Tablets On The Rise!

Today's ideas are tomorrow's technology.Ideas have never stopped and hence everyday we see hundreds of new technology flooding into the market.Now, its the time of TABLETS to rule the market, rather I can say iPads are ruling the market. The joke in the Silicon Valley is that there is no tablet market, only an iPad market.Yes..Yes..you heard it right.All thanks to Steve Jobs who revolutionized the world of PC's , music and phones by introducing iMac,Mac book pro,Mac book Air, iPods,iPhones and the latest with iPads.


Its a symbol of status to own an iPad these days!(just like the chocolate BOURNVILLE ad..."you dont buy a bournville, you earn it"...here a slight change though.."you dont buy an iPad, you EARN it). It is stylish+ sleek + shiny+efficient and most important of all..COSTLY(Rs.46,900)!!! A common student like me who has got a basic phone set and who recharges it with not less than 50 bucks per month obviously cannot afford it :P According to the quarter-yearly report of Apple Inc.,iPad sales grew 183 percent with total revenue of $28.57 billion!! I think the US government should borrow money from Apple to overcome its financial crisis...Obama, please think over this soon :P


There's an alternative tablet for iPad...that is Reliance 3G Tablet,which is just Rs.12999.Google-lovers would love it since it has Android OS and a long battery life(well atleast last longs for a day).After Steve Jobs stepped down from the CEO post, all rival companies are on their toes, ready to launch their Tablets.There is a TABLET WAR going on(just like Star Wars :P)This tablet effect is real and very much different from where the business was few years back when notebooks and netbooks were selling like hot dogs!


There are many Tablets released and yet to be released shortly..lets take a look at them.

1.Reliance 3G Tablet



Specifications : 

• 3G Network
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS
• 800 MHz Processor
• 7 inch Multi-touch LCD Display
• 2 Megapixel Rear Camera
• VGA Front camera for video calls
• Media player
• Video Recording/Playback
• 512 MB RAM
• Upto 32GB Expandable External memory (4GB Card included)
• Wi-Fi
• GPS with Maps
• Facebook, Twitter Apps
• Android Market
• Document on the Go, Navigation apps, Mobile TV
• Li-Ion battery
• Weight: 389 grams 

 All this in just Rs.12,999.Way to go!

2.Dell's Inspiron Duo : Laptop-cum-Tablet 




    

Specifications :

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
• 10.1” inch (1366×768 pixels) Touch Display Screen
• Dual Core Intel Atom N550 Processor
• 2GB DDR3 RAM
• 250GB SATA Hard Disk Drive
• Wireless 802.11n b/g/n
• Bluetooth
• Memory Card Reader
• USB 2.0, Audio-Out Port
• Gigabit Ethernet LAN
• 1.3 Megapixel Webcam with Microphone
• Battery Life up to 4 Hours
• Duo Stage User Interface for Quick access
• Innovative flip-hinge design, you can switch from touch to type in seconds
• 10″ inch HD multi-touch display
• Flash Support

Price in India is around 30k to 35k. This is surely in my wishlist!! :P

3.Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 

  

Specifications :

• Operating System: Android v3.1 (Honeycomb)
• Processor: 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2
• OS Feature: Multi-tasking
• Display Screen Size: 10.1 inches
• Display Resolution: 1280 × 800 WXGA
• Network band: Quad band EDGE/GPRS/HSPA +21
• Processor Type: Dual Core
• Camera Size: 3.0 mega pixels
• Camera Feature: LED Flash , HD video recording
• Front Camera Size: 2.0 Mega Pixels
• Full HD Playback @ 30fps
• Video Format Support: mpeg4, xvid, divX, wmv,h.264,h.263,VP8
• Audio Format support: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+,WMA
• Speakers Feature: Surround Sound
• Internet Connectivity: 3G HSPA+ , up to 21 Mbit/s, WiFi 802.11 (a/b/g/n) (Dual band support 2.4GHz/5GHz)
• OS Feature: Multi-tasking
• Display Feature: Multi touch screen, 4 way rotations
• Display Type: TFT LCD
• Sensors : Gyroscope, Compass , accelerometer , Ambient light sensor
• Android Market for apps downloads
• Data Transfer Connectivity: Bluetooth v3.0, USB 2.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz,5GHz)
• Audio Connector: 3.5 mm headphone Jack
• Google Talk Video Chat, Google Maps, etc
• Assisted GPS , turn-by-turn navigation with Google maps
• Mobile Office (Polaris): PPT, Word, Excel docs creating/editing
• Memory: 1GB RAM
• Internal Storage memory: 16/32/64 GB
• Battery Model: 7000mAh
• Video Play Backup: up to 9 hours
• Audio Play Backup: up to 72 hours
• Dimensions: 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.6 MM
• Weight : 565 gram

Price in India is around 36k to 37k.

4.Sony Tablet S1 and S2 :

     SONY S1

   

Specifications of S1 :

• Android 3.0 Honeycomb Operating System
• NVIDIA Tegra 2 Processor
• 9.4 inch Display Screen with 1280 x 800 pixels resolution
• 512MB RAM
• 32GB Storage
• Rear and Front Facing Camera
• Custom UI
• Remote Control for Sony AV Products
• Swift Web Browser
• Cross connectivity
• Wi-Fi
• 3G/4G
• DLNA

SONY S2

Specifications of S2 : 

• Android 3.0 Honeycomb Operating System
• NVIDIA Tegra 2 Processor
• 5.5 inch Dual Screen with 1024 x 480 pixels resolution
• Rear and Front Facing Camera
• Custom UI Book Style
• eReader and Custom Email App
• Wi-Fi
• 3G/4G

Prices are yet to be officially announced.

5.HP TouchPad - WebOS..although its production has been stopped now.

  

Specifications :

• Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2-GHz processor
• 9.7-inch (1024×768 pixels) XGA capacitive, multitouch screen
• 16/32GB Internal Memory
• Front 1.3 Megapixel Camera Video Talk
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• A-GPS with Navigation Maps (only in 3G Model)
• Bluetooth v2.1+A2DP
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Stereo speakers with Beats Audio System
• Email: Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP and Microsoft Exchange servers
• Light sensor, accelerometer, compass and gyroscope
• Rechargeable 6,300 mAh battery
• Micro-USB port for Charging and PC Sync
• Dimensions: 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm
• Weight: 740gm

        But WebOS lacked thousands of apps and surely couldnt compete with Android.After only 48 days on the market, the CEO of HP, Leo Apotheker, announced that HP was abandoning it because of poor sales .

Well..these are the few tablets that's been launched and there are more to come! 

Gone are those days when people said laptops are handy and efficient. Dell has lost its PC's sales drastically this year.But now , I guess all the PC and laptop makers should get ready to face the drop in laptops sales too :( because the world is heading towards a better, smarter,all-in-one technology...that's ...TABLETS!!

A P J Abdul Kalam, My Idol

THE VISIONARY, SOURCE OF INSPIRATION TO THOUSANDS AND MISSILE MAN OF INDIA

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam , born on Rameshwaram island, is a traveller of life. He was one of the greatest Presidents India had. He has designed so many missiles and led India into successful space research through ISRO. Most important of all, he mingled with children so well, he travelled far and wide in India just to connect with the younger generation of India since he believes in "Children of today are citizens of tomorrow".

I take my pride in writing about my Guru, my Idol, my Inspiration...Abdul Kalam. I still remember this particular incident when I was in 10th standard. There was this edition called "60 Greatest Indians" by India Today. As soon as I got the edition, I turned to index page, saw the page number of Abdul Kalam, skipped all in-between pages(no insult to other great people) and started reading it. But it was just a page long :( I read that around 100 times and have still got the magazine with me(I also cried while reading that, I dont know why! :P) I remember another such article(dont know the source though) where a student, who was a great fan of Kalam Sir, sent an invitation to Sir to attend his musical concert.The student was so surprised to receive a reply from Sir and the student was invited to attend some function in Delhi(I guess children's day or something related to that).He  attended and was so overwhelmed to see Kalam Sir and to his astonishment Kalam Sir recognized him, his invitation ,spoke to him personally and also sang  a song with him(Some famous Carnatic raaga, I dont remember).When he was the President, there were so many articles about him, appearing everyday in papers and I wouldn't even miss one!! These days we hardly see his pictures in papers.

I like this particular poem of Kalam Sir's, which he wrote it about his mother(taken from Wings Of Fire).

                                                               MY MOTHER

Sea waves, golden sand, pilgrims' faith,

Rameswaram Mosque Street, all merge into one, My Mother!

You came to me like heaven's caring arms. 

I remember the war days when life was challenge and toil,

Miles to walk, hours before sunrise,

Walking to take lessons from the saintly teacher near temple,

Again miles to the Arab teaching school,

Climb sandy hills to Railway Station Road.

Collect, distribute newspapers to the temple city citizens,

Few hours after sunrise, going to school.

Evening, business time before study at night.

All this pain of a young boy,

My mother you transformed into pious strength,

With kneeling and bowing five times,

For the grace of Almighty only, My Mother.

Your strong piety is your children's strength,

You always shared your best with whoever needed the most,

You always gave and gave with faith in Him.

I still remember the day when I was ten,

Sleeping on your lap to the envy of my elder brothers and sisters,

It was a full moon night, my world only you knew,

MOTHER! MY MOTHER!

When at midnight I woke with tears falling om my knee,

You knew the pain of your child,My Mother.

Your caring hands, tenderly  removing the pain,

Your love, your care, your faith gave me strength,

To face the world without fear and with His strength,

We will meet again on the great Judgement Day, My Mother!

-Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.

One of my favourite quote of Kalam Sir's - 

God has not promised

Skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways

All our life through;

God has not promised

Sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow,

Peace without pain.

I wish one day I'l meet him and shake hands with him.

Steve Jobs resigns!!

Hello everyone!


Well..well...well..Since this is my 1st post in my blog, I would like to post something related to technology(like my header says!).Steven Paul Jobs(Steve Jobs),a big name in the field of business and marketing,resigned from the post of CEO of Apple Inc. on Thursday,August 25th,2011.









iCame, iConquered and iResigned !


This is really a shocking news to all the Apple fans out there! As soon as Steve Jobs declared his resignation, the  Apple Inc. shares fell $4.03,or about 1 percent, to $372.16 in midday trading, but the entire market was down by an equal amount as well. In extended trading Thursday evening, the fell more than 5 percent after Apple said Jobs would step down as CEO and hand the job to chief operating officer Tim Cook. Although, later the shares recovered from the shock.Whereas, shares of Google Inc., whose phone and tablet software competes with Apple's, rose $2.19, or 0.4 percent, at $525.48.(yay!! google for the win :D) I hope Apple manages without Steve!


Okay now, lets know about Steve Jobs in brief(for those who are still figuring out who he is). Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, was forced out in 1985 by then-CEO John Scully and the Apple board. He returned to an Apple in early 1997 when the company acquired NeXT. Jobs was named permanent CEO in 2000. 


So the question arises as to why? Why did he resign? A little flashback is required here : In 2009, Jobs said his severe weight loss was due to a treatable hormone imbalance and that he would continue to run Apple, only days later to backtrack and take a medical leave. He returned to work in mid-summer. Later it is learned that he received a liver transplant.In January, Jobs announced a second medical leave, but did not say for how long. So, on health grounds, Steve Jobs stepped down.


Lets take a look at the resignation later of Steve Jobs : 
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve 


Who's the next CEO of Apple? Tim Cook, previous Chief Operating Officer, will be the successor of Steve.


We all hope Apple would remain the same and be a tough competitor to tycoons like Google,MS,etc.

I'm ending this post with a quote : "To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines".
Steve Jobs 

Courtesy : Google News