Welcome to the 411, my Q&A column answering all your questions about cell phones and cell phone accessories. I receive plenty of questions about these subjects via e-mail, so I figured many of you might have the same questions, too. At times, I might solicit answers from readers if …
Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast
The word “tablet” used to refer to a flat slab for bearing an inscription. Leave it to the tech industry to make it into something far more complicated and confusing.
Scores of products marketed as “tablets” have come and gone, and now — with rumors of imminent tablet computers from Apple, Dell, Microsoft and others — the category seems ripe for a rebound.
“If people can figure out a new device category that consumers will want to buy that isn’t a laptop or a phone, that opens a whole new possibility in markets to conquer,” explains Michael Gartenberg, a tech strategist with Interpret. “That’s why companies continue to invest in this space, and we have a large number of bodies that are littered in this space.”
Let’s take a look at tablets past, present and future. If the upcoming tablets are to succeed, they’ll need to learn from hideous mistakes like the Apple Newton and the Tablet PC.
Origins
The origins of the tablet computer can be traced as far back as the 19th century. Electrical engineer Elisha Gray registered an 1888 patent (.pdf) describing an electrical-stylus device for capturing handwriting. Famous for his contributions to the development of the telephone, Gray’s idea with a “tablet” was not for drawing, but rather a method of using telegraph technology to transmit handwritten messages. (Think of it as a primitive form of instant messaging or e-mailing.)
Gray’s concept wasn’t merely a flat slab. His patent depicts two instruments: a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter is a pen-like device connected to two electric circuits acting as interruptors. Current interruptions are used to translate the transmitter pen’s movements into signals transmitted to the receiver pen to mimic the movements, thereby reproducing the message on a piece of paper.
This description hardly sounds anything like a tablet, but later electronic-handwriting-recognition patents built from the idea of transmitting and receiving instruments, eventually combining them into one slab-shaped device like the tablets we see today.
The Apple Newton
The Newton MessagePad (above) was the first attempt by a major computer company at producing a commercial tablet-type computer for the mass market. Weighing in at about two pounds, Apple’s 1993 foray into tablet computing sported a powerful-for-its-time 20 MHz processor and a pen-centric interface. Writing recognition in the first version was so bad that it was famously mocked in a Doonesbury cartoon, and though it subsequently improved, the Newton never recovered from the initial PR blow. In 1998, Apple discontinued the Newton when Steve Jobs retook the helm as CEO, leaving a small coterie of true believers to keep the product’s memory alive.
PDAs and Smartphones
While no one refers to their iPhone as a “pocket tablet,” these devices are an important stage in the development of tablet computers.
Palm founder Jeff Hawkins learned from Apple’s mistakes and set out to build a pocket-sized computer that was smaller, cheaper, more modest in its ambitions and ultimately more useful than the Newton. He succeeded wildly with the 1996 launch of the Palm Pilot, spawning a long line of pen-based personal digital assistants from Palm, HP, Dell and others.
When Apple returned to the touchscreen world with the iPhone in 2007, it showed that it had paid close attention during the decade since the Newton flopped. The iPhone was simple, small, elegant and did a handful of things — make calls, browse the web, handle e-mail — very well. The fact that it wasn’t an all-purpose portable computer didn’t seem to matter so much compared to its usability and design.
Graphics tablets
Graphics tablets are computer input devices with a stylus-controlled interface. The technologies used vary, but generally all graphic tablets use the received signal to determine the horizontal and vertical position of the stylus, distance of the stylus from tablet surface and the tilt (vertical angle) of the stylus. Popular among digital illustrators, tablets facilitate a natural way to create computer graphics, especially 2-D illustrations.
Given their specialty, graphics tablets fill a niche for digital artists. Some consumer applications include writing Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, working with handwriting recognition software to transfer them onto the computer. The stylus can also be used as a mouse.
However, for other languages, including English, the majority of consumers prefer typing on a keyboard for speedier writing, according to Gartenberg. Thus, the graphics tablet fills a niche in the design industry, but it is not a major product category in the consumer market. Wacom is the most prominent manufacturer producing graphics tablets today. (Example above: Wacom Bamboo Fun)
Peek — the handheld, bare bones email device which recently celebrated its first birthday — has just launched a deal that’s actually quite a deal. You can now get a Peek Pronto (the latest model) with lifetime service for $299. The Amazon exclusive includes all Peek’s standard subscription features — up to five email accounts with unlimited Push emailing, plus extras like its Twitter and Facebook feeds, — only this time, it’s forever. The deal will cover any future device upgrade you might make, too. If you or anyone you know were ever on the fence about buying one of these badboys, now is probably the time.
Filed under: Handhelds
Peek Pronto with lifetime service: $299 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There’s an unfortunate lack of details on this one at the moment (official or otherwise), but it looks like Philips has a new PMP in the works that seems set to join the growing ranks of HD-capable players out there. Like those other recently-announced players, this new SA075 model includes a suitably high res touchscreen (800 x 480) on the device itself and, perhaps more importantly, an HDMI out port for true HD video playback on your TV (although it’s not clear if that means 720p or full 1080p). And, well, that’s about all that’s known about it right now — more on this one as we get it.
[Via Cloned in China]
Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video
Philips SA075 PMP joins the HD-capable crowd originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Simon Scarle has just made modeling a range of processes such as electrical excitations in the heart as accessible as Halo 3.
(Credit: University of Warwick)
Simon Scarle’s giddy enthusiasm (see photo, at right) could be the result of getting to play with Xboxes on the job. More likely …
Originally posted at News – Health Tech
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)On Monday, Palm set free its lastest WebOS update for the Palm Pre, bringing quite a number of new features to the smartphone and addresses several security issues.
If you haven’t received it already, Palm WebOS 1.2 will arrive as an over-the-air update to …
Originally posted at Dialed In Podcast
Android is an open platform, but watch out: It includes a lot of proprietary apps, including Google’s.
A popular Android hacker found out the hard way when he received a cease-and-desist letter from Google for his latest modification of the Android OS. Steve Kondik, also known as “Cyanogen”, has been distributing a version of the Android firmware that includes multitouch and other capabilities not included in the base version. Google took exception to his inclusion of code owned by the search giant and sent him a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop distributing it.
Kondik’s story created an uproar within the Android community and raised questions about how much the Android OS relied on closed-source applications for its functionality. That’s because the base of the platform is indeed open source, but without the applications that run on top of it, it’s not very useful to consumers.
However, the controversy has sparked constructive discussions about the future of Android, and has even motivated Google to extend a helping hand to independent developers.
In 2007, Google, along with 47 other companies, formed the Open Handset Alliance to oversee the first free, open mobile platform to accelerate innovation in the mobile ecosystem. The Android Open-Source Project became the platform of OHA, allowing enthusiast developers to freely contribute and improve the mobile experience for others.
Google stated Kondik was illegally distributing closed-source applications within his revamped Android OS. These closed-source applications include Gmail, Maps, gTalk, YouTube, Market, Contact Sync and other essential services — what many people, perhaps naively, may consider to be the heart of the OS.
Google’s legal action most likely stemmed from the latest CyanogenMOD update, which included Google’s not-yet-released upgrade to the Android Market. An excerpt from a statement on the official Android Developer blog clarified the line between Android and Google’s proprietary applications:
“These apps are Google’s way of benefiting from Android in the same way that any other developer can, but the apps are not part of the Android platform itself,” Google’s Dan Morrill said on the company’s developer blog.
The situation even irked an engineer within Google, Jean Baptiste Queru, who tweeted, “To my Apple, Microsoft and Palm buddies: are you hiring to work on mobile stuff?”
However, Queru later moved the discussion in a more constructive direction, tweeting a link to a Google Group post where he calls on the Android community to help improve Android, asking “Who’s with me?”
The Android engineers at Google are now making available previously unreleased components — makefiles and configuration files — that will give independent developers the ability to create Android releases in the same manner that Google does, but without using Google’s proprietary apps. These engineers are working with volunteers from the community and have already begun working on alternatives to the proprietary Google applications. Meanwhile, other developers have formed a new group, the Open Android Alliance and they, too, are working on building alternatives to Google’s applications.
Eventually, these tools should allow developers to create working versions of Android that work “out of the box,” something that is currently very difficult to do.
According to Kondik’s latest blog post, he is working around the setback by building a backup tool that will let users of vanilla Android distributions save a copy of their existing applications.
Then, after installing Kondik’s Cyanogen mod, they can restore their apps and continue using them — without having downloaded them from Kondik’s site.
“There are lots of things we can do as end-users and modders, though, without violating anyone’s rights. Most importantly, we are entitled to back up our software,” Kondik wrote.
Photo credit: Andareed/Wikicommons
The tips are flooding in — webOS 1.2.0 has just been released, and downloads are starting all over. Obviously the big new features is support for app purchases in the Catalog, but we’ve heard there are a ton of little fixes and improvements in addition — we’re checking it out now, let us know how it goes for you in comments!
Here are some major changes listed by Palm:
Update: We haven’t tested it yet, but the Media Sync section of the release notes doesn’t make any mention of restoring iTunes compatibility — looks like Palm’s not going to poke at the USB-IF any more than it has to.
Update 2: Tested. Don’t expect to sync with iTunes, everyone — it ain’t happening.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Filed under: Cellphones
webOS 1.2 now available, brings support for app purchases originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This article was written on June 04, 2007 by CyberNet.
If by chance you’d like to watch the entire Bill Gates/Steve Jobs D5 interview without watching it in segments as previously offered, Apple has made the interview available via an iTunes download.
When I downloaded the interview, it took me about 35 minutes. The connection seemed fast, so it shouldn’t take you too long if you’re on a broadband connection. A sit-down public interview with the two of them together is a rare thing. They have a rather large influence over the tech industry, and because this doesn’t happen often, I think it’s worth the download.
You must have iTunes installed to be able to download the video or audio podcast. If you have it installed, you can click this link for the download. Oh, and did I mention it is free? Yep, a free 997 MB download from iTunes.
I think one of my favorite parts of the entire interview is the prologue with the Apple Dating Game Show in October of 1983. Both Gates and Jobs looked so young, and so geeky.
Source: TUAW
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[Via GPSTracklog]
Continue reading TomTom car kit for iPhone will run $120
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Peripherals
TomTom car kit for iPhone will run $120 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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