to get wierd. You have 2.2, which is really a phone OS, you have 3.0 which is really a tablet OS, and so the current samsung tablet is supposed to be 2.2 and will get 3.0, but now this 3.5 is where it gets confusing. Some of the stuff I have been reading is stating that 3.5 is going to be an entirely different OS completly, or at least have an entirely different usage beyond that of a tablet or cell phone. And that you will have to buy an entirely new piece of hardware to use it because samsung already said their current tablet wont get 3.5 when it comes out, but i twill get 3.0. This is making me think that 3.5 may be the google chrome OS, which from what I am hearing I am not a total fan of. So basically, the idea as I understand it, is that the hardware will just be the input/output device and all the applications will be stored on teh cloud as well as the work being done will be done on the cloud. This is all nice and dandy until either 1) everyone gets on all at once and bogs down the system or 2) the cloud or network goes down and the device is worthless. Thats why I like android right now. If you have no data connection you can still do work. Now some things on android that do run off the cloud, like the GPS, if you need to reroute and you loose the data connection, since all the work is done on the back end you cant get anywhere until the data connection comes back.

Since Android is a full fledge Linux OS I think it can do whatever you need it to do, you just need to port the apps over. So i think it can replace a laptop, but there will always be certain things that make a laptop easier to use that are unrelated to the android OS, like a real keyboard. With phones, for instance, I still feel more comfortable texting on a physical keyboard on my blackberry then I do on the virtual keyboard on my nexus one. Now can I develope a web page, photoshop some images and toss them on the web page, with android? If they ported the apps over then sure why not, the physical keyboard will just make it easier. But as soon as you start talking windows 7 you are changing the entire hardware requirements (ARM CPU versus an x86 CPU) which will allow you to run your favorite web development software and photo editing software, and now your 50gb of disk space will be all chewed up with the OS and applications but no room for media, and with the new hardware requirements the price goes up (not like the samsung tab isnt expensive either) but then the bottom line is its still awkward to use because of the lack of a physical keyboard.

Now I am just using web development/photo editing as an example, simplier tasks, like email and web surfing, will require less and are easily done on the android OS. But the bottom line is to use the right tool for the right job, outline your requirements and find a solution that best fits your needs. I believe that android will be a decent laptop replacement if all your doing with your laptop is surfing the web and sending email but if your trying to do less casual stuff, like photo editing and web development, then android right now is obviously not enough, but in the future it might be. It goes back to the age old question, does hardware push the software industry, or does software push the hardware industry?

-MW