A Verizon/Google tablet deal not only shows that tablets are now driving the hardware/software bus, they're also capable of building new alliances between old foes.
I think one of the benefits we're seeing from relatively low-priced computing devices is that we can specialize like you're suggesting. I found a bill from a system buy I did about 12 years ago, and what would today be a pitiful system cost me nearly four thousand bucks! I remember the first IBM PC I bought ran about that same level. With six-hundred-buck devices we could buy six or seven of them for what an older system cost!
As a dad to two young boys, I can see tablets being huge hits in the family market. Being able to read books, watch movies, play games, listen to music whereever you are, in whatever room, in the car, etc is a very valuable option.
We don't watch much live TV in my house so we wouldn't need TV shows but an ultra portable device that is dead simple to use that can provide a wide variety of entertainment would be useful in many circumstances. It is a want to have, not a need to have, but it would be cheaper and better than things like built-in displays in the car, dedicated tiny video game systems, etc.
You'll certainly have more choices this fall. For me, tablets aren't that useful because I really need a keyboard for my routine computer use. I have a netbook that I really like, but even it has just a tad small keyboard and thus can hurt my typing productivity.
I can’t wait to see this segment expand. A lot of people just want a device to send e-mails and browse the web. They have no need for a computer with advance graphic and sound cards or terabyte hard drives. I was thinking about getting my parents an iPad, but I decided to wait to see what the other manufactures are going to make.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
50 billion household devices will be on the Internet by 2020, according to Cisco. And we're hearing foreign governments are hacking our infrastructure. Surely our refrigerators are next!
YouTube's move to a partial pay-for-view model could help relieve a dearth of good new content but it could also complicate debates in many parts of the world over payment by content providers for delivery of their material to customers.
That's what Larry Page said on Google's earnings call, referring to the conjunction of mobile and the cloud. Well, let's chart it then! We need to be thinking about an Internet where 90% of our traffic goes to 70 destinations within 40 miles of us.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
EU operators are considering joining up to create a pan-European network to reduce competitive overbuild and cost. This might lower costs and focus operators on higher-level, more interesting services.
Verizon's one-data-plan-for-all-devices could revolutionize mobile data by making it practical to have multiple devices share a plan, and thus encourage users to cellular-equip all their portable appliances.
To date, smartphone apps have only been able to work with 50Meg chunks of information. Well, recent technical advances have been able to boost that number to 4Gbytes. Consequently, developers will be able to work with more complex data types. But will wireless networks be able to handle the additional traffic?
Google Maps 6.0 helps users navigate indoor locations like IKEA and airports. While this sounds good, Nicole fears it will also breed dumber humans who bump into each other a lot, or something.
Microsoft's buy of Skype could revitalize Phone 7, give Microsoft a social, gaming, and collaborative strategy, and spell the end for old-fashioned telco voice. It will also certainly give Google a headache in its Voice, Chat, and even Android strategy!
Telcos are falling over themselves to launch app stores – but are the app developers listening? Most telcos will need to do a lot more to engage their attention.
With the number of mobile broadband users more than doubling in 2009, and soon to exceed fixed broadband, the Internet saw a historic transition this year – and the long-term effects are incalculable.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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