That's a great comprehensive analytical article -I really enjoyed it!
Comprehensive except it talked about PDAs and not tablets. Blowing off the entire Table PC evolution with a sentence is hardly useful in discussing historical successes and failures of tablet.
No mention of TransNote, Motion Computing, the uses of tablets in the medical industry (one of the few tablet successful niche areas). Zero discussion of slate vs convertible tablets and why convertibles beat slates. No mention of OneNote from Microsoft or Inkwell from Apple or even the freaking modbook.
PDAs, Palm, Newton, iPhones are all not tablets. Even there he got PDA history wrong. PDAs didn't die because of the dot bomb left no market for "executive toys" but because they evolved to become SMARTPHONES. Jeez. Crackberries killed PDAs (and Palm) starting 2002 with the 5810 and java apps. Emerging smartphones (and just smarter regular phones) cratered trditional PDA growth finally killing it entirely. Palm being idiots didn't help but the writing was on the wall in 2002 and the great extinction started in 2004 and declared dead by pundits because of phones.
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
This is really unlikely given that the Apple product with the closest form factor to the tablet right now (the Air) has only one USB port.
It will have probably have an iPhone dock connector also, so there will be no need for an extra video out port. If there is no need, it won't be included. Apple is usually very anal about that kind of thing.
Personally, I doubt that it will have any connectors other than a headphone jack and a dock connector.
The tablet will probably see the introduction of the new Apple Dock Connector, the one that will support HDMI amongst other things. It might be the same physical layout so that some existing dock systems will work (not that a tablet will slot into most of them), especially for audio, but you need more than composite and SD output these days.
Headphone jack - yes. Microphone built-in - yes. Camera built in - yes. Dock connector - most likely. USB - probably. SD card - probable.
Comes with a tablet dock device with more outputs - probable. Outputs on this device if it exists: HDMI - yes. Optical audio out - maybe. Multiple USB - possible. DisplayPort - Maybe. Ethernet - Possible (for places where wireless is weak, etc). The dock will be something you position near your TV, and thus should have all the relevant connections. You'll be able to use the tablet like a SqueezeBox. It'll have bluetooth and a bluetooth remote for when it is docked, and a 10ft UI as well as a standard tablet UI.
If there is a physical dock, then the tablet itself will be headphone, SD and dock connectors only.
This was an excellent article, and brought back a lot of memories for me. I owned many of the devices!
I think there is a big piece that is missing though, and I think it is the reason why the iPod through iPhone products have been successful where others have not. It has to do with MEDIA. In developing the iPod, Jobs struck deals with all the record labels to offer songs that are downloadable through iTunes. This was the groundbreaking idea, offering the infrastructure all the way from the product (the song) to the listener.
With the iPhone and Apple TV came the deals with TV companies and Studios. Next, with the iSlate, there will be deals with publishers so that we can get rich magazine content on a convenient device. This will be a Kindle killer.
I was also surprised that Danger/Sidekick didn't get a mention, since they were an instrumental player in the business, and inspired teens to get into mobile computing/messaging/social networking.
Well said. There's even more too it also. And it's got to do with technology finally catching up with the manufacturers imagination, through miniaturization and technologies like SSD, NAND, thinner LCD displays and OLED. And Apple's MT. All this is coming together to make a tablet of this sort for the first time even possible.
You're right though, the infrastructure plays a big part also. However I feel without the store the iPod would have still done relatively well, as the iTunes app itself is of huge importance. Apple now just need to rewrite iTunes from the ground up to make is much faster as it's become bloated as of late. Especially when you have a lot of media.
Thanks to Prince McLean and the AI staff who put this wonderful article and time line together.
I hope Apple see's the wisdom of having spring loaded flush mounted SD card slots in all their future and present devices.
To those who voiced their concerns about Pro apps being on the iSlate, I don't think Apple is going to market their tablet in that direction.
Rather they are going to focus on the consumer market with it and let the "pro" line of MacBook Pro's and MacPro's cater to the pro apps.
What Apple could do is increase the security and privacy features of the iSlate relative to the iPhone's poor one to make it more attractive to business, corporations, hospitals etc. who would jump on a tablet device with a solid and stable Unix core.
I think Apple should also take the duo approach, like the iPhone and iPod touch, of having one on cell networks and one not. But not decrease features out of one like the iPod Touch does compared to the iPhone, make each equal and over time if people want and willing to pay for more hardware features then improve.
Comprehensive except it talked about PDAs and not tablets. Blowing off the entire Table PC evolution with a sentence is hardly useful in discussing historical successes and failures of tablet.
Totally agree. Gates also deserves some recognition for maintaining belief that the tablet is the future, even if his company couldn't produce the product that made his words reality. He has continually and insistently said the tablet computer is the future of computing.
Comprehensive except it talked about PDAs and not tablets. Blowing off the entire Table PC evolution with a sentence is hardly useful in discussing historical successes and failures of tablet.
No mention of TransNote, Motion Computing, the uses of tablets in the medical industry (one of the few tablet successful niche areas). Zero discussion of slate vs convertible tablets and why convertibles beat slates. No mention of OneNote from Microsoft or Inkwell from Apple or even the freaking modbook.
PDAs, Palm, Newton, iPhones are all not tablets. Even there he got PDA history wrong. PDAs didn't die because of the dot bomb left no market for "executive toys" but because they evolved to become SMARTPHONES. Jeez. Crackberries killed PDAs (and Palm) starting 2002 with the 5810 and java apps. Emerging smartphones (and just smarter regular phones) cratered trditional PDA growth finally killing it entirely. Palm being idiots didn't help but the writing was on the wall in 2002 and the great extinction started in 2004 and declared dead by pundits because of phones.
Motion Computing products are indeed the only tablets out there. Everything, which has the keyboard is not a tablet. Everything, which is for media distribution only (readers, for example), is not, strictly speaking, a computer and can't count in the history of computing.
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
This is possible -- they had a patent for that type of device quite a while back. That would be awesome.
There will be a tablet. Stop saying there won't be. This was exactly like the time just before the iPhone launched, a whole lot of people here were saying Apple won't release a phone. There's going to be a tablet in a few weeks, just deal with it. Making the iPhone much more powerful would kill the battery, you can't avoid that fact. Also, Apple stand to make a lot more money by making a tablet and the iPhone, getting money from you twice, and not simply for a screened iPhone peripheral, but a full cost computing device.
The tablet will be called Mac touch, or I'll eat my hat. I also have a sneaking feeling as of late it may actually have an OLED display. They can charge even more that way, make more money, and have superb viewing angles and contrast that would give this device an ever more revolutionary feel about it. Plus it would help make the tablet even thinner and give it improved battery performance, and super display refresh rates.
Imagine watching a letter-boxed movie on this thing, when the black letterbox top and bottom boarders are "OFF", the movie would pop like you can't imagine.
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
That's just silly - first off, the 'incredibly fast' iphone processor is still a long way away. Secondly, what a pain to have to stick your phone / ipod into another device. What when the phone rings? You'll either be scrambling to get your iphone out, or you'll look like a right dork speaking on the largest cell phone ever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drdb
I'm not really all that sure that using photoshop on a tablet is all that appealing anyway. Surely a bigger screen is much better for such software?
The tablet - whatever it'll be - will not replace a powerful PS cs4 work horse, but why not a PS slate app? A touch version of Elements to do basic tasks. Who knows, there may be a touch version of iPhoto. Cropping, repositioning, color and contrast adjustment - the very basics for photo manipulation. Sounds cool to me.
I find the idea of moving computers to closed environment to be very disturbing.
Yes! The direction of moving to all applications needing to be signed and approved by the platform maker is a scary one.
Think about these scenarios:
Platform maker is partnered with a large entertainment company - thus you can't create an application which plays DRM-free audio/video
Platform maker is partnered with a large cellular service provider - thus you can't create a VoIP application which works over any network
Platform maker partnered with a large TV service provider - thus you can't create a streaming video application which works for any video stream
Various other partnerships which would limit the type of applications you can make and stifle innovation/creation of new markets
Platform maker creates custom connectors for which you can't get documentation unless you pay them
The beauty of the PC is that it's always been open enough that anyone can make software/hardware to work with it, not just the big players. This has allowed for great innovation and many new markets to be created in the past 30 years.
While Apple tends to foster open development for the most part, there are still motivations for them to ensure that innovation doesn't affect their business relations and their bottom line.
If Apple decide to make a brilliant device that runs OSX 10.6 where I can install Adobe CS4, Apache, PHP, ColdFusion, Office etc I'm in and you can happily take my cash. But I only want one 3G phone contract.
However, if Apple plump for the iPhone OSX with iTunes AppStore apps lockdown you can count me out. I already have an iPhone 3GS and and a MacBook running CS4 and the rest and that will suit me fine until my contract is up and i'll just pick-up the next gen iPhone.
This tablet needs to replace my laptop - possibly taking out the MacBook Air. What it don't need to be is a large iPhone.
Actually what you don't need is a tablet. This is exactly why they never took off in the Windows world. This is all Microsoft offered; Windows on a pen-driven device. It doesn't work. Why? Because desktop operating systems are designed around keyboards and pointing devices. Take away the keyboard and you are left with something with less usability.
This is also the problem with people understanding how useful a tablet computer could be; they can't unwrap their heads from the desktop UI paradigm. They envision all the things they do with their PC's and try to duplicate that on a device with no keyboard. It doesn't work like that. And neither does Apple. They will design an interface specifically for the device and its primary functions. What those functions are? Only Apple knows.
yeah.. I bit to long to read while at work. maybe later.
My predictions for jan 27.
Sending girlfriend off.
Calling in sick.
Liveblogs
Clicking "Buy Now"
Might not want to get your hopes up. I doubt it will be available right away.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jglavin
We're all, in one way or another, setting ourselves up for disappointment in a week and a half
(except those who are ignoring the whole thing - but is that anyone?)
I don?t think I am. I?ll wait to see if this is a product that will make my life better before deciding to buy. If it doesn?t exist then the answer is clear. I?m still unsure what good a tablet will do for the average person.
Quote:
Originally Posted by powderdust
There are two ways this Tablet can go for me.
If Apple decide to make a brilliant device that runs OSX 10.6 where I can install Adobe CS4, Apache, PHP, ColdFusion, Office etc I'm in and you can happily take my cash. But I only want one 3G phone contract.
However, if Apple plump for the iPhone OSX with iTunes AppStore apps lockdown you can count me out. I already have an iPhone 3GS and and a MacBook running CS4 and the rest and that will suit me fine until my contract is up and i'll just pick-up the next gen iPhone.
This tablet needs to replace my laptop - possibly taking out the MacBook Air. What it don't need to be is a large iPhone.
How about choice number three, the logical choice. Apple uses there skills to make a 4th branch of OS X specifically for the tablet form factor and specs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hodgkin
Do Apple have a history of cannibalizing old product names? Wasn't the iBook the "consumer" level portable during the late PowerBook days?
Yeah. I like iBook better than iTablet but it may be too soon to bring that back into the fold.
Quote:
Originally Posted by powderdust
You see the thing is I'm not that nerd in my parent's basement. As you my have read I would like the tablet to be a replacement for my laptop. Fine - I can do with out most of the connect-ability ports. Accessing DVDs for software loading over a network works fine for the MacBook Air. I would like the ability to run CS4 at least - after all I am a designer and Mac is upheld dearly by the design community.
I would like the tablet change the way people work on a MAC OSX environment the same way the iPhone changed the way people used a mobile phone. I understand the limitations of connect-ability but there should be no issue with capacity as the MBA works fine running CS4.
Then a tablet isn?t right for you. Snow Leopard is not designed to be used by fingers on a tablet. Snow Leopard is designed to use a pointing device and a keyboard separate from the monitor.
Try this: Open CS4, now imagine you can only use your finger to navigate everything. See not designed for that type of input. Now imagine that it?s a 10? display and the problem becomes considerably worse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hattig
The tablet will probably see the introduction of the new Apple Dock Connector, the one that will support HDMI amongst other things.
You think HDMI over mDP when mDp can output HDMI, it?s cheaper to implement and has a smaller port? I don?t think so. I don?t even know if we can expect mDP on this tablet if Apple wants you to use a single port for power, syncing, and video out. They already have cable for this stuff on the market.
I would like to see a new iPod Dock Connector that is smaller.
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
Hmm, if you gonna carry both devices with you why not make them separate OS then. This doens't make sense.
Comments
That's a great comprehensive analytical article -I really enjoyed it!
Comprehensive except it talked about PDAs and not tablets. Blowing off the entire Table PC evolution with a sentence is hardly useful in discussing historical successes and failures of tablet.
No mention of TransNote, Motion Computing, the uses of tablets in the medical industry (one of the few tablet successful niche areas). Zero discussion of slate vs convertible tablets and why convertibles beat slates. No mention of OneNote from Microsoft or Inkwell from Apple or even the freaking modbook.
PDAs, Palm, Newton, iPhones are all not tablets. Even there he got PDA history wrong. PDAs didn't die because of the dot bomb left no market for "executive toys" but because they evolved to become SMARTPHONES. Jeez. Crackberries killed PDAs (and Palm) starting 2002 with the 5810 and java apps. Emerging smartphones (and just smarter regular phones) cratered trditional PDA growth finally killing it entirely. Palm being idiots didn't help but the writing was on the wall in 2002 and the great extinction started in 2004 and declared dead by pundits because of phones.
There will be no 'Tablet Device' !!!
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
Worst prediction evr!
This is really unlikely given that the Apple product with the closest form factor to the tablet right now (the Air) has only one USB port.
It will have probably have an iPhone dock connector also, so there will be no need for an extra video out port. If there is no need, it won't be included. Apple is usually very anal about that kind of thing.
Personally, I doubt that it will have any connectors other than a headphone jack and a dock connector.
The tablet will probably see the introduction of the new Apple Dock Connector, the one that will support HDMI amongst other things. It might be the same physical layout so that some existing dock systems will work (not that a tablet will slot into most of them), especially for audio, but you need more than composite and SD output these days.
Headphone jack - yes. Microphone built-in - yes. Camera built in - yes. Dock connector - most likely. USB - probably. SD card - probable.
Comes with a tablet dock device with more outputs - probable. Outputs on this device if it exists: HDMI - yes. Optical audio out - maybe. Multiple USB - possible. DisplayPort - Maybe. Ethernet - Possible (for places where wireless is weak, etc). The dock will be something you position near your TV, and thus should have all the relevant connections. You'll be able to use the tablet like a SqueezeBox. It'll have bluetooth and a bluetooth remote for when it is docked, and a 10ft UI as well as a standard tablet UI.
If there is a physical dock, then the tablet itself will be headphone, SD and dock connectors only.
Please make it have xcode
This was an excellent article, and brought back a lot of memories for me. I owned many of the devices!
I think there is a big piece that is missing though, and I think it is the reason why the iPod through iPhone products have been successful where others have not. It has to do with MEDIA. In developing the iPod, Jobs struck deals with all the record labels to offer songs that are downloadable through iTunes. This was the groundbreaking idea, offering the infrastructure all the way from the product (the song) to the listener.
With the iPhone and Apple TV came the deals with TV companies and Studios. Next, with the iSlate, there will be deals with publishers so that we can get rich magazine content on a convenient device. This will be a Kindle killer.
I was also surprised that Danger/Sidekick didn't get a mention, since they were an instrumental player in the business, and inspired teens to get into mobile computing/messaging/social networking.
Well said. There's even more too it also. And it's got to do with technology finally catching up with the manufacturers imagination, through miniaturization and technologies like SSD, NAND, thinner LCD displays and OLED. And Apple's MT. All this is coming together to make a tablet of this sort for the first time even possible.
You're right though, the infrastructure plays a big part also. However I feel without the store the iPod would have still done relatively well, as the iTunes app itself is of huge importance. Apple now just need to rewrite iTunes from the ground up to make is much faster as it's become bloated as of late. Especially when you have a lot of media.
I hope Apple see's the wisdom of having spring loaded flush mounted SD card slots in all their future and present devices.
To those who voiced their concerns about Pro apps being on the iSlate, I don't think Apple is going to market their tablet in that direction.
Rather they are going to focus on the consumer market with it and let the "pro" line of MacBook Pro's and MacPro's cater to the pro apps.
What Apple could do is increase the security and privacy features of the iSlate relative to the iPhone's poor one to make it more attractive to business, corporations, hospitals etc. who would jump on a tablet device with a solid and stable Unix core.
I think Apple should also take the duo approach, like the iPhone and iPod touch, of having one on cell networks and one not. But not decrease features out of one like the iPod Touch does compared to the iPhone, make each equal and over time if people want and willing to pay for more hardware features then improve.
Comprehensive except it talked about PDAs and not tablets. Blowing off the entire Table PC evolution with a sentence is hardly useful in discussing historical successes and failures of tablet.
Totally agree. Gates also deserves some recognition for maintaining belief that the tablet is the future, even if his company couldn't produce the product that made his words reality. He has continually and insistently said the tablet computer is the future of computing.
Comprehensive except it talked about PDAs and not tablets. Blowing off the entire Table PC evolution with a sentence is hardly useful in discussing historical successes and failures of tablet.
No mention of TransNote, Motion Computing, the uses of tablets in the medical industry (one of the few tablet successful niche areas). Zero discussion of slate vs convertible tablets and why convertibles beat slates. No mention of OneNote from Microsoft or Inkwell from Apple or even the freaking modbook.
PDAs, Palm, Newton, iPhones are all not tablets. Even there he got PDA history wrong. PDAs didn't die because of the dot bomb left no market for "executive toys" but because they evolved to become SMARTPHONES. Jeez. Crackberries killed PDAs (and Palm) starting 2002 with the 5810 and java apps. Emerging smartphones (and just smarter regular phones) cratered trditional PDA growth finally killing it entirely. Palm being idiots didn't help but the writing was on the wall in 2002 and the great extinction started in 2004 and declared dead by pundits because of phones.
Motion Computing products are indeed the only tablets out there. Everything, which has the keyboard is not a tablet. Everything, which is for media distribution only (readers, for example), is not, strictly speaking, a computer and can't count in the history of computing.
There will be no 'Tablet Device' !!!
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
This is possible -- they had a patent for that type of device quite a while back. That would be awesome.
The tablet will be called Mac touch, or I'll eat my hat. I also have a sneaking feeling as of late it may actually have an OLED display. They can charge even more that way, make more money, and have superb viewing angles and contrast that would give this device an ever more revolutionary feel about it. Plus it would help make the tablet even thinner and give it improved battery performance, and super display refresh rates.
Imagine watching a letter-boxed movie on this thing, when the black letterbox top and bottom boarders are "OFF", the movie would pop like you can't imagine.
The tablet will be called Mac touch, or I'll eat my hat.
Get ready to eat your hat then.
It's doubtful it will run anything similar to Mac OS X.
There will be no 'Tablet Device' !!!
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
That's just silly - first off, the 'incredibly fast' iphone processor is still a long way away. Secondly, what a pain to have to stick your phone / ipod into another device. What when the phone rings? You'll either be scrambling to get your iphone out, or you'll look like a right dork speaking on the largest cell phone ever.
I'm not really all that sure that using photoshop on a tablet is all that appealing anyway. Surely a bigger screen is much better for such software?
The tablet - whatever it'll be - will not replace a powerful PS cs4 work horse, but why not a PS slate app? A touch version of Elements to do basic tasks. Who knows, there may be a touch version of iPhoto. Cropping, repositioning, color and contrast adjustment - the very basics for photo manipulation. Sounds cool to me.
Get ready to eat your hat then.
Ok.
It's doubtful it will run anything similar to Mac OS X.
OS X touch will be the official OS name. As opposed to the official iPhone OS name: OS X iPhone.
there will be no tablet.
Just a new iPhone with free magnifier glass.
I think different too,
there will be no tablet.
Just a new iPhone with free magnifier glass.
If you need glasses wear them.
I find the idea of moving computers to closed environment to be very disturbing.
Yes! The direction of moving to all applications needing to be signed and approved by the platform maker is a scary one.
Think about these scenarios:
- Platform maker is partnered with a large entertainment company - thus you can't create an application which plays DRM-free audio/video
- Platform maker is partnered with a large cellular service provider - thus you can't create a VoIP application which works over any network
- Platform maker partnered with a large TV service provider - thus you can't create a streaming video application which works for any video stream
- Various other partnerships which would limit the type of applications you can make and stifle innovation/creation of new markets
- Platform maker creates custom connectors for which you can't get documentation unless you pay them
The beauty of the PC is that it's always been open enough that anyone can make software/hardware to work with it, not just the big players. This has allowed for great innovation and many new markets to be created in the past 30 years.While Apple tends to foster open development for the most part, there are still motivations for them to ensure that innovation doesn't affect their business relations and their bottom line.
...was completely flummoxed.
Note to self - save this for later. If fact I'm going to try to use it today.
There are two ways this Tablet can go for me.
If Apple decide to make a brilliant device that runs OSX 10.6 where I can install Adobe CS4, Apache, PHP, ColdFusion, Office etc I'm in and you can happily take my cash. But I only want one 3G phone contract.
However, if Apple plump for the iPhone OSX with iTunes AppStore apps lockdown you can count me out. I already have an iPhone 3GS and and a MacBook running CS4 and the rest and that will suit me fine until my contract is up and i'll just pick-up the next gen iPhone.
This tablet needs to replace my laptop - possibly taking out the MacBook Air. What it don't need to be is a large iPhone.
Actually what you don't need is a tablet. This is exactly why they never took off in the Windows world. This is all Microsoft offered; Windows on a pen-driven device. It doesn't work. Why? Because desktop operating systems are designed around keyboards and pointing devices. Take away the keyboard and you are left with something with less usability.
This is also the problem with people understanding how useful a tablet computer could be; they can't unwrap their heads from the desktop UI paradigm. They envision all the things they do with their PC's and try to duplicate that on a device with no keyboard. It doesn't work like that. And neither does Apple. They will design an interface specifically for the device and its primary functions. What those functions are? Only Apple knows.
yeah.. I bit to long to read while at work. maybe later.
My predictions for jan 27.
Sending girlfriend off.
Calling in sick.
Liveblogs
Clicking "Buy Now"
Might not want to get your hopes up. I doubt it will be available right away.
We're all, in one way or another, setting ourselves up for disappointment in a week and a half
(except those who are ignoring the whole thing - but is that anyone?)
I don?t think I am. I?ll wait to see if this is a product that will make my life better before deciding to buy. If it doesn?t exist then the answer is clear. I?m still unsure what good a tablet will do for the average person.
There are two ways this Tablet can go for me.
If Apple decide to make a brilliant device that runs OSX 10.6 where I can install Adobe CS4, Apache, PHP, ColdFusion, Office etc I'm in and you can happily take my cash. But I only want one 3G phone contract.
However, if Apple plump for the iPhone OSX with iTunes AppStore apps lockdown you can count me out. I already have an iPhone 3GS and and a MacBook running CS4 and the rest and that will suit me fine until my contract is up and i'll just pick-up the next gen iPhone.
This tablet needs to replace my laptop - possibly taking out the MacBook Air. What it don't need to be is a large iPhone.
How about choice number three, the logical choice. Apple uses there skills to make a 4th branch of OS X specifically for the tablet form factor and specs.
Do Apple have a history of cannibalizing old product names? Wasn't the iBook the "consumer" level portable during the late PowerBook days?
Yeah. I like iBook better than iTablet but it may be too soon to bring that back into the fold.
You see the thing is I'm not that nerd in my parent's basement. As you my have read I would like the tablet to be a replacement for my laptop. Fine - I can do with out most of the connect-ability ports. Accessing DVDs for software loading over a network works fine for the MacBook Air. I would like the ability to run CS4 at least - after all I am a designer and Mac is upheld dearly by the design community.
I would like the tablet change the way people work on a MAC OSX environment the same way the iPhone changed the way people used a mobile phone. I understand the limitations of connect-ability but there should be no issue with capacity as the MBA works fine running CS4.
Then a tablet isn?t right for you. Snow Leopard is not designed to be used by fingers on a tablet. Snow Leopard is designed to use a pointing device and a keyboard separate from the monitor.
Try this: Open CS4, now imagine you can only use your finger to navigate everything. See not designed for that type of input. Now imagine that it?s a 10? display and the problem becomes considerably worse.
The tablet will probably see the introduction of the new Apple Dock Connector, the one that will support HDMI amongst other things.
You think HDMI over mDP when mDp can output HDMI, it?s cheaper to implement and has a smaller port? I don?t think so. I don?t even know if we can expect mDP on this tablet if Apple wants you to use a single port for power, syncing, and video out. They already have cable for this stuff on the market.
I would like to see a new iPod Dock Connector that is smaller.
There will be no 'Tablet Device' !!!
There will be a new iPhone with incredibly fast processor.
There will then be an accessory that acts as a large touchscreen display into which the iphone will fit, and will be either OLED, or PixelQI, optimised for reading, but capable of any kind of digital media, including HD video playback etc.
Hmm, if you gonna carry both devices with you why not make them separate OS then. This doens't make sense.