I remember a while ago reading someone's insanely extensive post about the future of the AppleTV and there was large mention of a sort of remote control-like device, where you could preview broadcast tv stations before sending them to the main television, etc. browse through your music library in the palm of your hand and then choose something to play from the appleTV. I realize this is stuff that could ideally be done with the iphone/touch, but maybe that's what apple is sorta going for. They love to integrate, and really... AppleTV needs something more. Bringing in broadcast tv and then giving added control over it could really push it a bit.
On a side now, has anyone else avoided mentioning the AppleTV in public simply so they don't have to explain over and over that it isn't an actual television, just a little box? I'm tired of it. Wish they had named it differently.
There would be no point to an entirely different device when you can just increase the features available on the iPhone and touch. My guess is that this would be released as another piece of the iPhone lineup rather than as the much discussed Newton replacement.
I definitely see a market for a touch unit with a larger screen, so long as the application set is right. In fact, I see this being the next major platform for Apple. Desktops, Laptops, and (let's call it what it is, people) Touch Tablets.
Further down the road, laptops will replace desktops, tablets will replace most laptops, and those will all be replaced with wireless tablet/laptop terminals. Envision ANY episode of Star Trek (TNG or later) and they use all tablets and pseudo laptops, all connected to a main computer. Not that Star Trek should be the basis of our technological speculation or anything. I'm just saying... it makes the most sense...
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackSummerNight
This is why the iPhone and iPod touch is limited and Apple doesn't want you to put your own 3rd party apps on it. They have a PDA they want to push, and if some developer is writing apps that will do everything that this PDA offers it will equal low PDA sells. Just my .02.
On the other hand, I really don't trust Apple to release *ALL* the applications I would want to use. If this unit comes locked out to 3rd party apps, it will be screwed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maestro64
However, lets go back in time, to the Knowledge Navigator, I believe that we will see if the original Apple concept of the knowledge navigator, they talked about this for along time but all the technologies were not there to make it happen.
EXCEPT SPEECH RECOGNITION!!!!!!!!!!
Will SOMEone work on that, please? It's hindering our technological advancement.
Envision ANY episode of Star Trek (TNG or later) and they use all tablets and pseudo laptops, all connected to a main computer. Not that Star Trek should be the basis of our technological speculation or anything. I'm just saying... it makes the most sense...
This seems a little off. What would you design in a PDA that you would not incorporation into an iPhone or even the iPod Touch. The only way I could see any success for a non-phone PDA is a very low price point otherwise I don't see it taking off. Yes, thin is nice, but it doesn't really help me if I'm also carrying around an iPod and an iPhone.
I think many are thinknig about this in the wrong context. It is the melding of the two mobile lines together, finally you get a phone with the functionality of a computer, and a computer small enough to be as mobile as a phone. I have been waiting for this for many moons. The iphone is just to small... the macbook just to big. I am in chicago, I commute by train everyday along with millions of other commuters across the country in urban areas who are quickly adopting the mobile platforms that quite frankly just don't cut it. FOLIEO??!!!, This would be a huge sucess in this market.
More than just emails and documents this would be worth it to stay up to date with the money markets alone. The iphone/touch screen is just to small to be useable in my opinion. Adding inkwell and the ability to do full blown notes, calendar and contacts... it would be priceless
Then the clincher, if apple markets this as I was hoping they were going to do with the ibrick I mean phone as a mobile computer with the capability of inserting a sim chip to make calls instead of a phone with the ability to surf the web/get emails... and does not tie it to a carrier. Instead sells it as a computer with a mobile osx meaning a true finder and ability to add your own applications and the rest. This thing would sell through the roof.
WOW! Amazing. Make it a full Mac OS X computer on your hand and that is what we have been waiting for years for all students, lecturers and researchers at our University. With full Keynote and PowerPoint NATIVE file support. The ultimate handhelp presentation remote. We need thousands.
Just add the missing applications to the iPhone and iPod Touch and you've got the best PDA out there going, which also happen to be the best iPod and the best phone. Then let 3rd party developers fill the voids left. Done. Rebirth of the Newton completed.
Seeing the success of App.Tap, I now fully realize the importance of allowing 3rd party dev't of the mobile OS. Why? Because there's no freaking way Apple will be able to develop every app people want/need, nor is the "via safari" method a viable solution.
Also, it's becoming more and more obvious that this touch OS is the Next Big Thing... And you can't have an OS without 3rd party dev't.
WOW! Amazing. Make it a full Mac OS X computer on your hand and that is what we have been waiting for years for all students, lecturers and researchers at our University. With full Keynote and PowerPoint NATIVE file support. The ultimate handhelp presentation remote. We need thousands.
Well, if it's real it won't be Mac OS X. It will be OS X Mobile.
And I don't doubt that iWork will be coming one day for OS X Mobile, but it's going to take time.
Why do you think your university could use thousands of these? Why not just use a laptop for a presentation, or to take notes?
Fascinating report, but I'm really not sure exactly who this product would be for.
PDAs are currently dying - they're being wiped out by smartphones.
Apple laptops are about to get even sleeker and thinner.
The main markets would seem to be vertical markets (doctors, business users for meetings, people taking notes or needing net access while walking/working) or as an e-reader where using a notebook is impossible or a nuisance (e.g. reading on the train). But that's not what Apple is interested in. They're interested in the mass market of mainstream consumers.
So, what's the mainstream use? Why do you need one of these in addition to a computer, iPod, and/or (smart)phone?
And how many people would be willing to pay (let's say) $599 for one? Or even $499?
I'm intrigued, mind you, but I'm unsure this would find a place in the mianstream market.
PDAs are dying because their operating systems suck.
PDAs are also typically hamstrung by small screens, weak CPUs, and terrible GUIs.
If Apple releases an API for this device and supports 3rd party development, it will be successful.
As far as the mainstream goes... WiFi + Safari + eMail = mainstream
it doesn't matter what you call this: PDA, iphone 2.0, whatever.
i envision it as a macbook with multitouch and iphone like interface (one more suited to finger flicks than mouse clicks). Even apps could be rewritten to work better with multitouch. things like iLife and iWork. Not "mobile" versions, but more suitable for the fingers.
remember that patent that surfaced a week or so ago about a new browser interface? perfect for an multitouch tablet.
imagine an 8 mm thick device, almost entirely screen. not a standard desktop with a dock and menu bar, but something more along the lines of an iphone, albeit prettier and more powerful.
-internet browser
-full productivity and "fun time" suites
-acts as an apple tv 3.0 remote
-streams content from your computer to be enjoyed on it's 12" screen
-gps
this is starting to look a few years down the road. but it will happen! by 2012 we'll have 2TB of data in our iPod Touch 4.0s, why not as much or more in our iCarry-this-thing-around-because-it-makes-me-a-better-human-being-s?
PDAs are dying because their operating systems suck.
PDAs are also typically hamstrung by small screens, weak CPUs, and terrible GUIs.
There's some truth to that, but you can also make a strong case the OSes of the smartphones that eating their lunch also have OSes that suck. (And often with just as small screens and mediocre GUIs.)
Quote:
If Apple releases an API for this device and supports 3rd party development, it will be successful. As far as the mainstream goes... WiFi + Safari + eMail = mainstream
I agree that third-party development changes everything. It then becomes basically an OS X tablet. Of course the danger then is that it will cannibalize Mac sales... but that may be a risk that Apple has to take (Macs will always be faster, have more storage, have larger screens).
re WiFi + Safari + email = mainstream .... perhaps. But what's basically an internet tablet device without pervasive 'net access isn't very appealing. So either Apple has something up their sleeves for that (a deal with AT&T's Wi-Fi hot spots across the U.S. perhaps?) or they've got a product that has no primary function - which is very unlike Apple.
There are many R&D projects that go no where, but the best components of those projects most certainly got put into real products (i.e. the iPod touch or iPhone). The Apple PDA just never made it out of the R&D department.
If it's not pocketable, it's not going to be worth carrying around in addition to a notebook computer (one of the arguments against the Foleo.) The great thing about the iPhone and Touch is that it already has the hardware to match or exceed PDA's, but I can see why Apple will always limit some functionality to preserve the user experience of those devices.
But if they make this new unit right, it can possibly be a notebook replacement (the Foleo really wasn't), with a really cool touch-driven interface, handwriting recognition, etc. As well as Bluetooth keyboard capable. I think it will still rely on partnering with a regular PC though. But instead of having a desktop and a notebook (as many do), you would have this unit plus just 1 regular computer.
I think Apple is wise to try to extend the multitouch interface. But I don't know, this seems cool but also seems like a solution in search of a problem. OTOH if they really release this thing, I'm sure they will floor everyone at MacWorld when it is debuted. I think it will have an open platform for 3rd party apps, but will still be closer to the iPhone user experience than Mac OS X.
The PDA is merely new functionality that will be added to the iPod and iPhone. Why on earth would you want a stand alone PDA without iPod or phone? C'mon guys, use your noggin. The iPhone and iPod touch ARE ultra mobile PCs, they just don't run a full suite of apps. But they are full powered PC devices running OSX and can pretty much run any desktop OS X app modified. You guys are seriously off the mark thinking this is a whole new device.
I would love to have a device that is slightly larger than the iPhone, light, wifi enabled, able to run small applications, open documents, maybe email, PDA functionality. Lots of storage , iPod software.
I want to be able to carry it in my purse, have it available most of the time.
I'd buy it in a second. Can't purchase the iPhone (long contract) or the iTouch (too limited).
Maybe select the software functionality that you want. An Internet gadget?
This is why the iPhone and iPod touch is limited and Apple doesn't want you to put your own 3rd party apps on it. They have a PDA they want to push, and if some developer is writing apps that will do everything that this PDA offers it will equal low PDA sells. Just my .02.
reading your insight, it makes a lot of sense. i'll be waiting for that pda announcement, haven't got my hands on either of them yet, but i'm pretty sure that iNewton should be pretty awesome..
Palm, Dell, HP, Sony, and every other PDA manufacturer learned years ago that the standalone PDA was a dead product. Microsoft proved that the "Tablet" PC and "Oragami" had no real market. Now Apple is going to come in and somehow create this market? I don't think so.
No, what they've proven is that, as was the case with the phone, they're incapable of doing it in an elegant and usable manner.
As always, that's what Apple will bring to the table.
Everyone on this list always makes the mistake of thinking that, because they personally would have no use for a product or feature, that that makes it doomed to failure.
I personally find the idea of a paperback size Touch with full laptop capabilities pretty intriguing. I don't live on the phone, so it doesn't bother me to occasionally have to carry 2 devices. That combo being phone and Touch, or phone and paperback-sized-tablet not to be that bad of an option.
Can the iPhone decipher "lunch with bob on monday" and intelligently schedule an appointment, the next monday, at noon, with the most popular "Bob" in your contacts (and give you the chance to correct it)?
The Newton could. Nothing else today can. I believe Chronos got close, but that's a desktop app.
Thin as an iPhone, the area of a paperback, the high points of a Newton? I'll take it.
There's already an online program that does this. I saw the demo several weeks ago, but I didn't bookmark it. You can enter natural language which is interpreted into calendar instructions for meetings, appointments, etc. The demo is cool, but frankly it saves only seconds.
Comments
On a side now, has anyone else avoided mentioning the AppleTV in public simply so they don't have to explain over and over that it isn't an actual television, just a little box? I'm tired of it. Wish they had named it differently.
There would be no point to an entirely different device when you can just increase the features available on the iPhone and touch. My guess is that this would be released as another piece of the iPhone lineup rather than as the much discussed Newton replacement.
I definitely see a market for a touch unit with a larger screen, so long as the application set is right. In fact, I see this being the next major platform for Apple. Desktops, Laptops, and (let's call it what it is, people) Touch Tablets.
Further down the road, laptops will replace desktops, tablets will replace most laptops, and those will all be replaced with wireless tablet/laptop terminals. Envision ANY episode of Star Trek (TNG or later) and they use all tablets and pseudo laptops, all connected to a main computer. Not that Star Trek should be the basis of our technological speculation or anything. I'm just saying... it makes the most sense...
This is why the iPhone and iPod touch is limited and Apple doesn't want you to put your own 3rd party apps on it. They have a PDA they want to push, and if some developer is writing apps that will do everything that this PDA offers it will equal low PDA sells. Just my .02.
On the other hand, I really don't trust Apple to release *ALL* the applications I would want to use. If this unit comes locked out to 3rd party apps, it will be screwed.
However, lets go back in time, to the Knowledge Navigator, I believe that we will see if the original Apple concept of the knowledge navigator, they talked about this for along time but all the technologies were not there to make it happen.
EXCEPT SPEECH RECOGNITION!!!!!!!!!!
Will SOMEone work on that, please? It's hindering our technological advancement.
-Clive
Envision ANY episode of Star Trek (TNG or later) and they use all tablets and pseudo laptops, all connected to a main computer. Not that Star Trek should be the basis of our technological speculation or anything. I'm just saying... it makes the most sense...
When I can beam myself into work on time, cool.
More than just emails and documents this would be worth it to stay up to date with the money markets alone. The iphone/touch screen is just to small to be useable in my opinion. Adding inkwell and the ability to do full blown notes, calendar and contacts... it would be priceless
Then the clincher, if apple markets this as I was hoping they were going to do with the ibrick I mean phone as a mobile computer with the capability of inserting a sim chip to make calls instead of a phone with the ability to surf the web/get emails... and does not tie it to a carrier. Instead sells it as a computer with a mobile osx meaning a true finder and ability to add your own applications and the rest. This thing would sell through the roof.
wifi/max
bt
flash memory
3g/gsm
touch screen
inkwell
gps
full mobil
I would buy in a second.
Add the features to iPhone2 and call it a day!
And 3d party apps.
I'll bring the 3D jello shots.
Just add the missing applications to the iPhone and iPod Touch and you've got the best PDA out there going, which also happen to be the best iPod and the best phone. Then let 3rd party developers fill the voids left. Done. Rebirth of the Newton completed.
Seeing the success of App.Tap, I now fully realize the importance of allowing 3rd party dev't of the mobile OS. Why? Because there's no freaking way Apple will be able to develop every app people want/need, nor is the "via safari" method a viable solution.
Also, it's becoming more and more obvious that this touch OS is the Next Big Thing... And you can't have an OS without 3rd party dev't.
-Clive
WOW! Amazing. Make it a full Mac OS X computer on your hand and that is what we have been waiting for years for all students, lecturers and researchers at our University. With full Keynote and PowerPoint NATIVE file support. The ultimate handhelp presentation remote. We need thousands.
Well, if it's real it won't be Mac OS X. It will be OS X Mobile.
And I don't doubt that iWork will be coming one day for OS X Mobile, but it's going to take time.
Why do you think your university could use thousands of these? Why not just use a laptop for a presentation, or to take notes?
Fascinating report, but I'm really not sure exactly who this product would be for.
PDAs are currently dying - they're being wiped out by smartphones.
Apple laptops are about to get even sleeker and thinner.
The main markets would seem to be vertical markets (doctors, business users for meetings, people taking notes or needing net access while walking/working) or as an e-reader where using a notebook is impossible or a nuisance (e.g. reading on the train). But that's not what Apple is interested in. They're interested in the mass market of mainstream consumers.
So, what's the mainstream use? Why do you need one of these in addition to a computer, iPod, and/or (smart)phone?
And how many people would be willing to pay (let's say) $599 for one? Or even $499?
I'm intrigued, mind you, but I'm unsure this would find a place in the mianstream market.
PDAs are dying because their operating systems suck.
PDAs are also typically hamstrung by small screens, weak CPUs, and terrible GUIs.
If Apple releases an API for this device and supports 3rd party development, it will be successful.
As far as the mainstream goes... WiFi + Safari + eMail = mainstream
i envision it as a macbook with multitouch and iphone like interface (one more suited to finger flicks than mouse clicks). Even apps could be rewritten to work better with multitouch. things like iLife and iWork. Not "mobile" versions, but more suitable for the fingers.
remember that patent that surfaced a week or so ago about a new browser interface? perfect for an multitouch tablet.
imagine an 8 mm thick device, almost entirely screen. not a standard desktop with a dock and menu bar, but something more along the lines of an iphone, albeit prettier and more powerful.
-internet browser
-full productivity and "fun time" suites
-acts as an apple tv 3.0 remote
-streams content from your computer to be enjoyed on it's 12" screen
-gps
this is starting to look a few years down the road. but it will happen! by 2012 we'll have 2TB of data in our iPod Touch 4.0s, why not as much or more in our iCarry-this-thing-around-because-it-makes-me-a-better-human-being-s?
So Ireland was right after all
Bravo! Do you have a link? I'm curious to see your original prediction...
I was in the camp that thought of the iPhone as the new Newton.
I guess we'll see once (if) this device comes out.
-Clive
PDAs are dying because their operating systems suck.
PDAs are also typically hamstrung by small screens, weak CPUs, and terrible GUIs.
There's some truth to that, but you can also make a strong case the OSes of the smartphones that eating their lunch also have OSes that suck. (And often with just as small screens and mediocre GUIs.)
If Apple releases an API for this device and supports 3rd party development, it will be successful. As far as the mainstream goes... WiFi + Safari + eMail = mainstream
I agree that third-party development changes everything. It then becomes basically an OS X tablet. Of course the danger then is that it will cannibalize Mac sales... but that may be a risk that Apple has to take (Macs will always be faster, have more storage, have larger screens).
re WiFi + Safari + email = mainstream .... perhaps. But what's basically an internet tablet device without pervasive 'net access isn't very appealing. So either Apple has something up their sleeves for that (a deal with AT&T's Wi-Fi hot spots across the U.S. perhaps?) or they've got a product that has no primary function - which is very unlike Apple.
But if they make this new unit right, it can possibly be a notebook replacement (the Foleo really wasn't), with a really cool touch-driven interface, handwriting recognition, etc. As well as Bluetooth keyboard capable. I think it will still rely on partnering with a regular PC though. But instead of having a desktop and a notebook (as many do), you would have this unit plus just 1 regular computer.
I think Apple is wise to try to extend the multitouch interface. But I don't know, this seems cool but also seems like a solution in search of a problem. OTOH if they really release this thing, I'm sure they will floor everyone at MacWorld when it is debuted. I think it will have an open platform for 3rd party apps, but will still be closer to the iPhone user experience than Mac OS X.
The PDA is merely new functionality that will be added to the iPod and iPhone. Why on earth would you want a stand alone PDA without iPod or phone? C'mon guys, use your noggin. The iPhone and iPod touch ARE ultra mobile PCs, they just don't run a full suite of apps. But they are full powered PC devices running OSX and can pretty much run any desktop OS X app modified. You guys are seriously off the mark thinking this is a whole new device.
I would love to have a device that is slightly larger than the iPhone, light, wifi enabled, able to run small applications, open documents, maybe email, PDA functionality. Lots of storage , iPod software.
I want to be able to carry it in my purse, have it available most of the time.
I'd buy it in a second. Can't purchase the iPhone (long contract) or the iTouch (too limited).
Maybe select the software functionality that you want. An Internet gadget?
This is why the iPhone and iPod touch is limited and Apple doesn't want you to put your own 3rd party apps on it. They have a PDA they want to push, and if some developer is writing apps that will do everything that this PDA offers it will equal low PDA sells. Just my .02.
reading your insight, it makes a lot of sense. i'll be waiting for that pda announcement, haven't got my hands on either of them yet, but i'm pretty sure that iNewton should be pretty awesome..
Palm, Dell, HP, Sony, and every other PDA manufacturer learned years ago that the standalone PDA was a dead product. Microsoft proved that the "Tablet" PC and "Oragami" had no real market. Now Apple is going to come in and somehow create this market? I don't think so.
No, what they've proven is that, as was the case with the phone, they're incapable of doing it in an elegant and usable manner.
As always, that's what Apple will bring to the table.
Everyone on this list always makes the mistake of thinking that, because they personally would have no use for a product or feature, that that makes it doomed to failure.
I personally find the idea of a paperback size Touch with full laptop capabilities pretty intriguing. I don't live on the phone, so it doesn't bother me to occasionally have to carry 2 devices. That combo being phone and Touch, or phone and paperback-sized-tablet not to be that bad of an option.
We'll see I guess.
Can the iPhone decipher "lunch with bob on monday" and intelligently schedule an appointment, the next monday, at noon, with the most popular "Bob" in your contacts (and give you the chance to correct it)?
The Newton could. Nothing else today can. I believe Chronos got close, but that's a desktop app.
Thin as an iPhone, the area of a paperback, the high points of a Newton? I'll take it.
There's already an online program that does this. I saw the demo several weeks ago, but I didn't bookmark it. You can enter natural language which is interpreted into calendar instructions for meetings, appointments, etc. The demo is cool, but frankly it saves only seconds.