Tech and life

My parents are in their late 80s, thankfully still in good health, but as you might expect, a little forgetful. They live on their own and are still quite independent but I thought I should look into some sort of reminder device which would be easy for them to use. I’ve already tried a whiteboard without much success. I had already heard about the Chumby on the TWiT podcast a couple of years ago but I came across a great post Dad vs the Chumby which convinced me it was worth getting one for my parents to try. So I picked up a new Chumby One on eBay and set it up with the apps I thought they would find useful – news, clock, weather, Flickr photos, etc. I’ve had it for about a week now and am still learning about it. The Chumby is a great little wi-fi device – it’s like a small TV screen but with a personalized, simple, always-on, multimedia internet. All the apps or widgets you’ve set up on it cycle through continuously so it’s great for the elderly. No interaction necessary. Even the alarm seems fairly straightforward to set up so they should manage that too.

But I couldn’t find a good reminder app for the Chumby – something which would, for example, pop up a colour screen with a big clear reminder message and an audible alarm at the event time. So I looked around the Chumby forum and hunted through all the apps available and this is what seems to be available as reminder apps at the moment.

Send2Chumby

Just add this app to the channel you want then visit the Send2Chumby URL shown at the bottom of the widget. This URL lets me send messages and reminders from my PC to the Chumby as shown in the image at the top of this post. Doesn’t seem to be any way to delete old messages though. It saves the last 10 messages you’ve sent then starts overwriting the oldest messages. You can tap the screen to cycle through the messages. In the link I gave above, the poster did much the same thing by using Twitter to send tweet reminders from an account set up specifically for the Chumby to monitor.

Toodledo to Chumby RSS Reader

This was a tip I read on the Chumby forum. First add the Chumby RSS Reader app to the channel you want on the Chumby. Then on your PC, sign up for a free account with Toodledo if you don’t already have one and add the tasks, events, appointments and reminders there. I found it better to enable the Start Date field rather than the Due Date field so you can suppress future events/tasks. You do that under Settings, Tasks, Fields/Functions Used. Then get an RSS feed of your tasks in Toodledo by going to Tools, More, scroll down to Other Tools and Services and under RSS you can enable the RSS feed and get the feed URL. I also checked Only Publish the Hotlist.  Now tasks with a future Start-Date will be hidden from the hotlist regardless of their priority, due-date, status or star so no reminders for future start dates will appear on Chumby. Then add the URL of your RSS feed to the Chumby RSS Reader. Now all tasks, events, appointments and reminders on your hotlist in Toodledo will appear on the Chumby.

Chumby Alarm

This is the best alternative if you want an audible alarm and short message at a particular time rather than a general text reminder which the first two methods gave. The Custom alarms are easy to set up and pretty customisable but the only downside is that the reminder text doesn’t really stand out too well on the screen. You can partly get round this by using different audible alarms for different events.

Well that’s a quick look at the benefits Chumby can have for the elderly particularly as a reminder aid. If you have any thoughts or know of a better reminder setup for the Chumby, please drop a comment below. Or what do you use to help elderly parents remember things?

I wrote about the gradual demise of the office printer  a while ago. I rarely print anything on paper these days but I do occasionally need a copier/printer facility, so a year ago, after a history of six or seven Epson printers starting with a dot matrix machine back in 1988 and ending with blocked inkjet nozzles on my final Epson D88, I decided to finally change brands and try Canon. Both my kids have Canon printers (MP190 and MP272) and they’ve never given any trouble. Cartridges are expensive but hey, what’s new! About a year ago, I went for a cheap Canon MP280 multifunction inkjet and I couldn’t be happier. It does copying, occasional printing, scanning, and scanning directly to Evernote without any problems. No printer jams since I got it and importantly, the cartridges don’t seem to be as prone to clogging with just occasional use – unlike the last Epson I had.

Lifehacker blogged recently on better inkjet printing  which you may also want to have a look at. They recommended getting a laser printer instead of an inkjet, or if you stick with your inkjet, print test pages regularly to avoid clogged nozzles, use the manufacturer’s ink cartridges not third party ones, and use good quality paper.

Coming back to Canon, I’ve also had a Canon PowerShot A570 IS digital camera for about 4 years now – again no problems. I like Canon. And I’m not sponsored by them, or anyone, to write reviews.

Which brands do you like or do you have no particular preferences? Have you have good experiences or bad ones with any particular brands or do you feel brand isn’t important in terms of quality and reliability? Drop a comment below.

I’m probably a little late to the dual monitor scene. I have a pretty old ATI Radeon x1550 video card in my PC. It does have outputs for VGA and DVI but I’d always connected up with the VGA output even though I bought a Philips 220AW 22” flat panel almost 3 years ago. When I researched running dual monitors with this video card recently, I got mixed messages and wasn’t convinced that I could get dual monitors working under Windows 7.

I did have a spare old HP Pavilion f1703 17” flat panel monitor so I decided to give it a shot. First signs were discouraging though. I downloaded the latest ATI Catalyst driver (9.7) which was supposed to be compatible with this card under Windows 7 but it didn’t seem to install correctly into the ATI Technologies directory under Program Files. But there was no harm in trying to boot up with two monitors connected to the card anyway.

I powered off, connected my main Philips monitor to the video card with a DVI-I cable and the HP Pavilion monitor with the VGA cable, powered up and to my delight, both monitors instantly came to life and I could move my mouse over to the second screen straightaway! The screen resolution on my main Philips monitor had been changed in the process so I right-clicked the desktop and reset the display to the resolution I wanted and noted that ‘Extend these displays’ was already selected in the Multiple displays menu below it.

And that was all there was to it. Without problems, Windows 7 had recognized both monitors and I’m happily working with two screens now, dragging windows from one screen to the other and seeing the obvious benefits. But those of you who have tried dual monitors will know that there isn’t a taskbar on the second screen. Everything is controlled from the taskbar on the main screen. However, in my RSS reader, I had read of an open source program, Dual Monitor Taskbar which, when installed on your PC, inserts a taskbar on the second display and I thought that would be useful. I downloaded and installed it without a hitch and it works perfectly.

If you haven’t tried dual monitors, I can really recommend it as a worthwhile upgrade to your setup. In fact, it’s a bit like broadband versus dial-up – once you’ve experienced it, you won’t go back!

Image credit: XiXiDu

USB connections are ubiquitous nowadays and have almost completely replaced the old parallel and serial connectors we used to use to connect peripherals to our computers. Most of us are using USB 2.0 just now but USB 3.0 is almost upon us. Of course the new standard will have a similar connector as the old one for backwards compatibility. But what a pity a little more thought wasn’t put into design at the beginning.

The old serial and parallel connectors were shaped in such a way that you could only plug them in one way. Not so the USB Type A connector which we commonly use nowadays. You can try and shove it in the wrong way, as I’ve done many a time – it’s a 50:50 chance. Often when this fails, I turn it over, try to plug it in that way, realise this is wrong too, turn it back and it fits – not patient enough the first time I guess. There is a USB symbol on one side which should show the correct way to plug it, but often these symbols are a dull black on black (not very useful when you’re struggling at the back of a PC in a dimly lit room) or sometimes there’s no symbol present at all. And if the USB socket for the plug is mounted vertically, there’s no indication which way round it should go. I’ve resorted to marking the correct way in blue permanent marker or coloured sticky disks but I shouldn’t have to do this. An asymmetrical shape would have helped to plug them correctly and indeed the asymmetrically shaped USB Type B connectors which connect to printers for example are fine. Why couldn’t we have had a similar bevelled edge design for the USB Type A connectors?

Yes, it’s a little late to complain about them now that they’re so well established. But there is a design concept afoot for a Double USB connector which will plug in no matter which way you try so perhaps there’s hope for a solution yet.

How do you get round USB connector problems? I’m sure I’m not alone.

You don’t have to scan documents to your PC then save them into Evernote organizer in two stages, you can set up your printer/scanner to scan directly into Evernote. I’ve already posted about scanning directly to Evernote with an Epson Perfection 4180 scanner.

I recently got a Canon MP series multifunction printer with built in scanner (MP280) and had no trouble setting it up to scan directly to Evernote. Here’s what you do.

When you installed your Canon printer drivers and utilities on the CD which came with the printer, you would have installed MP Navigator, the application which, among other things, allows you to scan directly to an application, in our case Evernote. Switch on your printer and place a test sheet on the scanner tray. On your PC desktop click Start, All Programs and navigate to Canon Utilities and click on that and open the MP Navigator folder.

For me it was actually called MP Navigator EX 4.0 but you may have a different version. Then double click the executable file in that folder (again for me it was MP Navigator EX 4.0 as shown above) and that should open Canon MP Navigator. If you intend to scan stuff frequently to Evernote, you could copy a program shortcut to your desktop. To do this, drag that executable to your desktop while pressing the Ctrl key (this makes a copy rather than moving it).  Once MP Navigator is open, click on One-click at the top right and you should see the options below.

Click on Custom and that should open a box like below. If it starts to scan now, just click Cancel.

This is the part where we select Evernote as the program we want to open the scan with. So under the section Application Settings, click Set as shown above, then navigate to your Evernote folder (for me it was C:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote but it may be different for you. You’re looking for the Evernote executable file as shown below:

Select that file and click Open. Evernote will now appear as the application in the Open with: box on the previous screenshot. Click Apply in the bottom left corner to save Evernote in that box, then click the green Scan button in the bottom right corner and if all goes well the test page should be scanned and Evernote will open to show it.

By the way, now this is set up, in future when you click Custom, everything will happen automatically so make sure you have your page loaded ready for scanning.

I’ve struggled along with free satellite channels on my old tube TV for a few years now and it’s time for a change. There’s less and less that interests me on TV these days and the thought of streaming internet TV on my PC in my home office doesn’t thrill me… after spending the day working there already.

So it’s time to part with some hard earned cash and bring the web and streaming media to my couch and telly. I hope to have it all in place by the end of the summer. I’ve read a number of posts and bookmarked lots of pages and I’m looking to buy the following:

Flat screen TV

I can’t stream to my old CRT TV – it has an S-video connector and doesn’t have digital inputs like HDMI so I need a 32” (that’s big enough for me) flat screen that takes HDMI input.

Set-top box

I was originally thinking along the lines of a PS3 but more recently a positive assessment of Boxee software on a podcast by Knightwise got me interested in Boxee.  So perhaps I should go for a  Boxee Box to get internet and my media to the TV, but a recent reader recommendations post on Lifehacker on set-top boxes saw the Boxee Box way down in popularity behind a home theater PC, Roku, Apple TV, etc.

Router

I should get a wireless N router to replace my G-router while I’m at it.

NAS

I’ll need a 1 TB NAS to store my downloaded movies and other media (and backup my data from my PC) and I’ll stream from this to my TV or set-top box.

Are you streaming media to your TV? I’d love to hear your recommendations on TVs, set-top boxes, routers and NAS. What’s your set-up? Would you do anything different if you started again? Has any piece of hardware been a nightmare to work with? What are your tips and things to watch out for? As I build the set-up I’ll post about it… but it’s your turn to have your say first.

A recent poll on MakeUseOf suggests that most of now have at least one computer in the house, and many of us have three or more! Admittedly, MakeUseOf readers are perhaps a little more tech savvy than others but I’m pretty sure the poll isn’t too wide of the mark for most of us now.

So you’ve bought a shiny new desktop PC, laptop or tablet and your old PC or laptop has been forgotten and consigned to a dusty old corner. Well it might just be worth pulling it out and putting it to use, particularly if it’s still reasonably fast and has a network card installed. David Pierce suggests using one machine for work and one for leisure and that’s pretty good advice. If you’re a freelancer and work from home, you rely on your primary machine to earn money! So it’s a great idea just to keep one machine solely for work, i.e. avoid too much surfing and downloading which may lead to a malware attack. Leave all this to your older secondary ‘leisure’ machine.

But if your old PC is just too old for everyday leisure use, at least make sure it’s ready to go in the event of a major issue on your main machine. So before you consign it to a corner, run some maintenance tools (eg CCleaner and Malwarebytes) and make sure all program updates have been downloaded and installed. There’s great peace of mind for a freelancer knowing that you have a standby machine ready to help out when your main PC or laptop has a problem (failed hard drive, failed power supply, malware attack, etc). You can work away on your standby machine as you run malware scans on your main machine, or indeed if the repair is too much for you, your standby machine should see you through while your primary machine is at the repair shop.

Recently, my son accidently dropped his Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop and cracked the screen.  I’m not a computer repair tech but I’ve listened to a few Podnutz computer repair podcasts and got the impression this wasn’t a difficult replacement job. A quick search on Google uncovered an excellent video of the 1545 screen replacement on YouTube which convinced me I should have a go at it. I’ve written this post to give some tips on the procedure I used and my experience with the repair.

First I had to find a supplier of a replacement screen. I’m in the UK and Google came up with Laptop-Power UK but the first problem that website pointed out was that the screen could be one of two types – CCFL or LED. I wouldn’t know which until I’d removed the cracked screen and checked the part number on the back of it.

Screen replacement

So first I unplugged the laptop from the mains and removed the laptop battery. Here are the screwdrivers  I used for the job together with a pen for scale:

They’re actually jeweller’s screwdrivers – part of a set I got years ago for Christmas. I see similar ones on sale at Amazon UK. They have magnetic heads which are almost essential here otherwise the tiny screws could fall into the laptop keyboard if you’re not very careful. They also have a swivel top. I used the flat head screwdriver to carefully prize off the small black covers over the six screws on the front of the screen (four on top and two at the bottom). They’re just held in place with glue. Here’s a picture with the caps removed and showing the cracked screen.

Apologies for the poor photo but I’ve arrowed the position of the 6 screws to be removed, four along the top and two at the bottom. Put them into something like a small bowl for safe keeping along with the plastic caps – you’ve still got to order and receive the replacement screen so you don’t want to lose them in the meantime.

Next you have to remove the black bezel or frame around the screen. It’s just clipped in place so starting at the bottom of the screen just get your fingers inside the inner, upper  edge and gently pull away. It should unclip. Then do the sides and finally the top. Take care not to bend the bezel too much or you’ll stress the plastic and have to order that as well! Here’s a shot with the bezel removed.

Next remove the three (even smaller) screws along each side again shown with red arrows in the picture above. After they are out, be careful now as the screen is just sitting in the metal outer frame and only held in place by the two cables indicated in the picture above – the data cable and the backlight cable.

Next, you have to unplug the red and white cable with the white backlight connector plug. Here’s a close-up of that:

I found I had to remove the screw shown with the red arrow before I could get the white plug out. Remember that when you put in the replacement screen, the white plug should connect with the red wire at the top and the white wire at the bottom.

Now you should be able to lay the old screen carefully forward onto the keyboard but take care not to pull or stress the data cables where they connect into the laptop. Once you’ve laid the screen down, you’ll see the data cable connector on the back of the screen:

It’s held in place with transparent tape. I had to peel this tape back from the grey edge as shown above. Yours may be slightly different and peel in the opposite direction. Once peeled back you can unplug the connector. Just note how it’s connected. When you get your new screen you’re going to have to plug this back in and it’s a little fiddly. Next, carefully peel the data cable from the back of the screen. Mine was held in place with adhesive. Once this is done, your old screen should now be free leaving behind the data cable attached to the laptop.

Then check the maker and part number on the back of the screen. In my case, I had a Samsung screen LTN156AT01 so from the Laptop-UK website guide linked above, I knew I had a CCFL screen. I ordered the part and it arrived in 2 days, very well packaged.

Fitting the new screen is just the reverse of the procedure already described and is really straightforward and quite quick. I couldn’t believe how simple the whole procedure was. The most important thing I could see was to be careful not to stress the connection where the data cable connects to the laptop when you are disconnecting the cable from the old screen and connecting up the new screen.

Once I had fitted the screen, I plugged the battery back in, connected to the mains and powered up. Surprisingly, the machine resumed straight away in the application my son had been using before the accident. Of course he hadn’t been able to see the screen to shut down the laptop because the crack had rendered the screen useless. He had just disconnected the battery.

So if you accidently break your Dell 1545 screen, have a go at replacing it yourself and save yourself some money. Leave the repair techs to tackle the harder jobs!

Does your PC shut down for no apparent reason, then shut down again when you reboot? Is your machine becoming increasingly sluggish or are you experiencing unresponsive programs? There could be a number of causes but there’s one pretty simple procedure you can try and eliminate as the cause before you have to resort to a PC repair tech. Your machine may be overheating. This can be fatal for your CPU and your hard drive and can lead to an expensive repair and possible data loss so it needs to be tackled as soon as possible, or better still prevented. Simply open the PC case and see if there’s a thick layer of dust over all the components. This could be the cause of overheating and subsequent shutdowns as dust acts like a kind of blanket insulating all the electrics and preventing heat from escaping. If you have pets or a smoker in the house, or you live in a dusty environment, the likelihood of dust accumulation in your PC increases.

Okay, so you haven’t opened your PC case before… don’t panic it’s not too difficult. In fact, there’s literally thousands of guides online so I’ll just point out a couple of tips to guide you on your way. Google opening a PC case for lots more help in getting inside your machine.

First check your manual to ensure you’re not voiding your warranty by opening the case. Then it’s up to you whether you proceed.

Next if you haven’t done this before, doubtless there’s a horrendous clutter of cables going into the back of your PC. Switch off and unplug the PC. Take a photo of all the cabling with your digital camera to help you reconnect everything afterwards. You could also stick coloured labels on the cables and corresponding coloured dots on where they go on the back of the PC. Disconnect all the cables.

Put your PC box up on a table with the back facing you. To open and check for dust, you only really need remove one side of the case. Generally it’s the right side panel you have to remove to see everything inside. Check your manual to see how the panel comes off. Either there’s a couple of screws at the back holding it in place or it may be a screwless case with a lever possibly at the top middle of the side and which unclips to open the side panel.

Once you’ve opened it and if you’ve found a thick layer of dust over everything, you can remove the left side panel. Now you’ll need to get a can of compressed air from a local supplier and a face filter if you wish. To avoid getting dust everywhere, take the PC out to your back yard (obviously if it’s not raining) and carefully blow the air over the components. Don’t do this in the house! Don’t hold the compressed can too close to the components and be careful you don’t get showered in dust. Get upwind if it’s breezy outside.

Once you’ve blown the dust off all the components, you can brush any remaining lodged dust out with a soft clean artists brush. Then replace the side panels again on the table and finally plug all the cables back in again and reconnect to the power.

Reboot and see if the shutdown problem is resolved. If not then at least you’ve eliminated dust as the shutdown problem and you won’t have to pay a repair tech for that when he goes on to diagnose the problem.

If dust build-up was the problem, then obviously you’re going to have to repeat this procedure on a regular basis. Have a check again after say 3 months and see how things are.

Monitoring the temperature inside your PC

If you’ve opened up your PC and established that dust build-up is a real problem where you live, it would be well worth installing a temperature monitoring program to keep a constant check on the conditions inside your machine. One free program worth considering is SpeedFan. Among other things, this monitors the temperature of the CPU, the hard drive and the ambient temperature inside the computer.

It can be set to run on computer startup and can sound an alarm when preset temperatures are exceeded. SpeedFan also monitors the speed of your fans. Fans are obviously important in dissipating heat build-up in you PC. A build-up of dust can clog the fans so it’s worth monitoring they’re not slowing down. And obviously if some fans aren’t working at all and there’s no dust, you’ve probably found your overheating problem.

I’m very lucky that dust build-up in PCs isn’t a serious problem where I live in Scotland but listening to the Podnutz Daily computer repair podcast, it’s clearly a problem in many parts of the US and doubtless other parts of the world as well.

Have you experienced PC overheating? Any tips for us or stories? Drop a comment below.

Image credit: eurleif

Apple have been amazing innovators during the last decade – the iPod, iPhone and now the iPad… and the competition have struggled to keep up. Only now do we have excellent alternatives to the iPhone. So how long will it take the tablet manufacturers to catch the iPad? Already, I’ve heard of journalists, politicians and councillors being equipped with this 1st generation game changing device. Have they jumped in too soon? What have the competition got in store?

Well, here’s a quick round-up of the tablet devices which are with us now or should hit the shelves in the coming months. It’s not a comprehensive list as some of the major players haven’t announced details yet. And if you’re reading this post a year or two down the line, have a giggle at our 1st generation devices and marvel at how quickly technology moves on!

10-inch+ screen

Kno: two 14.1 inch touchscreens connected by a hinge (digital textbook); shipping for the holiday season 2010; Price: TBA

Pioneer DreamBook ePad L11: 11.6 inch; Windows and Android OS; 2GB RAM; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; 1.3MP camera; 6GB, 32GB and 64GB hard drives; to be released September 2010; $640

MSI WindPad 100: 10-inch; Windows 7 OS; 2GB RAM; 32GB storage; Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity; webcam; available late 2010; $499

MSI WindPad 110: 10-inch; Android 2.1 OS; 2GB RAM; 32GB storage; Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity; webcam; available late 2010; $399

Mouse LuvPad AD100: 10-inch; Android 2.2; 512MB RAM; 8GB flash memory; Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G configurations; $470-530

Archos 101: 10.1 inch; Android 2.2; 8GB ($300) and 16GB ($350) versions; expected late-September 2010

Archos 9: 8.9 inch; Windows 7 Starter OS; 1GB RAM; 60GB storage; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; 1.3MP web camera; $400; available now

Hannspree: 10.1 inch; Android 2.2; 512MB RAM; 16GB; to be released in November 2010; probably around $500

Viewsonic ViewPad 100: 10 inch; Windows 7 and Android 1.6 OS; 1GB memory; 16GB storage; 1.3MP camera; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; to be released about October 2010; expected to be about £549

Toshiba Folio 100: 10.1 inch; Android 2.2 OS; 16GB storage; 1.3MP webchat camera; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; about £330; to be released in Europe in next couple of months; no plans as yet for a US release

7-inch screen

Samsung Galaxy Tab: 7-inch; Android 2.2 OS; 512MB RAM; 16GB and 32GB versions; full phone capability; dual cameras (3MP and 1.3MP); connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; Available in Europe from mid-September 2010; $500-$1000? Price point may be $200-$300 with US carriers

Archos 70: 7 inch; Android OS; 8GB ($300) and 16GB ($350) versions; expected about mid-October 2010; $275

Elocity A7: 7 inch; Android 2.2 OS; 512MB RAM; 4GB flash memory; 1.3MP camera; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; shipping possibly beginning of November 2010; $370

RAmos W9: 7 inch; Android OS; no word on pricing or availability yet

Viewsonic ViewPad 7: 7 inch; Android 2.2 OS; 512MB memory?; Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity; full phone capability; dual cameras; released about October 2010; expected to be about £350

Huawei S7: 7 inch; Android 2.1; 256MB RAM; Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity; 2MP camera; available now; £299

The much hyped $35 Indian tablet should arrive in January 2011. Dimensions 8.9×7-inch; Android OS; 2GB RAM; Connectivity: USB and Wi-Fi. However it’s recently been revealed that this is just the subsidized Chinese Hivision SpeedPad

5-inch (and less) screen

Dell Streak: 5 inch; Android 1.6 OS; 16GB memory; 5MP camera; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity; Price: TBA; but is it a big smart phone rather than a small tablet?

Archos 32: 3.2 inch; Android 2.1; 8GB storage; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity; camera; now shipping for $150

Why are tablets the new ‘must have’ gadget?

Well for some, there’s the cool factor. But from the functionality point of view, of course the screen is bigger than on a smartphone and this has benefits not least making the device easier to view making it a good e-reader and ideal for content consumption. A tablet is easier to pass round among friends and share stuff, say photos, compared with a netbook. But a 10 inch tablet is not as good as a smartphone on a crowded commute when you don’t have a seat. It’s obviously more portable than a laptop but I suspect that data entry, touch typing, screen size and storage capacity will keep laptops around for some time to come.

As you can see, many of the planned new devices will be running the Android OS. However, a recent post on Techcrunch foresees a major shakedown in the five or more upcoming tablet platforms as they compete for market share. And Google has said recently that Android Froyo isn’t optimized for tablets and that the next versions will be optimized for the form factor. So perhaps we’re better off waiting until next year before we take the plunge.

I predict that the coming wave of tablets will put an end to the netbook market, so we’ll soon be choosing from smartphones, tablets and laptops for our mobile companions. I’ve got a feeling it’ll also hit the iPod Touch market to some extent. I for one was on the verge of buying my first Apple product – the new iPod Touch 4, but now I wonder if I should just wait a while and take a look at the 5-inch or 7-inch tablet offerings. The larger screen size would be nice but of course the larger form factor is not quite so ‘pocket’ friendly. Any thoughts?

This is my first post on tablets. I’ll probably post regularly on this topic when more are released.

Latest tablet news

For the latest in tablet news, have a look at:

Best tablet Review

Touch Tablet PC

Android and Me

Google Docs: Android Tablets – Holiday 2010: Great round-up of the latest Android tablets, constantly updated

Sign up with Lazyfeed and follow the topic ‘tablets’.

Further reading

To iPad or Not to iPad: That is the Tech Question – PC World

A Big Tablet Can Never Beat a Smaller Smartphone

Samsung Galaxy Tab vs Apple iPad: tablet showdown