Covered: Tablet PCs, watercolours, mobile phones
Fancy a Moonse? How China and Google are combining to take on the iPad Apple’s iPad is, like the iPhone before it, spurring on a whole slew of developers to come out with rivals. Unsurprisingly, the most innovative tablets are coming, not from California, but from China. And Umbrella is especially intrigued by the Moonse E-7001 from Shenit.com. Running Google’s Android 1.5/6 operating system, the Moonse is, at seven inches long, smaller than the iPad, but it boasts two USB ports, SD slots, an audio jack, front-facing camera and a single Apple-like navigation button. It retails at just $160. Shenit is not the only company looking to get onto the Android bandwagon – Samsung will release its own tablet, the Galaxy, using the operating system in the near future. Web developer Loz Gray says it’s Android that is the key to the tablet market. “At the present time, Andriod is looking like it will be the only serious competitor to iOS (the system used by the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch) for tablets. Whilst they still lead in the desktop space, Microsoft currently seem to be trying to force that standard desktop
much missed...
Nokia 8210 Anyone who says they don’t drool over the iPhone 4 is either a liar or er… someone who doesn’t drool over the iPhone 4. Anyway, while Apple’s latest communicator pretty much defines what technology is about at the beginning of the 2010s (along with HTC’s Android-running Desire), we’re still in love with the phone that made mobiles not just functional, but actually objects of desire, Nokia’s exquisite 8210. Weighing in at a tiny 79g with the battery in, and boasting dimensions of just 101.5mmx44.5mmx17.4mm, the 8210 truly was the most mobile of mobile phones. Small enough to be slipped in the pocket of a pair of jeans, it would only alert its owner to call with a discreet vibration. Something, in those still mobile-phobic times, that non-attention seekers appreciated. Today, it seems awfully basic – there’s no camera, internet or mobile film-editing function. And yet… truly, an 8210 is really all you need – especially if you favour form and function. So even though Umbrella’s is no longer in use, it sits on the shelf, ready to be turned on once more should Mr Jobs’ newest device have a terminal breakdown. “Connecting people,” that’s what they said – and that’s still ultimately what it’s all about.
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operating system (OS) onto a tablet. Windows 7 is a great desktop OS, but it’s designed exactly for that – a desktop machine with a mouse. For a tablet, Windows 7 is overkill.” Gray also believes that with hundreds of applications available for Android, it makes sense for programmers to work with it, especially as its free to license, which cuts down the cost to consumers. Then there’s the matter of ‘Webkit’. “This is the underlying technology for the web browsers used in WebOS, Android, iOS and, soon, RiM’s Blackberry,” he says. Why is this important? Because more and more people are using web applications, such as Google Docs, to get their work done. If you were a developer of such an application, why would you spend extra time and effort getting things to work with Microsoft’s browser technology, a minority in this space, when you can kill four birds with one stone by developing solely for Webkit-based browsers?” While the Moonse may not be the answer to all your tablet needs, its appearance is a sign that Google’s philosophy is paying dividends all over the world. www.lozworld.com