TAKEAWAY: Our contdown to the Power of the Tablet conference at Poynter (June 14-15) continues with Reed Reibstein providing us links of interest to get us thinking tablets. Today: it is not just the iPad!
Countdown to the Conference: 10 days to go
Almost two weeks before the opening of Poynter’s The Power of the Tablet conference, I turn over the blog to our Garcia Media intern Reed Reibstein, who will also be blogging live from the conference. Reed’s idea is to “warm up” to the conference with daily postings of essential articles that will help everyone understand the tablet as a new journalistic platform.
Much of the chatter these days is about the iPad, which can definitely get a bit tiring. There are, in fact, many other tablets coming out by the end of the year, created by everyone from start-up companies to established technology players. For prospective developers, the germane information is not who is making the tablet but what operating system it will run. No single link provides an overview of the major competitors to the iPhone OS, so your best bet is to poke around Engadget’s recent articles on each: Android by Google, webOS by HP (formerly Palm), and Windows 7 [http://www.engadget.com/tag/Windows7Tablets/] and Windows Embedded Compact 7 by Microsoft. Who knows which will prosper and which will fail, but Apple will soon be one of many players aiming for a slice of the tablet pie.
The iPad and my 3-year-old grandson
Frankie Barravecchio checks out his favorite Thomas the Train videos on the iPad
As you know, I am spending a few days helping my daughter Ana, who has had her third child, Daniel Anthony Jude, June 2. My daily task is to care for her other two children, Angelina and Frankie. And the iPad makes it all much easier. Part of each afternoon, I get Frankie to look at his favorite Thomas the Train video clips on the iPad, and I am in awe of how he has mastered using the child-friendly tablet. He moves his fingers on the screen, clicks on what he wants to see, and, when bored by a video, goes back and forth to look for new ones of interest.
For Angelina, 5, I have downloaded Cupcakes! a fun app that allows her to bake her own cupcakes, decorate them with favorite toppings, including jelly beans in a variety of colors, and then, she can put a birthday candle or two on the cupcake, email it to a friend, and even blow the candles.
Who would know that the iPad, in addition to all else it does, would be the perfect babysitting tool?
TheMarioBlog post #569