Must have missed all of those Apple patent applications, huh?!?
The touch interface from Apple's patent applications is great as a control UI for media related activities, but it doesn't really solve the question of text input. To date, there appears no good way to input data into a PDA other than a QWERTY keyboard.
If you know of a way, you could make a killing in the market, but as it stands now, PDAs are converging to the BlackBerry/Treo way of doing things.
The touch interface from Apple's patent applications is great as a control UI for media related activities, but it doesn't really solve the question of text input. To date, there appears no good way to input data into a PDA other than a QWERTY keyboard.
If you know of a way, you could make a killing in the market, but as it stands now, PDAs are converging to the BlackBerry/Treo way of doing things.
On screen QWERTY keyboard overlay...
Better seen in this FAKE image...
With smaller tablets (like my dream Apple MobileMe highlighted in this post) you would use your thumbs or a stylus, with larger tablets (like my dream 13.3" MacPad model or the 17" MacPad Pro) you would use it with all of your fingers & thumbs just like a normal keyboard...
i like the ideas put together in the original post.
in the run-up to the last announcement at the start of the year, was there not also talk of a fancy remote control device with a real fancy screen?
ignoring the limitation of just being a remote control, imagine the form factor shape and size of a graphic displayed remote - it'd fit into the same form factor size as put forward by bitesize.
As for text input, its a bit of a bug bear of mine and one of the most limiting factors of me not getting PDAs.
that being said, if you could hold a device in a landscape format and use your thumbs in the same way you would a Playstation controller to tap into an overlay screen, then i think you would be getting close to something usable. ( you could also place buttons for where your other fingers would rest whilst holding it ( like the L1 and L" buttons on a PS2 controller ) they could be used for SHIFT, CNTL etc etc.
I've also put forward that if you shortened the keyboard to group the letters in a similar way to mobile phones, then you could tap in text using the predictive text methods that mobile phones use.
That approach would allow less keys to be displayed and/or larger buttons to be used for easier input.
I now want some FIG NEWTONS! and want to watch TV!
PS
Maybe its the iPad? Steve Jobs wants to get into real estate and so makes a bunch of appartment above apple stores, then calling them iPads. The hip and mod place to live!
I now want some FIG NEWTONS! and want to watch TV!
PS
Maybe its the iPad? Steve Jobs wants to get into real estate and so makes a bunch of appartment above apple stores, then calling them iPads. The hip and mod place to live!
Donald Trump will be all over this.
Yea, they could be decorated kind of like your white padded cell!!!
Yup, that's why Apple shouldn't ship until it has some iPod qualities: 10+ hour battery life, iPod thin thin thin (<0.5"), less than 1 lb, a usable thin thin thin touch screen (>12"?), instant on, plus a usable UI with your fingers and styli.
Not going to happen until there is some highly power efficient screens and <1 Watt x86 processors. The x86 processors, 1 GHz variants, could be 0.5 W TDP in 2007. A 13" super thin screen in that class? Not quit sure. All might be alleviated with better energy source, but that's quite hard too.
... The tablets available today are mostly laptops with twistable screens, or a laptop with only pen input that is typically horrible. ...
What looks to be happening is that the PDA market is converging to QWERTY thumb-boards, and that makes sense to me. If Apple produces a new "newton" it better have a QWERTY thumb-board or something better.
Yes, the current tablets are a flop because they're big, heavy, cumbersome and expensive. To add to your list of requirements, they have to be rugged, reliable and inexpensive.
I was forced into a Treo 600 because Verizon refused to activate my Kyocera 6135. I'm unhappy with the Treo. The 6135 uses Graffiti and is a clamshell design; the Treo is a big candy-bar, requiring an additional case. The QWERTY buttons are tiny and difficult to press. Yes, I could get Jot, but I'm still stuck with a big stupid keyboard on the front that could be usable screen area. I'm not buying another Treo until they come out with a clamshell Graffiti version.
Comments
Originally posted by MacRonin
Must have missed all of those Apple patent applications, huh?!?
The touch interface from Apple's patent applications is great as a control UI for media related activities, but it doesn't really solve the question of text input. To date, there appears no good way to input data into a PDA other than a QWERTY keyboard.
If you know of a way, you could make a killing in the market, but as it stands now, PDAs are converging to the BlackBerry/Treo way of doing things.
Originally posted by THT
The touch interface from Apple's patent applications is great as a control UI for media related activities, but it doesn't really solve the question of text input. To date, there appears no good way to input data into a PDA other than a QWERTY keyboard.
If you know of a way, you could make a killing in the market, but as it stands now, PDAs are converging to the BlackBerry/Treo way of doing things.
On screen QWERTY keyboard overlay...
Better seen in this FAKE image...
With smaller tablets (like my dream Apple MobileMe highlighted in this post) you would use your thumbs or a stylus, with larger tablets (like my dream 13.3" MacPad model or the 17" MacPad Pro) you would use it with all of your fingers & thumbs just like a normal keyboard...
;^p
Originally posted by MacRonin
Think you mean:
- Xidius
Originally posted by >_>
Even better example from the patent images, thanks!
in the run-up to the last announcement at the start of the year, was there not also talk of a fancy remote control device with a real fancy screen?
ignoring the limitation of just being a remote control, imagine the form factor shape and size of a graphic displayed remote - it'd fit into the same form factor size as put forward by bitesize.
As for text input, its a bit of a bug bear of mine and one of the most limiting factors of me not getting PDAs.
that being said, if you could hold a device in a landscape format and use your thumbs in the same way you would a Playstation controller to tap into an overlay screen, then i think you would be getting close to something usable. ( you could also place buttons for where your other fingers would rest whilst holding it ( like the L1 and L" buttons on a PS2 controller ) they could be used for SHIFT, CNTL etc etc.
I've also put forward that if you shortened the keyboard to group the letters in a similar way to mobile phones, then you could tap in text using the predictive text methods that mobile phones use.
That approach would allow less keys to be displayed and/or larger buttons to be used for easier input.
Originally posted by MacRonin
On screen QWERTY keyboard overlay...
Very nice. I've seen it already. Still skeptical about its usability. It's got potential though.
But,
I now want some FIG NEWTONS! and want to watch TV!
PS
Maybe its the iPad? Steve Jobs wants to get into real estate and so makes a bunch of appartment above apple stores, then calling them iPads. The hip and mod place to live!
Donald Trump will be all over this.
Originally posted by ipete
I don't know what is going to be released.
But,
I now want some FIG NEWTONS! and want to watch TV!
PS
Maybe its the iPad? Steve Jobs wants to get into real estate and so makes a bunch of appartment above apple stores, then calling them iPads. The hip and mod place to live!
Donald Trump will be all over this.
Yea, they could be decorated kind of like your white padded cell!!!
but you'd only be able to use and iPad for a few hours at a time though
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
cause the batteries would run out.
The Donald would live in the aluminum-walled ones that had two core rooms -- the iPad Pro. Or would that be the iPad Suite?
You would have to create hourly blogs and host them on a .Mac ( or .Pad? ) web account.
Originally posted by fisha
Nah, the iPad suite would be a collection of software where which would be your only way of contacting the outside world and other folk.
You would have to create hourly blogs and host them on a .Mac ( or .Pad? ) web account.
I like that idea! Blogging right off the iPad using iWeb for iPad... Nifty!
The sun'll come up tomorrow, tomorrow...
V/R,
Aries 1B
Originally posted by fisha
cause the batteries would run out.
Yup, that's why Apple shouldn't ship until it has some iPod qualities: 10+ hour battery life, iPod thin thin thin (<0.5"), less than 1 lb, a usable thin thin thin touch screen (>12"?), instant on, plus a usable UI with your fingers and styli.
Not going to happen until there is some highly power efficient screens and <1 Watt x86 processors. The x86 processors, 1 GHz variants, could be 0.5 W TDP in 2007. A 13" super thin screen in that class? Not quit sure. All might be alleviated with better energy source, but that's quite hard too.
Originally posted by THT
... The tablets available today are mostly laptops with twistable screens, or a laptop with only pen input that is typically horrible. ...
What looks to be happening is that the PDA market is converging to QWERTY thumb-boards, and that makes sense to me. If Apple produces a new "newton" it better have a QWERTY thumb-board or something better.
Yes, the current tablets are a flop because they're big, heavy, cumbersome and expensive. To add to your list of requirements, they have to be rugged, reliable and inexpensive.
I was forced into a Treo 600 because Verizon refused to activate my Kyocera 6135. I'm unhappy with the Treo. The 6135 uses Graffiti and is a clamshell design; the Treo is a big candy-bar, requiring an additional case. The QWERTY buttons are tiny and difficult to press. Yes, I could get Jot, but I'm still stuck with a big stupid keyboard on the front that could be usable screen area. I'm not buying another Treo until they come out with a clamshell Graffiti version.