Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Tablet to link TV and PC?

Re: A Powerbook with a tablet for a screen?

Originally posted by SuperChuck
I think everyone else in the world agrees that the one-button mouse is ready for extinction, but Jobs has stood his ground and lost a lot of potential customers for it.
Click to expand...

Come now, you really think that a goodly portion of potential Mac buyers have been *that* put off by the one-button mouse? Granted, even those who didn't have a sales person handy to suggest a third-party two-button mouse. I can't imagine that one or two buttons on the mouse has broken any deals.

As for me, I *like* the one-button mouse. Perhaps I'm not normal. Yes, rather, I'm sure I'm strange; but I remain enamored of the point-and-click paradigm; not the point-and-left-click-or-right-click model when some tasks *require* a right button. The control key modifier suffices for me should I choose to use it; if not, the same features are available to me through other interface elements.
 
Re: Re: A Powerbook with a tablet for a screen?

Originally posted by sanford
Come now, you really think that a goodly portion of potential Mac buyers have been *that* put off by the one-button mouse? Granted, even those who didn't have a sales person handy to suggest a third-party two-button mouse. I can't imagine that one or two buttons on the mouse has broken any deals.
Click to expand...

Sorry. I didn't mean to suggest that Apple has lost computer buyers...just mouse buyers. I was primarily referring to the new wireless mouse that deservedly received wails of disapproval on the MacRumors forum.
 
I would love to see this, anything new from Apple is always good. I don't think the possibility of it happening isn't too great, but who knows. Jobs usually has a trick up his sleve.
 
why the hell do i want a tablet to walk around my house with and control everything from my dish washer to the volume on my tv?! steve said it himself in some interview that certain things are better left as components. the complete home entertainment center run by your mac tablet, that will allow you no less than remotely flush the downstairs toilet is stupid! yeah i said it. consolodating your remotes with a sweet universal remote is one thing, but people get way to giddy about this all in one stuff. i don't wanna surf the web on my tv, because i'll do that on my laptop while i'm watching tv.

as for the last post about the one-button mouse thing (don't get me started), i would never consider not buying a mac because of that. my whole argument is apple could have made more money by offering me a two-button, scroll wheel, and bluetooth mouse that i ended up buying from m$.
 
I doubt that an Apple Tablet, in some form that it might come it, will ever use streaming wireless video, I also doubt that the TV will be controlled via the Apple Tablet. Remeber Job's position on the use of technology for technology's sake? He wants to watch West Wing, not turn on the PC, configure the PC, turn on anything else, then watch the West Wing.
 
This won't happen (not soon anyway)

Steve has never (to my knowledge) lied about Apple's development projects. If he doens't want to talk about something he says he won't(can't) talk about it. If he does say something about a topic related to development, his word is law.

Steve has outright stated that Apple will not be developing:

1. Cell phones: There's nothing Apple can bring to the table that would be a compelling technological or value proposition to the consumer. Apple would rather let the phone makers make good phones, and then write OS software and apps that work with all the features in those phones (iSync, etc).

2. Tablet PCs: consumer data shows that there's no demand for these devices. The only reason they are in the market place is because Bill Gates was enamoured with them and coerced some manufacturers in to building a few models. Sales data flesh this out, sales are pitiful.

3. Personal Video Player: consumers aren't demanding this. The experience of a feature film on a small 3" screen would be unfulfilling and not worth the effort of producing. Again, sales figures of such units seem to bear this out: people aren't looking for video in their pocket. Steve's mentioned that a video player that connects to a TV might be a possibility. (perhaps another add-on and software upgrade to the iPod??)

If anyone can point to ANY product that Steve downplayed or denied any action on that later appeared in the Apple line-up, please let us know. I Think Cringley is just way off base here with this prediction of an Apple tablet in light of Steve's comments.
 
What new products are there out there? I mean it will be tough to come up with something new that people want.

He did have a credible source saying that the company who makes Apple laptops having been designing these for months.
 
Tablet no, iPod video player yes.

Ok..listen folks $749..equals the price of the Apple Video iPod which has been talked alot about on Tech Tv recently.

Also if you think the price is too high the sony video player/mp3 player is $750 in Japan right now.

Apple will not do this tablet thing because so far MS and PC makers have made a bust selling it to reg. customers. The only folks that use this is businesses that use listing like tablets or something similar to what UPS uses.

This is not a tablet but the new Apple Video player which has been talked about ever since information leaked.
 
Saying Tablet PCs have no market value is rediiculous. Sure, right now there is none, but that was the same with the MP3 market. It was a niche market, now it's huge.

Right now, the tablet PC market is small, if there is any. Mabey a few doctor's offices here and there, but there is a demand for a notebook like computer, not a tablet PC, but something else.
 
Re: This won't happen (not soon anyway)

Originally posted by gerardrj
3. Personal Video Player: consumers aren't demanding this. The experience of a feature film on a small 3" screen would be unfulfilling and not worth the effort of producing. Again, sales figures of such units seem to bear this out: people aren't looking for video in their pocket. Steve's mentioned that a video player that connects to a TV might be a possibility. (perhaps another add-on and software upgrade to the iPod??)
Click to expand...

And really, unless you just *have* to fit all that video in your pocket, my 15-inch Aluminum PowerBook is a pretty fabulous portable video player -- among other things. I have an iPod; not that I'd want to carry around the PowerBook just for music; but for video: I get the built-in screen *and* video-out if I need it.
 
Re: This won't happen (not soon anyway)

Originally posted by gerardrj

3. Personal Video Player: consumers aren't demanding this. The experience of a feature film on a small 3" screen would be unfulfilling and not worth the effort of producing. Again, sales figures of such units seem to bear this out: people aren't looking for video in their pocket. Steve's mentioned that a video player that connects to a TV might be a possibility. (perhaps another add-on and software upgrade to the iPod??)
Click to expand...

I would love a Personal Video Player, but then I thought about how much trouble it will be to get video onto the player from various sources. It might not be worth the trouble in the end.

Of course I could always get a Portable DVD Player and just burn all of my video to DVD. (sounds like a good Christmas present to me)
 
Re: This won't happen (not soon anyway)

1. Cell phones: There's nothing Apple can bring to the table that would be a compelling technological or value proposition to the consumer.
3. Personal Video Player: consumers aren't demanding this.

1.Jobs has stated that cell phones are the future not PDAs. The iPhone that Apple has registered will no doubt be Jobs breakdown of telecomunications; a web based phone once he gets all his ducks in a row. THAT is compelling technology.

3. No one had a demand for a HD based portable MP3 player either; iPod.
 
Re: Re: This won't happen (not soon anyway)

Originally posted by Dippo
I would love a Personal Video Player, but then I thought about how much trouble it will be to get video onto the player from various sources. It might not be worth the trouble in the end.
Click to expand...

I still think Jobs had a good point when he said he wasn't too sure how many people really wanted to watch movies on a 3" screen -- again, enter the PowerBook. And for those who are using it for video other than movies -- home video; marketing materials; what have you -- the niche starts to get pretty small.
 
What I would want

I think Steve Jobs is right that most people don't want to watch TV on their computers. What people do want is TiVo. Maybe I'm cheap, but when I first heard of TiVo I just thought why can't my computer do that? It already has a hard drive and all the other components.

The other thing I want is to route my mp3 collection to multiple speakers throughout the house.

Not sure a tablet would help here, but these are the 2 aspects of a media center I would want.
 
small device

Hello!
I remembered reading something that Jobs said in that one article when he reportedly said there would be no apple-branded PDA or cell phone. He said that he is interested in a small device that could be used to "drive the TV as the vehicle for presentation," whatever that means.
 
Not gonna happen.

Tablet industry is stagnant. Sales are poor. They're complaining to Microsoft.

Won't happen for QUITE some time.
 
Personally, I'd love to have a little tablet to take into the can with me. Watch the game, or flip to internet mode and read the news. While sitting on the throne, I'd turn on and off the lights all over the house, simply because I could. Imagine the power. All from your toilet. Sign me up!
 
network standards

aiport
10/100
cat 5
wirelles
etc etc
more crap for the market biring it on...

Tablet we have laptops that are good enough
we have pdas that do the job already

we have mobile phones for christ sakes and in car entertainment centers do we need more crap

i say yes !!! not because i want one but because we need one just to rub in windows face ... big bill will not be happy if we get the pda verson of the iPod
 
The purpose of the Tablet

People seem to have this strange idea that the only use of a tablet computer is to walk around the house all day controlling your appliances with taps of a stylus. Sure that's ridiculous. That's not what you'd use it for.

I can control my TV, VCR, DVD and amplifier from my PDA, but I don't do it. The amp's learning remote neatly does it all with real buttons, and I don't have to first turn it on, select the right program folder, launch the remote program, select the right device, then press a spot on the screen. I use my PDA for many other things it is suited for.

The use of a tablet computer will be similar. Sure, some will control lights with it (personally, I prefer my effortless control of lights with motion detectors), but most will just use it for Web surfing anywhere around the house and in a cafe. It's better than surfing on a PDA over Bluetooth or WiFi. You don't have to have the bulk of an open clamshell all the time like with a laptop. I especially like the ones with the twist screens so you can have the keyboard when you want. I saw one recently where the keyboard also detaches to shed even more bulk when you want.

I would love for Apple to make something like the iBook with a twist touch screen to go between tablet and notebook. I could just point and surf lying in bed or pound out code on the keyboard while enjoying the backyard.

I mostly agree with Steve Jobs that using the computer is a personal experience that is for when I'm in front of it. However, once it starts to serve up all my music, I want to be able to control that from a remote control and have the sound piped to anywhere in the house. I want for it to notify me when it has interesting stuff when I'm doing something else - I can't sit there in front of it all day to watch for a new mail indicator.
 
Jobs has repeatedly said that Apple has no plans to merge the computer with TV. People have tried to do this time and time again; however, nothing beats watching TV on the couch or in bed. Sitting on the can, at a desk, or outside with your computer/tv is f'n stupid.
 
I have no inside information on this, but I'm going to predict that Apple is about ready to announce a significant and new A/V media-related consumer product. This could happen at this Friday's Apple Store special event or perhaps over the next week or two.

What I'm hoping for is a wireless media center that connects to your TV and/or stereo system. HP (and others) already have such products and I think Apple may be ready to introduce something similar using 802.11g (Airport Extreme). This product would allow you to use your Airport Extreme-Enabled Mac as a media server for your living room entertainment center. It would offer an iTunes-like interface to be displayed on your TV for music, an iPhoto-like interface for still images and slide shows, and (possibly) an interface to display streaming video from your Mac or from the internet.

The video option may be somewhat questionable, since that would require a reasonably powerful hardware/software decoder to reside in the media center itself. But let's face it, Airport Extreme should be able to handle MPEG2/4 streams without difficulty. Thus you could watch home video that resided on your Mac's hard drive (or CD-R or DVD-R) and eventually Apple might offer a video service similar to the iTunes Music Store. I think the video would be one way, from Mac to TV. It wouldn't allow you to record video from off-air or cable sources back to your Mac (i.e. it wouldn't act like a wireless TiVo unit).

I think this idea fits with Steve Jobs' obvious distain for so-called media center PCs. Since you'd be viewing and listening to the media on your big screen TV or stereo in the comfort of your living room.

The only questions might be how cheaply could such a device be made and do all current generation Macs have enough processing power to seamlessly run a media server while another (physical) user is actively using the same Macintosh?

Anyway, that's my prediction (or hope) and I think a product like this is more likely than a tablet Mac.
 
Here's what to make

Hardware: Aluminum skin. 8.5 by 5.5 inches (half the size of Letter size paper). 0.5 inches thick. 802.11g. One USB port. One 4-pin Firewire port. Two CF type II slots. One is filled with a required Microdrive such as IBM 1GB. Screen 8.5 inch diagonal. 600 by 900 pixel OLED. Touch sensitive. 4 hour battery life. Low power G3 500MHz. Single speaker. Audio I/O. Built-in microphone. No keyboard. No modem. No ethernet. No video ports. 2lbs. $2000.

Software: Mac OSX thin version, featuring standard OSX Inkwell, Speech I/O, QuickTime, AirPort, Apple Remote Access. QuickTime Player, TextEdit, iTunes, iMovie. , iChat. Runs most commercial OSX software.

Uses: Mobile data entry. Mobile data presentation. Remote control of a bigger Mac. Note taking. File transfer. A/V record/playback. Infinite others.
 
Harharhar...(wipes away tears of mirth)...harharhar...

"Killer app." Harharhar. Please. This is a niche inside a niche.

The Almighty Jobs, like it or not, has a pretty good nose for where the money is. And it ain't here. Sure, there will be a few technodweebs who "need" it and yuppies with too much money who will open their wallet for the latest/greatest, but Joe & Josephine America will only shake their heads.
 
I say they need to bring on the Mac Watch. They showed a working version back in Las Vegas CES show in the early 90's. It had an OS and could browse the net wirelessly. I think they should come out with these watches and put smaller OSX OS on it to allow folks to take PDA style watch with them where ever they go. It could even allow for headphones to listen to MP3's, browse the net, firewire connection. I think it would be popular with kids.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back