The History of Tablets

Apple did not create the tablet. Just saying.

      Picture above shows Steve Ballmer now CEO of Microsoft holding up an old resistive screen tablet that ran on Windows XP which get this: came out before the iPad. Okay so I am not saying this looks like the iPad in any way or am I saying this tablet was successful because it wasn't, but I am saying the iPad only revolutionized the market not made it. At the time tablets were used strictly for business not play. But the iPad made a consumer friendly tablet albeit at low specs and high price so you could play Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, or whatever else you do on your iPad. Then came along Google with Android which at first barely slowed down the iPad advance. Now iOS, Android, and Windows 8/RT tablets are all in a mud slinging fight for market share with no clear winner, but today I will take you on a trip down the proverbial memory lane from the days where the tablets of today would be pure science fiction.

The First Slow tablets

   Today modern tablets even cheap ones could easily outrun laptops of 2004. In the beginning, the first original tablet was developed by Acorn Computers called the Newspad in 1994. The pilot/trials for the tablet ended in Barcelona, 1997 killing the tablet and a dream, but that dream was relived by Microsoft as a bulky tablet PC made primarily for work places like hospitals. The tablet PC's running full Windows XP tablet edition were expensive, ugly, and had terrible sales. The cycle went on with Vista even debuting mini tablet PC's that no one ever remembered. Then along came Android with Android 1.4 debuting on the Archos 5. Obviously the device really was a lagfest compared to the quad core Androids of today. The OS was unheard of and untested before Google bought it. Now it did have a big hard drive for storing a lot of stuff and was powered by a 800 Mhz processor that let you play 720p at 24fps which today wouldn't be acceptable on a high end device.

A slew of other tablets came but in 2010 the Apple iPad featuring iOS catapulting tablets into mainstream popularity. The iPad made the tablet cool essentially even if it was critically received. The app store grew changing the way software was bought permanently from in stores to online breathing life into companies like: Zygna, Betaworks, and other app makers. iOS completely dominated the market despite pushback from Google with Honeycomb in 2011 which was like a fly on the wall compared to the Apple monopoly. Recently Google has made the "halo" brand of Nexus products that have helped lead the charge in taking back marketshare from the iOS juggernaut which has slowed it down to a point but the iPad still has the mindshare advantage. 

  

Surface Pro

Then along came Windows 8. Microsoft launched Windows 8/Windows RT on October 26th, 2012 officially jumping into the death ring known as the tablet market with the new touch friendly OS. Windows 8 did offer many improvements over Windows 7 but the Metro/Modern start screen was received with mixed reviews. The Surface RT/Pro was Microsoft's attempt at their own "halo" device as an example to other OEM's to make high quality hardware. The saga continues as Windows 8.1 a much better and more polished version of Windows 8 has been released to test and is supposed to hit RTM by August. 

The Future?

 That is a hard one to envision. Most likely can see tablets being thin, fast, replacing laptops, and possibly docakble to TV's. 

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2013 Winners

     Very interesting thing about one of the most well known tech competitions. Students from all over the world test there creativity and problem solving. Very interesting stuff here I must say! The winners were announced at St. Petersburg, Russia.  Four fellows from the UK won the Innovation division for their work on soundSYNK, a mobile app that can connect a virtually unlimited number of devices like Windows Phone 8, iOS and Android.

The History of the Smartphone

     The smartphone has slowly evolved from clunky interfaces, fat, slow pen enabled phones to slick, fast, slim super phones powered by apps. Originally the smartphone was created to act as a PC and have the portability of a phone. Originally the smartphone was a niche product and picked up by very few until today where the smartphone today has become a status symbol. Many think that Apple was the main innovator of the modern smartphone and has the only viable product. Truthfully Nokia, Samsung, and RIM are the major innovators in this realm and two out of the three are in financial trouble. Come with me on a ride through history of where the first smartphone was born up to today where the market has truly been cultivated.

Conception

     

      The first batch of smartphones were not very small or light, but rather large and bulky. The IBM Simon pictured above was created in 1994. The earliest concept was introduced by a man named Theodore George "Ted" Paraskevos who birthed the early smartphone. Still we follow a very thin line of scattered concepts by various people until we get to the date 1992. The "Angler" by IBM was announced at the now discontinued COMDEX trade show. Two years later the Simon was released to the public in 1994. Of course the Simon phone would never compare to today's smartphones or even some feature phones, but at the time it was in a class of its own. It could send and receive faxes, e-mails, and pages thanks to a stylus guided touch screen. Of course it did not have a fancy 720p HD screen or a Clearback AMOLED screen like most flagship smartphones today, but at the time the monochrome back lit LCD was revolutionary enough. It had a fold out keyboard and was powered by the Datalight ROM-DOS a.k.a Microsoft mobile Disk operating system. It wasn't wildly successful compared to current smartphones with a modest 50,000 units sold at killer prices on contract: $899. It weighed 1 lb 2 ounces which would be clearly unacceptable today for modern standards. Other things like an address book, calendar, world time clock, alarm clock, some predictive touch keyboards, and a few games. Via an upgrade you could even run 3rd party apps! The bummer was only 1 3rd party app was ever developed called Dispatchlt which ran for $300. Of course the price would be so outdated today and now would be at the most $8.00. This may not have been wildly popular, but it was a revolution that has set the standard for the modern smartphone. Next came along Finnish phone giant Nokia with the Nokia 9000 as part of the communicator line. Compared to the Simon the 9000 was more powerful and lighter at 14 ounces. Thus began the evolvement and creation of the smartphone line. Still the majority of the populous did not want these phones because they could do even more tasks with their PDAs. Finally the first phone to be marketed as a smartphone was the Ericsson R3880.
 

     The True Early Years

     Now with a phone on a real smartphone OS the market expanded to include other competing OS like WebOS and Windows CE/Mobile. I can't truly cover every single smartphone, but I can cover the OS that have come over the years and their biggest phones. 

Blackberry

• Originally created in 1999 for the Blackberry pager. 
• Soon took off as a big player in the smartphone race when at once was the "smartphone to get." 
• Now is struggling in 3rd place with 9% market share.
• Biggest market is now Enterprise and government due to unique protected calling feature. 

     

Windows Mobile

• Originally made in 1990 to run on "pocket pcs' a.k.a Windows CE
• Windows Mobile 6 was released around the time of the Iphone 3GS 
• was later replaced by Windows Phone 7 with a new store and a totally new look
• At its highest point in 2007 it had a commanding 42% marketshare

Windows Phone 7+

• Announced in Spain at Mobile World Congress in 2010
• Was meant to replace Windows Mobile 6 but was not compatible with existing phones
• has a measly 3.5% marketshare according to IDC
• has Office apps unlike any other platform which are going to be updated with Office 15

 

iOS 

• announced in 2007 as Iphone OS
• was not released with any 3rd party apps
• homescreen is called Springboard
• 1 a year the OS is updated via OTA update
• 12.4% of all mobile users (smartphones and feature phones) have an Iphone.

Android

• Android OS is a linux based Open Source OS headed by Google
• First Android phone was sold in October 2008 
• Android Inc was originally founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin and was bought by Google in 2005
• Android is the largest mobile OS with 48% marketshare and over 400 million devices
• One biggest problem for Android phones is the update system with over 55% of users still on gingerbread. 

Web OS

• Also based on a linux kernel developed by Palm
• Originally launched in January 2009 on 3 phones by HP the Veer, Pre, and Pixi.
• April, 2010 HP bought webOS for 1.2 billion dollars
• Was originally launched with 18 apps in the store which grew to 10,000
• Current marketshare is 0.6% 

          

What is to happen?

       Well we have seen smartphones evolve from clunky phones referred to as bag phones with limited functions to insanely thin and light phones with high resolution cameras and speedy ARM based processors that can handle games desktops in the 90's couldn't. Nokia recently came out with the Lumia 920 and 820 which features wireless charging from Qi which debuted in the Samsung Droid Charge. The advent of the portrait keyboard is slowly dying as virtual keyboards get better and more advanced. For now the future is unknown, but inevitably things will be thinner, lighter, and more powerful. We just have to wait and see.

Goodereader Tablet on Pre-Order

      So far no information or pictures have been provided, but we do know that on their exclusive shopereaders.com website you can pre-order the Goodereader tablet for $169. Specs have come out proving that the extra money for the Google Nexus 7 is really worth it since it has a lackluster screen resolution. What it does have going for it is 16GB of internal storage and a micro sd card port

Google Play credit card??

      The Nexus tablet is a now widely known Google Play certified device but ships with a full HD movie and a mysterious $25 app credit. This could be a good way of setting the stage for parents who could let their kids and teens a prepaid amount to buy apps, movies, books, tv series, and magazines without worrying about their credit cards. Why I point this out is because this is extremely similar to the Windows Phone $25 pre-paid app card you got for buying a new Windows Phone.

Skypad Protos Out Update: Gemini Up for sale

Amazon.com: SKYTEX Technology Inc. Skypad SX-SP970A 9.7-Inch Tablet (Black): Electronics


Okay so I was a bit excited in my haste to post this that I only included a link and now am featuring the specs added by Skytex and the Gemini is available to be bought for $169 which is very shocking (not to be confused with the Skypad Alpha 2 on the official Skytex website for $169. The Skypad Protos is not available for sale or pre-order currently and is featuring the same specs as said on the website except this time around (per my suggestion) they have included a 5mp rear camera that should make this all the more IpadHD competitor. Some people have scoffed saying that this can not possible be the real thing but according to the model numbers on the Gemini and Protos we have enough information to believe this is the real deal and are waiting on a statement from Skytex. Also the specs on the Gemini deviated from what we were lead to believe: first instead of Bluetooth 4.0 it is listed as 2.0, second it says it has a full USB 2.0 port on the tablet which is hard to believe for a budget Android tab, third which really are just questions I have are that is says it has a mini HDMI 1.4 and optimized Wi- Fi which means usually it is going to be a hard plastic backing or it will feature an aluminum backing with two wi-fi radios instead of one.
Update: We have word from a company spokesperson that the Gemini and Protos will be up for order next week!

We do have the Protos and Gemini as pre-orders on our site but shipments are not expected to go out until the 2nd week of July

 Gemini will be available for puchase next week.

These are two of the statements made to us. Sadly no word about the Protos.

Samsung keeps on Innovating

Samsung has a long list of innovations such as the Smart tv, smart appliances (you can listen to music with your refrigerator) biggest smart phone aka phablet, dual screen camera, smart camera, and now the do it all Samsung Galaxy One with a built in projector. This is the first tablet to feature a built in projector but not the first Windows prototype device to feature one. The LG EXPO was a Windows Mobile 6.5 (not Windows Phone 7 same platform different UI and market) and was to be featured on AT&T. It did come out and was not a very big hit even though I only remember it because of the funny commercial they made for it. The Galaxy brand is very classic of Samsung to brand their devices flagship or second generation design (Samsung Nexus became Samsung Galaxy Nexus). The importance of Samsung entering the tablet market for Windows 8 (also featuring the flagship Samsung Series 7) is that even though Microsoft has a lot of money they can not only take the burden of advertising alone. Samsung to date is the largest cell phone maker followed by Nokia and Apple with LG and HTC gaining traction. Samsung has already dabbled in the Android tablet market and has had some moderate success especially with the Verizon 4G market. Also we already know they have an excellent legal team so when Apple goes for round 100 Samsung will back up their devices and win. This prototype device is actually a really beautiful designed tablet. As shown is the many functions that can be made with this device. It looks to have two cameras and has a dual featured pop out stand to use for the projector, for watching a movie, preforming normal Office functions, and what ever rocks your boat. The screen looks like it is 11.6 or 12.1 inches and with the projector included it is pretty thin. 

The stand concept is not new to the mobile market and HTC the Taiwanese smartphone giant has quite a few smartphones with kickstands which were not really good at their jobs. This stand looks firm and solid and should be able to stand up to pressing your finger against it in any spot and what ever other torture you do to your tablet. 

This shot to me is very controversial since it depicts Windows 8 with a Start button which the recent Consumer Preview does not have. The start button was what Metro was built on and has been a very big argument since most power users have essentially cried about not having a button that when they swipe from one side of the screen or move their mouse into the bottom right or left corners brings up the charms bar. 

One of the biggest things we use our tablets for is reading. Now what I see is all newspaper no interference which is very uniform for Metro. The good part that Microsoft learned Apple hasn't is a uniform design that is hardly seen. Also the amount of Apps is not as good as quality apps. Apple may have over 500,000 apps the most hardcore Apple fanboy will tell you there is a lot of junk apps. I believe Microsoft will be able to get all of the good quality apps into the Windows 8 Marketplace without the more junkier apps. 

Now the lucky couple who hopefully gets to keep their Samsung Galaxy One is watching a 1080p movie with their tablet no tv screen required. Of course a clean white wall would be the best to fully enjoy your movie. Also the tablet can efficiently project images up to 8 feet which is great for sitting your device down on a coffe table like this couple did. Also the projector  is more than a novel concept, but a valuable money saver in the working/student environment. 

Like I was saying perfect for meeting were you do not have an overhead and are trying to deliver a cutting edge power point. The coolest point about this picture is the tablet is projecting itself showing off the goods of a Metro interface. The current Samsung Windows tablet the Windows 8 flagship device did not have a stylus holder and this looks like it has that hole covered no pun intended. 

Here we have two Galaxy Ones using the Remote Desktop app. Of course an Ipad could never pull this off by itself unless helped by a great immortal device with Splashtop Streamer and a projector like the Galaxy One. What this just did is have the one Galaxy One turn the other into a desktop, keyboard, and multi gesture touch pad. I wish I could do that!!

Another innovation is that the projector can rotate which can be very helpful depending on your environment.

Now this is what I call multi-tasking. Instead of having a large monitor showing you your Skype conversation just use the projector  while you chat with whom ever you choose. 

Angry Birds Space is a very popular game and can be a large factor if an OS has any success. Since Angry Birds Space is not yet available for Windows 8 Marketplace it must have been used using Bluestacks the Android emulator that can run any Android app on your home computer. 

I know some friends who love to draw and the pen would be a great advance over buying an additional stylus with an Ipad and not being able to accurately draw since it does not have an active digitizer layer. 

The presence of the Galaxy One if it ever gets out of the drawing room (and the hands of a select few testers) will be a great help to Windows 8 and my words to Samsung is keep on innovating and I want one of these really bad!!

 

Best Iphone 4S Competitiors

I have been hearing many complaints from my base on my partially biased review on the Iphone 4S (biased toward Apple not Android) and have decided to do another review except showing the 3 main phone OS other than IOS which are Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7. I personally am a Windows Phone fanboy but today I am going to give an unbiased review of the top dogs of these respective phones.

#1 Android - Samsung Galaxy Note

     Android is the most popular phone/tablet operating system and the Galaxy Note is a wonderful combination of phone and tablet a.k.a phablet. One of the biggest detractors of the Iphone 4S is the small 4 inch screen. The Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch screen which may be a bit big for your hands but ultimately comes with alot of perks including a S stylus, faster and more productive 1.4GHZ dual core processor, 8mp rear camera with LED flash and full 1080p video recording, Super AMOLED screen (Active matrix organic light emitting diode) which is far superior in quality and performance, and a suite of apps dedicated to the big screen and perfect for your stylus such as a solid note taking app and the Samsung touch whiz skin layer similar to the HTC sense UI. Also Android is growing quickly with approximately 500,000 more or less apps and games, and with the new Google Play store it features 14 million songs and 100 free songs with a new Google Music account, all the latest and greatest movies available for 24 and 48 hour rental for low prices, and google books has over 3 million books for all subjects and gets 5 stars for research papers especially on Azerbaijan! This is a solid choice even though the 2 year contract price starts at $249 depending on your carrier. If you need a ton of apps and a really large screen this is your best buy.

#2 Windows Phone 7 - HTC Titan II

     This was a very hard choice for me since all of the Windows Phones are the same. Microsoft has done a great job with their propiertary OS especially since it has surpassed Blackberry in 2010 in app count. Market share and carrier availability is low since almost all phones are on AT&T and all the other carriers except T-Mobile have only one. (T-Mobile has two). The big factors for the HTC Titan II is the biggest camera sensor to date a whopping 16mp camera with 1080p video recording, a large screen is also great at 4.8 inches, and all Windows Phones come with Office Mobile apps preinstalled (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and One Note), and it has 4GLTE functionality which the Iphone can only do 3G. The reason I chose this as number two is because Windows Phone has 70,000 apps to date and even though it got a late start among the 500,000 app count giants it still made 10,000 apps faster than anyone in the market even if they were not the first. Also it passed Blackberry in app count in May 2011 and is expected to pick up market share and app reliability when the launch of Windows 8 and WP8. The idea behind this is that you can synchronize your documents, apps, and files all on one account. With this idea developers will come and so will consumers. This is a great phone for $199 on a two year contract with AT&T only unless you buy one unlocked off of Amazon. Also Windows Phones are extremely cheap unlocked some going for $139 refurbished with excellent specs. 

#3 Blackberry - Torch

     This is the only touch screen powered phone by Blackberry and is the only phone on our list which is smaller than the Iphone at 3.7 inches. This is underspecced compared to our other competitors on the list bearing a 5mp rear camera with 720p hd recording, Blackberry 7 also BB10 upgrade able which features an Android emulator so you can run any Android app on your Torch, this is the first Blackberry that is all touch and is aimed at consumers and BYOD (bring your own device) establishments, and features the lowest price on our list at $179 on Verizon Wireless. The Torch is a big step in the right direction for the dying RIM even though they still have more market share than WP7 and has one of the most money making app stores around people do not will not buy it because it is a Blackberry. RIM has to learn how to stop scaring consumers and bring them into the "Bold Fold."

   Wrap-UP

All of these OS are very respective in all that they do and all have similar features that rival the boring IOS. Android features Google Voice Search which is much like Siri which you can ask questions and it will direct you to the right answer and can text by voice. Also live wallpaper brought in by Android 2.3 update is a beautiful touch to the boring row of apps in IOS. Windows Phone 7 has the most dynamic look of all the OS there is. Live tiles show you how many e-mails, messages, missed calls, and facebook notifications you have and are big and bold in color. Also Bing search acts alot like Siri and does the same as Google Voice but can also earn you Bing rewards with each search gathering prizes like $5 Amazon gift cards. Lastly Blackberry has a voice search client and a mostly boring but functional UI. I prefer WP7 since it has Office built in for free and all WP7 phones have 25GB free of cloud storage on Skydrive which syncs with your Windows or Mac pc. 

The New Skypad Family

The new Skypad family is more advanced, stronger, faster, and even bigger. The Skypad Protos is a 9.7 inch Super IPS 1024x768 widescreen beauty device. This powerhouse is packed with a 1.2 GHZ Arm Cortez and has a wopping 10 hours plus battery life. Also a full 1 GB of ram and a MALI GPU for excellent gaming performance. This is my current favorite of the Skypad family and hope to see her excell as a Ipad competitor. Here is the more detailed information. 
Videos and photos are rich with color and vibrancy on the all-new 9.7” Skypad Protos tablet featuring a high-def IPS display that brings images to life! The high capacity 6,000mAh battery allows you to stay connected playing games and browsing the web for 25% longer than other tablets.
The High Def IPS Display Protos features an incredible 1024 x 768 resolution with clarity and vibrancy typically found on more expensive tablets. The vivid 9.7" display offers you the comfort of a big screen so you can lose yourself in your favorite movies, books, and games for hours on end.
Bluetooth and Dual Hi-Res Cameras
Connect compatible Bluetooth devices such as speakers, headphones and keyboard that will function up to 30 feet away from the tablet. With two (2) high resolution cameras, capture life’s cherished moments or share some quality face time with family and friends.

Games, Apps, Shopping, and more…
Download apps for playing games, streaming the latest videos, shopping on-line, or staying in touch with family and friends. The pre-installed 1Mobile Marketplace offers hundreds of thousands of free apps including 1000’s of games specifically made for Android. You can also download the Amazon App Store application from Amazon.com.

1Mobile Marketplace

1Mobile's unique user interface makes it simple and easy to download the latest apps you have been craving for.
 With over 200,000 free and popular apps such as Facebook, Netflix, Angry Birds, Skype, Amazon Mobile and Kindle,
 the 1Mobile Marketplace of apps will keep you entertained and coming back for more.

  




























eReader and Cookbook
Compatibility with the most popular reading 
apps offer you the freedom of not being tied
 down to a specific bookseller. 
The Recipe search app embedded into the 
tablet is the ultimate cookbook for the kitchen.
Media for the Big Screen
Don't be tied down to the small screen. 
When it’s time for some serious viewing fun, 
connect the Protos to an HDTV or monitor via 
HDMI (cable not included) to enjoy HD movies, 
3D** and gaming on the big screen.

**Stereoscopic 3D images are only viewable when connected via HDMI to a 3D capable monitor or television.

The next in line successor is the Skypad Gemini due to be out in May. It is supposedly to be a 7 inch gaming tablet which I view as a more updated version of  the Skypad Alpha 2 with a new 2.0 mp front camera in a more desirable position, Bluetooth 2.0, 1GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, and the micro hdmi cable which makes this a much better buy than the Alpha. This is an excellent gift for kids if you IT professional parents know how to install the GAPPS software. This tablet will be an excellent choice for anyone and you can read more about it below. I hope to be reviewing this tablet when it comes out.  
The Next Generation of Tablet is Here...with Bluetooth Compatibility and Hi-res Webcam
     The all new SKYPAD Gemini races into action fueled by the powerful 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor + Mali-400 GPU. Gemini handles apps, browsing, streaming, and gaming like no other Tablet. The capacitive touchscreen can recognize up to 5-points of touch, perfect for effortless navigation of the web, any game, or application.
Bluetooth and Hi-res Webcam
We've integrated Bluetooth 2.0 for pairing your Tablet with favorite wireless accessories. In addition, there’s a hi-res 2.0MP front-facing webcam and internal mic for Internet calling and video chatting with family and friends. All of this adds up to our most feature packed tablet yet.

7" (diagonal) LCD Display

• Powerful 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A8, next generation graphics, 1GB RAM and 8GB of storage for smoother & higher definition of gaming.

• Capacitive multi-touch display for better gaming, faster navigation, and pinch-to-zoom functionality.

• Integrated hi-res 2.0MP front-facing webcam and internal mic for Internet calling and video chatting with your family and friends.

Games, Apps, Shopping and more…
Download apps for streaming the latest videos, playing games, shopping on-line, or staying in touch with family. The pre-installed 1Mobile Marketplace offers hundreds of thousands of free apps including 1000’s of games specifically made for Android. You can also download the Amazon App Store application from Amazon.com.

1Mobile Marketplace
1Mobile's unique user interface makes it simple and easy to download the latest apps you have been craving for. With over 200,000 free and popular apps such as Facebook, Netflix, GT Racing, Kindle, and Amazon Mobile, the 1Mobile Marketplace of apps will keep you entertained and coming back for more.

Android 4.0 OS with more intuitive multi-tasking and navigation - a new UI and improved performanceThe high capacity battery which will get you up to 6 hours of gaming, movies, music, reading and web browsing.The ultimate in wireless connectivity with Bluetooth 2.0 for pairing your favorite accessories, and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n that has been optimized for incredibly fast downloads over the web.

Family and Entertainment Companion...
The included family gaming and Recipe Search apps turns the tablet into a great family companion as well as the ultimate cookbook for the kitchen. It also makes a great bedside e-Reader.

When it’s time for some more serious entertainment, connect Gemini to an HDTV or monitor via HDMI (cable not included) to enjoy HD movies, 3D**, and gaming on the big screen.

**Stereoscopic 3D images are only viewable when connected via HDMI to a 3D capable monitor or television. 

   

  The next and final newcomer is the vastly unknown Skypad Pocket is to replace the old Primer Pocket and be the 5 inch pocket friendly version of the excellent Skypad family. There is no information on this product and only one picture on their website. I believe this will be a great family to rival the Ipad family. 


Prices: $169 Gemini and $264 for the Skypad Protos as advertised on Amazon
Update: prices are slashed on the Skytex website: $139 for the Alpha 2  $159 for the Gemini and $249 for the Protos with 5GB of free cloud storage on the Protos only. 

The battle of Two's

                                    Skypad Alpha 2 vs. Ipad2
      I finally decided to review the Skypad Alpha 2 vs. the Ipad2. I waited to make this battle because the original Skypad Alpha was too low on specs to think about competing with the Ipad 2. Now with an upgraded app market, faster processor, capacitive screen, and hdmi cable we can think this beautiful sleek device can compete with the bigger more well known Ipad 2. Also another thing to look forward to is an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwhich. This device will be a definite hit and a smash in the budget market.

 1. Multimedia

     The Ipad2 is locked and loaded with the IOS app market holding 500,000 apps. Even though it has all that only a mere 140,000 are made for the Ipad. With a 9.7 inch capacitive screen with 3 points of touch this is great for slicing fruit and the pinch to zoom is very fluid. A much more known contemporary and very ferocious, but is extremely limited. Powered by a mere 1 GHZ dual core chip and 512 MB of RAM come on people get this in your head! Let my not forget the lack of SD and hdmi ports! On the side of the Skypad Alpha 2 we see a foreign app market called 1Mobile. Do not be afraid for it sports over 200,000 applications all free! With a 7 inch 5 finger multi touch screen you can bet your bottom dollar this is a death match. Packing a 1.2 GHZ ARM Cortex 8 processor and the same GPU in the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and 512 MB of Ram this is made for gaming. Also it has the ability to stream through its hdmi port 3D stereoscopic files. Something many devices wish they could do. With this battle I reluctantly say the Alpha 2 wins the day!

2. The Long Haul

     Don't we all love a device that can last that long road trip? With the Ipad you get 10 hours of goody goodness. With the Skypad Alpha 2 you get between 4-6 hours of playtime. Also with a car charger accessory you will be able to charge back up fully in one hour!
                                                                      3. Camera
     The camera situation is defiantly better on the Ipad. With a 2mp front and 3mp rear 720p it is a lot better. What you should consider is the Skypad Alpha 2 has a new .3mp camera which is a heck lot better than the old 1.3 in low light conditions. I leave that decision to y'all.
                                                                      Final decision
     My final decision is the Alpha2 is an excellent choice for teens, tweens, and people on a budget. It is only beaten by the camera and size situation. Also with Android 4.0 update you will not miss IOS. So if you want   an excellent e-reader with 5 points of touch great processor and stellar graphics go with the Alpha2. If you want a big device for who knows what go with the Ipad 2.