A sign! A sign of the Tablet! (Yeah, right...)
Once this would have gotten me excited:
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/pantherdeveloper.html
Ink Services: Apple is introducing a new Ink Services API in Panther so that developers can take advantage of Ink input for their applications and integrate Ink further into their software. Using the API, developers can put together customized Ink solutions such as lists of alternate word interpretations and direct manipulation of text using Ink gestures. Apple also notes in its developer documentation that Panther's Ink recognition engine supports English, French, and German.
Now, I just kinda go, 'Yeah, right; right after the New Cube."
Of course, I've just noticed Bluetooth icons on my machine that didn't seem to be there just a moment before....
Aries 1B
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/pantherdeveloper.html
Ink Services: Apple is introducing a new Ink Services API in Panther so that developers can take advantage of Ink input for their applications and integrate Ink further into their software. Using the API, developers can put together customized Ink solutions such as lists of alternate word interpretations and direct manipulation of text using Ink gestures. Apple also notes in its developer documentation that Panther's Ink recognition engine supports English, French, and German.
Now, I just kinda go, 'Yeah, right; right after the New Cube."
Of course, I've just noticed Bluetooth icons on my machine that didn't seem to be there just a moment before....
Aries 1B
Comments
Originally posted by CubeDude
Isn't that Inkwell?
Inkwell was/is the Newton handwriting recognition (from the MP2000 that worked perfectly for me-even better than Graffitti does today).
I think that they're talking about an API that's about getting handwritten ASCII'd text into various applications.
Hell, who'd want that? That would suck. Yes, I'm against it.
D'you hear, Steve Jobs? I'm against it! Don't release an Apple Tablet! Keep the technology buried in Cupertino! Hunch over the Proprietary Data (Don't let anyone else see it!) and laugh, laugh maniacally every now and then! My deity is the keyboard! I can't conceive of any other method of data entry! Humanity likes entering spreadsheet data with keypads!
Aries 1B
Now Firmly and Finally Dead Set Against The Tablet.
Originally posted by Aries 1B
Hell, who'd want that? That would suck. Yes, I'm against it. Keep the technology buried in Cupertino! Hunch over the Proprietary Data (Don't let anyone else see it!) and laugh, laugh maniacally every now and then! My deity is the keyboard! I can't conceive of any other method of data entry! Humanity likes entering spreadsheet data with keypads!
Aries 1B
Now Firmly and Finally Dead Set Against The Tablet.
I used to think that the AI wonks that think typing is the only way to interact with computers were just keyboard-centric types who wrote code and visited geek fora. I assumed that they totally missed the irony of the hours they spend in games-land WITHOUT a keyboard (yes, a mouse and joystick are also input devices). But I find that the vehemence they show in giving statistics in words/minute of typing vs. writing, just ineffectively masks a simple hubris. A hubris similar to the way some unix folks look down on Mac OSX just because it is accessible and useful to people outside their own demographic.
Keyboardless computing will come....and they who do it right will make alot of money. This isn't a matter of opinion, just a matter of time. And yes, keyboards will still be the most efficient way of entering text and debugging code...it just aint everything...ya git it?!
When I asked a bunch of questions about it, they denied it being the same engine and that all Newton OS technology was 'dead' and this was written from scratch'. I scribbled Rosetta Rosetta Rosetta on the Wacom pad and it popped up with the 'Hey, that's me!' message.
Real smooth.
Originally posted by Fran441
I played with Inkwell last year at MWNY and it was pretty much the handwriting recognition engine from Newton OS 2.1. I remember looking everywhere for a demonstration of it and they didn't want to give me one.
When I asked a bunch of questions about it, they denied it being the same engine and that all Newton OS technology was 'dead' and this was written from scratch'. I scribbled Rosetta Rosetta Rosetta on the Wacom pad and it popped up with the 'Hey, that's me!' message.
Real smooth.
Your writing must be horrible. If i print and try to write just a SLIGHT bit nicer then normal it works perfectly. (it also helps to configure it to yourself)
Originally posted by Amorph
I think Fran is referring to an old easter egg in the Newton's HWR.
haha...ahh would make more sense
*crawls back into his hole if indignity*
Originally posted by PookJP
I've been coming to this board, mostly silently, for well over 3 years, and all I have to say is this: you idiots are still yacking about a tablet?
Oh, not me! Nosirree!
Lurk away and attack any and all mention of the false god- The Apple Tablet; I'm right there with you.
I mean, I used to write heartfelt and sincere posts (prayers?) about the T-t-tablet, but I'm c-cured of it, d'yhear? No more will I waste your (and the other 600+ lured lurkers') lurking time with posts posted with the Pavlovian stimulus 'Tablet'. You know, the word 'Tablet' that sends used to send those 600+ folks who form the iceberg tip of the non-tablet-market descending into the depths of whatever thread (even this cynically titled one) that sports the sweet, seductive, ohsoluscious word Tablet.
Withdrawal is a b-b-b-bit- uh, mightytough.
Aries 1B
Really, Firmly, Certainly, Finally (I can't do it! ) Dead Set Against Even The Idea, The Very Mention, of An Apple Tablet
(Off Topic: Hey, look! vB Code! Italics, Bold, Underline, Special Effects and everything!)
(edited for parenthesis and heart-felt sincere-ness)
Originally posted by Aquatic
No kidding a tablet without a keyboard is retarded and none of you except the one token person who is a nurse or inventory personnel would use or need it. Just wait for the laptops to have touchscreens and full hinges.
A tablet is a laptop with touchscreen and no keyboard. No more and no less. Guess what? You can get keyboards and they have USB ports for them too!
You have made my above point perfectly.
You just think ANY computer without a keyboard is retarded. Get over it. Don't you guys realize how much you sound like like the old DOS nerds who couldn't understand why people thought using a mouse was an elegant input device? "I can do everything from the command line and its sooo much faster. [snort]"
Tablets won't replace laptops anymore than computers replaced TV's. Tablets won't need to. The MS tablet is NOT the tablet of which we speak.
And yes a perfectly implemented laptop with a hinge to get the keyboard out of the way would be just peachy too!
Originally posted by Aquatic
No kidding a tablet without a keyboard is retarded and none of you except the one token person who is a nurse or inventory personnel would use or need it. Just wait for the laptops to have touchscreens and full hinges.
Sing it, Brother!
Nor will you thousands of plant and field engineers, tens of thousands of traveling salespeople, or millions of reclining couch potatoes ever need the convenience of one handed, standing or reclining data entry, or direct entry sketching, or any of the banned, Newtonian features that worked so agonizingly beautifully well on the non-computer formerly known as the Newton (note to mods: You need to find a way to automatically ban the word "Newton" from the boards so that no one will ever be conned, misled, nay, decieved into thinking that the Newton ever worked!)
Aries 1B
The Palm is the Apple PDA. The Apple PDA is the Palm. The Palm has always been the Apple PDA.
Graffitti is all that I need. I don't want anymore than what Graffitti offers. Graffitti is the Alpha and Omega of handwriting recognition. Outside of Graffitti, there is nothing at all....
(edited for a typo.)
The shoe!
"No! Follow the Gourd! The Holy Gourd of Jerusalem!"
Give me your shoes!
or:
The Tablet!
"No! Follow the Rotating, Flipping, Folding Keyboard! The Holy Rotating, Flipping, Folding Keyboard of Cupertino!"
Give me a Tablet!
The Tablet is a false prophet! Follow the G5 Powerbook!
(Alleliuia! Alleliuia!)
And they went unto the land of the Francs, into the city of the Francs, where they found a simple, simply dressed man in jeans, sneakers, and black turtle necked shirt.
And they pleaded with him. This one for a G5 Powerbook. That one for a laptop with a Rotating, Flipping, Folding Keyboard. This one for a G5 Cube. And over there, huddled in a corner, a perennially disappointed fool (whom, truth be told, had spent too much time at Clavius Moonbase and had lost sight of everything except his unceasing quest for an Apple Tablet).
They all pleaded until the ears of the world were filled. Until finally, He raised His hands to silence the throng. The multitude waited with baited breath for Him to speak.
Apple will still come out with a portable. No one ever said that they wanted the tablet to replace the laptop. Rather, it is an alternative to the standard laptop.
I have used Apple computers for a loooooooooong time now (sense 1980). I have 3 Macs in my house that form my production studio and code writing system. I even worked as a student rep for Apple back in college many years ago.
But I went out an purchased a M$ based tablet PC. Why would I do such a thing? Because I wanted the freedom to draw and write what I was working on.
It sounds like most of you don't use or even want to use an application like Alias | Wavefront (Ooops! just Alias now) SketchBook Pro.
This is a truly awesome application of tablet technology. It gives me the freedom to have a true virtual sketchbook that really works.
But beyond that I don't have to worry about the keyboard and mouse when I am doing things like moving data around on the desktop and so forth. It is direct and visual interaction. No secondary input via a mouse or keyboard.
The biggest drawback to this entire M$ based tablet computer is the hand writing recognition. It doesn't work, even in the apps that happen to support it.
I once used the innovative little black clad green screened computer that launched a new market segment. And you know what, the hand writing recognition actually worked. I didn't have to learn a new input method or try to remember an interpretation of roman characters that is none user friendly for people like my grandmother.
I still use my keyboard to write code and documents, like this email. I use my mouse for things like 3D modeling and CAD work (just because the hand gets in the way for these tasks). But the simplicity of direct input on a tablet that is configure properly is hard to beat. If such input methods don't work then why are companies like Wacom still in business today?
The tablet computer has a long time before it would replace a standard laptop. But for people who need such a device it is a glorious thing. I am one of the many artist / engineers that would warmly welcome a Mac OS based tablet computer. Just because some of you might not need, or see the value, in such a computer, there are many of us who do. Inkwell is a wonderful and appropriate starting point for Apple's first steps in the tablet direction. I for one hope that they do come out with one in the next few years and that they support applications like Alias SketchBook Pro.
- I am the G in the S.
"All these moments are lost in time..... like.... tears in the rain."
Originally posted by MacGregor
A tablet is a laptop with touchscreen and no keyboard. No more and no less. Guess what? You can get keyboards and they have USB ports for them too!
On the laptop front I could agree with you.
You just think ANY computer without a keyboard is retarded. Get over it. Don't you guys realize how much you sound like like the old DOS nerds who couldn't understand why people thought using a mouse was an elegant input device? "I can do everything from the command line and its sooo much faster. [snort]"
Tablet or not, the fastest known way to input text is through a keyboard (I exclude scanning printed text). If you never use any word processors and speak English, French or German, Inkwell tech might be more than you need (since no one of you game zealots, keyboard-haters ever needs to write anything at all).
A computer without a keyboard is a play station.
A touch screen, on the other hand, is a pointing divice of the near future. At least every time I work with a client or manager or disigner, they use my monitor exactly as a touch screen.
Originally posted by G in the S
But I went out an purchased a M$ based tablet PC.
Oh— so you're the one. Bill G. wants to personally thank you.
Excerpt: "Ubiquitous computers will also come in different sizes, each suited to a particular task. My colleagues and I have built what we call tabs, pads and boards: inch-scale machines that approximate active Post-It notes, foot-scale ones that behave something like a sheet of paper (or a book or a magazine), and yard-scale displays that are the equivalent of a blackboard or bulletin board.
How many tabs, pads, and board-sized writing and display surfaces are there in a typical room? Look around you: at the inch scale include wall notes, titles on book spines, labels on controls, thermostats and clocks, as well as small pieces of paper. Depending upon the room you may see more than a hundred tabs, ten or twenty pads, and one or two boards. This leads to our goals for initially deploying the hardware of embodied virtuality: hundreds of computers per room."
So whether Apple shows up with TabletMacs/TouchScreen-PowerBooks or not, it is a good move to implement the Ink(well) technology deeply in the system. What comes out if pen technology is only implemented half-hearted, you can see at M$. Guess Apple will do it better.