An Office 365 Personal subscription allows for one PC or Mac, and one tablet (including iPad) to be connected to the service, and is the best option for individuals interested in using Office 365.]]>
For example, Lightroom 5 supports a number of ways to tag a photo including flags, stars, and color labels, but Lightroom Mobile only supports flagging at launch. Adobe says it has found that many photographers also want stars and color labels as a part of their mobile workflow and it plans to include these features in a future update, but it’s taking the Lightroom Mobile 1.0 experience as an opportunity to provide just the essential features and see what other features will be popular requests by photographers for upcoming updates. Weird how Android has the volume like Windows did, but continually gets headline apps like this one after Apple. (See also: Microsoft Office.) ]]>
Yet despite the new look, everything about the software is obvious. For the most part, the iPad versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote work exactly as they do on PCs and Macs.
This is a testament to the designers and engineers at Microsoft and to the power of long-term training. Other than my web browser, there’s no software I use more often than Word, so I’ve internalized all its tics. I know the keyboard shortcuts, the menu options, the ins and outs of esoteric features like Track Changes. As I used the iPad version, I felt it click into the same neural grooves dug out by the years I’ve spent on desktop Office. If you’re familiar with Office, you won’t face any learning curve in the new version.
If you love Office on your computer, you’ll love it on your iPad. If you’ve always hated it, that won’t change, either; now you’ll just have one more place to hate it.]]>
According to several sources of mine, Microsoft's latest timetable calls for the company to finally introduce the long-rumored Microsoft Office for iPad suite of applications before the end of March 2014. This March 27 event sounds like it might be the time and place.
The suite for the iPad is rumored to include only Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and possibly no other Office client apps. It is expected to be downloaded from the Apple Store but most likely to require a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, similar to the way Office Mobile for iPhone works. Wouldn't take away from Microsoft tablet sales, because they're tiny; would add to Office sales, because the iPad comprises a sizeable market. What would it do to the tablet market, though?]]>
But if sales don't match the projections Microsoft has settled on internally, it would pull the trigger on Office for the iPad, [Patrick] Moorhead [of Moor Insights & Strategy] said. "Does having Office on Windows 8.1 incent buyers to buy a Windows machine over an iPad or Android tablet?" asked Moorhead rhetorically. "If not, I would expect them to rapidly move to put a more robust Office on iPads and Android tablets, because they wouldn't be losing anything at that point."]]>
Manufacturers have tried making a decent Windows-based tablet for years, and they’ve never worked properly. The "one-size-fits-all" philosophy of Windows 8 is a mistake, because tablets and desktops/laptops need different user interfaces. There, I’ve said it. Sorry, Microsoft. Other parts of his "support" include there being fewer apps than iOS/Android, the imperfect interface for Office on a tablet, and that lack of VBA macros. His payoff:
There’s only one little thing that worries me: for the past couple of weeks, the Surface has been sitting on the coffee table in my lounge next to my iPad, and every time I’ve wanted to check Twitter, post a Facebook status update or read my emails, I’ve reached for the latter.Other than that, Mrs Lincoln...]]>
iPads, it seems, are closer to smartphones in longevity than they are PCs. Hardware refresh cycles just started spinning a little faster. (Thanks #beardyweirdy666 for the link.)]]>
Athletes actually strap an iPad onto their backs for the C3 test so the iPad’s gyroscope and accelerometer can measure movements that might indicate concussion-related balance problems.
Alberts said C3 app evolved from another app he developed to help Cleveland Clinic physicians detect the tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease. The concussion app distinguishes between cognitive problems and motor problems, and does it fast. Imagine trying to do that same diagnosis with a laptop computer. This is why tablets are making so much difference and being adopted so quickly. (Of course, you could arguably do it with a smartphone of any size, as they have all the same sensors.)]]>
Lacking a new product launch in March to help spur shipments, Apple's iPad saw a lower-than-predicted shipment total of 14.6m units for the quarter, down from 19.5m in 1Q13. In years past, Apple has launched a new tablet heading into the second quarter, which resulted in strong quarter-over-quarter growth. Now, Apple is expected to launch new tablet products in the second half of the year, a move that better positions it to compete during the holiday season. Meanwhile, the other two vendors in the top three also saw a decline in their unit shipments during the quarter. Second-place Samsung shipped 8.1m units, down from 8.6m in the first quarter of 2013, although up significantly from the 2.1m units shipped in 2Q12. And third-place ASUS shipped a total of 2.0m units in 2Q13, down from 2.6m in 1Q13. That manufacturer called "Others" did great, though - up from 7.4m a year before to 17.5m]]>
Later after dinner, a group of us (including Walt) were talking, and I was trying to make the point that we’re getting hung up on semantics in an unnecessary way and probably are more in agreement than not. I actually think the PC is alive and well and thriving, it just comes in tons of different form factors. Many of those form factors are more mobile, and look different from the traditional desktop PC, but the same core idea drives it – personal in nature, used for work and for play, runs applications, connected to a network… etc. We should include iPads and other tablets in PC numbers? Okey-doke. Also read his points about the smartphone market - and where the Xbox sits in the discussion about Apple TV and Google TV.]]>
"All our developers know how to do Windows development, so we made the same kind of same decision for iOS. We wanted a platform where we could get developers up to speed and train them to develop apps."
Finding that expertise hasn't always been easy.
"Our team's pretty small," says Newman. "As we've grown, it has been difficult to find people with the right skills who want to work in Rochester, Minnesota." 15,000 devices using those apps. Meanwhile, the 25,000 PCs that it also uses might be scaled back. Unless Surface Pro has come along in the nick of time.]]>
Thus whereas a chemist might come home and not go into the kitchen and start running experiments, a software engineer can do exactly that. This bends the technologist's vision because the process of moving from work to play is one that is non-experiential. PC at work, then PC at home. Work tools at work - work tools at home.
I don't personally think this needs to be the case - a little light self-reflection and this becomes obvious. Are you a technologist who owns a Kindle? You could read books on your PC when you go to bed, but do you? Do you instead use the Kindle? How about cooking - do you read recipes on your iPad, or do you cart your laptop into the kitchen?
Post-PC technology is not about cost-benefit, it's all about experience. Technologists need to reflect on their own unconcious behaviour in order to understand post-PC. Applies more widely than just Office on iPad.]]>
The release on Tuesday follows the launch of Quickoffice for Apple's iPad late last year, when a Google executive said that iPhone and Android versions "are on the way." The move was also preceded by a February announcement that Google was baking the Quickoffice technology into both its Chrome browser and Chrome OS. For consumers, might be big news. For enterprises, they'll wait - forever? - for Microsoft.]]>
In order to run my class with computing resources on-site, I would have to manage a suite of laptops or desktop computers, with some kind of file server and directory infrastructure. Alternatively, I can pay Amazon a penny an hour and I don't have to care about hardware at all. Try guessing the cost of his Amazon EC2 instance over a school year.]]>
Along with the iPads, Pistor set up two digital plan tables on the site. Normal plan tables consist of a big angled slab where workers gather around to consult architectural plans on paper. These digital plan tables include a pair of 55in monitors connected to a PC that's wired to the local network, as well as an Apple TV box. Workers can walk up to the table, connect their iPads wirelessly through the Apple TV to the monitor, and discuss what they're looking at on the big monitors. The "Cite" in "Citeworld" is "Consumer IT in the enterprise".]]>
Apple's cut comes as it is adjusting its reserves for the next-generation iPad mini, which is likely to be released in the third quarter, added the sources. However, the sources also noted that Apple's cut is because of increased competition from various 7-inch Android tablets.
Apple recently adjusted shipment estimates for its iPad and iPad mini products in 2013 to 33 million and 55 million, respectively, said the sources. Only 88m? After shipping 65.7m in 2012? When IDC is expecting 190m tablet shipments this year (see below)? Only 46% of the entire tablet market? Disaster.]]>
Since then a growing number of people have been ringing him up not to inquire about his cider and apple juice but to bombard him with queries about their iPhones and iPads.
“Over the last 12 months I have been inundated with calls and it has reached as many as 25 a week,” he said. What if he did sell iPads too, though?]]>
Apple's iPad series shipments will enjoy a close to 5% sequential growth to reach 22m units in the first quarter, accounting for 65.1% of the total volume as changes in iPad series' life-cycle (launch schedule) in 2012 will help the iPad devices to suffer less impact from seasonal factors. However, seasonality will significantly impact demand for non-iPad tablets, causing their combined shipments to drop 46.9% sequentially to 11.8m units with a market share of only 34.9%. Unclear if Digitimes counts the Surface (RT or Pro) as a "tablet". Certainly seems likely that sales of the Kindle Fire and B&N Nook would drop sequentially.]]>
…• In 2012, Apple’s iPhone passed Research in Motion’s (RIM’s) BlackBerry to become the most popular smartphone in terms of corporate IT support. BlackBerry is still entrenched in the enterprise but it seems that it is being phased out.
• IT is more bullish on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 handsets than on RIM’s BlackBerry 10 phones. Both device lines are new and designed to appeal to the enterprise, as well as to consumers. However, only 34% of IT managers plan to support BlackBerry 10, compared to 45% who plan to support Windows Phone 8 devices going forward.
Tablet adoption is growing increasingly mainstream within the enterprise. Between 2011 and 2012, tablet usage increased in all nonexecutive departments, especially legal, HR/ administration and finance/accounting. The iPad is the top choice, with support from 73% of companies.]]>
Ballmer: Well, you’ve got to remember, 100 million sounds like a pretty small number to me, actually. We’ve got a lot more Office users. And actually if you even want to go to the cloud, we have a lot of Hotmail and SkyDrive users. I’m not beating on Dropbox. They’re a fine little startup and that’s great. 100 million makes you a little startup? OK. He's then asked about Yammer (6m) which Microsoft bought for $1.2bn. And he also deals with the question of Office for iPad. Well, sort of.]]>
Bussman also reveals that SAP is testing BlackBerry 10, and will be supporting the new platform internally this quarter. There's a video too.]]>
Amazing.
The only thing greater than the resistance to tablet adoption has been how quickly tablets have overcome that resistance.
The modern tablet was reinvented in April 2010 with the introduction of the iPad. It’s now two years and 8 months old. No personal computing technology has been adopted faster than the tablet. And that’s saying something. The tablet is being adopted at almost twice the rate that the smartphone was. (Thanks @slimbowski for the link.)]]>
The biggest disappointment about the iPad Mini was its surprising lack of innovation. For those grown accustomed to Apple always stunning and delighting by ratcheting up the level of technology with each new product, a device that comes with innards based on aging (obsolete?) hardware is a serious let down. All the more so when the customer is expected to pay a whopping two-thirds premium ($329 vs $199) over comparable devices from other respected makers.
The Mini’s touch-screen display, for instance, uses technology from Apple’s pre-Retina era, dating back to iPads of two generations ago. The Mini’s dual-core processor, with its stingy 512 megabytes of random-access memory (RAM), was lifted from an iPad that went on sale back in March 2011. Its graphics engine is also two generations out of date. By no stretch of the imagination could the iPad Mini be called cutting-edge stuff.]]>
The sources have yet to specify whether the device will use Apple's Retina Display technology to enhanced resolution, but market observers said it is highly likely based on the development of past Apple products such as the iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad series. Not just sources, but backlighting sources.]]>
Apple is requiring Chinese customers to participate in an online lottery one day in advance to buy the Wi-Fi version of the iPad Mini at its seven retail stores in China. Those selected, however, are limited to two iPad Minis each and must bring photo identification…
“Most Chinese consumers have a modest disposable income, and a lot of them are going for cheaper offerings,” [Mark]Newman [of brokers Sanford Bernstein] said. “We believe the mass market is more interested in specs rather than brand – similar to what we’ve seen for smartphones in China.”
But David Wolf, chief executive of marketing consulting firm Wolf Group Asia, said:… “This will do better than some of the naysayers suggest… Apple is going to make the iPad technology available to a market that either couldn’t afford it or couldn’t fit it into their lives.” Take your pick. (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)]]>
Using software from Diligent, the companies have replaced hundreds of pages of documents in lever arch files with a system that provides all the information board members need via an iPad. This has not only made preparation for meetings easier but cut costs by thousands of pounds.
Traditionally non-executive board members would be sent hundreds of pages of documents by courier weeks before a meeting. They would then have to travel with the documents to the meetings, which are usually in different countries. Big cost, time and paper saving. Not clear why it has to be an iPad, though. Note the point at the end about the Patriot Act too.]]>
For business-use tablet models alone, Eben had the largest market share of 41.07%, followed by Samsung Electronics with 19.66%, Asustek Computer with 9.17%, ViewSonic with 4.37% and Lenovo with 3.89%, Analysys indicated. Eben?]]>
Barclays did not provide any detailed explanation on why it opted for Apple as opposed to one of the also-ran devices, but it is planning to use an app called Mortgage Brain that was specially designed for the iPad.
Mortgage Brain is jointly owned by six banks including Barclays Woolwich, RBS, Virgin Money, Santander, Lloyds TSB and Nationwide.]]>
When we discussed the intended use cases for the iPad Mini, every single person with kids mentioned it as a part of their child’s educational process as a key use case. This did not surprise me. What did surprise me was that over half of those who brought up using it as a part of their kids educational process made the point that they believed the iPad would be used in schools in the future and making sure their kids were proficient with it was important and that they wanted their kids to use the same technology at home they will be using in schools.]]>
The interest in the hybrids as we define it is extremely high, although the demand for Windows RT based hybrids like the Surface is somewhat muted since it does not have backward compatibility with existing Windows apps. Instead, the hybrids we are seeing great interest in, both with consumers and business users, are Windows 8 devices that use an x86 chip and has full backwards compatibility with existing Windows software like HP’s Envy 2 Convertible. But if the scenario I suggest plays out, it will be these hybrids that drive “laptop” sales in the future, while demand for more traditional laptops will wane considerably.]]>
I already have five tablets in my single-person household, including all three previous generations of iPads and a Google Nexus 7. I thought the mini would fill a small niche in my tablet needs, such as controlling my TiVo or Sonos system. So I bought the low-end 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad mini. I was wrong. Now read on.]]>
Some white-box makers in Shenzhen are shipping 200,000-300,000 tablets a month, and a number of large-scale operators are even shipping one million units a month, buoyed by their tactics of optimizing hardware specifications, while keeping device prices low, noted the sources. Are most of these perhaps being made in and staying in China? (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)]]>
Gordon said it's unclear what strategy HTC might take in a possible return to tablets. He said the company could try to tackle the lower-end of the market, as Google has attempted with the Wi-Fi-only Nexus 7, or it could build a more powerful device that would cost more.
"We're very much not set on one strategy over another," he said. HTC's previous tablet entries have spanned the gamut: The company's Jetstream launched at $700 and its W-Fi-only Flyer device sold for $299 through Best Buy.]]>
Knowing Apple, that sounds like a far more plausible explanation than the most popular theory I’ve heard: that Apple just wants to force iPad 1 owners to buy new iPads.]]>
Samsung originally accounted for a large portion of iPad panel shipments and was shipping over one million iPad panels in July. However, as of August the company had dropped to roughly 700,000 in iPad panel shipments and that number may decrease even more, added the sources.
The decrease is a significant drop from Samsung's monthly average of 2.5m iPad panel shipments during the first half of 2012, said the sources. The sources did not specify specific reasons for the drop in shipments but market observers suspect it has to do with disputes between Apple and Samsung.]]>
The 1944 design by then-SBB employee Hans Hilfiker (which you can see here) is used in station clocks throughout the railway system, which is well-known for its timeliness. It's also licensed to Mondaine, a Swiss watch manufacturer.
An SBB spokesman told Tages-Anzeiger that he was pleased Apple was using the design, but noted that the company was not authorized to do so. The report suggests a legal complaint is being drafted as a result. Someone forgot that if there's one thing the Swiss take seriously, it's their clocks.]]>
And there's Google's problem. Its relationship with its users is too like Microsoft's. Instead it needs to be more like Amazon. But competing there would cause problems too. Android for tablet sits on the horns of a dilemma: what it needs to succeed – a content retailer about to challenge Apple – might be what kills off rival makers.]]>
Rumors are circulating in the IT market that Apple will launch its 7.85in iPad in October with a thinner screen frame to allow the device to feature a bigger display area than other competing products and will also feature a resolution similar to that of iPad 2. It's like a Rolf Harris picture.]]>
Despite the original similarity in mobile business models, the graphs below show two nearly polar opposite results. Apple’s success with both the iPhone and iPad have led its devices to command a staggering 63% of all mobile traffic – up nearly 35% from slightly under year ago. The iPad is surely distorting the figures. According to Chitika, RIM's mobile web share was just over 1%. In October 2011 it peaked (for the past year) at 5%. ]]>