The nice thing about the Newton was that it worked better (for me) with the sloppiest cursive chicken-scratch you could muster. The downside, of course, was the very limited space you had to write in. It was just not as natural as writing on paper. If it were practical, I would be happy to learn classical or Apple shorthand to get the most out of this device (assuming it is a package that appeals to me). But what we are really all hoping for is options. Sometimes I would prefer to use a standard keyboard (preferably with my weird custom mapping if possible), sometimes scribbling works just fine. Good quality speech-to-text might be handy at other times, but I would not count on that, at least as a built-in. In fact, the first release of this thing, if it is at all what we are sort-of expecting, will probably be an "oooh, ahhh, cool, but not really for me" for most of us. The fourth or fifth one should be very attractive (if any of us still have jobs and money).
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Apple Working on Advanced Gesturing and Multi-Touch Version of iWork
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Exactly, Sydde. That's precisely what I was thinking. Many of us may have set the bar a bit too high for a first generation device. Your reckoning is spot-on. The tablet will be flashy, but perhaps not such a significant leap to warrant dropping the cash on a first-gen device.
I disagree with this.. because from what I have heard Jobs has had this thing ready to go many times and chose not to. This is why I don't see this as a first gen device. Especially when you factor in this iPhone and the long history of tablets already made by others. Then when you factor in the long history from this FingerWorks company.. this is more like the crowning jewel than the first little gem in the line.
it's software don't forget. Use the qwerty keyboard or learn the new input method both are options.
After reading thousands of these posts on this and different thread discussions it seems that the tablet is increasingly becoming more vivid and concrete. It will be almost indistructable so I don't have to worry about spilling coffee on it or when I take it to the construction site have
to worry about dust and dirt. It will be large enough to present reasonable drawings and other information and be able to transfer that information wirelessly to other devices. iWork will definitely be part of it and predominately through drag and drop allow me to "publish" text and pictures and movies to anyone on the web. Forget anything that needs a stylus that can be lost. A haptic tactile keyboard front and back is a possibilty but a standard qwerty keyboard is also available.
to worry about dust and dirt. It will be large enough to present reasonable drawings and other information and be able to transfer that information wirelessly to other devices. iWork will definitely be part of it and predominately through drag and drop allow me to "publish" text and pictures and movies to anyone on the web. Forget anything that needs a stylus that can be lost. A haptic tactile keyboard front and back is a possibilty but a standard qwerty keyboard is also available.
in theory yes, but we are talking about apple...
i'm glad we were able to sort out that confusion
Which is why I agree with Choco; Apple's tablet won't be a 1st-gen device, but rather a third- or fourth-gen. Based on the history I've read, the iPhone/iPod Touch qualify as third-gen. Again, it's a case of reviewing the history. Even the 1st-gen iPhone was significantly superior in many ways to the devices it went into competition with. It may not have had the software to meet enterprise needs, but it met the consumers' needs very well.
If Apple wants the iSlate to succeed it must work with PCs (just like the iPod and iPhone). Now if you are a PC owner, how do you edit documents you created on the iSlate with iWork? You could use MS Office but ideally you want a copy of iWorks running on your PC. Just like seven years ago when Apple ported iTunes to the PC, January could see the launch of iWork for Windows.
PC users are not clamoring for iWork for windows. More likely apple will have some sort of web version.
Have you tried magic prefs?
pinches, Taps, Swipes.
Sorry funboys but I dont want to learn a new language (sign language for computers) to make this tablet work well.
Implement speech as an option apple
Once Apple releases iWork for the iSlate, people will want to edit iWork documents on their PCs.
But is a web version really good enough?
Someone mentioned Magic Prefs, but at the store where I tried it out, the mouse was set to standard default. The Wacom Bamboo touch, however, did a nicer job as an alternative to the Magic Mouse. You can rotate or use pinch zoom without having to use preferences, from what I've seen.
But the Magic Mouse is a bit limited to such commands. I don't want speech on the tablet to make commands. That's for 'Trekkies'. They can go ahead, dress up in Trek costumes with a Star Fleet badge and talk to the tablet and pretend they're Scotty starting with "Computer. . . ."
Speech can be optional as an accessible tool for those who have a disability with their hands or those confined to the wheelchair with limited arm movement. The problem is that the tablet is designed to be held with one or two hands, or lain on the table surface or propped up "easel style".
But the 'deep learning curve' is the advanced multi-touch from the famous Touch Stream keyboard. That's my prediction.
EDIT: by the way, I'm sure Apple will install a tutorial app to teach you how to use the advanced touch features to train you and you can learn it over and over til it's mastered.
You have it all turned around. People want to edit Office documents on their slate. iWork on Slate is there to allow them to do that (assuming it's there). No one cares about iWork-native file formats and support for iWork on PCs. People want to be able to view and edit the documents they already have, that they are given by other people, or that they generate from their existing desktop machines. Almost all of these are either generated by Office, or are carefully saved so as to be compatible with Office. iWork is a non-factor in the Office market, even taking into account macs, and even taking into account the boost in sales that came from tying it to snow leopard upgrades.
You ask if a web version is good enough - the real point is that iWork isn't good enough.
Most people prefer to learn a new interface (and trust me the apple interface learning curve is not steep) than to look like morons talking to an inanimate object.
Of course if you habitually talk to your tv, your fridge, boiler and dishwasher you might opt for the later.
Well that's just like your opinion man. Iwork is far superior to office in everything but a few options in word and of course excel. A lot of people I know including myself have switched exclusively to iwork, sorry to see you are still on the wrong train.
You're completely missing the point. It has nothing to do with the quality of the apps. Keynote is better than powerpoint in almost every way. Pages and Numbers are quite good for what they do (albeit nowhere near as complete as Word and Excel).
The point is 99% of the world has to deal with Office documents, and iWork is not 100% file compatible. Further, the people that RELY on these programs for their daily work cannot, usually, afford to be even a tiny bit incompatible. Until Apple either achieves 100% compatibility (including VBA - yeah, even Mac office doesn't have that now, but even MS saw the error in not including that) or until the world moves to open file formats (including notoriously slow industries like law and medicine), iWork is not going to cut it. It's good enough to view documents on a tablet while on the go while doing light annotation, but most people can't rely on it.
And, since the thing that started this was the contention that for some reason PC users are going to want iWork so that they can be compatible with their tablets, I stand by my point - PC users, instead, want their tablet to be compatible with what they use every day, which is Office.
Great post, Solinus. This gets into an idea that I had awhile ago that I think could be truly revolutionary.
Look at it like this... Google wants to make an operating system that is web based that I believe you would use on a Windows machine and would essentially be your primary OS.
So what this essentially means is that in the future, as I see it, we will have multiple operating systems running simultaneously on one machine. This will give us the best of all worlds. We could have all the benefits of a Windows machine and an Apple machine on one PC or in this case one system of PC.
I would like to see the tablet as a device that could work like a parasite - a PC body snatcher if you will. You connect your tablet to your primary Windows PC and the tablet works as the ultimate keyboard input device AND allows you to control and "tame" your Windows PC.
The Windows PC is cheap and powerful and has tons of software that can be used that you can't use with a Mac. But because Windows machines are so difficult to use and so unreliable it is impossible to work with them. But what if the iSlate could connect to your Windows machine and control it and work with it so you didn't have to AND allowed you to have both the great elements of a Windows machine and a Mac at the same time?
It's just an extension of Windows users using iPods really.
iWork already has a web version, granted it a beta. It's been out for a year or so. Beta=field research
the closer we get to the 27th the more I want the first slate. please be open, please be open
crosses fingers
So you are basically saying that Microsoft has a monopoly in the word processor market? Well, that particular fight (Microsoft vs. rest of the world) is basically in its penultimate phase. Microsoft forced the horrible OOXML "Standard" on the world (which is neither open, nor XML, nor a standard, but just a tool to fight the Open Document standard with the side effect of damaging ISO's reputation), in a few years all governments will have figured out that there are no OOXML implementations, and then everything will switch to Open Document format.
And when that day happens, there will be much rejoicing. Hasn't happened yet, though.
Please... Documents created with Microsoft Office for Windows are not 100% compatible with documents created with Microsoft Office for Mac and vice versa.
That's absolutely true. That's why vmware/parallels sell so many copies. In my case I have to check that docs I create on my MBP work on Windows before I send them to a client or to a partner.
The fact that their tiny incompatibilities between Mac Office and Windows Office, however, doesn't mean that suddenly the much more substantial incompatibilities between iWork and Windows Office suddenly become non-problematic, so I don't understand the point you are trying to make.
Standalone Device
Whatever this thing turns out to be, I hope above all else that it is a standalone device. Meaning, it needs to have a user-accessible file system, and it needs software to be able to create rich documents: iPhoto, iMovie, keynote, pages, numbers, etc.*
This is different from the*iPhone, which can be used as a standalone device (phone, web, app-toy). However, usage expectations are higher when you have more usable space, and there's really no excuse for not doing so.*
Essentially, it should not have to dock with a mac or pc.
If you already have a comp that has all of your stuff in iTunes (music, video, apps), it would simply use Home Sharing instead of syncing like an iPhone or iPod.*Ideally, you could use this method to exchange any kind of file (PDFs, docs, photos, etc) with any other comp. *Maybe this is what the rumored iguide thing is. *
Lastly, if they are going to make a version of iWork for this, I really hope they introduce a OneNote-like program as the new 4th part of the suite. This would be a killer productivity app for a device like this, and if this leverages their Ink tech, I know a few people who would buy it immediately.*
Heck if this thing is everything that it could be, I might rethink my pending mbp purchase in a few months.*
Nnnaaaahhhhhh
Whatever this thing turns out to be, I hope above all else that it is a standalone device. Meaning, it needs to have a user-accessible file system, and it needs software to be able to create rich documents: iPhoto, iMovie, keynote, pages, numbers, etc.*
This is different from the*iPhone, which can be used as a standalone device (phone, web, app-toy). However, usage expectations are higher when you have more usable space, and there's really no excuse for not doing so.*
Essentially, it should not have to dock with a mac or pc.
If you already have a comp that has all of your stuff in iTunes (music, video, apps), it would simply use Home Sharing instead of syncing like an iPhone or iPod.*Ideally, you could use this method to exchange any kind of file (PDFs, docs, photos, etc) with any other comp. *Maybe this is what the rumored iguide thing is. *
Lastly, if they are going to make a version of iWork for this, I really hope they introduce a OneNote-like program as the new 4th part of the suite. This would be a killer productivity app for a device like this, and if this leverages their Ink tech, I know a few people who would buy it immediately.*
Heck if this thing is everything that it could be, I might rethink my pending mbp purchase in a few months.*
Nnnaaaahhhhhh
There are several trains , ....all going to different locations in life. Some haul important information,......some , just manure.