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Apple Rehires Newton Developer Michael Tchao

TABLET!!!!11!!!!!one!!! OMGWTFBBQ.



I kind of hope there is never a tablet just to see all of your dreams crushed.🙂
 
I don't read too much into it, since NOW is the time to rehire a bunch of proven visionaries who are hunting for a job.

They are a dime a dozen, and it is smart to grab them while others are letting them go.
 
This is great news!

Maybe now, Apple will make an iPhone or Tablet that is more capable than the current not-so-smart iToy and include an EXTERNAL KEYBOARD and PEN INPUT and turn it into a seriously smart, powerful and portable computer with some of the cool features that the Newton had in 1997 !!

1997messagepad2000.jpg
 
HiVolt said:
A bit OT, but why are the positions always a "Vice President" of this or that...

Is there a President of Product Marketing? Why is Phil Schiller the Senior VP, when its obvious he's the head honcho of the department?
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Because Steve as CEO is president of all departments
 
Maserati7200 said:
I'm not really in the market for a tablet because i don't really know what to do with one. Maybe Apple's tablet with have something new and revolutionary.


I've always wondered that myself.
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The CEO is the president of them all.

Its like the same system that we have for universities in india.

All universities only have a Vice Chancellor and the Governor of State is the Chancellor of all the universities of that state.
 
Maybe it's to aid in Apple's next big push in wearable electronics.

The only successful wearable, clothing integrated computer product to date is the Nike+iPod... and he did it.

iGlasses - augmented reality display for humans. (Robocop anyone?)

iTie Clip - records all your conversations for later reference and forwards them to the government for monitoring of inappropriate political beliefs.

iWallet - Apple already take most of your money, now they want your wallet as well.

😀
 
Newton is not a failed product by any means.

eastercat said:
It sort of bugs me that a man behind a failed product is being brought back. Here's hoping time has made him wiser.
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You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Newto was actually a successful product that Apple couldn't afford at the time. Sometimes retrenchment is required in order to save a company. Newton was very impressive considering the hardware tech available back then for portable devices.

Dave
 
wizard said:
You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Newto was actually a successful product that Apple couldn't afford at the time. Sometimes retrenchment is required in order to save a company. Newton was very impressive considering the hardware tech available back then for portable devices.
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Well, we need to distinguish between 'commercial success' and 'technological success' here... I agree it was a fine technological achievement for its time, but honestly, never really took off in the marketplace at the time, so Apple cut their losses, and canned it. That's what most people are referring to when they mention 'failed'.

But Apple learned from their Newton marketplace experience and introduced even better products. They'd done stuff like that -- for instance, with the original Mac Portable, they noted all of the design issues and pretty much addressed them all with the first PowerBook a few years later.
 
Bring on Newton 2010. 😀

It'd be great if it happens but we're pretty spoilt now with the ipod touch/iphone being such good little handhelds. The Newton did a lot of stuff better though, for sure.

The market wasn't ready for the Newton, that doesn't mean there was anything wrong with the device itself.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

This could mean a number of things that are not tablet related. Honestly I don't really get the hype with a tablet. I'd like to see Apple do something that hasn't been done before.
 
kornyboy said:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

I'd like to see Apple do something that hasn't been done before.
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A successful tablet?
 
ShiftyPig said:
I just don't see a market for $600-900 tablets. Suppose it runs full OSX - what will this thing be able to do that I can't do on a MacBook?

And what can't I do on the tablet that I could do on laptop? Type efficiently. Carry it in a backpack without scratching the screen. Connect to the Internet via an Ethernet cable...

Just because the technology exists to create something doesn't make it a good consumer product. See Segway (2001).
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ShiftyPig said:
This is the problem with the tablet: what does it replace in a person's life? An iPod replaced our CD and cassette players. The iPhone replaced cell phones that couldn't access the Internet/email/music.

If you think a tablet replaces my laptop, you're nuts. If you think a tablet will carve out some new niche in my life that I never thought possible before, you're even more nuts. Suppose it focuses on media (likely) - do I really need a $600 dongle to access my music and movies?

The only people who will line up to buy this are FBs, end of.
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QFT

I love this guy!

I only wish I was as uninhibited as ShiftyPig. I wish I felt free to parade my lack of vision of the future before the world. I dream of being unfettered by crippling imagination. How simple life would be...
 
ShiftyPig in 1902...

ShiftyPig said:
I just don't see a market for $40 motor cars. Suppose it runs a full gasoline engine - what will this thing be able to do that I can't do with a horse and cart?

And what can't I fit in the cart that I could do with the car? Carry pigs to market. Repair a broken wheel myself. Feed a horse my own farm-grown oats instead of having to buy expensive benzene...

Just because the technology exists to create something doesn't make it a good consumer product. See electricity (1898).
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ShiftyPig said:
This is the problem with the motor car: what does it replace in a person's life? The steam train replaced long stagecoach journeys and the pony express. The electric telegraph replaced letters that took 3 months to send by ship.

If you think a motor car replaces my horse and cart, you're nuts. If you think the motor car will carve out some new niche in my life that I never thought possible before, you're even more nuts. Suppose it focuses on leisure travel (likely) - do I really need a $40 horseless carriage to go to the county fair?

The only people who will line up to buy this are rich New Yorkers with more money than sense, end of.
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Q1 2010 for tablet

saving107 said:
he got rehired as Vice President for Product Marketing, which means that Apple could be done with the Tablet and now needs to find a way to Market the device to US.
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Very possible. My own idea is that this hiring indicates that the Tablet might be bigger product launch than originally expected. They already have people to handle the iPod (including the touch) and also people to handle the notebooks. This hiring would indicate to me that this business needs a dedicated person outside the groups that are already in place.
 
puffnstuff said:
I think it failed because it was ahead of its time. I look at the specs of it today and I think to myself I so want a messagepad..

Now is certainly the time to release a revamped messagepad with the netbook craze going on now and certainly there has been a lot of buzz about it coming from tech blogs and magazines. So there is an interest for it today.

Certainly it will sell more than the Air.
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Right. I think its that the tech at the time couldn't keep up with the great minds. 😉
 
puffnstuff said:
I think it failed because it was ahead of its time. I look at the specs of it today and I think to myself I so want a messagepad..

Now is certainly the time to release a revamped messagepad with the netbook craze going on now and certainly there has been a lot of buzz about it coming from tech blogs and magazines. So there is an interest for it today.

Certainly it will sell more than the Air.
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Uhhh... no you don't because you had exactly that with the Palm VII.
People think the Newton was so revolutionary, and it was... for about 5 years.
It was responsible for creating the entire "real" PDA industry ( remember John Skulley himself coined the term PDA ) .. everything before it was basically a toy ( electronic originizers they called them back in the day ), but they thing is Newton missed the mark considerably. The Palm Pilot was what struck the right balance for the time. Palm of course made the mistake of not knowing where t go next. Had they brought out the Pre before the iPhone, Apple would have had a much tougher sell to the world. That every PDA and phone was basically a pile of crap at the time made Apple's return of the king possible.

I *really* hope Apple learned their lesson on all this. That they never came out with another PDA until iPhone is a sign that they did.
 
Canal vs Caboose

not to defend Shiftypig's POV, but we should point out that another marvel of engineering- the Erie Canal, was proposed 24 years before it was finally completed. It took 15 years to build and was obsolete in as many years, replaced by the steam engine, which could also deliver goods in the winter (as it's operating system didn't freeze...)
 
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