Apple Working on Tablet Since At Least 2003

[kdarling]

ITEM: Another major cause of disease transmission is the movement of electronic equipment between patients. This includes the laptop computer many doctors carry with them from room to room. There is no good way to clean keyboards of micro-organisms.

You can use almost any disinfectant to effectively clean hospital keyboards, according to this study.

Tablets meant for medical use, are advertised as complying with standards for protection against foreign dust/liquid ingress, so that they can be quickly decontaminated... especially if bodily fluids get on them.

As far as the iPhone went, Apple didn't protect against ingress, but instead put moisture detectors. A tablet would probably not have special protection either.

 

[gentleman00]

but what advantages do I get owning a tablet that I don't get owning my laptop? I already have a laptop with me almost always...I need to be sold into buying another device. As of now, all I hear is a cross between the kindle and an iPod Touch at double the cost.

If you are a professor/academic and present at conferences, you can read your paper using an itablet. A macbook is difficult, if not impossible.

If you are in the nursing/medical profession, an itablet would be much easier to read patient information than a macbook.

If you are a student, taking notes on an itablet ( with hand recognition technology) would be much easier than typing on a macbook, and it is less distracting.

And, of course, the biggest potential market for Apple is the news media. This is where the media industry and Apple will have to work things out in terms of control and access to information, much like itunes. I think this is where Apple is headed. Apple has learned from its past experience with the failed Newton device, which did not catch on.

But you cannot expect the itablet to be everything for everyone, if it will thinner and lighter than the macbook. And, lets not forget battery consumption for such a device.

I think the itablet would be a crossover between the ipod touch and the macbook air, and don't expect it to fit into your pocket. There will be two versions of it: one pro ( with access to 3G/4G network, wireless, bluetooth, and other capabilities), and another stripped down version more suitable for gaming much like the ipod touch.

 

[xhambonex]

If you are a professor/academic and present at conferences, you can read your paper using an itablet. A macbook is difficult, if not impossible.

If you are in the nursing/medical profession, an itablet would be much easier to read patient information than a macbook.

If you are a student, taking notes on an itablet ( with hand recognition technology) would be much easier than typing on a macbook, and it is less distracting.

And, of course, the biggest potential market for Apple is the news media. This is where the media industry and Apple will have to work things out in terms of control and access to information, much like itunes. I think this is where Apple is headed. Apple has learned from its past experience with the failed Newton device, which did not catch on.

But you cannot expect the itablet to be everything for everyone, if it will thinner and lighter than the macbook. And, lets not forget battery consumption for such a device.

I think the itablet would be a crossover between the ipod touch and the macbook air, and don't expect it to fit into your pocket. There will be two versions of it: one pro ( with access to 3G/4G network, wireless, bluetooth, and other capabilities), and another stripped down version more suitable for gaming much like the ipod touch.

How is Apple going to convince me to buy something that is duplicating features I have already invested in like an iPhone/touch or computer? That's why I think they have to offer something beyond the media for this device...

I can't imagine them only offering new media to the tablet, and since most of us have computers or phones that can receive this media, I would find it hard to justify buying this device for this specific feature. I see the benefits for niche markets here and there, personally I'd love a digital sketchpad and I think designers would buy that in a heartbeat. I guess I'm missing the big picture. But that's what I love about Apple, they always have something different in mind.

I'm hoping for a digital sketchbook with whatever else. It's fun to follow these rumors and I can't wait to see what it ends up being.

 

[Pommy]

hmm..I do not know. I don't think students would buy a device that is basically a note taker, even if you can put all your books on it. If you think about it, they won't buy a tablet AND a laptop. And they need the laptop to type papers and whatnot, so a tablet is an extra expense. The average college student has money for a computer and an ipod or zune, that's about it. They don't have an extra wad of cash to spend on a secondary device.

If the tablet is a convertible tablet like every other existing tablet PC out there (i.e. a laptop that's a tablet) then there's no problem.

I'm a student, I have an X61t, and it sits on my desk during lectures and I take notes on it doing exactly what some people in this thread have mentioned (using OneNote), etc. It's awesome. Vista's tablet and handwriting recognition features are pretty solid.

And yet tablet PCs remain wobbly niche products mainly because they have never found a consistent segment to aim at nor have they been priced at a point that would allow them to hit or expand at such a segment. I picked mine up at $650 on clearance. If it hadn't been on clearance but had been at its regular $1300+ price I probably wouldn't have gotten it.

 

[gentleman00]

If the tablet is a convertible tablet like every other existing tablet PC out there (i.e. a laptop that's a tablet) then there's no problem.

I'm a student, I have an X61t, and it sits on my desk during lectures and I take notes on it doing exactly what some people in this thread have mentioned (using OneNote), etc. It's awesome. Vista's tablet and handwriting recognition features are pretty solid.

And yet tablet PCs remain wobbly niche products mainly because they have never found a consistent segment to aim at nor have they been priced at a point that would allow them to hit or expand at such a segment. I picked mine up at $650 on clearance. If it hadn't been on clearance but had been at its regular $1300+ price I probably wouldn't have gotten it.

I can see apple developing the macbook air into a itablet. Its thin enough, and like the design of current PC tablets they can make the keyboard twist, fold, and hidden behind the screen or vice versa

 

[hardliner]

I got info, that they finished the progaganda videos for this tablet. And it's on post-production now. Word is, that Apple will promote the tablet with "education is power"-like slogan. WSJ, nytimes on your tablet, harvard podcasts and keynotes, etc. Then your media like music, videos, Internet. There is also a 3G Version where you can phone with your headset.

It will comes also with a docking station. it really looks like big iPod Touch in a dock. That slim. With a matte alu back, like the first iPhone.

 

[iMacmatician]

Makes sense to me.

 

[maveness]

hmm..I do not know. I don't think students would buy a device that is basically a note taker, even if you can put all your books on it. If you think about it, they won't buy a tablet AND a laptop. And they need the laptop to type papers and whatnot, so a tablet is an extra expense. The average college student has money for a computer and an ipod or zune, that's about it. They don't have an extra wad of cash to spend on a secondary device.

Surely an optional wireless keyboard could be available for this thing...

 

[maveness]

Partly, because there are some usability issues with using a tablet for such purposes.

- A 10" (or so) is too small for a lot of people to draw on. A larger tablet would be difficult to carry around.

- A tablet wouldn't be as easy to use as a pen pad. With a pen pad you're drawing with your hand but watching the computer screen, so your hand & the pen isn't obscuring what you're drawing, not so on an Apple tablet. Also, with a pen pad, your 'aim' could be accurate to the pixel; with a stylus on an Apple tablet, you can never be that accurate since the stylus tip is much larger than that.

- A glass/plastic screen isn't the easiest to draw on; and tends to get very smudged.

And the great-grand-daddy of tablet usability issues: A horizontal screen is bad for your back & neck. A vertical touch-input device is bad for your arms & wrists. For that reason, combining an input device with a screen is only good for occasional, casual use; or for very small devices that can be easily held in one hand and adjusted constantly. Thus an artwork tablet would have to be small enough to be used while held in one hand, not laid down on the desk.

You are aware that people somehow wrote and drew on pads of paper for centuries without crippling themselves, right?

 

[Sherwinator]

There's always rumors

 

[aquintanilla]

Kindle competitor?

Perhaps the tablet could function similarly to an enlarged iPod Touch but also include ebook reader functionality? I think, though, this would have to involve a screen that could "look like a piece of paper" and not fatigue the eyes. Also, it would require Apple to introduce a method of putting books onto it. Come to think of it, the device just seems unlikely overall, unless the ebook reader idea is combined with it.

 

[naman34]

A highly likely concept

I'll explain a UI that would be perfect for the tablet, or if not for the next iPhone (with multitasking.. finally)

first off I think its obvious that the tablet needs to have multitasking to make it sell at all.

Also after the success of the app store, I think apple doesn't want an open system, and wants the tablet to have an appstore as well, so it can not have the simple finder of OS X, (cuz then you can download apps and open them.

OK the interface:
imagine a 10 inch screen in landscape mode. with one 'home' button.

The left half of the device has section that looks and behaves like the iphone, with a grid of apps, and swipe to change pages.
The bottom has a screen wide dock for quick access to favorite apps.
the rest right side of the 2/3 of the screen will have something like a finder, with space for two windows at a time. A desktop with customizable background (support for a dynamic one!)
when you open an app, it opens full screen like the iphone.
However, there's a close app button in the top left..
When you press the home button, you go into expose, which shows all windows of all open apps. You can flick this down to access the home screen and launch more stuff.

Finally to fix the app store problem, and its contradiction to a finder.
There is a provision that lets you download whatever, but here's the deal, you can only open files in the finder with an app. So the general finder cannot hold an app at all.
Thats it..

It can work well for the iphone as well.

However to make it a good tablet.. We need:
iWork, full iTunes that can sync our ipods, A good sketching app, hand writing recognition.

A killer handwriting app:
it should be like a ruled notebook, so we can write on the lines. (lots of people still like writing by hand.) also the killer feature will be ability to draw by hand inline and make awesome notes.
Additional awesome features. A virtual ruler to make straight lines. You touch ad move it around and when you use the stylus pen to make a line it automatically snaps to the edge! (similar other instruments.. compass, divider etc....)

Also it WILL have e-book functionality. awesome web experience (with flash please!)

Put a touch friendly imovie (if not atleast trimming) and iphoto(easily a barebones version is easy) and it does everything a laptop can do, only in a different way and not nearly as powerful.
and thats it. It does everything you want a computer to do, but in a different way, and its VERY doable.

it'll do what courier wants to do. But this is way easier to understand, (really who wants right click type of menus popping up on a touch screen?)
It'll completely replace all paper notebooks and books. everything becomes digital. Really really valuable in education.

WHat say people? maybe we can take this idea to apple somehow!

 

[abthegreat]

This believable?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8LKy7fsVws

 

[nickXedge]

This believable?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8LKy7fsVws

IMO, laughable. I can think of no other word to describe it. A far cry from believable.

 

[JohnCalvi]

I would like to see the iTablet as a secondary display/input device to a desk bound Mac when at home or in the office, then as mobile work tool /plaything on the go.

While paired up with an iMac the iTablet would be a duel display with multi touch interface and virtual keyboard if needed. The option of pairing the iTablet with wireless new Mighter Mouse and keyboard made available for classic keyboarding skills. Have the best of both worlds !

When out and about, take notes, surf the net, read your favorite publications then sync the lot via mobileme or once home.

I would definitely like to get my hands on a lighter than air iTablet !!