The HP Slate

Tablets, Slates, e-readers and pads are the future of mobile computing, but should you join in?

Coming from the words of a journalist, print is dead. At the very least, print is dieing and that’s not a bad thing. Books will more than likely always be in print in some form, there will always be options to make physical copies, but saving trees isn’t the worst thing that could happen.

There had been e-readers before the Kindle, but Amazon made waves and had quite a strong marketing backing behind their product. I don’t go a day without seeing at least one person on the DC metro toting one around now. Shortly after Barnes and Noble attacked back with the N0ok and the marketing wars began. The computer companies then decided to join in, which essentially made the previous e-readers obsolete with the creation of full use tablets.

E-Readers

Kindle 2

The developers of the Kindle 2 have now released an software update that will allow users to use Twitter and Facebook on it, which was already available on the Nook’s app store.  The Nook is essentially the upgraded Kindle 2, but are generally still only really useful for very light Web browsing and of course, reading books. Regardless of whether or not Steve Jobs feels books and reading are a declining interest (clearly shows he is a technophile), e-readers are great for those who don’t like to cart around large books, saving money on new releases and don’t need to worry about browsing the Web.

The Nook

Tablets

Microsoft Courier

Currently the HP Slate and Courier are the largest to be competitors of the recently released Apple iPad. Since there is still not a lot of specific information on Microsoft’s Courier, there can only be speculation. From the concepts and possible leaked images shown above, it would mean the Courier puts a great deal of emphasis on a digital journal style. There will supposedly be hand writing recognition and various doodle friendly applications in it and run on a mobile OS. There is no pricing information as of yet, but it will release near the 2010 holiday season.

[Update] According to Mashable and TechCrunch in the last two days, both the Courier and HP Slate have canceled development on their tablets. There is no strong reasoning behind these announcements yet, as the companies themselves have not confirmed. Rumors amongst Twitter and other news sites are the low sales of the iPad may have been an early warning for tablet sales.

iPad

Now that the iPad has released both a WIFI only and 3G version, they have paved the way for other tablets to come. There has been more than enough coverage already on the iPad, so we will just leave that disaster in the hands of Steve jobs.

The HP Slate currently seems to have the best bang for your buck. Although it was demoed with Windows 7 on it, HP will be purchasing Palm, which may lead to the PalmOS being placed on the tablet (speculation galore).

For an extra $60 on the base price of the iPad, you get more memory, Flash video and games, and two cameras with video capability. Sounds like everything that people wanted on the iPad, strange.