"tablet" entries

Four short links: 26 December 2012

Four short links: 26 December 2012

Remote-Controlled Arduino, JS Notifications, Device Numbers, and Network Hostility

  1. Arduino IR Remote Control — control your Arduino project via your TV’s remote control. (via Arduino)
  2. holler — WTFPL-licensed Javascript library for real-time in-app notifications via the commandline (uses node). (via Javascript Weekly)
  3. First Tweets — numbers of “first tweet from my new {X}” giving indications of the popularity of each. Not good for Surface, alas.
  4. It’s Clear Verizon is Blocking Google Wallet Anti-Competitively — Verizon blocked Google’s mobile payments app until Verizon’s own was available. One irony of course is that in conjunction with Verizon, Google worked to gut meaningful network neutrality rules that would have prevented this very thing from happening on wireless networks.

Why I haven't caught ereader fever

Platform lock-in and questionable longevity make the iPad a better investment than an ereader.

Ereaders may have their place now, but shifts toward the web and HTML5 make the iPad a wiser and more enduring choice for digital reading.

Kindle Fire: Three pros, five cons

The good: Form factor and content. The bad: Lock in, auto updates and the Silk browser.

Joe Wikert says the Kindle Fire gets good marks for form factor and meeting basic consumer needs, but its lock in, auto updates and lack of a killer app are detriments.

Commerce Weekly: Report criticizes "feeble" mobile strategies of posh retailers

Some high-end brands are neglecting mobile, new Google Wallet phones, and PayPal's happy surprise.

A survey finds high-end brands are neglecting their mobile strategies. Also, Sprint rolls out two new Google Wallet phones, and PayPal's mobile volume beats its own guesses. (Commerce Weekly is produced as part of a partnership between O'Reilly and PayPal.)

Four short links: 23 November 2011

Four short links: 23 November 2011

Inside-Out Libraries, Cleaner YouTube, Kid Tablet, Facetracking Toy

  1. Massive Wikimedia Donation — I missed it when it happened, but the State Library of Queensland made the 4th largest ever donation of high-resolution out-of-copyright images to the Wikimedia Foundation. The image metadata are available through Wikimedia under liberal licensing terms, too. This is what your national and state libraries should be doing!
  2. Clea.nr — strip all the crap from around YouTube pages. (via Ed Tech Ideas)
  3. Nabi Tablet (Toys R Us) — ruggedized Android tablet for kids, $199 price point. (via Mark Osborne)
  4. Face-Tracking KiddyZoom Video Cam (YouTube) — I’m always startled most when the future turns up in kids’ toys. Tablets and face-tracking? Soon it’ll be face recognition (“hello mommy!” says the doll), brainwave-triggered activity, and 3D printers. (via BERG London)

Mobile analytics unlock the what and the when

Flurry's Sean Byrnes on mobile metrics and tablet apps vs phone apps.

Flurry's CTO Sean Byrnes discusses app life cycles, the specifics of user engagement, and the difference between smartphone apps and tablet apps.

Open Question: What needs to happen for tablets to replace laptops?

Moving from "tablet-plus-laptop" to "tablet-only."

What will it take for tablets to equal — or surpass — their laptop cousins? See specific wish lists and weigh in with your own thoughts.

iPad vs. Kindle Fire: Early impressions and a few predictions

Pete Meyers examines his iPad usage and sees how (and if) the Fire could fit in.

Few have actually held the Kindle Fire, let alone put it through its paces, so Pete Meyers chose a novel analytical approach: Examine his own iPad habits and look for spots where the Fire can find a foothold.

Four short links: 30 August 2011

Four short links: 30 August 2011

Post-PC Numbers, OS X Admin Tool, C Templating, and Real Life Minecraft Cube

  1. Data Monday: From PC to Tablet (Luke Wroblewski) — some great stats here. Sales of Apple’s iPad pulled in 30% more than all of Dell’s consumer PC business in just the first half of the year.
  2. Munkimunki is a set of tools that, used together with a webserver-based repository of packages and package metadata, can be used by OS X administrators to manage software installs (and in many cases removals) on OS X client machines.
  3. Crustache (GitHub) — a fast C implementation of the Mustache templating engine. (via Hacker News)
  4. Minecraft Cube in Real Life — clever hardware hack with projection and Arduino sensing.

To page or to scroll?

Digital book designers face a big question: Is it better to scroll or flip?

We all got comfortable scrolling through web pages a long time ago, but ereader and tablet design added a new quirk with the introduction of page flips. Here, Pete Meyers considers the applications of scrolling and flipping across reading environments.