Proctele apps in the App Store

Proctele apps in the App Store
Click the picture to see Proctele apps in Apple's App Store

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The New, Hip Devices

I've been considering the nature of devices such as the iPod touch, the iPad, the iPhone and the Kindle. What are they and what should they be called? I've considered the naming and four names I found were "Smart Handheld Device" and "Smartphone", "Surfpad" and "E-bookreader". I'll use those names in this blogpost. I suspect those words may not survive for many years. Here follow my definitions of those devices.
Smart Handheld Device:

  • Access to the Internet via WiFi
  • Touch-Screen: about 3 inches - about 10 inches
  • On-screen keyboard or keyboard with buttons
  • Microphone, speaker and headphone outlet
  • Camera for picture and video
  • Tilt- and motion-detector (ie, accelerometer)
  • Standard apps: e.g. app-store, web browser, email, contacts, calendar
  • Downloadable apps
  • Music player
  • Video Player
  • (Extra: Compass, GPS)

Smartphone definition: Small Smart Handheld Device + SMS, MMSmobile data channel.

Surfpad definition: Large Smart Handheld Device with screen of 7-10 inches. (Extra: mobile data channel)

E-book reader definition: Apparatus with E-paper display of at least 7 inchesAccess to a PC which downloads books from the web.

Then there's the definition of phoneHere's what phone used to mean, until about a decade ago: "electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds". Not a trace of the Internet there.We are using the word phone for a device that does almost anything. It's a networked general purpose computer with a speaker and a microphone and some other stuff.Now may be the time for another word for our favorite device. How about Gencom (= General communications device) or Unicom (= Universal communications device) or Sec (= Second brain) or Infoman/Iman (= Information manager).
Quoted phone definition taken from http://phone.askdefine.com/

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