Apple Refining the Touch Screen Interface? Evidence for a Tablet Mac?

[sishaw]

I wouldn't want to write a novel with one

This offers immense potential.

Goodbye traditional keyboard and mouse.

That's fine for certain specialized uses, but not for real writing. The keyboard has proven to be a particularly long-lasting means of inputing text, at least in English, from the early days of the typewriter in the late 19th century. So, what you are suggesting here is basically an "infotainment" device, and the question is: assuming one already may have an iPod and a smart phone, as well as a home computer and/or laptop, is there really room in the mass market for yet another device that duplicates some features of each of these products? Or is this thing going to be the Segway of the gadget world (i.e., filling a "gap" that for most people doesn't really exist?).

Or to put it another way: would an Apple tablet be the next iPod or the next Audrey?

One way to add a keyboard and keep a sleek look -- I wonder if a laser projection keyboard could be integrated into one of these devices, and if it would well enough in all conditions to reasonably substitute for a hardware keyboard?

 

[hayesk]

I was referring to their laptops. All the laptops still have only one button.

Uhm... your fingers are already there by the keyboard - hit the control key.

 

[nagromme]

One more pieces of evidence--the BIGGEST piece of evidence that Apple is (eventually) considering shipping a product: the recent "Handwriting Recognition Engineer" job posting.

http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2005/08/apple_hiring_ha.html

Quote:
Do you strongly believe that using a stylus and a tablet is the way to interact with computers?

Posted in August 2005, AND still current (do they need more people, or a replacement?) as of Feb 2006 (maybe someone has a better link).

I see lots of problems with tablets (one of which Microsoft's recent thumb keyboard answers nicely) but I wouldn't put it past Apple to "do it right" and I DO want the most portable, even pocketable, Mac OS X machine I can get.

PS, I had bookmarked FingerWorks and was sorry to see them go. Pretty cool stuff. Maybe I should not have worried

 

[whooleytoo]

This sounds like the future of computing to me. Seriously, I don't think keyboards and mice are going to be around forever. It'll be interesting to see how things play out..

I reserve the right to be totally wrong and change my mind about this at any given time though.

How postmodern of me.

Well, I'll keep ya company then, I too think keyboards and mice are a dated form of input. Prone to coffee spills too!

 

[~Shard~]

I'll say it again, how do you keep the screen from smudging? Protective coating of some sort?

As as for the system being used in this video, what kind of graphics card would you need to drive that thing and perform those tasks in real-time like that, let alone the processing power required in general?

 

[waveman216]

I think everything about the touchscreen would be awesome, even learning all the different inputs. If you need to use the new actions enough it'll become second nature.

The one thing I don't see them doing is putting a touch keyboard on the screen. Think about it, half of typing is knowing you're hitting the keys. I can tell when I screw up because I can FEEL that I didn't hit the right key. A touchscreen keyboard would suck.

 

[iMeowbot]

One more pieces of evidence--the BIGGEST piece of evidence that Apple is (eventually) considering shipping a product: the recent "Handwriting Recognition Engineer" job posting.

Well... The other side of that coin is the handwriting recognition on existing Apple hardware. It is already pretty good, good enough to use daily (and I do). It's definitely not perfect, though, and could use more refinement.

The current system has some real weak points. It seems to rely mostly on timing to decide If I am writing, selecting, dragging, drawing, etc. It doesn't always make the correct guess. It can also make some strange choices regarding capital letters and punctuation.

Apple still have a long way to go before a tablet can be a true replacement for a keyboard. The multiple touch stuff is neat, but there are more basic problems that need to be solved.

 

[Philsy]

Try to type more than a sentence or two on a touch sensitive screen and you'll want a keyboard back. For someone like me who writes thousands of words a day, no one has yet bettered the keyboard.

 

[w00master]

Except the price would be US$777...because we'd all be in heaven.

I think US$666 is what miCrapsoft's "Horridgami" is selling for.

Except that I don't think you understand the $666 reference. This was the original price of the Apple I.

w00master

 

[Cinch]

For one, the tech might not be up to it. Touch interfaces are really neat, and that NYU video is awesome, but what happens in a year or two? Will it still be as responsive? What about dust and grime? What if it fritzes? Do you have to replace your whole computer? What's the method of input and how reliable is it? I mean, people are going to be using this interface every day for work or pleasure, it needs to be robust.

I think you are right. I rather have a desktop and this device than say a laptop. I think a laptop is to big and delicate. I don't want wire going into a wall at a Cafe or home (of course charging it at night is different).

Cinch

 

[Cinch]

Try to type more than a sentence or two on a touch sensitive screen and you'll want a keyboard back. For someone like me who writes thousands of words a day, no one has yet bettered the keyboard.

What device on the market now that allows you to do this feat i.e. typing thousands of words on a touch screen? I think it is hard to be critical of something when you don't have experience. Of course I can be wrong, in your case.

Cinch

 

[Philsy]

What device on the market now that allows you to do this feat i.e. typing thousands of words on a touch screen? I think it is hard to be critical of something when you don't have experience. Of course I can be wrong, in your case.

Cinch

I suspect it would be hard to type on a touch screen because you need some sort of feedback through the keys - that's why computer keyboards are not touch sensitive, but require you to depress each key a fair amount. They also make a clicking sound because that's expected. Of course, you could argue that's because it's what people are used to.

The QWERTY keyboard is an anomaly in the 21st century, but no one has yet bettered it. Although, anyone remember that one-handed device that allowed you to type by pressing different combinations of five buttons? Clever idea, but never took off.

 

[iMeowbot]

What device on the market now that allows you to do this feat i.e. typing thousands of words on a touch screen?

That's nothing new. Cintiq + OS X allow this, on ordinary Macs, now. This isn't some weird, far out future stuff. And yes, it is good enough for writing "thousands of words."

 

[ccrandall77]

Given the hugely underwhealming interest in tablets (and microsoft can push things to be bought even if they're crappy, we know), I think it's obvious that a computer without a decent input device just doesn't make sense. See my post earlier today for more on that.

I agree. I thought tablets were too clunky to easily carry around, they are prone to being dropped, and it's hard to hold it in one hand and tap out a message with the other.

I think something the size of the iPod that had dashboard widgets would be the most useful. With a stylus or even with a simple voice interface it should be easy to call up a widget... you just sync your preferences to the device and 90% of what you need can be accessed with a stylus. For those other 10% of the time, it won't be so bad to have to use voice recognition, handwriting recognition, or a plan old virtual keyboard to enter in a URL or a short SMS message, etc.

 

[Philsy]

I wonder if anyone's explored the idea of borrowing from phone technology and developing a predictive text system.

 

[jouster]

Try to type more than a sentence or two on a touch sensitive screen and you'll want a keyboard back. For someone like me who writes thousands of words a day, no one has yet bettered the keyboard.

The point isn't to write thousands of word a day. Obviously, you need a kb to do that efficiently. The point is to give you access to already-written documents on the go. Sure, laptops do this, but they are not nearly as convenient. PDAs do it to, but they are too small and not powerful enough.

 

[Kuru Kuru]

Ever since I saw the mockups for the new video iPod, and heard about Apple's touchscreen patents, my Netwon fangirl radar has been going off (I keep looking for a stylus shaft in the mockups, for some reason ;P). It wasn't the right time back then, but now, with tablet PCs coming out of the woodwork, it could work - and be a lot prettier than it was back then. Those things are still useful, and the handwriting recognition on them was great. So Apple has still got the basics, they just need to put it all together.
I agree that it would have to have maybe an expresscard slot or something, and I wouldn't buy it without firewire, airport AND bluetooth. As far as cell phone standards, I wouldn't place any weight on that at all.
Apple would be the ones to get this to look elegant, but I don't know about rugged... that's a concern.

 

[Philsy]

Here's an interesting idea, which could be used with a touch screen

http://www.tengo.net/tengo_others.html

 

[Cinch]

What is it that we are trying to solve?

I guess what i'm trying to say is that we can't create a device that doesn't solve anything. What do you want to do with this device?

What does the Blackberry do again that makes your life easier? I don't get it.

Cinch

 

[the-fish]

This is interesting. If they release a touchscreen computer, I hope they don't overprice it.

 

[Philsy]

I guess what i'm trying to say is that we can't create a device that doesn't solve anything. What do you want to do with this device?

What does the Blackberry do again that makes your life easier? I don't get it.

Cinch

Good question. I guess some uses are:

Web browsing
Emailing
Presentations
Games
Music
Films
Calendar
Contacts
Document reading
Instant messaging
Phone calls
Texting

Er, that's a start.

Funnily enough, you can do most of this already on a smartphone

 

[Hattig]

Apple knows that there will be a good time to introduce the technology, and that wasn't when Microsoft's TabletPC was tanking...

A tablet PC has got to be cheap. Microsoft's origami device has the right price points, although the OS and designs aren't totally inspiring.

Battery life is also important for these things - they're oversized overfunctioned PDAs really. Origami's 3 hours is not enough. However if the hardware is going to be similar there is no way Apple can gain over Origami without having a bigger battery.

Anyway, I reckon the hardware specifications would be similar to Origami's, but in an iPod like casing. Yes, there will be an iPod-style dock connector, and locking switch. I hope there'd be USB and Firewire ports too. Oh, and a $149 leather case.

Apple will excel over Origami by having a better thought out user interface (hopefully), as the patent applications show. The software will be better and more relevant, possibly tweaked for tablet use?

Apple's 1-click for most actions interface will be a winner with a stylus/finger based input system.

I don't see Apple using cheaper, but not as powerful, XScale chips from Intel, even though they would be better suited for the task than a low power Celeron M. They'd have to create an ARM build for that, and why alienate developers. So it will be x86 based, ULV Celeron M. It won't be intended as a primary system, so the hard drive will be as small as Apple can afford - a 20GB 1.8" perhaps. Mac OS X will be cut down - maybe enough to get away with 256MB RAM by default. Of course it will have integrated graphics, wireless, bluetooth.

I hope they have a decent screen protecting layer, like the TDK BluRay disc coating stuff.

 

[boncellis]

Let me preface this by saying that I think all of the people who have posted in this thread are thinking about the evolution of the personal computer in a critical and thus laudable manner. The only thing I would add (and have in previous instances) is that a touch-based interface is not necessarily meant to replace the current mouse and keyboard, but to complement it.

Try to think of it on a much, much larger scale--as built into the OS as part of the core functionality to work with all computers. The NYU video showed several examples of how this might help a user input information in a way currently limited by the traditional interface.

If Apple can develop this the right way, what graphic-oriented design or production company wouldn't want a system running OS X with that capability? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that this isn't limited to a tablet or video iPod, it could be implemented as a central function to all computers.

 

[Cinch]

Good question. I guess some uses are:

Web browsing
Emailing
Presentations
Games
Music
Films
Calendar
Contacts
Document reading
Instant messaging
Phone calls
Texting

Er, that's a start.

Funnily enough, you can do most of this already on a smartphone

Web browsing (shopping etc.) = okay
Emailing = maybe
Games = Xbox, PS2, PSP
Music = iPod
Films = large screen TV
Calender = okay
Contacts = okay too
Document reading = okay although similar to web browsing
Instant messaging = see web
Phone calls = maybe if hot spots are ubiquitous and if they are they wouldn't be hot spots anymore. can you do without your cell?
Texting = see web browsing

How about replacing your calender book? A calender book with web access? Okay now I'm just farting air.

Cinch

 

[Philsy]

Let me preface this by saying that I think all of the people who have posted in this thread are thinking about the evolution of the personal computer in a critical and thus laudable manner. The only thing I would add (and have in previous instances) is that a touch-based interface is not necessarily meant to replace the current mouse and keyboard, but to complement it.

Try to think of it on a much, much larger scale--as built into the OS as part of the core functionality to work with all computers. The NYU video showed several examples of how this might help a user input information in a way currently limited by the traditional interface.

If Apple can develop this the right way, what graphic-oriented design or production company wouldn't want a system running OS X with that capability? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that this isn't limited to a tablet or video iPod, it could be implemented as a central function to all computers.

Interesting idea. I could sit here now and select files simply by touching them, rather than using a mouse. Much as you do with a PDA etc. And then I'd still have a keyboard for text entry.

I can see that working, you'd just need to keep a cloth handy for wiping your screen (no rude comment, thank you!)