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Apple Tablet Likely to Include Front Facing Camera?
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the iPhoneOS with a GUI library with slightly bigger (or auto-proportionate/scaling) control widgets and a couple new twists to perhaps run a few more concurrent apps is still iPhoneOS.
This more likely is going to be much more like when Mac OS went from the black & white 9" screen Original macs to the color and variable screen size Mac II. That wasn't a new OS. Not even close. The libraries associated with the OS got bigger and the programs got slightly more complicated ... but it didn't require a new OS.
Folks are muddling GUI with OS. GUI libraries can be augmented and evolved without radically changing the OS. All Apple has to do is extend the CocoaTouch library just a bit to make this work. The rest will largely be exactly the same as it.
A forked OS means apple would have 3 separate (but coupled) development teams. That likely would create more problems than it would bring benefits.
The capabilities of the Tablet/Slate relative to the iPhone could easily be the same relationship that a XServe or high end MacPro now have relative to the Mac mini. The high end hardware gets to showcase some features first. After hardware shrinks and technology matures then the features show up on the smaller device.
All the more to follow that strategy now that Apple has a chip design team. The earlier versions of their work goes into the bigger, more expensive machine. When do a chip tech shrink and it is cheaper move it into the more affordable, smaller machines and distribute the development costs over even more million devices.
Except for things having to do with the size of the screen they (touch/phone/tablet ) are going to be much more the same over the long term than different. Zero reason for a new OS. [ There might have been some motivation back when memory storage was much more extremely limited, but there is is budget now. Except for folks who try to pack rat everything they own onto these devices ... there is enough space for the same code for all devices ... just like in the mac product line. ]
I doubt that anyone here is delusional to the point of expecting a two button mouse - at least
not while The Steve is still at Apple.
Even the PowerBook G5 is more likely than a two button mouse!
I hope they don't get their cameras from the same people who made the HP webcams, being black I want to be able to log into it..
I can see it already.
iPad: No user present, please look into the camera please.
Me: I'm looking right at it you piece of crap.
iPad: No user present, please look into the camera please.
Me: Sweet Jesus, not only am I stuck with just an iPhone on steroids, but I can't even use it. *Gives iPad to coworker*
iPad: Greetings new user, would you like me to setup an account for you?
Me: Aaaaaarrrrrrggggggg!!!!
Hahahaha! I said I wasn't going to comment on the tablet again until the announcement on the 27th but that was funny. I could see that happening lol.
Why front facing camera?..I'll tell you:
Rumor 1: front facing camera
Rumor 2: multitouch sensitive casing
Rumor 3: amazing new interface with learning curve
Rumor 4: patent applications for video eye tracking/head tracking
Fact: a tablet form factor is not an iPhone. It's bigger and heavier. Holding it in one hand while tapping it with the other will be fatiguing and prone to knocking it out of your hand. Also, the hand holding it will always need to have one finger somewhere on the screen to hold it securely.
Hence the new operating system will allow you to comfortably hold the tablet with both hands, while the front camera tracks your head and eye movements to elements on the screen, and your fingers gesture on the back casing what to do with the screen element. It could even automatically scroll a written page while you read it based on your eye movements.
Any thoughts?
Rumor 1: front facing camera
Rumor 2: multitouch sensitive casing
Rumor 3: amazing new interface with learning curve
Rumor 4: patent applications for video eye tracking/head tracking
Fact: a tablet form factor is not an iPhone. It's bigger and heavier. Holding it in one hand while tapping it with the other will be fatiguing and prone to knocking it out of your hand. Also, the hand holding it will always need to have one finger somewhere on the screen to hold it securely.
Hence the new operating system will allow you to comfortably hold the tablet with both hands, while the front camera tracks your head and eye movements to elements on the screen, and your fingers gesture on the back casing what to do with the screen element. It could even automatically scroll a written page while you read it based on your eye movements.
Any thoughts?
Gotta' have the front facing camera for iChat; remember we aren't dealing with the iPhone....lol
