What is an iPad and how is it different from a tablet? What's the difference between charging a tab and a pad?

Today, probably everyone knows what an iPad is. Although not many people know how this miracle device differs from a regular tablet. Therefore, the question rightly arises - what is better to choose?

In this article, we will clarify the essence of the iPad and identify its differences from similar devices from other manufacturers. First, let’s say that an iPad and a tablet are one and the same. Only the product from the Apple company became the first on the market and is still considered the most advanced in terms of technical characteristics.

A tablet is a technical gadget that is larger in size than a smartphone. It is quite thin and has a display with a touch mechanism. The general name for this product category is tablet.

Devices of this type are controlled by simple touches on the screen; physical keys are not used. It is possible to connect a keyboard, but usually it is not included in the simple configuration.

“Tablets” operate on the basis of an operating system capable of supporting lightweight programs. The most common operating systems are Android and iOS. The iPad is based on the latter.

How does an Apple tablet differ from its competitors? What is better to buy - an iPad, despite the high price, or a cheaper option? The detailed characteristics of the Apple product presented in this article will help you decide and make the right choice.

This device is the latest format of mobile computers. It made consumers look at tablets differently and become seriously interested in them.

A tablet is a small item, but a full-fledged computer. It is equipped with a display with a touch mechanism, its own operating system and other useful attributes typical of modern gadgets.

iPad can be used to work in office programs, surf the net, download content, play games and many other tasks. In general, the functionality is exactly the same as that of modern PCs/laptops. We briefly covered the iPad and what this mysterious device is.

By the way, many people confuse the names iPad and iPod, considering them identical. In fact, the difference between an iPod and a tablet is fundamental. This is just a player with the corresponding functions.

History of the iPad

Apple began developing the tablet back in 1983. But then the information was classified and was leaked to the general public only in 2002.

The consumer was expecting a miracle, since the concept of the device promised a lot. But the wait dragged on for another 4 years, when the developer had already officially announced the development of a tablet with a touch screen. The approximate date of entry into the market - 2007 - was also announced then. However, the first line of iPads came out only in 2010. The product was presented by the head of Apple himself.

As expected, the device aroused increased interest. In the first day, more than 300 thousand units of the product were sold, and more than a million programs created for the tablet were downloaded from the store. One million copies were sold in just under a month.

A year later, the apple company presented its second line. Its representatives have become thinner, sleeker, lighter. Sales were again strong.

A year later, the release of third-generation tablets followed, and so on.

Today the world has seen models such as mini and Pro - unique in their kind. They are tailored to the specific needs of users - the desire to have a device of small dimensions so that it can be easily carried in a pocket, or to have a gadget with a large display.

So, we hope that now all those who did not know about the iPad, what it is, have resolved this issue for themselves. Almost everyone knows about iPad today, but few are aware of the differences between this device and Android gadgets.

iPad benefits

The device is more stable and easier to use than any other tablet. But its biggest advantage is the presence in the store of more than half a million programs available for download. More than half of the software is developed directly for the iPad, the rest is able to function in compatibility mode.

The Apple company individually approves any program before release, making the process of viruses penetrating its gadgets as difficult as possible.

The iOS operating system has an intuitive interface. It is an ideal environment for developing applications because its functions are easy to understand. That's why many audiences/developers like it so much.

iPad: cons

Despite the long experience of users, there is a common complaint about one problem, namely the limit of customization. But this inconvenience can be circumvented by jailbreaking your device.

On the one hand, it’s great that any program is checked/approved by Apple before being displayed in the store. However, some useful software comes with the block.

Also, the iPad is not able to expand memory through a flash drive. Therefore, if the limit runs out, nothing can be done about it.

Another negative point is the inability to watch flash videos. Consequently, it is impossible to see the clips online on many resources. Although, today the HTML5 compatibility format is increasingly being used, so the problem can be considered solved.

iPad is expensive. At the start of sales of the first line, this was a powerful side, but today it is better to purchase a new generation product from any other company. This applies to gadgets with 7-inch displays and excellent power. The cost of such a device will be significantly lower than, for example, an iPad mini.

Now let’s turn to the characteristics of the iPad’s main competitors – Android tablets.

Android devices: pros

The biggest advantage is the wide variety from well-known brands and not so well-known ones. Also, devices can be premium and economy class. The customization possibilities are also endless.

The development of the Google store has reached large proportions in recent years. And today there is an extensive selection of programs that are not inferior to those presented in the AppleStore. Although some of them are not yet optimized for tablets. However, the growing number of interesting programs provides opportunities for selection based on size/specifics/cost.

The presence of true multitasking is the fundamental difference between Android, which was until recently. But today this technology is also implemented on iOS. Its essence lies in the fact that when you open one program, the others can function in the background.

And finally, a big plus of tablets from any other manufacturers is a much lower price. The cost of such products can be very affordable, and any user can afford the gadget.

Android tablets: disadvantages

The operating system is not as simple and understandable in practical use as iOS from the Apple company. But over time you get used to it.

Although the Google store today offers a huge number of programs, most of them are not optimized for tablets. Before uploading to the resource, the company does not check the software for this item. Of course, the risk of catching a virus for users in this case increases.

conclusions

Even after a detailed analysis, it will be difficult to say for sure which tablets are better. In order to somehow limit the selection criteria, we outline the main points:

Tablet is a general name for a large number of devices with displays with touch technology from various manufacturers. iPad is the same tablet, but from Apple. Although a survey of American residents showed that not everyone knows about this, believing that iPad is the general name for all “tablets.”
iPads operate on the iOS operating system, which has an excellent interface and colorful display.
This tablet is easier to use and more stable than competing products.
Apple devices are still the leaders when it comes to useful and affordable applications. Android gadgets cannot yet boast a huge amount of software tailored to the needs of tablets. However, with time, things will probably get better.
In terms of hardware, Android is a good choice for those who appreciate a fast processor, powerful cameras and easily expandable memory.

Sometimes PAD.INF and other INF system errors can be related to problems in the Windows registry. Several programs can use the PAD.INF file, but when those programs are uninstalled or modified, sometimes "orphaned" (incorrect) INF registry entries are left behind.

Basically, this means that while the actual path of the file may have changed, its incorrect former location is still recorded in the Windows Registry. When Windows tries to look up these incorrect file references (file locations on your PC), PAD.INF errors can occur. Additionally, a malware infection may have corrupted registry entries associated with Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Add-On. So, these corrupted INF registry entries need to be fixed to fix the problem at the root.

Manually editing the Windows registry to remove invalid PAD.INF keys is not recommended unless you are PC service professional. Mistakes made when editing the registry can render your PC inoperable and cause irreparable damage to your operating system. In fact, even one comma placed in the wrong place can prevent your computer from booting!

Because of this risk, we highly recommend using a trusted registry cleaner such as WinThruster (Developed by Microsoft Gold Certified Partner) to scan and repair any PAD.INF-related registry problems. Using a registry cleaner, you can automate the process of finding corrupt registry entries, missing file references (like the one causing the PAD.INF error), and broken links within the registry. Before each scan, a backup copy is automatically created, allowing you to undo any changes with one click and protecting you from possible damage to your computer. The best part is that eliminating registry errors can dramatically improve system speed and performance.

Warning: Unless you are an experienced PC user, we DO NOT recommend manually editing the Windows Registry. Using Registry Editor incorrectly may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows. We do not guarantee that problems resulting from incorrect use of Registry Editor can be corrected. You use Registry Editor at your own risk.

Before you manually repair the Windows registry, you must create a backup by exporting a portion of the registry associated with PAD.INF (for example, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Add-On):

Click on the button Begin.
Enter " command" V search bar... DON'T CLICK YET ENTER!
While holding down the keys CTRL-Shift on your keyboard, press ENTER.
A dialog box for access will be displayed.
Click Yes.
The black box opens with a blinking cursor.
Enter " regedit" and press ENTER.
In the Registry Editor, select the PAD.INF-related key (eg, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Add-On) you want to back up.
On the menu File select Export.
On the list Save to Select the folder where you want to save the backup copy of the Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Add-On key.
In field File name Enter a name for the backup file, such as "Microsoft Windows for Workgroups Add-On Backup."
Make sure the field Export range value selected Selected branch.
Click Save.
The file will be saved with extension .reg.
You now have a backup of your PAD.INF-related registry entry.

The following steps for manually editing the registry will not be described in this article, as they are likely to damage your system. If you would like more information about editing the registry manually, please check out the links below.

If you develop programs and present them on your website, then this article is for you. It explains how you can most effectively describe your program in a special file called PAD. It is posted on the website and records all the information needed by those who want to know something about your product. If you are an experienced sharer and already use PAD, then you can safely skip the first and second parts of this note, but I highly recommend taking a look at the third - it describes the most common errors associated with creating and using PAD files. Moreover These errors occur very often, including among “venerable” programmers...

So, part one. What is PAD?

PAD (Portable Application Description) is an XML file that describes the basic data of your program. The PAD indicates information about the author of the program, its name, version, website address, file addresses, supported platforms, and so on - in a word, all that “factual” information that anyone who wants to know (or tell) needs. about your product. In particular, software archives need this information.

Using PAD files is convenient for both the author and the archive - the author does not need to enter the same data on each site (after understanding the location and meaning of different form fields), and the archive will have to spend less time correcting all sorts of typos by the authors. In addition, by filling out the PAD, the author sees what information is required and, accordingly, is more likely to provide the archive with all the required information, rather than leaving half the fields empty, as is often done when adding manually.

PAD turned out to be so convenient that it was quickly adopted by almost all archives and submitters. Many programs have appeared for creating PAD files, which greatly simplify and facilitate this process. You can read more about the standard and download a free PAD generator at this address.

In general, the situation today looks like this: very large archives can afford not to support PAD - they are too important for the developer to fill something in incorrectly. Therefore, you will have to act there manually. But the vast majority of medium and small sites understand and welcome PAD. And the benefits of the presence of your program on such archives are quite great - from increasing rankings in search engines to the fact that the total traffic from these sites is quite comparable to that generated by " monsters"...

Part two. Pros and cons of PADs.

A formalized description of programs can significantly simplify the process of submitting programs to archives. Entering basic data into the database occurs automatically and quickly, leaving the developer time for actual programming. The number of typos, incorrect product data and other errors is significantly reduced.

It is also much easier to update data about a program that has already been published in the archive. Some software sites support pad-pulling, that is, they regularly re-read the PAD on your site and, when changes are detected, automatically add them to the database (or inform the editor about the program update). Thus, all that is required from the author is to update the PAD file located on his website, and everything else will happen on its own. If the site does not automatically re-read the PAD, then it is still much easier to go to it and click the “Update” button than to enter all the data again.

Don't forget to update your PADs

Thus, if you do not forget to update PAD when new versions of the program are released, then updating it (the program) on a huge pile of archives scattered around the world will happen within a few days and will require almost no effort on your part. Agree, this is a very noticeable advantage!

However, like any universal description, PADs also have disadvantages. First of all, here you can point out the shortcomings of the standard itself. For example, in PAD you can provide links to download your program, but you cannot provide links to additional files ( e.g. libraries, language modules). There is no way to describe links. You cannot specify different files for different languages. And much, much more that I would like to see. This can be partially solved by various add-ons, which can also be found on the ASP website and connected to the PAD generator, but there is a suspicion that the number of such plug-ins will grow and grow...

Another disadvantage of PADs, as often happens, is closely related to its advantage - facilitating automatic data processing. It becomes very easy to create a software site and fill it with information: a couple of days of work - and you’re done! Nowadays, if you want, it’s easy to find dozens of similar sites , and I think that over time their number will increase.

On the one hand, it doesn’t seem to be scary, but on the other hand, firstly, it will pull visitors away from those sites where the selection of programs and their review are carried out by real people, which will put most of these sites out of business, since they will simply stop paying off; secondly, various viruses or Trojans will begin to spread through automated sites - not all of them (sites) will be spent on downloading and checking files, regularly re-reading them, and so on; thirdly, the market will be filled with all sorts of imperfections, creating difficulties for developers of truly high-quality products - an automatic site will not be able to assess the quality, but will masquerade as a living one, more or less randomly handing out all sorts of awards, showing ratings, and so on. I think that many are familiar with similar examples...

But, nevertheless, today PAD is a very convenient, although imperfect, tool that makes life much easier for both program developers and editors of software sites.

Part three. Typical mistakes when working with PADs.

First and most important. The idea of PAD is that it is on your website, and software archives periodically re-read it. Therefore, there is no need to create PAD files containing the version number in the name! If the file address changes (say, when a new version of the program is released), then the archive, when trying to re-read it, will encounter a 404 error, and it is possible that it will simply delete your program from the database.

It will not help here to indicate in the field a link to the “numbered” PAD file. Faced with the fact that the “real” address (from which the PAD file was downloaded) does not match the address written in the PAD itself, the archive will simply replace the original address with a new one (reasonably believing that the PAD can be copied somewhere, and here the information it contains is correct) and that’s it - the “numbered” one was registered as the main address, and the archive does not notice updates to your program (here I do not take into account the fact that the “correct” archives check not only the PAD, but also the date of modification and size of program files and other subtleties).

The file name should not change when new versions are released

By the way, about files. Specifying a link to the page where the links are located as the Primary_Download_URL is not the best solution, although it is not explicitly prohibited. Such a link can be placed as one of the additional ones, but it is better to link to the file itself first - this will help those sites that copy files to themselves. And, since we are talking about files, there is no need to register the same address several times as the main and additional ones. Nobody forbids leaving some fields empty.

The same applies to screenshots. The authors’ favorite pastime is to indicate a picture of a box, a logo, an icon instead of a screenshot, link to a page, or at least edit the screenshot, making it 120x80 pixels in size. Why, one might ask?.. After all, a screenshot is needed so that your potential buyer can get acquainted with the program interface! What can you see in a picture the size of a postage stamp? Take a normal 800x600 screenshot, prepare it for publication on the Internet (almost any graphics editor can compress images) and put it on your website. And the archives will automatically adjust this picture to their design. And everyone is happy...

The next very common mistake is specifying the wrong encoding. The header of a PAD file states what encoding it is written in, and the server uses this indication when “decrypting” the file. Unfortunately, most programs for creating PADs do not know about the existence of KOI8-R or Windows-1251 and by default indicate either ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1252. Needless to say, Russian, for example, text in these encodings looks unreadable?

Correctly specifying the encoding is always useful

By the way, another one, not exactly an error, but a nuisance, is related to encodings. There is such a thing - UTF-8. In principle, you can perfectly write Russian (or some other) text in it, but... Most small sites are written using PHP. In particular, PHP is used to parse PADs. PHP even has a function for decoding UTF-8, but the problem is that it decodes into ISO-8859-1, replacing all incomprehensible characters with question marks, and Russian again becomes unreadable (of course , unless the webmaster spent some time writing his decoder)...

Another mistake is related to the use of HTML formatting in program descriptions. This, however, is not entirely a mistake - it is clearly not prohibited, but no normal webmaster will allow other people’s tags to be inserted into their pages... Therefore, you carefully placed ,

AND will only spoil the appearance of the page with a description of your program, but do you need it? It is better to correctly break the text into paragraphs and make it readable.

One of the good ways to check the correctness of your PAD is to simply open it in a browser (only preferably not in Internet Explorer, which, out of habit, tries to guess what the user meant, but in a more “strict” one - for example, in Mozilla) It makes no sense to use specialized XML validators here, since a completely correct XML document should contain data about the type of document, its compliance with certain standards, and other service information that is not needed in PAD.

Don't forget to update your PAD file!

And, finally, something without which PADs will lose two-thirds of their functionality - they need to be updated! Unfortunately, many authors forget about this - on my website, for example, I was even forced to introduce an additional check and check - not it’s just that the version number has not changed, but also to compare where the version is older - on Listsoft or in PAD... But it’s much easier for the author to spend an extra 10 minutes recording the correct information in PAD than for the editor of a software site to review hundreds every day sites of programs suspected of being updated...

And since we’re talking about updates, it’s worth adding a few words about the versions of your programs. To begin with, when indicating the version in PAD, there is no need to attach it to the name of the program and there is no need to write “version 1.23” - it is enough to indicate only “1.23”. The fact that this is the version is clear from the field in which the value is written and the majority sites automatically add the word “version" or something similar. By the way, regarding how you should “number” the releases of your programs, try reading the note “New version" - maybe you will find something useful for yourself...

I really want to hope that this article will at least slightly reduce the number of error messages sent to me daily by the server about errors in verified PAD files...

Modern payment systems include various types of equipment that are used in retail outlets and various establishments providing services. Various techniques can be used to make payments. PIN-Pad and POS-terminal are equally popular.

Features of PIN-Pad

This device is otherwise called a numeric keypad or a remote keyboard. It attaches to the POS system for the convenience of the merchant and the customer. This allows you not to pull the terminal out from behind the counter each time, but simply hand the buyer a keyboard, which he can use to enter a PIN code.

Such remote keyboards can work with any vending machines; connecting them is easy. The device itself usually does not cause problems, since its design is quite simple. If necessary, the keyboard can be quickly replaced if it suddenly fails.

The payment process with PIN-Pad goes like this: the buyer gives his card to the seller, he inserts it into the terminal, and the client, using a remote keyboard, enters the PIN code. After this, the funds are debited from the account.

There is a separate type of PIN-Pad, which is something of a hybrid of this device and a POS terminal. The result is a device into which the buyer inserts a card, enters a PIN code and presses the button to complete the transaction. But such a device does not print receipts and does not have its own communication modules.

Features of the POS terminal

A POS terminal is, in fact, an independent element that can read information from a card, send the data to the system and print a receipt. A thermal printer is built inside the terminal. These devices may be wireless.

Mobile POS terminals are also produced, which work even easier. They connect to a smartphone or tablet via a connector. There are also devices that use wireless communication technology. To work, you don’t need anything other than a special application that is installed on your tablet or smartphone. These devices allow you to accept payments not only at a stationary point of sale, but also in any place where there is a mobile connection or wireless Internet.

A POS terminal can also be called a complex system, which includes a special computer with a monitor, a device for reading cards, and printing checks. This usually refers to monoblocks, compact devices that are used in trade and various service sectors as cash register equipment.

Device differences

Knowing the features of PIN-Pad and POS terminals, you can easily understand how they differ from each other:

PIN-Pad is essentially a simple keyboard designed to make entering PIN codes more convenient.

There are also PIN-Pad options into which you can immediately insert cards, but the functions do not change.

POS terminal is a device with communication modules and a built-in printer for printing a receipt.

In addition, a cash register system presented in the form of a candy bar can be called a POS terminal.

Do you need a PIN-Pad in a store or salon? This depends on the location of the commercial equipment. For example, if there is a partition with a small window between the seller and the buyer (this can be found in pharmacies), then it will be inconvenient to hand over the terminal each time, and it will be easier to bring a separate PIN-Pad device to the buyer. This will simplify the payment procedure and speed up the process. If there are no special conditions, then it is not necessary to purchase a PIN-Pad, and this remains at the discretion of the business owner.