Tablets
Not a good headline for Apple. In a Vodafone store in the city of Canberra, Australia, one of Apple’s new flagship iPad Air’s explodes during shopping hours leading to a full scale evacuation of the store and requiring the fire brigade to be be called to extinguish the fire.
According to several reports the store filled with smoke and sparks flew as the iPad literally exploded while on charge.
No official word from Apple as yet but it is believed that a faulty charging circuit was the culprit as the lithium polymer batteries used in the iPad, and common in a variety of other electronic products, are predisposed to exploded when over charged.
Worrying perhaps but considering the 100’s of thousand iPad devices sold each year having just one recorded explosion isn’t a huge cause for concern just yet as this is the first such recorded incident.
Android fans already know that Google’s operating system quickly spread across the world, conquering everything in its path; however, this latest analysis suggests it spread even more quickly than we could have imagined as PhoneArena has recently pointed out. According to Horace Dediu, an Asymco analyst, it turns out that Android is the fastest growing technology product in history! The metric he used to determine this was a comparison of total adoption numbers across specific time-frames after an initial launch. Here are a few mobile stats to put it in perspective:
- Symbian hit 450 million users in 44 quarters (11 years)
- BlackBerry hit 225 million users in 43 quarters (about 11 years)
- Windows Mobile hit 72 million in 30 quarters
- Apple’s iOS hit 700 Million users in only 23 Quarters (almost 6 years)
- Android hit 1 Billion users in only 20 quarters (5 years)
The pic above charts some other devices throughout the history of tech. It’s interesting to take a glance at the Android & iOS versus PC Sales. The huge spike is something the PC industry never had. Of course, it’s not a perfect apples to apples comparison, but it’s still worth noting. There’s one other thing worth noting in the infographic. Despite the massive acceleration of adoption, there are still quite a few people left in the world who still don’t have smartphones. In China we are only 34% into their total market, and even in the United States we are only a little over half way there.
Earlier this year, following the official launch of BlackBerry 10, there was a lot of speculation that BlackBerry would release another version of their relatively unpopular and many news stories of the coming PlayBook 2 were in circulation. Many of these were very definite with the news and stated that Q2 2013 would see BlackBerry release their second tablet.
Obviously a lot has happened to BlackBerry since February this year including a name change from RIM, numerous possible sales, a less than smooth launch of BBM on iOS and Android, and now another interim CEO.
However, in the last 48 hours, rumours that the PlayBook 2 project has been brought back to life have started to hit the headlines again.
Following a $1bn investment agreement with Fairfax Financial, John Chen was appointed new interim CEO of BlackBerry. Chen insists that it’s not over yet for BlackBerry’s hardware division. A statement that has led many to jump to the PlayBook 2 conclusion.
At this point in time there’s really nothing at all to substantiate the rumours and until we start to see anything more concrete than a ‘maybe they will’ I for one will certainly consider this to be nothing more than vapour-ware or maybe hope-ware.
No, this isn’t a duplicate post, Samsung is working on a 12.2-Inch Galaxy Note tablet. However, that is not the only giant Android tablet they are working on. Supposedly, Samsung is also developing a 13.3-inch Android tablet to launch later next year.
It looks like Samsung believes 2014 will be the year of the tablets. Not only are they throwing out a ton of new tablet devices, they have upped their estimated tablet sales projections to a whopping 42 million. Of course, this will be for all of their tablets which will range in size a great deal. If this newest rumour is true we will have a wide range if new Samsung tablets: 7-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch, 12-inch and 13-inch. We will know something more concrete in January at CES.
Rumours are surfacing on the net that Samsung is currently working on a Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2″ tablet which will launch in early 2014. The source of these rumours are that the device has already passed through the FCC. Here’s what we know about the specs…
Samsung Galaxy Note 12.2 specs:
- 12.2-inch 2560 x 1600 display
- 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor
- 8-megapixel camera
- 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- 3GB of RAM
- 32GB of storage
- Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and LTE support for the cellular version
- S Pen Stylus
As the sizes of devices continue to trend upward, it makes you wonder at what point will a tablet become too big to be useful? On the other hand could it be that this is an edge to edge screen, loosing the bezel almost entirely?
If you want to print from your iOS device you’ll typically need a printer that supports AirPrint. AirPrint was introduced some time ago as part of iOS 4.2. Despite it being around for a while, AirPrint has not found its way in to many printers.
So if you have an existing printer that doesn’t support AirPrint but you don’t want to replace it, your options are somewhat limited. That’s Lantronix xPrintServer comes in. This small box simply plugs in to your existing network and provides AirPrint capability to virtually any existing printer.
It really is plug and play but before we get in to any of the detail, have a look at the unboxing video below to see what you get.
Yesterday Lenovo announced another new Tablet to join its existing lineup. The Lenovo Yoga Tablet will be the worlds first multimode tablet and like the Yoga laptops in the range will be able to function in a number of orientations.
From a side-view the Yoga Tablet looks a little like an Apple Wireless Keyboard and it really is that slim, and will be available in both 8 and 10 inch varieties with either WiFi and 3G or WiFi only. The top model with 32GB of flash memory.
Quite surprisingly, unlike the Yoga 13 that we looked at recently, these new tablets will run Android OS rather than Windows 8.
As I’m now one of the LNVO INSDRS, I should be getting some hands on time with the Lenovo Yoga Tablet shortly so watch this space for our videos and review.
Christmas is coming and everyone and their mother is launching a tablet it appears and it’s a race to the bottom. As much as the big names like to push their top end tablets, filling them full of every technical goodie known to man, the other end of the market is just as big a battle. Finding the right mix of tech for the lowest price tag is arguably more of a challenge.
This year sees a few new names entering the ring. However, rebranding does seem to be in play this year. Tesco are pushing an Archos tablet and Argos a Bush. Where is your money best spent? We have taken to time to put as many of the plausible candidates into a table for your convenience.
|
Screen Size |
Res |
RAM |
CPU |
Battery |
Camera |
Storage |
Expandable |
Connections |
Weight |
Price |
|
 Amazon Kindle Fire HD |
7″ |
1280 x 800 (216 ppi) |
1GB |
Dual-Core 1.5 GHz |
10 hours |
None |
8 or 16GB |
GPS,microUSB |
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi |
345 grams |
£119 |
 Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 |
7″ |
1920 x 1200 (323 ppi) |
2GB |
Quad-Core 2.2 GHz |
11 hours |
Front-facing HD camera |
16, 32 or 64GB |
GPS, microUSB |
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optional 4G |
303 grams |
£199 |
 Tesco Hudl |
7″ |
1440×900 (242ppi) |
1GB |
1.5GHz A9 Quad-Core |
9 hours |
3Mp rear camera + front-facing 2Mp |
16GB |
microSD, HDMI out, microUSB, |
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi |
370 grams |
£119.99 |
 Carphone Warehouse Avoca |
7″ |
800 x 480 (133ppi) |
512MB |
Dual-Core 1GHz |
8 hours |
0.3Mp front facing |
8GB |
microSD |
Wi-Fi |
Unknown |
£99.99 (currently discounted to £49) |
 Argos MyTablet |
7″ |
1024×600 (169ppi) |
1GB |
Dual-Core 1.6GHz |
5 hours |
2MP + front-facing 0.3MP |
8GB |
microSD, HDMI out, microUSB, |
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi |
Unknown |
£99.99 |
 Lenovo Ideapad |
7” |
1024×600
|
1 GB |
Quad-Core 1.2GHz |
7 hours |
5.0 MP + 0.3mp front-facing |
16GB |
A-GPS, microUSB, microSD |
Bluetooth, WiFi |
399 grams |
£130 |
|
7” |
1024 x 600 (169ppi) | 1GB | dual-core 1.2GHz | 10 hours | 3.2MP + | 8GB or 16GB | microSD | Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, |
300 grams |
£160 |
 Google Nexus 7 |
7″ |
1920 x 1200 (323ppi) |
2GB |
Quad-Core 15GHz |
6 hours |
5MP rear, 1.2 MP front |
16GB or 32GB |
GPS |
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optional 4G |
340 grams |
from £199 |
|
iPad mini 2 |
7.9” |
2048 x 1536 (324ppi) |
1GB |
Dual core A7 1.3GHz |
10 hours |
5MP rear,1.2 MP front |
16GB |
HDMI out, A-GPS |
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, optional 4G |
331 grams |
from £269 |
There are many, many more to choose from. If you are purchasing for a child, the Archos Childpad seems a logical choice for parental control at a great price from Toys R Us. For those not in the know when it comes to tablets and merely looking for a quick thrill the Hudl seems to check all boxes at a low price. Someone with more experience would see the Kindle HDX or the Nexus 7 as the most viable options. Of course the iPad Mini with Retina display enters there as the money not quite so limited token choice.
As described as the tablet bargain of the year on our Mobile Tech Addicts Podcast Google’s ground-breaking 7” tablet is back with a refresh. What was already a pretty tidy package for the money now has even more under the hood for casual user alongside the hardcore Android devotee.
Whilst the Nexus 7 2013 version has been around since July of this year we figured you would be best having a look at it before the new Retina iPad Mini debuts in that all important run up to Christmas. With a price tag ranging from £199 for the 16GB, to £299 for the 32GB LTE variant the Nexus 7 packs some serious horsepower and offers great value for money when you consider the specification you get.
Here we are with Matt’s Nexus 7 unboxing video to start us off and then I’ll be doing a full review, and a comparison to other 7″ tablets, shortly after.
Following yesterday’s press event, Apple have rather quietly released the latest update for ios, 7.0.3, which is now available as an over the air update for all iOS devices.iOS 7.0.3 changes:
- Adds iCloud Keychain to keep track of your account names, passwords, and credit card numbers across all your approved devices
- Adds Password Generator so Safari can suggest unique, hard-to-guess passwords for your online accounts
- Updates lock screen to delay display of “slide to unlock” when Touch ID is in use
- Adds back the ability to search the web and Wikipedia from Spotlight search
- Fixes an issue where iMessage failed to send for some users
- Fixes a bug that could prevent iMessage from activating
- Improves system stability when using iWork apps
- Fixes an accelerometer calibration issue
- Addresses an issue that could cause Siri and VoiceOver to use a lower quality voice
- Fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the Lock screen passcode
- Enhances the Reduce Motion setting to minimize both motion and animation
- Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver input to be too sensitive
- Updates the Bold Text setting to also change dial pad text
- Fixes an issue that could cause supervised devices to become un-supervised when updating software
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