Black Pad, iPad, Android- Where Are You?
As our culture has made changes have you kept pace? As a blogger, it’s hard to stop changing. In a few months of resisting one can be left behind. While, I might enjoy sitting on a mountain top thumbing my nose at the world, the current shift in government has me concerned. So, I try to stay on top of the latest assets in the tech world. And yes, the tablet is an asset.
Living on said mountain top might afford me the luxury of being immobile during the Winter months, would I want to remain locked away? Heather and I are discussing the launching of an internet radio station. That may or may not happen. But one of the considerations is time. Do we want to be tied to the effort to keep a station current?
Being mobile requires one to own devices. We own Blackberrys, they function well for messaging, emails, etc. But, if one wants to spend much time on the net, they are a pain. Maybe younger eyes find it easy to surf, I find it painful. A laptop affords us the mobility to blog, surf, keep technically active. There’s a new phrase which might be in the future, the replacement for sexually active. As humans we seem to be withdrawing into a the cyberworld rather than remain active socially. But then how much time and energy do we have to make it all happen?
In thinking and rethinking the tablet issue, I am stuck. The tablet seems wasteful. My oldest son has a the top of the line iPad. My youngest, the Apple loving, tech guy does not. For the youngest it’s a cost thing. He and his wife have laptops, as do my oldest and his wife. The elder finds it convenient to email, check the news, surf while on the go.
That might be the more convenient path. We saw a group people in Barnes & Noble Saturday with an iPad. Two were playing a game on it. Then the younger owner was surfing while the rest chatted. Isn’t that rude? Or is it the new way of life, to isolate in a crowd? Are we disconnecting?
The tablet options for Christmas will be multitudinous. Apple has already set the standard. The android OS will show up in different devices, RIM, maker of Blackberry, will apparently offer a device called Blackpad, HP is set to release a tablet.
In case you missed the current HP tablet/laptop, you might check it out. The tm2t, HP Tablet offers the best of the laptop world with a dual core i5 and a 12” tablet. Hands down the choice at $900 for someone wanting the convenience of small screen laptop with tablet function as a bonus. The Core i5 has hyperthreading which will allow the processor to ramp up when needed. The drawback is the total cost. With warranty and other add-ons my total would be $1,500. That is a price I cannot swallow.
For those like us, the new tablets offer a nice price target of $400. Rumors are, it might be as low as $200 entry level for Android tablets. One would be hard pressed to pass up a tablet with all the features for under $200. We can expect the cell carriers to offer a free tablet with a 2 year contract. And if you are in the market for a do-it-all printer, apparently HP has a tablet coming with one of it’s printers for $400 total.
One might take the ostrich approach to tablets, but, I do not believe we can ignore them. They may be the computers of the future. As technology continues to evolve, chips will become smaller and more powerful. The future of computing and communications will probably amaze even my tech savvy sons. Stopping now will leave me wondering what the world is doing? And I am not ready to become a veggie.
