Moreless, but higher resolutions in a 10" aren't very confortable
Quote:
The iPhone battery doesn't weigh much. Besides, this device will have flash memory and less moving parts than a full laptop.
You can't compare a ¿600? MHz device with a 3.5" 480x320 screen to a mobile computer with a 10" 1024x screen
Quote:
Or you put it flat on a table or on your lap sitting down and then type with the virtual keyboard.
Poorly ergonomic
Quote:
Apple saw the small, cramped keyboards on netbooks and concluded rightly that having a physical keyboard would be an impediment to the functionality of the device.
And the answer is a lesser functional device to work with?
The iPhone battery doesn't weigh much. Besides, this device will have flash memory and less moving parts than a full laptop.
Or you put it flat on a table or on your lap sitting down and then type with the virtual keyboard.
Because it's Apple's answer to the netbook. Besides, ModBooks sell fairly well.
Apple saw the small, cramped keyboards on netbooks and concluded rightly that having a physical keyboard would be an impediment to the functionality of the device.
there is also cost
people buy acer's because you can get a decent one for $299 with no contract. and it's cheap enough that if it breaks you won't care and just get another one. A $500 tablet that requires a 2 year contract will make people think twice about buying it.
Maybe people will sit it on a desk or their lap and type in landscape with both hands? You are making a major assumption that people would operate the tablet in the same manner as an iphone and that the onscreen keyboard would even be set up in a similar manner.
I think it's a reasonable assumption to make. The MacBook Air is 3 pounds. Take its display/housing off, shrink it 3" diagonally, and make it a tad thicker and heavier. If Apple was going to make a tablet, don't you think that's a pretty realistic depiction? Now imagine how light and thin that would be, maybe a pound, pound and a half? For reference, Dell's Mini 10 is 2.6 pounds.
Holding a slender, 1-1.5 pound device in landscape (or perhaps even in portrait) would not be that much of a strain. More importantly, holding it in both hands for typing, like an iPhone, would be far more comfortable than 1) propping the device up using a stand in order to have a comfortable viewing angle, forcing your wrists to type at an uncomfortable angle or 2) laying the device flat for a comfortable typing angle for your wrists, forcing you to uncomfortably crane your neck over the flat display.
The question is: Would the chipset run Snow Leopard, iPhone OS, ...both?
Yes yes, these are both OSX-based, so what's a third OSX-based OS? But a lot of SL's enhancements (zoom slider bars, etc) look like features specifically aimed at a user with an iPhone-like touch device. ...So maybe SL will be able to run on this new device?
If so, then all of the macbook air programs (remote install, etc) would be patched over.... mobileme would be pimped as the ideal way to sync one's life between home, tablet, iphone... It would be consistent, at least.
Wildcard: As an ARM-based design, it might also be able to run some/all iPhone OS applications (a huge "if", I know). This seems very unlikely to me, but the possibility does exist... and it would open up all sorts of possibilities for programmers...
people buy acer's because you can get a decent one for $299 with no contract. and it's cheap enough that if it breaks you won't care and just get another one. A $500 tablet that requires a 2 year contract will make people think twice about buying it.
That's a good point - you don't really want a portable thing to be expensive. You spend all your time worrying about it - will it be stolen, broken etc.
I don't get the whole tethering thing. For business, pretty much every time I'm on a call I need the internet at the same time. Does tethering allow simultaneous voice and data while connected to another device?
Gawd damnit! I wish I could be happy about all this. This woulda been my thread to own with "mactouch ftw" and endlessly taunting the naysayers. But........
I'd hope that the artist's rendition has been changed... while the iPhone is a pretty device, I'd rather have some brushed aluminum... I say, make it look like a macbook air in terms of the curves, but no hinged screen.
Amen! I totally agree. It looks like it is wearing a diaper. Brushed metal and something sleeker than the chrome ring would be more appealing.
Typing on an iPhone (or any similar device) by laying it on the table and typing like it's a mini-typewriter is ridiculously inefficient. If you are using your iPhone this way you are "doing it wrong" as they say.
Something in a similar aspect ratio to an iPhone (a reasonable assumption after all), would be rather easy to thumb type on and rather difficult to type on the way you suggest. I would predict that as a "media tablet" it would have a way of propping itself up or sit in a dock that performs a similar function. Bluetooth keyboards (Apple's is already in the same kind of form factor), would be the most obvious solution for those that insist on typing the "old-fashioned" way.
More importantly, a tablet that you *can't hold in one hand comfortably, would rule out half of the uses that a tablet could be used for and a tablet that *must* be put on a table and typed on like an old typewriter would rule out a lot more uses. One of the central reasons that tablets haven't caught on so far is that they have to be held in the crook of ones arm (because they are so bulky and heavy) and then awkwardly poked at with a stylus held in the opposite hand.
I'm an engineer, so I guess I overlooked the fact that some people wouldn't be able to visualize this. You can thumb type on the iphone because your fingers extend beyond the iphones center of mass. As you scale up to a device with an 10" screen, this may not be the case anymore.
To visualize this, grab your iPhone (or anything of a similar shape and size) and hold it as you would if you were typing and note where your fingers are on the back of the device (they are probably at least halfway up). Now move your fingers so they are no more than a third of the way up the device and try to keep it in your hand without placing any pressure on the front of the device from your thumbs. You can't. If you take the pressure off the front, your device will flip out of your hands and smash into the floor.*
Now maybe Apple could make the device very bottom heavy to offset this, although I don't think that would meet their design standards as it would feel weird in landscape mode. Without having this tablet in my hands, I can't say for sure, but I don't think thumb typing will be a reasonable option on a 10" tablet. On second thought, they could put the virtual keyboard in the center of the device, but that would be very strange.
Edit: Perhaps the pressure you add to the sides and top (edge) of the device with your palms would be sufficient to offset the moment generated by not holding the device past its center of mass, bit even so I doubt the tablet will be designed for thumb typing like the iPhone unless they did something like split the keyboard into right and left halves and move the keboard higher up on the screen. A tablet is just to big for thumb typing as we know it.
*I take no responsibility if you actually drop and break your iPhone.
wife and I have 2 iphones. 3G and 3GS and like them. unlike Mac's these actually have the most powerful hardware on the market in their category. we have the internet everywhere we have a cell phone signal. and they replace a few other devices on the go.
what exactly is the point of this tablet except as a complementary device?
I completely agree with you. I'm not sure if later posts have addressed the issue i have with this report but...
When you already have the iPhone (or any other cell phone for that matter) why would you want to have this device and have to shell out whatever extra money to Verizon or any other provider? Seems like a complete rip-off consumer-gouge if you ask me. Why not just make it either tether to the iPhone for 3G and integrated WiFi everywhere else? It's obvious that this device is portable, but not in the sense of in-your-pocket portable. This is definitely not what I expected in a bad way.
To me, this device is really only useful in places where a strong WiFi already exists (i.e. Schools, Airports, Malls, Homes, etc...) I think if this report is true that it's going to have cellular connectivity, then apple really missed the mark.
I was hoping for something a little more simple, like if the iPhone and the Kindle were combined. and in the price range of $299.
Oh, also, I think it will be called a MacBook. It seems very odd to me that the current MacBook is basically in one configuration (I know there are plenty of BTO options but it is essentially one standard configuration) and is the only non-Unibody laptop that they have. Branding this tablet as the MacBook and discontinuing the current plastic one will also allow for some construction cost savings. I can see this tablet following along with the iPhone and iPod touch in its design for economy of scale cost savings.
I think a lot of posters here are thinking from inside the box.
Clearly, given the number of patents awarded and applied for in the last many years, Apple intends to make the keyboard (and mouse of course) less and less important. Gestural and voice interfaces (and chording between the two, certainly) will give them opportunities for user interfaces that make the current keyboard/mouse requirements look stone-aged. Consider just how the iPhone interface tossed the salad - even the newest Verizon Android phone has now gone keyboardless. We can see Apple's progression as Voice Control came in 3.0, and 4-finger gestures came available for the PowerBook. They are gathering lots of experience and data about all of that, and I believe they will be uniquely positioned to cut into some new ground here.
I believe that the iPhone was the success that it was because it is a platform - not a specific niche killer. It's the fact that we'll be able to read our kindle books on a larger screen (although I also am fine with the iPhone's display for my books) that will kill kindle - but not the technology of it, the fact that I can now have a single device that does that and so much more. That's the part of my iPhone that rocks: one little device does SO MANY things.
So to answer a poster from the first page about why this device should exist, I'd answer this: my wife and I both have Power Macs on the desk, carry PowerBooks in our briefcases and iPhones. The missing connection is a reasonably full computer that I can carry in my bag ie., smaller than my notebook but more powerful than my iPhone. Something that is bigger and better for watching movies on a plane, but not too big that I require my briefcase. Small enough to hold in my hands to read a book, but powerful enough to VPN into my cage and do some real work.
I'd probably get a bluetooth headset and go all Skype/Truphone for telco, carrying the cheapest of cheap phones for out-of-network 911 calls only. I think that this has the possibility of really being the missing link and am damn excited.
I don't get the whole tethering thing. For business, pretty much every time I'm on a call I need the internet at the same time. Does tethering allow simultaneous voice and data while connected to another device?
I haven't tested it out, but I would assume (hope) so.
I would want tethering on this device simply for the fact that I woudn't want bills coming from two different wireless service providers, not to mention that tethering is free on rogers at the moment. If the tablet was capable enough, my old macbook pro would no longer travel with me, and tethering would allow me to use the tablet to browse the internet on a larger screen in hotels without wifi, or anywhere where I will be stationary for a while.
I would not be surprised if we learn some day that the key to allowing this type of device to finally happen was the rewrite of the last pieces of Mac OS X in Cocoa.
me either. It's been my understanding that the touch interface is all written in Cocoa.
I completely agree with you. I'm not sure if later posts have addressed the issue i have with this report but...
When you already have the iPhone (or any other cell phone for that matter) why would you want to have this device and have to shell out whatever extra money to Verizon or any other provider? Seems like a complete rip-off consumer-gouge if you ask me. Why not just make it either tether to the iPhone for 3G and integrated WiFi everywhere else? It's obvious that this device is portable, but not in the sense of in-your-pocket portable. This is definitely not what I expected in a bad way.
To me, this device is really only useful in places where a strong WiFi already exists (i.e. Schools, Airports, Malls, Homes, etc...) I think if this report is true that it's going to have cellular connectivity, then apple really missed the mark.
I was hoping for something a little more simple, like if the iPhone and the Kindle were combined. and in the price range of $299.
Think of this tablet as a new MacBook. You will be able to run desktop grade apps (eg. Photoshop) on it.
Oh, also, I think it will be called a MacBook. It seems very odd to me that the current MacBook is basically in one configuration (I know there are plenty of BTO options but it is essentially one standard configuration) and is the only non-Unibody laptop that they have. Branding this tablet as the MacBook and discontinuing the current plastic one will also allow for some construction cost savings. I can see this tablet following along with the iPhone and iPod touch in its design for economy of scale cost savings.
I don't think so. Books have a front and back cover, this doesn't.
The only way I can see this having the term "book" in the name is if it was marketed heavily as an ebook reader.
Comments
Why does it have to be 1024x600?
Moreless, but higher resolutions in a 10" aren't very confortable
The iPhone battery doesn't weigh much. Besides, this device will have flash memory and less moving parts than a full laptop.
You can't compare a ¿600? MHz device with a 3.5" 480x320 screen to a mobile computer with a 10" 1024x screen
Or you put it flat on a table or on your lap sitting down and then type with the virtual keyboard.
Poorly ergonomic
Apple saw the small, cramped keyboards on netbooks and concluded rightly that having a physical keyboard would be an impediment to the functionality of the device.
And the answer is a lesser functional device to work with?
Why does it have to be 1024x600?
The iPhone battery doesn't weigh much. Besides, this device will have flash memory and less moving parts than a full laptop.
Or you put it flat on a table or on your lap sitting down and then type with the virtual keyboard.
Because it's Apple's answer to the netbook. Besides, ModBooks sell fairly well.
Apple saw the small, cramped keyboards on netbooks and concluded rightly that having a physical keyboard would be an impediment to the functionality of the device.
there is also cost
people buy acer's because you can get a decent one for $299 with no contract. and it's cheap enough that if it breaks you won't care and just get another one. A $500 tablet that requires a 2 year contract will make people think twice about buying it.
Maybe people will sit it on a desk or their lap and type in landscape with both hands? You are making a major assumption that people would operate the tablet in the same manner as an iphone and that the onscreen keyboard would even be set up in a similar manner.
I think it's a reasonable assumption to make. The MacBook Air is 3 pounds. Take its display/housing off, shrink it 3" diagonally, and make it a tad thicker and heavier. If Apple was going to make a tablet, don't you think that's a pretty realistic depiction? Now imagine how light and thin that would be, maybe a pound, pound and a half? For reference, Dell's Mini 10 is 2.6 pounds.
Holding a slender, 1-1.5 pound device in landscape (or perhaps even in portrait) would not be that much of a strain. More importantly, holding it in both hands for typing, like an iPhone, would be far more comfortable than 1) propping the device up using a stand in order to have a comfortable viewing angle, forcing your wrists to type at an uncomfortable angle or 2) laying the device flat for a comfortable typing angle for your wrists, forcing you to uncomfortably crane your neck over the flat display.
Yes yes, these are both OSX-based, so what's a third OSX-based OS? But a lot of SL's enhancements (zoom slider bars, etc) look like features specifically aimed at a user with an iPhone-like touch device. ...So maybe SL will be able to run on this new device?
If so, then all of the macbook air programs (remote install, etc) would be patched over.... mobileme would be pimped as the ideal way to sync one's life between home, tablet, iphone... It would be consistent, at least.
Wildcard: As an ARM-based design, it might also be able to run some/all iPhone OS applications (a huge "if", I know). This seems very unlikely to me, but the possibility does exist... and it would open up all sorts of possibilities for programmers...
people buy acer's because you can get a decent one for $299 with no contract. and it's cheap enough that if it breaks you won't care and just get another one. A $500 tablet that requires a 2 year contract will make people think twice about buying it.
That's a good point - you don't really want a portable thing to be expensive. You spend all your time worrying about it - will it be stolen, broken etc.
And allow tethering with the iPhone.
I don't get the whole tethering thing. For business, pretty much every time I'm on a call I need the internet at the same time. Does tethering allow simultaneous voice and data while connected to another device?
Artist rendering my ass.
I'd hope that the artist's rendition has been changed... while the iPhone is a pretty device, I'd rather have some brushed aluminum... I say, make it look like a macbook air in terms of the curves, but no hinged screen.
Amen! I totally agree. It looks like it is wearing a diaper. Brushed metal and something sleeker than the chrome ring would be more appealing.
Typing on an iPhone (or any similar device) by laying it on the table and typing like it's a mini-typewriter is ridiculously inefficient. If you are using your iPhone this way you are "doing it wrong" as they say.
Something in a similar aspect ratio to an iPhone (a reasonable assumption after all), would be rather easy to thumb type on and rather difficult to type on the way you suggest. I would predict that as a "media tablet" it would have a way of propping itself up or sit in a dock that performs a similar function. Bluetooth keyboards (Apple's is already in the same kind of form factor), would be the most obvious solution for those that insist on typing the "old-fashioned" way.
More importantly, a tablet that you *can't hold in one hand comfortably, would rule out half of the uses that a tablet could be used for and a tablet that *must* be put on a table and typed on like an old typewriter would rule out a lot more uses. One of the central reasons that tablets haven't caught on so far is that they have to be held in the crook of ones arm (because they are so bulky and heavy) and then awkwardly poked at with a stylus held in the opposite hand.
I'm an engineer, so I guess I overlooked the fact that some people wouldn't be able to visualize this. You can thumb type on the iphone because your fingers extend beyond the iphones center of mass. As you scale up to a device with an 10" screen, this may not be the case anymore.
To visualize this, grab your iPhone (or anything of a similar shape and size) and hold it as you would if you were typing and note where your fingers are on the back of the device (they are probably at least halfway up). Now move your fingers so they are no more than a third of the way up the device and try to keep it in your hand without placing any pressure on the front of the device from your thumbs. You can't. If you take the pressure off the front, your device will flip out of your hands and smash into the floor.*
Now maybe Apple could make the device very bottom heavy to offset this, although I don't think that would meet their design standards as it would feel weird in landscape mode. Without having this tablet in my hands, I can't say for sure, but I don't think thumb typing will be a reasonable option on a 10" tablet. On second thought, they could put the virtual keyboard in the center of the device, but that would be very strange.
Edit: Perhaps the pressure you add to the sides and top (edge) of the device with your palms would be sufficient to offset the moment generated by not holding the device past its center of mass, bit even so I doubt the tablet will be designed for thumb typing like the iPhone unless they did something like split the keyboard into right and left halves and move the keboard higher up on the screen. A tablet is just to big for thumb typing as we know it.
*I take no responsibility if you actually drop and break your iPhone.
wife and I have 2 iphones. 3G and 3GS and like them. unlike Mac's these actually have the most powerful hardware on the market in their category. we have the internet everywhere we have a cell phone signal. and they replace a few other devices on the go.
what exactly is the point of this tablet except as a complementary device?
I completely agree with you. I'm not sure if later posts have addressed the issue i have with this report but...
When you already have the iPhone (or any other cell phone for that matter) why would you want to have this device and have to shell out whatever extra money to Verizon or any other provider? Seems like a complete rip-off consumer-gouge if you ask me. Why not just make it either tether to the iPhone for 3G and integrated WiFi everywhere else? It's obvious that this device is portable, but not in the sense of in-your-pocket portable. This is definitely not what I expected in a bad way.
To me, this device is really only useful in places where a strong WiFi already exists (i.e. Schools, Airports, Malls, Homes, etc...) I think if this report is true that it's going to have cellular connectivity, then apple really missed the mark.
I was hoping for something a little more simple, like if the iPhone and the Kindle were combined. and in the price range of $299.
Clearly, given the number of patents awarded and applied for in the last many years, Apple intends to make the keyboard (and mouse of course) less and less important. Gestural and voice interfaces (and chording between the two, certainly) will give them opportunities for user interfaces that make the current keyboard/mouse requirements look stone-aged. Consider just how the iPhone interface tossed the salad - even the newest Verizon Android phone has now gone keyboardless. We can see Apple's progression as Voice Control came in 3.0, and 4-finger gestures came available for the PowerBook. They are gathering lots of experience and data about all of that, and I believe they will be uniquely positioned to cut into some new ground here.
I believe that the iPhone was the success that it was because it is a platform - not a specific niche killer. It's the fact that we'll be able to read our kindle books on a larger screen (although I also am fine with the iPhone's display for my books) that will kill kindle - but not the technology of it, the fact that I can now have a single device that does that and so much more. That's the part of my iPhone that rocks: one little device does SO MANY things.
So to answer a poster from the first page about why this device should exist, I'd answer this: my wife and I both have Power Macs on the desk, carry PowerBooks in our briefcases and iPhones. The missing connection is a reasonably full computer that I can carry in my bag ie., smaller than my notebook but more powerful than my iPhone. Something that is bigger and better for watching movies on a plane, but not too big that I require my briefcase. Small enough to hold in my hands to read a book, but powerful enough to VPN into my cage and do some real work.
I'd probably get a bluetooth headset and go all Skype/Truphone for telco, carrying the cheapest of cheap phones for out-of-network 911 calls only. I think that this has the possibility of really being the missing link and am damn excited.
I don't get the whole tethering thing. For business, pretty much every time I'm on a call I need the internet at the same time. Does tethering allow simultaneous voice and data while connected to another device?
I haven't tested it out, but I would assume (hope) so.
I would want tethering on this device simply for the fact that I woudn't want bills coming from two different wireless service providers, not to mention that tethering is free on rogers at the moment. If the tablet was capable enough, my old macbook pro would no longer travel with me, and tethering would allow me to use the tablet to browse the internet on a larger screen in hotels without wifi, or anywhere where I will be stationary for a while.
I would not be surprised if we learn some day that the key to allowing this type of device to finally happen was the rewrite of the last pieces of Mac OS X in Cocoa.
me either. It's been my understanding that the touch interface is all written in Cocoa.
I completely agree with you. I'm not sure if later posts have addressed the issue i have with this report but...
When you already have the iPhone (or any other cell phone for that matter) why would you want to have this device and have to shell out whatever extra money to Verizon or any other provider? Seems like a complete rip-off consumer-gouge if you ask me. Why not just make it either tether to the iPhone for 3G and integrated WiFi everywhere else? It's obvious that this device is portable, but not in the sense of in-your-pocket portable. This is definitely not what I expected in a bad way.
To me, this device is really only useful in places where a strong WiFi already exists (i.e. Schools, Airports, Malls, Homes, etc...) I think if this report is true that it's going to have cellular connectivity, then apple really missed the mark.
I was hoping for something a little more simple, like if the iPhone and the Kindle were combined. and in the price range of $299.
Think of this tablet as a new MacBook. You will be able to run desktop grade apps (eg. Photoshop) on it.
See my other post right above.
Oh, also, I think it will be called a MacBook. It seems very odd to me that the current MacBook is basically in one configuration (I know there are plenty of BTO options but it is essentially one standard configuration) and is the only non-Unibody laptop that they have. Branding this tablet as the MacBook and discontinuing the current plastic one will also allow for some construction cost savings. I can see this tablet following along with the iPhone and iPod touch in its design for economy of scale cost savings.
I don't think so. Books have a front and back cover, this doesn't.
The only way I can see this having the term "book" in the name is if it was marketed heavily as an ebook reader.
me either. It's been my understanding that the touch interface is all written in Cocoa.
It is.
I don't think so. Books have a front and back cover, this doesn't.
The only way I can see this having the term "book" in the name is if it was marketed heavily as an ebook reader.
I understand and I have thought about that point but I wouldn't put it past Apple.