Size Matters

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Frank

As I write this, I am watching the mens doubles tennis match at the Olympics between France and Spain on the new iPad, while my Nexus 7 is at hand should I need to quickly look something up. Both tablets and their different screen sizes have a place in my personal computing toolkit, yet many wish to compare the iPad and Nexus 7 in either/or terms rather than together.

One fascinating aspect of this new personal computing era is how the debate over which devices are better has changed. The differences between computers used to be all about processor speed, memory, and operating system, but now it’s about size, weight, storage space and operating system. In the past consumer eyes glazed over whenever a vendor spewed specs about their computers, but today consumers pay much more attention to the size, weight, and storage space of tablets and smartphones because these particular specifications are tightly aligned to how these devices are used.

If you just focus on the difference in size of the iPad and Nexus 7 display you will miss a very important and related component, weight. Remember, the new iPad is actually heavier than the iPad 2 and pretty much the same weight as the original iPad. The reason why the new iPad weighs 1.44 pounds is because of the large battery it needs in order to power up that beautiful retina display all day. In other words, the screen size of tablets drives how much they weigh, and the Nexus 7 exploits its lighter weight to meet a use case that the iPad does not meet well.

My main problem with all of the iPads is that they weigh too much to hold comfortably in my hands for any length of time. I cannot really read a book on the iPad for any length of time without finding something to rest the iPad on. In contrast, I can comfortably hold the Nexus 7 in one hand for hours, just as I would with any reasonably size book.

On the other hand, the iPad’s larger screen makes it much better for watching video and for reading content intended to be on 8.5 x 11 inch sheets of paper as is the case for many PDF files. Fortunately, for both of these two instances I usually find something upon which to place the iPad.

Weight is not the only way in which screen size defines different use cases for the iPad and Nexus 7, in my experience screen size also dictates different input experiences. I am not going to write a lengthly blog post using the on-screen keyboard of either of these devices, but in my experience, and I believe this to be the case for most people, it is much easier to “thumb type” using the Nexus 7 in portrait orientation than it is to type on the iPad.

I know the iPad’s split keyboard makes it easier to type, but for me, in a comparison between the two, it is easier to thumb type on the Nexus 7. Consequently, I find the Nexus 7 to be a better note taking device than the iPad, and taking notes may be my most important use case next to reading. After using the HTC Flyer to write notes in digital ink for a year, I have concluded that inking is best done on larger screens that approximate the size of a sheet of paper. If the Nexus 7 came with a digitizer I would probably use it, but the ease of typing on it means I don’t lose anything by not being able to use a stylus.

The bottom line is that the size difference between the Nexus 7 and iPad mean much more than a difference in price, the size drives differences in how the two devices are best used. I know that there are many people who are happy with just one or the other and find the iPad’s weight to be something they can tolerate in trade for a better display. Likewise, many people find the 7 inch screen on the Nexus 7 to be plenty large to watch video and read documents. On the other hand, I think it is also very likely for one to own and actively use both devices.

I think the idea of people owning multiple tablets of different sizes and corresponding prices is the only reason why Apple will bring a smaller size iPad to market. If Apple believes people will use small tablets for the same reason they use larger tablets they wouldn’t sell a smaller one and risk losing sales. Right now I doubt that Apple sees the Nexus 7 as a threat, and simply selling a product as a reaction to a competitor is very un-like Apple. Consequently, I look forward to seeing whether a smaller iPad will directly work with larger models because I expect Apple to emphasize how the two work together as parts of the Apple ecosystem.

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HP Touchpad Wireless Keyboard Works With The Nexus 7

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Frank

Disclaimer: I work for HP Enterprise Services and any opinions expressed in this article are my own and not HP’s.

After reading an article this evening on how different bluetooth keyboards work with the new Google Nexus 7 I thought that I would try the HP Touchpad Wireless keyboard to see if it works with the Nexus 7. I was not too surprised to learn that the keyboard does in fact work, but what I was surprised to learn is that some of the special function keys also work.

You might recall that last summer the HP Touchpad made a big splash by coming to market, failing to sell, HP deciding to cancel the product after barely a month, and ultimately selling the Touchpads for $99 each, much less than the nearly $500 original sale price.

Besides the fact that the Touchpad ran webOS (which frankly I think is one of the best tablet OS’es that I have ever used) HP also provided some nice accessories including a wireless charging dock and a bluetooth keyboard. The entire combination of cradle, keyboard, and Touchpad provided the physical configuration of a desktop computer. I was so taken by the combination that I bought each when the prices went very low.

Nexus7keyboard

The keyboard has some special function keys designed to work with webOS, including music playback and volume controls, a power on/off button, a search key, screen brightness keys and an instant messaging key. After pairing the keyboard to my Nexus 7 I discovered the special function keys work with the Nexus 7 as follows:

  • Power, volume, and search buttons all work as labeled
  • The arrow keys work as labeled
  • The messaging button works as the Android back button in some instances

The search button on the Touchpad Wireless keyboard works almost exactly like the physical search button works on older Android models. If you are in an app, for example Evernote, that has a built-in search function, pressing search on the keyboard initiates that search function. If a local search function is not available then pressing search on the keyboard starts the Android universal search.

Another example of how the search button works is in Chrome. If you are in Chrome and press the search button the address/search bar is activated for you to either enter a url or a search term. Unfortunately the “back” function that appears to map to the messaging button on the keyboard doesn’t work consistently. In some instances it works, but it does not work in Chrome.

I suspect that it might be possible for a developer to actually add mapping to the Touchpad Wireless keyboard function keys. After pairing the keyboard to the Nexus 7 you will see a keyboard indicator on the notification bar and when you pull down the notification shade and tap Select Keyboard Layout you see the following screen.

Screenshot_2012-07-19-21-41-08

You notice that Android properly recognizes the keyboard and you even have the ability to change the keyboard layout that Android uses. Perhaps a developer could create a layout that properly programs all of the functions on the keyboard? One particularly useful function would be assigning the webOS card select button on the keyboard, which enables switching between apps in web OS, to the Android select button to make it possible to switch between apps using the keyboard.

As far as touch typing on this keyboard, I think it is the same size as the keyboards that come on standard notebook computers. It is not a full desktop size keyboard, but I find the buttons spaced well enough that I can comfortably type on it. In fact, I have used the keyboard to write this article.

If you are interested in buying one of these keyboards, you will find them on Amazon for less than $20.

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Tablet Style Personal Computing

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Frank

It took a long time for smartphones and tablet computers to become marketable, and ironically Microsoft can make claims on how both forms of personal computers came to be. While Palm was riding the wave of Personal Digital Assistants, Microsoft introduced the Pocket PC Phone Edition and promoted the idea of integrating PDAs and mobile phones into one device. Bill Gates made the Tablet PC his personal mission for redefining how one used a personal computer.

In my opinion the problem at Microsoft through the years of the Handheld, Pocket, and Tablet PCs is that marketing had far too much influence over decision makers. Marketers convinced leadership within Microsoft that the Windows brand was the company’s most valuable asset and therefore every one of its products had to tie to Windows. Leadership at Microsoft was convinced that without Windows the company had no identity.

The problem, of course, is that Windows is a framework for desktop computing. Large monitors provide enough space to display documents and applications in separate windows, which make switching between apps and documents easier. No successful smartphone or tablet displays multiple windows on the screen at the same time, simply because neither device have enough display space to make windows useful.

Microsoft learned the hard way that users did not like the Windows look and navigation model on smartphones and tablets. The biggest irony of Windows Phone is that it looks nothing like Windows. If Microsoft was willing to free themselves of the Windows constraints ten years ago to develop something like Metro is today, it is possible that Apple would never have developed the iPhone or the iPad.

Today everyone has embraced the idea of a smartphone, although we may differ on which type of smartphone we prefer to use with most falling in the iPhone or Android camps. Tablet computers, however, are not so embraced. You might have to pry a smartphone from one’s hands while tablets are not nearly seen as a necessity.

For many, if you need a portable computer, use a smartphone, otherwise use a notebook computer. Tablets, to these people, are nothing more than a luxury filling a niche in the computing landscape, and are way too expensive for the value they provide.

Tablets are not a niche device, somewhere between smartphones and legacy personal computers, they are an alternative to legacy personal computers. If you look at tablets from the perspective of the mouse and keyboard driven, large display personal computing world that we have been living in, they could never be a replacement for the desktop and notebook computer. However, if you are willing to step out from the way we have always done computing to consider something different you might find another style of personal computing.

Personal computing tablet style emphasizes simplicity. What is simpler, sliding a mouse along a table top surface and clicking a button to select an object on a screen, or tapping the screen where the object is displayed?

Personal computing tablet style is mobile. Tablets are smaller, lighter and have longer battery life than notebook computers, and they are designed to be typed on via an on-screen keyboard from almost any position, while a notebook is designed to be typed on while placed on a flat surface.

Truth is, many people don’t truly benefit from nor need the high speed of data entry that full physical keyboards provide. Many don’t know how to touch type, or have poor typing skills so they enter data at a low rate of speed; these people might actually enter information faster with an auto correcting, predictive on-screen keyboard.

An equally large group of users display applications at full screen on their desktop and notebook computers, and rarely, if ever, display information in multiple, small windows on the screen. Some of these users might not even know that multiple apps can appear in small windows on the screen at the same time.

The group of users that I am describing above have been tolerating the legacy style of personal computing all these years because there has been no alternative. In fact, many found legacy personal computing so difficult that they choose to avoid it completely.

The people tolerating and avoiding legacy personal computing are the ones who are embracing the new forms of personal computing smartphone style, tablet style, or both. Legacy personal computing is not going to disappear, just as people continue to buy large trucks and SUVs, but it is no longer the only style of personal computing and soon it will no longer be the dominant style of personal computing.

More people are using personal computers today than ever before, thanks to the simplicity and mobility of tablet style personal computing. Legacy lovers have nothing to fear, Windows, and Linux, keyboards, mice, and large 32″ displays will remain, although they will be far from mainstream. Legacy lovers also ought not sneer at those who dare to use physical keyboards with their tablets to perform tasks they have been doing all these years. Tablet style computing doesn’t replace what is done with personal computers, it is an alternative to how it is done.

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Creepy Or Intelligent?

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Frank

It has been an exciting couple of weeks of announcements, starting with Apple announcing iOS 6 and the Macbook Retina, Microsoft surprising us by announcing they are selling their own tablet, and Google announcing Android 4.1, aka Jelly Bean, and the Nexus 7 tablet. In my opinion the iOS 6 and Android 4.1 announcements are the most significant because they both provide a glimpse of where personal computing is heading.

Of the two announcements, I think that in terms of personal computing, the Android 4.1 announcement raises the bar the most. The most significant parts of the iOS6 announcement are that Apple is replacing Google Maps with their own mapping and navigation app, they are providing easier sharing with Facebook, and they are expanding how the phone uses iCloud. None of the new iOS 6 features are things we have never seen before, and some might say iOS is just catching up with Android.

I think Google Now is the most significant new feature of Android 4.1 because it adds another level of intelligence that puts the “personal” in personal computing. Google is utilizing information that it knows about you from your calendar, e-mail, and searches to present information to you before you even make a request for information. Watch the following video to see how Google Now works:

I watched the TWIT Live broadcast of the Google I/O keynote address where they announced Google Now and Leo Laporte’s reaction is that the feature is too creepy and not something that users want. While I understand why some people may be put-off by it, if Google Now proves to be beneficial to users such that it something they use, the creepy factor will be less of an issue.

Some will never understand nor be comfortable with the idea of freely sharing information about their personal lives on Facebook, while others see so much value in easily sharing information with their friends that they will not stop using Facebook no matter how often it messes up privacy options of new features.

Adoption of new features comes down to a cost/benefit analysis. The cost of using Google Now is providing more information about yourself to Google’s computers so that it can correlate that information with the current date, time, and your location to provide useful information to you. If users see enough benefit from doing so, they will have no problem with the cost of using Google Now. If enough see benefits with Google Now it and other similar apps and functions will become the accepted norm of personal computing, or what I’ve been calling real personal computing.

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Windows 8 Is About The Future Of Personal Computing

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Frank

I’ve been watching the commentary about Windows 8 with some amusement because I can’t help but think that the majority of folks are looking at Windows 8 in the wrong way. In my opinion, Windows 8 is about what Microsoft thinks is the future of personal computing rather than just being an upgrade of Windows.

People who see Windows 8 as a failure out the door because Metro doesn’t translate well to non-touchscreen, desktop and notebook computers are missing the point. I think Microsoft knows that Metro is ill-suited for traditional computers, but it doesn’t care because it believes that tablets will replace those traditional computers for the majority of people in the near future.

Put another way, I see Windows 8 as an acknowledgement by Microsoft that what Steve Jobs said about it being a post-PC world is absolutely true, although Microsoft will never admit it. If tablets are in fact taking over, and Microsoft is late to the game, what should it do?

The good and bad news for Microsoft is that the trail into the new era of personal computing has been already blazed by Apple and Google. Apple is the recognized leader in making and selling these new devices and has done so by sticking to their strategy of owning the entire platform by manufacturing and selling the hardware and software as an entire package. Google’s approach has been to follow Microsoft’s desktop model of providing the operating system to multiple hardware companies for them to create and sell a product.

Apple’s approach has made them the leader in tablets, while Google’s approach has proven to not be successful. If you are Microsoft, which path are you going to chose?

Well, now we know the answer, Microsoft is manufacturing and selling their own tablet, the Microsoft Surface. The Surface will be Microsoft’s first computer, up until now the hardware that Microsoft has sold has been accessories, the Xbox, and some clunkers such as the Zune, so much will be said about how this is such a big change to Microsoft’s business model.

An even more interesting question to me is, what does Surface mean to operating systems and the future of personal computing? In my opinion the Surface announcement represents a decision by Microsoft that the day of selling an operating system as a stand alone product is coming to an end. Without it being sold as a separate product, less emphasis will be placed on the operating system and in its place is the device and the total user experience that defines it as a personal computer.

In concluding the Surface announcement Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer emphasized that the Surface is a computer and the Surface is a tablet. If it were me, I would have said the Surface is a real personal computer.

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