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Interesting....

but I feel like if you wanted touch controls on the fly, and you had to flip down you're whole iMac (say 27") that would be too much.

Maybe a special version iMac that has iOS on top of OSX and is slimmer with SSD standard and no optical bay, perhaps a smaller screen for touch?
 
Interesting....

but I feel like if you wanted touch controls on the fly, and you had to flip down you're whole iMac (say 27") that would be too much.

Maybe a special version iMac that has iOS on top of OSX and is slimmer with SSD standard and no optical bay, perhaps a smaller screen for touch?

Ya like a 20" iPad.
 
I hate finger prints on my iMac screen , so i need to clean it every day..
please no!;(

That's OK, they won't be reverse engineering your existing iMac anytime soon anyway.

For those of us that would die to have this on their kitchen table however, might have a fleeting chance!
 
Touchy touch

I like the idea of switching between iOS and OSX, as long as it is seamless. If I could run my iMac with full blown OSX, then pull it down towards me and access all of my iOS apps and games, that would be pretty cool. However, I do think that a full touch OSX would be better. The iPad was a lot of fun to swipe and touch and scroll on such a 'large' screen, I can only imagine how cool it would be to do on a 27"!!!! Fingerprints aside, and potential downfalls forgotten, this direction could be really cool no matter how it is implemented. I really hope that someday (soon) we are all using 'touch' screens to interact with our computers and devices, and doing it in a 3D environment without actually 'touching' the glass would be an amazing experience. It could feel like you're actually 'touching' data. *Cheers to the future..
 
Interesting

I've said it before and I'll say it again: a slim notebook (like the Air but smaller) usable as a laptop with OSX, until you fold the keyboard back and it turns into an iPad running iOS.

It will take over the netbook market.

I don't know how I feel about the 2 operating systems OS and iOS on a desktop Mac. This would make perfect sense for something like sishaw mentioned, but as a desktop device?

I don't know.

And won't until the actual machine is releasd, but my arthritic wrist is already tingling at touch screen angle. ;)
 
Makes sense, but only for pure iOS devices

I think switching between Mac OS X and iOS would be too confusing for casual users and novices. And if you're neither a casual user nor a novice, you wouldn't need to switch at all. The major point of confusion is that Mac OS X with mousing has a "hover" mode, but iOS doesn't. You always need to tap first on iOS.

Then there's the fatigue factor of lifting up your arm, even a few inches, for extended periods. There's a word for the discomfort caused by prolonged use of a touch screen with unsupported arms: "Gorilla Arm." Here it is in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_arm

Then again, it's very likely that the patent covers future Apple designs that aren't actually shown in the diagrams. Apple must be protecting future designs with a general patent without showing specific key features, so who knows?
 
I am anti touch for computer. Just seems like an ergonomic nightmare.

That was my thought. How to use a touch interface on a desktop for 6-8 hours?

I can see this working for a couple of hours for very specific applications.

Anything longer than that you can start feeling discomfort in your shoulder and/or wrist.
 
Looks cool, not sure how it will work for stuff I do, but it does seem like the direction things are going.
 
why is everyone talking about OS switching? the patent is for switching from mouse interface to touch interface. Interface. Not OS.

Also I'd be interested to see how long those joints are going to last if some people are moving them 10-20 times a day at work....
 
Terrific idea illuminates eyeballs

Wow. Now when I have this movable, touchable screen -- touchable glossy screen, that is -- I can tilt it to finger-stab angle and then look into it to make sure every light bulb in the ceiling is actually on and I don't have to change a bulb before putting on dark glasses and working on my mirror -- sorry, screen.

Another reason not to buy an Apple monitor....
 
Wow, video editing on this will be intuitive.

Swipe scrubbing through frames, pinch to zoom for precision, tap to set markers, tap and hold to extract clip then flick it to a bin, move clip tiles...so much fun.

The article seems to make the strange assumption that it's going to be a "transition between OS X and iOS"... Which is of course absurd. There won't be two different OSs installed on the device, nor does the patent even suggest that!

The transition will be between "Windowing application for keyboard and mouse control" and "Full screen touch screen application".

For instance, a transition between modes of Final Cut between the keyboard and mouse mode for source setup, selecting the filters needed, and so on, then to pulling it down into 'touch' mode to do the 'hands on' editing work.

Maybe the editor should think a little about what they are typing would actually mean. "switching between OS X and iOS" doesn't make any sense technically, and is not mentioned at all in the quoted text. This reminds me of the "reverse hyperthreading" articles generated by 'tech journalists' misreading something, and thinking it means a technology that was actually impossible to create.

why is everyone talking about OS switching? the patent is for switching from mouse interface to touch interface. Interface. Not OS.

Goodness Gravy!

"When the iMac's display is oriented upright and relatively far from you – the keyboard/mouse input mode could be selected and basically you're operating in OS X mode.

Then to switch to a touch-based input, you'll change the orientation of the iMac's display so as to make touching the screen easier and more natural. For example, to enter touch input, you'll want to pull the iMac's screen closer to you while pushing the display screen down flat as if you were going to read a book, states the patent. In this orientation you'll be able to select a corresponding UI which should translate to using iOS."


...

"When you want to make the switch from OS X to iOS, you'll be grabbing the iMac where the patent figures show patent points 505 left and right."

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/08/the-mother-lode-welcome-to-the-imac-touch.html
 
why is everyone talking about OS switching? the patent is for switching from mouse interface to touch interface. Interface. Not OS.

Also I'd be interested to see how long those joints are going to last if some people are moving them 10-20 times a day at work....



Better read that article again dude, before saying something else that lets everyone know your intelligence level...
 
Cool, so this means the App store will come to the Mac? But so far I don't see the point of any iOS application running on an iMac-like computer... I can't imagine using Photoshop Express, Wikipedia Mobile or Skype for iPhone on a computer that actually could run the full featured and better versions of those same applications...

So I guess the entire OS X interface would have to work on Multi Touch, and the already-existing applications that we use every day on our normal computers have to be transitionned to Multi-Touch as well.

I imagine a fully touch-enabled iTunes, Finder, Safari and everything, and then the programs like Photoshop, XCode, Steam, instant messaging, etc. would work in the upright keyboard-and-mouse/trackpad mode.
 
Apple is going whole hog with this touch based form of interaction.

Good for some things like entering a phone number on an iphone touch pad.

Not good for others like placing a cursor for editing (real fun on the iphone, isn't it?)

Not good at all for text input.

Not good for graphics beyond finger painting.

Come on Apple give us MULTIPLE forms of input BEYOND the touchpad and screen and the user will love you for giving you a choice: Voice, Video, Keyboard, Keypad, Cursors, Pen.

Unfortunately Apple has TOUCH up the ass right now. At least for that, it might be worthwhile...
 
Wow, lots of assumptions based on very little. If Apple's going touchscreen on us then why bother with the magic trackpad?
The fact is that Apple fire out patents all day long. MR on a quiet day will cherry pick one of these patents and then let all you little monkeys run wild with it until a proper story comes along.
 
No need to install 2 OSs onto the new Macs. Apple just needs to make a new "Rosetta" and "Universal Binary" for OSX and iOS.

That way new Macs running OSX can run existing iOS apps, and new Apps compiled in Xcode will be compatible with both OSX and iOS devices. The Magic Trackpad will be a way for existing Macs without touchscreen to use the new Apps.
 
Does it come with an iBrace for your neck and back? I want a blue one.

If I could pop out the screen and use it as an iPad like device, that would be cool.
 
No need to install 2 OSs onto the new Macs. Apple just needs to make a new "Rosetta" and "Universal Binary" for OSX and iOS.

That way new Macs running OSX can run existing iOS apps, and new Apps compiled in Xcode will be compatible with both OSX and iOS devices. The Magic Trackpad will be a way for existing Macs without touchscreen to use the new Apps.

Doubt it. iOS apps don't support a cursor paradigm, and there would be no decent way to use the magic trackpad without (one or more) cursors. I'm sure Apple wouldn't settle for some sort of bastardized system like what's in the iOS simulator (which doesn't really handle multitouch).
 
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