What enhancements/changes to iWalk do you want? (IF it's real, that is)

jrcjrc
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Okay, we've all had a few minutes or hours to do the initial brain-churning.



For those of you who wish to participate in this, great. Otherwise, please don't come in this thread and say how it's a little bit premature to start talking about upgrades to an obivous fake or unreleased product. If that's your opinion, FINE. Just don't muddy the water here. (please)



Specifically, what would you want to improve or change? What target price and features (HD, ports, etc) do you think it should have now or in the next release? How would it change your life (if at all) to have something with the features you listed? Should it emulate palm os, or just be compatibile from a hotsync perspective? Should it be targeted towards mac only, or include other OSes? Should the technology be licensed to other manufacturers?



I for one thing it appears a little large to actually replace anyones Palm-device. And for some people that is important buying decision.



However, I being a former Newton owner (are there any OTHER Newton owners on this board? ) do indeed like a little more screen real estate.



I like the finish as near as I can tell, too.



I think the jog/dial takes up a little too much room.



I hope that it can play DVDs or VCDs or QT/iMovies from in-board storage and hotsync with FireWire drives for uploading/downloading WITHOUT A MAC IN-BETWEEN. In other words, allow it to use ExTERNAL FW drives natively. And even allow it to connect directly to DV STREAM deveices (aka camcorders and such) directly. perhaps even have a iMovie LITE installed on it.



An Irda port for using this in presentations would be great. In a pinch, allowing an overhead projector's light to pass through the back and out the front would be cool if you don't have access to a nice projector.



I hope it comes with at least 64 MB of memory and at least 5 GB HD size. A removable flash-type memory slot would be great for digicams, too.



Airport-enabled would be nice, but to me not a necessity. YET.



I would like some rubberized touch points. I'd hate to let that thing slip out of my hands and fall/break.



I could not tell about built-in speakers. I could go either way with those.



Is it unreasonable to think that Office compatibility could make it in?



Price range for me would go probably to about $900 or so. If the feature set is on that I like.



How important is the OPTION of a keyboard. Well, I like my Sharp Wizard. Even with a smallish keyboard I can type pretty good. When the audience is just myself, my typing speed is decent. I personally would want the option. If it was under $75 for it, I'd buy it.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    Sorry about that...I've deleted my post



    [ 01-03-2002: Message edited by: Adolfo ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 15
    jrcjrc Posts: 817member
    [quote]Originally posted by Adolfo:

    <strong>



    ENJOY </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Adolfo, I'm not sure what you meant by putting that image here.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    I'm not sure what he meant by putting it in every thread in the whole forum. Calm down, Adolfo. People will see it.



    -S
  • Reply 4 of 15
    haraldharald Posts: 2,152member
    If you peek at the menu on one of the stills [iWalk_Still07.jpg] (a pop-up from the bottom) you'll see a section called "Multimedia" which has the options of QuickTime, ITunes, Recorder and Chess.



    It seems to be able to do QT (after all, iPaq can play video) ... in fact, it's iPod usability, iPaq functionality, G4 styling (super slim, titanium inset).



    I wonder what "iTunes" is for ... maybe remote control of a Mac ... iTunes2Go ... ?



    This thing is real real real. All yer "non-shaking text" is QT compression, believe me.



    The "mystery port" is for the cradle IMO.



    Oh, and incidentally, Kormac was fsking RIGHT ... remember those threads about this ... or is he our new Nostradamus (a bit of plausible BS onto which you can stick anything ...)?
  • Reply 5 of 15
    get rid of this ugly ****ing wheel...
  • Reply 6 of 15
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Incedentally,



    Kormac wasn't right about anything. He provided just enough vague speculation double talk BS for you to fill in any of the details. The stuff he's talked about may come out, but let's not forget that it was supposed to have been here for quite a while already according to him, and that he himself has moved the details around enough to cover virtually anything. It's nothing more than the UBB version of cold reading:



    always, "more to come later," "can't say right now" etc etc...



    then a bunch of posters launch into rampant speculation and Kormac returns to re-iterate what other posters have ALREADY postulated themselves. TOTAL BS. Entertaining maybe, but NOT inside info.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    jrcjrc Posts: 817member
    Can't people TRY to not drift? I am looking to discuss features and changes of iWalk from the standpoint of IMAGINING it to be a real, forthcoming product. Not debate Kormac76 or put some stupid photo out there.



    Jeez. That's all I'm asking. There are tons of threads to mess up.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    I think that thing might very well be a real Apple product. And if it is, bearing in mind that I have no idea what the price would be, the first change I want to see is a 25% cheaper MSRP.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    jrcjrc Posts: 817member
    [quote]Originally posted by Matsu:

    <strong>I think that thing might very well be a real Apple product. And if it is, bearing in mind that I have no idea what the price would be, the first change I want to see is a 25% cheaper MSRP.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    That's more LIKE it!
  • Reply 9 of 15
    I posted this in the big iWalk thread, but it belongs here too:



    Possible explanation for the whole "scroll wheel" thing...could be assignable to several different tasks, one of which is screen rotation (he did also have to push a button on the front). It could be that he wanted to demonstrate the wheel and it had nothing to do with screen rotation. Perhaps the power button works like many cell phone power buttons - to avoid accidental poweroff, it must be held down for more than a second to actually turn the thing off - a tap could produce a different response. I'm not too bothered by the fact that it only required a light tap - Apple's been into touch-response buttons rather than pushbuttons for a while now. Anyways, billions of explanations.

    Not to say that I think it's real. If it's a real product, I think this is not a final design. I also think that despite the explanations for the scroll wheel, it is "butt" for lack of a better word. I would suggest relocating it to the side, slightly recessed, like on a Sony Clie, but when I think about the fact that the screen would rotate, perhaps the side is best, and then you can rotate and have it on either side, depending on whether you're a righty or lefty. In either case, I think it needs to look nicer.



    While I'm posting, I also have to say that I don't think Apple would release this device because it copies all the aspects of the Newton that doomed it in the wake of Palm. The OS looks very proprietary, and this means no application compatibility. Unless it's got a Palm emulator in it, count me out. And I'm sure it is as expensive as PocketPC's, but without Office compatability.



    Features that could redeem it (I'm not saying that it would need to have all of these, that would get expensive...but these would all be cool):



    -Airport - it MUST be ready-to-go on a wireless network.

    -FULL IE5 compatability - if IE5 can display it, iWalk can display it.

    -AIM Compatability

    -Palm Emulation - runs like Classic in that it is very transparent. But it will run apps designed for PalmOS in addition to those Apple and 3rd parties make.

    -Internal HD, not Flash - an IBM Microdrive maybe. It doesn't need to be as big as iPod's, but big enough to download some things, record voice, run complex apps, etc. 1GB would be plenty.

    -Boot and transfer data/apps from an iPod in FW disk mode.

    -iMovie compatability (BIGGEST "BUY ME" FEATURE)...use screen/scroll wheel as a control surface with iMovie running on a Mac. Put iMovie/FCP "mobile edition" on the device itself - plug into a DV cam to earmark/define clips, simple edits/arrangements, etc. before you even get to your Mac.

    -Wireless FW Cam module...record video of yourself anywhere, store on the internal drive, optional external mic. Edit in iMovie or use as a wireless webcam.

    -MS Office compatability - if technology for this has to be licensed from M$, they might go for this since it gives them more income from the handheld market and PocketPC doesn't jive with Mac anyway. If the video out could display PowerPoint (or even AppleWorks) presentations with full color and animation, it would have a leg up on every other out-of-the-box PDA out there.

    -IR Remote Control - the Sony CLIE does this and I think it's a cool thing people would use.

    -AirPort sync - if you are within range of a wireless network that is connected to your "base" computer, your iWalk will sync with it automatically in the background (with a "resume" feature for if you wander out of range in the meantime). This alone would make me want to give up my Palm.

    -FW Recharge - this and the above gets rid of the need for a base entirely - no clutter - very Apple.



    Comments are welcome.



    -S
  • Reply 11 of 15
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    iPod = 399



    iWalk = 799 (with 5GB HDD) ???



    If so, that's about twice as much as any competing PDA and perfectly in line with Apple pricing. I don't see any expansion slots, so I think they'd go with the HDD, seeing as to how well they've already deployed the concept in iPod.



    What it needs: the BEST ***and I'm talking seemingly psychic levels of transcription here *** HANDWRITING RECOGNITION know to humanity. A good voice recorder, as good a Speech translator as can be gotten in a handheld. The 5GB HDD, a very sharp high res screen readable both indoors and outdoors. Significantly longer battery life than anything currently available, and some kinda low-power mode that puts consumption close to Palm series days long battery life -- perhaps a back-light off reflective TFT mode? Abilities to read just about anything, especially PDF, QT, and MP3 and MPEG4. A kick ass web browser (with the power to display real web pages in full -- depends on a very high res screen) and a way to wirelessly sync to specially enabled cell phones (built-in airport/bluetooth???).



    Well that's the dream device anyway...
  • Reply 12 of 15
    Despite the fact that I think spymac's iWalk is fake, I do like the idea of an Apple PDA. Of course, I don't think it's what we're going to see next week and even then I don't think it's what Apple needs to be successful. (Come to think of it, I said the same thing about an mp3 player before the iPod launch. Shows what I know).



    Still, what I'd like to see is this: the ability to sync all my personal settings from my os x home directory, and then allow me to logon to other os x machines with it. So I could plug it in, and then boot up a brand new machine with my own os x mail, .emacs, login items, palm desktop, address book, etc.



    It would require updating the OS and all the apps, but it would still be cool. Also, not very frequently used, but still cool for the sake of cool, I guess.



    Shutting up.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    As to keep with the thread. I've looked at all the pictires, and I downloaded the movies last night, and I must say that the movies are less impressive than the pictures. Like the one above. "WEB" I think handheld web enabeled browsing is a must for the future of computing.

    As for improvments. I don't have any hard facts on what it might do, or does not do. So I can't say, but I like what I saw in both the movies, and the pic's. Even though it's a fake. An incredible fake at that. Must have taken some doing.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    davegeedavegee Posts: 2,765member
    On the connectors and/or ports...



    I saw on the top:



    Audio Out

    Video Out

    ??????

    Firewire



    I saw on the bottom:



    Stylus holder

    ????

    Irda





    The ???? on the top I see an icon that kinda sorta looks like this...



    ---o===



    Or that could be due to compression and then it might look like this



    ===O===



    Well it really looks like maybe TWO lines on the left of the circle and THREE on the right (or 3 on both sides)



    Anyone have any idea what that icon might be?



    As for the middle port on the bottom... I dunno maybe it wasn't a port but it sure looked like one.. (in the turnaround.mov I think)



    Dave
  • Reply 15 of 15
    sebseb Posts: 676member
    Ok, I'll go on record as saying I think its real. The video is good enough.



    The only thing making me think otherwise is the fact that they haven't removed it yet. Perhaps the power of Apple's cease and desist orders isn't as strong in Germany?



    Anyhow, on to the topic...



    I can't say what enhancements/changes I want yet, because I don't know what all it does. However, I will say what I hope it does, that way if it doesn't that will be my list of enhancements.



    I hope you can play movies and mp3s on it. Surfing the web is great, I guess, but if I'm gonna be near a fast connection I'll just use a computer. Which brings me to another question, if it has a web browser, how does one connect it to the web? It has, as mentioned, audio in and out, Firewire, and the mystery port. Perhaps the mystery port is some sort of network connection?



    Or maybe we have a new wireless internet anywhere service that no one has heard of...



    yeah right.



    eh, I dunno....



    I don't want or need a "PDA" so to speak, but being able to have an iPod ish type device that lets me watch movies, surf the web and run some cool apps might work. If not too expensive.
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