Amazon.com is the largest online retailer in America and the company has made huge profits from its ability to sell almost any product to customers all over the world. Over the last year, though, Amazon has begun to focus more on eBooks. The company has even gotten to the point of announcing plans to publish exclusively on and for Amazon.
Anyone who has ever started working out after months or years of inactivity knows how difficult it can be to maintain the energy and determination needed to make that workout a habit. Once it becomes habit though, working out is far easier to continue.
Most phones have a plastic or aluminum casing. The purpose of the casing is to protect the sensitive inner components by creating a barrier that absorbs any damage. It is also an opportunity for users to personalize their phone by purchasing a special color or by adding a patterned case from another company.
In the first blog in this series, we discussed how tablets came to be what they are now. In the second, we talked about the release of the iPad. Now, we should focus on the last two years and the forward leaps tablets have made in that time. Since Apple released the iPad, the market has seen dozens of other models come around and, in some cases, go away again.
The same year Apple released the iPad, the Samsung released the Galaxy Tab and Dell released the Streak. Less than a year later, Apple upgraded to the iPad2. During that time, various companies released over 80 other tablets. However, many of those tablets have not sold as well as the manufacturers might like. Apple’s iPad2 is still the tablet of choice for many consumers.
Most recently, Amazon.com released its own tablet. The Kindle Fire sells for only $199, a third of the price of most other tablets, including the iPad2. The Kindle Fire has a large shopping base in its maker, Amazon, and looks to be a good option for those on a budget. Many people were impressed by the Kindle Fire’s lack of mobile computer support issues at its release. A large number of other tablets required updates as soon as they were purchased because the companies hurried to release a product that was not entirely ready, in the wake of the iPad release.
In the previous blog in this series, we discussed that although the concept of tablets had existed for decades, self-contained portable computers were never possible until advances in technology caught up to the idea. Manufacturers tried their best to give consumers what they wanted, but the technology and the market were simply not ready yet. In the early 2000s, however, the market began to see an upsurge in tablets.
This upsurge was driven by Microsoft’s rededication to the tablet concept. The computer giant released a set of guidelines for manufacturers to build tablets using a tablet-specific version of Windows called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. These newer tablets more closely resembled the tablets currently on the market than the previous generation of tablets.
These devices featured touch screens, video playing capabilities, Internet connectivity, and lighter designs. With the new technology came more complete mobile computer support as well. They were not quite up to the abilities tablets would have in only a few years, but it was a great start.
The idea for tablet computers began much earlier than most people realize. The iPad was by no means the first tablet computer; there have been tablets widely available for sale since 1989. They have ranged widely in functionality and design, but tablets are not a new thing.
As the first in a series of three blogs centering on the history of tablet computers, this blog will focus mainly on the first tablet-like devices that relied on computers for their functionality. The second and third blogs will focus on the self-contained tablets of the last few decades and the rise in popularity they are currently experiencing.
The first tablet-like computer device was created in 1964 and it was called the RAND tablet. The RAND tablet was basically a square sensor in the middle of a wooden board. It came with an attached stylus and cost $18,000. The stylus and sensor system replaced the keyboard for the computer it was attached to and software was developed to make the RAND tablet recognize handwriting.
Not too long ago, Apple and Adobe (the software company that publishes Flash and Photoshop software) were in conflict because Apple’s iOS would not run Adobe programs. This failure of functionality was be design, though; Adobe and Apple’s Quicktime video formats have long been in conflict and Apple hoped to force programmers and websites to use their coding as opposed to Adobe’s. So, for some time, you could not play most YouTube videos on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. But then, Apple and Adobe settled their differences and now Adobe is writing programs specifically for the iOS operating system. One of the first truly meaningful Adobe programs to be recoded for iOS functioning is Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad.
As one of its flagship software programs, Photoshop is a big moneymaker for Adobe. Adobe Photoshop Touch is the pared-down program for mobile computing devices; already there is an Android-based Photoshop Touch that has made Photoshop tools available to the wealth of Android customers. Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad allows Apple iOS users using an iPad to create, alter, and publish images based on Adobe programming. This gives visual artists and photographers a huge opportunity to continue their art. No longer do Apple Computer fans have to choose between their preferred mobile computing device and the opportunity to become more proficient at their visual art.
What is the one major problem with tablets? If you answered with something similar to “They do not have keyboards,” then you are among the majority of frustrated tablet and touch screen smartphone owners. Tablets are great; they are portable, lightweight, easy to use, and great for working outside the home or office. Tablets are the hot new item over the last two years and many people would love to be able to discard their laptop in favor of their new tablet.
There is just one problem with replacing laptops with tablets and it is a huge problem for users. The lack of an actual keyboard makes typing on a tablet a hassle. Typing on the virtual, onscreen keyboard is slow, imprecise, and awkward. The angle for holding your wrists and arms is completely wrong, and there is also the problem of trying to hold the tablet and type with both hands at the same time.
Learning a new musical instrument is never easy. But, following the demise of Guitar Hero, there is – as one might suspect – an app for that! Now, those who want to learn to play the guitar need only a guitar, an iPad, and Wild Chords to get started on a road to musical proficiency!
Wild Chords is an application, currently exclusively available for the Apple iPad, that helps teach you how to play the guitar. In order to use Wild Chords, all you need is a guitar and an iPad; you do not need speakers or an amplifier if you are using an electric guitar. In fact, if you are using an electric guitar, you have to unplug it from other equipment – like an amp – because the distortion from other equipment affects the program. Even if you have never picked up a guitar before, Ovelin – the app’s publisher – is confident that Wild Chords can teach you.
If asked what they first think of when putting cars and smartphones together, most people would answer with something about not texting while driving or about touch screens in their car. No one would answer with “an iPhone case.”
That may be about to change, however, because Nissan is getting ready to release a new iPhone case. Yes, Nissan the car manufacturer is making an iPhone case, yet why they are is very interesting. The Nissan Scratch Shield iPhone case will heal itself from any kind of scratches that occur.