Technology

Mobile Computing platforms

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet – fit for business

The Android mobile computing platform has, over the past year, become an increasingly-credible platform that overtakes the Apple iOS mobile computing platform. This has been exemplified through the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Note phone-tablet bridge device and the Google Nexus 7 tablet. This has even had apple take Samsung to court concerning “trade dress” and similar patents that Samsung copied in their earlier Galaxy S and SII products.

Regular computing platforms

Another set of major technology changes over the past year had come about in the form of new versions of the Windows and MacOS X regular-computer operating systems. These versions, known as Windows 8 and MacOS X Mountain Lion respectively, have introduced various mobile-computing concepts such as touch-driven operation and the app store to the regular computer.

The long-lasting battery can allow the Fujitsu to work well for a long day of hotspot surfing at inner-city cafes and bars

As for the hardware, Intel had launched the third-generation “Ivy Bridge” classic-instruction-set processors with improved integrated graphics. This has raised the stakes for regular-computer graphics especially in the portable-use arena.

Bluetooth Smart Ready

The Bluetooth standard now embraces the 4.0 “low-power” variant which supports sensor and control devices that can work on 2 AA batteries or a watch battery for something like six months. This requires that the sensor devices work with a host device that implements Bluetooth 4.0; and this feature is slowly creeping in to all of the credible smartphones and tablets as well as some regular computers like Apple’s latest MacBook lineup and some of the Windows-based computers.

Awareness of malware targeted at the Macintosh platform

It is also the era that the Apple Macintosh platform is gain a similar user base to the Windows platform as far as regular computing is concerned. It doesn’t matter whether the core task for that computer is to be office work or creative work like media editing or playback, with some Windows computers being used for the latter purpose.

This has drawn malware creators to the idea of using the Macintosh platform as an attack vector, mainly through the use of cross-platform runtime environments like Java or Adobe Flash. This is due to the ability to quickly write and deploy the same version of software to run on both Windows and MacOS, with the runtime module liaising with the file system and other operating-system services/ Lately this vector has been taken further with zero-day attacks because the Java runtime isn’t updated as quickly and as regularly as the native-code software for the main regular-computing platforms.

We are being encouraged not to implement these runtime platforms unless necessary and I have raised the idea of compiling Java-written code to platform-native logic when writing for a regular-computing platform rather than creating intermediate code that requires the runtime component. This is so one doesn’t have to run a Java runtime component which can be used as an attack vector or allow a slow operating environment. Similarly, there will be a requirement by Symantec and others to write “security runtimes” that check for malware in Adobe Flash or Java intermediate code.

Network technology

802.11ac wireless networking

As for the small network, there have been a few trends concerning it. For example, a pre-release version of 802.11ac Gigabit wireless networking has been released but this is intended to work on the 5GHz radio spectrum.

Wi-Fi Direct wireless-network setup

Similarly, we have become more aware of the Wi-Fi Direct wireless-network setup concept. This is more about creating a Wi-Fi “personal-area network” either as an alternative to Bluetooth for wirelessly connecting peripherals to a host computer or setting up a temporary “on-the-road” network for mobile devices, laptops and network-connected peripheral devices.

I had reviewed a device which was an example of this concept in the form of the Kingston Wi-Drive, one of the “wireless portable storage servers” that are being promoted for use with smartphones and tablets. Another class of device that is exemplifying this concept is some of the recent crop of network speaker systems that can play music from a computer device via a Wi-Fi network that it is part of or can create itself. They use either Apple AirPlay or the open-frame DLNA standards to transfer the audio content from the computing device to the speakers.

HomePlug AV 500

Another trend for “no-new-wires” networking is the use of HomePlug AV 500 which is a high-throughput variant of the HomePlug AV powerline network. This will have the same situations as the HomePlug 1.0 Turbo network where all the endpoint devices that exist on that segment have to he the high-speed variant for the segment to work at the high bandwidth.

WPS in a multi-access-point wireless network

A question I have answered myself in the course of troubleshooting and optimising a home network was how the WPS easy-setup solution would cope with a multi-access-point wireless network. These kind of network setups are often required where there are building setups that could impede radio-wave transmission, such as interior walls made of double-brick, stone, reinforced concrete or the existence of metal walls.

The above-mentioned networks would have two or more access points which are linked to each other via an Ethernet or HomePlug AV wired backbone. All the access points operating on the same band are set to the same SSID and security parameters but are set to different radio channels so that the wireless client devices can roam between the access points seamlessly.

Here, I found that as long as the access points that have this feature are set up to persist their current setting when you engage the WPS push-button setup function, this function won’t affect the proper operation of this extended service set. What’s more, you can use this quick-setup routine at the access point closest to where you are intending to use the new device you are setting up.

Milestones

Two milestones have happened over the past year. One was the death of Steve Jobs who. along with Steve Wozniak, founded Apple in the mid 1970s. This led to the arrival of one of the first credible personal computers in the form of the Apple II, the commercialisation of the graphic user interface with the Macintosh and eventually a credible mobile computing platform with the iPhone and iPad. When I heard that Steve Jobs was falling ill with the cancer, I saw it in a similar light to Bill Gates leaving Microsoft – the foundation stones of personal computing coming away.

Another milestone that was celebrated this year during the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics was Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Her was the founder of the World Wide Web and, effectively, the Internet as we know it today.

This site

I have increased the quantity of Ultrabooks and similar computers reviewed on this site, focusing on them being secondary travel computers rather than main or sole computers. I have also revised the laptop buyers’ guide to encompass this class of computer.

Similarly I am increasing the amount of coverage dedicated to the online lifestyle. With this, I have given special coverage to the sports scoreboard apps that you can download to your smartphone or tablet so these devices can become sports scoreboards. I have tied it in with some of the main sporting events.

As well, part of giving some more time to travel and lifestyle is to establish a “travel and lifestyle” page which will have useful information for travellers and for people who integrate their IT in to their lifestyle.

My post on the Australian Audio & AV Show 2011 has allowed me to sum up the trend towards network-driven audio and video, especially as it is being considered of respect at the top end of the market. This has intensified my interest in the DLNA-compliant home media network because of it being respected by hi-fi manufacturers of respect.

I have spent some time writing some advisory  articles on common computer-usage topics. One of these was a two-part “Email Essentials” series (1, 2) where I explained about basic email-usage concepts, something I have often had to help people who aren’t competent with computers on. I augmented this with another article about using email for sending messages to be “taken further”, which was targeted at people who regularly use Facebook, Skype, iMessage, SMS and other messaging systems.

These two articles are based on work that I have done whenever people ask me for assistance with their computers. I have also written up an article about dealing with that “hair-trigger” mouse which can happen with different mice and as they get used more.

As well, I have written an article on how to keep your computing skills alive and relevant when you retire from active work life. This encompasses what computer system to use as your main computer setup, including the idea of buying out your laptop or desktop that you have used at your work; as well as keeping the skills alive.

Because I have reviewed some business-grade laptop computers and other computer targeted at the business user, I have written an article about this class of equipment becoming relevant to the small-business and SOHO user. Typically, the distributors tend to pitch this class of equipment at the “big end of town” i.e. the larger corporations who have a large fleet of these computers, and these products are not made easily available to the smaller operator even though they can do the job as well for them.

I had written up an article about setting up for Internet when you move to a location in France. This is due to the highly-competitive Internet and triple-play market that exists in that country and I have encompassed some coverage about the Freebox Révolution Internet gateway and set-top box as being an example of what is being offered as carrier-provided equipment in France.

I have given a fair bit of coverage to the cloud-computing trend especially as this is frequently referenced in the computing press and bandied about by people selling IT solutions to small business. This was instigated by an interview that I did with — regarding secure computing in the cloud-computing age and had written an article about what small business needs to look for when they sign on to this kind of service.

I have given some coverage to the issue of device firmware updates and field-delivered software to computing devices. This is in response to legal action that was taking place in the US concerning the device firmware updates that were being applied to HP printers. This legal action was raising the possibility of loading modified firmware in to a device that could facilitate espionage or other undesirable activities. Here, I was describing the trends that occurred with the firmware-update practice over the years and raised security and updating issues concerning this practice, and the fact that the firmware-update ecosystem must deliver a secure update for the device and when we deliver the first update for a device, we deliver one that brings it to expected functionality once and for all.

Conclusion

Expect a very interesting next year for regular and mobile computing life as Windows 8 and MacOS X Mountain Lion merge the context of mobile and regular computing with different devices suiting different needs occupying particular spaces in the home and small business network.

A situation that may easily come your way is that you may need to purchase a set of headphones for use with your MP3 player, smartphone or laptop. Similarly, a pair of headphones may come in handy as a gift idea for most people who travel or use the mobile or portable computing and audio equipment a lot.

Headphone acoustic-design types

Headphone driver-positioning arrangements:

Intra-aural: This type has the speaker driver placed within or on the ear canal and is typically represented by the classic hearing aid or the common earphones supplied with most personal-audio equipment. Some intra-aural headphones use a hard U-shaped headband that hangs around your neck, similar to the cheap “pneumatic” headsets that used to be used for airline inflight entertainment.

Circum-aural: The speaker driver in this kind of headphone sits outside the ear but has the ear enclosed with a sound-proof foam ring wrapped in vinyl or leather. This type is commonly used with aviation headsets and with headphones until the late 1970s.

Bang & Olufsen Form 2 headphones – An example of a premium supra-aural headphone design

Supra-aural: With this type of headphones, the speaker driver is wrapped in foam and is intended to just sit on the ear.

Headphone enclosure or housing types:

A pair of headphones that uses a circum-aural or supra-aural driver positioning arrangement can either have a closed-back or open-back housing.

Closed back: This type does not have any perforation or venting on the drivers’ housings. It is known to provide a focused sound with less sound leakage and improved bass response.

Open back: Here, the enclosure is vented or perforated or the headphones are designed as if the driver mounted freely on the bracket that is attached to the headband or ear clip. These typically can yield an accurate sound with good drivers but cannot be heard easily in noisy environments and can suffer sound leakage where other can hear the content.

Headphone Styles

There are three common styles of headphones that you can choose from.

Earphones

Earphones typically describe the class which plug in to or clip on your ears and don’t have any headband of any sort. Earlier versions used to plug in to your ears like a set of earplugs or a hearing aid, but these evolved over time. For example, Sony ran a set of earphones which were a supra-aural type that had the speaker sit on your ear and they clipped on like the arms of a pair of glasses.  But most of today’s earphones typically have a small speaker that just faces in your ear with the unit resting in your ear.

Traditional headphones

Voyetra Turtle Beach M3 gaming headset – an example of a circum-aural-style headphones

Then you have traditional headphones with a headband that sits over your head. This style has existed ever since this class of device was invented and most of the good-quality heavier-design closed-back types typically used a padded headband.

Compare this with lightweight supra-aural designs like the types that were popular when the Walkman came on the scene. These typically had either a lightweight aluminium or plastic strip serving as the headband with their earpieces anchored on to plastic brackets.

Street-style headphones

Another style that has started to appear in the late 90s is the “street-style”  where the headband wraps around the back of your head and the set rests on your ears in a similar vain to a pair of glasses.

Other points of interest

Headsets

A headset describes any class of headphones that have a microphone either on the cord or as a boom that is attached to one of the headphone housings. Denon has integrated the microphone in to one of the earcaps in some of their headset designs rather than using a separate microphone on a boom or the headset cord, a trend which is now being followed with Bluetooth headsets.

These are used for communications applications like smartphones, forum chatter in online games, business call-centre telephony or Skype / VoIP telephony. They are also being considered useful with voice-activated assistant software of the Siri, Google Now and Cortana kind that is becoming part of desktop and mobile computing.

Wired headsets typically have a four-conductor 3.5mm plug which may work with some devices like laptops or iPhones but may not work with other devices. These may also come with a breakout cable to plug in to a microphone jack and a headphone jack.

Noise-cancelling headphones

Plantronics BackBeat Pro active-noise-cancellation Bluetooth headset

Most manufactures are selling a range of “Active Noise Cancelling” headphones that are pitched for travel use. Here, these headphones, typically traditional closed-back circum-aural types, use battery-operated circuitry that feeds a form of “anti-noise” to combat the low-frequency noise that you hear when in a plane, train or bus.

You are still able to hear voices from around you such as announcements that come over the vehicle’s or aircraft’s emergency-announcement system and these headphones can play program material coming from any audio device that you connect to them. In some cases and with some of these headsets, you may find that the noise-cancelling functionality may allow you to easily hear any background music or radio program being played through the vehicle’s or aircraft’s announcement system. This is because the active-noise-cancelling setup effectively “pushes aside” that loud droning noise of the vehicle or aircraft. Here, you have the ability to hear the program material in relative peace and quiet without the drone of the vehicle’s or aircraft’s engines distracting you.

It is worth paying attention that Bose, Sony and Bang & Olufsen are vying with each other to front up with the best active-noise-cancelling Bluetooth headsets in the form of the Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II, the Sony WH-1000XM3 and the B&O Beoplay H9i. Sony was pitching the ‘XM3 headset as a value-priced answer to the Bose QuietComfort 35 II while B&O came up with the H9i to compete in the brand-driven premium scene with an European answer to the Bose. Bose subsequently offered the Noise Canceling Headphones 700 as their modern-look follow-on to the QC 35 II. Here, this will show that the active-noise-cancelling Bluetooth headset is a very keen product class that is being marketed on both value and quality.

In the case of in-ear noise-cancelling headsets, Apple and Sony are competing with each other by the former offering the Apple AirPods Pro and the latter offering the Sony WF-1000XM3. Here, Sony is working to achieve the same kind of performance as the AirPods Pro but working at a value-for-money price like they did with the WH-1000XM3 headphones.

Wireless headphones

JBL E45BT Bluetooth headset

Some manufacturers supply wireless headphones that use an infrared or radio link from the audio source to the headphones.

There are some of these headphones that require that they work with a manufacturer-supplied transmitter that connects to the audio source. It may allow for special functions like headphone surround-sound or as a cost-saving measure for very cheap setups. These are more applicable if you intend to use them with a regular TV or music system rather than a computer or mobile device.

On the other hand, most of these headphones and headsets work using Bluetooth standards. This is in order for them to work with your mobile phone as a hands-free communication device and for entertainment in the case of smartphones. But they can work with regular computers running Windows 7 or MacOS X Snow Leopard and newer versions of these operating systems for communications or entertainment. Or they can work with a Bluetooth transmitter like the AirFly for a wireless link to existing audio equipment. As far as traditional desktop computers that don’t have integrated Bluetooth go, you may need to use a Bluetooth dongle to bring this wireless functionality to these computers.

If you do buy Bluetooth headphones, make sure that they comply to Headset Profile, Hands-Free Profile for headsets that have a microphone; and, in the case of those that have stereo headphones, A2DP audio profile. If the headphones or headset implements a form of media control, they should implement it to the AVRCP profile.

A feature that an increasing number of Bluetooth headsets is offering is multipoint functionality. This allows a single headset to work with two devices at the same time. It has come about due to people using a laptop or tablet and a smartphone at the same time or using two smartphones like a work/business phone and a private phone. Simplified setups like what JBL offers allow a call from either device to be managed through the headset’s controls without any procedures or allow you to simply start a content source on either device without any extra fiddling.

Increasingly most of the headphone manufacturers are offering in-ear earphones that have full Bluetooth wireless-headset functionality with some of these being described as “true wireless” earphones due to there not being a cord to link each earphone. These have their own batteries but use a supplied case with an integrated charger that runs from its own battery to charge these earphones. It has been brought about through the use of newer Bluetooth standards which allows for ultra-compact battery-powered Bluetooth devices.

Bluetooth earmuffs

A significant number of manufacturers are offering Bluetooth earmuffs which combine an occupational-health-and-safety compliant pair of hearing-protection earmuffs with a Bluetooth headset. They are pitched for people working with loud machinery or in similar situations and need to protect their hearing from the noise associated with these situations.

Better designed units will have circuitry to enhance the inbound and outbound audio for improved clarity and intelligibility.  This may allow you to talk with your caller or hear your audio content without the machine’s noise drowning it out.

Gaming headsets

As part of the core-gamer culture, some gaming-technology and headphone manufacturers are offering headphones and headsets that are optimised for use during video games. These will play the sound-effects during the video game through the headphones and the headset varieties will have the ability to work as a communications headset that is important with online games that offer inter-player voice-chat functionality.

They are less likely to be Bluetooth headsets and will use technologies like a USB digital-audio technology or simply wired-headset technologies. This is to assure that players have the appropriate latency for their games’s sound effects as Bluetooth currently doesn’t have the proper latency required for instant response.

The sound quality that gaming headsets provide will be optimised for the game sound-effects and music with the all-important bass response. These will even be circum-aural, if not supra-aural in order to allow the players to focus on any audio clues that the game yields.

Questions

Do you need to have two or three pairs of headphones “on the go”?

You may think it is unnecessary to have more than one set of headphones in your possession and ready to use. But this may be an advantage where you want to have a particular set of headphones suited to a particular kind of audio content or listening environment.

For example, you may use a pair of earphones or circum-aural headphones for listening in a noisy environment or to hear the detail in a piece of music whereas you may use a pair of lightweight supra-aural headphones when you go jogging so you can hear the traffic. You may even find that supra-aural or circum-aural headphones can suit long listening sessions much better than in-ear earphones, which may be of concern if you frequently use your headphones as a communications headset.

What kind of headphones suit your needs best?

If you are doing a lot of walking, you could benefit from a good-quality set of lightweight supra-aural headphones because they are not tiring to wear and you can still be aware of the traffic and other sounds around you.

A pair of closed-back circum-aural headphones, perhaps equipped with active noise cancelling can come in handy if you use public transport, especially planes, buses, diesel-powered trains or underground trains (subways) frequently. This can cut out the droning noise associated with these public-transport options and let you focus on your programme material.

Similarly a DJ or someone who likes to do a lot of recording could benefit from a good-quality pair of circum-aural headphones. Some of these headphones that are targeted at this application may be described as “monitor” headphones because you are after the high-quality sound that you want to use as a reference while not hearing outside noises or allowing sound to leak out thus causing a feedback loop with a public-address or broadcast application.

When you want to hear an accurate sound while listening to music or other content especailly when alone, you could benefit from a good-quality pair of supra-aural headphones that have large drivers like the Sennheiser range. This may be of importance with classical-type music, some kinds of jazz music or a lot of the down-tempo music classes like easy-listening / lounge or ambient / chillout music.

On the other hand, closed-back headphones can yield improved bass response which is important for popular up-tempo music, especially jazz, funk / soul, dance music or rock.They can also be handy if you want a distinct weighty impact from sound effects in video or games content.

What to look for with headphones

Things to look for to see long service life

When you buy a set of any headphones that you use a lot, make sure that you can purchase replaceable earpads or foam rings for the headphones. This is important that as you use a set of headphones, the earpads or foam rings do tend to tear or come apart over the years of use and you still want to have your headphones comfortable to wear.

Headphones that have a “single-sided” cord have an advantage because the cord comes in to only one housing with the other housing being serviced by a cable that passes through the headband. This cuts down on cable entanglement and can avoid the situation where you could ruin one earpiece due to the cable being tugged on that earpiece.

Some premium headphones do have the cord detachable from the earphone housing. The advantage here is that you can replace the cord if it gets damaged, which is something that can easily happen as you use the headphones out and about.

Conclusion

When you choose the right sets of headphones for your private-listening or communications needs, you will be in a better position to enjoy them better in the application you have bought them for.

This article was published on August 2012 and has been updated on May 2020 to cater towards newer headphone and earphone trends. Expect this to be regularly reviewed as new headset trends come about.

Article

Installing Windows 8 on your old PC could turn it into Greased Lightning | ZDNet

My Comments

Some of us might think about upgrading an existing computer system to Windows 8 when this operating system is released rather than staying with Windows 7. Most commonly, there would be a lot of doubt about this process but, in some cases, it could improve the computer’s performance.

A Windows computer that was built up in the last four years i.e. since Windows Vista was launched could easily benefit from an upgrade to Windows 8. This is due to the reworked code that is written to work best with the recent generation of hardware.

The speed increase also comes due to natively-integrated desktop security software as well as Internet Explorer 10 and integrated cloud-computing support.

But I would recommend that the system which is being upgraded has current expectations for RAM and secondary-storage capacity. This would be 4Gb RAM and 128Gb of secondary storage as a bare minimum. If the machine uses a hard disk rather than solid-state storage, I would expect it to have at least 320Gb. As I subsequently mention, the operating system is at a price point that may allow you to budget in a hardware upgrade to these expectations.

Users can upgrade their Windows computers to the new operating system at a cost-effective price due mainly to the “electronic hard-copy” distribution that Microsoft is using i.e. to buy and download the operating system online rather than having to buy a packaged copy with an optical disk. This is in a similar way to how Apple are distributing the MacOS X Lion and Mountain Lion operating-system upgrades. It also comes with some attractive licensing terms including the ability for those of us who are building our own systems to legitimately purchase a “system builder” package.

It would be OK to go ahead with the upgrade if you can handle the changes to how the operating environment works, such as the new touch-focused Start “dashboard” and having to “descend further” to get to the standard operating interface. But I would recommend that those of us who aren’t computer-competent should stay with Windows 7 unless they are buying a new computer that comes with Windows 8.

Articles

Wi-Fi Alliance starts certifying tunnel technology for better wireless performance – WLANs / Wi-Fi, wireless, networking, MediaTek, Marvell Technology Group, Wi-Fi Alliance – PC World Australia

WiFi alliance begins Tunneled Direct Link Setup certification, hopes to improve media streaming | Engadget

My Comments

The Wi-Fi Alliance have released a new certification standard for allowing better wireless performance amongst devices in a wireless-network segment. This standard, known as Tunnelled Direct Link Setup, allows devices that are authenticated with the same access point to transmit data directly to each other.

Allowing direct node-to-node connection after an access point establishes the connection to allow for faster data-transfer performance between clients on a Wi-Fi segment. This would also yield an improved quality-of-service for media streaming or improved latency for real-time gaming.

Not like Wi-Fi Direct where a device that is normally a Wi-Fi client is there to facilitate a network connection. This is more about establishing a direct best-case device-to-device connection rather than a via-access-point connection for a file transfer or media-stream method as a way of improving the data-transfer performance.

When a TDLS link is set up, the devices would form this link at the best abilities available to each other, such as higher speed, quality-of-service, power-saving practices or security compared to what the segment’s access point would offer. Similarly, the access point does not need to be upgraded for this functionality to take place.

The access point would still play its role if the client devices move further afield, thus repeating the data between the client devices. Similarly it would also fulfil network-bridging tasks such as linking to the wired backbone or the Internet service in the case of a Wi-Fi router.

This functionality would be part of newer Wi-Fi-network chipsets that would be deployed in newer computers and similar devices. It would be interesting to see how it works further once more TDLS-enabled devices are in the field.

Product Page

sockITz.com.au sockITz

My Comments

A common reality with many of today’s personal electronics is the requirement ot use wall-warts to charge up or power these devices from AC power. Recently there has been a push by the industry to make the USB device-power standard the required standard for supplying power to mobile phones and similar devices. This is underscored with standards-compliant mobile phones being required to be equipped with micro-USB input sockets as the only power-input sockets on these devices.

Similarly, the agenda is to have the battery charger not being supplied as a standard accessory with the phone. This is to encourage us to use the charger that came with our previous phones as the current phone’s charger.

A new company has taken this further by supplying to the Australian and New Zealand market a double power outlet that also has an integrated USB charger for two devices. This outlet, supplied by sockITz, is intended to be installed as a new or replacement power outlet, allows us to charge or power two phones or similar devices while powering two AC-operated devices.

The outlet, which is finished either in classic white or with an aluminium front and either black or white switches and socket surrounds, also satisfies the zero leakage test with shutters that come over the USB sockets and shut off power to the charger circuitry when a device is unplugged from the USB sockets.

Of course, an ordinary old “sparkie” would have to install these outlets and they are best used in the office, kitchen or beside the bed, They would also go well with public spaces like cafes so that people can “top up” their gadgets on the go without carrying a wall-wart battery charger with them.

Personally, I would like to see this concept taken further with desk lamps and electric fans that have a self-powered USB hub in their bases so these devices can work as mobile-phone chargers or USB peripheral hubs. These kind of standards don’t just satisfy environmental friendliness but open up paths for real innovation and thinking “out of the box”.

Articles

Nikon Coolpix S800c hands-on: a closer look at the Android camera (video) – Engadget

Nikon intros Android based 16-megapixel camera | HelloAndroid

My comments

Nikon is intending to launch a compact digital camera which is based on the Android operating system. This camera, known as the Coolpix S800c, runs Android 2.3.3 as its operating system but uses a separate baseline operating environment for photography. This is to allow you to have the camera ready to snap the moment you turn it on, even though the Android operating environment will start and make itself available through a “fall-through” icon. The same operating environment also comes in to play as a battery-saving measure.

Of course the Wi-Fi-enabled camera will have access to the Google Play app store so you can load up Android front-ends to social-Web services, messaging services and the like. Similarly you could load up DLNA server programs like TwonkyMobile to show the pictures you took on your smart TV via the home network. There is an integrated GPS function so you can geotag the pictures that you take.

As the Engadget article went on, it is so easy to think you could load a game like Angry Birds in to this camera and play it but this would drain the battery out too quickly.

The Nikon compact camera has the expectations like 16 Megapixel sensor and a 10x optical zoom. Most Android phone users will rejoice because this camera implements the same kind of OLED multi-touch display that these phones use.

I suspect that this camera is pitched at the smartphone market due to the common practice of using smartphones to take family snapshots and this could yield the concept of using proper Japanese camera optics and a smartphone operating environment for this purpose.

This could become a chance for Android to prove that it isn’t just an operating environment for smartphones, tablets and set-top applications, that it can be used across many device classes.

Article

Will The New Wave Of Prosumer Tablets Beat The iPad In The Enterprise? | ZDNet

My Comments

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet – fit for business

A trend that has been occurring over the past year or two regarding workplace computing is the implementation of consumer and “prosumer” tablet computers in this environment.

This has been underscored by the concept of “BYOD” and “consumerisation of IT” where technology hardware that is owned by employees is used to fulfill work tasks with this hardware existing under the control of the employees. This situation occurs commonly in a small business’s office environment but is being viewed with worry in medium and large businesses who are used to a company-supplied fleet of computers managed by an in-house IT team.

Issues that are commonly raised include the security of the workplace data held on the device and a desire to have a device that is manageable to company policies. This is especially where there is a “Bring Your Own Device” scenario where the employee buys and owns their device and uses it in the workplace.

Even hardware manufacturers are answering this trend through equipment like the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, both of which are equipped with styluses for rapid data entry as well as support for manageability.

Similarly. Microsoft and Apple are intending to court this market through the development of hardware and software that answers business needs like data security and system manageability.

Relevance to the small business

The large-business management options may be considered important for those businesses that have a solution provider or value-added reseller satisfying their IT needs. This is more so with retail and food / beverage / hospitality industries who implement computerised point-of-sale or similar systems. Here, a cafe  or restaurant who have their waitstaff taking customer orders at the table could benefit from tablet computers used for order entry.

It is also worth knowing that some of these tablets have been known to be cheaper in many ways to repair than the Apple iPad. This could be evident both in the increased availability of OEM and third-party spare parts as well as the increased access to expertise when it comes to repairing these units.

But any of these tablets can be relevant to the small business not just for jotting down notes, having reference material on hand or using them as a secondary communications-service terminal. Once loaded with the appropriate software or pointing to the appropriate Web resources, these units would come in handy for long-form data entry such as medical applications or surveys or frequent order entry like the aforementioned food and beverage industry.

A stylus can be a valuable option, if not a requirement if you are expected to do data entry using the tablet. This means that you can quickly “pick” options or “type” on the keyboard. Some devices may even recognise handwriting using this stylus.

For some small businesses, the tablet computer with its touchscreen is a valid trend to observe and, where relevant, implement. Similarly, the idea of “bring your own” IT is not new news in small operations but the manageability of this concept can be investigated when the business becomes larger or deals with a solution provider whom assists with the IT needs.