The iPad is the future. The future of what? That is the question isn't it?
I am beginning to use the new tablet-like device from Apple for more than just watching videos, surfing the web, and answering emails. In fact, I am typing this post up with the iPad. It hasn't been easy. The touch keyboard is going to to get some used to.
But more than the iPad, the whole new class of these slates or tablets will really change how we do things. But make no mistake, it's not going to replace my Macbook any time soon. But it will change us to be sure.
First, it will change how we consume media - music, videos, and written work (books, newspapers, magazines). Unlike the UMPC that Microsoft aspired to make popular a few years back, these crop of tablets have one thing that their fore bearers did not: longer battery life. If you read my blog here regularly (no, really, don't laugh), you know I think battery life is very important for mobile warriors. I watched six hours of video without having to worry about running out of juice.
Second, ubiquitous wireless Internet access. There are more wifi access now but more of these tablets will have 3G, and later WiMax & LTE, access. In three to four years, don't be surprised if s majority of these pads will be sold with wireless access.
Anyway, these are just a few quick observations that stemmed from the few hours I had to spend with the iPad. It's the future and while it's a bright future, it's fluid and yet to be defined.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
FIrst post From An iPad
This is the first Onxo post from an iPad.
This is better than I expected. More later.
The experience at the store is awesome!
This is better than I expected. More later.
The experience at the store is awesome!
That Other Big Mobile Event This Weekend
This is a big weekend in mobile. Of course you know that. You can't miss it. That's right. T-Mobile has once again, and likely not for the last time, sold out of HD2 online.
Well, you not going to hear to end of it from the Windows Mobile folks and the fanboys who just can't shut up about how great T-Mobile is and how its upcoming 3G upgrade, HSPA+, is going to give WiMax a run for its money and leave vaporware, LTE, with no room to hide.
I'm here to provide relief. There just happens to be another mobile even this weekend from a fledging...no, I'm gonna be positive here...a mobile product with "potentials". That's right. I'm talking about the iPad.
After trying with the iPod and then again with the iPhone in the market, a little known company from Cupertino is hoping the third time is also a charm by trying change mobile computing again.
Unlike with the iPhone when Apple made folks wait hours, sometimes days, in line, the iPad was pre-ordered and rationed. Still I expect lines in some of the more popular locations. Yeah, I don't get what people in big cities and the lines they like to form.
So, if you're sick and tired of hearing about Windows Mobile 6.5, HD2, and T-Mobile, I'd turn my attention towards this iPad underdog and see if there is a Cinderella run in it. After all, it is Final Four weekend. And outside of CBS, no one is routing for Duke at all.
Note: In all seriousness, expected to be inundated with iPad news. I'll be leaving a bit early for my Apple Store and snapping pics of what I see to be interesting at my local launch (we're a small town) and some personal touches of my iPad at On Apple.
Well, you not going to hear to end of it from the Windows Mobile folks and the fanboys who just can't shut up about how great T-Mobile is and how its upcoming 3G upgrade, HSPA+, is going to give WiMax a run for its money and leave vaporware, LTE, with no room to hide.
I'm here to provide relief. There just happens to be another mobile even this weekend from a fledging...no, I'm gonna be positive here...a mobile product with "potentials". That's right. I'm talking about the iPad.
After trying with the iPod and then again with the iPhone in the market, a little known company from Cupertino is hoping the third time is also a charm by trying change mobile computing again.
Unlike with the iPhone when Apple made folks wait hours, sometimes days, in line, the iPad was pre-ordered and rationed. Still I expect lines in some of the more popular locations. Yeah, I don't get what people in big cities and the lines they like to form.
So, if you're sick and tired of hearing about Windows Mobile 6.5, HD2, and T-Mobile, I'd turn my attention towards this iPad underdog and see if there is a Cinderella run in it. After all, it is Final Four weekend. And outside of CBS, no one is routing for Duke at all.
Note: In all seriousness, expected to be inundated with iPad news. I'll be leaving a bit early for my Apple Store and snapping pics of what I see to be interesting at my local launch (we're a small town) and some personal touches of my iPad at On Apple.
Friday, April 2, 2010
LTE - It's Gonna Be A Slow Build-Up
We're going see very little about it until late 2010 from Verizon and AT&T is still talking about HSPA 7.2, which is still MIA.
So, we will hear a lot about it. Mostly chest thumping by Verizon Wireless in the United States. Maybe a bit from AT&T when they realized they need to talk up their 4G plans as well.
However, given the amount of time that has taken for Clearwire, its main partner, Sprint, and others to get things going is clearly not a good sign as far as LTE goes. And still, Sprint has not managed to bring WiMax to many of the major markets, though they did assert a few like SF, LA, and Miami will be getting WiMax soon.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping my current provider, T-Mobile, will truly come through with HSPA+ which can provide up to 20mbps.
I recommend to my fellow mobile warriors that the stigma against the third and fourth place wireless providers, Sprint and T-Mobile respectively, should at the very least be put on hold and take another look at these two scrappy companies that came out of CTIA a couple of weeks ago swinging and hitting it out of the park while VW and AT&T thought it was enough to just talk.
As the saying goes, talk is cheap but these two number one and two providers are gonna find out that if they don't get going on faster wireless speeds, and stop talking about rationing wireless access, their words are gonna get an awful lot more expensive come 2011 and beyond.
So, we will hear a lot about it. Mostly chest thumping by Verizon Wireless in the United States. Maybe a bit from AT&T when they realized they need to talk up their 4G plans as well.
However, given the amount of time that has taken for Clearwire, its main partner, Sprint, and others to get things going is clearly not a good sign as far as LTE goes. And still, Sprint has not managed to bring WiMax to many of the major markets, though they did assert a few like SF, LA, and Miami will be getting WiMax soon.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping my current provider, T-Mobile, will truly come through with HSPA+ which can provide up to 20mbps.
I recommend to my fellow mobile warriors that the stigma against the third and fourth place wireless providers, Sprint and T-Mobile respectively, should at the very least be put on hold and take another look at these two scrappy companies that came out of CTIA a couple of weeks ago swinging and hitting it out of the park while VW and AT&T thought it was enough to just talk.
As the saying goes, talk is cheap but these two number one and two providers are gonna find out that if they don't get going on faster wireless speeds, and stop talking about rationing wireless access, their words are gonna get an awful lot more expensive come 2011 and beyond.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Imagine Being Censored - The Frustration
I guess the biggest feeling I'll have is frustration should anything on the Internet be censored? That's what the good citizenry of China, Iran, and other less than free societies are going through these days.
In China, there is the practice of self-censorship where the companies police themselves and citizens are encourage to watch one another. It's 2010 but I think if I were in any of these countries, it'll feel rather like 1984.
Now, I want to note the difference between the government from the people. I also want to note the circumstances. Whether you're reading this from the comfortable of a cafe on the streets of France or Italy, Starbucks in downtown Chicago, or from Barnes & Noble in West LA, we cannot possibly know how we react if our governments suddenly decree what we can or cannot know about the world.
I've spoken and debated to a few smart folks about this. I hope you don't see this as American arrogance. I'm just as average as you can go and as far as smarts go. But I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone in China or Iran. Knowing even just a fraction of what the world is about. And yet, there is a fortress built by the government.
The gatekeepers there tell us that we are safe within these walls. That order must be maintained. Safety from what? Order for who? Imagine the frustration of knowing that there is so much more beyond the walls of the fortress. That the purpose isn't to keep out a horde of disruptive social ideals but to keep the mass within the fortress from venturing out, seeking knowledge and, for better or worse, learning about the world.
It has been the long standing policy of the United States foreign policy towards China as one of engagement. China has come a long way since Deng Xiaoping but, suddenly, flushed with cash and growing economic and political might, Beijing has decide that it has gone far enough.
Hooray for Google for standing up to old guards in the Chinese Politburo, its many censor apparatuses, and against those who manned the towers of Great Firewall of China. Whether you think Google has done this for the sake of "doing no evil" (I can argue that Google hasn't been completely faithful to that mantra) or because its search business in China has hit a wall against incumbent Baidu, Google has started something that I hope many governments and foreign companies will follow and finish.
Note: I rather be talking about the iPad and its potential impact on mobile computing, Verizon and Google teaming up against minimal government interference, or LTE deployment, but censorship affects all of us no matter where we live.
In China, there is the practice of self-censorship where the companies police themselves and citizens are encourage to watch one another. It's 2010 but I think if I were in any of these countries, it'll feel rather like 1984.
Now, I want to note the difference between the government from the people. I also want to note the circumstances. Whether you're reading this from the comfortable of a cafe on the streets of France or Italy, Starbucks in downtown Chicago, or from Barnes & Noble in West LA, we cannot possibly know how we react if our governments suddenly decree what we can or cannot know about the world.
I've spoken and debated to a few smart folks about this. I hope you don't see this as American arrogance. I'm just as average as you can go and as far as smarts go. But I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone in China or Iran. Knowing even just a fraction of what the world is about. And yet, there is a fortress built by the government.
The gatekeepers there tell us that we are safe within these walls. That order must be maintained. Safety from what? Order for who? Imagine the frustration of knowing that there is so much more beyond the walls of the fortress. That the purpose isn't to keep out a horde of disruptive social ideals but to keep the mass within the fortress from venturing out, seeking knowledge and, for better or worse, learning about the world.
It has been the long standing policy of the United States foreign policy towards China as one of engagement. China has come a long way since Deng Xiaoping but, suddenly, flushed with cash and growing economic and political might, Beijing has decide that it has gone far enough.
Hooray for Google for standing up to old guards in the Chinese Politburo, its many censor apparatuses, and against those who manned the towers of Great Firewall of China. Whether you think Google has done this for the sake of "doing no evil" (I can argue that Google hasn't been completely faithful to that mantra) or because its search business in China has hit a wall against incumbent Baidu, Google has started something that I hope many governments and foreign companies will follow and finish.
Note: I rather be talking about the iPad and its potential impact on mobile computing, Verizon and Google teaming up against minimal government interference, or LTE deployment, but censorship affects all of us no matter where we live.
iPad Makes It Into Prime Time (Modern Family on ABC)
Check out this video of the iPad in this espisode of Modern Family.
Pay close attention to the candles in the cake displayed on the iPad's screen.
Enjoy.
Pay close attention to the candles in the cake displayed on the iPad's screen.
Enjoy.
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