Apple Tablet Interface to Come With 'Steep Learning Curve'?

[zombitronic]

Am I the only one that thinks this could be some sort of eye recognition? have your eyes be the mouse cursor and press a button on the back side of the slate to confirm a click. Add voice command use instead of a keyboard (but with virtual keyboard as an on/off option) and we're talking the next step here! If anything it'll greatly reduce smudges on the screen lol

I don't know if the cursor would ever be directly tied to your gaze, but given Apple's patents on interface interaction through gaze vectors and facial expressions, something like this could be entirely possible. That would require some learning.

Article Link: Beyond Multi-Touch: Voice, Gaze, Facial Expression Recognition

 

[stagi]

No way, apple will not release something that has a steep learning curve. They are all about great UI that makes it natural for the user. I do think it might be groundbreaking and have features we haven't seen but they will be easy for people to pick up.

 

[DMann]

No way, apple will not release something that has a steep learning curve. They are all about great UI that makes it natural for the user. I do think it might be groundbreaking and have features we haven't seen but they will be easy for people to pick up.

True, if the Apple Tablet were to have a steep learning curve, then the Courrier's would be off the charts.

 

[KSpider]

Steep learning curve means very easy to learn.

 

[davidangel]

Am I the only one that thinks this could be some sort of eye recognition? have your eyes be the mouse cursor and press a button on the back side of the slate to confirm a click. Add voice command use instead of a keyboard (but with virtual keyboard as an on/off option) and we're talking the next step here! If anything it'll greatly reduce smudges on the screen lol

I had thought of this too. Seems especially intriguing when you consider this article. Such technology would, I imagine, make sensing exactly where a user is looking much more plausible.

How crazy would that be?

 

[iMacmatician]

The "source" never (supposedly) said anything about a steep learning curve, just that they "hoped we liked learning".

Maybe the "meeting" was about how they'll have some massive number of textbooks available day one.

That was the first thing I thought of after reading that part.

 

[ddarko]

Oh come on people, take off the stupid hat and use some common sense. Weeks before Apple introduces this new product, when it still refuses to publicly announce the DATE of the product launch, let alone acknowledge what the product is, Apple holds a "meeting regarding some of the new things coming" for some people, confirms the existence of the product at said meeting, reveals key details about its interface to the meeting's participants and then an Apple employee saunters out of this meeting and drops a line to friend Tom that you'd better like learning?

Does this friend Tom work at myspace?

Is Cult of Mac actually gullible enough to believe this crap or is it just trying to pump up internet traffic to its site to increase ad revenue?

Does anyone who doesn't have a vested financial interest in disseminating this BS as far and wide as possible actually find it even remotely plausible? Even the idea this is an anonymous targeted Apple leak is not credible because: (1) those candy treats go to high profile mainstream sources like the WSJ or the Times, not Tom, a reader of Cult of Mac who has a friend who works at Apple (another giveaway that this rumor is complete fiction: Apple's deliberate leaks never say where the source works, it's always left vague like "people in a position to know" or "people close to the matter"); and (2) this rumor is negative. Saying "you will be surprised at how well it works" is a positive spin rumor. "Hoped we like learning" has a negative, ominous slant to it which any native or fluent English speaker can readily pick up.

I don't believe a single word of this rumor and that includes "and" and "the."

 

[gohanmzt]

I like learning.

Me too, bring it on!

 

[gohanmzt]

Using the iPhone touch keyboard was reported as being difficult to get used to when it first came out.

Now I can't imagine having to actually press down on physical keys on my phone. I type so much faster without it.

Using a Qwerty keyboard has a learning curve too...remember when you couldn't touch type?

I STILL can't

 

[ChrisA]

maybe it will even have a physical keyboard on the back. Oh I love rumors.

Yes that would explain the part about "steep learning curve too. Typing while the display is face down on your lap would require some skill. But there are other
ways this might work, some even harder to learn....

What about a built in web cam that understand American Sign Language

Or an eye tracker and you draw text by moving your eyes.

What if the tablet comes with glasses and has a 3D display and you work the interface by moving objects with you hands in a virtual 3D world.

what if it has a touch sensitive screen on both sides?

 

[batchtaster]

I'm up for a challenge. I think it's about time there was a new paradigm, cos the current desktop paradigm is kind of boring and so 30-years-ago. Even if the world is not yet ready, I still think it should be ready.

And "steep learning curve" in the context of an Apple product should still be quite easy. People learn to drive all the time and that involves the prospect of killing someone, so if ppl actually think about what they're doing, a new tablet interface shouldn't be a big deal.

Plus, you don't have to have one if you don't want, so if you object to having to learn something new, don't get one: problem solved.

 

[wizard]

For whom, the developers or the users.

The first thing I thought was that you guys got this all wrong as the learning curve is for the developers. This would make sense if the 3d interface was throughout the device and it's applications.

In the end though I think it is just well place manipulation of the market. There probably was a meeting about some new device where they all sat around trying to decide who's chain to jerk next. It's shameful that people are so easily manipulated. Great for Apple because that one little blurb is probably worth 50 million in advertising.

Oh well twenty days left.

Dave

 

[woode]

I personally welcome a steep learning curve.

Let me rephrase this for you so it's a little more Simpsons-ish:

"I, for one, welcome our new steep-learning-curve overlords."

Ridiculous, yes?

I'm sure once the method is learned it will be graceful and elegant, but be prepared for it to be attacked for being difficult.

Steep, difficult learning curve ≠ graceful and elegant. At least for computer UIs. Think of how graceful and elegant the iPhone UI is (and the Mac's, for that matter). Was it hard to learn? No.

 

[pags]

I really just want to be able to use handwriting recognition so I can take notes in meetings where a laptop is too obtrusive.

 

[iDisk]

Introducing iSlate Clean. Comes with a Objective C compiler. Think Different. You make the tablet do what you want.

Just like what Flanders said. Just make it insanely fast and just have xcode built in and allow us developers to build whatever we want on the go!

iDisk

 

[BobVB]

Advanced right-click

With the Fingerworks reminder I think that is what is being referred to, and it will be a 'steep learning curve' like right click was: there will be alternative ways to do things, but the power user gesture options will be there to use and learn.

I can't tell you how many people I run into that don't even know there is a right click on a Mac…

 

[NiuFengLe]

Interface

Touch sensitive interface on the back side。

There was once a patent application posted that showed the touch sensitive surface on the backside of the device. The interface was to be displayed on the screen. I am willing to bet that your initiate the keyboard with a thumb position somewhere on the screen surface and then a keyboard appears on screen in the same proximity where you are to touch the back side of the tablet. When you hit a key it will light up to know that you have hit the correct key.

Basically both hands would be situated on either side of the device and the fingers would work a split keyboard on the back side. I could see that taking some getting used to but I bet it would work slick as hell once you get used to it. That would completely resolve the whole issue of having to place the slate on a stable surface to enter text. It would also leave a lot of room on the screen.

 

[gibbz]

Touch sensitive interface on the back side。

There was once a patent application posted that showed the touch sensitive surface on the backside of the device. The interface was to be displayed on the screen. I am willing to bet that your initiate the keyboard with a thumb position somewhere on the screen surface and then a keyboard appears on screen in the same proximity where you are to touch the back side of the tablet. When you hit a key it will light up to know that you have hit the correct key.

Basically both hands would be situated on either side of the device and the fingers would work a split keyboard on the back side. I could see that taking some getting used to but I bet it would work slick as hell once you get used to it. That would completely resolve the whole issue of having to place the slate on a stable surface to enter text. It would also leave a lot of room on the screen.

Good memory. That would definitely follow the rumors where we were told that users be shocked how the user interacts with the device.

 

[NiuFengLe]

Good memory. That would definitely follow the rumors where we were told that users be shocked how the user interacts with the device.

Here's the patent：

https://www.macrumors.com/2007/05/10/patent-multisided-and-touch-screen-ipod/

I remember that when this was posted I was trying to figure out what sort of use that it could have for something like the iPhone or iPod Touch and it just didn't make any sense. This application on a tablet device totally makes sense to me, but then again... Who the hell am I?

If this is the case I am pretty psyched, I am just wondering how the hell they will get the positioning correct because people with hands of all sizes are going to be using this thing.

 

[doctor-don]

it looks like the main argument here and this thread correctly picks up on it is:

would you consider that a mouse, or any other new innovation, had a steep learning curve when you first used it?


it is possible that this "person" meant that it is a new way of doing things, but I dont think it is right to label that as a steep learning curve. A steep learning curve means if you do not put effort into learning the process, you will suck at it and be completely lost. Using a mouse is a new process, yes, but you dont need to sit down with it for 20 minutes to figure it out. You need maybe 15 seconds to figure it out. Using a multi-touch track pad is a new process, yes, but it took maybe a minute to go ohh ahhh I see how it works, not 2 weeks.

i still say this whole "insider" info is fake and just for page views for that site.

Then you would have been scratching your head as a dyslexic person attempted to learn how to use the mouse back in 1988. It took turning the mouse around backwards to have this person be able to control the cursor with the mouse.

 

[doctor-don]

I remember that it had surfaced sometime before the iPhone and iPod touch came out. Maybe I could be wrong. I recall that I was trying to figure out what sort of use that it could have for something like the iPhone and it just didn't make any sense. This application totally makes sense to me, but then again... Who the hell am I?

If this is the case I am pretty psyched, I am just wondering how the hell they will get the positioning correct because people with hands of all sizes are going to be using this thing.

That back-of-display control was for moving objects around on the screen such that the user's fingers/hands did not obscure the objects.

 

[doctor-don]

Define steep.

 

[gibbz]

Define steep.

steep - To make thoroughly wet; saturate.

wait, what?

 

[SamuelW]

Gesturing off of the box

Whilst waving my hands tonight in front of a sensor-driven paper towel dispenser, I thought this is how the new tablet will work -- by mid-air gestures as well as on the screen.

We'll enlarge images by pulling in the air, shrink them with a quick finger pinch above the screen, brush documents away, pull them out of the air, and like magicians, point to a spot for instant actions.

This will supplement touching the screen itself, but allow it perhaps to be controlled while at an angle, as if on a bookstand.

The learning curve may also be for the machine, figuring out how to read my mind.

And if the March deadline slips, we call it the isLate.

 

[doctor-don]

And, perhaps, a deal has been struck with the creators of 'SixthSense' to incorporate it into the expected Apple device.