One of the major questions that a lot of people are asking is whether or not they will need a tablet computer and what function it will serve on a day-to-day basis. As consumers, we don’t need another portable computer in our lives in addition to the many that we already have.

Step back and think about it. Here is my personal experience, which is increasingly common amongst the “connected” population.

Many of us have a laptop, a smartphone or cell phone that can handle e-mail and messaging, a netbook for on-the-go activities, and a home desktop for “real work”.  On a regular day, I have a cell phone, an iPod touch and a netbook or laptop handy. That’s three devices and all are internet ready. The iPod Touch is used to check my five e-mail accounts, read news on Google Reader, browse Facebook, write some posts on WordPress, listen to music, watch a movie once in a while (if I feel like encoding the video) and for playing some games. As you can already tell, the iPod serves as a necessary part of my daily routine. In fact, the only justification for buying it at its sky high debut price (I bought the 16GB model roughly five months after it was released) was that it would improve my workflow and life. I made the decision that it would. I’ve never looked back. Read the rest of this entry »

If 2009 was the year of “hope,” then let me dub the year 2010 as the year of refinement in regards to technological developments. In looking back throughout the last year, I noticed one major trend: convergence as a stepping stone. Everywhere I looked, people seemed prepared to connect different technologies together. Digital convergence was without a doubt the central theme for technology last year. Non-techies everywhere no longer needed advice on how to move a file from their mobile phone/device to their computers or vice versa. The proliferation of wireless internet, be it through 3G connections or more public Wi-Fi has reversed the degree of difficulty that integration used to require. Seeing that the market was ready for such new revolutions, electronics companies pushed the boundaries of what could be sold, fearing less that they would end up putting people off with unnecessary all-in-one devices.

What we’ve been graced with are digital cameras and memory cards that include Wi-Fi and can upload photos and videos to web albums or video sharing sites such as YouTube as well as to social networks including the likes of Facebook and MySpace. Once considered niche markets, social networks have made it clear that they are here to stay, infiltrating our lives like never before. Because people spend so much time on Facebook, failing to capitalize on that with complimenting software is now considered a missed opportunity.

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