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

Cinch said:
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
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Regarding phone calls, apparently, the Origami device was demonstrated on TV by someone holding it up to their ear, saying it could be used for phone calls. Yep, it looked silly :) I guess you wouldn't need to be near a hot-spot because the device could have a 3G phone built in, giving an alternative way of getting online.
 
Hattig said:
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.
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Okay, I'm just being a belligerent hardass here. So take this lightly. The iPod doesn't have a USB or a Firewire port, and it seems to be doing quite well.

Why don't we include a parallel port for my 100MB Zip drive while we are at it! Fabulous:D

Design to solve a problem not and imaginary vision of tomorrow!
 
Catch The Vision

Philsy said:
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!)
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In addition, I liked the comment about the TDK blu-ray film that would help keep your screen clear. To really make it slick, I think you would eventually have to ditch the stylus.

You're right about the text entry--until the voice recognition technology becomes what we've all hoped it would.
 
Cinch said:
Okay, I'm just being a belligerent hardass here. So take this lightly. The iPod doesn't have a USB or a Firewire port, and it seems to be doing quite well...
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Huh? My iPod mini has FW and my Shuffle has USB.

Assuming you mean there isn't a standard USB port, my response would be 'so what? it ships with a connector that has the right format at the end that doesn't plug into the iPod.'

edit: typo
 
jouster said:
Huh? My iPod mini has FW and my Shuffle has USB.
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port to take another device, i think that is what we are refering to.

I'm thinking of the grotesque back end of a Dell laptop.
 
Philsy said:
I think Steve Jobs said of the original iMac, he was giving people something they didn't realise they wanted.
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The original iMac is a computer. We have computers before the all in one iMac (which is not the first all in one Mac, nevermind PC).

Cinch
 
Philsy said:
I think Steve Jobs said of the original iMac, he was giving people something they didn't realise they wanted.
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I think he meant to say that the iMac solve two things. One, make personal computer easy for the masses, and two, make PC aaesthetically more pleasing (yes this is a problem, unless you're an idealist right or left):D
 
Cinch said:
I think he meant to say that the iMac solve two things. One, make personal computer easy for the masses, and two, make PC aaesthetically more pleasing (yes this is a problem, unless you're an idealist right or left):D
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So maybe we don't know we want a tablet computer in the same way we didn't know we wanted a raspberry coloured, see-through computer.

No, I'm not convinced either...:confused:
 
Microsoft does a lot of research, too

Granted, MS has bigger pockets and a full research division, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that Apple has nothing specific in mind but just thinks touch-technology can be improved drastically and is putting some research into it. It wouldn't be unheard of in the history of companies for some company to research something they think has potential with no particular plans for what they hope to produce/discover.

On a related note, that multi-touch screen interface that had a video going around a while ago looked really promising, but part of me was thinking, what does this do to the menu/window paradigm? If I can be moving the window and sending commands via the menus at the same time, the software needs to be more complex to handle that...

And while we're improving software, another thing occurs to me: I only have so many appendages, and the more I put to use, the more dexterity and coordination is required. Where's the revolution in speech/facial-expression/telepathy interfaces? C'mon, Apple, I want a Mac nano I can slip in my shirt pocket and whisper dark secrets to as it summons up iTunes in my freakin' MIND! (preferrably while not also frying my brain)
 
iPod strategy

I think Apple will use a similar strategy on this device as they did with the original iPod. Each version of the iPod added new useful features (e.g. ical sync, address book, games, color, iphoto, video). I think the initial device will simply be a super video iPod. It will include all the features of the iPod, but will add a notepad. Subsequent versions (or perhaps some of these features will be on the first version) will include wifi & bluetooth, web browsing, isight, ichat, Mail, preview & the ultimate front row remote. I think eventually it will have the ability to be the ultimate mac desktop companion, running VNC to remotely run any Mac program from inside your home or from another continent. It will also be a functional input/control device when you are at your desktop (functioning like lemur or fingerworks) and providing additional display real estate).

I would love a device like this and would buy new hardware everytime they improved it.:)
 
Cinch said:
Okay, I'm just being a belligerent hardass here. So take this lightly. The iPod doesn't have a USB or a Firewire port, and it seems to be doing quite well.

Why don't we include a parallel port for my 100MB Zip drive while we are at it! Fabulous:D

Design to solve a problem not and imaginary vision of tomorrow!
Click to expand...

Um, an iPod isn't a computer.

This tablet will also be a computer. Maybe Firewire is too much, but USB would be useful for a keyboard/mouse/digital camera/etc.
 
blackfox said:
I look forward to seeing this come to fruition, though I look less forward to yet more threads discussing this (as of now) phantom device.
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And yet here you are. ;) Just like the rest of us.
 
Philsy said:
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.
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Ultraportables will never be the ONLY computer someone needs if they do heavy writing/typing all day. Just like a laptop will never be the ultimate high-end gamer's rig, and a tower will never be for computing on the go.

But for portability, it can be worth making sacrifices. Tablet input can be BETTER for some kinds of things (such as drawing, and using while standing up). In other ways it is a sacrifice. I tend to prefer the sacrifice of using a tiny keyboard--a very tiny/wide-format clamshell sub-subnotebook. But that's a compromise too when it comes to typing.

Whatever the compromise may be, I'll accept it for pocketability.

And like many people, I'll still need a full screen and keyboard some of the time too.
 
Damek said:
It wouldn't be unheard of in the history of companies for some company to research something they think has potential with no particular plans for what they hope to produce/discover.
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There is also the IBM approach, patent everything under the sun just in case. Such patents are used for defensive and offensive moves, either to ward off other companies' royalty demands with cross licensing or to coerce other companies into favorable contract terms for unrelated products and services.

Apple have played the cross license card frequently over the years, most notably with Microsoft and IBM.
 
iMeowbot said:
Well... The other side of that coin is the handwriting recognition on existing Apple hardware.
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Yes, but that job posting is worded more strongly than could be explained by just a "little extra for Wacom users." (Although Inkwell is very cool as far as it goes.)

That said, a lot of Apple products get only so far in the labs and then never make it to market. They still needed employees to design them!

But a job posting shows Apple's at least seriously considering bringing something to market. Maybe not a tablet Mac, maybe something in some new direction we haven't thought of. But something--if the project doesn't get canned.
 
Here is the REAL SCOOP on this crazy deely :eek:

:eek: Apple is going to buy iMAX to be announced any day now, and because of the seating of the audience in relationship to the screen they will be able to do laser tracking on each member of the audience.

They will use this to make fully interactive movies, games that the entire audience will be able to participate in.

Of course these games may be the basis for single player games in a new gaming platform.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Or maybe Disney will buy iMAX and then Apple will buy Disney, it could be a lot cheaper this way -- Steve will acquire the nickname of Max :eek:
 
I think you were born a few generations to soon

Damek said:
Granted, MS has bigger pockets and a full research division, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that Apple has nothing specific in mind but just thinks touch-technology can be improved drastically and is putting some research into it. It wouldn't be unheard of in the history of companies for some company to research something they think has potential with no particular plans for what they hope to produce/discover.

On a related note, that multi-touch screen interface that had a video going around a while ago looked really promising, but part of me was thinking, what does this do to the menu/window paradigm? If I can be moving the window and sending commands via the menus at the same time, the software needs to be more complex to handle that...

And while we're improving software, another thing occurs to me: I only have so many appendages, and the more I put to use, the more dexterity and coordination is required. Where's the revolution in speech/facial-expression/telepathy interfaces? C'mon, Apple, I want a Mac nano I can slip in my shirt pocket and whisper dark secrets to as it summons up iTunes in my freakin' MIND! (preferrably while not also frying my brain)
Click to expand...



I think you may have been born a few generations to soon.

:) Here's to hoping for reincarnation!!! Well if you get to be a human and assuming apple is still around in 80 years.
 
jaredbbauer said:
Why couldn't they have this as an option? If they did I would buy one in a heartbeat!

http://news.com.com/2100-1041-5057530.html
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Those laser projection keyboards look cool but disappoint. I finally got my hands on one after the first would-be model turned into vapor, and ended up sending it back. It was much too awkward and error-prone to be useful. Perhaps in the future somebody will get it right, but it's not ready for prime time.
 
salmon said:
The one criticism I've seen about a small tablet-type device is "no one is going to carry around something that doesn't fit in their pocket". I guess that would be true for some people, but there are scads of people (like me) that carry around paper organizers, and this wouldn't really be any bigger than one of them. The battery life is a bigger issue, I would guess.
Click to expand...

Didn't "they" say this about the original iPod too? Also, with fuel cells not too far off, imagine the possibilities an ultramobile - ultrathin - tablet from Apple. I like the 7-8" size, but say at a thickness of the new video iPods...That would be pretty sweet...
 
Another possibility

I'm not sure if anyone has suggested this yet, but has anyone considered the possibility of a 'transistion' device? The idea is simple. Add one of these new multi-touch displays to the iMac line. Now you have two ways of interacting with the computer instead of just the keyboard and mouse. The provides the opportunity to expose a large number of people to the concept of using touch to interact and even gives them the opportunity to become comfortable with this method. Say, 2 years later, and Apple releases a tablet version, which to those that already have experience really is just a portable computer to them and not necessarily something new or novel. See where I am going with this? Just because Apple is working on a multi-touch display doesn't mean that it is destined for a tablet, at least not right away.
 
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