Let’s get to the most obvious thing — size! Apple’s CEO — who will remain nameless — publicly stated that a 7-inch screen was too small for a tablet, and after using the Tab, we tend to agree.
And yet I still think Apple would be willing to push out a smaller iPad if the Tab gains traction in the market. Something that is looking less likely at the moment, certainly in the “iPad killer” number department.
It’s a very weird in-between feeling; we can’t decide it feels like a smartphone that is too big or a tablet that is too small. We still can’t figure out the best way to use the keyboard in portrait mode. Hold it with both hands and try and thumb type? Hold the tablet in one hand and only use one hand to type? Use Swype?
I think the lesson we can learn here is basically that if it won’t go into your pocket then there really is no advantage to building tablets smaller than the iPad’s magazine style form factor. Unless you want an expensive dashboard mounted GPS.
On Flash, and the browser…
Browsing the web with Flash on (enabled by default) proved to be a pretty frustrating experience. Scrolling was jittery, slow, and sometimes pages just wouldn’t even finish loading. However, once we changed the browser’s plug-ins setting to on demand (think Click2Flash), the browser popped to life. Pages loaded very quick, scrolling was almost fluid, and using multi-touch gestures to pinch zoom in and out worked like a charm. The browsing experience on the device is exactly where you want it to be.
The Tab seems to have a very robust, feature filled OS, well implemented. Sure a lot of it is influenced by iOS. But at least Samsung get what mobile tablet computing is about.
Is it possible the new iPod nano isn’t running iOS, but isn’t running the old iPod OS, either? The latest firmware has hit Apple’s servers so developers are tearing into it and here’s what Steven Troughton-Smith had to say on Twitter:
The nano codename is N20 it appears; also labelled as “1.0″ of the OS. Definitely not iOS
Rusty Mercury also says it’s running on a Samsung S5L8723, a step up from the previous Samsung 8730.
So what is this OS 1.0? something new? Something hybrid?
But then the iPad doesn’t even run iOS yet.
Rest assured it is a cut down version of iOS. However, Steve is not replying to emails requesting developer access. Which probably means it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Which is a shame.
Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) is developing a flexible AMOLED display, and plan to reach this goal by switching to plastic panels. Samsung’s aim is to mass produce this kind of panel within two years.
SMD plans to create a TFT (thin film transistor) layer on the plastic panel, and replace the existing vinyl protection sheet with PI (polyimide) film to avoid residue upon light emission.
What they need to do before all that, in my opinion, is improve colour distribution and resolution in the technology. But flexible display panels are certainly something I look forward to in the future.
One day soon I will pull a single sheet full colour AMOLED newspaper out of my jeans back pocket, which is touch sensitive, internet enabled and disposable! If only they could get all the driver technology, power source, touch panel and antennas into that flexible sheet too.
It’s well known that Apple and Samsung got into bed with the design behind the A4. It’s interesting to see a comparison of the two chips that came out of that collaboration.
UBM TechInsights published side-by-side die images of the Samsung S5PC110 and the A4. EETimes goes one step further, publishing high-resolution microphotography of the A4 architecture using infrared illumination and image acquisition through the backside of the intact die.
The way the A4 processors ARM core is arranged strongly suggests use of Intrinsity technologies within the design, the report informs. As the image shows us, the ARM Core is in a different position on both the Apple and Samsung SoCs.
The report also tells us that while the Samsung and Apple cores are similar, as System on Chips (SoC’s) they diverge, with differing degrees of customization at block level.
In particular, these reveal that the Apple chip has seen all unneeded elements of the generic ARM reference design removed, reducing chip complexity, size and cost. In other words, Apple’s A4 processor is a tailored version of the standard Cortex-A8 that differs from the iteration issued by Samsung.
We find this comment within the article quite revealing, as it confirms what some have been thinking that Apple has designed the processor within a much wider context — it isn’t just about what the processor is capable of, its 1GHz speed at low power and so on, it is also about how the processor has been tailored specifically to be the most efficient mobile processor for Apple’s iOS itself.
Apple never really produces bleeding edge stuff. What it does however, as I have said before, is take the best of current tech and make it as good as it can be for a very tightly crafted set of software designed specifically to run on it.
Samsung, the world’s No. 1 display maker, hit back at Apple on Tuesday, saying the much-hyped Retina display consumes around 30 percent more battery power than the “super AM-OLED” display first used in Galaxy S.
The iPhone 4G has a resolution of 960×640, four times higher than its predecessor iPhone 3GS, while the Galaxy S’s resolution is 800×480. Samsung launched Galaxy S in Seoul on Tuesday, eight hours after Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPhone at its developers’ conference in San Francisco.
AM-OLED is certainly the future. I am sure we’ll see them in future iPhones.
But if you can’t make enough of them…
The spokesperson said Apple may have not used the OLED because of a supply shortage, and its partnership with LG Display, which does not produce AM-OLED displays. He also said Apple did not approach the company for the possible supply of AM OLED displays.
Right now, can Samsung manufacture tens of millions of those screens for Apple, as well as support the volume they require for their own devices? I doubt it.
They are also not producing them in as high a resolution as Apple’s iPhone 4 panel requires. An important factor when you consider maintaining a practical workable resolution ratio between old and new iPhone displays.
What you need to remember is that Apple never uses cutting edge technology for the sake of it. Rather they refine and polish what is currently stable, so that it is the best possible implementation of existing technology. Often times pushing the envelope of that tried and tested technology, where there is room to tweak the specification, rather than struggling with bleeding edge components that are more expensive to manufacture and not quite ready for prime time.
The only area where Apple takes anything which can be considered being close to a risk with manufacture is when they are cornered, or when they actually manufacture the components themselves.
To dish out ads at scale in the TV app market Samsung may have to purchase or start an ad network that will stand between advertisers and the devices that carry ads. Samsung execs are coy about company plans, but such a move would position Samsung as a threat not just to Apple but also to cable companies.
Interesting tidbit of information from EETimes.com :
Meet Brian Berkeley, vice president of OLED R&D Center at Samsung Mobile Display Co.
In the exclusive global circle of OLED experts, Berkeley is the closest thing to a “rock star,” according to Joe Abelson, vice president of displays research at iSuppli. Berkeley’s presence in Giheung speaks volumes about Samsung’s commitment to lead the industry by recruiting the best and the brightest from all over the world, Abelson observed.
Berkeley, whose passion is flat panel display technology, left Apple and a comfortable home of Saratoga, Calif. in Nov., 2003, and he relocated — along with his family — to Korea, indefinitely.
Samsung, the world’s largest LCD panel manufacturer, is increasingly confident in the future of OLEDs — not just for smart phone’s displays, for which Samsung is the biggest manufacturer and supplier, but for large-size TVs, especially 3-D TV.
Looking to the future, this has some relevance to my comments about Apple TV here, and here.
I already thought out-loud about where Apple might be going with Apple TV in the near future. This was when I heard more news of the rumoured Google TV, and the possibility of Samsung jumping onboard :
If Samsung were going to pick a partner in this market, and get into yet another campaign in this war – which they have to at some point – it might be better to pick a running mate that they have an ongoing, and successful, relationship with. And one who could bring enough to the table to give them a fighting chance at emerging as a dominant force.
Which is what got me thinking. Nothing much has happened with Apple TV for quite some time. Yet Apple still maintain that it is a hobby, and that they have plans for it in the future.
This move to a connected future for broadcasting is more than simply an iPad-driven gold rush. A move to embrace HTML5 in available television programming online will also open up wider opportunities for new business models.
In-Stat this week noted shipments of digital televisions with Wi-Fi will grow more than ten-fold, from under 5 million units in 2009, to more than 60 million units in 2014.
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Apple has craftily jumped ahead here, as it already offers consumers a range of solutions equipped with Wi-Fi which can access a user’s iTunes content.
As broadcasters re-tool their content for the relatively undemanding (to device power) standards-based HTML5 for video, then more opportunity will emerge for Apple and other players in the digital home and entertainment space.
Apple COO, Tim Cook, speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in February 2010 noted that Apple TV sales had increased by 35% compared to the same quarter last year. “Apple TV is still a hobby. We’ve been very clear about that,” he said. “We’re continuing to invest in it because our gut tells us there’s something there.”
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Think what an Apple TV — an actual Apple television — could do. Equipped with USB slots to insert an appropriate digital TV tuner, you could sell the same physical product internationally, without requiring support for different video standards (PAL etal.) be built-in.
The system would have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ship with a remote control. It would be controllable by an iPhone or iPod touch or iPad. It could support every form of content available on the iTunes Store. Conceivably this might include games.
The more I think about it, the more I believe a real Apple TV is on the cards in the future.
The question we should be asking ourselves though is this :
Will Apple make an Apple TV as an all in one unit, or simply “grow-up” the existing Apple TV, and then re-brand their monitor line to be “Apple TV capable”.
Or will they perhaps build the Apple TV into larger, premium, 30″+ monitors?
