PDAs & Handhelds

Apple Planned the iPad BEFORE the iPhone. Who knew?

February 10, 2012

Everyone assumes that Apple was working on the iPhone before the iPad. However, the recent lawsuit by Proview Electronics suing Apple over the name 'iPad' says others wise. The iPhone was launched in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. However, in 2006 Apple purchased the iPad trademark from display manufacturer Proview Electronics (Taiwan) for $55,000 by way of a front company called IP Application Development.

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet, Tablets, Wireless

Google to Offer Free Tablets?

January 5, 2012

Several media reports are claiming that Google is going to be offering their own tablet soon, including DigiTimes which said, "As Google reportedly may launch an own-brand tablet PC to compete against Apple's iPad, sources from Google's upstream supply chain believe that Google, instead of Apple, may actually be targeting Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire as its major competitor."

The Amazon Kindle Fire had torrid sales for the Christmas holiday season, certainly earning its "Fire" moniker. You can't go wrong with a $199 tablet device that surfs the web, runs apps, and consumes entertainment content using Amazon Prime, which features a Netflix-like streaming service in addition to Amazon's other paid digital content - e-books, music, etc. Amazon gambled consumers would consume paid content to recoup their losses and it has paid off handsomely.

This purported Nexus tablet will come with a 7" display, run Android's latest Ice Cream Sandwich and will be priced under $199 to undercut even the mighty Amazon Kindle Fire. What is Google thinking? They're thinking the same thing Amazon is thinking - take a loss on the hardware and subsidize the cost of the tablet by selling digital content, such as movies, books, and music.

Posted in Android, Apple, Gadgets, Google, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet

New Xirrus XR Wireless Array - Faster Wi-Fi with Modular Pricing

October 5, 2011

Steven Wastie, Xirrus's Chief Marketing Officer informed me that Xirrus ($70 million annual revenue) today released their next-generation wireless platform, the XR Wireless Array, which is their 3rd-generation Wi-Fi modular wireless switch. Xirrus's goal is to ensure high performance wireless networks, whose explosive growth is being driven by mobile devices including laptops, mobile smartphones and tablets, such as the iPad. Xirrus products are used at high-attendance conference and events, including Dreamforce, ITEXPO, and others.

Unlike traditional APs which use omnidirectional radios, Xirrus combines directional antennas with multiple radios together with a virtualized controller in a unique modular architecture that allows you to go completely down to the number of radios installed. The It enables you to have anywhere from 4 to 16 modular 802.11n Access Points with 450Mbps throughput Access Points.

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Internet, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Wireless

Don't Let Wi-Fi Device Onslaught Bring Enterprise Wi-Fi To Its Knees

September 30, 2011

If you are an IT or network administrator, you already know you've lost the battle against users BYOD (Bring-Your-Own-Device) to work. Now your job is to support everything from the Apple iPad, to Blackberries, to Android devices, to new tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire. Good times, right? You're probably stressing over whether your WiFi enterprise network can handle all these new devices entering the workplace and you're not sure you have the knowledge or tools to deal with the explosion of personal Wi-Fi devices brought into the office.

Well, I have some good news for ya. You should attend this free webinar taking place Tuesday next week to learn what you need to know.

Posted in Android, Apple, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Kindle Fire Silk Browser Proxying Stokes Privacy Concerns

September 29, 2011

The new Amazon Kindle Fire will use Amazon's very own completely new Web browser called Silk that leverages Amazon's EC2 architecture to proxy and cache web content for faster performance. You might think of it as something similar to Opera Mini, a former favorite mobile browser of mine, which does something similar. What I liked about Opera Mini on my old Windows Mobile phone was that it compressed images and made pages load faster on slower connections. But as 3G speeds became more prevalent, the need for Opera Mini diminished.

Posted in Android, Computer Hardware, Gadgets, Google, Home Entertainment, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet, Tablets, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, Video Hardware & Software

Amazon Kindle Fire - Hot or Not?

September 28, 2011

The Amazon Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet aims to take on the Apple iPad, but will the Fire catch fire with consumers? Amazon has loyal Kindle e-reader users, but part of its draw is the e-ink screen which works in direct sunlight for beach book reading. It's the one-up Amazon had over the iPad which doesn't do so well in direct sunlight.

The new Kindle Fire is a color screen and not e-ink, so it loses that advantage. Further, the new Kindle Fire doesn't have a camera! What? No camera? It also doesn't have 3G. What? No 3G? Oh and no microphone either, so no Skype or other VoIP apps.

Posted in Android, Apple, Gadgets, Google, Home Entertainment, PDAs & Handhelds, Skype, TMCnet, Tablets, Unified Communications, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

Toshiba Thrive 7 Tablet Impresses

September 28, 2011

Toshiba today announced the Thrive 7, little brother to their big brother the Thrive 10. Both Thrive models are based on Android and the original Thrive 10 has had some modest success, but the 10" tablet space is a bit more crowded. So it's a smart move for Toshiba to go a bit smaller with the Thrive 7. The Thrive 7 sports Toshiba's AutoBrite™ LED Backlit Display and interestingly has the same 1280x800 screen resolution as the Thrive 10.

Posted in Accessories, Android, Android, Gadgets, Google, PDAs & Handhelds, Reviews, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, VoIP

Apple iPad - Your Next Desktop Phone?

September 22, 2011

I've been thinking about how the Apple iPad could really disrupt the VoIP space and become your next desktop phone. Think about the impact to companies such as Cisco, Polycom, Aastra, snom, Grandstream, and others. While these companies do offer low-end IP desktop phones, they have higher margins on the high-end large color screen IP phones that sport advanced features like RSS feeds (weather, news), collaboration, and video conferencing.

Take for instance the Aastra BluStar media phone, which sports a 13" touch screen that achieves true HD 720p video conferencing at a rate of 30 fps or the Polycom VVX 1500, which sports a a 7" color touch-screen and 2MP camera. Both IP phones are over $650, while the latest iPad 2 can be had for $450 (16GB model).

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, ITEXPO, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Wireless

Daring Fireball Gets It - Windows 8 Will Rival the iPad

September 15, 2011

Daring Fireball's John Gruber is as avid an Apple fan, enthusiast, zealot, freak, etc. as you will find on the Internet. Saying anything complimentary about Microsoft or Windows is akin to a Red Sox fan giving the Yankees a compliment. So it was a bit of a surprise when he amended his initial anti-Windows 8 operating system with the Metro touch UI and later stated he sees Metro / Windows 8 as a potential strong rival to the Apple iPad tablet.

Initially he wrote an article titled 'Windows 8 Fundamentally Flawed' where he wasn't too keen on Windows 8 competing with the iPad:
But I think it’s a fundamentally flawed idea for Microsoft to build their next-generation OS and interface on top of the existing Windows.

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet, Wireless

The Demise of the HP TouchPad Plus "The Value of VoIP"

August 19, 2011

I wrote this morning about HP's surrender to Apple in the PC, laptop, and tablet space. Ironically, I just happened to glance at a CDW catalog sitting on my desk and saw this:

Click for larger view

A now defunct HP TouchPad 16GB model is prominently displayed on the back cover of the CDW catalog. The front and back cover are "prime" positions that in the publishing world command a higher premium in advertising rates. This is also sometimes true of catalogs.

Posted in Computer Hardware, Gadgets, PDAs & Handhelds, TMCnet

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