November 17, 2010
The public is fascinated by tablet devices. Apple’s I-pad brought widespread awe at this advanced alien technology. What is it? A touch screen laptop? An enlarged I-phone? A Blackberry with an identity crisis?
Many could not grasp the idea of merging the high tech trifecta, the smartphone, the mp3 player and the laptop, into a single device. Though impressive, joggers still want their mp3 players tiny enough to strap to their arms, professionals need large monitors and word processing without smudgy screens, and horror of horrors, tablets don’t make phone calls.
In a short time, Tablet Device has become a separate category of high technology. Public reception of the I-pad forced Mac to upgrade its design to a 3G model with WiFi and phone capabilities. Quickly, other manufacturers followed suit.
Any touch screen, multifunction, portable multimedia tool can be classified as a tablet device. Voice call functions are now standard, and tablets are seen as the next evolution of the smart phone.
Consumers have been inundated with similar devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab which features a 7-inch TFT-LCD touchscreen, Wi-Fi capability, a 1.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 ("Hummingbird") processor, and the Swype input system.
Dell’s Streak is a smartphone/tablet PC hybrid that uses Android OS. Its 5-inch touch screen has two cameras, a rear mounted 5MP with dual-LED flash and a VGA-resolution camera on the front for video calls.
Perhaps the most anticipated tablet is the BlackBerry Playbook. The unreleased BlackBerry tablet already has a following, though it is not expected to hit stores until early January 2011.
Its popularity is linked to an I-pad backlash as consumers were not pleased that Apple had neglected to add necessary features so it could capitalize by upgrading future models.
On the other hand, the Playbook comes fully loaded. The exciting new gadget features USB connections, HDMI dual HD cameras (a front facing 3 mega pixel video camera and rear facing 5 megapixel still camera) and more than 256MBs of RAM.
The BlackBerry device is also more compact than the I-pad, with a length of 18cm versus the I-pad’s 22cm. It comes loaded with Adobe software, making it flash ready, and ideal for application development.
BlackBerry’s Playbook is already using social media to display its best features on YouTube and various other video sites. Check out the online demos and see for yourself.
http://devblog.blackberry.com/2010/10/blackberry-playbook-demo-highlights-from-adobe-max/
http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/blackberry-playbook-coming-early-2011_1021.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaez_4m9mQ
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/tablet-wars-comparison/
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12291&Itemid=99999999
http://www.apple.com/ipad/3g/