Gadgets Blog » ipad

The golden standard for our very own English language, the Oxford Dictionary, may be no more. According to an article written in The Telegraph, the publishers, facing stiff competition from online alternatives, will likely opt to publish the iconic book in electronic form only.

Oxford University Press, the company responsible for the writing and printing of the book, has several dictionaries on the market, including the Oxford Dictionary, a smaller volume with more common words. The English Dictionary is their comprehensive work, boasting thousands of words with the last edition published in 1989.

The world of dictionaries has clearly been impacted by the advent of Internet technology. For starters, Oxford English Dictionary is a relic from a time and place before the Internet. The disadvantages of a book dictionary versus an electronic format have become readily apparent.

Growing up I watched a lot of Star Trek and dreamed about exploring space and seducing women while captaining a massive starship. What can I say, I was in high school. Many of the gadgets in the classic and next generation series have come to fruition like the communicator, which is reminiscent of current cell phones. There are still many machines that are far into the future, but I can imagine how life would be much more interesting is some of those gadgets were available for purchase online.

Transporter: There is nothing that will make you want to drive off the road and into a guard rail than a three hour car ride with a group teenagers or screaming toddlers. If only we had the ability to move from place in just a few seconds. No more “Are we there yet?” or mid-trip potty breaks. Sure, you would have to have your body disassembled, transformed into energy and then reassembled at the destination. It may not sound like fun, but I would do anything to avoid a long care ride.

Today’s headline and gadget sound, in many ways, too good to be true. But it is true, amazingly enough. Here in the United States, those wishing to be early adopters of the upcoming tablet computing trend have only one option: the Apple iPad, which costs the user a pretty penny in both initial cost and data plans.

While other devices are still in development, none has emerged as the front-runner to challenge Apple’s place at the top of the world.

Tablet computers, if they are indeed the future, remain elusive to the market in both the United States and Europe. The high cost of these devices makes them impractical for the average citizen of many other countries in the world. India’s solution? Design a better tablet and sell it for a jaw-dropping price.

The tablet, which was unveiled as a prototype earlier this week, was the child of a joint development between the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. With an estimated retail price of approximately $30 USD (about 1500 Rupees), the tablet is intended to find a home in the Indian education system, providing a computer to everyone from grade schoolers to graduate students.

Today’s top gadget news story is a fairly surprising instance of two for the price of one. As other developers attempt to get products into the market inspired by the Apple iPad, Hewlett Packard seemed to be the best bet for consumers holding out for a PC-oriented tablet computer.

The HP Slate in particular was an impressive model, boasting Windows 7 and offering a series of features that could even make it a solid improvement on the iPad. I was surprised by the announcement that HP canceled the Slate, a serious blow to companies chasing down Apple.

This is the second tablet device that HP has dropped this year, meaning they’ve backed off from both a Windows 7-based model as well as an Android model. So the fact that the second half of our story was the announcement of an HP-copyrighted device known as the PalmPad makes things even more interesting.

With a name that sounds like some sort of mash-up between iPad and Palm Pilot, the device churned up Internet rumors that HP had decided to go with Palm’s Web OS as a tablet operating system instead. This news, undoubtedly, would be fantastic for Palm if it were true.

While rival company Apple may have beat Microsoft to the initial launch, the computing giant of the ’90s has plans to strike back in a market where they have been hurting: personal electronics. The iPad, hailed as a computing revolution by bringing portable touchscreen technology to a new development point, has been the target of a serious amount of flack from hardcore computer users.

Specifically, Apple’s imposed limitations on the abilities of the iPad have made many customers frustrated, with the lack of third party applications and no way for the device to multitask programs. Combined with recent misgivings about the Apple iPhone 4, the proverbial iron seems hot for Microsoft to strike. In today’s news story, the giant did just that, announcing a line of tablet PCs with the potential to cut into Apple’s market share.

While the iPad was the media darling of the technology world long before its actual release, consumers have perhaps been less willing to jump on board the Apple bandwagon than the company might have hoped. The iPad, for all its flaws, is certainly a unique gadget with the capability to really shake up the computing industry.

At the same time, it also presents consumers with a bit of a quandary: what are we supposed to do with something that walks and talks like an iPhone, but can’t make phone calls? Add in complaints regarding the tablet’s inability to multitask and the scenario seems ripe for competitors to step in.

On that note, Dell officially unveiled what could be a legitimate contender in not only the tablet market, but also the realm of smartphones. Unveiled yesterday and dubbed the “Streak,” Dell’s tablet is noticeably smaller than the iPad, and boasts several features that could make it an attractive alternative.

With its swept-back wing design and (apparently) white color, the Phantom Ray has worked to eliminate one of the more troublesome aspects of jet warplanes: the pilot. That’s right, the Phantom Ray is one of the latest drone airplanes, the sort of device that has become more and more common in 21st century warfare. The folks over at Technewsdaily have worked to put together a great article outlining the specifics of the plane, which manage to make it sound incredible while delivering the raw potential of a warfighter of this magnitude:

The 36-foot-long aircraft, which will serve as a test bed for advanced technologies, was rolled out May 10 at the Boeing Defense, Space, and Security plant in St. Louis, Missouri. With its 614 mph (0.8 Mach) cruising speed, operating altitude of 40,000 feet and 50-foot wingspan, the 365,000-pound Phantom Ray advances the state of the art for unmanned aircraft. The bat-shaped flying wing has a combat radius of 1200 nautical miles. Power comes from a General Electric F404-102D engine.

I’d like to first of all wish everyone a happy Mother’s Day for yesterday. Prior to the holiday itself, I’d been writing several gift guides for some nifty gadgets that could be great for the special occasion. And although it’s a day late, today’s Gadget of the Week would have made an excellent addition to the listed ideas. The Amazon Kindle, however, is a great gift not just for Mom, but for anyone, including yourself! While the much-hyped iPad stands to potentially intrude on Amazon’s share of the e-reader market, a recent update to the main Kindle software looks to jump-start hopes of an improved Kindle in the next year.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Kindle and the idea of electronic readers in the first place, here’s a crash course. Released by Internet distributor Amazon, the Kindle is tuned into the website for distribution of a wide variety of books. These files, which range in price but are generally less expensive than their physical counterparts, are then downloaded to the internal hard drive. The second generation of the Kindle then added some great new features, including 3G wireless Internet access as well as a fantastic Wikipedia integration, giving any Kindle user access to the online encyclopedia.

Now that Apple’s brand new tablet has had some time to gestate on the market, the forces of the free market are slowly beginning to show off the best in third party developments for the device. While Apple has been criticized for excising strict control over what is allowed to be installed onto the iPad, there are still a host of applications that are must-haves for those lucky enough to have their hands on the latest gadget. Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the best applications that can redefine the capabilities of your tablet.

ABC Player $FREE!

One of the premier iPad gripes is that it lacks Flash support, placing the future of online movies somewhat in question. However, developers like ABC managed to sidestep this possible issue with the introduction of their own video-playing application. For no charge, the ABC Player gives you commercial free access to some of the hottest shows on TV, including Grey’s Anatomy and Lost. If you’re looking to catch up on your favorite shows on-the-go, this is a great option. It’s certainly hard to beat the price!

Amazon Kindle $FREE!

While the iPad comes with Apple’s direct challenger to the Kindle, iBooks, Amazon struck back by ingeniously offering their own iPad app, completely free of charge. The books look fantastic on the vivid iPad screen, and the addition of touchscreen technology means you actually get to turn the pages, a nifty feature for those aching for paper-and-ink. It’s easy to purchase a new title, with one-click buying, and your old Kindle library makes the transition for no charge, a great source of singularity between gadgets!

InstaPaper Pro $4.99

Not everyone is lucky enough to have 3G support on their iPad, which makes an application like InstaPaper Pro invaluable. While surfing the web from the comfort of a WiFi hotspot, InstaPaper allows you to save web pages to your iPad, allowing you to easily read them later. Additionally, InstaPaper reformats pages to look nicer, so they read easily on your tablet. A must-have if you are stuck without 3G support on your iPad.

NetFlix $Free! plus subscription fees.

NetFlix is quickly becoming the mecca of online video, and with good reason. With an ever-growing supply of TV shows and movies, NetFlix offers a wide selection of content that can be streamed through an Internet connection. So long as you’ve got WiFi nearby, you can select from a wide variety, and on the large iPad screen, it’s great to share with a friend and curl up for an episode of Arrested Development.

I was reading CNET this morning, and rumor has it that Dell will be releasing two tablets that will compete very closely with the iPad. According to the news floating around the blogosphere, dell will be releasing a 7-inch and a 10-inch tablet as part of the Streak series. Dell announced the Streak 5 a little while ago (featured right), which competes with hand held Android devices. The Streak 7 and Streak 10 will compete with Apple’s iPad and cater to consumers who need more power, viewing room, and functionality while on the go. If you look at the Streak 7 and Streak 10 head-on, you’ll notice that it looks exactly like an iPad.

The Streak 7 will be available later in 2010, and the Streak 10 will be available in early 2011. Looks like the tablet market is going to get more competitive. I’m excited to see how tablet technology evolves!

Read the story, and see photos here.