Gadgets Blog » Steve Jobs

The iPad may hog the limelight as the most visually impressive gadget, but in the world of tablet-style computers, Apple’s creation is nowhere near the top. E-readers have been around since before Apple ever brought iPad to the market, and in that regard, Steve Jobs & Co. have some catching up to do.

The most prominent e-readers on the market come from less likely companies. Barnes & Noble has found great success with their Nook, but the most successful e-reader stands the Amazon Kindle. Now entering its third generation, the Kindle and its tie-in with Amazon’s reputation as a book distributor have made it a breakthrough product for Amazon.

The Third-Generation Kindle stands as the latest and greatest in this line of gadgets from Amazon. It boasts a number of new elements that are likely to bring even more consumers over to the Kindle brand, first and foremost being the screen. The screen for an e-reader like the Kindle suffers from slightly different demands than other electronic gadgets. The Kindle has been built with traditional books and long periods of use in mind. The e-ink technology that has been used provides a solid medium for reading. The realm of visibility is one of many features that Kindle has looked to upgrade. While a bright light will still wash the screen out, brightness is not the issue it once was.

Of course, the folks over at Gizmodo are likely giving each other high fives while smugly blogging about the device away from the official Apple press conference. After the whole “stolen iPhone” debacle involving a prototype device that Gizmodo, one of the web’s premier tech blogs, may or may not have acquired illegally, Steve Jobs and company declined to allow the website to have access to the press conference to announce the iPhone 4. While this may have been seen as a slap in the face to the company, Gizmodo went ahead and cockily began their second-hand coverage of the iPhone with a link to their original unveiling.

Indeed, the iPhone 4G is the latest and greatest of Apple gadgets, meaning the media furor that had only died down slightly after the release of the iPad can once again rise up and around the electronics company. Of course, for the most part this is entirely deserved. The iPhone is filled with features that make any tech aficionado drool. The resolution on its screen is better than most print magazines, and equals that of the iPad. It may be slightly bulkier than the old iPhone, but the features more than make up for this small inconvenience.

It’s quite possible that my interest in gadgets is genetic. My father, despite growing up in a world entirely devoid of computers, has become quite competent with them, and is fueled by an interest in what makes them tick. Growing up, we took apart desktops, learned how to run programs in MS Dos and upgraded monitors together. Lately he’s taken a great affinity to handhelds, and I must say, his prowess with his old Blackberry likely rivaled users far his junior. And while the Blackberry held a special place in his heart for a good long while, such a love compares naught to his love of his new Motorola Droid smartphone.

It’s more than just the device itself: it’s the implementation of perhaps the most important newcomer to the world of computing: Google’s Android OS. Google, a company displaying mastery of cloud computing, delved into territory previously occupied by titans Apple and Microsoft (and yes, there are other operating systems like Linux and Ubuntu out there for people who enjoy being pretentious about this sort of thing). Android operates bearing all the trademarks of a Google product: compatibility, ease of use, and an intuitive design plan with virtually limitless applications.

While announcements of a Google Tablet bearing the Android OS are exciting, this is really the tip of the iceberg for what Android is capable of doing to the electronics market. And with that in mind, a showdown seems brewing in the electronics world between differing schools of thought for the future of personel electronics. Microsoft represents an older era of computing. Windows still makes up the vast majority of the market share on operating systems, and while their iteration of Windows 7 has proven to be successful (and a huge improvement from Vista), Windows Mobile still lags behind other mobile operating systems in ease of use and compatibility.

Personally, I’m excited for the Apple iPad to come out just so we can get it over with. I’m a Mac user (my Macbook being my first foray into the world of Apple products), and I can say that, as a whole, it’s a great machine. Apple makes some pretty innovative products and does a great job at being ahead of the curve on technology. At the same time, the level of hype building up to Apple’s upcoming tablet is a bit ridiculous. Will the iPad descend to earth to walk on water and divide by zero? Of course not, so let’s just hold off on singing the praises for Steve Jobs and friends until we can actually get a look at the product itself.

Nonetheless, Apple seems to have kicked off a race to the tablet market, with many companies struggling to get on board as quickly as possible. Today, we’ll take a brief look at other tablets that should be available soon as well as some alternatives that are available right now.

HP Slate

For the time being, the only real gadget on the horizon that could be labeled as an “iPad killer” would have to be the HP Slate, which comes bearing the Microsoft logo. The Slate has a number of features that could improve upon the iPad’s weaknesses. For example, the iPad lacks Adobe Flash support, a serious detriment to multimedia. The Slate comes with a USD 2.0 port, making it more versatile for use with peripheries. Finally, the Slate is slated (pun intended, unfortunately) to run about $550, giving it a competitive price resting in the middle of the various iPad configurations. Sadly, you’ll have to wait a bit longer to get your hands on one, it’s not set to come out til summer.

Google/HTC Cooperative Effort

Sadly for the time being, this can only go down as a rumor, but it’s a highly likely rumor nonetheless. Google and HTC have had a close working relationship in the past, putting out such devices as the Droid smartphone. HTC remains one of the best manufacturers of personal electronics, and the idea of a tablet computer running the Android operating system would provide a great alternative to Windows or Apple models. Such a tablet would be free from the restrictions of the Apple App store and other Apple features that cripple the flexibility of their devices.

Asus Eee PC T91

We featured this netbook last week, and it remains a great choice for those looking for flexible on-the-go computing. In many ways, tablet computers are attempting to fill a place in the market already occupied by the under-appreciated netbooks. This Asus model also has an innovative screen that can rotate into a tablet-like position, enabling it to be operated via touch. While it’s a bit bulkier than the iPad will be, this is not without good reason: it has a full keyboard, something other tablets don’t have.