Why Is There No Keyboard-Less Touch Screen AIR?

It's called an iPad.


Because that's absolutely terrible and everyone would hate it. OS X does not work with touch screens. It's not designed for it. It was never designed for it. It will never be put on an official touchscreen product from Apple.

Jobs was shown by his team a prototype touchscreen tablet Mac in 2004. He asked them to come up with a point for it. They couldn't. It was never released.


Why do people keep pretending this is a legitimate argument?

Indeed, but OS X will never be on a tablet or touchscreen officially. OS XI will; of that I'm 100% certain.


Nope. You hear it from Androiders that never actually use it and people who wouldn't buy an iPad anyway. Meanwhile, tens of millions of iPads keep being sold and everyone else (the ones with apparent filesystem access) languish.


Sure it was. It wasn't a reality because Apple hadn't made it one yet.


You don't need trees. You don't need drag and drop. You don't need any of that.

How do I know? Because I created a better means by which to access one's files. Me. I'm just a guy who has taken HCI classes. I don't work for Apple (yet), so you can imagine how much better their solution will be than mine, created alone (It's just a paper prototype presently; I've not yet made a Photoshop interpretation thereof).

Take a step back and realize that you're simultaneously wanting to spearhead the death of the mouse, a 29-year-old mechanism by which to access your files and demanding the inclusion of folder trees, a 29-year-old mechanism by which to access your files introduced on the SAME DATE as the mouse.

Don't you find something odd about that?


I'm in full agreement. Can't come soon enough.

I would looooooove a touchscreen Air.

I am spoiled by my phone and iPad and a few times I've actually reached out to swipe or pinch and zoom on my MacBook Pro! Before realizing...err oops, can't do that. Haha that would be embarrassing to be seen doing in public, right!

Lack of a file system on iOS is mind-numbingly frustrating. And a lack of more than ONE user on iOS. Stupid. No reason not to have either. If need be, hide them as "advanced" options that power users can enable.

I have an iPad 2. And an Android. Having more than one platform gives perspective on what is possible and how other platforms have distinct advantages such as these mentioned above.

iOS appears to be built for the lowest common denominator. Macs have always been for all levels, where there are advanced options well-hidden or placed, but with smart defaults for new users. Furthermore, until the mid-90s I would argue MacOS was far more powerful than Windows or any other operating system, due to its simple interface fused with powerful controls. iOS lacks the second part: powerful controls. I mean, no file system? I find it confusing STILL! I just don't "get it" with the whole iTunes management of the device thing. It's very annoying, coming from Android where you just plug it in and it appears like a USB drive.

While a great number of people say they want such a thing, the reality is that it would not be a good product, (for the reasons others have mentioned), and would not actually sell.

For evidence, just look at the Tablet PC market. Such devices have been available for about 10 years, and have never sold well. The user interface is not designed for use by touch (or stylus), and the current OS and software demands of an x86 CPU means underwhelming performance, high weight, horrible battery life, and high prices.

Lesson: A desktop OS on a tablet is a failure.

The iPad has so completely blown its pre-existing competitors out of the water that few people even recognize them as competitors.

Lesson: A tablet OS on a tablet can be very successful.

If you look at what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8, they are creating the "Metro" interface for tablets. It looks like ARM-based tablets will only have this mode. They won't run legacy applications, and will be missing some standard Windows features. However, much of the back end and the PC-based developer tools will be familiar to developers, so hopefully many apps will be available quickly.

Sound familiar? This is pretty much Apple's strategy with iOS. I for one am actually interested to see the final result. (I expect Windows 8 tablets to be far more successful than Android, and a real challenge to Apple, as long as prices are reasonable...)

Interestingly, Microsoft is also making the Metro interface a part of the x86 Windows UI, giving it a split personality. The general consensus is that this does not work well, although the jury is still out.

Prediction: A tablet OS on a desktop/laptop will be a failure.

As a owner of Android tablets and a iPad I defiantly say without Jail Break I would never have owned a iPad. I need a access to my files, I want to make directories, delete files, move files, share files, copy files all from one program and not with a music payer that requires the iPad to be connected to a a computer. Luckily iOS is based off of BSD so I get a lovely tree within a terminal. The first time I typed ls -ltr was such a relief. Thank goodness I also found a program called Phone Disk that allows me to mount my iPad as a normal drive in OSX.

So with a little work a Android user should be happy with the iPad.

Yes if Apple provided a filemanger people would use it. I use the filemanger on my Asus Slider and Galaxy 7.7" all the time. I can't tell you how nice it to look for a file and then have the ability to move it to a mounted server and visa versa. I have my work drive mounted and I can simply move files back and forth. You cant tell me people wouldn't like that. It's cool I now have midnight commander on my iPad, best program ever.

 

There IS a small demand for touch screens for artists (Wacom caters to them), but I don't think Apple needs to go after it since 3rd parties do.  Touch/stylus use is great for 3D 'sculpting', graphic design, etc... 

 

I agree though, OS-X should stay the way it is (a serious UNIX system for developers, artists and professionals), and iOS should remain a consumer product (although a legitimate option to open the file system for pros and devs would be nice, it shouldn't be default though).

 

Use a Windows 7 tablet and you'll know why it's a bad idea. 

 

Buy a Wacom tablet (it works as a peripheral for PCs and Macs) for your Mac if you want that functionality.