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Pretty cool, I guess...

I'd certainly be very interested in this as is, but I will be really impressed when one day (year) they can wrap a flexible LCD screen under the cover and make that the basis for a tablet type item. :cool:
 
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I think apple is trying to invent the mouse and from the looks of it I can't wait to see this in Macs and iphones

Last I checked Apple invented the mouse:apple:
 
What next, interactive 3D OS? <-- similar to the Matrix or Johnny Nemonic.

How much power is being drawn to keep this touch screen active, unless there is a sleep mode where it tunes down and activates when touched to conserve power on a portable.

Touch screens is just an evolution of present input devices we have, for better or worse it will only be implemented further into future products by many vendors.

The idea sound neat, however the mass-market (international) will hold Multi-Touch fate. :)
 
This sounds a bit like the technology from Minority Report (the film) to me.

Let's hope Apple don't start arresting people for stuff they haven't done yet :)

Cannot believe I forgot to add this movie to the list of fantasy technology. ;)

Does predictive text count?
 
Last I checked Apple invented the mouse:apple:
If you want to be ignorant, sure.

Anyway, I think this thing would be useless without an LCD behind it.

Oh, and Microsoft surface isn't constrained to the coffee table type device, in theory it works with any capacitive touch screen.
 
Can't wait, looks awesome. I really don't think we will see this for about 2 years though. Right now Apple is gradually training us with little samples of Multi-Touch being put into the products and then in about 2 years when they release 10.6 they will fully implement it with these devices and the laptops will probably be keyboardless and just have a surface like this.

Now I do wonder about one thing... Windows is going to be adding this to Windows 7 and I know they will not be able to implement is as well as Apple already is with hardware. But isn't anyone concerned about standardization??? Right now as far as mouse and keyboard all OS's basically function the same. But with each having their own Multi-Touch, each OS is going to have totally different chords and gestures and it will be really confusing to go from one OS to another unless they standardize these chords and gestures. Anyone have thoughts on this???
 
Anyway, I think this thing would be useless without an LCD behind it.

Oh, and Microsoft surface isn't constrained to the coffee table type device, in theory it works with any capacitive touch screen.

Sounds like it would display things somehow. And for all you feedback people, Apple had patents a while ago about how parts of this thing would raise when needed like keys either with mechanics or by being filled with gel or air or something like that.

I dunno, their line of displays has not been updated in a millenia. WHY? I have A guess.. Something big is coming.

I don't think so lol. But they are pissing me off by not updating them because I need to buy a Mac Pro soon :(

Last I checked Apple invented the mouse:apple:

No they did not. They pioneered it just like Multi-Touch but they did not invent either. Ever heard of Xerox? ;)

Now someone said this can't be out in the next OS. I highly disagree. Apple still has almost 2 years till their next OS is due and that is plenty of time. They have been planning this in stages for years. Notice CoverFlow in everything now? Notice the iPhone and iPod Touch? Notice how they have made all their keyboards basically flat now? Notice how the laptops are getting Multi-Touch trackpads? This has all been planned and is leading to full implementation with these devices by 10.6. If they don't do it by then Microsoft will beat them to it with Windows 7 and all the training Apple has done will be in vain because people will learn a different style of Multi-Touch. You are also going to see the rest of the iPods go to Multi-Touch screens with the Nano and an iPhone Nano.

I am a bit concerned with standardization with everyone having their own style of Multi-Touch as I said in my previous post. If they don't standardize it somehow it will be really confusing to users on different systems.
 
ever since I owned a Palm m515 I've said this was the future. Hooray that the world is catching up with me.
 
Again, much of this is going to be crapcanned due to prior art. Prior art that has been in place for years. Who does Apple think they are? I fully expect them to try and patent the finger next.
I think Jobs went Ape dung when Creative came at them for the iPod interface. We started to see a pickup in Apple patents soon after that. Right now I'm wondering if there is an internal web interface to submit patents inside Apple's intranet. At this rate they are going to outpace IBM soon. :rolleyes:
 
If you want to be ignorant, sure.

Anyway, I think this thing would be useless without an LCD behind it.

Oh, and Microsoft surface isn't constrained to the coffee table type device, in theory it works with any capacitive touch screen.


yeah, and in theory communism works... IN theory.

:)
 
Can't wait, looks awesome. I really don't think we will see this for about 2 years though. Right now Apple is gradually training us with little samples of Multi-Touch being put into the products and then in about 2 years when they release 10.6 they will fully implement it with these devices and the laptops will probably be keyboardless and just have a surface like this.

Now I do wonder about one thing... Windows is going to be adding this to Windows 7 and I know they will not be able to implement is as well as Apple already is with hardware. But isn't anyone concerned about standardization??? Right now as far as mouse and keyboard all OS's basically function the same. But with each having their own Multi-Touch, each OS is going to have totally different chords and gestures and it will be really confusing to go from one OS to another unless they standardize these chords and gestures. Anyone have thoughts on this???

There is a group out there somewhere trying to standardize gestures for MultiTouch technology but I simply can't find it now that I want to post the link!!
 
I say stevie and apple should go 'all out' and build this thing into a truly mondo-blowing paradigm shifting information manipulation device.
if they don't then why bother being Apple in the 21st century.

In fact didn't a certain Steve Jobs once say that he wanted to put a dent in the universe or why bother - well this is his chance.

Bet the farm on it - sh$t or bust I say

Certainly I'd buy one tomorrow in a flash and I have no new mac plans for at least two years.
 
yeah, and in theory communism works... IN theory.

:)

LOL nice. Last I heard they still haven't even figured out how to do it without the cameras which is why it is in a ridiculous giant $10,000.00 table instead of a real device. Go Microsoft lol :rolleyes:
 
No they did not. They pioneered it just like Multi-Touch but they did not invent either. Ever heard of Xerox? ;)

Actually, the mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute, although the moving ball mouse was developed at Xerox PARC about four years later.
 
There is a group out there somewhere trying to standardize gestures for MultiTouch technology but I simply can't find it now that I want to post the link!!

I'm glad to hear that and I would love to see it. I think that is going to be really important or it will all be one giant mess of a war to train people in each their own version of Multi-Touch and push users away in frustration.
 
Lot of good comments on here.

This is potentially exciting stuff.

I Liked the concept of the axiotron ModBook, where they lay the screen face up on the base of a MacBook.

Ever since the MBA hit, I have been thinking that a similar treatment to the MacBook Air, with iPhone's multi-touch would be WAY BETTER.

Solid state memory, no hinge, no double casing, thinner than MacBook Air, since it does have two folding pieces, but probably not quite as thin as just the main bottom case of the MBA. Screen face up, glass surface from edge to edge, with no raised border, like the iPhone. Also accelerometer equipped to change screen orientation to portrait view, perhaps even for all four directions, or even three, like the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Type directly on the screen, with an iPhone-like, but screen-sized keyboard, or a bluetooth external keyboard/mouse, which could be replaced with a bluetooth multi-touch input pad, using the described Advanced multitouch technology in a device the size of a keyboard. (it could even have backlit morphing key indications, similar to Kameleon universal remote controls)

More than one USB, and at least one firewire, or whatever next generation wired-peripheral bus protocols would be nicer than just one USB port, but that is do-able. As well with built in cellular network access, in addition to wifi. (even screen or voice-operated phone capabilities, with audio via bluetooth headset)

I would love it if it had a beveled charcoal-colored edge on the front side, like the iPod touch, and a black satin anodized aluminum back with a tapered profile, much like current MacBook Air, but dark, instead of silver.

THAT would be one heck of a PADD-like device. (Star Trek TNG, etc.. thin data tablet) and with some sort of well-integrated docking solution, could instantly be paired with desktop style multi touch or traditional input devices, larger video output or projection, or wired data transfer capabilities with storage arrays, and battery charging, if it doesn't employ inductive charging by that point.

I could see that technology also making it into multi-touch equipped iMacs, similar to a non-portable, and more feature packed version of what I just described, with input on the glass screen, or a multi-touch pad in place of a traditional keyboard.

Such devices as cell phone/hand-held devices, like iPhone/iPT, and even built into things as kiosk interactive displays, or other things where computer technology can act as a front end user interface for various machines and devices, just to have a gesture and typing interface right on a multi-touch screen. USS Enterprise, indeed.
 
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