Actually slightly tangential; but with Palm OS going into virtual never never land (Japan), the next 12 months or so are the ideal time, strategically, for Apple to enter the market with a PDA/phone OS. I don't think Apple would do it without the phone component simply because the market is waning for PDA only devices. But I know a lot of people that were using Palm devices largely because they didn't like PocketPC, so there are a lot of displaced customers out there in a market Apple's just getting their feet wet in.
And the draw of iTMS for phones and added revenue stream for the network providers gives them leverage for acceptance as well.
cosmo, i tell ya, with the aging demographics of the developed world, the 45++ year olds are a major major market for apple. just seeing how our parents (as many of us i'm sure have observed) take to the mac is awesome. they love the iBook because it's portable around the house and at their non-techy workplace too... hook them up with reliable wireless/broadband and extra brownie points for you, the good kid/grandkid.
Actually slightly tangential; but with Palm OS going into virtual never never land (Japan), the next 12 months or so are the ideal time, strategically, for Apple to enter the market with a PDA/phone OS. I don't think Apple would do it without the phone component simply because the market is waning for PDA only devices. But I know a lot of people that were using Palm devices largely because they didn't like PocketPC, so there are a lot of displaced customers out there in a market Apple's just getting their feet wet in.
And the draw of iTMS for phones and added revenue stream for the network providers gives them leverage for acceptance as well.
Just a thought.
intel low-power high-performance cpus for handheld/tablet/smartphones etc is the key here. running mac os x 'svelte' (sounds better than 'lite')
Greetings from the Naval Air Warfare Center -Aircraft Division-Indianapolis (BRAC Class of 96)!
What project were you supporting? What hardware/Tablets were you using? We fiddled with Original Newtons for the Marines for a spell. Went Windows of course.
V/R,
Aries 1B
I worked with the Naval Hawk program on this project from '97 - '01. I spent a great deal of time with the HS and HSL wings on both coasts. The IETM software worked well enough but the whole tablet thing was a crashing failure.
There were various issues but in the end the software, and the intended tasks just didn't lend themselves to tablet use. The techs would have to put the machines down anyhow to be able to perform any of the tasks/tests/troubleshooting so in the end the standard laptop was the superior solution.
The hardware used was from IBM (or at least marketed by them). It was weak to be sure, and the digitizers were often flaky. While I despised the hardware, I have to admit, even with perfect hardware the application of th technology was just wrong.
Tablets are best suited to specialized applications. Some o the posts here have mentioned specific tasks which would suit a tablet's strengths and that's great but for *general computing* I stand by my opinion that they don't work.
And as another poster mentioned in another thread, the greatest thing about the tablet Mac in education is the downloadable books in PDF format. You won't need to carry a bunch of books PLUS your tablet - you'll have only one thing to carry.
Scanning paper after the fact is nowhere near as good as catching writing as it's done. For one thing, you don't know the order in which the marks were made. But the main objection to scanning is, nobody will ever bother to do it.
I can think of lots of ways the tablet could be used in the classroom, too, assuming it has wifi networking. The teacher could download slides into the classes' tablets. Even tests could be paperless.
HOWEVER, they SHOULD make the PowerBook and iBook be able to, maybe in a special line of them, have the screen swivel, then tilt back so the screen flip-flops and is on top, and you can write on it. They have these already.
The problem: hand-writing recognition still sucks. Until that's fixed...there is no point.
Once they fix that, and engineer that screen, sure, I'll buy one. Why not? 10 binders is annoying. Taking notes on a keyboard sometimes doesn't work, especially in classes with lots of diagrams you have to copy down.
Windows is a big problem for tablets. It just isnt suitable, and requires machines that have too many resources. A tablet should be the size of my iBook's screen, and that means no hard drive, slow cpu, small batteries.
Im not sure that the whole computer tablet thing is the way to go at all.
It is available now, it is cheap, and it writes just like paper ( well, it is paper ).
It is a graphics tablet ( think wacom ) hooked up to some flash memory. As you write on your paper it stores all the strokes in the flash, and you can transfer it to your PC later.
Windows is a big problem for tablets. It just isnt suitable, and requires machines that have too many resources. A tablet should be the size of my iBook's screen, and that means no hard drive, slow cpu, small batteries.
Im not sure that the whole computer tablet thing is the way to go at all.
It is available now, it is cheap, and it writes just like paper ( well, it is paper ).
It is a graphics tablet ( think wacom ) hooked up to some flash memory. As you write on your paper it stores all the strokes in the flash, and you can transfer it to your PC later.
...and here's what the happy customer had to say:
Quote:
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Bait and Switch. Buyer beware., September 27, 2005
ReviewertMatt Kelley - See all my reviews
The paper that comes with the unit is actually not ordinary at all. It is a small pad (not a4 size). It is about 5 inches by 7 inches of writing space. Very hard to take notes with this. Additionally, after checking 5 stores (officemax, etc) NOBODY carries the pad size, you have to drop down to an even smaller pad which ends up sliding around.
You know, we're all talking about a Tablet. I think that's the wrong perspective. We should be thinking about a New Platform. The iPod is a new platform. This new platform that Apple might be working on could do more than just education, more than just video, more than just contain books and magazine text. It could do all of that, but it could do much more.
"Phone-ness", iPod-ness, speech recognition, capabilities limited only by the imagination of the Apple Developer Community...
You could test out what a tablet would be like now by attaching a writing pad of some sort to your Mac. I doubt you'll be impressed.
I think that capturing writing is deceptively difficult. It sounds easy to say we simply need to periodically measure the x-y position of the pen. However, pencil tips move quite fast, and pen pressure is important so you need to digitize x-y and pressure at a very high rate and then interpret that data correctly. Also, the feel of the pen on the pad is very important. Think how much difference it makes to match the correct lead hardness and diameter to the correct paper. I loved buying paper in Japan because it was so nice to write on.
Windows is a big problem for tablets. It just isnt suitable, and requires machines that have too many resources. A tablet should be the size of my iBook's screen, and that means no hard drive, slow cpu, small batteries.
Hmm, sounds exactly the reason not to build a digital audio playback device, circa summer 2001.
Personally, I think that too much emphasis is placed on the input side of computing. For me, surfing the net, reading .pdf's, watching media, listening to music and podcasts is as probably a bigger portion of my computing time than actually inputing information into the computer. With the amount of digital media out there, I am just as interested in finding a device that will allow me to access information, and to this point, few devices have been able to replicate the form factor of the printed page, whether it is a manual with pictures and graphics or a web page that is still built in this form factor. I can think of nothing better than reclining on the couch with a digital device where I can read magazines and manuals, surf the web while listening to music or podcasts streaming through Airtunes.
Besides, in the next few years, we will see a billion dollar market open up that is not quite as hung up on the 105 key keyboard who can appreciate a graphical input medium. I hope that Apple is already planning for that.
The purpose of a tablet is primarily to provide a different form-factor for input. The question is, for which tasks is a tablet the optimal device.
My assertion is that there are incredibly few tasks that are best fascilitated by a tablet shaped computer.
Data input on a tablet will always be slower than typing, no matter what. Also, tablets need to be held in order for the screen to be positioned properly for viewing. This means they are limited to a certain size, a size which is non-optimal for displaying much data.
The technology for tablet computing has been around for quite a while now and many companies have made many different models.
However, there simply are not that many tasks for which a tablet is optimal. Tablets aren't useless, just non-optimal for the tasks that most people perform on a daily basis.
The purpose of a tablet is primarily to provide a different form-factor for input. The question is, for which tasks is a tablet the optimal device.
Tablet computing will always be a niche market.
... and I think that this is the problem - as long as the tablet is considered to be simply a different method for input, it will be niche market. However, redefining the tablet as a reading/downloading device is exactly the type of product marketing that Apple is good at, and could open up a new market as lucrative as the iPod.
You know, we're all talking about a Tablet. I think that's the wrong perspective. We should be thinking about a New Platform. The iPod is a new platform. This new platform that Apple might be working on could do more than just education, more than just video, more than just contain books and magazine text. It could do all of that, but it could do much more.
"Phone-ness", iPod-ness, speech recognition, capabilities limited only by the imagination of the Apple Developer Community...
... and that's no limit at all
V/R,
Aries 1B
An intelligent post at last. This is exactly what Apple will be thinking. The technology is very close now (flash memory, 200dpi screens battery tech etc.) to produce a tablet that people will actually LUST after. After that its up to everybody else to work out what to do with it.
Universities and corporations have had fully functional tablets for many years now. Full blown standard computing architectures and specialized embedded chips have all been available in tablet form for well over a decade.
Billions of dollars have been poured into research and actual shipping products. Tablets aren't new. We're not waiting on suitable hardware... we've had it for years.
Visit MIT, carnegie mellon, virginia tech, UofW or any other top tier computer science school and you'll see tons of researchers working with tablets. When it comes down to doing work, even those people switch over to a different form factor.
The problem with tablets is that they are a pain in the ass for most (but not all) tasks. They are a pain in the ass not from technological or design limitations. Rather, they simply aren't optimal for common tasks.
We're not waiting on suitable hardware... we've had it for years.
Oh please, get a clue. Where are the paper-like displays and the 'nano' thick tablets? Tablets WILL sell when they achieve an irrestistable form factor. Niche products are of no interest to Apple.
Just like portable televisions got popular when they got tiny? No matter how much thinner tablets get, they'll still have the same utility. I suppose that they'll be popular with techno-weenies like us... just like watch-calculators in the 80s.
But I'll shut up now so that people can lust without the negativity.
I don't see a Tablet Mac as a derivative of the iPod, not for technical reasons, but for philosophical/political ones.
The iPod is an output-only device. Apple has resisted any input functions on it for years. AFAIK all you can do with it is rate a song. There is a voice recorder, but nobody seems to be using it - at least nobody is very enthusiastic about it.
And I think this was a deliberate design decision. When they introduced the iCal syncing, I asked an Apple person about the To-Do list. He was surprised to see that it couldn't be displayed. To this day, you can only view events, you can't check them off or reschedule them. You can view contacts, but not update them. You can view text files, but not update them.
Furthermore, 3rd party developers have been locked out of the iPod since its beginning. Every other Apple product as an SDK, but not the iPod.
So, as a software developer and a PDA user, Apple has told me in TWO ways to go away. There are no iPods in my present or future.
Comments
And the draw of iTMS for phones and added revenue stream for the network providers gives them leverage for acceptance as well.
Just a thought.
Originally posted by ChevalierMalFet
Actually slightly tangential; but with Palm OS going into virtual never never land (Japan), the next 12 months or so are the ideal time, strategically, for Apple to enter the market with a PDA/phone OS. I don't think Apple would do it without the phone component simply because the market is waning for PDA only devices. But I know a lot of people that were using Palm devices largely because they didn't like PocketPC, so there are a lot of displaced customers out there in a market Apple's just getting their feet wet in.
And the draw of iTMS for phones and added revenue stream for the network providers gives them leverage for acceptance as well.
Just a thought.
intel low-power high-performance cpus for handheld/tablet/smartphones etc is the key here. running mac os x 'svelte' (sounds better than 'lite')
here's hoping....
Originally posted by Aries 1B
Greetings from the Naval Air Warfare Center -Aircraft Division-Indianapolis (BRAC Class of 96)!
What project were you supporting? What hardware/Tablets were you using? We fiddled with Original Newtons for the Marines for a spell. Went Windows of course.
V/R,
Aries 1B
I worked with the Naval Hawk program on this project from '97 - '01. I spent a great deal of time with the HS and HSL wings on both coasts. The IETM software worked well enough but the whole tablet thing was a crashing failure.
There were various issues but in the end the software, and the intended tasks just didn't lend themselves to tablet use. The techs would have to put the machines down anyhow to be able to perform any of the tasks/tests/troubleshooting so in the end the standard laptop was the superior solution.
The hardware used was from IBM (or at least marketed by them). It was weak to be sure, and the digitizers were often flaky. While I despised the hardware, I have to admit, even with perfect hardware the application of th technology was just wrong.
Tablets are best suited to specialized applications. Some o the posts here have mentioned specific tasks which would suit a tablet's strengths and that's great but for *general computing* I stand by my opinion that they don't work.
Scanning paper after the fact is nowhere near as good as catching writing as it's done. For one thing, you don't know the order in which the marks were made. But the main objection to scanning is, nobody will ever bother to do it.
I can think of lots of ways the tablet could be used in the classroom, too, assuming it has wifi networking. The teacher could download slides into the classes' tablets. Even tests could be paperless.
HOWEVER, they SHOULD make the PowerBook and iBook be able to, maybe in a special line of them, have the screen swivel, then tilt back so the screen flip-flops and is on top, and you can write on it. They have these already.
The problem: hand-writing recognition still sucks. Until that's fixed...there is no point.
Once they fix that, and engineer that screen, sure, I'll buy one. Why not? 10 binders is annoying. Taking notes on a keyboard sometimes doesn't work, especially in classes with lots of diagrams you have to copy down.
Im not sure that the whole computer tablet thing is the way to go at all.
Have a look at this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...onics&v=glance
It is available now, it is cheap, and it writes just like paper ( well, it is paper ).
It is a graphics tablet ( think wacom ) hooked up to some flash memory. As you write on your paper it stores all the strokes in the flash, and you can transfer it to your PC later.
...wait, you don't have to imagine anymore:
http://www.emperorlinux.com/mfgr/ibm/raven/
hmmm..
apple, make a goddamn tablet that works already biatches...!!
Originally posted by mmmpie
Windows is a big problem for tablets. It just isnt suitable, and requires machines that have too many resources. A tablet should be the size of my iBook's screen, and that means no hard drive, slow cpu, small batteries.
Im not sure that the whole computer tablet thing is the way to go at all.
Have a look at this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...onics&v=glance
It is available now, it is cheap, and it writes just like paper ( well, it is paper ).
It is a graphics tablet ( think wacom ) hooked up to some flash memory. As you write on your paper it stores all the strokes in the flash, and you can transfer it to your PC later.
...and here's what the happy customer had to say:
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Bait and Switch. Buyer beware., September 27, 2005
Reviewer
The paper that comes with the unit is actually not ordinary at all. It is a small pad (not a4 size). It is about 5 inches by 7 inches of writing space. Very hard to take notes with this. Additionally, after checking 5 stores (officemax, etc) NOBODY carries the pad size, you have to drop down to an even smaller pad which ends up sliding around.
Stay away.
V/R,
Aries 1B
"Phone-ness", iPod-ness, speech recognition, capabilities limited only by the imagination of the Apple Developer Community...
... and that's no limit at all
V/R,
Aries 1B
I think that capturing writing is deceptively difficult. It sounds easy to say we simply need to periodically measure the x-y position of the pen. However, pencil tips move quite fast, and pen pressure is important so you need to digitize x-y and pressure at a very high rate and then interpret that data correctly. Also, the feel of the pen on the pad is very important. Think how much difference it makes to match the correct lead hardness and diameter to the correct paper. I loved buying paper in Japan because it was so nice to write on.
Originally posted by mmmpie
Windows is a big problem for tablets. It just isnt suitable, and requires machines that have too many resources. A tablet should be the size of my iBook's screen, and that means no hard drive, slow cpu, small batteries.
Hmm, sounds exactly the reason not to build a digital audio playback device, circa summer 2001.
Personally, I think that too much emphasis is placed on the input side of computing. For me, surfing the net, reading .pdf's, watching media, listening to music and podcasts is as probably a bigger portion of my computing time than actually inputing information into the computer. With the amount of digital media out there, I am just as interested in finding a device that will allow me to access information, and to this point, few devices have been able to replicate the form factor of the printed page, whether it is a manual with pictures and graphics or a web page that is still built in this form factor. I can think of nothing better than reclining on the couch with a digital device where I can read magazines and manuals, surf the web while listening to music or podcasts streaming through Airtunes.
Besides, in the next few years, we will see a billion dollar market open up that is not quite as hung up on the 105 key keyboard who can appreciate a graphical input medium. I hope that Apple is already planning for that.
The purpose of a tablet is primarily to provide a different form-factor for input. The question is, for which tasks is a tablet the optimal device.
My assertion is that there are incredibly few tasks that are best fascilitated by a tablet shaped computer.
Data input on a tablet will always be slower than typing, no matter what. Also, tablets need to be held in order for the screen to be positioned properly for viewing. This means they are limited to a certain size, a size which is non-optimal for displaying much data.
The technology for tablet computing has been around for quite a while now and many companies have made many different models.
However, there simply are not that many tasks for which a tablet is optimal. Tablets aren't useless, just non-optimal for the tasks that most people perform on a daily basis.
Tablet computing will always be a niche market.
Originally posted by dfiler
Time to rain on the tablet parade...
The purpose of a tablet is primarily to provide a different form-factor for input. The question is, for which tasks is a tablet the optimal device.
Tablet computing will always be a niche market.
... and I think that this is the problem - as long as the tablet is considered to be simply a different method for input, it will be niche market. However, redefining the tablet as a reading/downloading device is exactly the type of product marketing that Apple is good at, and could open up a new market as lucrative as the iPod.
Originally posted by Aries 1B
You know, we're all talking about a Tablet. I think that's the wrong perspective. We should be thinking about a New Platform. The iPod is a new platform. This new platform that Apple might be working on could do more than just education, more than just video, more than just contain books and magazine text. It could do all of that, but it could do much more.
"Phone-ness", iPod-ness, speech recognition, capabilities limited only by the imagination of the Apple Developer Community...
... and that's no limit at all
V/R,
Aries 1B
An intelligent post at last. This is exactly what Apple will be thinking. The technology is very close now (flash memory, 200dpi screens battery tech etc.) to produce a tablet that people will actually LUST after. After that its up to everybody else to work out what to do with it.
Billions of dollars have been poured into research and actual shipping products. Tablets aren't new. We're not waiting on suitable hardware... we've had it for years.
Visit MIT, carnegie mellon, virginia tech, UofW or any other top tier computer science school and you'll see tons of researchers working with tablets. When it comes down to doing work, even those people switch over to a different form factor.
The problem with tablets is that they are a pain in the ass for most (but not all) tasks. They are a pain in the ass not from technological or design limitations. Rather, they simply aren't optimal for common tasks.
Originally posted by dfiler
We're not waiting on suitable hardware... we've had it for years.
Oh please, get a clue. Where are the paper-like displays and the 'nano' thick tablets? Tablets WILL sell when they achieve an irrestistable form factor. Niche products are of no interest to Apple.
But I'll shut up now so that people can lust without the negativity.
The iPod is an output-only device. Apple has resisted any input functions on it for years. AFAIK all you can do with it is rate a song. There is a voice recorder, but nobody seems to be using it - at least nobody is very enthusiastic about it.
And I think this was a deliberate design decision. When they introduced the iCal syncing, I asked an Apple person about the To-Do list. He was surprised to see that it couldn't be displayed. To this day, you can only view events, you can't check them off or reschedule them. You can view contacts, but not update them. You can view text files, but not update them.
Furthermore, 3rd party developers have been locked out of the iPod since its beginning. Every other Apple product as an SDK, but not the iPod.
So, as a software developer and a PDA user, Apple has told me in TWO ways to go away. There are no iPods in my present or future.