A Muse's GuideFood, technology, yoga and music. . . is there anything else?

Through the wonders of the internet, the comic book has a way to be shown to the world without the limitations of the traditional paper publication process. Over the past few years I have come to favor the webcomic format over the paper comic book format, this has been especially due to the ability for me to discover new comics easily online, as well as the fact that many webcomics are updated a few times a week. This makes most of my early mornings filled with enjoyable reading on my laptop or iPad, while I sip my tea.

The webcomics I read span from cutesy adorable, to Japanese influence, quirky comics that have detailed character development and plot lines, to plain out geeky (including World of Warcraft, Academic and Robots).  You would be surprised how many fantastic stories have been written via webcomic format!

I have been commonly asked what my favorite webcomics are and why, which has led me realize I should just write a post about it, instead of explaining it in small snippets of twitter or facebook conversation. Over the next little while, I will be writing a little synopsis or review of the various webcomics that I read. Hopefully you will enjoy the comics as much as I have.

Here is the list of my current webcomic reviews – there will be more to come later.

Webcomics: About Movies, TV & Gaming

Webcomics: World of Warcraft

Cheers,

Deanna

There have been rumors and rumblings for the past couple years about a Apple Tablet that combines the iPod, iPhone and Macbook all into one nicely sized tablet screen.  I have been eagerly awaiting hearing any news about this, and am always on the look out for any new comments on the Internets.  Every month it seems there is a post promising the Apple tablet’s emergence into the world “next month” or “any time now”, yet it never shows.

This week, the Nook by Barnes and Noble was released, which of course has spun much discussion on this being the precursor to the Apple tablet.  This fascinating eBook reader seems to put the Kindle to shame, yet as I was looking at product demos it seemed vaguely similar to something I have seen before.  Now, the Nook has a much fancier screen (in color), with 3G and Wi-Fi, yet the more I looked at it, the more it seemed reminiscent of the Apple MessagePad 2100 a.k.a. the Newton.

So I immediately tasked myself to go find a Newton to confirm my suspicions.  Lo-and-behold, a wonderful professor of mine had one in his possession.  So I took a peek at it.  This MessagePad 2100 (Newton) was created in 1989, has a bright blue/green back-light, decent sized 8″x4″ screen, weighs about 1.25 lbs, but seems as sturdy as an Otterbox Case.  This “tablet” style mini-computer has a stylus that you use to write on the screen, which uses a writing recognition software to convert the writing into text (Plus the writing recognition learns from your writing style – more than I can say for many of the writing recognition applications built for the Apple iPhone).

With different sound capabilities, a 28.8k modem (though quite zippy since the files maintain a very small size on this machine – and keep in mind this thing’s battery life far outshines my Apple iPhone which only lasts me 12 hours when not using it), mail.app, notes, calendar, organizational assistant, games and more, I was intrigued by this machine that is 20 years old. Yes,  this tablet style computer with a word processor, with a touch screen, address book, writing recognition, and with Internet (and the ability to fax), seems too good to be true. Yet, I sat there holding it in my hands wondering how the long awaited Apple tablet doesn’t sound like it has changed all that much, expect with the addition of color screens, better resolution, and access to the Apple App Store (But any critics of the potential new tablet are skeptical about it being able to maintain enough battery life).  The Nook and Kindle also don’t seem to have come very far in comparison either, they are simply eBook readers with Internet (and a white case).  I think a modern day revision of the Newton would be a welcome product,  seeing as Apple already pretty much has had the beta out for 2 decades.

I am not going to stop waiting with baited breath for a glimpse of a modern tablet from the Apple store.  Though now that I have seen what Apple was capable of 20 years ago in a tablet style portable computer, I think I will wait on buying a Nook or Kindle, and just hold out for the Apple Tablet.  If history proves anything, it will definitely be good.

Cheers,

Deanna