Working with Twitter and Double Robotics, The Post’s robot will provide a live stream of delegates and politicians in Cleveland and Philadelphia via Twitter’s app, Periscope, giving users a guided tour of the convention site and letting them ask questions about the convention experience via Periscope chat.
Tag Archives: tablets
B&N is Shutting Down One of Its Top Three Digital Blunders on 15 March
This, folks, was one of the reasons why the Nook failed. B&N underestimated consumers who were savvy enough to figure out that they could read Nook ebooks on other hardware, but they couldn’t do jack with B&N’s tablets because of the sparse app store.
Source: B&N is Shutting Down One of Its Top Three Digital Blunders on 15 March | The Digital Reader
Tablet shipments decline 10.1% in 2015
The tablet market is still in decline.
Q4 2015 is the fifth straight quarter in a row to see a decrease year over year: 65.9 million units shipped, down 13.7 percent from the 76.4 million units that shipped the same quarter last year, according to market research firm IDC. For the whole year of 2015, shipments were 206.8 million, down 10.1 percent from the 230.1 million shipped in 2014.
Source: IDC: Tablet shipments decline 10.1% in 2015, leaders Apple and Samsung both lose market share
IDC argues that the biggest trend to watch for in 2016 is the transition towards detachable devices. Indeed, pure slate tablets experienced their greatest annual decline to date of 21.1 percent, while detachable tablets more than doubled their shipments since the fourth quarter of last year.
Smartphone malware planted in popular apps pre-sale
Earlier this year, G Data contemporary Marble Security found a fake, pre-installed version of Netflix had been stealing personal data from several smartphone models, including the Samsung Galaxy range and the LG Nexus, and transmitting its swag to a server in Russia.
Windows tablet shipments to grow, but won’t challenge Android, iOS
IDC is projecting Windows tablets to occupy 10.2 percent of the market by 2017, growing from a projected market share of 3 percent this year. By comparison, tablets based on Android and iOS will register slight dips in market share.
via Windows tablet shipments to grow, but won’t challenge Android, iOS | PCWorld.
Coding Horror: App-pocalypse Now
Let’s start with the basics. How do you know which apps you need? How do you get them installed? How do you keep them updated? How many apps can you reasonably keep track of on a phone? On a tablet? Just the home screen? A few screens? A dozen screens? When you have millions of apps out there, this rapidly becomes less of a “slap a few icons on the page” problem and more of a search problem like the greater web. My son’s iPad has more than 10 pages of apps now, we don’t even bother with the pretense of scrolling through pages of icons, we just go straight to search every time.
Double Robotics – Telepresence Robot for Telecommuters
Double is the ultimate tool for telecommuting. From anywhere in the world, you have a physical presence in the office and can speak to co-workers at anytime. Double is a remotely controlled, mobile teleconferencing system, enabling conversations to happen anywhere and anytime.
via Double Robotics – Telepresence Robot for Telecommuters.
These do seem a little creepy. They appear built on Segway tech and priced at $2500. There could be some use for these such as being able to walk around a museum as shown in the video below. How much would someone pay to do walk around on your own at the Louvre in Paris without having to fly there? Perhaps one day these robots become ubiquitous to a point where entire meeting rooms consist of nothing but these robots talking with other robots.
Double by Double Robotics – Buy Now from Double Robotics on Vimeo.
10% of Amplify Tablets Broke in Their First Month, One North Carolina School District Reports
This tablet was always intended to go into schools, and that is why it was supposed to have been built with a layer of Gorilla Glass over the screen. This was in the contract that GCS signed, and it was also mentioned prominently in the early news coverage of this tablet. According to the school district, none of the Amplify tablets that they bought had that protective layer, which might help explain why so many tablets broke.
Or to put it another way, the absence of Gorilla Glass is a sign that someone cut corners on the build quality for this production run. Given that there were also complaints about misfitted cases and defective power supplies, I am not terribly surprised.
As I reported when the Amplify tablet debuted in March of this year, this tablet is NewsCorp’s “solution” to the “problem” of education:
Inside News Corp’s $540 Million Bet on American Classrooms
The company plans to cash in on education with custom-made tablet computers and curricula, as American classrooms move ever closer to complete digital integration. It began by purchasing a company called Wireless Generation, rebranding it as Amplify and pouring in more than half a billion dollars.
via Inside News Corp’s $540 Million Bet on American Classrooms.
Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface RT tablets, base model to cost $349
The new Surface RT prices are detailed below.
- Surface RT 32GB – $349.99
- Surface RT 64GB – $449.99
- Surface RT 32GB with Touch Cover – $449.99
- Surface RT 64GB with Touch Cover – $549.99
via Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface RT tablets, base model to cost $349 | The Verge.
Still too high. I can get a decent laptop at Microcenter for $350 and if I want to go small there are plenty of under $200 tablets. The Surface looks and feels like what they used to call a netbook. Those didn’t do so well in the market. I can’t imagine doing real work on one of those. It’s hard enough with a laptop. The size of the QWERTY keyboard is a big factor in productivity IMHO.