Apple Tablet to link TV and PC?

[mproud]

I really think Steve is right on this one.

Come on, how many of you people, if you actually did buy one of these things, for, say $500, would actually stop using your TV?

Be serious.



That's right. You wouldn't.

And why would you? The TV works just fine. The point is, people like their TVs (to some extent). They have a working piece of equipment already which, although may not be wireless and internet capable, gets its job done. Why buy a portable version with extra gimmicks when you already have a working television and a computer, even if they are separate.

This technology is WAY too expensive and the time is certainly not right. Put it on the wish list next to the hovercraft and the universal multitool.

 

[Bad Beaver]

Re: Here's what to make

Originally posted by Lepton
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.Uses: Mobile data entry. Mobile data presentation. Remote control of a bigger Mac. Note taking. File transfer. A/V record/playback. Infinite others.

Some very nice ideas, but your idea of price is ridiculous. As well as battery - 4 hours? I might just stay home instead. 8 hours is the absolute minimum. Also, it will not be much fun to present data on the go without at least a VGA connector.
The size would be near perfect.
It needs a super quiet foldable BT keyboard as an accessory.
Price? I'd say $1200.
People on campus to this day are all over my Newton 2100, fascinated to no end. Millions of this described Pen-orientated thin OSX minitablet could be sold into education channels.
It just hast to be neither too big nor too small, has to have the keyboard as an easy option, and it has to last all day.

 

[splashman]

Re: Hovercraft

Originally posted by mproud
This technology is WAY too expensive and the time is certainly not right. Put it on the wish list next to the hovercraft and the multitool.

Well said.

"Killer App." Hardeeharhar.

(I encourage MS and the various PeeCee re-packagers to dive headfirst into this market.)

 

[dguisinger]

Originally posted by fpnc
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.

Agreed. Gateway just introduced (or is about to, i've seen pictures froma friend who works there) a Gateway receiver.... Apple needs to build a Receiver, with AM/FM tuner, A/V input selection, Toslink ports for in/out, built in amp, and possibly a tv tuner + DVR. Hook it to your network with ethernet, or to your mac directly with Firewire....and you have a video capture device, a device to send video to your TV/VCR, a way to use your computer as a DVD player, a way to send your music from iTunes to your stereo.

When Jobs says no merging of TV and Computers, he means LITTERALLY people. He means you aren't going to be watching TV on your iMac, or you arent going to use a 42" plasma as your computer. However making a AV Receiver with NO UI would be perfect... make a remote control that is like the iPod with the wheel and touch sensative buttons. Make it work and act and feel like standard AV entertainment system equipment, yet do so much more. This is my vision of convergance....Infact, I beleive its a lot of peoples vision, as it is probably Job's as well.

 

[Towel]

I think we're talking about two different products here. One is the full-featured TabletMac, which is bascially a nomal laptop (with touch-screen), just folded differently. I don't think this is what Cringley means. For one thing, TabletPCs tanked. For another, with 802.11 there's no need for a fancy new wireless connectivity protocol.

The second product is the wirelessly-tethered monitor. No CPU, no RAM, no drives, no nothing - except an LCD screen, an antenna, and the chips needed to bridge the two. It's completely dependent on its "server" - its mothership computer - for everything. The wireless link substitutes for a monitor cable, and you can control the GUI with a stylus. The advantages are essentially the same as for any laptop or TabletPC - use your computer anywhere (as long as you're in range of the mothership). But it's cheap - you could probably build this functionality into an iMac for nominal cost. It wouldn't have to be a standalone product, thought I suppose it could be sold as one as well, for use with, say, G5 motherships. It would probably cost just a little more than your average touchscreen LCD - not too much, in comparison to laptops/TabletPCs/PocketPCs.

This would be a very cool device, and one that people would easily get used to and incorporate into their lives. Surf in bed or on the couch. Show your vacation pictures to the in-laws in the sitting room. Read PDFs in front of the fireplace. Bring recipes into the kitchen. It just makes life simpler, but most importantly, doesn't cost much/any extra. You can do all this with a laptop, but then you have to actually buy a laptop, with the extra cost and fewer features that entails - and carry the whole thing around with you. Granted, you can't carry this thing to Starbucks, but if that's the kind of mobility you need, you *will* actually buy a laptop.

All in all, I've thought for several years that this could be a killer device. It's just been waiting for the right bandwidth.

 

[fpnc]

In response to my wireless media center idea you said:

Originally posted by dguisinger
Agreed. Gateway just introduced (or is about to, i've seen pictures from a friend who works there) a Gateway receiver.... Apple needs to build a Receiver, with AM/FM tuner, A/V input selection, Toslink ports for in/out, built in amp, and possibly a tv tuner + DVR. Hook it to your network with ethernet, or to your mac directly with Firewire....and you have a video capture device, a device to send video to your TV/VCR, a way to use your computer as a DVD player, a way to send your music from iTunes to your stereo.

However, I don't think we're talking about the same thing. I wasn't suggesting that Apple should directly compete with TiVo (digital VCR), DVD players, and the traditional A/V receiver products. The device that I proposed would simply provide a wireless link between the media content on your Mac or PC and the A/V products that you probably already own. And it would be a one-way link -- content would only "flow" from your Mac to your TV and audio amplifier/receiver.

The reason I place such limitations on my device is that it needs to be simple and fairly inexpensive, something like Apple's current Airport base station. Thus it has a remote control, an on/off switch, a text-based LCD display for displaying song, picture, and video ID (similar to the iPod display), and video and audio outputs. If you connect the video output to your TV you get a more detailed view of your media content (like iPhoto and iTunes) and you might also be able to view streaming video from your Mac (QuickTime movies, home videos, perhaps video content streamed from the internet).

It would NOT be a digital video recorder, or an AM/FM radio, or anything like a traditional A/V receiver. In fact it would require that you already own some type of audio/video receiver to amplify the audio and route the video to your TV (or you could plug the output directly into your TV).

 

[Sheebahawk]

tablet.

Id love a tablet, but just as a remote to tell me if I get instant messaged, if my downloads are finished, To adjust itunes on my imaginary g5 pumping music through my houses speakers, to disconnect unwanted phone calls, or maybe even provide a link from tivo to my omputer so I ould burn shows onto DVD, and edit the ommercials out. And to read my morning newspaper with it, tell my fridge what I want for breakfast, program my mirowave to cook it, and to instruct rosie the robot to bring it to me. I don't need it for watching tv, because I have about 8 tv's with diret tv in my house, one in each room.

All this while I'm sitting on the toilet. I don't think a tablet would work, I'm all for interconnectivity between appliances, and electronic media in my house, but I don't think a tablet would solve this problem. A few problems with tablets... If I used it while sitting on the john, I might get **** on it. The exposed screen has no protection to the elements, and since it was a touch it would probably not look too sharp after a year or so. Theres no way to provide power to it to get the kind of use I would want out of it. I lose the remotes, my cel phone, and my wallet all the time, I'd probably lose the tablet too. Then I wouldn't be able to do anything. And what if it fell into the wrong hands? I don't want an enemy turning my own house against me.

I seriously don't think a tablet could make my life any easier, for the amount of money it would cost. An apple watch sounds cool though, if it was as styling as an ipod.... and had all the above mentioned functionality through voice recognition..

 

[mhar4]

Re: Constant stimulation zombies

Originally posted by kerryb
I've noticed some people (mostly under 30) have a really hard time not being connected to some electronic device. .... Are we raising a generation that has to be constantly entertained by an electronic device and cannot just experience a moment in time? This new device idea sounds like another way of making people think they are in their living rooms instead of in public. Why live in the real world when you can stare at a little screen and not count the cows when driving through the country side.

Amen to that. Who wants to rush around the house watching a movie on a little screen? Or "grab their email from a passing wifi hotspot"? It sounds like an overheated fanatsy of life in the fast lane. The real world is messy and complicated and doesn't work the way you want it to most of the time. Hey, just like this kind of technology...

 

[sanford]

Originally posted by fpnc
It would NOT be a digital video recorder, or an AM/FM radio, or anything like a traditional A/V receiver. In fact it would require that you already own some type of audio/video receiver to amplify the audio and route the video to your TV (or you could plug the output directly into your TV).

www.slimdevices.com

 

[jouster]

Re: Re: This won't happen (not soon anyway)

Originally posted by xTerryMon
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.

I find your first point, about internet telephony interesting, but would contest your second: the market that didn't exist was, as you say, for a HD based MP3 player. No one foresaw that there would be demand for such huge storage. But, and this is the most important part, the demand for the paradigm already existed. People were used to the idea of walking along with a small electronic device in their hand or pocket and earphones in their ears. They are not used to the idea of watching a movie on a 3" screen.

This isn't new; Casio was making hand held flat screen 3-4" LCD TVs in the 80s and 90s. How many people do you see using one these days?

Until video content an be delivered in a much more efficient manner - say, directly into the eye - I can't see a video iPod being much more than a gimmick.

 

[Trimix]

Originally posted by Towel

The second product is the wirelessly-tethered monitor. No CPU, no RAM, no drives, no nothing - except an LCD screen, an antenna, and the chips needed to bridge the two. It's completely dependent on its "server" - its mothership computer - for everything. The wireless link substitutes for a monitor cable, and you can control the GUI with a stylus. The advantages are essentially the same as for any laptop or TabletPC - use your computer anywhere (as long as you're in range of the mothership). But it's cheap - you could probably build this functionality into an iMac for nominal cost. It wouldn't have to be a standalone product, thought I suppose it could be sold as one as well, for use with, say, G5 motherships. It would probably cost just a little more than your average touchscreen LCD - not too much, in comparison to laptops/TabletPCs/PocketPCs.

All in all, I've thought for several years that this could be a killer device. It's just been waiting for the right bandwidth.

have seen this thing about a year ago already - damn, forgot who makes it.

 

[Trimix]

dear sj, as it is almost christmas i just want a nokia communicator married to an i-pod - that's all - thank you

 

[snofseth]

Re: Here's what to make

Originally posted by Lepton
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.

That price is way to much, it is called paper if you need to right on something, but what i think apple should do is build in into the powerbook without extra cost so if you want to you could write on the screen aside from the software if you just use it like an easly there is not much extra hardware neccesary just differnt screen and stli so occasionally if you need to use it you can i think thats how you enter the market they could also to some cool way to switch the screen to flat but I need a keyboard we use computers so we don't have to right some tablets right now are 2000 dollor packs of paper

That

 

[@HomeNow]

The biggest problem that I see with the tablet is that the Mac community, and media will expect Wacom quality in the touch screens, but will only want to pay Dell prices for the tablet. Its a loose, loose situation for Apple in the press on this, either too expensive or the tough screen isn't up to the standards that we expect from Apple.

 

[sethypoo]

Re: Re: last line

Originally posted by Hawthorne
If not them, then a year after that, Michael Dell will.

Seriously, between this, the rumors of a $749 device, and a snow-white enclosure 10 inches by 6 by 1 (old rumor, fuzzy memory), and the fact that Apple pioneered 802.11b and embraced 802.11g before that was a standard, this makes all kinds of sense.

Now team it up with an iPod to use as a shuttle. Imagine syncing up your movies, music, files, contact information and meetings on the iPod, and then plugging that iPod into a recessed Dock connector on the Apple tablet. You'd watch movies and the iTunes Visualizer on the Tablet, make changes to your schedule or phone numbers, or do lightweight computing, then either sync via this "Super Bluetooth" or shuttle the iPod back to your Mac.

*drool*

(edited typos)

Um, I think I'd rather do all my computing, be it light or heavy, from my computer.

I don't need an extra $749.00 accessory that does everything my 12" PowerBook G4 does.

Useless.

 

[JGowan]

Originally posted by sanford ...Jobs just doesn't see the personal computer as the nexus of the home entertainment enivronment; rather, the glue between disparate portable digital devices -- cameras, music players, etc. Frankly, I tend to agree with him. I like my TV where it is: away from me.

Well if Apple were to get involved in any type of committment to Television and connecting it to TV and PC, I think a better device (than a tablet) would be the Digital Video Recorder.

Tivo and ReplayTV are both awesome -- I own 2 ReplayTVs and 1 Tivo and know that, as far as the ultimate television experience, the DVR as a concept is where it is at.

Tivo is taking things further with being able to share music and photos to your television -- at a price, however -- you have to have the newer units and it costs an extra fee.

Of the two operating systems of both Tivo and ReplayTV, Tivo might have the edge, but can you imagine what Apple could do? This is where Apple turns people on to their computer. So far, Apple has been giving Windows users the IPOD experience and now, the ITUNES experience -- so that they will know firsthand just what their missing in the computer world. So far, that's been fine.

But what if Apple created the definitive DVR with a Panther experience? Night after Night, people come home and experience 1 part of the Panther experience with their TVs. Wouldn't that make them want to have a similar experience in the computing world? I think so. Especially if Apple linked the two together as you know they would...

1) No subscription fee -- In order for the DVR to work, it needs a guide. This should be free of cost to achieve the most mass adoption.

2) Sharing Photos and Music -- this is a no-brainer. It would be done at no extra cost either, which would awesome!

3) Video Archiving -- Sending video over to your Apple computer (only) to easily edit out commercials and burn to DVD. I know this will have lots of people up-in-arms, but honestly, why? This technology already exists and nobody says BOO. I can already connect a VCR to my computer, digitize the video, edit it and export it to DVD or back to another videotape. Apple would simply make it easy-to-do. It would be awesome. They would sell lots of DVD blanks, too, which would drive down the cost of them (good for us) and be another money-maker (good for Apple).

4) Email/Web -- I owned one of the early WebTVs and I must admit, hated it. It was overpriced and didn't work well. The browser sucked and wasn't really compatible with the real world. However, I just think that this is another way that Apple could bring a change to this type of use so that it could "be done right". It's a good idea. The computer now is becoming so multi-faceted that I am jumping back and forth all night from TV to Computer to surf the web to get information about a brief Commercial or News item I saw that I want to confirm or get more details. With an Apple DVR that was also connected to an Apple Computer, I think they could cut out a lot of jumping around and bring about the kind of experience many of us want.

5) .MAC -- Those who know DVRs know that you need a channel guide. And while should provide this for free, there's probably a world of ways that Apple could extend people into their .MAC community. I haven't really given it a lot of thought, but I'm sure that they could.

6) Free Apple advertisement -- ReplayTV did this VERY UNFAIRLY and pushed commecials on us every time we pushed the PAUSE button. It annoyed the hell out of me. BUT -- what if Apple simply had a small WHAT'S NEW AT APPLE button for those curious of "what else" Apple was up to? Instant eye-poping visuals of all the latest and greatest hardware. If it was shoved down your throat, I'm sure people would love to have the opportunity to see what Apple was up to. Although my PC friends haven't "seen the light", they are still curious about what Apple might be doing because they know that Apple is a great innovator.

Bottomline, they could create such an experience in the Living room that people would want to continue it in the Study.

 

[sethypoo]

Originally posted by JGowan


Of the two operating systems of both Tivo and ReplayTV, Tivo might have the edge, but can you imagine what Apple could do? This is where Apple turns people on to their computer. So far, Apple has been giving Windows users the IPOD experience and now, the ITUNES experience -- so that they will know firsthand just what their missing in the computer world. So far, that's been fine.

But what if Apple created the definitive DVR with a Panther experience? Night after Night, people come home and experience 1 part of the Panther experience with their TVs. Wouldn't that make them want to have a similar experience in the computing world? I think so. Especially if Apple linked the two together as you know they would...



Bottomline, they could create such an experience in the Living room that people would want to continue it in the Study.

That's pure genius.....what a wonderful idea. I couldn't see a better course of action for Apple Computer to take: starting to dominate the home theater market! Yes!

I'd get one.

 

[Gogmagog]

I think that to have some more cred in the business community as such, an Apple tablet is something to seriously consider, even though it would be even more niche than other Macs and quite expensive as a result.

Take here in NZ for example, PC tablets are making theire way into the hands of doctors in hospitals an other healthcare based institutions. I could see other uses especially in education, even in graphic design in which it could replace the Wacom type tablet (not the really big ones of course).

As for in the home it would be cool to have internet access to go.

They would just have to make sure that they do it right.

Gog

 

[Bad Beaver]

Re: Re: Here's what to make

Originally posted by snofseth

Originally posted by Lepton

That price is way to much, it is called paper if you need to right on something, but what i think apple should do is build in into the powerbook without extra cost so if you want to you could write on the screen aside from the software if you just use it like an easly there is not much extra hardware neccesary just differnt screen and stli so occasionally if you need to use it you can i think thats how you enter the market they could also to some cool way to switch the screen to flat but I need a keyboard we use computers so we don't have to right some tablets right now are 2000 dollor packs of paper
That

I do not quite get your first sentence, do you mean we should write on paper instead of having a tablet? No way, paper sucks. The fold-flat display notebook is a nice idea, but it is not new, many TabletPC makers have them. While I truely think that it is a nice idea (how many times did you want to take a simple darft and could not do it because you had no touchscreen?), it adds a lot of cost, and it cannot be done as a simple option due to the folding mechanism -> separate products.
The idea behind having a pure tablet for writing is getting rid of all the notebook clutter - keyboard, optical drive - for a much smaller and lighter unit, and you could still have a foldable keyboard as Stowaway does them.
Tablets have a very important advantage over notebooks, especially at university and other face-to-face / small group situations - they are less intrusive. No wall-like display to separate you, no annoying typing noise.

 

[zync]

Re: This won't happen (not soon anyway)

Originally posted by gerardrj
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:

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.

I was scouring this thread to see if someone said this...congratulations, you're probably the only one on here who's said this...I distinctly remember Steve disliking the Tablet PC just as much as a non-single-button mouse....I also find it completely stupid to have portable video anything...they're pointless except for travel and possibly doctors visits but if you can't be patient that long you have problems....the reason? unlike the iPod which plays audio, you have to usually watch video in addition to listen to the audio to even justify such a device...you can't use this in the car, walking around, or while doing anything that requires the attention of vision...I would hate for the iPod to turn into this task either, it's for music and that's all...sure it might be a novelty but that will wear off as soon as you realize that it's not going to be useful....besides, a DVD-equipped laptop can provide the same results...even a non-DVD laptop could if it has ripped versions of movies....

 

[zync]

I do like the headless terminal + LCD (Prefer OLED though, especially due to cost) idea...and controlling the house would be interesting...but to have something to carry to watch movies is pointless....besides it's just another reason Americans continue to become fatter

 

[jalterman]

It seems to me that a "wireless monitor" could be precisely the new form factor they're talking about for the new iMacs. Imagine a computer that didn't have any cables -- even the cubes, for all their beauty, had cables. Doing this would redefine the PC. Apps become secondary, but the possibilities (both instantly and in the future) in this scenario are endless.

 

[sinclairZX81]

Originally posted by pimentoLoaf
Oh, my. In Britain they'll no doubt soon pass a law requiring computer owners to have their systems licensed before use -- as they do for TV's.

WHAT are you smoking?

 

[jouster]

Originally posted by sinclairZX81
WHAT are you smoking?

This may seem like an absurd idea, but as things stand, the author of the original comment is in fact correct. Any device which receives a Tv signal requires you to buy a TV Licence in the UK. So even if you own just a VCR and no TV, you are in theory required to get a licence.

Ridiculous but true, and you can bet the BBC will extend it to any computer based TV viewing system.

PS ZX81, I was a beeb user, so my location would be HIMEM!

 

[apelet]

It's been done!

It hasn't been a massive success, but Sony has already done this. I remember seeing the Airboard in Japan, almost two years ago.

All the demo units I saw didn't work that well, but the idea is that you leave the base station somewhere, and you can carry the thing around. You can watch TV, DVDs, write e-mail, browse the web, and use it as a photo viewer. The software is proprietary, and it isn't a tablet, in the normal sense. It doesn't have full PC capabilities, and the battery seems to last only two hours, but it fits most of the hub stuff that Cringely talks about in the article. Except that PAN bit.

I'm sure Apple is aware that this thing exists, and that it hasn't been selling in huge numbers in Japan. Steve Jobs probably wouldn't be keen on copying an idea already done by Sony.

Nice guess, but try again.