Internet of Things Review: Tablets Are All the Rage
It’s been an exciting week for mobile enthusiasts on both the Apple and Microsoft camps, but it was the former that stole the stage with the iPad Air. The fifth generation tablet sports a cutting edge 64-bit A7 processor that provide twice the performance of its predecessor and 72 times the graphical horsepower of the original iPad.
Measuring only 7.5 millimeters thick and weighing only one pound, the iPad Air is the slimmest tablet on the market. It made its debut alongside a Retina-equipped iPad mini 2 and new MacBook Pro Retina models that come with OS X Mavericks pre-installed.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced his company’s latest products on the same day Microsoft’s Surface 2 hit stores. Not wasting any time, AnandTech’s Anand Lal Shimpi and CodingHorror’s Jeff Atwood conducted a series of tests to determine how the tablet matches up against the software titan’s previous generation device. They discovered that the Surface 2 manages an average of 6.68 hours of battery life while browsing the web, a 41.5 percent improvement on the original Pro.
The Surface 2 is joined by the 10.1-inch Lumia 2520, Nokia’s first attempt at a tablet. It packs a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU and 2GB RAM, in addition to a magnetometer and four other sophisticated sensors.
Microsoft’s plans for the Internet of Things extends far beyond the tablet market. Insiders revealed on Tuesday that the company is prototyping a Google Glass rival in an effort to catch up to Google in the wearable tech arena, a rapidly growing segment that is expected to reach $19 billion in revenues by 2018. The device reportedly features a camera and advanced Internet capabilities.
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