The past couple months of rain have brought unbelievable devastation to the country of Thailand.  Lives have been lost, property has been damaged and infrastructure has been washed away.  Too much damage has been caused by the flood waters.  The damage will have an inescapable effect on the manufacturing industry including the computer hard drive industry.

Thailand manufactures a quarter of the world’s hard drives.  The flooding has a very high potential to threaten the supply of hard drives starting as early as November 2011 and lingering on into 2012.  Hard drive suppliers are warning people of the possible shortage and increased prices as the flood waters continue to rise and enter their manufacturing facilities.

The hard drive shortage will include large suppliers such as Thailand’s Western Digital, Seagate, Origin Storage, Nimec, Fujitsu, IBM/Hitachi, Hutchinson Technology, Verbatim, LaCie and others.  The distributors are trying to be responsible by limiting the available supply.  By limiting doing so, they hope the available inventory will last longer and help them through the demands of 2012.

Here at EDGE Tech Corp., our thoughts and prayers go out to the country and people of Thailand.  We also hope the flood waters recede and manufacturing can return to normal for all the industries affected.

For many, owning the latest technology, like an iPad is all about having the best tools and ability to be productive in the home, workplace, and everywhere in between. For others, the thrill is more about having the very latest device, the day it comes out. This year’s release of the iPad 2 had the typical effect on the latter group of gadget owners–get in line and buy the device in order to be the first in their sphere of influence with the very latest from Apple’s line of tablet computers.

But does it really makes sense to spend more money on the iPad 2? For those types that absolutely cannot do without being able to proclaim they are leading the Jones’ of the world, the question is moot. For everyone else, however, the following list will compare features of the new tablet with its original counterpart. In the end, making one’s own choice is all that is expected.

iPad Features Versus New and Improved iPad 2 Features

• Footprint: Wholly unchanged. Both screens are the same size although the iPad 2 has a slightly thinner overall model, and sleek, tapered edges.
• Screen Resolution: Unchanged as well. As stated, the viewing area of the screen is the same on both models, the resolution claimed by both are consistent at 1024 x 768. The main difference between the two releases is the graphics processor in the iPad 2 delivers benchmarks 3 to 7 times faster. This might be a worthy consideration in the upgrade question.
• Device Memory: The iPad 2 has double the internal memory, and apparently a faster, better module as well. This amount of RAM is about half the reported amount in similar Android operating devices.
• Cameras: This is another of those features where their is no comparison. The iPad simply did not come outfitted with any sort of image capturing device. The iPad 2 has both a front facing and a rear facing camera. This camera configuration allows the user to participate in Apple’s Facetime video conferencing applications as well as capturing high definition video with the 720p rated rear camera.
• Weight & Thickness: The iPad 2 has slimmed down, losing nearly 80grams of weight and 5 mm of thickness compared to the original iPad. Some users won’t immediately find this terribly compelling. Others, those who tend to use the devices for extended periods of time, will quickly come to value a lighter, easier to handle tablet.

Of course, as technological innovations would have it, this discussion about the original iPad versus the iPad 2 is soon to become moot. Why? Yes, the iPad 3 has been rumored to ship to the world sometime during the first quarter of 2012.

Will there really be that much difference in that release? Perhaps comparing the original with the third line of iPad tablets is the new point of comparison. While much of what is conjectured to be in the newest Apple tablet, there are definitely features worth considering making the wait for.

One of them, a quad-core processor will allow Apple to step up their dominance in the tablet marketplace. Some indications are this processor will make the iPad 3 as fast and powerful as any desktop computer on the market today.

Possibly the core feature change between the iPad 3 and its predecessors is the anticipated release of Apple’s Retina Display technology. Effectively, Apple has packed more pixels into the same amount of space. Doing this provides far crisper and richer display capabilities. Add to these improvements the likely increases in the devices graphics processing unit, and the temptation to wait for the iPad 3′s release may be enough to make choosing one of the earlier models null and void.

Even if you decide to keep your first generation ipad through all of the upgrades, you can be sure that somewhere out there, an iPad app development company is continuing to create apps that will work for any model.

The flooding in Thailand continues to bring devastation and destruction.  The rising flood waters are washing away homes, businesses, infrastructure and everything else in its path.  Not only is there loss of property, there has been too many lives lost to this natural disaster that started in late July and is continuing to affect the country.  The disaster has been described as the worst flooding ever, based on the amount of water and the number of people affected.  The amount of property and the number of lives lost is horrendous.

Video link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15217984

All of us here at EDGE Tech Corp. would like to express our deepest sympathy to the people of Thailand.  We hope and pray that the devastation and destruction will come to an end quickly, and the people can rebuild their lives.