Tablets boost global device growth

With the market being driven by a shift to lower-priced devices, worldwide combined shipments of devices (PCs, tablets and mobile phones) are projected to reach 2,32-billion units in 2013, a 4,5% increase from 2012, says Gartner.

http://www.it-online.co.za/?p=76797?utm_source=dailymailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article

Deal with it: Tablets are here to stay

There's no point living in denial: more and more staff are bringing tablets to work so organisations have to adjust their policies in response.

Tablets are becoming a standard business tool for many workers, so businesses need to rethink their attitudes towards devices, whether they are buying them or not.
Research by analyst Ovum found that 17.6 percent of the employees it surveyed had already been provided with a tablet by their employer, up from 12.5 percent in 2012: but of the respondents who owned a tablet themselves, 66.7 percent used that device at work.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/deal-with-it-tablets-are-here-to-stay/?tag=nl.e101&s_cid=e101&ttag=e101&ftag=TRE684d531

Tablets and phones dirtier than a toilet seat: study

British watchdog Which? claims that your smartphones, keyboards, and tablets are more contaminated with germs than a public toilet seat. 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/2013/09/18/tablets-and-phones-dirtier-than-a-toilet-seat-study

Ubuntu Edge: Three big takeaways on the cross-over Android device

This could be the mobile device that finally has enough power and moxy to replace a PC, because it can act just like one.

With the Ubuntu Edge, that’s exactly what Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth would like you to believe. Announced on Monday, the Ubuntu Edge is a high-powered Android smartphone that will also dock and provide a full desktop experience using Ubuntu. It runs bleeding edge hardware squarely aimed at enthusiasts and it has launched one of the world’s largest crowdfunding campaigns to date in order to make it happen. 

Read More ...

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/ubuntus-cross-over-android-device-three-big-takeaways/

Tablet prices are plunging

Tablet prices are plunging amid a flood of new devices and cutthroat competition for market share. 

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/hardware/tablet-prices-are-plunging-1.1545248#.Ud6DVqw7aVo

Microsoft's mobile strategy: Where Android, iOS and Windows 8.1 fit in

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-mobile-strategy-where-android-ios-and-windows-8-1-fit-in-7000017352/?s_cid=e540&ttag=e540

This is not your dad's Microsoft. In the last few months Microsoft has been refocusing on Web services and devices instead of its mobile operating systems, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 (WP8). Neither OS have been cutting the mustard in the market. Moving forward, I see Microsoft addressing its mobile OS issues in two ways.

Surface RT: The first tablet that’s ready for the enterprise

Surface RT lags behind iOS and Android for consumer consumption, but it could very well be the first tablet that’s actually ready for the enterprise.

The ASUS TF101 Transformer Android tablet should be recognized as a trailblazer, because it delivered a vision of a lightweight ARM-based mobile device that bridged the tablet experience and promised on-the-go productivity. Unfortunately, the TF101 and its successors didn’t ever really catch on with mainstream consumers. It wasn’t until the 7″ Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 that Android tablets became a viable iOS competitor, and they’re largely not suitable as productivity platforms.

After trying to make a 10″ Android tablet work in this hybrid capacity for over two years, I finally gave in and bought a Microsoft Surface RT. I suspected that it wasn’t ARM devices that were the problem, it was OS limitations. Android is a great mobile OS for smartphones and consumption tablets, but it has serious design limitations for productivity use. My guess was that while Windows 8 and RT aren’t the greatest platforms for mobile consumption, they would both be better at delivering mobile productivity. So far, I don’t think I was wrong. But there are challenges in adopting RT for a long-time and invested Android and Google services user like myself. Some of those issues may have solutions that actually work better, once you change how you approach the problem. Other issues can be worked around, but the solution isn’t ideal. Still other issues are potential deal breakers. In this post, I’m going to discuss a few of my experiences and observations about the RT device.

Crippled Windows 8?

A claim I frequently hear is that Windows RT is confusing and limited. I think this is the wrong perspective. It isn’t fair to compare RT to Windows on IA. Instead, RT should be compared to Android and iOS. Especially for professionals working in a Windows environment, RT offers the most seamless integration of any mobile OS. With few exceptions, every shortcut or feature — even my favorite Windows keyboard shortcuts, plus Windows Snapping and Resizing — work the same in RT. While there isn’t a keyboard shortcut to take a screenshot on Surface RT, holding down the tablet’s Windows button and Volume down easily performs the same task. Once you have a screenshot, you can open and edit it in Microsoft Paint, just like you would on a traditional PC. You can even copy and paste the image right into Word or PowerPoint. Honestly, the ability to open a file or image in the Classic desktop, left-click to highlight, right-click to copy, and then paste it into any other app, including a Modern UI app, is something that you have to experience to appreciate.

Windows RT can be easily joined to a Windows Workgroup, gaining access to all shared resource. With some simple and familiar administrative modifications to the services control panel, the RT device can share its resources on your Windows network as well. Android offers SMB support for sharing through 3rd-party file managers, but these are not an OS-level integrated solution.

Printing support for both Android and iOS has been consistently frustrating and complex. RT isn’t perfect, but the printer support is still miles ahead of the competition. In my case, I have an OfficeJet 7310 All-in-One network printer. This printer isn’t currently supported by HP, but I gave the included Windows “HP OfficeJet 7000 E809 series” driver a shot, and it seems to work fine. If you’re familiar with a Windows environment, you’ll find RT to be a more powerful and smoother process than any other mobile platform. Inevitably, when I encounter shortcomings with RT, it’s more about getting my mind around the issue than RT being inferior. For example, I took screenshots on my TF300 and my RT device to illustrate that the desktop IE browser on RT gave a full desktop experience when writing a blog in Google Docs and publishing it to my site on blogger.com. On the Android TF300, I went into the Gallery, pressed on the images, tapped the Share icon, and selected Dropbox from the pull-down menu. On the native RT Modern UI Dropbox app, I couldn’t find the method to upload a local file to Dropbox. A quick web search indicated that it isn’t possible with the Modern UI app — and of course, the Windows Classic Dropbox app is Intel-only. Then I realized I was missing the example I was trying to illustrate in the first place. I went to dropbox.com from the Classic IE, logged in, and uploaded the image from the web interface. Surface RT is the only ARM-based platform that delivers a true desktop browser on a mobile device, and — in many cases — this opens a whole new world for ARM tablets. Not only is Microsoft Office included with RT, but RT also currently delivers a better experience in Google Docs than any Android tablet.

The FUDder becomes the FUDdee

For years, Microsoft has been accused of spreading fear, uncertainty, and denial (FUD) about competitive products. With the arrival of RT, Microsoft is now the victim of FUD. While some people may consider this “just desserts” for Redmond, many users could be missing out on a fantastic platform because they’re listening to half-truths and outright lies. The Modern UI portion of Windows 8 is not as mature of a mobile OS as Android or iOS. For achieving the goals of hybrid mobile devices though, RT is more like a real desktop than a mobile device trying to stretch and reach that goal.

Bottom line

When I try to use Surface RT as a classic mobile device, I’m less thrilled. For consumer consumption and non-business driven social media, RT lags behind iOS and Android. The app ecosystem is struggling, the Modern UI social media integration is not consistent or robust, and the media content is not as rich. I’ve asked before, “What good are tablets in the enterprise?” and I still wonder that when it comes to Android and iOS. To me, it seems like a way to justify consumer content consumption devices in the workplace. Surface RT, however, may be the first tablet that’s actually ready for the enterprise.

Google Preparing to Penalize Non-Mobile Friendly Websites in Search Rankings

Get your mobile on or else …

Visiting a desktop-only or misconfigured website on your mobile device can be a very frustrating experience. They are not easy to navigate or fail to work properly, leaving you with little to no satisfaction. To encourage websites to adopt good ‘mobile compliant’ practices, Google will be introducing new changes in how websites are ranked when users search on a mobile device.
Two of the most common problems that mobile users face are faulty redirects and smartphone-only errors. The search changes Google has in mind will focus on giving a better ranking to websites that follow good ‘mobile compliant’ practices.

To improve the search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.

Invitation to subscribe to Denise Nicholson's copyright issues blog

(I received this invitation from Denise Nicholson, the Copyright Services Librarian at Univ of the Witwatersrand, and thought others might like to subscribe to this useful service - Eileen) 

" I invite you and your colleagues to subscribe to my free online information service called Copyright & A2K Issues - for examples of previous items.  The topics covered include copyright, plagiarism, digitisation issues, library issues, traditional knowledge, mobile technologies, conference alerts, open access, open
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If you are interested, please email me (Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za)  with "Subscribe to Copyright & A2K Issues" in the subject field so I can add your nameto the service.
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