iPhone screen resolution is 163ppi. A 10.1 inch screen at that resolution just happens to give you pixel dimensions of 1280x720, or 720p.
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What is the Ultimate Role of the Apple Tablet?
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iPhone screen resolution is 163ppi. A 10.1 inch screen at that resolution just happens to give you pixel dimensions of 1280x720, or 720p.
Word up...
I agree. Actually that's my setup now (for the most part). All my media files are on NAS, and I have iTunes, net-enabled TV, etc. connected to it for streaming.
So, with that in mind *Apple not yet having an AppleNAS *what about the ability to set a stationary device (ie an iMac) as "Apple Home Base"? Ok, it's not NAS, but a lot of users don't even know what NAS is. For those that do (and don't), the "Home Base" would act as a Brain for any attached storage, and would have a snazzy Apple-native "iStore(age)" software that is an all-media iTunes, to manage it.
Then, the AppleTV, Tablet, etc., would all tie into it without hassle, and through Apple-easy means. At some point, Apple might release a dedicated AppleBox that is TimeCapsule+Streaming Server, and looks likes a Mac Mini. It would replace the AppleTV, so it could be administered by remote or by traditional input.
I agree. Actually that's my setup now (for the most part). All my media files are on NAS, and I have iTunes, net-enabled TV, etc. connected to it for streaming.
So, with that in mind *Apple not yet having an AppleNAS *what about the ability to set a stationary device (ie an iMac) as "Apple Home Base"? Ok, it's not NAS, but a lot of users don't even know what NAS is. For those that do (and don't), the "Home Base" would act as a Brain for any attached storage, and would have a snazzy Apple-native "iStore(age)" software that is an all-media iTunes, to manage it.
Then, the AppleTV, Tablet, etc., would all tie into it without hassle, and through Apple-easy means. At some point, Apple might release a dedicated AppleBox that is TimeCapsule+Streaming Server, and looks likes a Mac Mini. It would replace the AppleTV, so it could be administered by remote or by traditional input.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Well, I'm getting more excited about this product dream than the Tablet... and I appear to not be the only one hungry to buy the very tangible benefits of this product (unlike the tangible benefits (there are some, right?) of the Tablet concept).
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I'm betting he's either figuring in subsidies from AT&T or taking the isuppli(?) cost of components as his cost basis, while ignoring other costs like boxing it, distributing it, marketing it, and so on (all the stuff that makes up total cost of each device that is not just the hardware guts).
My guess is that an unsubsidized tablet is going to come in around $799, probably at the low end (if we were playing the "higher or lower" game, I'd quickly vote "higher"). I think the recent "surprisingly low" (price) rumor- if not wild speculation from the source- was either about a subsidized price (with an onerous cellular contract commitment) OR relative to the price of other APPLE products like laptops and desktops.
People that think they are going to get a super-sized iPod touch with many new, killer features at around the iPod touch price point are probably dreaming a bit to hard. This is Apple after all- not exactly known for delivering maximum kit for minimal cash.
Well I'm at the point that my NAS is getting too small. 1 TB just isn't cutting it anymore (lasted a good 2 year though). Checking my options at the moment, a Mac Mini connected through FW800 or iSCSI over gigabit to a storage array was one of them.
An Apple integrated solution at this point would definately get my money.
This guy makes some valid points, but his point about it not making sense to run App Store apps is the dumbest thing I have ever heard!!! 
That is the ENTIRE missing piece that will make it viable now, as it was not years ago when there were no developers like the Newton. If Apple were that STUPID to discard the resource of 100,000 apps as leverage, then they might as well quit now!
Yes the software will be cranked up from the iPhone. Yes devs will target the Tablet with more robust apps. But OF COURSE it will run all the App Store apps! Does he think they got this entire platform in place just to cast it aside?
What a moron!
That is the ENTIRE missing piece that will make it viable now, as it was not years ago when there were no developers like the Newton. If Apple were that STUPID to discard the resource of 100,000 apps as leverage, then they might as well quit now!
Yes the software will be cranked up from the iPhone. Yes devs will target the Tablet with more robust apps. But OF COURSE it will run all the App Store apps! Does he think they got this entire platform in place just to cast it aside?
What a moron!
please read my signature after my post...
This is the item I've been waiting for.
I have a mac mini that does all my main work, and a powerbook 12" that's been relegated to an email machine.
I'd use a slate for email, video chat, browsing, books, magazines, comics. Taking quick notes, hopefully an app like (circus ponies) Notebook would run on it.
I'd really hope that you could draw on it. It would be AMAZING if it was like a Wacom Cintiq.
But as someone said, as with all Apple products, "it'll do way less than you'd imagine", even the really obvious stuff won't be there... so I'm gonna keep any excitement under wraps.
Now to my signature: I can't stress this enough. EVER SINGLE TIME YOU WRITE IT'S it's the EXACT SAME THING AS WRITING IT IS. It's from the same group of possessive pronouns as HIS and HERS, there are no apostrophes there. Go through just this single thread, and you'll see it misspelled nearly every time you see it.
This is the item I've been waiting for.
I have a mac mini that does all my main work, and a powerbook 12" that's been relegated to an email machine.
I'd use a slate for email, video chat, browsing, books, magazines, comics. Taking quick notes, hopefully an app like (circus ponies) Notebook would run on it.
I'd really hope that you could draw on it. It would be AMAZING if it was like a Wacom Cintiq.
But as someone said, as with all Apple products, "it'll do way less than you'd imagine", even the really obvious stuff won't be there... so I'm gonna keep any excitement under wraps.
Now to my signature: I can't stress this enough. EVER SINGLE TIME YOU WRITE IT'S it's the EXACT SAME THING AS WRITING IT IS. It's from the same group of possessive pronouns as HIS and HERS, there are no apostrophes there. Go through just this single thread, and you'll see it misspelled nearly every time you see it.
You can turn it whatever way you want it. It means Amazon sold a hell lot of Kindles. Not more and not less.
Ever since I got an iPhone, I've been using it more and more for home use (web/email/facebook/etc) instead of the laptop. After spending so much time on the iPhone OS, using the traditional mouse and windows interface feels really fussy and overcomplicated by comparison. Just trying to click on tiny little close boxes, etc. Sure, for serious work there's no substitute, but for most tasks, I could easily see a scaled up iPhone/iPod touch being really great.
The speed and ease of use of single-purpose, full-screen multitouch apps makes using conventional GUI apps seem like dinosaurs. And I'm guessing in an era when more and more of home use applications are becoming web apps running in javascript on "real" computers, I suspect a 600 MHz ARM CPU could provide equivalent performance running native binaries at a much lower price and power consumption rate.
If adding tablet support to existing iPhone apps is fairly easy, I would imagine that many popular apps will come out with tablet-aware versions almost immediately. Given how many app developers there are fighting over the iPhone app space, I think anyone who doesn't port their app to the tablet would be losing out to a horde of eager competitors.
However, there is still the problem of text entry. Maybe, holding the bottom edge of it in portrait mode would be kind of like typing on the landscape keyboard in the iPhone (assuming it wasn't too heavy). Having the split keyboard in the corners might work, but doesn't seem very Apple-y. Some sort of dynamic tactile technology like the patent application describes seems unlikely for anything coming out in the near future.
Also, not supporting Flash would be a problem for video sites besides youtube. That's probably one of the biggest reasons I still switch over to the laptop is to watch videos. I can't see even if they reversed their position on Flash that it wouldn't be a battery killer. Not that I wouldn't like to see Flash die off for everything except games, but it is the de facto web video standard at the moment.
Like everyone else, I'm really curious to see what (if anything) Apple comes out with, and if it will really catch on. Although, of course, there's the chance that they've gotten too cocky from their recent successes and will introduce something that turns out to be a total flop.
The speed and ease of use of single-purpose, full-screen multitouch apps makes using conventional GUI apps seem like dinosaurs. And I'm guessing in an era when more and more of home use applications are becoming web apps running in javascript on "real" computers, I suspect a 600 MHz ARM CPU could provide equivalent performance running native binaries at a much lower price and power consumption rate.
If adding tablet support to existing iPhone apps is fairly easy, I would imagine that many popular apps will come out with tablet-aware versions almost immediately. Given how many app developers there are fighting over the iPhone app space, I think anyone who doesn't port their app to the tablet would be losing out to a horde of eager competitors.
However, there is still the problem of text entry. Maybe, holding the bottom edge of it in portrait mode would be kind of like typing on the landscape keyboard in the iPhone (assuming it wasn't too heavy). Having the split keyboard in the corners might work, but doesn't seem very Apple-y. Some sort of dynamic tactile technology like the patent application describes seems unlikely for anything coming out in the near future.
Also, not supporting Flash would be a problem for video sites besides youtube. That's probably one of the biggest reasons I still switch over to the laptop is to watch videos. I can't see even if they reversed their position on Flash that it wouldn't be a battery killer. Not that I wouldn't like to see Flash die off for everything except games, but it is the de facto web video standard at the moment.
Like everyone else, I'm really curious to see what (if anything) Apple comes out with, and if it will really catch on. Although, of course, there's the chance that they've gotten too cocky from their recent successes and will introduce something that turns out to be a total flop.
Apologies for quoting myself, but I finally have time to expound on this.
Apple's tablet will do many things, and it will do many of them surprisingly well. The larger format, greater battery life, and speed boost will, in themselves, be an attractive upgrade for many over an iphone. Gaming will especially be a big draw, but other apps will benefit and I can see the possibility of a new class of apps come to market that otherwise wouldn't work on a small screen or without better graphics hardware.
As for ebooks - yes, it will make Kindle buyers feel a bit foolish, though this won't be Apple's primary push. The tablet will provide a truly rich reading experience that the author/publisher can design, including interactive content. It will make the Kindle look like a 17" b/w TV in an age of 60" LCD HDTV's. It's not that the tablet will be that revolutionary; it's just that it will make people realize how absurdly limited something like the Kindle is. The web experience will likewise be better thanks to the larger format, but also greater speed. There is a market for "bathroom" browsing, and Apple knows it - they just also know that this isn't a killer feature that by itself will sell hardware.
The killer app will be geared toward print media. Think iTunes for magazines and newspapers. The print industry is in a world of hurt, and they're desperate for a solution. That's the kind of problem that's really attractive to Jobs & Co. The idea is to have an incredibly rich media viewer which gives the publishers five things - a subscriber model, remarkably inexpensive distribution, artistic control equal to or greater than their print products, interactivity, and a better ad product to sell - ads that can capture the reader's attention far, far better than any banner ad ever could. Make no mistake, this isn't just a new distribution channel for them - Apple is giving them a chance to survive. And a very attractive chance at that. It's an enormous opportunity, and unlike the TV space, Apple should be poised to take control of the market just as they did with music.
What Apple will get in return is a cut of the subscription and ad fees, which will be used to subsidize the purchase price. Those who think this will carry a $1000+ price tag are way off. Apple will set the price according to the market, but I'm suspecting it will be in the $200-$500 range.
So, if this is true, Apple is looking at the possibility of a huge new revenue stream in the form of ad dollars, which of course paints a big target on Google's money machine. That's why I say Google's moves in the mobile market are defensive - they know where Apple is headed and they're scared.
Well then tell me: why didn't these "geeks" get a much cheaper book or DVD instead? Is the Kindle something so different that it's going to be gifted extremely often but not bought on other occasions? Sure as hell not.
Nobody doubted that Amazon picked a specific ranking in which the Kindle looked extremely good. That's what Americans do all the time. It doesn't change the fact that they sold a big pile of them.
There are billions more people who do not own either a iPhone or MacBook(anything) than do. Puzzling why the tablet discussions here spend so much time revolving around folks who have already maxed on on Apple products. If the objectives is to get to the masses of people on the planet ... Apple needs another device.
Think about it. Was the iPhone aimed as a "must have" for all Mac Users? Not really.
Buying all 3 many not make any more sense than buying 3 different cars from one automobile manufacturer (for one person to drive). Nor does it mean that the manufacturer shouldn't have one in its line up. ( You don't hav e an XServe under your desk do you? ) You do not HAVE TO buy the 3rd if you have the other two. However, there are tons of folks who just have one (or maybe two.).
If the iSlate/Tablet has a mobile data card in it they most folks would buy one or the other. One of the biggest impediments to Tablets has been price. Tying a "more expensive then would like" to a incremental data plan has worked wonders for the iPhone. No reason it would not also work for a Slate/Tablet like device.
I've noticed more: their, there, they're mistakes....
But i'm so NOT the grammar police. Except for A LOT. It's 2 words, ask Sr. Sheila - "If you are going to use it a lot in your papers, then learn to spell it correctly." 10th grade English
(about the only thing i remember from it)People have used a similar device. It's called an iPod Touch, and it outsells the both the MacBook and the MacBook Air by a huge margin.
iPod Touch users don't have a problem with either of the above. And Millions of potential iPod Touch users (about half) don't care about it being pocket sized... because they carry purses.
No it wouldn't. The Wacom sells in tiny volumes compared to the iPod Touch.
The iPod Touch can be used with 1 hand, is pocketable and much more portable than a 10" device ever will be. And a 10" device doesn't fit in a purse, it will require a bag dedicated to it to carry it, which is a big strike.
An Apple Tablet is not an iPod Touch, it's a tablet. Compare them to the use people get out of the current crop of tablets on the market, like the Nokia N810, the Samsung Q1, the HP Tablet PCs, etc..
For me:
(any of these)
Solidworks via VMWare
Illustrator
Spreadsheets & Documents on the go
Web by touch
Portable ebook/Movie/Music/Game machine with a decent size screen
For anybody else:
Spreadsheets & Documents on the go
Web by touch
Portable ebook/Movie/Music/Game machine with a decent size screen
I prefer the quick access and ultra mobility of a slate tablet to a notebook that I have to open and set somewhere. If I can ditch our motion tablets for Apple tablets, I will.
The argument that it creates a redundancy in the product line is absurd. Why would they bother with an iphone when it'd compete with their ipods? Why bother making 4 different kinds of iPods when they all compete with each other? Why bother making MacBooks when they snipe sales from would-be MBP buyers?
A tablet is a different form factor. It won't be for everyone. But it will appeal to a hell of a lot of people if it's finally done right. Tablets initially failed because in hindsight, MS did everything wrong possible. Anyone into tablets knows this, and something tells me, if Apple's been working on one this long and is actually bringing one to market, they're not going to make the idiotic mistakes MS did. Considering Jobs' past comments, I'd say that's a safe bet.
(any of these)
Solidworks via VMWare
Illustrator
Spreadsheets & Documents on the go
Web by touch
Portable ebook/Movie/Music/Game machine with a decent size screen
For anybody else:
Spreadsheets & Documents on the go
Web by touch
Portable ebook/Movie/Music/Game machine with a decent size screen
I prefer the quick access and ultra mobility of a slate tablet to a notebook that I have to open and set somewhere. If I can ditch our motion tablets for Apple tablets, I will.
The argument that it creates a redundancy in the product line is absurd. Why would they bother with an iphone when it'd compete with their ipods? Why bother making 4 different kinds of iPods when they all compete with each other? Why bother making MacBooks when they snipe sales from would-be MBP buyers?
A tablet is a different form factor. It won't be for everyone. But it will appeal to a hell of a lot of people if it's finally done right. Tablets initially failed because in hindsight, MS did everything wrong possible. Anyone into tablets knows this, and something tells me, if Apple's been working on one this long and is actually bringing one to market, they're not going to make the idiotic mistakes MS did. Considering Jobs' past comments, I'd say that's a safe bet.
Oh lord, i'm going to have to buy a bigger purse? My Touch barely fits in my current one. HMPH.
Time for INCASE to bring back the Moya Pack!! It came in 2 sizes... i have the smaller one.
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/moyapak-2000-incase-usa
And the bigger one.
http://reviews.cnet.com/cases-bags/incase-moya-carrying-case/1707-19214_7-30989796.html?tag=pdtl
(pic of the smaller one)
Attachments
A 10" diagonal iPod Touch would be smaller than the typical hardback fiction novel that my girlfriend often carries in her handbag (go measure one). 7" diagonal would be closer to trade paperback size, which fits in my cargo pants and coat pockets.
If it doesn't have...
Article Link: What is the Ultimate Role of the Apple Tablet?[/QUOTE]
...a matte screen, I'm not buying it: just as I have not purchased any Mac that comes with a screen, and have relegated myself to minis with non-Apple screens. I won't pay extra for a matte screen because I don't need one for graphics work.
The result: I went from having 5-6 Macs down to two minis and my wife's MPB.
Article Link: What is the Ultimate Role of the Apple Tablet?[/QUOTE]
...a matte screen, I'm not buying it: just as I have not purchased any Mac that comes with a screen, and have relegated myself to minis with non-Apple screens. I won't pay extra for a matte screen because I don't need one for graphics work.
The result: I went from having 5-6 Macs down to two minis and my wife's MPB.
Do more? Or do less?
Given the same technology as a MacBook Air, something smaller than a MacBook Air would be able to hold a less powerful CPU (due to less heat dissipation area), have less battery life (in the smaller available volume), and have a really cramped or non-existent physical keyboard. e.g. it would be weaker device and far less capable than an Air. A bad experience for fewer customers.
Given the same technology as an iPod Touch, something with a 4 to 8 times larger display (7" or 10") could easily contain a CPU twice as fast (maybe two of them), and a much larger battery, giving equal or better battery life. A bigger onscreen keyboard would allow even faster typing than with the current iPhone keyboard. It would allow people who want to see book-sized pages and older people who need reading glasses to use it. e.g. it would be a device that would allow more people to do more things. Only downside would be that it wouldn't be pocket-able in tight pants, but neither would be a shrunk Air.
Given the same technology as a MacBook Air, something smaller than a MacBook Air would be able to hold a less powerful CPU (due to less heat dissipation area), have less battery life (in the smaller available volume), and have a really cramped or non-existent physical keyboard. e.g. it would be weaker device and far less capable than an Air. A bad experience for fewer customers.
Given the same technology as an iPod Touch, something with a 4 to 8 times larger display (7" or 10") could easily contain a CPU twice as fast (maybe two of them), and a much larger battery, giving equal or better battery life. A bigger onscreen keyboard would allow even faster typing than with the current iPhone keyboard. It would allow people who want to see book-sized pages and older people who need reading glasses to use it. e.g. it would be a device that would allow more people to do more things. Only downside would be that it wouldn't be pocket-able in tight pants, but neither would be a shrunk Air.
Jeesh...
?.... I didn't think I was going very far with the mic idea. I don't expect playboy.com to massage my junk for me, I mean really.
WTF, I thought we were just rattling off some ideas...? My sister is in a trio, and she's looking for a new laptop for school, if an iSlate had an app like that, she'd probably jump on it. I know it's just anecdotal, but that's how I thought of it. There are musicians outside of big city orchestras who need sheet music too. It'd be great for requests too, since you could have your whole sheet music library at your fingertips.
Sure, but if you are going to go there, why not have little arms come out of the Tablet, and play the instrument pitch- and time-perfect (better than she can play it)? Or, have it capture her playback, process it, then play it for the audience corrected for the subtle errors she made in imperfect human playback?
?.... I didn't think I was going very far with the mic idea. I don't expect playboy.com to massage my junk for me, I mean really.
WTF, I thought we were just rattling off some ideas...? My sister is in a trio, and she's looking for a new laptop for school, if an iSlate had an app like that, she'd probably jump on it. I know it's just anecdotal, but that's how I thought of it. There are musicians outside of big city orchestras who need sheet music too. It'd be great for requests too, since you could have your whole sheet music library at your fingertips.