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Seven is the new black

By on June 29, 2012 in Technology

So Google have announced the Nexus 7 Android tablet. Available to pre-order now from the Google play store and shipping in a few weeks. It’s priced very aggressively at £159 in UK ($199 US) and will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It actually looks pretty good. No carrier stuff stuck on top of the base Android. Consensus seems to be that the main competitor to this is the Amazon Kindle Fire.

I think that this new Nexus 7 will also have an impact on the iPad tablet market. The cheapest iPad in the UK is £329. That’s for the iPad 2 that is still for sale. The 3rd Generation iPad, with its simply stunning screen, starts at £399. That means that the Nexus is well under half the price of the cheapest iPad. It’s true that the iPad, with its higher resolution screen, can be used for different types of tablet apps than are possible on a 7 inch screen. But I think that the low entry price of the Nexus will cause people to stop and think about what to buy. Especially in schools. Getting two Nexus tablets for each iPad will help schools deliver on a 1:1 device programme.

So what should Apple do? I think that they should do a 7 inch tablet device. But I don’t think it should be an iPad 7. They should use the iPod brand to fill this space. It’s clear that over the last few years that the iPhone has cannibalised some of the iPod sales. The iPod touch with the 3.5 retina display still sells well. It’s like an iPhone without the mobile radio, which is useful in a lot of situations. I think that Apple should target the 7-inch touch device market with an iPod touch 7. It would give people the option of using the iOS platform, at a lower price point than the £329 and higher cost for iPad. This would leave the iPad name for the premium tablet space (which Apple owns). An iPod touch 7 could run current iPhone and iPod touch apps doubled up. On a 7 inch retina screen this would be okay. Developers would need design new apps targeted at the 7 inch screen as well.

I wonder if we’ll see an iPod touch 7 at this years September iPod event.

My favourite iPad apps

By on September 25, 2011 in Technology

Lots of people are buying iPads. Many of them ask me what my favourite iPad apps are. This Soapbox post is my response. I’ll point people to here when they ask me about good apps. It’s also worthwhile following the #goodiPadApps hashtag on Twitter.

I’ll add more explanation as to why I like these apps over time. But I’ll start with a list and links to the App Store.

Productivity Apps

Apple Pages – Word processing and page layout application. Reads and writes Pages for Macintosh files and also Microsoft Word files.

Apple Keynote – Word processing and page layout application. Reads and writes Pages for Macintosh files and also Microsoft PowerPoint files.

Apple Numbers – Word processing and page layout application. Reads and writes Pages for Macintosh files and also Microsoft Excel files.

MindJet – Mind mapping application. Just out. Seems very good.

OmniGraffle – Diagramming app. For doing network and organisational chart type diagrams.

Apple iMovie – For editing video.

OmniOutliner – For taking notes in an outliner form.

OmniFocus – The best Getting Things Done® app. Syncs with Macintosh and iPhone versions. I like OmniFocus a lot!

OmniGraphSketcher – If you need an app to visualise data and produce graphs, including logarithmic ones, then this is great.

Reading Apps

Apple iBooks – eBook reader. Used for books from the Apple iBooks store. Also reads standard ePub and PDF files. I use this for most of my book and PDF reading. I do most of my reading on iPad now. Only buy paper when I can’t get a book as an eBook.

Amazon Kindle – eBook reading app for iPad that allows you to read Kindle books on iPad. I use this when I can’t get an ebook I want from iBook Store. Kindle store has a much better selection of books than iBook Store. Kindle app isn’t as nice as iBooks, but it’s fine.

Reeder – This is a great RSS news feed reading app. Sync with Google Reader. There are also Macintosh and iPhone versions that stay in sync across devices. Any app that uses Google Reader will stay in sync with Reeder.

 

Science Apps

Redshift – Astronomy – Another great astronomy app. I use this as well as Pocket Universe. I like the way Redshift allows you to virtually fly from Earth to distant stars 🙂

Solar System for iPad – An interactive eBook app that gives lots of information about the Solar System.

Exoplanet – Great app that alerts you when new extra-solar planets are discovered. Also has visual charts showing how far the new planets orbit from their stars. Plus other great data visualisations.

The Elements – An interactive Periodic Table of the Elements. From Theodore Gray of Wolfram Research. They also did Solar System for iPad above. The Elements is visually stunning. I love it 🙂

 

Utilities

iPassword – Great secure locker for passwords. Get the Pro version if you have an iPhone as well. It runs on both devices. I had the separate iPhone version already.

Soulver – Natural language calculator. Understands commands like “$70 in £” and “38% of 237”. A brilliant app.

PCalc – The best traditional calculator app. Use the Twilight theme. Its ace.

 

More to follow…

 

 

 

 

 

iPad as a blogging tool

By on July 17, 2010 in Technology

Testing the WordPress app on my iPad. When I get my new Vodafone MiFi I’ll be using the iPad when out and about a lot more than my MacBook Pro. I also want to do a lot more blogging on a diverse range of subjects. Mainly from airports I expect 🙂

Well if you can see this post then the WordPress app works!