Image From: ABT

Tablets vs PC: At a Glance

It may be hard to fathom, but personal computers were once an exclusive luxury that few could afford. They were a discontinuous innovation in which a completely new set of skills was required for use. But slowly, with each passing year, PCs began to dominate the consumer market to the point that it was odd if your household did not have one.

And now, after decades of tireless innovation, we’ve arrived at yet another one of these pivotal moments. All hail the rise of the tablet, because seriously, who wants to point and click on a pixelated screen anymore when there is a handy device with a crystal clear screen that responds to the touch of your fingertips? Even though we still see a majority of PC traditionalists, their number is dwindling.

Swipe, pinch, tap. These three simple actions serve as the foundation of a certain digital interactiveness that we’ve never seen before. And here at Onswipe, we’ve decided to take things to entirely new level and bring this unprecedented sort of interactiveness to the valuable content you read everyday.

The Numbers 

Last year, the number of tablets shipped exceeded half the number of PCs shipped. 52.5 million tablets were sold in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 89.5 million PCs.

Why the change? Should we embrace it? The tablet vs PC showdown has in inevitable winner.

Clearly, yes. Tablets are affordable. They’re engaging and fun to use. They have a cool factor astronomically greater than that of a PC. Their displays are typically brighter and clearer than any PC will ever be. They are easy to carry. As companies adopt mobile and tablet versions of their websites, and as more apps usurp the roles of traditional computing, the transition will be indisputably noticeable.

Superbowl + Tablets

According to a study conducted by Google, people use at least one other device while watching television 77% of the time. How will these statistics play into Superbowl Sunday, just days away? In 2012, the game had 111 million viewers, and we have every reason to believe that these individuals will shift their attention to their mobile devices more than ever before. Whether it’s reading published content on the game or tweeting about the impossibly awesome touchdown that just occurred, we can safely say that multitasking is inevitable.

So, tell us: how will you incorporate your mobile device into the game? Internet browsing? Apps? Social networks?

Let us know on Facebook and Twitter!

About Onswipe

Onswipe makes it insanely easy for publishers of all sizes to make their content and advertising a beautiful experience on touch web browsers.

Onswipe’s first HTML5 hackathon concluded sunday with winners in Design, Data, Best Application of Touch and Best Overall project.

The winner for best design was Bi-Line: Using simple brushstrokes, bi-line is a real-time collaborative drawing application. Major dependencies include Paper.js and Socket.io. The application is deployed on Nodejitsu at: http://janewang.biline.jit.su

The winner for best data was Scroogify.js: Making responsive images suck slightly less. http://ezyz.github.com/scroogify/

The winner for best Touch Application was AndSwipe: A responsive swipeable mobile interface that allows users to browse and vote for photos. Photos and vote information can be accessed in the REST API. andswipe.herokuapp.com

And the best overall winner was BlahBlahLearning:

Hailing from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, via Utah and Connecticut, the  team of BlahBlahLearning won Onswipe’s first HTML5 Hackathon in New York City.

BlahBlahLearning is a platform helps people practice or learn a new language with real people with one-on-one real-time video.

Some of the team members moved to US, solely to learn and practice english. “The members of our team speak more than 2 languages at home, and we’ve had the desire to continue practicing and learning new languages. However, it was hard to find French and Italian speakers.” Explained Eliecer Andres Trillos, one of the blahblah founders.

In less than 48 hours the BlahBlah team was able to build a solution for their own problem.

“The opportunity to be able to build something new with people amazing engineers and with mentorship from the Onswipe team is what brought me to the hackathon” said Ezequiel Gomez, BlahBlah team member

The team was composed by

- Daniel Niquet. 15 years experience Programmer Engineer with a master’s degree on IT Management. NodeJS fan. @danielniquet
- Ezequiel Gomez Serna. 10 years experience Web designer and front end developer. actually working for a Mexico IT company in US, definitely enjoys colaborate building web apps. @cheketere
- Eliecer Andres Trillos. Co-founder of Activatize.com @eliecertrillos

Onswipe Software Engineer LD Libra served as engineering mentor for the team.

Dialed in and hacking away the developers at the #swipeathon are locked in creating a multitude of broad ranging apps from mood based photo filter applications to webcam activated computer games. Breaks were taken, designs created and destroyed along with the stealing of team members.

Updates from some of the teams

Team: One Love : Vinil, Ashley, Vanvana

Idea: mobile educational ecosystem for making and taking assessment online

Update: Vinil: It’s not my first hackathon but this is definitely a different the music and atmosphere is very inviting.

Team: Blahblah Ezikeil, Andres, Daniel, LD

Idea: language learning application via videochat between two users

Update: LD: It’s my first hackathon and I must say the food is great, people are great and we’re going to win.”

Team: Team Stingy Yifei, Camillio

Idea: simple implementation of responsive images

Update: Yifei: “This place has a pretty wild vibe I’d would definitely come back again.”

Follow the hashtag #swipeathon on twitter to stay updated all weekend long.

Do you dream of HTML5 greatness? Do you have JavaScript hacking skills? Do you want to meet other awesome hackers like yourself? We thought so.

On October 19th, Onswipe is holding a two-day uber hackathon for all the dreamers out there like us. There will be food, there will be WiFi, and yes: there will be beer. We want you to come hack with us and show the world what is possible on the web. This is what you can do about it:

1. Register for Onswipe’s two-day hackathon
2. Show up on October 19th
3. ???
4. Achieve greatness

And there’s a bonus: Onswipe will be giving away four iPads, one each to the top projects in design, gaming, data, and best overall. We’ll also be giving away two tickets to Empire.js for the best overall project and best designed project.

We’ve picked HTML5 as the theme for the hackathon. We know that covers a broad range of web apps, libraries, and general hackeries. That’s the point! We’re looking forward to creating cool HTML5 stuff with you, whatever it is you can think of.

Keep in mind you’ll have Onswipe’s arsenal of 30+ touch devices available for you to develop on, if you want. We have everything from iPads, to Galaxies, to Kindle Fires. In general you’ll have the whole Onswipe office at your disposal, plus a bunch of Onswipe’s best hackers.

Even better, we’ll be wrapping up on Sunday the 21st, right before the Empire.js pre-party! Think how it will feel to pre-game with some JavaScript and some beers for two days straight. Epic, that’s how it will feel.

Go register now for the Onswipe HTML5 hackathon. All participants must fit in our office, so there is limited space available. Don’t miss your chance! And remember: beer. Beer good.

Community can be built in many ways: through mutual respect, a shared goal, or even a language. But, despite the power of those three, there is one other excellent tool for bringing people together.

Beer.

Such was the idea behind last night’s Startupfix, which brought together tech entrepreneurs, journalists, investors, and others interested in the startup scene to showcase three startups in Culturefix, a gallery space.

“Startupfix is all about getting a conversation going between innovative startups and the people interested in them,” said Vinay Jain, Head of Business Development at Flavorpill, which sponsored the event. “It’s a relaxed atmosphere where you can really get to know other people and learn about what they’re building.”

The 60 attendees spent the night watching demos while exchanging ideas and business cards.

The first startup to demo was Pledge4Good, a platform for setting up simple donations to non-profits that are tied to real-life goals, like running a mile or going a week without smoking. Pledge4Good co-founder Vikram Bellapravalu said the site has been used by university athletic departments because the site makes tying in simple goals — like winning a football game — to donations as small as $1. Using social media to spread information about pledges across the net, even a small donation can add up to a big difference, Bellapravalu said.

Next up was Tidal, a syndication service that connects bloggers with publishers looking for relevant, original content. Cofounder Matt Meyers explained that the site uses an algorithm to pick out different aspects of a blogger’s content like length and keywords. Tidal then offers content to publishers for a monthly subscription. And, although the bloggers aren’t paid, Meyers said that they gain incredible exposure for their work on sites like Teen Vogue Fashion Click, Bob Vila Nation, and Zagat Fork & Tell.

Lastly Onswipe’s own Jeremy Bass, Director of Business Development, stepped up. Despite spending the 90-degree day stewing in a suit, Bass performed a demo of Onswipe’s web platform for iPad and iPhone, answered questions about Onswipe’s advertising services, and handed out T-shirts to the adoring crowd.

Startupfix will return with new startups, more demos, and chances to meet cool people on July 25. Don’t miss it!

Photo by Vinay Jain

No more clicking and scrolling — Onswipe wants you to reach out and touch the web. In order to do this, Onswipe launched three major products last week, headlined by support for the iPhone; “Draft,” an html5 touch layout builder; and “Favorites,” an easy way for readers to favorite content.

Only one year after launch, Onswipe has experienced over 800% growth in pageviews; Publishers have benefited from an average increase of 300% for pageviews as well as a 30%-50% bump in time-on-site.

Onswipe for iPhone — It’s not mobile, it’s touch

“All mobile sites have focused on shrinking down an existing website to a smaller screen by solely using responsive design,” said Onswipe CEO Jason L. Baptiste. “But they’ve ignored what’s possible with touch. Starting today, Onswipe is available for the iPhone and is delivering a web experience like never before. Starting today, Onswipe is a true cross-device platform.”

• Designed to touch – Onswipe for iPhone uses beautiful, full-screen images and touch gestures married to a fast-paced, app-like experience. Even Facebook isn’t able to do something this fluid.
• 100% feature parity with tablet – All of the features from the tablet have been brought down to the smaller screen, including favorites, recommendations, and content categories.
• Fully brandable – Onswipe for iPhone is also fully brandable: publishers can add their accent color and logo to make their site a truly unique experience.
• Monetize immediately – Publishers can monetize immediately by bringing in their existing 320×50 IAB banner ads.

Favorites – Don’t like content, love it

“Onswipe has never been a platform where each site is an island,” said Baptiste. “Rather, each one is part of a connected platform of sites.”

In January, Onswipe launched Rocketship Recommendations as part of its content network to show recommendations from all publishers across Onswipe. Now, Onswipe is launching Favorites as an easy way for readers to favorite content across all Onswipe-powered pubs while providing a window to what their friends are favoriting by using Facebook connect. This makes Onswipe a networked platform.

Join us on May 31st at 2:30 pm at The New Museum (235 Bowery New York, NY) for a special event on “The State of Publishing and Advertising in the Post-PC era.”

We’ll present “The State of Touch” research on how publishers, advertisers, and readers are leveraging touch devices. Using our internal data that reaches one of the largest audiences on tablets, we’ll give insight into what touch devices people are using and how people are using them. We’ve also pinged our publishing and advertising partners for insight as to how they are approaching tablets, phones, and all the associated advertising.

We’ll be showing off Onswipe’s latest creations that are the next step in our mission of being the platform that powers the way the world experiences the web on touch devices. We’ve been working on a few new major products and will show them off for the first time ever on May 31st.

We’re going to have a few sessions with leaders from the publishing, advertising, and technology industry. Touch devices have taken over the world and will soon eclipse traditional PC devices, so we thought it would be useful to bring all of the stakeholders into the room to weigh in on where the world is headed. We’ve already confirmed Jake Levine, General Manager of News.me, Robin Steinberg,  Executive Vice President, Director of Publishing Investment and Activation at Mediavest, and Darren Herman, Chief Digital Media Officer at the Media Kitchen.

Agenda

2:30 pm – Doors open
3:00 pm – State of Touch Address
3:30 pm – “Mobile…WTF does it mean?” Panel
4:15 pm – Short break
4:30 pm – Keynote to be announced!
5:15 pm – Fireside chat
5:45 pm – Drinks courtesy of Onswipe!

We have very limited seating and won’t be able to accommodate everybody, but if you would like to get on the waiting list to attend please sign up here:

Want free drinks?  Want to win a new iPad?  Come join The Next Web and Onswipe for the New iPad Open Bar this Friday at 6:30 pm at Gaslight at 400 W 14th street right next to the 14th street Apple Store.

You can RSVP here

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