A pretty boring article about the geeky stuff to possibly help you choose gadgets better
 |
| Rajaram Rajendran |
So we know the buzz. Tablets and smartphones have taken over. The letter ‘I’ and words like Android, app, cloud, and multi-touch have become a part of our regular vocabulary. Tell me: what are you reading this on? The print magazine, or online, using a device?
We know smartphones did take a turn in 2007 when the iPhone was launched. All of a sudden, the idea of a slow speed, small screen device, turned into super-smooth, glossy, beautiful, super-responsive multimedia powerhouse. Now options are aplenty. Sometimes I wonder; how does an average user who is not bothered about the kind of processor and GPU, make a choice.
Android is an operating system by Google for mobile devices i.e. phones and tablets (yes, those 10 inch flat touch screen things. Yes, there are those other than the iOS based iPad). The great thing about Android is that everything on your device i.e. all your data can be synced with your Google account. Let me give you an example of how Android saved the day for me. The touch-screen of my Android phone started acting weird and had to be reset the phone i.e. all data gone! When I got it back, all I did was to feed in my Google credentials in the phone settings and voila! All my contacts were back. Everything backed up on the cloud is a great thing. Really!
The flip-side is that the Android OS does not have the ‘finish’ the iPhone’s iOS has. Things respond super smooth or not so smooth, depending on the phone model and the version of the OS installed on it. Some apps work on old OS, some won’t. And since there is no quality check and approvals like the iPhone apps, all kinds of stuff are available for Android phones. This can be good or bad, depending on how tech savvy you are. And there’s no guarantee that the Android phone you bought will be capable to get an OS upgrade done when Google releases the next version.
Blackberry keeps it pretty simple. Physical keypad (except that touch screen model), no bling or variety in apps as such. But you will get your mails. Then there’s BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). If your friends are on it, it makes keeping in touch really, really simple.
Let me also talk a bit about Windows Phone 7. WP7 for short. You have companies in the likes of Dell, HTC, Samsung, etc who are coming out with mobile phones based on WP7. This is one OS which has tried to be different. While iOS and Android pretty much work the same way, WP7 is genuinely different in its approach to the interface.
As for tablets, 2010 was the year of the iPad. It came, conquered, and is one generation newer that all other competition. The iPad has the most number of quality apps by far. There’s an app for almost everything you can think of. If you are an Apple fan, this is the natural route to go. Android tablets, like the Galaxy Tab from Samsung, runs on a version of Android which is not really optimised for larger screen use. Because Android is an open source software, every tech company you can think of is coming out with a tablet. Or two, even. There is not much innovation happening here to be honest, but hey, some sales figures won’t be bad. Blackberry fans also have a reason to rejoice now, with the BlackBerry Playbook launch in the USA. It is based on QNX operating system.
What all this has done is that when John get an e-mail at work — his desktop, laptop, cellphone, browser feed, and tablet buzzes. Only the device near him should buzz. Maybe there’s an app for that :)
Who’s John? John’s a gadget freak.
______________________________________
Entrepreneur, designer, digital artist, wannabe musician and a jack of all, who thinks black & white photography is very cool. To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Rajaram Rajendran'. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
