Design Exercise 11 - 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design - Evaluations

In a years time the major digital platform will be tablet computers. The past year has seen the release of Windows based tablets and Apples' own version. I predict that over the next year these will be developed to the stage where they will maybe replace laptops. It is already happening now, the netbook is becoming obsolete, with tablets offering a far better experience.

I believe this to be exciting times for the industry as more and more developers have the chance to create interactive software to be used on these new devices. The iPad especially offers developers a great new platform to create software for.

Design Exercise 11 - 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design - Samsung TV

Design Exercise 11 involved researching and evaluating 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design. For my 3 platforms i decided to do the iPhone, a Samsung TV and a Sony Vaio Touchscreen PC. I wanted to focus on things i either already have or on things that i am interested in. I already own the TV and iPhone and am very keen on the Sony Vaio!

I was going to look at the newly announced iPad but i have already spoke about that earlier in this blog. So i have decided to look at a TV, specifically one that I own. The Samsung P2270HD.

I recently wanted to buy a new TV to use as a TV, Extra PC monitor and to play my Xbox 360 on. I needed something that was Full HD. I decided on this product.

The picture quality on this TV is amazing, especially when playing the Xbox 360 on it. Thanks to its many inputs it can display all kinds of different sources. I tend to use it as an extra monitor when i am doing work that i need to be closely zoomed in on. Running it in full HD enables every single detail to be clearly visible.

The TV cannot be hacked itself but any source linked with it can be. For example an Xbox 360 can be modified to play pirated games. Sky and Virgin boxes can also be hacked to view all channels for free. Modifying an Xbox to play pirated games greatly affects the video game industry costing it millions each year.

The hacking of programs and software could also greatly affect me in the future. if i am creating applications or software for certain platforms and people are creating and offering pirated versions for free it could end up costing me money.

Design Exercise 11 - 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design - Sony Vaio TouchScreen

Design Exercise 11 involved researching and evaluating 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design. For my 3 platforms i decided to do the iPhone, a Samsung TV and a Sony Vaio Touchscreen PC. I wanted to focus on things i either already have or on things that i am interested in. I already own the TV and iPhone and am very keen on the Sony Vaio!

In this post i will look at the Sony Vaio L Series. The L series is a new all-in-one touchscreen offering from electronics giant Sony. I have always been a fan of Sony Products having already owned a few Sony products in the past. I currently own a Sony Vaio laptop which i think its great, i would only intend to buy Sony again in the future.

This latest touchscreen from Sony has really caught my eye. It has a large 24" multi-touch screen with full HD. Having interacted with the screen i must say, it is very impressive. The screen is very sensitive when touched and offers great resolution. It is also available with a Blu-Ray player which also enhances the products pull.

Touchscreens are opening doors socially allowing users to interact with computers in ways that they couldn't before. This device offers the user a fully interactive web experience. No mouse or keyboard are needed to use the device to its full potential.

Sony are a latecomer to this particular field, this being their first multi-touch computer. It has been produced to compete with HP's range of touch-screens. The new Sony comes with Windows 7 64 bit built in along with its own software to help the user make the most of the touchscreen.

Like any Windows based computer the Sony Vaio is fairly simple to hack/modify. The OS can easily be pirated along with the majority of software available. In terms of physically stealing the device it isn't that easy due to its rather large screen and weight.

Design Exercise 11 - 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design - The iPhone

Design Exercise 11 involved researching and evaluating 3 Distinct Platforms of Digital Design. For my 3 platforms i decided to do the iPhone, a Samsung TV and a Sony Vaio Touchscreen PC. I wanted to focus on things i either already have or on things that i am interested in. I already own the TV and iPhone and am very keen on the Sony Vaio!

The first one i am going to look at is the iPhone. I have recently upgraded to an iPhone having already owned an iPod Touch, so i knew what to expect.

Having owned a variety of mobile phones over the past few years i must admit that the iPhone is years ahead of the other phones on the market. This is also true when compared to mobile phone giants Nokia's flagship N97.....the Mini version of which i owned.

The features and content available on the iPhone is truly remarkable. It can hold anything from emails, films to graphically stunning games.

The iPhone of course allows the user to text, email and call.....the standard of any phone these days, but it also allows the user to go further than this.

One of the main draws of the iPhone is Apple's amazing App Store. The App Store has thousands of Apps, most of which are free. There are also paid for Apps that range from simple games to fully blown Sat-Nav systems. The amount of content available for the iPhone is extremely large. Along with the App Store offering Applications there is also an iTunes built into the iPhone which allows users to download music, Podcasts and TV episodes. There is truly no end to the content available to the iPhone.

The social aspect of the iPhone is pretty impressive. There are Apps available for basically every social networking site that allows the user to receive and post updates directly to the web.

Every since the iPhone was released back in 2007 there has been something called 'Jailbreaking' on the device. This is where the iPhones original OS or firmware is modified or replaced with a custom version allowing the user to modify the phone in certain ways not available through Apple. It allows the downloading of themes and 3rd party Apps. As it stands Jailbreaking is currently not Illegal, however, downloading pirated Apps that should of been paid for is. Of course even though it is illegal it still happens. This results in people downloading whatever Apps they want for free. This puts the App Developers in a bad position, as they are losing money.

The security of the device is pretty good, it can be hacked and modified but is pretty safe when connected to the Internet. The biggest risk to the iPhone is having it stolen, this is particularly bad when a replacement costs a tidy £700.

The iPad.

Well after weeks of waiting and speculation Apple have finally announced their new tablet device....The iPad. To be honest I was expecting a full blown computer similar in specification to a MacBook....so initially I was disappointed....Although I probably was expecting a little too much!! The iPad has been released to fill the gap between smartphones and laptops, I think it will fill this gap nicely.

After reading about the iPad and looking through the pictures Apple have released I started to realise that it does actually look pretty nice indeed. It has the black glossy border around the screen and a nice brushed metal back. It is basically just a larger version of an iPod Touch or indeed the iPhone (if you have the model with 3G built in). This is the iPads technical specification:

9.7 inch- (25cm-) multi-touch display

1 GHz Apple processor

16, 32 or 64 GB of flash memory

0.5in- (1.25cm) thick

Weighs 1.5lbs (0.7kgs)

Wi-fi, bluetooth and 3G connectivity

Speaker, microphone

Accelerometer, compass

Looking through the videos of Apple showing off what it can do don't really excite me either. Although its HD screen does indeed look amazing, it really is just a larger iPod. It runs the same

Apps and has the same layout. One of the main issues with the device is that it doesn't run Adobe Flash. I find this astonishing and rather disappointing.

With prices starting at $599 (£376) its not ridiculously expensive. However this is for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version. If you want a 64GB version with 3G it will set you back about $830 (£520). It is not so expensive that only the mega rich can afford. The cheaper version is cheaper than most of the high end smartphones and similar in price to the netbooks. I think and hope the iPad will render the netbook extinct. They are cheap laptops that are slow, ugly and have awful displays.

Overall I believe this product will be a success, thanks to its amazing looks, the size, what it can do and also its pricing. So yea another good product from Apple...cant wait until it hits the Apple stores so I can go have a little play for myself!

I Really want one!!!

Xbox Project Natal

Well this is kinda old news now but its getting pretty close to being released. Don't really know what to think of it yet, looks good, but is it going to be reliable and widely compatible? Guess we shall soon see!!

iPod Touch

Ive recently invested in an iPod Touch. I decided to upgrade from my Product Red Nano that i bought with my first paycheck from work! I needed more space than the 8GB and thought the iPod touch would be the logical option.

I realise the Touch is somewhat old news but thought i would share my thoughts on it nevertheless. I have always admired the design of the iPod and Apple products in general. I have followed Jonathan Ives' work at Apple for a few years now, ever since i did a case study for GCSE Product Design. I like the simplicity of the appearance yet admire how complex the technology is.

I think the interface of the iPod Touch is amazing and love the touch screen. I think the OS is very impressive and i have had no problems with crashing, freezing etc. I was however disappointed with the extent to which the interface can be customised themes, icons, colours etc. The fact that you could only download Apple approved apps was also a negative, because of this i decided to jailbreak my iPod, this gave me a lot more freedom to customise the iPod to how i want it.

WiFi is a fantastic feature and has become extremely useful for quickly checking things out on the web. The web based apps Facebook, MSN, Google Maps, Email etc are very convenient to have to hand.

Better way to spend 200 quid?

Write a 300-500 word article that tells the audience about a recent multimedia technology that is being or has been developed in the last six months.

Blu-Ray V HD-DVD.

Over The Last few months the long battle between the two high definition movie formats may have come to an end. Both formats were originally announced back in February 2006, with different movie studios taking sides. Blu-Ray was invented by these group of companies: Hitachi, LC, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sharp , Samsung and Sony. HD-DVD was created by Toshiba/NEC. http://www.blu-ray.com/ and http://www.toshibahddvd.co.uk/.

Both technologies use the same blue-violet laser, this means they can focus more sharply than a standard DVD, resulting in a higher quality picture. It also means that far more data can be stored on the discs. There are however bid differences between the discs. Blu-ray packs more data into a single spiral of the disc, this meaning that Blu-ray can fit more data onto each disc than a HD-DVD. The two formats are incompatible.

A blu-ray disc can fit about 25GB of data on a single disc only using a single layer. Double this can be fit on a dual layer blu-ray disc (about 50GB). HD-DVD can only fit 15GB single layer and 30GB dual layer, both these however are far more than a standard DVD which is only 4.7GB single layer and 9GB dual layer.

The most important thing for the consumers however is the price of each technology. For a product to be successful it obviously must function but also be affordable. Blu-ray is seen as a more advanced format, this means the price is quite high. Back in mid 2007 when both formats were competing a blu-ray player cost a staggering £450 while a HD-DVD player came in at £220, half the price. So which would the consumers go for? The more expensive but more widely used Blu-ray format or the smaller HD-DVD format. As time went on Blu-ray started to get more and more backing from the different film studios. The bigger studios were releasing their films on blu-ray rather than HD-DVD, meaning more films were becoming available on blu-ray and not HD-DVD. Because of this consumers were buying more blu-ray films, resulting in an announcement from Toshiba that they would no longer be producing HD-DVD technology.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2300109.ece

So now the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is over can blu-ray takeover from DVD? This totally depends on the consumer. New chart DVDs now retail at about £14.99 while blu-ray discs come in at about £20. Will society be willing to spend extra on the same product for the better picture, specially in the current financial climate? The average blu-ray player is retailing at about £250 while a DVD player can be purchased for £20. Also, to take full advantage of the high definition picture a HD ready TV is needed also costing more money. Its up to the consumer, save money or spend more?