Kindle Fire

The first Kindle came out ~3 years before the iPad.  In a parallel universe, the new Kindle Fire is still the Kindle tablet we'd be getting now if Apple hadn't ever made the iPad at all.  That's a huge difference compared to everybody else who are just making iPad copies.

It's interesting that Apple and Amazon both started with simple devices for specific types of media, books and music, and grew out to encompass the rest.

I almost feel sorry for all the other Android tablet companies, who's going to buy one now, knowing the Fire is coming?

Batteries Forever

Reading about how improvements in computers (twice as efficient every 18 months) have made batteries last longer & longer.  That just gets cooler.

Right now, with wireless off, my Kindle 3 works for at least a month between charges.  So in about 6 years if the pace continues, the Kindle might last a YEAR on one charge.  And at that point, they can put a little solar cell like the little solar calculators have...it might never need to be plugged in at all.

Similar for the iPad or iPhone of the future, Apple could hide solar cells around the screen, or even just in the Apple shape on the back & you'd rarely if ever have to plug it in.  (Though an iPhone in a pocket gets less light, so might need to leave it on a desk :)

We told you so.

Another year, another bar, another iPhone prototype.  Apple, you shouldn't have rejected it:

http://michael.burford.net/2010/05/lost-in-bar-appdenied.html

iPhone 5 screens #2

Hmm, various rumors floating around about the next iPhone.

If it really does get a 4" screen, especially as rumors have said it's wider, maybe Apple will increase the resolution.  If my math is right you can do about a 3.8" screen at 640x960 and have it be above the 300dpi Retina number.

4" is bigger than that.  BUT if you increase the resolution to 1024x768 as well, it would work and have a high enough dpi at the bigger size.  A 640x960 inner section would run every iPhone app as-is, much like how the iPad runs them today.  If the pixels are the same size, apps would look just the same.  There would be a little more bezel area than on the current iPhone, but not bad.  As apps are updated they would use the full screen.

The picture shows black "wasted" space for un-updated apps in the bigger screen.  If the black goes closer to the physical edge of the iPhone, it's only a little more space than the bezel around the current iPhone 4.  And might even be less than in the 3GS if you count to the outside of the curved edges.

In the short term, it's a bit of a pain for programmers.  But in the long term, and these are platforms that will be around for many more years or decades, iPhone and iPad then have the same base resolution going forward.  That would be a huge deal.  One set of graphics to cover both devices.