Apple Working on 10-, 13-, and 15-Inch Tablets?

[GQB]

I don't get the point fully. A larger tablet needs some sort of stand for viewing movies, or if you were using a wordprocesor of some kind on the full OS X version. But then what would support the tablet while you are typing on the screen and stop is sliding across the table? Do we have to have it flat on our laps?

I've been both excited about the tablet (having come from a Newton background) and similarly curious about the use cases being developed by Apple for this.
I still think a large enough screen can support full 'touch' typing on a virtual keyboard, and I think Jobs is dedicated to forcing the shift.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there may be some sort of flip-out on the top-back that ramps the angle up just enough to allow comfortable viewing and simultaneous typing. I just played around with the angles with a piece of cardboard and my iPhone, and it really doesn't take much of an angle. Indeed there have been desks with built-in surface monitors for a long time. Perpendicular to the desk isn't necessary.

I've been using Layers on my iPhone for a while now and can't wait to get a really good painting/drawing program on a decent size screen.

I can see it for music and performance use as well.
I just think that folks are thinking inside the box here, and insisting that it has to 'replace' a desktop or laptop. I don't think that's the purpose.

 

[iMacmatician]

Just hope they do full OSX on it to make it as fast as it needs to be, so there is no switching apps up and down.

I think iPhone OS would be faster than Mac OS X. At least for similar hardware specs (and I expect an iPhone OS device to have lower specs than a Mac OS X device…which can mean thinner and lighter, maybe cheaper too).

Just think about this: what is the purpose of a touch screen? If your current laptop or desktop was also a touch screen, would you want to touch it? I wouldn't. The purpose, so far, has been for small portable devices like the iPhone where it's not practical to have a keyboard and mouse. A 10" tablet, for the purposes of being portable, would be the largest I'd want to go and not have a keyboard and mouse. As it is, you have to hold that with one hand and type with the other. Would you really want to lay a tablet on a table or your thighs and interact with it looking straight down, straining your neck? That's the only way to to do it if you want to type with both hands without a separate keyboard. Don't be surprised if Apple does not come out with one as large as 10".

I'm also thinking the tablet would be quite light.

 

[farmboy]

I really think you're not thinking this through. Explain to me (with a 10, 13, 15 inch device) how is it comfortable typing while standing up? It works with the iPhone because you had past metaphors on typing on smartphone devices, but with a tablet sized device with no physical keyboard? Again, how do you type on it while standing?

Would it be lame like how MS envisioned w/ their failed OMPCs? God, I really hope not.

This is the problem, at least for me. How do you type standing up and/or while walking?

w00master

I guess I'm not seeing how a metaphor has anything to do with it. Phones are quite small and easy to handle. A tablet is not meant to be phone substitute, and it wouldn't have the same ergonomic properties.

Aside from a phone, often does ANYONE type while standing, really? Typing while walking---what could possibly go wrong with that--holding the computer (laptop, netbook or tablet) with one hand and typing with the other? So pressing a digital representation of a key as opposed to a real key is an ergonomic impossibility? And I assume you mean holding the computer, not resting it on a table or counter top, which of course makes it equally easy for all types of input.

 

[GQB]

Apple just happens to have the most sleek compact BluTooth keyboard already available! I promise you it will work with these tablets.

I hadn't connected those, but of course... why develop a perfectly flat keyboard simply for aesthetic purposes. Its designed for its pack-ability.

 

[alphaod]

Just make it like the Air without any wired connectivity, and have it wirelessly charge and we're in business.

 

[GQB]

Easy! There's an app for that! No reason that you couldn't have several virtual kb options:

-- full-size QWERTY
-- mini QWERTY (like the iPhone)
-- full Dvorak
-- speciality: 9-10 keypad, thumb-pad, stenotype, speedweiting
-- customizable: include, arrange and resize keys as needed/desired for app

You would lay flat for the traditional virtual kbs.

You would hold in 1 or 2 hands for thumb-typing.

You could lay on crook of arm for one-finger typing on the virtual kb of choice

*

Actually, I recently contacted a company (can't remember name) who's had a fast, one-handed keyboard input about converting it to an app, and their response was that they want to very much, but the keyboard (text input) API is apparently restricted and they'll have to work directly with Apple to be allowed to write to it.

FWIW

 

[safetyobc]

Just make it like the Air without any wired connectivity, and have it wirelessly charge and we're in business.

I like that idea!

 

[GQB]

There is no way Apple would produce (eventually) a laptop without a dedicated keyboard. To carry them separately would discourage people from carrying it at all. Sure, I believe, there is a market for a pure tablet (legal/medical professionals, children in vans, couch-potatoes, airline passengers,


The next logical step if Apple first produces a pure tablet would be to make a touch screen laptop with full keyboard. I don't think this next step would be hard to take...Plus it would alleviate fears of unprotected screens. A USB hookup to a keyboard would be fine, but when I go to the library I don't want to carry a keyboard.--Perhaps they are thinking of a "detachable" bluetooth keyboard/protective hood? That might be an idea. Going to presentation with everything ready--detach keyboard.

I'm not sure if Apple is thinking of a "virtual" keyboard such as this one:

http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/

Most people, I think, need a physical and audible feedback when typing.

I've mentioned this before. Touch plus voice commands/dictation would be be method of the future.

.

That laser keyboard is VERY cool! Never saw that before.
You're spot on regarding the future paradigm for text entry... voice/touch.
I recently started using reQall to take notes on my iPhone and I'm astonished at how accurate it is. That technology has come a LONG way.

 

[maxp1]

Count me with the people who can't figure out what this would be for and who the market would be.

Maybe Jobs will pull one of his ass again and come up with a stunner device that is innovative in the way it works and really useful. But I'm skeptical.

 

[GQB]

"never"? So 45nm chips and new batteries and new hard drives/solid state storage won't make it feasible to have portability AND power? Just wait and see in the next couple of years.

As far as keyboards, let's just say you haven't seen everything yet. Tactile response can be simulated quite effectively on a touch-screen like surface. Ever go back to an IBM Selectric and type on it for a minute or two--that was state of the art tactile response typing and it now feels absolutely impossibly clunky (it was a typewriter, kids. We used those to communicate rapidly before computers). Even the keyboards of 10 years ago pale compared to today.

At some point, the jump has to be made away from keyboards. They're a 100+ year old technology, designed intentionally to be inefficient. (Everyone knows the story of QWERTY.) Even efficient layouts are antiquated tools because they require training, practice, and dexterity. That shouldn't be necessary to simply get an idea from your brain to the target system.

Also, think of how much less typing is necessary now than its ever been. Actions that would take many command-lines are now executed at a simple touch. The trend line on typing is clear... its just a matter of 'when'. And Jobs apparently sees his role as bending that curve even more (as the current cliche goes.)

 

[dicklacara]

Actually, I recently contacted a company (can't remember name) who's had a fast, one-handed keyboard input about converting it to an app, and their response was that they want to very much, but the keyboard (text input) API is apparently restricted and they'll have to work directly with Apple to be allowed to write to it.

FWIW

What you say is true. The Apple-supplied virtual kbs (there are several formats) are restricted.

A developer can create his own kbs for an app or a family of apps. I've done a couple of custom kbs, for proprietary apps.

There is a 3rd-party virtual kb, called ShapeWriter that allows one-finger data entry by dragging your finger from key to key (rather than hunt and peck). This has some sophisticated pattern recognition software that determines the word by the shape drawn while dragging-- the shape is more important than touching the actual keys.

But, as good as this, or any other kb, is, it suffers if it cannot be used for any app in the system.

But, Apple knows this! I am certain that Apple is investigating many alternative virtual kb formats that would be better suited for larger surfaces and specific uses: touch typing; thumb typing; hunt and peck; chording.

I expect that a tablet will let the user choose among some of these as "standard" alternatives, because it makes sense.

*

 

[peterdevries]

I think some people apparently seem to have romanticized ideas of the very first tablets some years ago where people would draw or handwrite in it--looked so cool at the time right?

Ahem...yes and that would get old very quickly. The reason the iPhone works as a mini tablet device is its small size--the lack of a physical keyboard isn't a problem due to the limited scope of typing and that it can be done with one hand standing up, walking, sitting down--you get the point. Plus you look to the virtual keyboard. In a real laptop size keyboard most people don't look down to their keyboards when typing, it makes for very fast writing. You can't do that with a laptop-sized tablet. Any virtual keyboard would take up first of all half the screen like it does in an iphone, half the screen! it would mean you would have to have your eyes on the keys and not the monitor since there is no touch feedback. nobody would claim writing a 3 page document on the iphone is better and easier and faster than on a keyboard. You woudld need a stand of some sorts for correct viewing angle unless the thing was always in your lap. It simply makes no sense as a laptop replacement. Plus carrying around a 3 piece tablet (tablet, stand and keyboard) is about as "forward" looking as buying a Pentium computer and claiming because it has 4.5 GHz it's faster. A laptop is one piece.

What can you do with a tablet that u cant with a laptop? what advantages are there? The only ones i can think of are again, drawing with your finger or stylus and handwriting. Wow, I am so very impressed.

The people clamoring for a tablet clearly haven't thought out what it would entail or why it would supposedly make it a superior product than a laptop.

Maybe, however the fact that already more than 50% here seems to want/need/desire one, confirms that there is a market for the device. Couple that with some good Apple marketing, some functionality that many here haven't thought about (e-reader, AppleTV), and it could be a winner for Apple AND those people.

Nothing wrong with that IMHO...

 

[GQB]

Count me with the people who can't figure out what this would be for and who the market would be.

Maybe Jobs will pull one of his ass again and come up with a stunner device that is innovative in the way it works and really useful. But I'm skeptical.

I think you have your tasteless analogies a bit confused. The iPhone, iPod, Mac Apple II, NeXT etc etc are hardly examples of ideas pulled out of an orifice.
"Rabbit out of hat" might be a bit more appropriate.

(And yes, I know... he didn't 'invent' any of the above. But he did get them to market and accepted, which is arguably just as much of an accomplishment.)

 

[McBeats]

macbook pro 'touch'!
it would be awesome! hey, i can dream, cant i?

i always thought those 12" HP touchsmart laptops were really cool! i would imagine apple w/ their multitouch, would take that field even further...

if these tablets do come out, im hoping for full osx.

 

[peterdevries]

it only took off after the buy in price was cut, MS Exchange support was added and the apps store came. if apple didn't add these i would have just bought a blackberry or some winmo phone for myself.

Not true. The first iPhone was a big succes, that was only amplified by selling it in more countries after a few months and the introduction of the 3G and the Apps store the year after.

It wasn't even available here in the Netherlands, but everyone seemed to have one..

 

[cult hero]

TO: Apple community
FROM: Rest of the world

Subject: Pay attention!

---

Hey guys.. these products already exist from other computer companies. They have for a long time. If tablets were going to replace laptops, they already would have. If you think Apple's particular tablet is going to be revolutionary, you're kidding yourself. The iPhone isn't revolutionary either. The last revolutionary thing Apple made was the original iPod.

Hell, you can already get a Mac tablet. Modbook!

Eh... sorry. Apple's good at figuring out how to make this stuff work and turns toys into "must have" items. We'll see. Not that it matters what I say. They have a lot of smart engineers that ignore people on forums.

If it supports bluetooth for keyboards (or... I dunno... let's go with something neanderthal like USB) I'm at least interested in the 13" (or even the 10" depending on its ports and video out). I'm sure these will all have mini display port, which would rule.

 

[Marx55]

Here is the family:

Mac OS X (Mac).
Mac OS X touch (Mac Tablet).
OS X (iPhone and iPod touch).

The tablet runs Mac applications, on a touch-tuned Mac OS X.

That is!

 

[Appley]

I would lose all faith in internet tablets if they have a built in 3G card, with a 2 year contract with a cell phone carrier. There is such thing as too much, and my 30 dollar a month unlimited plan with AT&T is enough. Tethering with AT&T should be free when it comes out (even though everyone knows the little trick with the mobile preferences pane you can download off the internet)


Apple please renew my faith in Internet Tablets, please refrain from built in 3G.

 

[skuban]

Right

OK this is getting ridiculous.

I'm all for an apple tablet. I'm sure one's coming. MAYBE two. But I seriously doubt they are launching a 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, and 15 inch tablet (did i miss any of the predicted sizes?).

 

[skuban]

OK this is getting ridiculous.

I'm all for an apple tablet. I'm sure one's coming. MAYBE two. But I seriously doubt they are launching a 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, and 15 inch tablet (did i miss any of the predicted sizes?).

However, I do wish they'd launch it already!

 

[iMacmatician]

OK this is getting ridiculous.

I'm all for an apple tablet. I'm sure one's coming. MAYBE two. But I seriously doubt they are launching a 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, and 15 inch tablet (did i miss any of the predicted sizes?).

9" I think.

 

[gigadigit]

smaller sizes

Want a 7" tablet. those sizes are too big.

 

[agkm800]

My guess is that Apple will in the end release two versions -- 10" and 13"


10" for $599

13" for $799


PLEASE!!!

 

[Jono Hayes]

Fingers Crossed

This could explain why snow leopard came a tad early.

they could be prepping touch API's to 10.6 and reworking the parts that need to change to be more touch friendly.

maybe 10.6.2/3 will add touch to OSX.


if touch is added to OSX i hope that 3 party hardware is able to utilize it.

would be cool if a 3rd party made a 40" screen that is touch capable. would be real cool in a boardroom.


anyhu. i'm a IT administrator and the company i work for has been holding out for a Mac tablet around 13" running full OSX. so we would buy a few hundred of these if this is true.

 

[TheSlush]

Yes! The bigger the better! Gimmie a 15" multitouch screen!