I'm totally with you, Jenn. My kids both have Kindle Fires, which they love, my husband lives on his iPad and I am not one single bit jealous. I love my Macbook laptop. Tablet form factor is too small for my liking and with my work, I'm too keyboard dependent. I also like to read a real book!
I agree with the fascination factor, and would not be at all surprised to see Apple come out with a smaller, sleeker tablet at the $200 price point.
I have a first-generation iPad, a Kindle Fire, and a MacBook Pro. In my opinion, the Mac wins, hands down. Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer holding a book in my hands.
Beth, it is amazing what they pack inside. What is really amazing is what they pack in the chip. This one has a quad core CPU and a graphics processor. That is harder to see, though.
As for Apple, it will be interesting to see how they price it. In the PC realm they have always had a higher price point. Since there were no "clones" they could do that. They had some nice features, but these were often not really necessary. For two to three times the price, it is not worth it. This has limited their market share. Recently the MAC has been suffering in sales.
In the tablet market, they defined the market. On the other hand, the utility of the tablet is somewhat limited. I don't know too many who have gotten rid of their laptops when they bought a tablet. To me the smaller tablet is a good deal. I would want such a device for reading and web surfing, not much more. I know a guy who sold his iPad and kept his Kindle. He uses the Kindle to read books and it fits in the back pocket of his jeans if he needs to put it somewhere.
These tear downs are always fascinating as you get a first hand glimpse at what actually goes into these electronics devices. I's amazing how much can be packed into such small real estate considering that the footprints are getting increasingly smaller and the total packages much more streamlined. I've been reading reports that Apple is working on a smaller, sleeker iPad. Let the games begin!
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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