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Originally Posted by
Olternaut 
Hey Ireland, (and maybe wizard69, teckstud and a few others)
do y'all remember when the tablet was a crazy insane idea and it was only us in a future hardware section thread that would discuss it?
As I remember it we all had different ideas about what this device would be like. Ireland was always for the ten incher while I still have preferences for a smaller device. Others have also been vocal in their opinion.
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Every once in a while the occasional naysayer would stop by the thread just to make fun of us weird kooks talking about a product Apple would never....ever consider producing? For two long years this has been going on.
I became a believer with Touch & iPhone. The portability of those devices is why I prefer a smaller tablet. Even a ten inch device could have it's appeal if the aspect ratio is wide enough to support wide screen movies, 16:9 would be good but some of the cine ratios better. This would tend to make for a shorter and wider device that actually might remain useful as a portable device.
You see the big problem with a ten inch device is that you won't be using it hand held in the same way you can use an iPhone. This is why I still see a big appeal in a handheld Touch / iPhone MAXI. Something with a 5 to 7 inch screen.
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Now look. Now everybody and their grandmother can't wait to buy it. Who's da man now hmm naysayers? PWNED!
I wouldn't get to excited yet as Apple could blow this project just like they did with AIR. Get the feature set wrong and many people will be very put off be the device. Here is a list of things they could do to screw it up:
1.
Make it to heavy.
2.
Not enough computational power.
3.
Not enough secondary storage. This is actually my biggest fear as they may think of it as a network centric streaming device. I actually want bleeding edge, state of the art storage ideally starting at 256GB. At the rate things are going that would likely be low end as that can be had in a USB dongle.
4.
Short battery life. This of course operates against item #1 above. But we really need a run time that lasts beyound twelve hours.
5.
Lack of industry standard ports. No micro USB connectors or other crap. I want at least two standard USB ports on the device. I might settle for other ports like Firewire but I'm not sure they have a place on tablets. The trick of course is finding the right balance.
6.
No GPS or other navigating features. I'd say this would be a deal breaker for many.
7.
To little RAM. 1GB ought to be minimal.
8.
No SD slot. I think Apple is up to something here so this is likely a shoe in. An internal slot that goes with the external would be nice.
9.
It would be nice if the unit had a supplemental charging port beyound the traditional USB/ iPod port. The idea here is for a receptical that accepts a nominal 12VDC to allow for recharge from that volatge standard. We aren't taliking just cars here but solar panels and other 12 volt sources.
10.
No unencumbered model. That is one without a contract.
Ok so the above is of variable importance but each item means something to the potential user. The point is Apple could have a great concept and blow it just like they did with AIR. There is a vast difference between the concept and the implementation.
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EDIT: I'm not sure about techstud now that I think about it. Weren't you one of the naysayers techstud?
I don't know about techstud as I rarely concern myself with who has posted what. But let's just say people have raised valid concerns here. For example having the device completely tied to a service provider will kill it for many uses. In fact I went back and added it as item ten to my list. If I remember correctly techstud had valid concerns about iPhone / Touch too.
The thing here is I'm not convinced that the device we seem to be hearing about is a natural winner. There are many ifs and buts to consider. It wouldn't be to hard for Apple to deliver a device that people reject for the most part. It could be like AIR all over again, huge sale to early adopters and Apple fan boys for two or three months and then sales tank.
It all depends upon Apple hitting the right mixture of hardware and software features along with proper marketing. Like AIR they can get so close that it actually hurts.
I'm excited and hopeful but reserved because I've seen Apple blow it before. Plus I'm seeing a lot of unreasonable expectations in this forum.
Dave
