Well, ever since the iPhone was released, not a whole lot of things have happened on the Mac OS X side of things. Are you secretly wanting to halt Mac OS X development completely? I think so.
Yeah, that's why I want.
I want Apple to get into the tyre making business, and then expand over to seed and grain commodities
I wouldn't call adding a Cocoa touch user interface, which has been in development for years, to Snow Leopard; "halting Mac OS X development completely". You Sir are bit of crazy. People are going mobile, and unless Apple evolves (like it is doing) they will lose out. What you see as 'halting Mac OS X development', I see as improving and evolving it. Mac touch FTW!
what is the point of this tablet/touch screen idea? Wouldn't everyone rather have a keyboard and a mouse then typing on a touch screen, along with having a 50/50 shot on clicking on the correct item? I just don't understand this.
---
Actually, I didn't get it either until I got an iPod Touch. I find myself using it to surf the net on the couch watching TV and now I am jonesing for a bigger tablet. I also find that I like the touch functions for games.
Since Apple seems to be determined not to provide this product for me, I have been investigating installing OSX on one of these:
[Note: I originally wrote this in another thread, then saw this thread and moved it here.]
My stupid $0.04 . . .
Notebooks and laptops simply don't work for a lot of applications. Laptops are being increasingly used in field applications where it's often difficult to find a "lap" on which to perch a "portable" computer. Working in entertainment, I see countless Macbooks on movie sets and on photo shoots, where assistants constantly seem to be doing that stand-while-holding-the-laptop-on-one-palm thing. That's why specialized industrial PDAs seem to have taken over other, more broad-based industries such as delivery services (FedEx, UPS), retailing, warehousing, etc. throughout the last decade. These specialized, industrial-use only PDAs are rugged, small, and most importantly, DON'T NEED A LAP to be able to be used effectively. But, specialized PDAs tend to be expensive, B-to-B product offerings (smaller market), and the available choice of applications for them are either limited (too vertical), or must be custom-coded (expensive). I'm not saying Apple needs to get into the industrial PDA business, but I'm betting there's a sizable market available for a super well-designed tablet-like Mac that you would use more like a clipboard, rather than a napkin.
In my view, the biggest hole in Apple's product line-up is a tablet Mac (or some otherwise, similarly conceived, use-while-standing-up kinda Mac). The iPod touch is a great product, but underpowered, and too small for most industrial applications (not to mention, too fragile). Personally, I've never liked using laptops, and never owned one, but I would consider owning a tablet PC. Although I don't really need a mobile computing platform, some of my friends' businesses certainly do, and would benefit greatly from a tablet kind of Mac. My main ergonomic gripe with the conventional laptop, I guess, is its clamshell design and its attached keyboard. I would much rather have something like Ireland's design, with an optional detachable keyboard. To me, that's head and shoulders more ergonomically and functionally adaptable, especially for work in unusually rugged or highly movable locations. You could set the main "slate" on some convenient surface, when wanting to set up a temporary mobile work area, and If someone inadvertently trips over the keyboard, for another $50, you can replace it.
I want Apple to get into the tyre making business, and then expand over to seed and grain commodities
I wouldn't call adding a Cocoa touch user interface, which has been in development for years, to Snow Leopard; "halting Mac OS X development completely". You Sir are bit of crazy. People are going mobile, and unless Apple evolves (like it is doing) they will lose out. What you see as 'halting Mac OS X development', I see as improving and evolving it. Mac touch FTW!
Ah but people are only going mobile where it makes SENSE. There's the nuance.
You'll have to tell me who would be the Mac touch's primary user. And you'll have to tell me why they'd choose a tablet over a notebook computer. In your mockup, it's clear that the Mac touch doesn't fit in pockets...it will have to be carried around in a bag of some sort...just like a laptop. And the laptop has a fullblown OS, not some retarded gimped OS that is made for tiny screens.
Ah but people are only going mobile where it makes SENSE. There's the nuance.
You'll have to tell me who would be the Mac touch's primary user. And you'll have to tell me why they'd choose a tablet over a notebook computer. In your mockup, it's clear that the Mac touch doesn't fit in pockets...it will have to be carried around in a bag of some sort...just like a laptop. And the laptop has a fullblown OS, not some retarded gimped OS that is made for tiny screens.
Both a larger iPod Touch type device, and a 10" tablet makes sense. They are TWO different market.
One is for the person who doesn't need the capabilities of the full OS while the other is.
I have worked both retail and outside sales. In retail it would have been nice to know what was in stock without going away from the customer. In outside sales, I am already carrying samples and anything that will allow me to write orders send them to the supplier and have capability to attach to a printer to give the customer a copy of their order works better.
Both a larger iPod Touch type device, and a 10" tablet makes sense. They are TWO different market.
One is for the person who doesn't need the capabilities of the full OS while the other is.
I have worked both retail and outside sales. In retail it would have been nice to know what was in stock without going away from the customer. In outside sales, I am already carrying samples and anything that will allow me to write orders send them to the supplier and have capability to attach to a printer to give the customer a copy of their order works better.
So you want these tablets to be capable of hooking up to a printer? Sheeesh. I think you fall into a ultra-niche category that Apple will never satisfy.
Notebooks and laptops simply don't work for a lot of applications. Laptops are being increasingly used in field applications where it's often difficult to find a "lap" on which to perch a "portable" computer. Working in entertainment, I see countless Macbooks on movie sets and on photo shoots, where assistants constantly seem to be doing that stand-while-holding-the-laptop-on-one-palm thing. That's why specialized industrial PDAs seem to have taken over other, more broad-based industries such as delivery services (FedEx, UPS), retailing, warehousing, etc. throughout the last decade. These specialized, industrial-use only PDAs are rugged, small, and most importantly, DON'T NEED A LAP to be able to be used effectively. But, specialized PDAs tend to be expensive, B-to-B product offerings (smaller market), and the available choice of applications for them are either limited (too vertical), or must be custom-coded (expensive). I'm not saying Apple needs to get into the industrial PDA business, but I'm betting there's a sizable market available for a super well-designed tablet-like Mac that you would use more like a clipboard, rather than a napkin.
In my view, the biggest hole in Apple's product line-up is a tablet Mac (or some otherwise, similarly conceived, use-while-standing-up kinda Mac). The iPod touch is a great product, but underpowered, and too small for most industrial applications (not to mention, too fragile). Personally, I've never liked using laptops, and never owned one, but I would consider owning a tablet PC. Although I don't really need a mobile computing platform, some of my friends' businesses certainly do, and would benefit greatly from a tablet kind of Mac. My main ergonomic gripe with the conventional laptop, I guess, is its clamshell design and its attached keyboard. I would much rather have something like Ireland's design, with an optional detachable keyboard. To me, that's head and shoulders more ergonomically and functionally adaptable, especially for work in unusually rugged or highly movable locations. You could set the main "slate" on some convenient surface, when wanting to set up a temporary mobile work area, and If someone inadvertently trips over the keyboard, for another $50, you can replace it.
Great post. That's sort of the point of this device, despite immediate concerns over usability and applications, this Mac touch would actually prove unusually versatile. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't see everyone chuck their laptops and go with this device (some people will never give up that hardware keyboard etc.), but I would see some people do that, and I would see a whole lot more choose one of these rather than a Windows or lin "netbook" - which Steve's says is still a niche market, but we all know he's lying through his teeth, they probably have several prototypes in the lab which they were testing the day he said this. When in school or at aboard meeting they would pop out the rear angle rest to prop Mac touch up at 20º for simultaneous typing, viewing and note taking.
I also believe it to be a possibility that this device will need a mother computer to sync to, not definite, but I see it as a possible angle Apple take with Mac touch. It would be like a large screened iPhone, but for real work, and syncing it back to your large desktop Mac would sync all changes you made, and it will solve the backing up issue (smaller devices won't want to be backing up via Time Machine over the air as that would hog the battery), and people will need to buy more stuff (e.g. Time Capsule) to perform backups. It would probably be set up and synced through iTunes. We'll see about this though, the product is the most important thing to me anyway, not how you set it up.
You get our juices flowing with nice picutures and specs, but then you say that we'll have to wait over a year. That's not nice...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel B
Could you detail why you believe it's more than a year away. Apple had been working with OS X Touch, years before the iPhone came out.
Like all the naysayers say; Apple won't do this; "It's far too much work, to maintain yet another variant of OS X. Will never happen".
That's why it's, I believe, still about a year away (Macworld 2010). It's a lot, a lot, a lot of work; more work than the iPhone software (but they've gained a lot of experience), and they simply have had too much on their plate to rush this to market, they don't tend to rush stuff to market in general anyway. They are working on it, I am confident, but it's going to take some time to be ready to ship such a device. Full Cocoa touch OS X? Come on, that would take "years"
So you want these tablets to be capable of hooking up to a printer? Sheeesh. I think you fall into a ultra-niche category that Apple will never satisfy.
Canon and other make small portable printers that many sales people use.
I just don't understand how useful this would be. It can't fit in a pocket, so what's the point of it? I just don't see how it would have an advantage over a laptop with a keyboard and mouse pad. Maybe a smaller laptop with a full touchscreen on it?
Both a larger iPod Touch type device, and a 10" tablet makes sense. They are TWO different market.
One is for the person who doesn't need the capabilities of the full OS while the other is.
Yes they are two different markets but I look a tit this way the 10" would be for people that have deluded themselves into thinking that the 10 incher would be useful as a portable device. The people after the pocketable devices just want a single device in their pocket that leverages communications and significant apps.
Quote:
I have worked both retail and outside sales. In retail it would have been nice to know what was in stock without going away from the customer. In outside sales, I am already carrying samples and anything that will allow me to write orders send them to the supplier and have capability to attach to a printer to give the customer a copy of their order works better.
All of that can be done from micro laptops that already have found space on the market shelf. The question you have to ask your self is this, would a Touch based device actually help in this regards or hurt. Certainly you could not expect good results out of the current state of the art in Touch based devices.
So you want these tablets to be capable of hooking up to a printer? Sheeesh. I think you fall into a ultra-niche category that Apple will never satisfy.
Seriously Apple would be much farther ahead getting print drivers onto iPhone before investing time into a large tablet no body would buy. There are a lot of reasons to want to print from one of these machines. Everything form a PDF downloaded from the net to a monthly calendar.
Yeah the device is small and light weight in capabilities but that is only a short time concern. First off the ideal solution would be to use WiFi for printing services on an iPhone, so no additional hardware is required there. The software suite is non trivial but frankly much of the work has already been done. Yeah the processor is a bit pokey but people did just fine on pokey 400MHz processors only a few years ago.
The thing is this; the performance of iPhone, at its current level, is a very temporary thing. We are basically working with gen one computing hardware as the processor isn't significantly different from Apples old iPhone. If Apple really wanted to they could have SMP performance at double the clock rate in a year. That would be two cores running at 800MHz and possibly using less power overall. Now we all know Apples relationship with PA SEMI but the product doesn't even have to contend with that being a success, as Broadcom has already announced such a processor. The reality is ARM has a lot of process shrinks in its future and as a result it would be possible to put several ARM CPU's on a chip along with all the support functions. We as consumers are just now experiencing the potential os SoC techniques, just imagine what will be possible with a 32nm ARM process.
What is clear is that iPhone or competitive devices will be able to replace many peoples need of portable computers. Yeah this require evolution of Mobile OS from its current form but Apple is already going full speed ahead there.
Comments
Well, ever since the iPhone was released, not a whole lot of things have happened on the Mac OS X side of things. Are you secretly wanting to halt Mac OS X development completely? I think so.
Yeah, that's why I want.
I want Apple to get into the tyre making business, and then expand over to seed and grain commodities
I wouldn't call adding a Cocoa touch user interface, which has been in development for years, to Snow Leopard; "halting Mac OS X development completely". You Sir are bit of crazy. People are going mobile, and unless Apple evolves (like it is doing) they will lose out. What you see as 'halting Mac OS X development', I see as improving and evolving it. Mac touch FTW!
Everyone knows the big bucks are in pork belly futures!
Well, ever since the iPhone was released, not a whole lot of things have happened on the Mac OS X side of things.
Yeah, Leopard was something any hack could throw together in a few days, and Snow Leopard promises to be more of the same...
Dude, get real...
Everyone knows the big bucks are in pork belly futures!
Mac touch FTW!
You better buy that domain ASAP... www.mactouchFTW.com
You better buy that domain ASAP... www.mactouchFTW.com
I bought that about 7 months ago. .com .net .org etc. Really.
Mac touch FTW!
Originally Posted by albim
what is the point of this tablet/touch screen idea? Wouldn't everyone rather have a keyboard and a mouse then typing on a touch screen, along with having a 50/50 shot on clicking on the correct item? I just don't understand this.
---
Actually, I didn't get it either until I got an iPod Touch. I find myself using it to surf the net on the couch watching TV and now I am jonesing for a bigger tablet. I also find that I like the touch functions for games.
Since Apple seems to be determined not to provide this product for me, I have been investigating installing OSX on one of these:
http://laptopcom.blogspot.com/2008/0...ni-laptop.html
Touch is addicting.
Touch is addicting.
Totally agree with your post, but I hate that word; addicting!
You get our juices flowing with nice picutures and specs, but then you say that we'll have to wait over a year. That's not nice...
Could you detail why you belive it's more than a year away. Apple had been working with OS X Touch, years before the iPhone came out.
I'm still hoping for MW 09.
/Daniel
[Note: I originally wrote this in another thread, then saw this thread and moved it here.]
My stupid $0.04 . . .
Notebooks and laptops simply don't work for a lot of applications. Laptops are being increasingly used in field applications where it's often difficult to find a "lap" on which to perch a "portable" computer. Working in entertainment, I see countless Macbooks on movie sets and on photo shoots, where assistants constantly seem to be doing that stand-while-holding-the-laptop-on-one-palm thing. That's why specialized industrial PDAs seem to have taken over other, more broad-based industries such as delivery services (FedEx, UPS), retailing, warehousing, etc. throughout the last decade. These specialized, industrial-use only PDAs are rugged, small, and most importantly, DON'T NEED A LAP to be able to be used effectively. But, specialized PDAs tend to be expensive, B-to-B product offerings (smaller market), and the available choice of applications for them are either limited (too vertical), or must be custom-coded (expensive). I'm not saying Apple needs to get into the industrial PDA business, but I'm betting there's a sizable market available for a super well-designed tablet-like Mac that you would use more like a clipboard, rather than a napkin.
In my view, the biggest hole in Apple's product line-up is a tablet Mac (or some otherwise, similarly conceived, use-while-standing-up kinda Mac). The iPod touch is a great product, but underpowered, and too small for most industrial applications (not to mention, too fragile). Personally, I've never liked using laptops, and never owned one, but I would consider owning a tablet PC. Although I don't really need a mobile computing platform, some of my friends' businesses certainly do, and would benefit greatly from a tablet kind of Mac. My main ergonomic gripe with the conventional laptop, I guess, is its clamshell design and its attached keyboard. I would much rather have something like Ireland's design, with an optional detachable keyboard. To me, that's head and shoulders more ergonomically and functionally adaptable, especially for work in unusually rugged or highly movable locations. You could set the main "slate" on some convenient surface, when wanting to set up a temporary mobile work area, and If someone inadvertently trips over the keyboard, for another $50, you can replace it.
Yeah, that's why I want.
I want Apple to get into the tyre making business, and then expand over to seed and grain commodities
I wouldn't call adding a Cocoa touch user interface, which has been in development for years, to Snow Leopard; "halting Mac OS X development completely". You Sir are bit of crazy. People are going mobile, and unless Apple evolves (like it is doing) they will lose out. What you see as 'halting Mac OS X development', I see as improving and evolving it. Mac touch FTW!
Ah but people are only going mobile where it makes SENSE. There's the nuance.
You'll have to tell me who would be the Mac touch's primary user. And you'll have to tell me why they'd choose a tablet over a notebook computer. In your mockup, it's clear that the Mac touch doesn't fit in pockets...it will have to be carried around in a bag of some sort...just like a laptop. And the laptop has a fullblown OS, not some retarded gimped OS that is made for tiny screens.
Ah but people are only going mobile where it makes SENSE. There's the nuance.
You'll have to tell me who would be the Mac touch's primary user. And you'll have to tell me why they'd choose a tablet over a notebook computer. In your mockup, it's clear that the Mac touch doesn't fit in pockets...it will have to be carried around in a bag of some sort...just like a laptop. And the laptop has a fullblown OS, not some retarded gimped OS that is made for tiny screens.
Both a larger iPod Touch type device, and a 10" tablet makes sense. They are TWO different market.
One is for the person who doesn't need the capabilities of the full OS while the other is.
I have worked both retail and outside sales. In retail it would have been nice to know what was in stock without going away from the customer. In outside sales, I am already carrying samples and anything that will allow me to write orders send them to the supplier and have capability to attach to a printer to give the customer a copy of their order works better.
Both a larger iPod Touch type device, and a 10" tablet makes sense. They are TWO different market.
One is for the person who doesn't need the capabilities of the full OS while the other is.
I have worked both retail and outside sales. In retail it would have been nice to know what was in stock without going away from the customer. In outside sales, I am already carrying samples and anything that will allow me to write orders send them to the supplier and have capability to attach to a printer to give the customer a copy of their order works better.
So you want these tablets to be capable of hooking up to a printer? Sheeesh. I think you fall into a ultra-niche category that Apple will never satisfy.
Notebooks and laptops simply don't work for a lot of applications. Laptops are being increasingly used in field applications where it's often difficult to find a "lap" on which to perch a "portable" computer. Working in entertainment, I see countless Macbooks on movie sets and on photo shoots, where assistants constantly seem to be doing that stand-while-holding-the-laptop-on-one-palm thing. That's why specialized industrial PDAs seem to have taken over other, more broad-based industries such as delivery services (FedEx, UPS), retailing, warehousing, etc. throughout the last decade. These specialized, industrial-use only PDAs are rugged, small, and most importantly, DON'T NEED A LAP to be able to be used effectively. But, specialized PDAs tend to be expensive, B-to-B product offerings (smaller market), and the available choice of applications for them are either limited (too vertical), or must be custom-coded (expensive). I'm not saying Apple needs to get into the industrial PDA business, but I'm betting there's a sizable market available for a super well-designed tablet-like Mac that you would use more like a clipboard, rather than a napkin.
In my view, the biggest hole in Apple's product line-up is a tablet Mac (or some otherwise, similarly conceived, use-while-standing-up kinda Mac). The iPod touch is a great product, but underpowered, and too small for most industrial applications (not to mention, too fragile). Personally, I've never liked using laptops, and never owned one, but I would consider owning a tablet PC. Although I don't really need a mobile computing platform, some of my friends' businesses certainly do, and would benefit greatly from a tablet kind of Mac. My main ergonomic gripe with the conventional laptop, I guess, is its clamshell design and its attached keyboard. I would much rather have something like Ireland's design, with an optional detachable keyboard. To me, that's head and shoulders more ergonomically and functionally adaptable, especially for work in unusually rugged or highly movable locations. You could set the main "slate" on some convenient surface, when wanting to set up a temporary mobile work area, and If someone inadvertently trips over the keyboard, for another $50, you can replace it.
Great post. That's sort of the point of this device, despite immediate concerns over usability and applications, this Mac touch would actually prove unusually versatile. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't see everyone chuck their laptops and go with this device (some people will never give up that hardware keyboard etc.), but I would see some people do that, and I would see a whole lot more choose one of these rather than a Windows or lin "netbook" - which Steve's says is still a niche market, but we all know he's lying through his teeth, they probably have several prototypes in the lab which they were testing the day he said this. When in school or at aboard meeting they would pop out the rear angle rest to prop Mac touch up at 20º for simultaneous typing, viewing and note taking.
I also believe it to be a possibility that this device will need a mother computer to sync to, not definite, but I see it as a possible angle Apple take with Mac touch. It would be like a large screened iPhone, but for real work, and syncing it back to your large desktop Mac would sync all changes you made, and it will solve the backing up issue (smaller devices won't want to be backing up via Time Machine over the air as that would hog the battery), and people will need to buy more stuff (e.g. Time Capsule) to perform backups. It would probably be set up and synced through iTunes. We'll see about this though, the product is the most important thing to me anyway, not how you set it up.
Ireland,
You get our juices flowing with nice picutures and specs, but then you say that we'll have to wait over a year. That's not nice...
Could you detail why you believe it's more than a year away. Apple had been working with OS X Touch, years before the iPhone came out.
Like all the naysayers say; Apple won't do this; "It's far too much work, to maintain yet another variant of OS X. Will never happen".
That's why it's, I believe, still about a year away (Macworld 2010). It's a lot, a lot, a lot of work; more work than the iPhone software (but they've gained a lot of experience), and they simply have had too much on their plate to rush this to market, they don't tend to rush stuff to market in general anyway. They are working on it, I am confident, but it's going to take some time to be ready to ship such a device. Full Cocoa touch OS X? Come on, that would take "years"
So you want these tablets to be capable of hooking up to a printer? Sheeesh. I think you fall into a ultra-niche category that Apple will never satisfy.
Canon and other make small portable printers that many sales people use.
Both a larger iPod Touch type device, and a 10" tablet makes sense. They are TWO different market.
One is for the person who doesn't need the capabilities of the full OS while the other is.
Yes they are two different markets but I look a tit this way the 10" would be for people that have deluded themselves into thinking that the 10 incher would be useful as a portable device. The people after the pocketable devices just want a single device in their pocket that leverages communications and significant apps.
I have worked both retail and outside sales. In retail it would have been nice to know what was in stock without going away from the customer. In outside sales, I am already carrying samples and anything that will allow me to write orders send them to the supplier and have capability to attach to a printer to give the customer a copy of their order works better.
All of that can be done from micro laptops that already have found space on the market shelf. The question you have to ask your self is this, would a Touch based device actually help in this regards or hurt. Certainly you could not expect good results out of the current state of the art in Touch based devices.
Dave
So you want these tablets to be capable of hooking up to a printer? Sheeesh. I think you fall into a ultra-niche category that Apple will never satisfy.
Seriously Apple would be much farther ahead getting print drivers onto iPhone before investing time into a large tablet no body would buy. There are a lot of reasons to want to print from one of these machines. Everything form a PDF downloaded from the net to a monthly calendar.
Yeah the device is small and light weight in capabilities but that is only a short time concern. First off the ideal solution would be to use WiFi for printing services on an iPhone, so no additional hardware is required there. The software suite is non trivial but frankly much of the work has already been done. Yeah the processor is a bit pokey but people did just fine on pokey 400MHz processors only a few years ago.
The thing is this; the performance of iPhone, at its current level, is a very temporary thing. We are basically working with gen one computing hardware as the processor isn't significantly different from Apples old iPhone. If Apple really wanted to they could have SMP performance at double the clock rate in a year. That would be two cores running at 800MHz and possibly using less power overall. Now we all know Apples relationship with PA SEMI but the product doesn't even have to contend with that being a success, as Broadcom has already announced such a processor. The reality is ARM has a lot of process shrinks in its future and as a result it would be possible to put several ARM CPU's on a chip along with all the support functions. We as consumers are just now experiencing the potential os SoC techniques, just imagine what will be possible with a 32nm ARM process.
What is clear is that iPhone or competitive devices will be able to replace many peoples need of portable computers. Yeah this require evolution of Mobile OS from its current form but Apple is already going full speed ahead there.
Dave
I just don't understand how useful this would be.
That my friend, is the problem. When they release it you may then.