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Apple Tablet Coming?

Re: It's a digital Photo frame!

Originally posted by bobbylee
Without going into too much details:
it's a digital photo frame!
Click to expand...

Without going into too much detail...no it's not. :rolleyes:

Apple would be the laughing stock of the tech industry and they wouldn't do that to all of us in the Mac community. :(

Whatever it is, I know it will be as revolutionary to the industry, or industries, that currently have similar hardware & software and/or service offerings, as the iPod was to the MP3 market. :)
 
Personally I like the tablet idea and think its doable, I'd certainly have use for the widget, although I'd *really* like to see either a CF slot or a PC card socket on it - be the perfect companion to my digital camera then but even assuming it didn't I'd have lots of uses for it, assuming it ran a full-blown OSX rather than some embedded system. I will say though that I'd rather it *didn't* have an inbuilt optical drive if only for weight/power considerations - theres plenty of software available to do the same to DVDs as iTunes lets you do to CDs after all (even if it does take longer) so a firewire DVD-ROM would be more than sufficient for my needs :)

And speaking of my needs what would I use such a widget for? well...

- Video watching on the move (be they TV episodes or movies or whatever)

- Music on the move

- PDA duties (contact management and so on); I can't justify buying a PDA for what I'd use it for, but I could justify it as a feature of something like this :)

- portable network widget - so I can sit with my girl when shes watching TV and geek/do any of the above stuff while still spending time with her (and not having to pay attention to the drivel she likes to watch).

- This would be great for work too - I could take it with me, if only to store various access codes and system inormation on it (I do support in a university department with lots of offices)

so what technologies do I think are essential in this thing? the following:

- reasonable processor (say a 7-800 MHz G3)
- 256meg RAM (maybe with an option for more)
- Airport (although Airport Extreme would be nice too :)
- Bluetooth
- decent complement of ports (at least the same as the iBooks)
- Decent video chip

For something like that I'd be willing to pay £1000 easy :)

One thing I would like to see is a docking cradle with a port for keyboard and mouse and support for iSync *without* needing .mac to sync between that and another mac, but thats more a pipedream I suspect.
 
Like many, I hold a healthy suspicion of what seems to be another incarnation of the "iWalk" rumor.

If Apple wanted to make handwriting recognition workable in a portable, why not make the touchpad on the PowerBooks bigger? That 17" could handle 2x or 3x bigger pads--just make a small square of it in the middle as always active as a regular tourch pad, but once the writing software is engaged the entire surface could be written on.

Yes, you still have that "wall" effect with an open laptop, but that helps hide your writing movements--keeps your notes discreet. It could also double as a portable graphics tablet. Both of those functionalities would add to the real productive usefulness of a PowerBook, as well as provide ample marketing points to beat up on the PC world with.

I think a dedicated tablet computing system is DOA. That being said, if anyone can pull a marketing rabbit out of the hat, it's Apple. There were other mp3 players before the iPod, but Apple's product instantly became the benchmark all others were and are compared to. Huge seller. Apple does not mind entering a market with competitors if it thinks it can offer a dominating, genre-defining offering that cleans house on the rest. Someday the XServe will be fully developed and adopted as a platform and then may become the "iPod" of the lower-end server market--especially if a comprehensive, all-threaded-application-inclusive, OS X native clustering solution comes down the pike, making those "clustering node" versions more appealing for animation and DV editing render farm applications. In any case, Apple has the unique ability to create a product everyone finds they needed all along.

Long story short--I think the iTablet is a stupid idea, but Apple can easily make it something we all love and have to have. Apple is the chief worldwide source of "gear-lust" tempations...
 
Originally posted by D*I*S_Frontman
If Apple wanted to make handwriting recognition workable in a portable, why not make the touchpad on the PowerBooks bigger?
...
Yes, you still have that "wall" effect with an open laptop, but that helps hide your writing movements--keeps your notes discreet.
Click to expand...

Um, not really. A pen input system wouldn't work very well without some visual feedback to the person writing. With a tablet, the feedback is vertical and someone would have to be standing over the person writing to be able to read it ... a very noticeable and unnatural situation. If the feedback is via the laptop's screeen, then it's horizontally oriented and anyone standing/seated behind the person could read what is being written ... not noticeable and very natural occurrence.

This is one reason the tablet form factor is superior to a laptop if your goal is to input in a public setting and maintain some privacy.
 
Re: It's a digital Photo frame!

Originally posted by bobbylee
Without going into too much details:
it's a digital photo frame! a la Ceiva, if you've seen one of those.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I see that your birthday is April 1.
 
Bad Market vs Apple Computer

When has poor market conditions stopped Apple from marketing anything?
What market is as competitive as personal computers or personal audio?
That has not stopped Apple before. SJ could have said "Everybody makes a personal audio player and all those features will soon be in cell phones." but didn't.
I know a tablet will never be a lap top, but if Apple does not offer a sub-note book, maybe it would be a good fit in the line up.
 
Originally posted by robodweeb
Um, not really. A pen input system wouldn't work very well without some visual feedback to the person writing.
Click to expand...

I don't really care either way about this debate, but for the record, Palm has done pretty well with a pen input system without visual feedback (only recently have a few Palm OS devices begun to use a "virtual" writing area that provides such feedback).
 
Re: 1+1=?

Originally posted by Luigi

(1) iBook being discontinued
check this link
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1906
Click to expand...

I think that is one of the more insane rumors I've heard. Apple is going to discontinue one of their most successful lines? They're going to spend R&D to replace a proven, profitable product, rather than replace a failing one?

There will be no tablet PC's coming from Apple, and the iBook is safe and secure, IMHO.
 
No tablet right now

I think the last thing Apple needs to do is try to release a tablet computer. I have a feeling it would fail because no one wants a stupid tablet computer. Why when you can have a PDA for about $300-$400 dollars or just buy a full iBook?

But, hey, that's just my opinion
 
So how much is this thing gonna cost?

The iPod cost $399 when it debuted, and all that went into it was a 5 gig HD, small b&w screen, battery, firewire interface, and 133 mhz ARM processor.

-Now if this 'thing' plays video, it'll require a decent color LCD with a GPU to drive it. Add $100 for the LCD and GPU.

-To surf the web or stream video onto it, you'll need wireless networking. Add $50 for Airport.

-You should be able to use a wireless keyboard + mouse for times you don't want to hand-write everything. Add $50 for Bluetooth.

-To run all the necessary apps on it, like full web surfing and games, it'll need a decent processor and memory. Add $150 for a 700 mhz G3 processor and 128 MB of RAM.

-A 3.65'' x 5'' wacom tablet costs $100. Expect at least that much in extra cost to add decent touch-sensitivity on the 5'' x 7'' screen.

So far, for just the basic hardware, I have $850. And I haven't included things like video out, IrDA, or USB (for connecting to your digicam). Add another $50 for OS X Lite and we're talking $900. For me this is a super-conservative estimate since miniturizing all the technology to fit into this form factor is gonna add a premium. And what about the development cost for designing something this complex?

So for $900, you have a slimmed-down iBook. What are the advantages over the iBook:
-portability (but not pocketability)
-pen-input

The disadvantages:
-no optical drive
-smaller screen
-fewer inputs (assuming no USB, no modem, no video out)

Personally, if I didn't already own an iBook, I would be very tempted by this device. Again, I think $900 is a super-conservative estimate, but even for $1000, the smaller form factor might be worth it trading off on the optical drive and 12" screen. This should have enough power to run all the iApps decently. And if Apple comes out with a light suite of office apps, this could be everything you need in a consumer laptop.
 
Hmmmm...that firewire port on the Xserve...

Here is one element...

Now i know the unix/win server crowd loves to administer their machines utilizing a PDA (e.g. compaq iPaq) or some other pda (Zarus) remotely....

And that firewire port on the Xserve's front panel looks mighty tempting to plug in some device in order to interface with it.

And Firewire over IP seems to be in the development circles.

So in this regard, where does this lead us in a tablet Mac? I think there will be a tablet, but will be targeted for teachers (how about blueboard interaction with students), businesses (order fulfillment, presentations and meetings), and sys admins.

It just sounds too good to pass up. If executed properly with focus...do a small number of things and do it great.
 
Re: It's probably a TiVO type thing (iShow)

Originally posted by unsigned
It's probably a video iPod, and everything that goes with that. Think of a TiVO that can also show what it stores.

[ ... ]

This device would:

Contain the new 80 gb 2.5" hard drive
Click to expand...

Only if you can drastically increase the throughput of the drive!

Folks, don't expect TiVO-quality video to be simultaneously recorded to and streamed from a 2.5" (or smaller iPod-size) hard drive; the throughput just isn't there, even if you use MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2. Perhaps playback-only (or record-only; no simultaneous play/record timeshifting/fast-forward "live"/pause "live"/etc) could be managed, but nothing more without serious video quality degradation.

[/quote][/b]
Store video as smallish but high quality mp4 files (encoded in hardware)

Connect to mac via firewire for maintaining library (like iTunes/iPod), import/export video.
[/b][/quote]

And invite lawsuits by MPAA ... not the greatest idea, unless there will be DRM embedded in the video streams.


Retrieve TV show listings via Bluetooth from a Mac (no membership fee required)

View stored content on the 8.4" LCD screen.
Click to expand...

BUT, if this device is going to be a "TiVO-like" set-top box 90% of the time, the $$ spent on that nice, bright screen is wasted! I mean, the screen is certainly the visual highlight of the device, if not the cost highlight of the device: why only use it <10% of the time?
 
Re: 1+1=?

Originally posted by Luigi
From here I am ASSuME:
Apple is coming out with a Hybird tablet of some type to replace the iBook
Powered by a G3
No CD/DVD (but supported via USB/FW)
30/40 GB HD
OS X (or some version of it. OS X is really *nix so some of the extras could be cut out)
Blue tooth
USB & Firewire (one of each)
Extreme Air port
10/100 NIC
Modem (not sure about this one)
256MB RAM (maybe 512)
All the iApps installed
Inkwell based HWR
Great battery life
For home users/schools/sciences
Only 1 version fully loaded for $999
Annoucment 4/1/03 8:30am on www.apple.com
Shipping 4/15/03


Lou G.
Click to expand...

I doubt it would have AE. More likely regular 802.11b Airport, due to power consumption. No modem either (size). No NIC (that would be on docking station with the modem).

BlueTooth is a must have, great for connecting keyboard/mouse or for internet connection from wired source at the dock (modem or NIC).

No iMovie (too proc intensive) needed.

Of course the Dock would be dome shaped a la the iMac (think iMac styled screen and dome, w/o the arm).

Combo drive and 10/100 NIC and modem and charger in the dome 'natch. Screen can mount horiz or vert on the dome, with on screen display switching automatic like.

Or...

It could be a etch-a-sketch for the kiddies ;)
 
Originally posted by moosecat
I don't really care either way about this debate, but for the record, Palm has done pretty well with a pen input system without visual feedback (only recently have a few Palm OS devices begun to use a "virtual" writing area that provides such feedback).
Click to expand...

Huh? I write a single letter in graffitti, then look at the screen ... yup, that's the letter I wanted ... I write the next.

The "privacy" issue isn't about having/not having visual feedback per written stroke (although, if you are doing full-form writing or certainly using international character sets, then per-stroke visual feedback is definitely necessary), but rather about the fact that if you are able to seewhat you've written, re-read it, organize your thoughts, etc, then someone siting behind you likely will also be able to.

IMHO, if you want a laptop-style with a tablet device, it's fairly simple to elevate the tablet so that it is not laying flat on the table in front of you ... but, as has been pointed out this fairly common pen-and-paper technique does not increase your privacy in all settings and in some may decrease it.
 
INewton

I see no reason that Apple couldn't be highly competitive in the tablet market.
Think about it. The Newton failed because Apple was ahead of the curve. The ideas were there, but the technology wasn't.
Now apple has a great operating system, enhanced handwriting recognition, smaller components, better battery life, wireless technology, and increased use of lightweight durable components.

I have been waiting for this product for some time now.... Bring it on!
 
what about.....?

Someone's post yesterday got me thinking. An idea was raised that a small wireless device like this could be used as a fancy remote control for the home (in fact some companies currently sell high priced versions of this very thing).

Wasn't there a story within the last month about Apple working with Sony on new projects? So let's begin the rampant speculation. What if Sony happen's to come out with new tv/stereo components that happen to accept bluetooth control? And then Apple happens to come out with a small portable touch-screen/pen computer(-lite) that happens to support bluetooth? Or maybe this could explain the infrared rumors so bluetooth would not even be required on Sony's part?

Whether or not it's in the plans, I have to say that would be a very neat feature. Not worth spending a grand on by itself but in combination with other things (change ipod playlists, movie playing, scrawl-pad, contacts, calender, etc...) it would be.
 
I acutally believe the "iFrame" idea.

- when not in use (charging), this beastie sits in a dock that presents it like a desktop picture frame. It cycles through your photos with the Ken burns effect running - I actually made one of these out of an old duo (no Ken Burns though...)

- it acts like a media pod for viewing / sharing pictures or imovies.

- view backed up DVDs

- has RCA ports for displaying pictures and movies on tv or projector

- plays MP3s of course

- can also be a wireless tablet for surfing or doing some light computing

- with bluetooth, airport, and maybe some infra red, this thing can communicate and control with just about anything in your house

I hope that this is released as a platform that developers can use to create new functionality and applications.


Hmmm, sounds like I'm thinking past the rumour stage...

Cheers,

lb
 
Originally posted by Vector
Tablet pcs do not sell that well, so unless this thing has something revolutionary about it I doubt that it will come out.
Click to expand...

If you mean under 300 dollars when you say revolutionary you hit it head on.

Why buy a "Tablet" when I can buy a laptop for 700 - 900 bucks. especially when most tablets out there now cost over 1500 dollars.
 
But if it uses rendevous and could control your TV/Projector and DVD player and Tivo and lights and control the streem of mp3s from your main mac to your stereo.... :S

I might buy one
 
Just trying to think of the things I do now with objects of roughly those dimensions -

-Read Books
-Take Notes
-show off photos

the ability to do even just those three things in a simple elegent package would make me buy this unit. I routinely carry three or four books in my bag, not to mention lots of loose paper. To be able to go all digital with my reading material would be a godsend. I can't justify buying an eBook reader now, because the screens aren't that great, the software is sloppy, and if I'm shelling out 5 bills, I want it to have pda functions.

Believe me, if they release an iPad it will be thin and light enough to hold comfortably in one hand like a paperback, and will sinc with the Mac you have at home to download ebooks.

While there may not be enough of a market for a desktop replacement tablet, there is definitely a small market for ebook readers + a small market for pda's + plus a small market for video on the go + a market for something we haven't even dreamed of = a sellable market.

My guess is that they are waiting untill the g3 goes .9 so that they can get the form factor they want with the battery life they want with the speed they need. my guess is early 2004.
 
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