News tagged ‘Tablet’

Several web-resources including Gizmodo and TechCrunch confirmed that HP stops working on its "HP Slate" tablet device. The decision is caused by this week's deal that will end soon with acquiring Palm. Now Hewlett-Packard is rumored to integrate Palm's WebOS instead Microsoft WIndows in their tablet (which can take a year or more) and reconsider using Intel-based hardware in it because of its excessive power requirements.

So now it looks like HP changes it course and is going to convert webOS to a tablet OS and compete with Google's Android and Chrome on the market of operational systems.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has also cancelled working on its own booklet-style tablet device called "Courier". Gizmodo sources say the project will be no longer supported. Anyway, the device had never been publicly announced, though it could be very interesting with its two touch-sensitive screens in a foldable format and handwriting recognition input.

Recently Сhitika estimated the number of iPads sold by making a study based on its own online advertising network. The report reveals than Apple has sold more than 1 million of their tablets. The exact number is being refreshed every second so you can check it out here. And this is a current scale of iPad's popularity in some U.S. cities:

• California - 19,12%
• New York - 8,3%
• Texas - 8%
• Florida - 5,88%
• Illinois - 3,84%
• Wyoming - 0,03%

The report also has information than an average iPad has approximately 2,33 different IP addresses. Necessary data was received by tracking browser cookies.

Earlier Apple has also revealed that at the end of the first week there were sold more 500,000 iPads. The company claims it's very surprised with a level of initial demand.

Monte Vista Christian School in California has purchased sixty Apple iPads for use in its classrooms. The devices were introduces last Thursday to those of the students who will participate in an experimental project. If the results will be successful, Monte Vista's headmaster Stephen Sharp will replace textbooks with interactive e-versions.

“There are many academic advantages. They provide new access to photos, videos, daily newspapers and resource material that enhance the curriculum.”

Marcus Scwager, who is an English teacher, is excited about the function of pop-up word definitions while reading Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Science teacher Cynthia Armstrong used an iPad to show a cutaway of female body with a zoom function for closer look.

As the iPads are used only for classroom use, students e-mail their notes to a previously created account that they can access later at home. They can use a special app for copying graphs from the board, SoundPaper app to record lectures for listening it later where they want.

Alyssa Villanueva, who is a 15-year-old student, also enjoys the iPad:

“It’s a little easier to use. You can really focus on where you’re studying."

Apple provides a $50 school discount for its tablets. The company has also developed a special program for teachers to train them to use the new technology.

Some time ago we posted an article about shocking popularity of the iPad among physicians. Well yesterday PCWorld posted an article about first institution which is looking forward to use this device. It is a Kaweah Delta Health Care District in Visalia, California. Its director of technical services Nick Voloshin says healthcare workers need a device with a long battery life while moving from location to location, and iPad is a great choice not only for usual everyday tasks, but also for looking at EKG results, X-ray images, and for other purposes that can be easily delivered with Citrix virtual desktop. He has already bought three iPads to test it and have plans to deploy more than a hundred for hospice and health care workers, pharmacists, dietitians and nurses in a next two months.

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Here is a demo of a multi-touch three dimensional touch-sensitive tablet in 1985 (!!!):

Yesterday Google has announced a new web UI for tablet devices like iPad and others. As you can see from the screenshot above some ideas were taken from Apple's Mail for iPad - the inbox is situated to the left of the screen and the messages appear on the right side.

Google's Product Manager Punit Soni also reported that iPad comes with such pre-installed Google services like Google Search in Safari, YouTube app and Maps app.

It looks like in spite of a tensity that can be observed in the Apple-Google relationship the partnership between these companies is still pretty tight.

New forecast published by iSuppli on Friday revealed that approximately 14.4 million iPads will be sold in 2011 and 20.1 million - in 2012. This year won't make a sales record because most of the consumers will buy it for its unique touch-screen. By 2011-2012 the device will become more popular with the increasing number of App Store applications, declining prices and improved functionality, so people will more clearly understand its possible purposes.

But iSuppli claims the research to be "conservative", because it doesn't take into account unforeseen features that Apple can quickly add to iPad to boost sales (for example, integrating Adobe Flash support). However the numbers rely on a patented multi-touch technology that will mainly define the popularity of a new device.

iSuppli director of monitor research Rhoda Alexander admires iPad:

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Sybase released another study based on the survey made by Zogby International. The company analyzed the opinions of 2,443 adults that have at least one mobile phone. Among them 770 have smartphones.

More than a half of respondents (52,3%) said they will most likely use an iPad or any other tablet device to do work. 36% claimed such a device will help them to be more productive at work. Every second person find iPad to be an excellent gadget for watching videos, but only every third person is going to play games on it.

"The study shows that consumers are looking for devices they can use both at home and work, with implications for the business being asked to support them. Further, findings show that while device functionality is important to satisfying people's desire for a personal and work-ready mobile experience that the experience is incomplete without greater access to data."

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Last week Fox Business Chanell had an interesting interview with Rupert Murdoch. News Corporation Chairman talked much about the upcoming tablet devices that will reinvigorate the industry of advertising for new media. As the iPad was the only known tablet presented at the moment Rupert said:

"...all media will be coming to the iPad whether it be music, or books, or newspapers or movies".

Murdoch also hopes there will be more iPads with even larger size.

According to Gartner, PC shipments will increase worldwide from 305.8 mln. devices in 2009, to 366.1 mln. units shipped in 2010. The figures comprise not only traditional laptops and PC towers, but tablets and notebooks as well.

The variety of applications force vendors to provide users with something else rather than conventional general-purpose-PC-with-fast CPU approach. The new Apple's iPad belongs to the devices that will not only change PC ecosystem, but also overlap it with mobile phone industry. According to Gartner estimates, up to 10.5 mln. tablets (including new-generation devices) will be shipped in 2010. Analysts from Wall Street predict that iPad shipments will equal 5 mln. in 2010.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently traveled to meet with executives at The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Today The Wall Street Journal reports that Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of parent company News Corp., confirmed that the newspaper will be present on the iPad. He also mentioned that Apple gave access to one of the tablet devices.

Mr. Murdoch said the Journal planned to be on Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer. "In fact, we've been allowed to work on one, and it's under padlock and key. The key is turned by Apple every night," he said in response to a question. "But we will be on that with The Wall Street Journal." Mr. Murdoch said he believed in a year or so there will be a half dozen or more devices on which consumers will be able to receive newspapers and other media.

Yesterday the Associated Press announced plans to create a new unit named "AP Gateway". It will focus on creating an application for mobile platforms and particularly for iPad tablet device.

It is likely that their app will require a paid subscription, but at first it may appear as free, according to AP senior vice president Jane Seagrave.

AP Gateway will work with local news affiliates to create package of their own content.

Other publishers are still expressing concern over the profit that will be shared with Apple and the latter's unwillingness to report information about subscribers (which is important for marketing and tailoring publisher's content).

Patently Apple reports that Apple filed for the 'magic trackpad' trademark. US Patent & Trademark Office published application on February 26, 2010. 'Magic Trackpad' likely refers to an external peripheral device for desktop computers or laptops plugged into external displays. There has been speculation about some sort of multi-touch "trackpad gadget" from Apple. Maybe Apple will provide desktop users a way to take advantage of some external multi-touch system.

The application requests registration in International Class 009 under a number of categories relating to computer hardware and software, as well as several types of peripheral devices:

International Class 009: Computers; computer software; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer hardware; computer peripherals; scanners; touchscreens; keyboards; computer mice; trackballs; trackpads; touchpads; light pens; joysticks; game controllers; graphics tablets; digitizers; cables and connectors; flash memory drives; USB drives; solid state storage devices; barcode readers.

The Wall St. Journal published a small article about Adobe Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen's talk at the Goldman Sachs technology conference this week. Adobe's CEO spoke on his view of why the iPad wasn't equipped to play Flash:

Narayen said Apple's decision likely had everything to do with its business model as it tries to keep a proprietary, closed system so everything goes through its iTunes store, and has nothing to do with the Flash technology. He said about 85 of the top 100 Web sites in the world use Flash, and 75% of the video on the Web today is in Flash, including Google Inc.'s (GOOG) YouTube, News Corp.'s (NWS) Hulu and broadcasters such as ABC and Fox.

Flash will be on every Android device sold at the end of the year. It will also be on Nokias, Palm Pres, Windows Mobile, Blackberries and just about anything else with an ARM Cortex processor. Not to mention 98% of all the Macs and PCs (and Windows/ChomeOS Tablets) throughout the world. It looks like Apple has it's own vision of what is good and bad for the business.

In this last post we'll tell you about new Drivesavers instructive app, virtual iPhone planetarium, papershow tool for making presentations, Inklet software to turn Mac multi-touch trackpad into a drawing tablet and a tool for creating your own iPhone apps.

Free DriveSavers Hard Drive Disk-aster Simulator app for the iPod Touch and iPhone is a new way to study how a hard disk works. It teaches in interactive fashion about all the things that may crash a drive, what happens during a seized motor, clicker failure, SSD failures, contamination and head crashes. Also you’ll learn how the data recovery gets done and see the inside of a hard disk. That looks pretty instructive.

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