Tablets and Mobile - How Handheld Electronic Games Started a Mobile Revolution

Did you have a Mattell Auto Race (above, 1976) or a Mattell Handheld Football (1977) electronic game growing up?  Coleco also made a number of handheld electronic games.  (BTW, Coleco stands for Connecticut Leather Company!)

If you played handheld electronic games growing up, you helped start the mobile revolution we're enjoying today in ultra books, phablets, smartphones, wearables, and now the Internet of Things.

In the 80's we started flirting with mobile business devices... really no more than glorified calculators.  It was really in the mid-90's that things picked up.  Did you ditch your DayTimer for a Palm Pilot?  Know what an Apple Newton was?  Did you have the then-awesome Windows Mobile 6.5 phone?

After spending more than five years working with cloud computing, 18 consulting in IT, and a lifetime as a gadget geek I've participated in most of our major steps toward mobility over the last 30 years:

• Handheld electronic (and video) games
• Mobile phones
• Digital organizers
• Laptops
• Smart phones
• Netbooks
• Convertible touchscreens
• Tablets
• Phablets (smart phones with REALLY big screens)
• Wearables
• Mega and mini tablets

After all this time, are we there yet?  Has the vision painted for us in the 60's by Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek finally been realized?  (See the original Communicator device, pictured below.)

Yes.  And No.  On one hand, I have more computing power in my pocket than supercomputers had 20-years ago.  Unfortunately, however, I still cannot talk to it in natural speech and have it respond likewise in a useful fashion.

We've actually gone backward somewhat.  My Windows Mobile 6.5 had really useful voice commands that could control much of the functionality on the phone.  It couldn't really talk back to me, but that was fine by me at the time.

Today, my Windows Phone 8.1 talks to me quite well.  I love Cortana... I think she's amazing and is going to be a defining feature for Windows Phone.  Unfortunately, however, she (and her wicked step-sister, Siri) is really only good at understanding my speech for the purpose of searching the web at this point.  There are some voice commands, but it's not nearly at the level I had in Windows Mobile 6.5 - over four years ago.

So, how did the electronic games of yesteryear lead to a mobile revolution?  The real trick was learning to miniaturize the technology.  At first we had circuit boards with large transistors and LEDs... not LCDs... LEDs.  Our "pixels" we're almost the size of an eraser on a pencil!  And sound on the devices was comprised of beeps of various pitches and lengths.

MSI nMOS chip made in 1977

When the first large-scale integration (LSI) circuits appeared in the mid-1970's a true revolution in micro computing was born.  For the first time, thousands of transistors could be compressed to fit on a chip that fit in your hand and be combined with many more on a circuit board.  For a good feel for what miniaturizing computer technology was like you should watch the first few episodes of Halt and Catch Fire, the new AMC series... where they work on developing one of the first laptop computers... LCD screen and all.

Fast forward 20 years to 2004... the release of the Nintendo DS.  A marvel of modern computing and miniaturization, the DS and its successors the DSi, 2DS and 3DS have owned the handheld video gaming market for the last 10 years and show no sign of stopping despite continued competition from Sony with the PSP and more recently with the Vita.  There were others - they were rapidly forgotten.  The only credible threat to the Nintendo DS is likely the device we all keep in our pockets all day... our smart phones.  With instant access to free and paid games and graphics and sound that now exceed those on most gaming systems, how long will it be before the era of the dedicated handheld gaming device ends?

In any case, I'd like to personally thank Mattel and Coleco for getting the ball rolling.  I'm a life long gamer and am looking forward to seeing if the next 20 years is as exciting as the last 20 has been!

From gamers of all ages everywhere... thank you Mattel!

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Skype, Typing, Security on Tablets

Here are a couple questions I was asked today:

How easy is it to type on tablets?

Typing on a tablet is typing on a touch screen.  You one-finger or two-finger type.  If you have something like my Iconia A500 you can attach a USB keyboard.  You could also pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard for wireless typing.  Using the touchscreen keyboard is definitely slower than a keyboard but faster than on a phone.

Does Skype work on them?
You can use Skype on Android tablets.  See http://www.gadgetsbing.com/2010/11/skype-hits-on-android-tablet/ for some details.  It's on iPad (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=804071).  Looks like not on Playbook (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=813617).
E-mail, Skype, and Internet need to be speedy and secure, are they?

Security - the Playbook is potentially more secure but it requires pairing with a Blackberry phone I think.  It's half-baked, but better than iPad and Android.  Wireless security is good on all of them... assuming you connect over a secure wireless network with decent encryption.  It doesn't matter which device you have, if you connect over an open wireless connection your transmissions can be intercepted and read.

I use a Sprint Overdrive 3g/4g hotspot in combination with my Iconia for on-the-go internet.  If you get a tab with built-in broadband you wouldn't need to do that.  I don't do any significant work on public wi-fi though for security reasons.  If you stay of public wi-fi you're pretty safe.

Security options for business use of tablets are few at this point.  The Microsoft tabs based on Windows 8 should be good but those won't be out for a while.  The Playbook should be good for security but there's a whole lot of downside for the Playbook in my opinion.

Summary
This is a brand new form factor with several new software platforms.  It's going to take it a while to mature to the point where a lot of businesses are comfortable depending on them.  For limited use and if you're careful though I think they're ready now for those that want to be on the leading edge.

Smartphones, Tablets and All Things Mobile

I was recently asked "What's the one hot technology to watch in 2011?" and my response was immediate: Mobile devices without a doubt.

The explosion of new form factors for mobile computing is staggering to behold. Smartphones and tablets are changing the face of information technology.  New devices are released monthly and highly anticipated by users.  Owners of mobile devices fanatically scour the app stores for good deals on the highest rated apps.  Services ranging from Netflix access, to CRM software, to electronic medical records (EMR) are revolutionizing how and more importantly WHERE we access and interact with our digital lives.  When combined with cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) the possibilities are staggering.

Smartphones have been a challenge for the enterprise for several years now. Starting with the Blackberry and then moving through Windows Mobile, Apple ios and now Google Android, end-users are demanding mobile access to corporate resources with their personal equipment and businesses are being forced to support them. It's not just rank and file information workers either, executives have bought in to the productivity gains to be had by delivering high-quality mobile products on the smartphone platform. And most everyone agrees... mobile is just plain fun.

Regarding tablets, some consider them just a larger form factor smartphone, but they're only partly right. Many consider them mainly entertainment devices, but that's only the start. Tablet computers (iPad and now Android and maybe Microsoft Windows 8 and the Playbook) are a new type of device with many of the capabilities of a full desktop or notebook computer, but that run an embedded "system on a chip." This category of device is changing how operating systems are developed and delivered. Trying to understand how having a single-chip appliance with all of the capabilities of a desktop computer will change information technology is going to be a full time occupation for R&D analysts for the next several years.

Mobile technologies are the place to watch this year. They're rapidly maturing after being in the marketplace for several years now. Businesses are in the process of determining how they can harness their capabilities and as we see new products come to market that take full advantage of the mobility that we've been granted by them there's going to be a massive change in how people interact with their information technology systems.

For a taste of how "hot" mobile is check out the articles linked here:
1. This cnet article mentions that almost 20 BILLION apps have been downloaded from the Apple and Google marketplaces. Apple developers alone have made over $4.5 billion since the release of the Apple App Store in 2008.
2. Susan Fogerty at TechTarget wrote a great article about the surging popularity of tablets today. According to their research, tablets lead even smartphones as the mobile technology of choice for 2011. Both technologies far outstrip traditional notebook computers in their survey.
3. Gartner analyzes tablet use in the enterprise in the final link. Gartner says that tablets are neither "better laptops" nor "better smartphones" but will compliment and enhance both.

Keep your eyes on mobile technologies in 2011 and 2012 and you won't be disappointed.

Links:

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20069658-17/study-app-downloads-to-hit-ne...
• http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/news/2240036570/Tablet-growth-i...
• http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1618814