If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard the news, Amazon debuted its $200 7-inch tablet, the Kindle Fire, this week. Make no mistake: It’s no iPad. There’s no front-facing or rear-facing camera, and it’s only got 8 GB of storage.
But it’s not meant to be an iPad. It’s a completely different kind of tablet, designed for the pure consumer. That is, it’s designed for consumptive behavior: reading, listening to music, watching video content. The lack of local storage isn’t an issue, either; it’s meant to take advantage of the cloud with services like Amazon’s $80 yearly Prime service, as well as Amazon Cloud Drive. And the smaller form factor makes it extra portable, easy to whip out on the bus or the subway (much like a Kindle).
Asus has announced they going to launch Andriod tablet 7, 9 , 12 inch by next year, and price is going to be around $399! That is good news for those looking for a tablet but has tight budget. The tablet is called ePad.
The iPad has a bigger screen, and so it has a bigger resolution. With the iPhone 4, however, Apple did something different: they increased the resolution without changing the physical size of the screen. This makes for a higher pixel density, pixels are smaller and more tightly packed. In one square inch of the iPhone 4’s screen there are around 106 thousand pixels (at 326 PPI, or Pixels per Inch), while the older models have only about 26 thousand (at 163 PPI) in an inch – 4 times less! This makes graphics on the screen seem like continuous lines, because your eye can’t see the individual pixels. Apple calls this technology the “Retina Display” because they claim the human eye (the retina) can’t physically see the pixels at this resolution.
Using Two Images
The official way of adding high-resolution support to your application is by having two versions of each image, one in “regular” resolution and one in double resolution. Whenever your application is viewed on the Retina Display, the larger image will be loaded automatically. This method allows for full and precise control of how your application will look in each case, and is very easy to apply to your existing applications.
The full size image file should be named however you want, such as “Button.png”. Use this image name in your code and Interface Builder wherever you want to reference the image. The double-size image should be twice the size of its matching smaller image and named exactly the same with “@2x” appended to the name. In our example, we would name it “Button@2x.png”.
Unfortunately, this technique will not work on the iPad; a pixel-doubled application will not load the higher resolution resource. This will probably be addressed in the future iOS 4 update which is scheduled to come to iPad this fall.
page with almost all devices with pixel density pixels per inch PPI and dimension stated. useful reference for cross platform/devices designs and development.
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
BlackBerry
will release the tablet early in the new year. The device will feature a
7-inch multitouch screen and a new operating system derived from the
company’s purchase of QNX.
"QNX is going to enable
things that you have never seen before”. Lazardis said the PlayBook would be
“the first professional tablet”, and Dodge added that it would be "an
incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players”.
The tablet will be able to run Adobe’s Flash, which Apple’s iPad doesn’t, and
offer micro-HDMI and micro-usb ports. It weighs just 400g and includes dual
HD cameras for video calling.
Although 3G and 4G models are planned for the future, the device will
initially connect to the web via wifi or via a user’s BlackBerry smartphone,
and offer a reflection of its screen for expanded use.
Lazardis said it will offer “true multi-tasking” and "an
amplified view of what's already on your BlackBerry”. It’s expected that
16gb and 32gb models will be offered.
Document Icon
This is a new icon type in iOS 4. It’s used if your app creates a custom document type. The iPad uses the document icon in two different sizes.
320x320 (iPad)
64x64 (iPad)
44x58 (iPhone 4)
22x29 (older iPhones)
“Do I really have to make two versions of my images? If I make a single high-resolution set, won’t iOS 4 scale them down on older devices?” Sorry, no, not automatically. While iOS 4 goes seamlessly in the other direction (scaling up low-res images for iPhone 4), it doesn’t work the other way. By default, it scales all images so that one pixel equals one point. That’s a great solution for making sure that old apps work correctly on the new phone, but it doesn’t help you go the other way ‘round.
Everything they say about it is true: at 320 ppi, the pixels are just plain invisible.
