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

[Thanatoast]

Since we're all fantasizing I propose this:

How about a pcmcia slot (or that new one from the MBP) thus leaving space for a EVDO modem? Then, instead of having a phone, you could have skype or somesuch. An always-on, portable internet-based phone.

That's not even counting audio or video iChats.

 

[baddaddy]

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.
QUOTE]


I think you are absolutly right. As I sit here I can think of several uses ways that I would use such a device daily.

1) At work. I work on the salesfloor of a bedding company. I could look up prices, cost and write contracts with the customer without breaking the moment up by walking to my pc.

2) Portable media. Movies, TV, and Music to go...thank you very much.

3) Web browsing.


4) Interfacing. Use it as an interface for audio-avdio programs as shown in patents.

5) Email anywhere.


I don't want this to replace my imac, but I don't want a toy either. I want something that is functional and portable. I want something that helps me do basic computing anywhere, and create everywhere.

I think that is the genius behind apple computers. Right brained people get them, want them, use them, and create with them. They are made to produce. This format simply makes it easier for people to do so.

 

[yac_moda]

I have a tooth implanted in my mouth that has a laser that scans my tongue and lips for PERFECT voice recognition.

I have BT solar microphones glued to finger nails that can hear my joints bend and my finders tap the table for keyboard and touch-pad.

The actual computer in inside my special shoes.

I have another mic glued into my belly button so the computer knows when to feed me.

I have another mic near my tail bone that can tell when I am sitting for too long and it shocks me when its time to exercise, and then it counts my footsteps and pace to tell how fast I am walking or running. The one in my belly button tracks my heart rate.

That same mic can hear me FART and the computer tracks what I eat so it automatically eliminates the foods from my diet that give me gas.

If some one yells at me all the mics can hear it and the computer automatically shots them with a Taser.

The computer can detect when my boss or anyone else is lying and so it automatically tells him off, quite obnoxiously, and then I apologize, this way I get to be nice to everybody all of the time.

It can also measure other stresses in peoples voice, so when a woman in love with me it tells me HOW MUCH she is loving me at the moment and I use this to know what things she likes to do most and what parts of my personality to accentuate. Thus, I know her better then she knows herself.

Also, I have these really small speakers in my ears that have fuel cells that run off of ear wax, this is how the computer talks to me without other people hearing.

Oh, and the computer itself is quite powerful and small but uses a LOT of power so I have a special attachment that extracts my urine and that goes to the fuel cell to power it.

These are patches in various places on my body that the computer stimulates now and then to give me exercise and build my strength.

If I do something wrong the computer zaps the patch over my heart which knocks my down like having the breath knocked out of me.

As long as I put on by heart stimulator patch each day the cyber police leave me alone, and I can go into the police free zones !!!

And if I continue to put it on concurrently for the last 90 days, then I can also get the better jobs, of course.

The RFID in my shoe is used to ID me for purchasing and my computer keeps my personal record of purchases and all purchases are also confirmed over the internet and with my banking and or trading accounts.

Its so easy to buy and trade things now for money sometimes the computer has to tell me to confirm the price, it even steps in and helps negotiate when it seeing an opportunity to barder, I have her set aggressive negotiations in ALL business dealings.

Its soo hard to find work these days because the standards have become so HIGH with the worldwide competition, but this also makes things very cheap, even the prices of houses has started to come down and land is no longer going up now that people are moving into space and living at sea.

And I have PLENTY of money in the bank since I got that low interest loan for a couple of million since I agreed to put my organs into the organ bank should I die. When they did my gene analysis they found my blood type to be rare and I had some valuable traits so my overall value was pretty good, especially since there turned out to be an above average number of potential wealthy buyers in my gene market.

 

[balloot]

I am 100% sure that Apple is, at the very least, devoloping a Tablet Mac.

How do I know? Slipped into Tiger was this interesting feature that only would be noticed by Cocoa programmers. Cocoa is the Apple designed-and maintained technology that programmers use to create the interface for Mac programs. Anyway, these methods were slipped into Cocoa upon the release of Tiger. Now, keep in mind that these are programming calls used, by definition, only on software that runs on Mac OS. You can confirm this by googling "NSEvent Cocoa":

In the NSEvent class:
Getting Tablet Proximity Information
– capabilityMask
Returns a mask whose set bits indicate the capabilities of the tablet device that generated the event represented by the receiver.

– deviceID
Returns a special identifier that is used to match tablet-pointer events with the tablet-proximity event represented by the receiver.

– isEnteringProximity
Returns YES to indicate that a pointing device is entering the proximity of its tablet and NO when it is leaving it.

– pointingDeviceID
Returns the index of the pointing device currently in proximity with the tablet.

– pointingDeviceSerialNumber
Returns the vendor-assigned serial number of a pointing device of a certain type.

– pointingDeviceType
Returns a NSPointingDeviceType constant indicating the kind of pointing device associated with the receiver.

– systemTabletID
Returns the index of the tablet device connected to the system.

– tabletID
Returns the USB model identifier of the tablet device associated with the receiver.

– uniqueID
Returns the unique identifier of the pointing device that generated the event represented by the receiver.

– vendorID
Returns the vendor identifier of the tablet associated with the receiver.

– vendorPointingDeviceType
Returns a coded bit field whose set bits indicate the type of pointing device (within a vendor selection) associated with the receiver.

Getting tablet pointing information
– absoluteX
Reports the absolute x coordinate of a pointing device on its tablet at full tablet resolution.

– absoluteY
Reports the absolute y coordinate of a pointing device on its tablet at full tablet resolution.

– absoluteZ
Reports the absolute z coordinate of pointing device on its tablet at full tablet resolution.

– buttonMask
Returns a bit mask identifying the buttons pressed when the tablet event represented by the receiver was generated.

– rotation
Returns the rotation in degrees of the tablet pointing device associated with the receiver.

– tangentialPressure
Reports the tangential pressure on the device that generated the event represented by the receiver.

– tilt
Reports the scaled tilt values of the pointing device that generated the event represented by the receiver.

– vendorDefined
Returns an array of three vendor-defined NSNumber objects associated with the pointing-type event represented by the receiver.

 

[iMeowbot]

I am 100% sure that Apple is, at the very least, devoloping a Tablet Mac.

This is all existing Wacom support. See?

 

[NewtypeCJ]

I would love an Origami-esque Mac device (iTablet? iPad?) that has a 7-8" screen. Here's a short wishlist:

- decent battery life (6-8 hours of continuous use, more in sleep mode)
- one-touch wake-up from sleep, kind of like iPod -- you touch it and it's already on and ready.
- Front Row or iTunes-style interface for music, videos and photos.
- 20/40 GB configurations
- Simple versions of iLife/OSX apps like Mail, iChat, iCal, Preview (for PDF booklets) and Safari. Bonjour access so you don't need internet to interconnect. New iChat lets you send doodles with messages.
- A tray of widgets (6-8) that you can swap out for use on the go -- for weather, driving directions, dictionary, calendar, calculator, etc.
- Wifi for buying iTunes tracks and TV at wifi hotspots, bluetooth for interacting with your Mac desktop (maybe being able to pull up and display documents remotely) or AirTunes/iPod HiFi
- Dock sync-up with dekstop Macs. When docked, device acts as a picture frame / iPhoto slideshow viewer / iTunes remote.
- Simple note-taking / doodling application (maybe based on Pages?)
- Ability to run presentations from Keynote, slideshows from iPhoto (with accompanying iTunes tracks) to TV or other display.
- Simple password protection (symbols or squiggles or signature) as an anti-theft measure.

Price: ???

 

[balloot]

This is all existing Wacom support. See?

OK. So how does this contradict my point that Apple is surely working on a tablet?

 

[yac_moda]

I am 100% sure that Apple is, at the very least, devoloping a Tablet Mac.
[/i]

Uuh, UuuuuuH, Huuuu,

Do you think any of these calls indicate NATIVE tablet support, please indicate which ones.

Tiger will automatically configure itself to support a tablet if one is attached, like a Wacom tablet through the USB.

I remember Apple demoing a tablet at ATG Night at WWDC, I think it was 1991 I AM STILL HOLDING MY BREATH !!!

 

[DStaal]

I doubt Apple would be ready for anything with this yet this year. Though maybe.

A good touchscreen minicomp is probably something that will be a hit when it finally gets released. Apple is a likely candidate for someone to finally get it right.

The problem is, almost right is nothing in this case. A dedicated PDA or smartphone or laptop does most of the job, and are easier to use then an almost minicomp.

What I think people are aiming for is something along the lines of Star Trek's PADD: A universal interface to your personal computer system, that you can carry and use on the fly, without any other tools. It's the mobile interface. You probably have a more efficiant data input interface in some fixed location as well. (Keyboards are faster and more accurate input devices than anything else we've ever dreamed up. There might be a better layout, but it easily beats anything else.)

It would need to sync/share data and programs easily with the rest of your system (though for some users it could be the whole system). It would need to be easy to use and learn to use. It would need to be easy to carry and charge.

Done right, it would be amazing. Done wrong, it is trash. Apple can probably do it right. When? Don't know.

 

[balloot]

Uuh, UuuuuuH, Huuuu,

Do you think any of these calls indicate NATIVE tablet support, please indicate which ones.

Tiger will automatically configure itself to support a tablet if one is attached, like a Wacom tablet through the USB.

I remember Apple demoing a tablet at ATG Night at WWDC, I think it was 1991 I AM STILL HOLDING MY BREATH !!!

They all do. Cocoa is an API that is created and supported solely by Apple. All of Apple's programs (Mail, Safari, iTunes, etc, etc) are written in Cocoa. NSEvent is the class that handles events in all these programs. They have now equipped it to handle tablet events.

 

[iMeowbot]

OK. So how does this contradict my point that Apple is surely working on a tablet?

The APi only proves that Cocoa has support for tablets that already exist. It demonstrated nothing about new products, all the listed features are already implemented.

 

[balloot]

The APi only proves that Cocoa has support for tablets that already exist. It demonstrated nothing about new products, all the listed features are already implemented.

Cocoa IS ONLY USED FOR PROGRAMS THAT ARE MADE FOR MAC OSX. If a tablet is going to run Mac OSX, it must be made by Apple. I don't see how you people don't get this...

 

[balloot]

The APi only proves that Cocoa has support for tablets that already exist. It demonstrated nothing about new products, all the listed features are already implemented.

In what Mac tablet are those features implemented? Am I missing something?

 

[iMeowbot]

In what Mac tablet are those features implemented? Am I missing something?

All those features are already supported using Wacom tablets. Tiger introduced a new interface that's much more efficient, but the support has been there for years.

 

[yac_moda]

They all do. Cocoa is an API that is created and supported solely by Apple. All of Apple's programs (Mail, Safari, iTunes, etc, etc) are written in Cocoa. NSEvent is the class that handles events in all these programs. They have now equipped it to handle tablet events.

I do NOT agree with your interpretation of the purpose of these features in any way.

Apple WILL NOT ship some kind of tablet device until their testing and integration teams indicate that these features are robust enough that a new device would be revolutionary.

At least that is how Apple normally does it.

Your knowledge of the APIs does not indicate any special kind of knowledge, there are lots of developers in these forums.

 

[balloot]

I do NOT agree with your interpretation of the purpose of these features in any way.

Apple WILL NOT ship some kind of tablet device until their testing and integration teams indicate that these features are robust enough that a new device would be revolutionary.

At least that is how Apple normally does it.

Your knowledge of the APIs does not indicate any special kind of knowledge, there are lots of developers in these forums.

So you really think that they updated the Cocoa API to handle tablet events just for the heck of it? You know, because there are tons of people sitting around Apple with nothing to do so they just had them go modify Cocoa....

I said nothing about the shipment of a tablet Mac. All I said is it is a slam dunk that they are developing one right now.

 

[texasmafia]

Cocoa IS ONLY USED FOR PROGRAMS THAT ARE MADE FOR MAC OSX. If a tablet is going to run Mac OSX, it must be made by Apple. I don't see how you people don't get this...

I don't see how you don't get it.

I think everyone else on this board gets it so apparently you are the odd man out.

 

[balloot]

All those features are already supported using Wacom tablets. Tiger introduced a new interface that's much more efficient, but the support has been there for years.

But here's the question - WHY did Tiger introduce a new interface that's much more efficient? How many other obscure 3rd party products have caused Apple to update one of the main classes in its central application development API?

 

[balloot]

I don't see how you don't get it.

I think everyone else on this board gets it so apparently you are the odd man out.

Hey, I tried. If you guys want to sit around and pontificate about something that's blatantly obvious, be my guest.

 

[yac_moda]

But here's the question - WHY did Tiger introduce a new interface that's much more efficient? How many other obscure 3rd party products have caused Apple to update one of the main classes in its central application development API?

And they shipped Jestures that may have been better than anyone else and are probably patented in Mac OS X in Jaguar but they have not shipped a tablet yet.

BUT Wacom has shipped a revolutionary LCD touchscreen tablet and other new tablets, soo is Apple's tablet developement gone beyond a normal level of experimentation -- this is not indicated.

Apple would include features that they want to own in patents just to ensure that they own it. Patenting something and then not shipping my not be defendable in court especially if someone else ships it.

 

[yac_moda]

Hey, I tried. If you retards want to sit around and pontificate about something that's blatantly obvious, be my guest.

The API is obvious your distictions of it are not.

 

[balloot]

And they shipped Jestures that may have been better than anyone else and are probably patented in Mac OS X in Jaguar but they have not shipped a tablet yet.

BUT Wacom has shipped a revolutionary LCD touchscreen tablet and other new tablets, soo is Apple's tablet developement gone beyond a normal level of experimentation -- this is not indicated.

Apple would include features that they want to own in patents just to ensure that they own it. Patenting something and then not shipping my not be defendable in court especially if someone else ships it.

Please humor me and explain exactly how any of Wacom's products make use of the Cocoa API.

And there is no patent involved in simply handling tablet events in a system API. Windows has been doing it for years.

 

[yac_moda]

Please humor me and explain exactly how any of Wacom's products make use of the Cocoa API.

And there is no patent involved in simply handling tablet events in a system API. Windows has been doing it for years.

It not my job to save you

 

[balloot]

It not my job to save you

Translation: "I dunno"

 

[iMeowbot]

But here's the question - WHY did Tiger introduce a new interface that's much more efficient?

I reckon it was probably related to the fact that the old interface kind of sucked, it was a bit of a CPU hog.

How many other obscure 3rd party products have caused Apple to update one of the main classes in its central application development API?

What is so obscure about tablets? Graphics applications comprise one of the core Mac markets, tablets are very popular in that market, and all the key graphics applications have been tablet-aware for years.