T-Mobile G-slate pulling a fast one on unsuspecting consumers, 3D wise?
The T-Mobile G-Slate is one tablet that hasn’t really made much of a blip on my radar. With a 9″ 1280×768 screen, Tegra 2, Honeycomb etc it’s about as identical to other Android tablets as it can get, except that it is promising 3D recording and viewing. The recording comes from two cameras on the back, while the viewing comes from what many tech bloggers have referred to as a “3D screen”. I don’t care much about 3D unless I can get it for close to nothing, so having a device which has that as its only real selling point doesn’t interest me much.
Today however, I read an article that did peak my interest, because it refers to a source that claims the 3D glasses that come with the G-slate are red and blue. As readers of this site knows, red and blue glasses is part of an old technology for getting a 3D effect on any screen (or even a piece of paper or other printed surface) and has absolutely nothing to do with 3D screens which you require to use the more modern 3D technologies with active shutter glasses and polarized glasses. All you need is a $1-2 pair of anaglyph 3D glasses and you can use your iPad, Xoom or laptop for that matter as a 3D device. I have a pair and use my iPad like this all the time. If the G-Slate glasses are indeed anaglyph glasses like this news suggests, then what they’ve done with the G-slate in other words is to add a dollar’s worth of accessories to the box and focused their entire marketing effort around it, to great effect. To be fair, the 3D recording feature requires two cameras which it has so it’s not just that simple and I’m glad that someone is utilizing this awesome, old technology- but I can’t help but feel that customers are being cheated here. I mean, with 3D TVs, game consoles and movie theaters all over helping to fuel the thought that 3D is expensive and new, people might go out and buy this tablet just to get a feature they could get on any tablet (with viewing, anyways).
Either way, if this can help get more anaglyph content out there I’m all for it, but I hope people understand what they’re actually paying for when they buy this device.
