When this iWhat-ever thingy is released, I'm going to soooo, dump my Visor Neo, this thing will kick it's ass!! Also imaginge that resturants and coffee shops (Starbucks is not COFFEE), could buy like 20 or 50 of these things, and you could use it as a menu, and to accsess the web, and play bar game trivia!!
When this iWhat-ever thingy is released, I'm going to soooo, dump my Visor Neo, this thing will kick it's ass!! Also imaginge that resturants and coffee shops (Starbucks is not COFFEE), could buy like 20 or 50 of these things, and you could use it as a menu, and to accsess the web, and play bar game trivia!!
i agree...apple has to produce this in massive amounts!!!
Well it must offer a real computing experience (Steve Loathed PDAs and set-top boxes because they did not offer a real computing experience vis-a-vis the Internet, and apps).
It must also either consume the low-end iBook's market or be different enough to not drastically affect it.
This may be Apple's Dell-Killer for education - sturdier than the ibook (no hinges, etc), yet much less expensive, and still very accessible.
That Sony looks quite a bit bigger than what's rumored here. And Steve hates TV, and I can't say as I blame him. Such a product would have to rely on airwaves, and in most of the world those are in a period of transition. You could naturally stream video over 802.11g, which has more than enough bandwidth, provided the hardware can decode the signal at the slate's end. Remember that a DVD only supplies about 9Mbps or so, thus 720x500 is well with reach and a little higher than that actually, if MPEG4 is used. But Why stream a DVD or TV signal to that thing, when you can just watch it on TV and get a much bigger picture?
Japan has very weird tastes, more than any other culture the Japanese will buy technology for tchnologies sake, whether it makes sense or not.
Moving on, as a web browser, we run into the resolution problem. What's the minimum acceptable width for a good web experience? 800x480 (which are the only panels we know of that can fit that size) might be just barely passable, 1024x600 would be better, but extremely squinty! Two solutions, either the browser has a way to scale/redraw web pages so that 1024fits into the space of 800, in the same way a PDF can scale down in size, or because they can have the screen very close to their eyes, 1024 might not be a problem? Either way, the browser will require a theme with very minimal/thin UI elements, if not the whole OS (if OSX is indeed used)
One thing that gets me about this rumor, and one of the reasons I'm not inclined to believe it, is the nearly perfect size. Tablet's are too big and PDA's are too small, and I've been on this board since forever posting repeatedly that the DVD-jewel case, or A5ish size is the perfect size. Knowing that rumor sites often read message boards and appropriate the the discussion as rumor (or protected "source") so that we will all feel we we're right -- telling us what we wanted to hear does wonders for the hit count -- this could just be a case of, hmmm, people make some sense over there at AI, let's use that!
Yes he is going to ignore the idea if it comes along because it's still way too much work to make it happen. He won't include a tuner because this will require something different in NA, Europe, Asia, and in NA and EUrope the signal itself is in transition from analogue to digital, way too many variables. You might get a way to stream over airport, that's it, and only if the overhead is minimal.
Turning the display only seems like a good idea untill you realize that such a move makes the display even narrower. The web/computer paradigm is to scroll up-down, NOT side to side. Web pages are framed by a minimum WIDTH 99% of the time. If your display is 800x480, turning it on it's side would make it only 480 pixels wide and make the task of sqeezing a web page down to fit even more difficult than dealing with 800 pixel width. The only things that could solve this are either an ultra high res, say 1024 on at least one of the axes, or some kind of technology that let the browser deal with ANY web page like it might a PDF and scale it to fit the width of the display. Neither is really ideal, since in one you will lose detail and small text will be unclear, and in the first case, you squint at text.
Clearly, the deciding factor is an intelligent way to deal with scaling browse windows AND ESPECIALLY TEXT. If/when they solve that, you, me, we, will get such a device. The physical dimensions are just about right, has the technology caught up on the software side?
if you're going to comfortably hold *iSomething* (with stated dimensions) with one hand it's should be aligned in portrait mode. don't forget - while it may have the dimensions of 2 stacked dvd cases it's going to be quite a bit heavier ?
Yah, the dimensions still seem a little fat, but that's damn close to what I've been arguing for a long long time as far as digital notepads go. Will Matsu be vindicated yet again? ie, as in the prediction of QE and the sales potential of a sub 2K powerbook? Mebbe, Fran got a powerbook after years of suffering, who knows? mebbe a real newton replacement is waiting for him too?
Let's watch for the three Aqua interface buttons (red, yellow green) to appear on the face of this thing. That was a rumor that came out a ways back and it is supposedly the reason why the look and feel of those buttons in OS X was changed - the three buttons used to sit more on top of application windows and now (on some) they are indented in a little.
Something of note- if this thing is a tablet/pda, etc, just wondering why no mock ups include a speaker? The mocks up I've seen are a simple frame around the screen. I think you'd need a speaker (or two) grills around, a visible Apple logo at the bottom center, possibly a pen holder on the side for that inkwell stylus. Also, would there be some kind of handle? Or do you hold it like a pizza pie and hope it doesn't slip? Or is it small enough like a PDA to fit snug in your hand? Also, would it be portrait or landscape? I would also think there'd be a few or at least 1 button somewhere depeding on it's intended function.
OK, so while I still feel this is all specuspeak, the concept could rely on a particlularly themed OSX.
Then some of what is described in rumor could work, though I don't think that is the direction that Apple is going to. Eg, imagine having the green yellow red tabs under the bezel, you just tap them to open close minimize windows. Also in the bezel, two scroll buttons, just led's under the plastic, touch sensitive. hmmm.
You'd need to duplicate them once on one vertical and horizontal axis, so that the device would automatically sense it's orientation and actuivate the appropriate LED's. Cool, very apple. Though mebbe a jog dial would be simpler in the second case. Just to provide a way to maximize screen space. It loads OSX, but a special theme made just for the ithing kicks in and enables the bezel's embedded UI elements. Cool. alternatively, you can shut it off if some app doesn't play nice with it.
None of these bezel features, holes and access points has been mentioned in the alleged plastics details, and the info implied that all the notable holes were described.
As for resolutions, etc, lots of folks have complained on these boards and others about items being "too small" onscreen. The relative resolution of lcd is increasing with each generation. OS X originally had larger UI specs, but developers whined about the changes they'd have to make. Apple sees the increased density as a good thing, whether or not we do. Apple capitulated then, but I suspect that Apple knew that they were going to be increasing the resolution over time.
As for why the mockups don't include the stylus holes, etc, well I for one don't have the Skilz (yet), but I think mostly people were interested in the general shape and "curb appeal" of that shape.
Something of note- if this thing is a tablet/pda, etc, just wondering why no mock ups include a speaker? The mocks up I've seen are a simple frame around the screen. I think you'd need a speaker (or two) grills around, a visible Apple logo at the bottom center, possibly a pen holder on the side for that inkwell stylus. Also, would there be some kind of handle? Or do you hold it like a pizza pie and hope it doesn't slip? Or is it small enough like a PDA to fit snug in your hand? Also, would it be portrait or landscape? I would also think there'd be a few or at least 1 button somewhere depeding on it's intended function.
The iPod has no visible Apple logo on the front. It is laser etched on the back. So that may be an option for this thing. Also, many lamented the loss of the "Happy Mac" icon as a start-up icon. But, with a sophisticated approach to corporate identity and branding, it now seems much more appropriate that both the Mac OS AND the iPod have an Apple logo as their start-up icon. This new device will probably do the same thing.
Edited to add a note about a speaker grill: there doesn't seem room for openings on the front and maybe that is too obvious a place. Perhaps there will be subtle, unseen slits around the screen or even to the sides.
Turning the display only seems like a good idea untill you realize that such a move makes the display even narrower. The web/computer paradigm is to scroll up-down, NOT side to side. Web pages are framed by a minimum WIDTH 99% of the time. If your display is 800x480, turning it on it's side would make it only 480 pixels wide and make the task of sqeezing a web page down to fit even more difficult than dealing with 800 pixel width. The only things that could solve this are either an ultra high res, say 1024 on at least one of the axes, or some kind of technology that let the browser deal with ANY web page like it might a PDF and scale it to fit the width of the display.
Hey Guys, wasn't there some sort of buzz a while ago from one of our better sources - whispers - where they refused to connect the dots by speculating on just what exactly the information they where given might mean, but they did mention as one of their known "data points" from a souce at an Apple parts supplier, of a small display of ultra-high-resolution?
It sounds to me a lot like a media player that includes video, and perhaps, the full OSX?
After all, one quick look at OSX with the dock, and the OS looks like a technicolor Newton interface on steroids - "obviously", OSX was designed to leave open the option for Apple to perhaps, one day, stick it into some kind of tablet, with full os compatibility with 'real' Macs. After all, I think what defines a 'real' Mac, is the OS, not so much the form factor or the hardware ...
Oh, and while we're at it, I might as well mention, hell, ain't AI just about the best training possible to be an intelligence analyst? Geez, we get all kinds of conflicting reports, people claiming to know information they really don't, people who read our speculation and then, feed it back to us as "fact" so that we'll get all hot and bothered chasing our own reflections ...
My God, if I was looking for new recruits in the intelligence services, screw offering jobs to crossword puzzle champions, that's just so 30's ... I'd be checking out the best speculators on AI ... and offering them 6 figure jobs.
After all, not only have they proven themselves to be GOOD at this sort of thing, but they actually
Something of note- if this thing is a tablet/pda, etc, just wondering why no mock ups include a speaker? The mocks up I've seen are a simple frame around the screen. I think you'd need a speaker (or two) grills around, a visible Apple logo at the bottom center, possibly a pen holder on the side for that inkwell stylus.
damn, kickaha, that is some crazy stuff...perhaps they will think even more different and have the iTab enclosure vibrate in such a way that music and sounds are transmitted through the bone structure of the human holding it...relayed from bones in hand, through arms, up spine and into the head directly...turning the person into the speaker...then only the person holding the iTab hears what is played...and since your whole skeleton is the speaker, it would have great sound quality....g
Comments
Originally posted by Lazzyass86
When this iWhat-ever thingy is released, I'm going to soooo, dump my Visor Neo, this thing will kick it's ass!! Also imaginge that resturants and coffee shops (Starbucks is not COFFEE), could buy like 20 or 50 of these things, and you could use it as a menu, and to accsess the web, and play bar game trivia!!
i agree...apple has to produce this in massive amounts!!!
It must also either consume the low-end iBook's market or be different enough to not drastically affect it.
This may be Apple's Dell-Killer for education - sturdier than the ibook (no hinges, etc), yet much less expensive, and still very accessible.
damn, they're good. (or it could be april fools!)
What do you think about this one?
http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer...LF3/index.html
You need read it in japanese.
What can APPLE put more to this kind of product ?
Think differently.
Large image here
Originally posted by NETROMac
This is my shot at the iTablet
NETROMac, i've used your image and placed it alongside an ipod and ibook to get an idea of the scale.
HERE
Japan has very weird tastes, more than any other culture the Japanese will buy technology for tchnologies sake, whether it makes sense or not.
Moving on, as a web browser, we run into the resolution problem. What's the minimum acceptable width for a good web experience? 800x480 (which are the only panels we know of that can fit that size) might be just barely passable, 1024x600 would be better, but extremely squinty! Two solutions, either the browser has a way to scale/redraw web pages so that 1024fits into the space of 800, in the same way a PDF can scale down in size, or because they can have the screen very close to their eyes, 1024 might not be a problem? Either way, the browser will require a theme with very minimal/thin UI elements, if not the whole OS (if OSX is indeed used)
One thing that gets me about this rumor, and one of the reasons I'm not inclined to believe it, is the nearly perfect size. Tablet's are too big and PDA's are too small, and I've been on this board since forever posting repeatedly that the DVD-jewel case, or A5ish size is the perfect size. Knowing that rumor sites often read message boards and appropriate the the discussion as rumor (or protected "source") so that we will all feel we we're right -- telling us what we wanted to hear does wonders for the hit count -- this could just be a case of, hmmm, people make some sense over there at AI, let's use that!
Playing TV, video, DVDs on such a device is not the same thing in his mind, I bet, as playing that stuff on a TV set.
The lcd density is likely to be higher than 72 ppi, along the lines of 96-120 ppi - OS X looks better at hi-res.
Long pages can be viewed in Portrait mode ;-)
Turning the display only seems like a good idea untill you realize that such a move makes the display even narrower. The web/computer paradigm is to scroll up-down, NOT side to side. Web pages are framed by a minimum WIDTH 99% of the time. If your display is 800x480, turning it on it's side would make it only 480 pixels wide and make the task of sqeezing a web page down to fit even more difficult than dealing with 800 pixel width. The only things that could solve this are either an ultra high res, say 1024 on at least one of the axes, or some kind of technology that let the browser deal with ANY web page like it might a PDF and scale it to fit the width of the display. Neither is really ideal, since in one you will lose detail and small text will be unclear, and in the first case, you squint at text.
Clearly, the deciding factor is an intelligent way to deal with scaling browse windows AND ESPECIALLY TEXT. If/when they solve that, you, me, we, will get such a device. The physical dimensions are just about right, has the technology caught up on the software side?
Then some of what is described in rumor could work, though I don't think that is the direction that Apple is going to. Eg, imagine having the green yellow red tabs under the bezel, you just tap them to open close minimize windows. Also in the bezel, two scroll buttons, just led's under the plastic, touch sensitive. hmmm.
You'd need to duplicate them once on one vertical and horizontal axis, so that the device would automatically sense it's orientation and actuivate the appropriate LED's. Cool, very apple. Though mebbe a jog dial would be simpler in the second case. Just to provide a way to maximize screen space. It loads OSX, but a special theme made just for the ithing kicks in and enables the bezel's embedded UI elements. Cool. alternatively, you can shut it off if some app doesn't play nice with it.
As for resolutions, etc, lots of folks have complained on these boards and others about items being "too small" onscreen. The relative resolution of lcd is increasing with each generation. OS X originally had larger UI specs, but developers whined about the changes they'd have to make. Apple sees the increased density as a good thing, whether or not we do. Apple capitulated then, but I suspect that Apple knew that they were going to be increasing the resolution over time.
As for why the mockups don't include the stylus holes, etc, well I for one don't have the Skilz (yet), but I think mostly people were interested in the general shape and "curb appeal" of that shape.
Originally posted by KidRed
Something of note- if this thing is a tablet/pda, etc, just wondering why no mock ups include a speaker? The mocks up I've seen are a simple frame around the screen. I think you'd need a speaker (or two) grills around, a visible Apple logo at the bottom center, possibly a pen holder on the side for that inkwell stylus. Also, would there be some kind of handle? Or do you hold it like a pizza pie and hope it doesn't slip? Or is it small enough like a PDA to fit snug in your hand? Also, would it be portrait or landscape? I would also think there'd be a few or at least 1 button somewhere depeding on it's intended function.
The iPod has no visible Apple logo on the front. It is laser etched on the back. So that may be an option for this thing. Also, many lamented the loss of the "Happy Mac" icon as a start-up icon. But, with a sophisticated approach to corporate identity and branding, it now seems much more appropriate that both the Mac OS AND the iPod have an Apple logo as their start-up icon. This new device will probably do the same thing.
Edited to add a note about a speaker grill: there doesn't seem room for openings on the front and maybe that is too obvious a place. Perhaps there will be subtle, unseen slits around the screen or even to the sides.
Originally posted by Matsu
Turning the display only seems like a good idea untill you realize that such a move makes the display even narrower. The web/computer paradigm is to scroll up-down, NOT side to side. Web pages are framed by a minimum WIDTH 99% of the time. If your display is 800x480, turning it on it's side would make it only 480 pixels wide and make the task of sqeezing a web page down to fit even more difficult than dealing with 800 pixel width. The only things that could solve this are either an ultra high res, say 1024 on at least one of the axes, or some kind of technology that let the browser deal with ANY web page like it might a PDF and scale it to fit the width of the display.
Hey Guys, wasn't there some sort of buzz a while ago from one of our better sources - whispers - where they refused to connect the dots by speculating on just what exactly the information they where given might mean, but they did mention as one of their known "data points" from a souce at an Apple parts supplier, of a small display of ultra-high-resolution?
It sounds to me a lot like a media player that includes video, and perhaps, the full OSX?
After all, one quick look at OSX with the dock, and the OS looks like a technicolor Newton interface on steroids - "obviously", OSX was designed to leave open the option for Apple to perhaps, one day, stick it into some kind of tablet, with full os compatibility with 'real' Macs. After all, I think what defines a 'real' Mac, is the OS, not so much the form factor or the hardware ...
Oh, and while we're at it, I might as well mention, hell, ain't AI just about the best training possible to be an intelligence analyst? Geez, we get all kinds of conflicting reports, people claiming to know information they really don't, people who read our speculation and then, feed it back to us as "fact" so that we'll get all hot and bothered chasing our own reflections ...
My God, if I was looking for new recruits in the intelligence services, screw offering jobs to crossword puzzle champions, that's just so 30's ... I'd be checking out the best speculators on AI ... and offering them 6 figure jobs.
After all, not only have they proven themselves to be GOOD at this sort of thing, but they actually
LIKE doing it!
Originally posted by KidRed
Something of note- if this thing is a tablet/pda, etc, just wondering why no mock ups include a speaker? The mocks up I've seen are a simple frame around the screen. I think you'd need a speaker (or two) grills around, a visible Apple logo at the bottom center, possibly a pen holder on the side for that inkwell stylus.
Or, they could be thinking different...
LCD Speaker Technology