Monday, August 8, 2022
With all the doom and gloom surrounding cybersecurity, it’s easy to get lost in the negative aspects of tech advancement. Nevertheless, we do really love technology. And, advancements in smartphone technology in particular have made amazing strides and led to great achievements in business and elsewhere. We just wanted to take today to appreciate how incredible smartphones and iPads are.
Modern Smartphones Sure Are Awesome
When the first iPhone was released in 2007, it was an incredibly exciting time. Imagine holding a personal computer in the palm of your hand. Much of this hype was built up by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who announced to the world—with all those who were still using Palm Pilots, Blackberrys, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile devices long before the iPhone — that he would change everything with this phone. The crazy part is, he was right.
How much has the world changed since Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007? Steve Jobs of Apple. Wikipedia.
The smartphone has evolved and been streamlined by developers over the past decade. And, unless you’re consciously looking for it, you might not have noticed it at all. The fact is that modern-day smartphones have far exceeded peoples’ expectations, and they’re capable of so many cool things you might not even know about.
Turn Your Smartphone Into a Handheld Desktop with Samsung DeX
A new feature in Samsung’s line of Android smartphones, DeX allows you to get a similar experience to a desktop when you plug it into a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Check out this video on YouTube to see what DeX can do. While you don’t get the same experience, it’s still a neat feature that’s quite handy for navigating the web or using your productivity suite.
Have you tried turning your smartphone into a handheld desktop? Photo from YouTube.
Modern Tablets Give Artists All the Power
The tablet market is an odd duck, as it hasn’t taken off in the way we initially expected. Still, artists have found tablets to be wonderful tools for their creative work. Your typical digital artist might be tethered to their desk and drawing tablet, but other modern tools have made considerable impacts on this niche.
The Apple iPad has revolutionized the way artists use tablets for their work, with Apple’s proprietary pencil offering extremely accurate input for each stroke. Just like the expensive tablets that hobbyist artists can’t afford, the iPad uses tilt and pressure sensitivity in the same way an actual pencil or paintbrush would. With access to low-cost and dynamic illustration tools, artists can do a lot with their tablets.
Have you tried designing on an iPad? Courtesy Apple.
Even if Apple was the first to truly iron out these innovations, Microsoft’s Surface line of tablets has made great progress, too. Samsung’s Galaxy line of tablets also includes the Samsung S-Pen, something which offers similar technology to Apple, while also offering its own solutions on the software side of the house.
Smartphones Are Amazing Entertainment Devices
If you have cut the cable, so to speak, in favor of streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu, you’re not alone. Many users are jumping on this bandwagon to save some cash. Furthermore, YouTube and YouTube TV offer so much content that you can’t possibly watch it all.
Entertainment is virtually in our hands. Facebook photo.
If you have dropped cable in favor of these applications, then you probably have a Google Chromecast or Amazon Firestick to use alongside your streaming services. You might even have a TV with Amazon, Google, or Roku built right into it.
It wouldn’t be possible without the development of the smartphone.
Smartphones Are Incredible Little Machines
It’s impossible to cover all of the potential uses for your smartphone, but we just wanted to take a moment to think about how wonderful they are. All that said, however, there are certain drawbacks to smartphones, like social media algorithms, cybersecurity threats, and addicting mobile games—and that’s before we even get to the burnout that can come from always being connected to the workplace.
Despite the downsides to smartphones, we can’t imagine a workplace or life without them. What are your thoughts on these devices?
Alan Edwards, CISM, is chief information officer at Computerware, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia.