An Idea for a 'One More Thing'....
Bear with me...I've REALLY tried to keep it to just the functions that wouldn't overlap with the Mac too much and offer added value for mac users.
A small handheld device (I said bear with me...)
A ROM-based cut-down OS based on OS X, hey or even Symbian...
Touch-Screen with stylus.
No physical buttons/switches except a 'hold'.
One connector on the bottom, same as the new iPod connector.
Headphone connector on top.
This would:
Connect to your mac (FireWire/USB 2/Bluetooth) and use iSync to synchronise:
-iCal
-Address Book
-Mail
-Stickies
-InkWell input
-Safari Bookmarks
Connect to your iPod (FireWire/USB 2) to function as a large colour remote,
just plug the earphones in the top to manage music, create playlists on the go etc... it could even play iTunes-style visuals.
Biggest feature...you can put MPEG Video on your iPod drive and view it through the colour screen in a QuickTime viewer!!
Connect to your mobile (comes supplied with adaptors for the iPod type connector to fit Nokia, Motorola, SonyEricsson et al/Bluetooth) to allow SMS composition, make calls, saving numbers, sending GPRS email, play java mobile games maybe, surf over GPRS using a WebCore based browser.
As Steve himself said all you ever need a PDA for is for names and numbers, so let it do that to the best of it's ability and tie in closely with the iPod and your phone and your Mac.
Name: up to you but I like Maclet (in the spirit of Pixlet...) or something to stress it's connective nature, iJunction, iNet...
Make it as small as possible and sell it for $150 (lowish price to prevent it being labelled as a laptop replacement, make it sell like hot cakes and make up for the fact that it is Mac-only).
OK, flame on! I know I've got it coming, I know Steve Jobs has ruled out PDA's but they've changed course before and I think I've managed to make it feasible.
A small handheld device (I said bear with me...)
A ROM-based cut-down OS based on OS X, hey or even Symbian...
Touch-Screen with stylus.
No physical buttons/switches except a 'hold'.
One connector on the bottom, same as the new iPod connector.
Headphone connector on top.
This would:
Connect to your mac (FireWire/USB 2/Bluetooth) and use iSync to synchronise:
-iCal
-Address Book
-Stickies
-InkWell input
-Safari Bookmarks
Connect to your iPod (FireWire/USB 2) to function as a large colour remote,
just plug the earphones in the top to manage music, create playlists on the go etc... it could even play iTunes-style visuals.
Biggest feature...you can put MPEG Video on your iPod drive and view it through the colour screen in a QuickTime viewer!!
Connect to your mobile (comes supplied with adaptors for the iPod type connector to fit Nokia, Motorola, SonyEricsson et al/Bluetooth) to allow SMS composition, make calls, saving numbers, sending GPRS email, play java mobile games maybe, surf over GPRS using a WebCore based browser.
As Steve himself said all you ever need a PDA for is for names and numbers, so let it do that to the best of it's ability and tie in closely with the iPod and your phone and your Mac.
Name: up to you but I like Maclet (in the spirit of Pixlet...) or something to stress it's connective nature, iJunction, iNet...
Make it as small as possible and sell it for $150 (lowish price to prevent it being labelled as a laptop replacement, make it sell like hot cakes and make up for the fact that it is Mac-only).
OK, flame on! I know I've got it coming, I know Steve Jobs has ruled out PDA's but they've changed course before and I think I've managed to make it feasible.
Comments
Originally posted by Elric
I had this dream about a PDA looking thing but it was bigger. It was in a leather zippered case about the size of a file-a-fax. It had a color touch screen with a stylus for writing. It looked more like something from Star-Trek than Apple but there was an Apple logo on its brushed aluminum casing.
Sounds nice.
I'm thinking SMALL with this thing though...90mm x 60mm x 13mm
No hard drive, just lots of memory lol, powered by an ARM or AMD or even Transmeta chip. heck even an embedded PPC chip...
Oh, and I mailed Steve with the post, can't hurt to try can it.
How can i live with myself? because I wish I had a newton that didn't need two hands to hold it...
Even if that were efficient, where's the point when Apple already *has* two embedded OS'es - an ancient one called NewtonOS, and a fairly recent, albeit limited one - iPodOS.
Originally posted by Chucker
Scaling down OS X to an embedded OS?
Even if that were efficient, where's the point when Apple already *has* two embedded OS'es - an ancient one called NewtonOS, and a fairly recent, albeit limited one - iPodOS.
Neither of which support bluetooth, firewire, airport, tcp/ip natively
OS X would scale very well, UI changes apart.
Originally posted by robster
OS X would scale very well
Oh yeah? Before or after removing QuickTime, Cocoa, Carbon, Quartz, Aqua, OpenGL, the Finder, ...?
Originally posted by Chucker
Oh yeah? Before or after removing QuickTime, Cocoa, Carbon, Quartz, Aqua, OpenGL, the Finder, ...?
In:
QuickTime
OpenGL
Quartz
Cocoa
Out:
Finder (replaced with version suitable for size)
Carbon
Aqua