First - everyone has been hooked on the release of Google Nexus One phone (pictured below), which for me looks really like another iPhone copy. Some specs are better (larger screen, 5 Megapix camera, voice recognition, multitasking), but to be honest - I would expect more from Google. All the internet gossips about Nexus One came true, which was... very disappointing, because it was all so predictable! I really like the fact that you can dictate your SMS's to the Nexus, but I know from experience that as a non-native English speaker, those technologies doesn't work so well for me. Nothing really new there, it is like Google just recycled iPhone. Not impressed at all. However, what has to be admitted is that the real war is not in the hardware but software that matters in mobile phones at the moment. As Mike Harvey reflects in his Times review from yesterday that only Google Android OS is a real candidate to overtake Apple on the mobile market. We shall see how it develops, and what phone we will have in our pocket in a year time...
Second - the cool stuff, is the prototype for Samsung transparent OLED display and 0.05 mm OLED panels (pictured below in the format of window displayed during CES conference). Yes! I was waiting for it! I already see my mobile phone with transparent display scanning the reality around me with augmented labels, or my flat windows being my displays. Also, the perspective of reading a e-newspaper on 0.05 mm display is even more exciting. Ok, maybe I haven't outlined the most practical aspects of this technology (like hmmm... transparent medical body scanner - you know, the one from Aliens) but it still has very high cyberpunk-geek factor for me. It's the kind of stuff from sci-fi movies that comes true. Ah, shame it's still in research and development, no release date yet...
Third - Microsoft Project Natal for 'new' Xbox 360 - finally. 'You Are The Controller' as the advert says - full body gaming interface. I think it was inevitable after Nintendo Wii, but it will finally be here, this year, in your living room. Project Natal is a tiny camera (pictured below), that combines depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and software which provides camera with 3D full body motion capture, face capture, voice recognition, acoustic source localization and ambient noise suppression. So you slash, shot, speak, shout, kick, or jump, and your on-screen gaming character does the same. However, on the CES they didn't actually demoed this device. Microsoft folks just showed cheesy clips of Natal and jumped around excited how amazing it's going to be. Demo please Microsoft, we want proper user demo. Anyway, its coming soon, this summer. I think I will actually buy Xbox just to experience it...
Forth, fifth, sixth... all the other releases are taken by so called 'Slates' or touch tablets. Lenovo Tablet, Dell Tablet, Freescale Tablet, T-Mobile Vega Android Tablet... This year on CES almost every possible company decided to release their own tablet, probably in competitive anticipation for widely-gossiped iSlate (that is supposedly coming soon from Apple). And, I totally agree with my pal from lab, David (who already criticized it here), that tablets don't fill any market gap, and therefore they are useless. Ebook I understand, because I want to read and store journal papers, newspapers and articles on the thin and light device with E-ink display (and they are cheap). Netbook I acknowledge, because I would like to have a light laptop working in the Cloud (and they are cheap). But I don't need a 10" copy of my iPhone with touch LCD or LED screen. Not useful for writing, not useful for reading, shit, it's a retarded technology and it's expensive. Enough for today.
[photo credits: Google, Engaget, Wikipedia]
Well, I suppose it's all a matter of taste, because I think Android is FAR superior to iPhone OS, because it's open for developers, available in many form factors, comes with the best Gmail client, has free turn-by-turn nav, and frankly, since I've stopped using my C64, I consider computers without multitasking an abomination.
ReplyDeleteI would also like a smallish (10" is great) tablet with a dock/stand to serve as my second screen (clock, weather, to-do list) and to browse the web and read in bed. I've got an iPod touch (best podcast client ever,) but the screen is way too small to do anything interesting on it.
Android is definitely a future, and I point that out too, that Google is a winner with this one. I don't see the lack of complex multitasking as an issue for iPhone - I listen to music simultaneously with any other application, and this is the only multitasking I really need on the tiny phone screen. The advantage of such a solution is that it gives processor more power to work on the actual application you are using, instead of slowing it down with an extra calculations for other tasks. So you have very smooth and fast transition between any iPhone app, and you don't really feel that it's not multitask.
ReplyDeleteConsidering tablets - ok, they are fine as a fancy widget displays, but they're too expensive to give you a good value for their price. Are you really ready to pay around £600-£1000 for a fancy alarm clock? I'm not. What you described would be much more fulfilled with a good ebook reader, and it would be much cheaper, much more functional, and better for your eyes.
Even when iPod/iPhone can play music in the background (and it often stops playing music when I start an app), the main problem I have is that I want to run IM clients on my phone. I also want stuff like alerts when friends are nearby, smart appointments (the further away I am, the earlier I get a reminder), and generally location-aware stuff that has to run in the background to work.
ReplyDeletePlease don't give me the Apple's "lack of multitasking is actually a feature" talk :) Multitasking doesn't mean you _have to_ run many apps at once, it just means you _can_.
I've already got an e-book reader, and now I want something with a color screen and an internet connection. I don't think it should cost that much, there's a lot of work on Tegra devices that are cheap and low-power, yet fast enough to stream HD video.