Archive for the ‘computers’ Category
The iPad
First of all, I should disclose that I own an iPhone and love it. I use PCs for desktop and laptop use. I admire the Apple hardware, but Windows based machines are just cheaper. Apple does indeed make some great products, and produce some of the the most fundamental benchmarks for industrial engineering. However, I was suprised that the iPad, (don’t get me started on the name) fell short in a couple if critical areas.
First of all, it’s one thing for a phone to be synced with a computer, but if the iPad is to compete with other “netbooks” and the like, this will not do! I have a very big love/hate relationship with iTunes. In addition, I cant wrap my head around the fact that Apple did not only fail to include a USB port, they also failed to include a SD card slot. They do have an adapter for SD cards, but who wants an ugly dongle dangling off of this elegant device?
An HDMI port would have been nice too. Probably not a fair feature to ask for, as I don’t think any Netbook has one. Not that I know of anyway. As for adding a camera, I’m not sure I agree with those who propose this. It not as if you’d have this thing in your pocket, and whip it out for a quick picture. It would however be great to pop the SD card right in after you arrive home from your trip, and view your photos.
The most surprising flaw to me, is that you have to own another computer. It must be synched up with iTunes. At least once that is. I just don’t get this at all, and see no good reason for it. I will wager this will change with a future update, and they just couldn’t make it happen now for some reason. This is one area where Netbooks have it whipped.
In spite of all this, I still want one!
Adobe Flash
The iPad reminded me of the strange confusion around Adobe Flash. Many were surprised that the iPad will not support flash. I can’t say that I was surprised at all. As many readers might know, the iPhone does not support flash. There actually only a few smartphones that do support flash, and only do so to a limited extent. Apple in particular, has a ax to grind with Adobe, as the flash player seems to occasionally cause system crashes in OSX. Apple feels this is a problem with Adobe’s code.
There is however some confusion about a couple of important aspects of Flash. What first comes to mind is the eye candy websites that use flash to animate all sorts of buttons and effects. Some elegantly so, and others to a ridiculous extent. Flash (and Shockwave) has been used to create many animated presentations, and applications and games as well. There is however an almost completely separate function supported by flash player, and that is video playback.
Originally, the flash player was designed to play a particular video file format known as FLV. This is a video file format specific to the Flash player. For years, this has been the method of choice for delivering video on the web. Youtube, and many similar sites, used this method for years. It of course required that you have Adobe Flash player installed on your computer. Most of you out there know all too well the prompt from your web browser, asking that you install the Flash Plugin.
There were many competitors over the years for alternate methods of online video delivery. Windows Media, Apple Quicktime, Real Media, and so on. A refreshingly new trend has however been afoot these past years, and that is the MP4 file format. Also known as Mpeg4, this actually represents a bit of a convergence. An odd thing indeed, when so many incompatible file formats and applications plague all things computerized these days. Not only does Apple support Mp4, it’s actually the chosen video format of the iPhone, and iPod touch. This was no doubt a factor that influenced the move towards mp4 video delivery that Youtube now embraces.
Where does Flash come in? As it turns out, as of version 9, Adobe flash player supports playback of mp4 files via a web page. The great thing about this is no additional plug-in is required to play the video. That is, if you have flash player installed, and of course that your device supports flash. While I do have some background in web development, I’m hardly a programmer. I wonder why that mp4 video playback via the flash player can’t be supported alone, and simply disable all of the other Flash functionality? Seems to me, this just throws the baby out with the bathwater.
The Apple iPad
I was actually quite surprised at all the criticism about the new iPad. Overall, I really do think this will be the tablet computer that finally works. It’s in many ways a scaled up iPod touch after all. It is however a more powerful device. This, and the large display, open up quite a few new possibilities.
Obviously, images and video will benefit from the large display. Those who have seen it in person say the image quality is quite striking. Most of you probably now know that Apple is entering the ebook business, and this will no doubt be a serious competitor to Kindle and the other readers out there. Oh sure, epaper is supposedly easier on the eyes, but even if this is true, the trade-off is pretty compelling.
I, like just about everyone it would seem, do have a few nits to pick. For one, I was really struck about the fact that the iPad omitted a camera. Not so much a forward facing one to take pictures with, but a rear facing camera for Skype. This would be a wonderful device for any sort of video chat for that matter. My guess is that this was a cost issue. I was pleasantly surprised at the relatively low price-point. Now some commentators have claimed that Apple used about $270 worth of parts, therefore they still have quite a fat profit. These folks unfortunately don’t understand the additional costs of putting such a device in your hand.
I was however a bit disappointed at the lack of a SD card slot. Apple of course has never had such a feature on an iPod, as they felt the included memory was sufficient. Besides, Steve hates unnecessary holes on his pretty devices! In this case, it’s quite a different issue. Not one of adding capacity, but a way to get your content into the device. The iPad is clearly intended to be something more than a great big iPod. It was designed to take the place of netbooks for one thing. While Apple would prefer you only add content via iTunes, or a desktop computer, I still have some issue with this. What a wonderful feature it would be to pull the card from your camera, then view and manipulate your photos on the iPad. You can still do this of course, but you will need a SD card adapter. The irony here is you’d need an ugly protruding dongle to upload your photos from your camera. This would be a great field tool for professional photographers. Sure, I doubt it will do RAW, but most finer cameras also can output a JPG version of the same shot for review. Unfortunately, you’d need that ugly dongle.
That said, I cannot lie. I can’t wait to have my very own iPad.
When looking to replace my dying Epson, I needed disc printing capabilities on a new printer just as I had on my old R320 Sylus Photo. It was a pretty good printer, but I place a high workload demand on devices that are really intended for consumer use. I still got my money’s worth more or less.
I decided to pull the trigger on an HP this time. I already own a multi fuction HP Laserjet, and it’s been a real workhorse. Nice aesthetics, and an impression of above average construction quality. A nice touch is the disc printing tray has a little storage slot right in the printer. In short, print quality is quite good on both discs and photo paper. Maybe a hair below the quality of the Epson, but very close. It is definitely much faster with better document quality.
What could be better? Well, let me tell you. While the hardware is better than expected, the software is terrible. I was stunned to find out you can only print to discs using HP templates. You cannot use your own designs. You cannot change the inner and outer diameter, change the alignment, or do much more than change small areas of text or photo inserts. The software seems intrusive and overly dumbed down. I finally discovered a third party ap that solved the problem. Unfortunately, I’m out another $30.
Bottom line is that it’s a good printer, but if you expect to print custom DVDs and CDs, you should add $30 to the price.
I’ve tried several methods of making my demo video as portable as possible. Ipods and Zunes can work in a pinch, but the screen is pretty small among other issues. Many in our field have used those portable DVD players for this purpose as well. they Never seem to last.
This little netbook not only serves this purpose very well, it’s actually pretty darn useable as a computer! Not only that, but it’s quite cheap too. Video playback works pretty well up to a point, as the little Atom processor struggles with some high bandwidth or HD content out there.
I’d suggest in most cases not to go for the Linux version unless you have experience with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Linux. I’m a fan of the whole open software movement in general. Whle the Ubuntu flavor of the operating system on these machines is quite good, it does not have the software and media support that XP does.
