Kujyou's McMath Tech Corner

Nokia's new tablet running Windows RT, the Lumia 2520, has become the rival of Windows' Surface 2 tablet. This puts the companies in very awkward positions, as Microsoft has been planning to buy Nokia for a while. One big advantage the Nokia tablet has is a 2.2 GHz processor while Microsoft's Surface 2 uses a 1.7 GHz processor. While this puts the Nokia tablet ahead in technical terms, both companies have yet to see who's sales will be bigger. So far, tablets running Windows RT have not been favored by consumers. The new Lumia is actually only the second system to be running this OS, besides the Surface 2. The Windows RT is the first system that uses less powerful chips from cellphones in a tablet. It was the software to make Windows compatible with processors from big manufacturers such as Qualcomm, who actually provided the processor for the Lumia 2520. Qualcomm is a huge company that provides the processors for many of the biggest smartphones, such as the  Apple iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S4. However, this doesn't help the popularity of the operating system itself in the slightest. It's inability to run many older applications has made it a less-than-popular choice among consumers and companies. Perhaps we will see more people moving towards tablets running the Windows OS after they see the performance of the Lumia.

I can see Microsoft getting more excited about their future buy-over of Nokia. They have now seen first-hand what they can create, and together I'm sure they can create the next best tablet. But how high up will they be seen in the people's eyes? Apple has also recently released their new iPad Air and updated iPad Mini. This will create some big competition in the marketing aspect for these companies. So how will brand loyalty come into play here? I believe that the iPad's will still sell better due to the fact that many people are still devoted Apple followers and much of the population just doesn't know much about Microsoft's tablets. Many other companies are using Qualcomm's chips though, due to their ability to support larger resolutions. There will be big competitive scene over their chips, and when it comes down to it, most tablets in the future market will probably be running either the same or a similar one. What will make or break it will be the OS and its functions, and currently, Microsoft isn't delivering. Hopefully their long term investment in the new low power technology in the OS pays off for them or they will be in for some tough times.


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On tuesday October 22, Apple released its new iPad Air and iPad Mini with a Retina Display. The successor to the iPad Mini, the iPad Air is a 9.7 inch device that is featuring a 20% decrease in thickness and a 29% decrease in weight. They are using the same name as their MacBook on purpose, since the name is already associated with a good feeling of success from the laptop. Apple was falling behind in the market for tablets; companies such as Samsung and Microsoft have jumped in and released their own products, cutting Apple's market share from 60% to about 33% in just a year. Samsung, Apple's direct competitor, has had their market share leap from 7.6% to 18% after releasing a frenzy of different tablets. Tim Cook, however, argued that the market share doesn't matter. The CEO of Apple is more concerned about the device usage, stating that people use the iPads 4 times more than other tablets.

Their prices however, are not so competitive. The iPad Air has been priced at $499 and the iPad Mini with retina display has been priced at $399, while the original iPad Mini has only dropped to $299. Apple has always wanted its tablets to represent the high end, premium side of products, but with Android tablets selling for $250 or less, these new iPads may not make the impact they need to get back some of the market. This shows that although they may win in the premium tablet sector, they will ultimately lose to other competitors who sell cheaper tablets and continue to lose their footing on the slippery slope they have found themselves upon.

However, there may actually be a large group of people who are quite willing to pay the extra $100-$200 for an Apple tablet simply because of brand and the premium nature of the product. For example, Apple's iPhone 5s outsold their 5c model when it was released because of the premium feeling associated with the product. In this case, Apple's brand itself may be the selling point of the new iPad Mini and iPad Air. The price gap between the new Mini and the Air is only $100, giving the feeling that if you're going to buy the Mini you may as well get the more high-end Air device since it's only a $100 difference. This may have a certain amount of truth to it, but it doesn't change the fact that the market is changing. Apple taking the route to remain a premium brand may not be the rest route to take considering the situation of the economy at the moment. People will continue to want to save money, and with rivals everywhere producing products that appeal to the larger of the markets, we will have to see if Apple is able to maintain its position as a top predator in a sea full of other sharks.


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Swiftkey 4.3 is something that you can download for various android devices. The purpose of swiftkey is so that you can choose what  keyboard you want to use in different scenarios. Swiftkey comes with three presets: The compact setting which lets you use your phone for one hand, The full which is pretty much the default for more devices, and the thumb which splits the keyboard in two 'thumbable' halves. If you are only able to use the device with one hand, You can change is so that the  keyboard is easily useable with one hand. I think that this is a really smart thing to make because nowadays, many people use their android devices with one hand almost everywhere. Everyone is into using their phone every minute they get and the people who made this application knows this.

Personally, I prefer the default keyboard because I am more used to it but some people may not like have the keyboard split in half. I think that this will be liked by people who are on the go a lot but not as much for the people who type slowly. Swiftkey is in beta at the moment so there might be bugs in the programming. In my opinion, this is only good for the function where you can easily use it with one hand as I think that that is going to be the most used one. If I had Swiftkey I would probably only use that function or the default one given on the device



-Kevin



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In this day and age, nothing is really private anymore. We continue to be tracked and identified, even without us knowing it and even when we think we have turned off all our connections to the rest of the world. A new campaign has started for a potential product in the Off Pocket, a pouch that will block signals when you put your phone in it. Simple solutions, like turning the phone off, won't work anymore. Now we need to buy a separate product just to protect our privacy that we should already have. The pouch itself works like a Faraday Cage, which is used to protect equipment from lightning. Faraday Cages block the radio waves from the phone as well. This isn't even the first product to be introduced that can do this; Faraday bags by Disklabs have options for cell phones as well as laptops, and the Blokket is a pouch you can order online to block signals as well.

How have we come to this? We now have to pay for our own privacy? I don't think this is what we should be progressing towards; as necessary as it is in our modern society, we should work towards eliminating this problem entirely. All our info is out there for companies to use for their own commercial interests, and we have voluntarily given it out to them. One way to start showing intolerance for this is to look to the future; we may have made mistakes in giving out info in the past, but we can learn from those mistakes. We can stop giving out unnecessary info; make sure to read to see if info is actually required for whatever you're doing. Make sure that you trust the source you're giving your information to. Information may be a big industry, but we can move towards slowing and stopping it.




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Have you ever wondered about virtual reality? A different world, created by others or even yourself. Now, we are one step closer with new apps, bringing the capability to scan the world in 3-D. This will bring big changes in the gaming and photography industries, adding a new dimension for people's creativity to work in. The first sensor is going to be the Structure Sensor, developed as an add on for the iPad. The company behind the sensor, Occipital, has made apps that allow the sensor to scan a whole room, then add the virtual images on top of the real world images. This provides a mix of the real world and the virtual one, adding another layer of immersion. It's not just for gaming; you can also use it to scan and recreate images in 3-D if, for example, you wanted to 3-D print it. The sensor itself works by releasing infrared light outwards, then recreating objects by seeing how the light pattern is warped when it hits them.

The chip behind the sensor comes from another company called PrimeSense, who have created their own sensor known as the Capri. A game uses the sensor to take the shape of the background and turn it into your own game board, complete with virtual terrain and working physics behind the characters. The app was created by adding 3-D support to Qualcomm's Vuforia technology, which helps developers to build these kind of apps. They plan to make the technology available to all app developers next year, so soon we will be seeing these kind of apps everywhere. Sometime in the future, perhaps we will also see new devices with this technology built into it. Maybe one day, it will become something that we grow accustomed to and eventually expect in all new devices. I can see depth-sensing technology to continue to grow and grow until our 2-D photography and gaming will become entirely obsolete. One day we may see people start to not only get used too but become addicted to their own world, unwilling to leave it for the real one. The biggest question is: If the technology in this area continues to progress and become more realistic, will we lose our grip on what's real and what isn't?