Could It Be The End For Tablets?

Just as we get an influx of tablets from all of the biggest names in technology including Google, Samsung and Apple, there is news surrounding a possible demise of the tablet.

The reason this news has surfaced is because Apple, the company that has dominated the tablet market for a while now, is now selling much fewer iPads, which could mean they may be making a six-inch phablet. This has therefore led to exaggerations that tablets are dead – far from the truth.

There have been rumours for months about Apple adding a bigger phone to its collection and these rumours won’t be going away any time soon. The phablet market is huge in Asia and Samsung have already begun preparations for releasing a seven-inch phablet there.

News of living in a post-iPad era are not quite accurate, but this could happen sooner than we thought. Although the iPad no longer dominates the market, it is still a high quality piece of technology, that is beautifully created and ahead of its time.

Apple has a knack at being adaptive and one example of this is the iPhone 5 turning into the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C in order to cater for consumer behaviour. So, don’t rule the iPad out, especially when there has been an increase of 25% in the number consumers that are 65 years old or older, which is a relatively new market.

It is not only the over 65’s that are into tablets, once people have a tablet, they are much less likely to trade it in unlike they would with their smartphone, which means people hold onto them much longer before replacing them.

But, the future could very well belong to the phablet – a smartphone with a big screen of between 5.6.9 inches. According to statistics, 25 million phablets were sold in China and South Korea alone, with sales doubling each quarter. In 2014, it is predicted that phablets will make up 25% of all smartphones sold, equating to 300 million, so claims that the future could belong to the phablet could be true.

7 Top Tips For iOS7

So you've just installed the shiny new iOS7 but apart from the new look you're not sure what else it does. Or even worse you were used to the way something worked and now it's different. Well after answering a few questions (that were often the same) about it from our clients over the last day or so we decided to put a few top tips together.

1. New slide up/down panels
By sliding your finger down from the top of the screen the notification centre is opened. As well as just showing old (misssed) notifications this now includes the date, current weather, calendar, reminders, and stocks. This can now be done from the lock screen though can be disabled in settings.

Another new panel has also been added by swiping your finger up from the bottom of the screen too. This is called command centre and includes things you quickly want to change or specific Apps to quick launch. This includes things like flight mode, wireless on/off, brightness, volume, and timer, calculator, and some others.

2. Searching
In previous version of iOS you had a specific search screen to the left of the home screen. This is no longer there on iOS7 so how do you search? From any of the home screens if you swipe your finger down from the middle of the screen then the search box will appear at the top of the screen. Simple when you know how!

3. Flashlight Addition
Ever found yourself fumbling around in the dark and wishing you had a torch with you. Well with iOS7 you can use your phone as one! From the new command centre you can switch on the flashlight with a single press and use your phone's camera flash as a torch.

4. Email Changes/Improvements
If you're used to going to your inbox and swiping right across the message previous to delete that obvious spam message you may get a shock. It doesn't do anything now! But don't worry, if you swipe right to left instead of left to right then you can delete (trash) instantly or even reply, forward etc too using the more button.

Another massive improvement that has always been missing is the ability to "mark all". This is especially useful for people who have their email setup where they are seeing the same messages on their phone as their computer but these are showing as unread on the phone. Now you can just click "edit" and then use the new mark all as read function.

5. Closing running programs
Previously you could close down Apps that were running in the background by double clicking the home button and then holding your finger on the App icon and select delete. With iOS7 the double home button click is the same but then it shows a card of the App and the icons below. Now matter how long you keep your finger pressed the delete button won't appear! You now simply swipe the App card upwards off the screen and it's closed.

6. Blocking numbers
This will be a lifesaver for those of you that are always getting spam PPI claim phone calls! If you go into recent calls and click on the info icon then at the bottom of that screen you can "block this caller". This then blocks calls, messages, or FaceTime from that number/contact.

7. Photo Viewing
As well as the existing albums structure then if you use the "photos" tab then you can view your photo's by collections and moments. This cleverly splits up your photo's into headings of the place and times photo's were taken. So if you were on holiday for a week in Cornwall it would create a heading for this and have all your holiday photo's in there. This makes looking for that specific photo from an event so much easier than going through your whole camera roll!

We hope that these tips all help you get along with your fresh install of iOS7 and please feel free to add tips of your own in the comments section below.