Daily Tech Digest

The burning question – Does iPad fill the GAP between laptop and a smart phone? Many views are that it doesn’t as it does not include many of the common connections of a PC like USB connectors, media card reader or a camera for the regular Skype users. Its a great device for reading books as it has got a big 9.7″ inch screen coupled with the App store wherein you can buy your favorite books and carry it with you virtually everywhere. But would that be sufficient for it to become the next slate computer and takeover laptops or at-least netbooks in the coming years? Well lets analyze it with the pros and cons it has got and predict the future.

First lets go with the Pros of iPad as it has got 9.7″ LED screen with multitouch and IPS technology for brilliant viewing experience. It comes with A4 processor with 1Ghz speed high performance, low-power system-on-a-chip coupled with an built-in lithium battery which gives around 10-hour backup (it depends what applications you are using). Great device if you want to browse internet as it has got a facility of connecting to a 3G or a 4G (is compatible with 4G connection when it comes out) network and a great display to watch your favourite movies or Youtube videos. Great device for storing pictures as it has got a vivid LED clear display that makes it much more personal than ever and browsing through them by using various gestures like tapping and swiping is simply awesome. Nice device for navigation when you use application like Google Maps to pinch and zoom through locations quiet easily.

Now the Cons would be that first of all there is no option for connecting USB devices, no media card reader although there is an option for connecting one through an extra connector (sold separately). No support for Flash sites which i think is a very big disadvantage as most of the websites nowadays are flash based. There is no built-in camera for voice chat or skype as most of the users would liked it more if it would had one and also because it has got a big screen which would have made taking and viewing pictures more pleasurable. I have come across many people saying that its just a very huge device to carry around, you can feel the weight after a while holding the unit with one hand and operating with the other. There is a virtual keyboard which is good when you use it in the landscape mode but there is still a need for a physical keyboard as you cannot type 500 word essay or a 2-3 page letter with one hand and holding the device with another unless you keep it on flat surface.

Would i dump my laptop for an iPad? What do i think about it now and what can we expect from it in future?

I won’t dump my laptop now or atleast for the next year or so or till the next generation iPad is released. I would say that  it is a great portable device for reading books and viewing pictures and movies and browsing internet with exceptions but lacks many basic connections and options which can be integrated into the device to make make the whole experience worthwhile. Definitely not a replacement for a laptop nor a bridge between laptop and smartphone as of now but may become one in future if Apple integrates the basic connections and features expressed above.

So would you dump your laptop or smartphone for an iPad? Feel free to leave any comments on the above article. All opinions expressed above are personal and does not reflect any authority whatsoever.

[SinglePic not found]Nokia’s CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo recently commented in a interview with a Finnish channel that they are planning to enter the Laptop industry with a  portable computer or you can say something between a laptop and netbook which is expected no earlier than 2011. It is very likely that they will be using the Cortex A9 Sparrow OS and ARM’s multi core processor for the to be launched portable device.

In the present portable devices scenario it is becoming very common to see more and more features are being crammed into the small devices which makes the move from Nokia more meaningful as told by the CEO of the company.

“We don’t have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a [mobile] phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging.”

As more retail and corporate users have started adding another device to their list of daily use portable devices other than the mobile phone which is called as netbook, this is the perfect time for them to jump in the boat and sail across. They have been successful in the mobile phone industry but lets wait and watch if they able to gain an upper hand against their rivals in the hugely competitive and already dominated PC industry.