PowerPod

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Dream...



The reincarnation of the Newton with all the wireless connections and capabilities for the 21 century.
  • scroll wheel and small screen on top

  • flip open (like DS) for colorWidescreen and touchscreen, for apps

  • Mail, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie playback, Apple Works X

  • Games (DS licenced from Nintendo)

  • iChat A/V camera built in

  • Safari RSS

  • 3G phone with BT headset

  • HD and removable Memorycard for special apps

  • Mobile Podcast recording device

  • instant sync with paired devices

introduced at the 21st anniversary of the Mac

Sounds like a PowerPod to me.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by TuberMagPico

    Dream...



    The reincarnation of the Newton with all the wireless connections and capabilities for the 21 century.

    scroll wheel and small screen on top
    flip open (like DS) for colorWidescreen and touchscreen, for apps
    Mail, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie playback, Apple Works X
    Games (DS licenced from Nintendo)
    iChat A/V camera built in
    Safari RSS
    3G phone with BT headset
    HD and removable Memorycard for special apps
    Mobile Podcast recording device
    instant sync with paired devices


    introduced at the 21st anniversary of the Mac

    Sounds like a PowerPod to me.




    ... with a 30 minutes battery life, starting at $2999.



    More seriously, IMHO any attept to build an all-in-one PDA that'd be able to replace a laptop computer will be vain until the input of the PDA becomes as efficient as a keyboard (i.e. 99~100% hit hand-writing recognition). Until then, that'd only be gadgets for super-geeks, and Apple has stopped building this kind of products...
  • Reply 2 of 11
    ptrashptrash Posts: 296member
    Actually, sounds a lot like the new communicators/cum cell phones. I actualy expected Apple to roll out a phone this Christmas season. I suspect they will soon. They have to, since the market is moving to these kind of all-in-pne devices. What would it take for apple to add phone hardware to an ipod? Not much, considering there are devices of similar size that do all an ipod does and more: the new sony erickson t mobile device is an example. I was in a cell phone store and this customer came in all excited about being able to print pdf files direct from his phone. It has bluetooth, take some sort of flash card and has a video camera too. I'm sure it plays music, too.



    Apple isn't the mystery we think it is. Stake out steve and his minions and you'll see what's next on the horizon. You can be sure they try the shit out, and most of it never makes it too market. Since there's no future for PDAs, I can't see Apple putting one out. But an all-in-one device; it's just a matter of time. I just wish it'd come sooner than later, as I can't afford to keep buying these devices that don't meet my needs.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    cubistcubist Posts: 954member
    The irritating thing about "there's no future for PDAs" is that the current batch of PDAs are lousy, and the PDA features of cell phones and iPods are worthless.



    I still use my Newton. Sure, it's far from perfect... but it's as close as anyone's come so far.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    I agree with this post. Forget the misnomer of "pda". This is a full powered computer in the hand like OQO. Someone mentioned the problem with input: I agree that the reason handhelds have not made it/come out is the lack of decent and fast input. Everyone has been waiting for the holy grail of speech recognition but its not happening, yet. However anyone else see that piece of kit that came out of Israel recently? Its a laser type of device that beams a keyboard layout onto any flat surface. You type on the table and it picks up your movements. Even has keyboard like sounds. Works a dream. To me this solves the issue. If Apple could license this and put it into the top of the powerpod, all input problems would be solved. combined with peninput and inkwell would be all u need.



    I agree also on a 3g card option in the machine with a BT phone receiver option so you can talk using a normal looking phone rather than looking like a dork with a slab of computer attached to your ear. Of course, the card can be transferred into the phone receiver and used as a normal phone when u want to leave your powerpod at home. just an option though as most would just use their main phone with it using BT.



    To me all the pieces have been coming together. Software wise all is there now except:





    a) appleworks for msoft office compatibility

    b) sync



    The latter is now coming in Tiger with full sync for mail and all the other iapps. As for appleworks, its expected and even textedit can do tables in tiger. The other stuff really is there now from addresses to rss to photos and music.



    Hardwear wise, 3g, wifi etc should be enough. it should b

    e easier to dock onto a monitor keyboard set up and also sync with your main computer for mail etc using airport.



    But the real problem is what is the target? For me it feeds an audience of people who want a computer for that 2/3 day trip and prefer not to lug a powerbook. Also for daily use. And indeed for all us ipod users who would pay an extra 1000 bucks for computer functionality too.



    Oh and also there is no reason to me why this wouldn't be just like the iPod and become windows compatible within a year. Why not? Making OSX the standard for handhelds makes great sense. And all the software links are there with msexchange now working across the key PIM apps in Tiger and even photo storage made possible as seen in ipod photo. And for sure appleworks will be the same.



    Battery life: I think this and the software stuff is the reason apple has been waiting. I expect we wont see this until the end of 2005 when battery life is sufficient for 10-12 hours use i.e. a whole day.



    Finally I agree with you that this will be introduced as the 21 century mac. I remember an interview of Jobs from 97 that talked of extracting what can be had from current products while working for 5 or more years on the next big thing. To me this is the next big thing. A little box, a monitor, amouse and u have a complete desktop/mobile solution.



    In other words THIS is to our generation what the Mac was to those in the 80s. It would transform computer use from a desktop computer into a complete mobile device.



    Anyway, thanks Tubermagpico, made me excited again at the prospect!







    Quote:

    Originally posted by TuberMagPico

    Dream...



    The reincarnation of the Newton with all the wireless connections and capabilities for the 21 century.

    scroll wheel and small screen on top
    flip open (like DS) for colorWidescreen and touchscreen, for apps
    Mail, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie playback, Apple Works X
    Games (DS licenced from Nintendo)
    iChat A/V camera built in
    Safari RSS
    3G phone with BT headset
    HD and removable Memorycard for special apps
    Mobile Podcast recording device
    instant sync with paired devices


    introduced at the 21st anniversary of the Mac

    Sounds like a PowerPod to me.




  • Reply 5 of 11
    bergzbergz Posts: 1,045member
    All I can say is that something big's gotta come out in 2005, and I don't mean Tiger nor a 12" G5PB nor 802.11n nor a superMPEG, because otherwise there's no way of explaining SJ's unpardonable distraction from the Macintosh line. The paltry iPod variants couldn't take up much of his multitasking multi-corporation visionary-energies. He has to be up to something grandiose, otherwise he'd be kicking IBM ass for handicapping the Mac, or doing something that wouldn't leave everyone asking themselves, "Wasn't this year the 20th anniversary of the Mac?" The fact is that I don't personally think that SJ gets his rocks off implementing gradual, albeit breakthrough improvements--for instance, he doesn't giggle about faster video streaming of a new codec, he giggles about proprietary Apple technology on cell phones from Taiwan to Marseilles.



    If something big doesn't come out, like a SuperNewton or an ApplePhone or something, then we can all be pretty sure that they extracted more than a tumor from him in August.



    --B
  • Reply 6 of 11
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Sony was built on the back of the walkman. Remember that. The iPod is Apple's walkman. Will it be the walkman of the 21st century? Apple is already getting into music distribution. Sony got into music distribution in the walkman era, made a pretty penny at it too.



    iPod is not a distraction. Music distribution is finally changing, it could still go anywhere, and there's a LOT of MONEY to be made in predicting the final destination and shaping its direction.



    Basically, right now, iPod/iTunes could be taking up ALL his corporate energies and they wouldn't be mis-spent in the least.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
  • Reply 8 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Matsu

    ... iPod is not a distraction. Music distribution is finally changing, it could still go anywhere, and there's a LOT of MONEY to be made in predicting the final destination and shaping its direction....



    This is a very weird thread. I was going to say, the iPod and the Newton have little or nothing to do with each other -- why, the original post makes no mention of any PDA features! As for iCal, fooey! The Newton itself is far better as a calendar program and organizer than a Mac running iCal and Address Book.



    But Matsu's post is very true also. Music distribution is changing, and thus far the iPod has been the engine of the change: for once we are no longer talking about a physical medium (45, LP, 8-track, cassette, CD - how many times have you bought the same music?) but buying a music recording as an entity per se. And music is only the beginning. We will be talking about books, movies, photos, even software. A new model for distribution is developing.



    It will probably not be long before iPod users will be able to purchase music from any number of music stores... or from musicians themselves, directly.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by The One to Rescue

    ... with a 30 minutes battery life, starting at $2999.



    More seriously, IMHO any attept to build an all-in-one PDA that'd be able to replace a laptop computer will be vain until the input of the PDA becomes as efficient as a keyboard (i.e. 99~100% hit hand-writing recognition). Until then, that'd only be gadgets for super-geeks, and Apple has stopped building this kind of products...




    I have a palm zaire, I couldn't fit it in my pockets.



    Too thick, too many features, too impossible to use 1 handed (while driving, you perverts!).



    I think it actually has more volume than my 40GB ipod...
  • Reply 10 of 11
    again, the ipod is NOT a distraction. It is single handedly driving the company's growth. The stock price is at a roughly four year high, and all of it has to do with future iPod expectations.



    Back to the powerPod...



    I'm not sure the market really exists for this yet, but a compromise of an iPod/cell phone would probably appeal to most. They wouldn't even have to add any buttons, most of the numbers people call are in the memory (which would be isynced from the comp), and when they do have to 'dial' a number, you can use it like a rotary phone. Someone did a nice mock-up a year ago or so.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    i think the best form of user input on small carryable devices is the thumboard. i have a sidekick II and have to say i can't imagine a more efficient way of text input on a small device. voice recognition wouldn't be useful for everyone. who wants to be seen talking into their pda in a crowded cafe?



    voice recognition isn't even very popular on desktop machines that have the processing power to do it fairly well. for the types of data that you put into pda's i suspect voice reco is really bad. people's names and phone numbers are easier to type in via thumbboard than try over and over to get voice recognition to read correctly.
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