Making waves on the internet…
Posts tagged technology
iSlate = iPad
Feb 5th
The revolutionary internet device has been released and the better part of the tech world said “meh”. Unfortunately the hype surrounding the iPad made living up to said hype as improbable as Bigfoot actually speaking the queen’s english and inviting everyone over for scones. The reality is that Apple’s last few revolutionary devices were just that, revolutionary. The iPod was not the first harddrive based MP3 player on the market but the way one could interact with it (click wheel) was revolutionary. The iPhone with its iPod/phone integration was amazing. The apps made it groundbreaking, but even here iPhone wasn’t the first. Windows Mobile has had hundreds of thousands of apps available for its platform BUT it never had an easy way of finding all of them (i.e. App Store).
As for the iPad I am afraid it had some serious competition it had to face, its own family of products. Since the iPad was not on a custom OS and built using the same software as the iPhone/iPod touch it ended up seeming like a very large iPhone (that doesn’t make calls). The iPad offered users the ability to work on iWorks with Keynote and Pages but without the true power of a laptop some of the Keynote presentations could get laggy on the tiny 1 Ghz chip it is running. Even there the hardware though beautiful seems like it missed some key features.
If it was a true “pad” I should be able to just turn it on and just write onto it like a piece of paper and maybe do some handwriting recognition. That would have been revolutionary! Oh wait… no not really… that functionality was in Windows Mobile phones since the days of the HP Jornada and Windows CE. It was also in a previous Apple product, anyone remember the Newton, anyone, anyone? Plus a device like this would be awesome for video webconferencing and “couch computing” since it is more “intimate than a laptop” but Uncle Steve I guess decided he didn’t want to put the camera in. Maybe on version 2.0
I think the problem for the iPad was the enormous amount of speculation. People were researching patents that were submitted from a company called “Fingerworks” which was acquired by Apple. That company had some amazing gesture based patents in their filings, but Apple decided not to use it or decided to shelf it till they could work it in.
Now there are rumors of a second version of the iPad and there is no surprise there. I know that Jobs has a pattern of releasing something awesome and then soon after releasing an update that gives the proverbial kick to those early adopters.
Will I get an iPad… Maybe… Will I get in the boat and buy this 1.0 version? Probably not.
Down fall of UMPC – Cheap Netbooks
Apr 27th
I always wanted a UMPC and somehow never thought I would like Netbooks. My favorite UMPC was the OQO and its slick design. Well now it seems that the OQO is not going so well.
I think that the major reason for this shift is the power and affordableness of the new Netbooks. Lenovo, MSI, Dell, Asus, Acer, HP all have entries in this product category. I am sorry to see the OQO go but I am definitely interested in seeing the advancement of these netbooks.
Technology
Apr 22nd
I have always said the following quote and have referenced it to other people but I can’t find it anywhere. SOOO… I am going to put the quote down as my own!!
Technology is only technology to those that did not have it as children…
I have always related this quote to my maternal grandfather. He was an awesome Granddad but he had the funniest quirk where he would eat any and all food that was at the breakfast/lunch/dinner table. I never really understood why until I got older (till then I just thought it was an over eater). My granddad didn’t eat all the food cause he was a pig. He ate all the food because he did not want to waste it. Why was that an issue? He never had a fridge growing up. He never had the convenience of simply shoving food under plastic wrap or in tupperware and putting it in a cold box till later.
I find often that the generation of teachers I am working with in schools have the difficult time of adopting computer eduction because the same quote applies to them. Students in this generation are without a doubt the MOST connected ever (until the next one). Kids grow up with broadband internet, readily available computers, and more powerful cellular devices that offer computer like capability.
From twitter to facebook to blogs kids can be connected and creating digital content all the time. The generation of educators that are preparing that are often not ready to accept it because they have not had the ease of experience that their children have.