That may be true, but the first iMac was a competitive consumer desktop that couldnt be matched by the PC world in terms of price, features, and performance. The same thing can't be said about the current iMac.
<strong>I like the idea of a tablet. And I don't care if typing is faster and more efficient. Why?
Because 50% of the US population doesn't type, doesn't want to type, couldn't care less about typing!!!!!
And yet with OSX and web browsing, they don't need to type!!
Do you get it yet? The next big thing in computing HAS to be independent of typing!!
Palms don't need it; mp3 players don't need it; QT players don't need it. Tablets wouldn't need it. A simple USB port could enable typing, but there are lots of applications and utilities to information/education/entertainment that DO NOT need a keyboard interface.
So please whatever your opinion about a tablet, the keyboard interface question is irrelevant to the discussion. A tablet is NOT a keyboardless laptop, it is a different computing appliance.
Sorry for the rant. Really.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nice post MacGregor... I'm glad to see you get it... The Tablet isn't/won't be a true replacement for the desktop computer (not yet anyway) but it will allow one to take the computer with them when they need to move about the house and live their life.. As I've stated before, I'd love to have a wireless link to my computer room... My network connection is here, my gobs of MP3 are here, my vacation photos are here etc but since they are HERE I have to go to them... I don't want to, I have to. With a tablet they could come WITH ME.
In the livingroom with friends and family I can select the songs I want to have playing. Downstairs in the den I can bring up the photos from our last vacation. Having a discussion about ???? and want to research it use the tablet to surf the web...
How many of you have had people come up/down whatever to your MESSY (well mine is anyway) computer room to show them something 'cool'. With a tablet all of that would be in the past. Oh and those who don't use their computer rooms like we do (most people have a MUCH bigger live away from the computer than we do) :eek: might even relegate the 'cpu' to a small area in the house and then they could re-claim that 2nd or 3rd bedroom... That alone might be enough for some to buy into the concept.
( Hmm are you begining to get the feeling I'm *sold* on this idea? )
I work in Engineering R&D, senior tech, new product developement. Check out any design review, heck any upper level meeting. Hardly anybody has a PDA, but everybody has a clipboard or stack of papers.
I want a clipboard that has an 800 MHz Sahara G3 in it and a Great Big Apple on it... before some cobbed up POS from gateway or dell shows up.
I always had a thing for that yeoman on the original Star Trek. I thought it was her legs, or that wild braid in her hair. It was really her tablet...
<strong>The dolphin will never be, clever I am as InsideAppler. Release a tablet at MW, Apple will not do. Hates them Steve does. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Clever enough to confuse 2002 and 2001? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
I work in Engineering R&D, senior tech, new product developement. Check out any design review, heck any upper level meeting. Hardly anybody has a PDA, but everybody has a clipboard or stack of papers.
I want a clipboard that has an 800 MHz Sahara G3 in it and a Great Big Apple on it... before some cobbed up POS from gateway or dell shows up.
I always had a thing for that yeoman on the original Star Trek. I thought it was her legs, or that wild braid in her hair. It was really her tablet...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Two things on tablets. First, they have been around a long time. I remember seeing some engineers carrying them at lunch in a restaurant in Foster City about 15 years ago. Forget the name of that one. Evidently it didn't go anywhere.
Second, I think the reason for past failures is that it is deceptively difficult to emulate paper and pencil successfully for a reasonable price. The feel of pencil on good paper is very difficult to emulate with a stylus on a hard surface. Also, it is difficult to have the computer respond as swiftly as paper on pencil, especially if you try to respond to pressure differences. There is also the disconnect of having the stylus point floating a few millimeters above the drawn image due to the thickness of the LCD glass surface.
Having said that, if Apple has been able to solve the engineering problems and have made a really class A implementation, not just of the interface but of the apps, then this could be a breakthrough product.
Don't know if they will or won't but this would be something that would fit Apple's image. Take an existing idea and do it right. Imagine an iPad with smooth as silk drawing characteristics, "digital lead" that let's you draw with shading and coloring in an intuitive way. Give it very high quality handwrwiting recognition software. Let the thing run a simplified OS X on a Sahara G3. Give it some simple calendar, database, graphic and calculator apps prebundled. A built-in microphone could record the meeting. If it was around $600 this would be a fantastic adjunct for any meeting.
While I like the idea I think you are going in the wrong direction... Apple/Steve has stated Apple will become the 'digital hub' and make using your existing digital products easier. (well something like that). Apple seems to be going after the 'home market' instead of running into the brickwall (aka MS) in the business market.
Connect the tablets basestation in/near your home entertainment center (connected the TV and Stereo as instructed) then use the tablet to interact with all of them. Give the basestation Airport so it can talk with the tablet as well as any other macs in the house (for those who didn't/can't/won't run ethernet to their TV/stereo area) and you now have a way to not only surf the web via the tablet but play MP3s via the stereo and watch quicktime moves and photo-slideshows via your livingroom TV set.
While I'm sure the business side could also make use of such a thing... it's the digital world Steve is gunning for.
Oh, well now my previous comment seems off topic. Hmmm... Now I need to come up with something relevent.
Got it:
If apple is going to ever release a tablet it will never be stand alone, it will have to have a iMac or PM behind it. Apple's goal with the consumer electronics is to show that with a mac you get higher quality and lots of cool toys avalible. The CEs are just bait (and a huge money maker) to get people to start using macs. A tablet henceforth will be integrated with the iMac, or require a mac of some kind.
<strong>If apple is going to ever release a tablet it will never be stand alone, it will have to have a iMac or PM behind it. Apple's goal with the consumer electronics is to show that with a mac you get higher quality and lots of cool toys avalible. The CEs are just bait (and a huge money maker) to get people to start using macs. A tablet henceforth will be integrated with the iMac, or require a mac of some kind.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yep, just what I've been saying. Apple makes it's money selling boxes it always has. Gotta get people to buy they boxes... OS X helps but it's get the foundation (a clean stable OS) you still need the 'killer apps' to see the box (a good example is BeOS.. killer OS without the killer apps) Steve isn't waiting on the 3rd party to build the Apps, Steve is going to give them a HUGE push...
The iPod is just the begining, that I'm 100% sure of. The iPod of 2002 will be more than an MP3 player, this too I'm 100% sure of. Apple doing a tablet based Mac base station... This to me sounds like a great idea but am I 100% sure it will happen (in January) heck no...
Do I want it to happen... HELL YES... but want and will are two very different things.
There was a topic long ago about Apple's foray into the world of paper-like displays. I think IBM or someone was demonstrationg the technology. At the time (probably over a year ago) it seemed Apple's OS with pdf support and anti-aliasing seemed the perfect system to get the most out of the display (it was black and white).
You are right about the continued popularity of pen and paper. I don't see tablets doing much outside of professional functions until or unless they can be as enjoyable to read as paper AND they have sufficient video capabilities, 'a la remote QT viewing.
Still, a tablet or non-keyboard interface is necessary and I would hope, close to market-ready.
Does anyone have info on the current paper-like display technologies?
I like the idea of a "SuperNewton", I can use it to take notes that I can read later [blush] and can easily reorganize or add detail later. (I am a lousy typist and most folks find the "clackety-clack" of a keyboard annoying when they are trying to lister to a lecture or a meeting) Need to make a copy? Send it by Airport to my G4 and print. If I need to open a "real" app and do a little tweaking on a project, no problem.
I always thought the the two big downsides to the Newton were it was too hard to get stuff from the Newton to the Mac and you would most likely wind up carrying a Powerbook and a Newton around. An iPad could be quite cool with the right design decisions I'd call for a 10" or so screen and a small drive such as the 5 Gbyte unit from the iPod for weight and cost reasons as well as to keep the unit from cannibalizing portable sales. A low clock processor (keep the heat sink small and the unit cool), hopefully a decent amount of RAM.
The unit should be capable of independent use (hence it's own HDD) but would be in its element transferring what data was needed to and from a Mac via Airport Network (no stinking cables or adapters necessary) so a BIG drive wouldn't be necessary.
It sounds cool to me, BUT unless writing input would only take place in a specialized app (like most speech recognition apps have you dictate in their own window) units would have to be seeded to a variety of big developers so that they could do compatibility testing for the new input method. Hence I think with many units floating about outside the Cupertino campus in the hands of non-Apple employees there would be more rumors, sightings, etc going about.
I think iPad is cool but I also doubt it is going to happen.
Or perhaps Steve is playing the long game, genetically re-engineering the population over several centuries to erradicate a love of biege. Perhaps the radiation can be targeted at specific chromosomes!
Comments
[ 12-23-2001: Message edited by: TigerWoods99 ]</p>
<strong>I like the idea of a tablet. And I don't care if typing is faster and more efficient. Why?
Because 50% of the US population doesn't type, doesn't want to type, couldn't care less about typing!!!!!
And yet with OSX and web browsing, they don't need to type!!
Do you get it yet? The next big thing in computing HAS to be independent of typing!!
Palms don't need it; mp3 players don't need it; QT players don't need it. Tablets wouldn't need it. A simple USB port could enable typing, but there are lots of applications and utilities to information/education/entertainment that DO NOT need a keyboard interface.
So please whatever your opinion about a tablet, the keyboard interface question is irrelevant to the discussion. A tablet is NOT a keyboardless laptop, it is a different computing appliance.
Sorry for the rant. Really.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nice post MacGregor... I'm glad to see you get it... The Tablet isn't/won't be a true replacement for the desktop computer (not yet anyway) but it will allow one to take the computer with them when they need to move about the house and live their life.. As I've stated before, I'd love to have a wireless link to my computer room... My network connection is here, my gobs of MP3 are here, my vacation photos are here etc but since they are HERE I have to go to them... I don't want to, I have to. With a tablet they could come WITH ME.
In the livingroom with friends and family I can select the songs I want to have playing. Downstairs in the den I can bring up the photos from our last vacation. Having a discussion about ???? and want to research it use the tablet to surf the web...
How many of you have had people come up/down whatever to your MESSY (well mine is anyway) computer room to show them something 'cool'. With a tablet all of that would be in the past. Oh and those who don't use their computer rooms like we do (most people have a MUCH bigger live away from the computer than we do) :eek: might even relegate the 'cpu' to a small area in the house and then they could re-claim that 2nd or 3rd bedroom... That alone might be enough for some to buy into the concept.
( Hmm are you begining to get the feeling I'm *sold* on this idea?
Dave
I work in Engineering R&D, senior tech, new product developement. Check out any design review, heck any upper level meeting. Hardly anybody has a PDA, but everybody has a clipboard or stack of papers.
I want a clipboard that has an 800 MHz Sahara G3 in it and a Great Big Apple on it... before some cobbed up POS from gateway or dell shows up.
I always had a thing for that yeoman on the original Star Trek. I thought it was her legs, or that wild braid in her hair. It was really her tablet...
<strong>The dolphin will never be, clever I am as InsideAppler. Release a tablet at MW, Apple will not do. Hates them Steve does.
Clever enough to confuse 2002 and 2001? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
<a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000319"; target="_blank">Does this mean a new page is coming up soon for MWSF02? </a>
<strong>Steve said it - Nobody carries PDA's.
I work in Engineering R&D, senior tech, new product developement. Check out any design review, heck any upper level meeting. Hardly anybody has a PDA, but everybody has a clipboard or stack of papers.
I want a clipboard that has an 800 MHz Sahara G3 in it and a Great Big Apple on it... before some cobbed up POS from gateway or dell shows up.
I always had a thing for that yeoman on the original Star Trek. I thought it was her legs, or that wild braid in her hair. It was really her tablet...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Two things on tablets. First, they have been around a long time. I remember seeing some engineers carrying them at lunch in a restaurant in Foster City about 15 years ago. Forget the name of that one. Evidently it didn't go anywhere.
Second, I think the reason for past failures is that it is deceptively difficult to emulate paper and pencil successfully for a reasonable price. The feel of pencil on good paper is very difficult to emulate with a stylus on a hard surface. Also, it is difficult to have the computer respond as swiftly as paper on pencil, especially if you try to respond to pressure differences. There is also the disconnect of having the stylus point floating a few millimeters above the drawn image due to the thickness of the LCD glass surface.
Having said that, if Apple has been able to solve the engineering problems and have made a really class A implementation, not just of the interface but of the apps, then this could be a breakthrough product.
Don't know if they will or won't but this would be something that would fit Apple's image. Take an existing idea and do it right. Imagine an iPad with smooth as silk drawing characteristics, "digital lead" that let's you draw with shading and coloring in an intuitive way. Give it very high quality handwrwiting recognition software. Let the thing run a simplified OS X on a Sahara G3. Give it some simple calendar, database, graphic and calculator apps prebundled. A built-in microphone could record the meeting. If it was around $600 this would be a fantastic adjunct for any meeting.
While I like the idea I think you are going in the wrong direction... Apple/Steve has stated Apple will become the 'digital hub' and make using your existing digital products easier. (well something like that). Apple seems to be going after the 'home market' instead of running into the brickwall (aka MS) in the business market.
Connect the tablets basestation in/near your home entertainment center (connected the TV and Stereo as instructed) then use the tablet to interact with all of them. Give the basestation Airport so it can talk with the tablet as well as any other macs in the house (for those who didn't/can't/won't run ethernet to their TV/stereo area) and you now have a way to not only surf the web via the tablet but play MP3s via the stereo and watch quicktime moves and photo-slideshows via your livingroom TV set.
While I'm sure the business side could also make use of such a thing... it's the digital world Steve is gunning for.
Dave
Got it:
If apple is going to ever release a tablet it will never be stand alone, it will have to have a iMac or PM behind it. Apple's goal with the consumer electronics is to show that with a mac you get higher quality and lots of cool toys avalible. The CEs are just bait (and a huge money maker) to get people to start using macs. A tablet henceforth will be integrated with the iMac, or require a mac of some kind.
<strong>If apple is going to ever release a tablet it will never be stand alone, it will have to have a iMac or PM behind it. Apple's goal with the consumer electronics is to show that with a mac you get higher quality and lots of cool toys avalible. The CEs are just bait (and a huge money maker) to get people to start using macs. A tablet henceforth will be integrated with the iMac, or require a mac of some kind.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yep, just what I've been saying. Apple makes it's money selling boxes it always has. Gotta get people to buy they boxes... OS X helps but it's get the foundation (a clean stable OS) you still need the 'killer apps' to see the box (a good example is BeOS.. killer OS without the killer apps) Steve isn't waiting on the 3rd party to build the Apps, Steve is going to give them a HUGE push...
The iPod is just the begining, that I'm 100% sure of. The iPod of 2002 will be more than an MP3 player, this too I'm 100% sure of. Apple doing a tablet based Mac base station... This to me sounds like a great idea but am I 100% sure it will happen (in January) heck no...
Do I want it to happen... HELL YES... but want and will are two very different things.
Dave
You are right about the continued popularity of pen and paper. I don't see tablets doing much outside of professional functions until or unless they can be as enjoyable to read as paper AND they have sufficient video capabilities, 'a la remote QT viewing.
Still, a tablet or non-keyboard interface is necessary and I would hope, close to market-ready.
Does anyone have info on the current paper-like display technologies?
[ 12-27-2001: Message edited by: MacAgent ]</p>
I always thought the the two big downsides to the Newton were it was too hard to get stuff from the Newton to the Mac and you would most likely wind up carrying a Powerbook and a Newton around. An iPad could be quite cool with the right design decisions I'd call for a 10" or so screen and a small drive such as the 5 Gbyte unit from the iPod for weight and cost reasons as well as to keep the unit from cannibalizing portable sales. A low clock processor (keep the heat sink small and the unit cool), hopefully a decent amount of RAM.
The unit should be capable of independent use (hence it's own HDD) but would be in its element transferring what data was needed to and from a Mac via Airport Network (no stinking cables or adapters necessary) so a BIG drive wouldn't be necessary.
It sounds cool to me, BUT unless writing input would only take place in a specialized app (like most speech recognition apps have you dictate in their own window) units would have to be seeded to a variety of big developers so that they could do compatibility testing for the new input method. Hence I think with many units floating about outside the Cupertino campus in the hands of non-Apple employees there would be more rumors, sightings, etc going about.
I think iPad is cool but I also doubt it is going to happen.
by "this" I mean the thingy with the Apple logo.
<strong>...
Or perhaps Steve is playing the long game, genetically re-engineering the population over several centuries to erradicate a love of biege. Perhaps the radiation can be targeted at specific chromosomes!
(OK I'm getting silly now)</strong><hr></blockquote>
OK, you're saved, please pop up to my couch...