Apple should make an iPhone that...
...could connect to and drive an external monitor and also that you could connect a keyboard to so you could type fast while viewing your work on the external monitor. This way, it would function as a very portable pc, complete with (limited) storage. It would also be nice to have built in wifi and with the option from AT&T to buy the phone on a standard plan if you want and use just the wifi to surf the web.
What do you guys think, good idea or not?
What do you guys think, good idea or not?
Comments
It'll have a mini-displayport connection. It'll be similar to the iTablet that Ireland wants so badly and it'll be primarily multitouch but will have Qwerty keyboard options (Bluetooth?).
The screen size will be 6 or 7 inches. And it's likely to have SDHC slots or some other type of expandable memory.
It may not be an iPhone but I believe Apple's answer to the Netbook will be such a device.
It'll have a mini-displayport connection. It'll be similar to the iTablet that Ireland wants so badly and it'll be primarily multitouch but will have Qwerty keyboard options (Bluetooth?).
The screen size will be 6 or 7 inches. And it's likely to have SDHC slots or some other type of expandable memory.
But if you're using it with an external keyboard and monitor, you're not really portable anymore, so does it make sense to build that into the phone?
I would think that Apple or a third party could make a dock, now, that supports a bluetooth keyboard and display connector. External storage, for that matter. Leave that hooked up on your desk, pop the iPhone in when you want to write a long message or look at something you've downloaded.
In fact, if not for Apple's sort of ham-fisted control on hardware hooks in the SDK, I bet someone would have done it by now.
But if I had to guess, I would say that Apple feels it already has an iPhone dock, and it's called a Mac.
But if you're using it with an external keyboard and monitor, you're not really portable anymore, so does it make sense to build that into the phone?
I would think that Apple or a third party could make a dock, now, that supports a bluetooth keyboard and display connector. External storage, for that matter. Leave that hooked up on your desk, pop the iPhone in when you want to write a long message or look at something you've downloaded.
In fact, if not for Apple's sort of ham-fisted control on hardware hooks in the SDK, I bet someone would have done it by now.
But if I had to guess, I would say that Apple feels it already has an iPhone dock, and it's called a Mac.
The key to an Apple product that is "Netbook class" is to offer options that the iPhone cannot. I think they need a device that can bridge portable/sedentary usage.
You have the ability to use the virtual keyboard if you need to carry the least amount of product around but when you get back to the office/hotel/home you have the ability to with your input modality and support a full size keyboard and external monitor.
I have no desire to type a 5000 word document on the iPhone but that would be possible with a midlevel device that has mini DP ports, USB support and KB/Mouse support as well.
I think going forward the money is in stratifying enough but not too much and covering a wide variety of needs from consumer.
Some will be happy with the iPhone. Some are going to need more power, larger screens and better connectivity.
The screen size will be 6 or 7 inches. And it's likely to have SDHC slots or some other type of expandable memory.
I'd say a memory card slot is on the list of things Apple would never put on a netbook.
The key to an Apple product that is "Netbook class" is to offer options that the iPhone cannot. I think they need a device that can bridge portable/sedentary usage.
You have the ability to use the virtual keyboard if you need to carry the least amount of product around but when you get back to the office/hotel/home you have the ability to with your input modality and support a full size keyboard and external monitor.
I have no desire to type a 5000 word document on the iPhone but that would be possible with a midlevel device that has mini DP ports, USB support and KB/Mouse support as well.
I think going forward the money is in stratifying enough but not too much and covering a wide variety of needs from consumer.
Some will be happy with the iPhone. Some are going to need more power, larger screens and better connectivity.
Yeah. It's still not clear to me what the market is for the notorious grey zone between "fits in your pocket" and "is a laptop."
No product has busted out yet, but the relative popularity of netbooks vs. various "internet appliances" suggest that, once you get past iPhone size, most people want a small laptop.
I'm still not convinced that there's a niche for something sufficiently larger than an iPhone to make the pocketablity hit worth it, but still small enough to not justify just going ahead and getting a small notebook-- although, admittedly, Apple doesn't make that notebook.
I've never quite grasped why a 6"x9" tablet (which seems to me a reasonable step-up in size from the iPhone) strikes people as something they would carry around everywhere, whereas a 10" notebook is apparently a huge burden. They really aren't that far apart in size and weight, and the fixed keyboard makes the notebook vastly more useful.
Although if Apple were to make a touch based tablet and continue to refuse to offer any laptops smaller or cheaper than the Air, I guess that would be the default choice.
Yeah. It's still not clear to me what the market is for the notorious grey zone between "fits in your pocket" and "is a laptop."
No product has busted out yet, but the relative popularity of netbooks vs. various "internet appliances" suggest that, once you get past iPhone size, most people want a small laptop.
I'm still not convinced that there's a niche for something sufficiently larger than an iPhone to make the pocketablity hit worth it, but still small enough to not justify just going ahead and getting a small notebook-- although, admittedly, Apple doesn't make that notebook.
I've never quite grasped why a 6"x9" tablet (which seems to me a reasonable step-up in size from the iPhone) strikes people as something they would carry around everywhere, whereas a 10" notebook is apparently a huge burden. They really aren't that far apart in size and weight, and the fixed keyboard makes the notebook vastly more useful.
Although if Apple were to make a touch based tablet and continue to refuse to offer any laptops smaller or cheaper than the Air, I guess that would be the default choice.
What options do they have beyond a small laptop? Netbooks are being purchased because of price and then functionality. It runs a full OS. No one has delivered a portable computing device based on multitouch at the netbook sizing. I think the Netbooks weakness is the toy keyboard. I can't type on them and I'm not going to try and learn.
Say Apple delivers a iPhone Extreme which is really just a 3G enable hybrid Netbook/iPhone.
It's going to run Snow Leopard Lite and have the Dock and all UI paradigm. It means that now I can choose how to input my data.
I may prefer to run something like MacSpeech Dictate and use a xtag wireless microphone for input on the road.
What happens is that this product becomes a universal device. It could even be a book reader because the screen is finally large enough to do justice and it has 3G. Kindle Killer???
What options do they have beyond a small laptop? Netbooks are being purchased because of price and then functionality. It runs a full OS. No one has delivered a portable computing device based on multitouch at the netbook sizing. I think the Netbooks weakness is the toy keyboard. I can't type on them and I'm not going to try and learn.
Say Apple delivers a iPhone Extreme which is really just a 3G enable hybrid Netbook/iPhone.
It's going to run Snow Leopard Lite and have the Dock and all UI paradigm. It means that now I can choose how to input my data.
I may prefer to run something like MacSpeech Dictate and use a xtag wireless microphone for input on the road.
What happens is that this product becomes a universal device. It could even be a book reader because the screen is finally large enough to do justice and it has 3G. Kindle Killer???
I hear you, and I'm semi-enthusiastic about the idea, but I wonder about the virtual keyboard experience on a touch surface-- better than the mini-keys on a netbook, or worse?
Maybe it's just an old paradigm, but it still seems like a lot of what we do with a computer-- indeed, what we're doing right now-- is based on text entry. The iPhone trumps its text entry compromises by being small enough to slip into a pocket and carry around everywhere.
Once you lose that-- and you lose that as soon as you expand the iPhone form factor by even a little-- you reconsider compromised text entry, since a reasonably sized keyboard isn't really that big.
Tablets haven't gone anywhere in the general marketplace. Whether that's because no one has done them right, and Apple could bring something amazing with the idea, or because it's actually not a very useful design, I don't know.
Having said all that, if Apple were to come out with a small touch pad device, I'd probably lose my shit and go full on fan boy.