Tablets Still at the Center of CES

Four years ago, e-book readers and tablets were the hot stars of the famed ConsumerElectronics Show. At this year’s CES, underway Jan. 7-10 in Las Vegas, standalone e-readers aren’t even lukewarm but a new generation of tablets still occupies the spotlight.

A host of new tablet models, representing a variety of features and forms, are on display at the show, according to C/net. Manufacturers seem to be trying to figure out just what consumers want in a tablet. Do they need one with a stylus, a larger screen (up to 12.2 in.), mini versions with cellphone capabilities, or a stripped-down model with a cheaper pricetag? How about a hybrid laptop/tablet that can boot up both Windows 8.1 and Android operating systems?

Tablets will almost certainly gain ground with college students, who would rather tote something lighter than a laptop around campus, especially if all they want to do is take notes and go online.

Wired.com’s CES coverage also highlighted a new higher-end tablet that might work well for professors doing field research or campus retailers handling off-site sales at the stadium. The Panasonic Toughpad can be dropped without damage from a normal standing or desk height, resists dust and water, and comes with ports for a payment-card reader, bar-code reader, GPS unit, or extra battery.

For the first time, a section of the CES floor was devoted to showcasing new developments produced by higher-education incubators. The Academia TechTechZone features innovations from seven institutions.

McGraw-Hill Launches SmartBook at CES

An update to the college textbook was among the new innovations introduced at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. McGraw-Hill Education launched SmartBooks, an adaptive approach to textbooks that acts as a virtual tutor to focus on the individual student’s area of study needs.

“This is about breaking a model that isn’t really working,” Brian Kibby, president of McGraw Hill Higher Education, told The Wall Street Journal.

Available for PCs, Macs, and iOS and Android mobile devices, SmartBook give students an overview of the content in a preview of each chapter. Students then answer a series of questions presented by the software and the textbook recommends material to study, tracks the student’s progress, and continues to update material to view.

SmartBook is part of the LearnSmart Advantage software suite from McGraw-Hill and will be available in the spring for more than 90 courses. Prices for SmartBook were not announced, but the LearnSmart suite starts at $19.99 and can be purchased or rented semester.

Flexible Screen Technology on Display at CES

Plastic Logic and flexible-screen devices re-emerged last week during the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, although the technology still doesn’t appear to be ready for prime time. Plastic Logic and Intel partnered with the Queen’s University Human Media Lab to introduce PaperTab, a 10.7-in. tablet device that users control by moving or bending, according to a report in Campus Technology.

PaperTab can offer a viewing angle of nearly 180 degrees and can bend to act as if the user is turning a page. It also allows for more than one unit to transfer documents by touch or proximity and work together as windows of a single application. However, the device was only built as a model.

“PaperTab is a concept design created by Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab using Plastic Logic’s flexible displays,” a spokesperson for Plastic Logic told Campus Technology. “As such, it is not a finished device intended for release, but much more a vision of how computing will develop over the next three to five years.”

Samsung, a company that has been working on flexible-screen technology for more than a decade, also showed its Youm line of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display devices with wraparound screens that can be used as a smartphone and opened to form a tablet with twice the screen size. It also requires further research before coming to market because OLEDs can disintegrate when exposed to air and moisture.

“The difficulty isn’t making the screen work, it’s making it work well,” Rob Enderle, analyst for the Enderle Group, said in an article for TechNew World. “These screens break after being folded a few times but consumer products need to be able to last through thousands of times of being folded.”

Mobile + computer = potential higher ed win

While this BlogU posting from Inside Higher Ed doesn’t view the announcement of 70-plus new tablet devices as “the” big story on the education front from CES 2011, it does rave over the Motorola Atrix Android phone and docking system.

The laptop-like docking station acts as keyboard, screen, and battery, with the Atrix providing the OS, memory, and networking—as well as the user’s files, images, videos, and music. All computing occurs on the Atrix. The combination renders the smartphone vastly much more suitable for classroom use.

“The Atrix is a step closer to the dream of a full computer in a mobile device,” states the BlogU post, adding, “…All of a sudden, the mobile device becomes both a consumption and production tool.”

Looking for a few good tablets at CES

This turned out to be the Year of the Tablet at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, with as many as 80 different devices launched, all hoping to become the iPad-killer. None are available at this point and some don’t even exist yet. Most will drop by the wayside. (Remember how many e-readers debuted at last year’s CES? How many of them are still viable concerns?)

This InformationWeek special report culls the herd to pinpoint the new devices that, at first glance, seem to have the best shot at competing seriously with Apple’s tablet.

View of CES from NYT

The New York Times had a great story on e-readers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)last week. The piece focuses on some of the next generation readers, many of which will be tablet-like devices from companies like Apple and HP. While many think the mythical Apple tablet will dominate or at least radically alter the e-reader device market, Apple could have some competition this time. The future devices make the current Kindles look like the old model-T.

In addition to the news story, The NYT also has a video on the e-readers at CES. It is 3.5 minutes long and worth watching.