My little bit of the web

I’ve been a passionate user of tablet computers since I acquired a Motion slate PC at university. I found the ability to write notes over PowerPoints and PDFs indispensible. OneNote (Microsofts best keep secret!) was great for organising projects, notes, e-mails etc. It wasn’t the most powerful PC in the world, but the pen interface made up for the shortcomings, besides I had a desktop PC for processor hungry applications!
Sadly for a variety of reasons the technology has remained niche and never been adopted by mainstream users. But is this about to change? The web is alive with predictions about the iPad / iSlate / iDunno / Whatever tablet computer (or e-book reader or iPod on steroids….) that Apple will announce at their event at the end of January.
It’s interesting, as Loren Heiny observed recently, People used to say tablets needed to be more like full PCs. Hence boring convertibles. Now the argument is tablets need to be like iPhones? Which opens up the whole screen size debate. Forecasts are around a 7″ and/or a 10-11″ screen. Whilst an iPhone will slip in any pocket or handbag, a 7″screen will need big pockets and a 10″ a bag. Both screen sizes are too small for “real work” and I supect that the 7″ will be a more popular choice amongst the fanboys.
There are also rumours of a Google tablet being announced at CES, will another OS bring widespread adoption, or confusion?

Last week an innovative new mobile service was announced – Giff Gaff. Owned and operated by O2, this is not just another virtual operator, it has a new business model, that could change the mobile landscape. GiffGaff is Scottish slang for “you give to me, I give to you” or “mutual giving” the concept is that by helping the company you can earn top up credits. Full details have yet to be announced, but the idea of providing support in forums to earn credit is interesting, but how long before users are posting for the sake of it to earn status, or possibly worse, giving the wrong information to innocent users.

I’ll watch this with interest!

www.giffgaff.com