Speculation: iWork/iLife waiting for new multi-touch hardware
I'm thinking that iLife and iWork weren't introduced in January because versions of them will be dependent on new hardware. Leopard will have a version with a multi-touch interface that will run on a new tablet Mac, maybe a UMPC, maybe even a new multi-touch external display. Since it is critical to have a nice software suite to work with the new hardware, they're designing iLife and iWork to work with them.
Imagine moving photos around in iPhoto with multi-touch, and creating movies the same way in iMovie and iDVD. Imagine the coverflow/flick interface for iTunes. Etc.
Imagine moving photos around in iPhoto with multi-touch, and creating movies the same way in iMovie and iDVD. Imagine the coverflow/flick interface for iTunes. Etc.
Comments
Cut by drawing your finger down the timeline. Tap twice to change the scale. Select clips by making two cuts and tapping between, remove by flicking off. Scrub by horizontal flicking. Change transition length with the pinch gesture. Move effects and transitions on and off with your fingers. How about changing clip speed/duration with the pinch?
It wouldn't be any good for something like FCP, which needs frame level control, but for iMovie it would be a huge jump in accessibility for non-techies.
It would turn movie editing into something like craft night at your kitchen table, and make comparisons with Vista edition Movie Maker suddenly very, very beside the point.
There's been speculation elsewhere that one of the "secret" features of Leopard is, in fact, iLife-- bundled and made groovy through some sort of integration mojo.
Multi-touch interfaces for consumer media apps would be a game changer. For all of Apple's efforts to make things easy to use, there are still a lot of people who get bewildered by menu structures and commands (Hi mom!).
If natural, gestural manipulation of movies and images could be made mainstream (and not a a zillion dollars to the buy-in cost) Apple could rule the world.
I mean, for real. Take all those digital pictures then resize, fix problem areas, crop, apply effects and email to Aunt Margaret with your fingers? Game over.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...8&postcount=54
If there is a tablet, then we can be sure there will be a version enabled for MT.
But if not, then what? Would Apple really make features of Leopard and iLife dependent on a technology that isn't even available in any of its computers yet?
So let's not get ahead of ourselves. At the very least, I'm sure MT will be there just like Inkwell is now. (The ModBook may make good use of both.)
Might they do something more with it? Of course. In his iPhone presentation, Steve presented MT as the next step in computer input technology, suceeding the mouse. It seemed like a typical throw-away comment used to power his RDF. But maybe they do have big plans for it in the future. It would definitely be cool and interesting.
But remember these two things:
Maybe.
In the future.
* New Design; Multi-Touch iMac
* Leopard with Integrated iLife
* Released: WWDC - June 2007
the problem with MT for a tablet wich would be used extensively for writing is that you don't write with your fingers and as I understand it MT does not work with a stylus. There is a reason the stylus in it's many forms was invented and that is because it is more precise and faster to use to legibly write than it is with your finger, just as a good typist can type a lot faster than they can write. MT is good for navigation and maybe a few other things but if a tablet were to be used extensivly for data input then you need a stylus.
Isn't MT keying off of the electrical resistance in your finger, or something?
Seems like it would be possible to make a stylus that worked with that. I dunno, make it out of meat.
I dunno, make it out of meat.
Mac Tablet Code Name: "Slim Jim"
I can see the mouse being replace by MT screen, not sure if my arm would like that unless it's a tablet though.
It's just not practical for MT to take over a good percentage of the UI for a large screen unless it's only meant to be used here and there, not constantly. I don't think there is anything wrong with the keyboard and mouse and to me, incorporating MT into desktops or even laptops (minus a potential tablet) is change for the sake of change.I don't think there is anything wrong with the keyboard and mouse and to me, incorporating MT into desktops or even laptops (minus a potential tablet) is change for the sake of change.
Spoken (or written) like someone who's never tried Multitouch technology in its original form. I've been using an iGesture tablet for years, made by Fingerworks, the company that developed the technology (says so right here on my tablet, "Inventor and Developer of Multitouch Technology"). It's incredibly versatile. In some programs, the combination of iGesture tablet and USB Overdrive with application-specific command sets means I don't even have to touch the keyboard for long periods at a time. Name any mouse that can let you emulate a five-button mouse PLUS escape key, scroll wheel, cursor keys (left, right, up, down, home, end), zoom in and out, cut, copy, paste, find, undo, redo, save, open file/application, close window, quit application, new window, forward, back, reload, and switch applications -- all available at the same time just by using different gestures. The only reasons Fingerworks could never sell enough iGesture tablets was because it was too expensive for people used to $10 optical mice, who couldn't grasp the advantages, and who couldn't or wouldn't get over the learning curve. Yes, it took me about six months before I could remember what all the gestures did (especially since I programmed USB Overdrive to perform different actions with many of the gestures in different applications), but it's all become second nature and I can't imagine being without it today. I would welcome Apple bringing full Multitouch functionality to the masses. Maybe after a taste of it in the iPhone, they'd be less resistant to the complete technology.
Spoken (or written) like someone who's never tried Multitouch technology in its original form.
With no intention of invalidating what you are saying, I have to say that for me, no way. A GUI is much easier to work with, you see the thing, you go to it. Devoting to memory what you have to do is... well... twice the work. Sure, one may become familiar with it, but it still grabs your attention away from what you are doing.
With no intention of invalidating what you are saying, I have to say that for me, no way. A GUI is much easier to work with, you see the thing, you go to it. Devoting to memory what you have to do is... well... twice the work. Sure, one may become familiar with it, but it still grabs your attention away from what you are doing.
What part of "it's now second nature" is difficult to understand? It's essentially part of muscle memory for me. Your statement sounds an awful lot like the one Steve has been using for years and only recently let go, "People get confused with more than one mouse button." Sure, one may become familiar with a second mouse button, but it still grabs away your attention from what you are doing, eh?
Also, many of the gestures were designed to be intuitive. For instance, cut, paste, open, close, zoom, point and move cursor are all intuitively designed. The iPhone uses a subset of the gestures. Maybe in your view, they shouldn't use any at all?
BTW, take a look on eBay and you'll find iGesture tablets selling for two to three times their original retail price. You'd be surprised how much demand there is for the tablets among devotees who have actually used it rather than making assumptions based on no first-hand experience whatsoever.
In order to bring this discussion to another level, lets look at some data. The following site lists 228 Apple patents applications extracted from the US Patent & Trademark Office database. The search criteria used was "AN/"Apple+Computer".
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...FIELD2=&d=PG01
I tracked down this information starting from a New York Times comment on a David Pogue post
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...or-the-iphone/
and a subsequent Google search that identified the website called "They should do that".
http://www.theyshoulddothat.com/2006...bitions_1.html
I posted comments on the Pogue post under the pseudonym "Sugar Ray" Leonard" (long story). Another commenter to that post, an Engineer who reviews patents during product designs stated that 73 of the applications concern MT describing 10 separate inventions.
You now have access to the patent data to draw your own conclusions.
Clearly Apple has big plans for MT and holds a significant patent position on the technology. Consider that most of us have only been thinking about MT for about a month whereas Apple has had almost 3 years to refine the original FingerWorks technology, add to the basic technology and test many prototypes which undoubtedly addressed the engineering, cost and usability issues brought up in this forum.
But wait there's more! Another edition of "They should do that"
http://www.theyshoulddothat.com/2007...hans_mult.html
compares Jeff Han's MT technology and Apple's. Furthermore, cited in that article is Microsoft's Touchlight technology. Could there be a new confrontation brewing between Apple and Microsoft in the MT arena? Perhaps, but one thing is for sure in my mind--MT is coming to the consumer.
Don't want to use MT - no problem it's a keyboard. Want to use all the sweet MT functions that Apple's apps will be rewritten for - no problem, a proverbial "flick of the switch" and it's there.
Is it not that obvious? No one wants to touch their screen, it's too far away. No one wants to use a detachable tablet - it's too small and not positioned properly. Perfect solution is a keyboard sized device.
It will be an add-on and afford Apple the right way to "ease" people into the wonders of MT technology.