Hasta La Gadget!

When you think of Apple, what’s the first thing you think of? For the company’s fans, it’s undoubtedly Steve Jobs, Macs, the iPhone, and iPad. For the company’s haters, it’s typically issues they have with its control over its products, high prices, and its fans, who think their favorite company is superior to all others.

But what most people can agree on is that Apple truly understands hardware. For years now, the company has been delivering the most innovative hardware designs in the industry. And its success in the marketplace has largely been a result of that.

Still, I’m suspect of claims that Apple still holds the crown as the world’s best hardware designer. Yes, the company’s products are nice-looking and I’ll freely admit that the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro with Retina Display have rightfully earned Jonathan Ive his place in the spotlight. But when we take the entire industry as a whole, is it not possible for us to accept the idea that maybe – just maybe – Apple’s design cred has been hurt a bit?

“Is it not possible for us to accept the idea that maybe – just maybe – Apple’s design cred has been hurt a bit?”

Looking at Apple’s products, I’m not all that impressed any more. Although the iPhone 5 came with some design improvements, it’s basically the same device we’ve been seeing for years with a few changes here and there. And since so-called “major” updates only come out every other year, I sit and see nothing that’s so revolutionary that I’d commend the company on design.

Moving to the iPad, I think we can say the same thing. The iPad is certainly nice-looking, but is it really so much better looking than any other device on the market right now? Samsung, Google, and Amazon are all offering tablets that have similar designs, and they’re no less appealing.

But it’s in the notebook space that I think we need to seriously reconsider the idea that Apple is the world’s best hardware designer. Sure, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is nice-looking, but is it really any better than any Ultrabook on the market right now? And when it comes to innovation, who can really take issue with what Lenovo is doing with half-tablet, half-notebook IdeaPad Yoga? It appears that Apple is the company that now likes to stay the course, and it’s allowing other companies to deliver the truly interesting products.

“Apple fans will instinctively say that it hasn’t.”

So, I pose this question: has Apple officially lost its credibility as the technology industry’s leading hardware designer? Apple fans will instinctively say that it hasn’t. But perhaps it’s best if we take a step back and evaluate what’s really going on in the marketplace. Apple is by no means a design slouch and its products are good-looking. But can we stop pretending like it’s the only company that truly understands what design is all about?

It might have taken competitors longer to catch up to Apple on design, but catch up they have. And it’s high time we accept that and give credit where it’s due.

Is Apple Losing Its Hardware Design Cred? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It was back in 2011 when pilots of American Airlines started using an iPad app instead of printed navigation charts. Later that same year, in December, the FAA allowed AA pilots to use iPads in all phases of a flight. American Airlines is the only carrier that has been allowed to do this, pilots can use their iPads even when the aircraft is below 10,000ft. The airline has said that all of its 8.600 pilots will be touting iPads by the end of this month instead of the traditional 40 pound flight bags. These iPads will contain over 3,000 pages worth of charts and manuals that will be updated digitally.

American Airlines has also said that eliminating the need for those heavy flight bags has virtually eliminated the number one reason of pilot injuries. Not only that, it saves the airline over $1 million in fuel costs and makes it more eco-friendly as revisions don’t have to be printed on paper any more. The airline has also equipped 16,000 of its flight attendants with the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note which they will use to keep track of meal services for premium passengers, weather updates, seat assignments and a lot more.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung’s New DDR3 RAM To Provide PC Like Performance For Mobile Devices, iPad Mini Said To Have Led iPad Shipments In Previous Quarter,

The tablet market has been somewhat stagnant over past few months, but there are still some interesting developments that have formed. For starters, iPad market share is down to 39.6% from 58.2% a year ago, according to data from IDC. That’s quite a drop, but Apple is still remains on top over Samsung, who controls 17.9% of the tablet market, which is up from 11.2% last year.

As for shipments during the last quarter, total tablets shipped during the three months was 49.2 million units globally, which is a huge increase from last year’s quarterly shipments of 20.3 million. Apple makes up 19.5 million of those shipments, which is up from 11.8 million last year. Samsung shipped 8.8 million during the quarter, up from only 2.3 million during the same quarter last year.

However, ASUS made the biggest move by taking third place away from Amazon. The company shipped 2.7 million tablets this past quarter, while Amazon only shipped 1.8 million. This is mostly thanks to the raving popularity of the Nexus 7 that the company manufactured for Google. This resulted in a 267% increase in shipments for the company over the course of a year.

In fifth place is Microsoft, and thanks to their new Surface tablets, the company owns a 1.8% market share in tablets, and they shipped 900,000 units during the quarter. The Redmond-based company ended up knocking Barnes & Noble out of the top five, but they still have a lot of work to do if they want to move their way up the list.

iPad market share slips, still remains on top is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re constantly on the lookout for more second screen apps to enhance your television viewing experience and you happen to be a big fan of Psych, NextGuide‘s newly minted integration with the USA Network might be right up your alley. In its latest update, the TV Guide replacement app now has a handy “USA Sync” button whenever you’re watching the network’s shows, which include Psych, Burn Notice and Suits. During their live broadcasts, hitting that button will bring up related content like trivia, polls and bonus clips. This is yet another arrow in NextGuide’s quiver of second screen features, which includes the ability to seek out programming from traditional broadcast channels along with streaming services like Amazon, Netflix and Hulu Plus. The USA Sync function is already available via the network’s own site and app, but it’s nice to see it play nice with third-party apps as well. You can go ahead and download the latest NextGuide from the Apple App Store or just head to the source below.

Filed under: Software, HD

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Via: The Next Web

Source: NextGuide (App Store)

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins seems to be among the most transparent executives in tech in terms of showing his hand regarding future product plans, which may be partly because he doesn’t have much to lose at this point. In an interview yesterday, he downplayed tablet computing in what looks to be an indicator that BlackBerry will drop the PlayBook, its own lame duck tablet and the first of its devices to sport a QNX-based operating system.

Heins should’ve stuck to specifics, however, as he went way overboard and came off as though he was losing touch with reality in the interview as quoted by Bloomberg, with broad sweeping statements like “In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” and “[t]ablets themselves are not a good business model.”

Tablets may not be a good business model for BlackBerry, which took huge writedowns on BlackBerry PlayBook inventory, were forced to run massive fire sales with price cuts of up to $400 to clear out inventory, and even finally discontinued the entry-level 16GB version entirely. By any real measure, the PlayBook was and is a failed product. But to say tablets won’t last five years, or that they aren’t a good business model requires that you completely ignore Apple’s tremendous success with the iPad, including the 19.5 million iPads it sold last quarter, an all-time record that came in well above analyst estimates.

Heins has recently made remarks that indicate BlackBerry may be experimenting with alternate device form factors, possibly taking a cue from hybrid gadgets like the Asus PadFone which combine a smartphone and tablet or mini-notebook style device in one. Once again, Heins said that he would need a BlackBerry tablet to be a unique device in an increasingly crowded market.

BlackBerry may have blown it on the PlayBook, but trash-talking tablets in general is worse than sticking your head in the sand: it makes the company look hopelessly out of touch. There’s definitely a lesson to be learned in the fact that Apple is the only company that’s really been able to succeed with a tablet device, but that lesson isn’t that the tablet market is a write-off entirely.