Tim Cook: “we would never make a seven inch tablet.”

Those who have been paying attention to Apple over the years remembered one thing when the company revealed the iPad mini earlier this week: Steve Jobs’ outspoken criticism of the 7-inch tablet form factor. Current CEO Tim Cook has just addressed those comments, saying on Apple’s earnings call that “we would never make a seven inch tablet.” He continued on to say that “The iPad mini is not a compromised product like the 7-inch tablets on the market.”

As the Apple CEO points out in his comments (audio below), the company took quite a bit of time out of its keynote on Tuesday to compare the Nexus 7 to the iPad mini, with Phil Schiller saying that “The iPad mini has a third larger display area.” That all comes down to the iPad mini’s 7.9-inch display, which Tim Cook clearly believes is significantly different than the seven inches offered by the Nexus 7. That’s a good thing, too: otherwise Apple may have taken Jobs’ advice and “include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size.”

Let me be clear, we would never make a seven inch tablet. We don’t think they’re good products, and we would never make one. Not just because it’s 7-inch, but for many reasons. One of the reasons… is size.

100Feed: Android and iPhone Cheats

Regardless of the kind of Android phone you own — Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola or Sony — there are a multitude of ways you can unlock the capabilities of your favorite handset.

Unless otherwise specified, it also shouldn’t matter what version of Android you’re running on your smartphone, with the most popular today being Android 2.3 or the latest release, Android 4.0. To figure out what version you’re running, go to the About section of your device, under Settings.

Many of these tips and tricks will work on Android-based tablets as well as phone-tablet hybrids like the Samsung Galaxy Note and its built-in stylus pen.

If you have any tips of your own, feel free to share them with others below in the Comments section.

Text or talk
If you’re getting a call, you can swipe the screen to the right to answer, swipe to the left to ignore or swipe up to quickly respond with a text message — by default it’s “I’m busy right now. I will call you later.” On some models, you’ll need to tap “Ignore With Text.” But you can change this default message in the phone’s app’s Settings area to something different.

VIP
If there’s someone you call a lot, there’s an easy way to set up a “quick dial” for them on your Android device. Simply tap and hold anywhere on your home screen and select Shortcuts from your list of options. Now, touch Direct Dial and select the person from your contacts list. If you have a photo of this person in your contacts then that’s what you’ll see on the shortcut icon, along with their first name. You can also use this little-known tool for one-touch texting, by selecting the Direct Message option instead.

Cutting Corners
There are many handy shortcuts to speed up your time on Android devices — some tied to the web browsers, others to using the virtual keyboard and another set related to app management. But here are a few handy ones for those who use Gmail on an Android device: while inside of a message, tap the R key to reply to the message, F to forward it, A to reply to all (to everyone in the To: and Cc: field) or Y to archive an email (this last shortcut works inside of the message or while in the main inbox view). Compose a new email by tapping Menu + C or refresh your inbox with Menu + U.

Flash on Demand
Unlike the iPhone, Android devices are capable of displaying websites with Flash animation, video and games. But if you don’t have a generous data plan with your carrier, or if you find loading Flash is slowing down your browsing, you can launch Flash on-demand. That is, you can tap to see or interact with Flash content when you want — and if you don’t tap to start it, it won’t load. To do this, go to the Settings of your web browser, select Advanced and tap to change the Enable Flash and Plug-Ins tab from “Always On” to “On demand” or “Off.”

Siri
If you’re a seasoned Android user then you know Google has offered voice-based search for some time, but the voice-to-text dictation feature is really strong on the phone — especially with ICS. Tap the microphone icon to the left of the spacebar while inside of a text or email and start talking. Not only will you see the words typed out as you say them — unlike Apple’s Siri, which shows you the words after you’re done talking — but the accuracy is outstanding and you’ll find this is much faster than typing out a lengthy message. Don’t forget to say punctuation requests, such as “comma,’ “period” and “question mark.”

Speak easy
One of the advantages of Android over competing smartphone platforms is its integrated Google apps ranging from Search and Maps to Gmail to YouTube to Calendar to Google+ to Earth. One of the most powerful of the free services, however, is Google Voice, which lets you make phone calls (with cheap international rates), send and receive free text messages, transcribes voicemails into text, forward your number and set up custom greetings for different callers. Google Voice will quickly become your favorite app, so get to know it.

Say “Cheese”
Someone is doing something ridiculous and you must capture the moment. Problem is, by the time you pick up and unlock your Android phone, launch the camera and snap the picture, it’s too late. Well, here’s a trick to enabling the camera from the lock screen so you don’t miss the action. Instead of sliding the ring towards the center of the screen or typing in your PIN code or pattern, simply tap and hold the camera icon on the bottom right of your smartphone and drag it to the ring — it’ll meet you halfway — and then let go to launch the camera immediately.

Widgets
One of the great things about an open-source platform is you can customize the look and feel of your Android’s homescreen in a myriad of ways. Want “live” wallpaper that animates behind your icons? Too bad iPhone can’t do that. Want to create one homescreen for work (with 9 to 5 apps) and one for play (5 to 9 apps)? Why not. Something else that separates Android from the IOS camp is Widgets, which you can add by pressing and holding down on the home screen; these can range from funky clocks and bookmarks to weather information and messages to photos and system information. Have fun exploring. If you’re running ICS you can also resize these widgets on the fly.

Screen dream
Before ICS, it wasn’t easy to snap a picture of what you’re seeing on the device’s display. To take a screenshot of a game, website, message or anything else, Android 4.x users can simply press the power and volume-down buttons at the same time. The screen will flash white, you’ll hear a sound and the image be saved in your photo gallery. If you’re on a non-ICS-device — such as Froyo, Gingerbread or Honeycomb — try the $5 No Root Screenshot It app, but be aware you’ll need to connect your device to a computer via a USB cable to enable screenshots each time you restart the phone.

Don’t leave home without it
Increasingly, Android devices are shipping with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology under the hood. This wireless radio can be used to make payments at retail, vending machines or between supported devices, in place of using cash, credit or debit. Consider it an electronic wallet, of sorts, that lets you buy goods or services by tapping or swiping on a sensor. NFC-enabled phones — such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, LG Viper 4G LTE and LG Optimus LTE — all work with apps like Google Wallet at supporting stores for NFC payments.

Freeze frame
You’re likely aware there are a few photo effects built into your Android camera app. If not, from the photo gallery, simply tap Edit from the dropdown menu and you can brighten up a dark shot, add a film grain look, remove red-eye or tweak color (better yet, download the free Instagram app). But did you know ICS has another cool photo feature: when you’re shooting a video with your Android device, tap the frame and it’ll take a still snapshot and automatically dump it into your camera roll. Those running older Android devices can download an app, like Frame Grabber from Google Play (formerly Android Market), that do the same thing — but you’ll have to grab a still after the video has been shot.

Later Gator
About to go on a long flight without any Internet connectivity? Those on an ICS device can save web content to read at a later time — without needing an app to do it (like Pocket). If you’re inside the browser and come across something interesting you want to read at a later time, tap the menu tab and select “Save for offline reading” instead of “Bookmark,” as the latter will require an Internet connection. This is also a good tip in case you’re nearing your monthly data limit and want to queue up a few things to read offline.
Know when to fold ’em

If you need to clean up a messy desktop, perhaps littered with multiple app icons over multiple pages, you can press and hold on an app, drag it onto another one and it will create a folder and place them both in there. You can then tap and hold to rename the folder to something relevant (“Music Apps”), add more apps to the folder, if you like, and then rearrange where they go on your homescreen. You can also drag and drop shortcuts into folders, too, if you like, but not widgets.

100Feed Special Report: Is Technology Destroying the Comic Book Industry?

We all know that feeling: reaching for that fresh, new issue of your favorite comic book, feeling the crisp, cool pages brush against your fingertips. The colors that make the characters jump off the page. That friendship you have developed with Alfred E. Neuman and Superman… yes, it’s real. This is the feeling of Wednesday, the day when all the new issues arrive in stores. However, with the recent advancements in technology, our Wednesdays could be numbered.

Wednesday is a dying tradition due to the invention of the iPad and certain websites such as Scribd. Those of us who used to drive to the comic book store every Wednesday are now finding it much easier to download an issue to the iPad. Colors are just as vibrant (if not more so), the characters are just as realistic and there is a guarantee that a page will never tear on the iPad. This is why those collectors who buy comic books just so they can be put in a plastic protector are slowly dwindling. Even Graphic Novel collectors are disappearing.

Oddly enough, the comic book industry has found a way to use this new technology to bring readers back to the old brick buildings to get their comic book fix. ComiXology was founded in 2007; its original goal was to be used as an online pull-list management service. However, in 2009 they decided to go a step further. It introduced a comic-book reader for the iPhone and sold 80 titles from independent publishers such as Image (publisher of The Walking Dead comics). Many other apps were developed around this time, but none were more versatile than ComiXology’s. The company essentially built digital stores that worked closely with the actual comic book stores. How, you ask? The program offers a “Buy in Print” option that automatically points you to the nearest comic book store that sells that copy. So, younger people who discover comics digitally can be talked into buying comic books digitally, says DC co-publisher Jim Lee.

So, my question is, why don’t they just get rid of the stores and go all-digital? It is because of the fragile circle of development. Digital stores rely on actual stores, people who don’t have the latest iPad rely on the actual stores and a majority of the industry’s income comes from actual stores. Just think: if you go to Scribd and type in “the Walking Dead”, you can get almost every issue in E-book form for free. So, if the industry is forced to rely on digital sales alone, they cannot afford writer’s , artist’s and publisher’s fees. When that happens, goodbye Superman. The legendary brick and mortar building earn the industry over $650 million a year in North America alone. How much do digital sales earn? About $6 million a year.

Despite the fact that comic book stores earn more than one-hundred times the income from digital sales, more and more artists are developing comics for digital-only use. Speculators believe that sooner or later the digital sales will surpass retail sales, and that the comic book industry will suffer a major loss in revenue. Could the comic book industry survive the transition, or does the advancement in technology mean farewell to Wednesday’s four dollar issue of Batman? Holy iPad, Batman, this could mean trouble.