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Details on Apple's Portable Mini-Tablet Device?
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I'd love to see a proper VAIO TZ competitor from Apple, but other than their OS I doubt they could significantly better the TZs spec/design(practical rather than pretty POV)
I could see therefore that they'd expand the succesful iPhone/iPod Touch format with a larger MacTablet. If they do I'd want to see at last 7", but better with say 10". I'd like to see it as open as the MacXs rather than crippled like the iPXs, which would mean being able to use a BT keyboard.
Using the Apple BT keyboard would be a good indication of size with the landscape screen being the same width of the keyboard.
[dream sequence]So 10/11" tablet, BT keyboard and a ox-blood red leather sleeve/wallet to slide the two in. Mmmmm mobile luxury computing, yum[/dream sequence]
I could see therefore that they'd expand the succesful iPhone/iPod Touch format with a larger MacTablet. If they do I'd want to see at last 7", but better with say 10". I'd like to see it as open as the MacXs rather than crippled like the iPXs, which would mean being able to use a BT keyboard.
Using the Apple BT keyboard would be a good indication of size with the landscape screen being the same width of the keyboard.
[dream sequence]So 10/11" tablet, BT keyboard and a ox-blood red leather sleeve/wallet to slide the two in. Mmmmm mobile luxury computing, yum[/dream sequence]
All I can say is that I really hope Apple isn't wasting time building a product to accomplish these tasks. Pen and paper works just fine. I'd rather have an ultra portable notebook.
Some of the obvious uses for the tablet format, but each would require a stylus and this would be a step away from the finger painting method employed with the iPxs which I think Apple wouldn't want to do as they heralded the non-stylus input method as better and because it would mean writing software to work with a fifth(or sixth) input method.
I thought about that. I think apple could "solve" the problem of a stylus being better at some of these things simply by having steve paint with his finger some drawing, then in the dry simple wit he has he grabs a stylus and says:
"And if you have a stylus, we made it work with those too."...
kinda saying it works with both but also saying the stylus would be better at some stuff like that.
Maybe Steve could just build an iTimeMachine and we could all go back to 2001 when Tablets were all the rage. Sound good?
Maybe somebody can shed some light, but I thought the two technologies were different. The iPxs using a technology the same as a trackpad where as a 'traditional' stylus uses another technology. I've tried a stylus on a track pad and it doesn't work, not only do you need something conductive but you need a certain amount of surface area I believe, which is why a finger works fine. The point of a stylus is just that, it's point; it gives you accuracy that you don't have in a finger, but for the same reason doesn't have a surface area enough to work an iPhone.
Can somebody confirm what I think is right/wrong?
I briefly toyed with the idea of a stylus with two points that worked as a standard stylus when held at a normal writing angle, but when turned through 90º or so the second point would've allowed scrolling.
Maybe Steve could just build an iTimeMachine and we could all go back to 2001 when Tablets were all the rage. Sound good?
Yes.
I'd bet a device like that would sell quite well. After using my Touch for about a month, I can think of many uses for a bona fide OSX device in a slightly larger form factor. I love the design of the Touch. The small screen has plenty of resolution for the Web when coupled with the "pinch" motion. But what's lacking are "real" applications. If it had USB ports and I could take along Logic on a device that small, field recording would be a dream. I could also work on Keynote presentations, word processing and anything else a standard computer could do. I like the virtual keyboard on the Touch and wouldn't have any problem if it were used on a bigger screen.
I really don't think Apple has something like that in the pipe right now, but it's nice to dream.
Did you see the proof of concept video that showed a guy controlling logic from his iphone by touching and dragging on the screen?
Too cool. I think it was on youtube.
Pen and paper do work quite well -- but then you have to get what you wrote onto the paper into the computer.
Some of us would like to forego that extra step.
Maybe Steve could just build an iTimeMachine and we could all go back to 2001 when Tablets were all the rage. Sound good?
Maybe we could take a crash course in being open minded. Constructive criticism and critique is a lost art.
Instead of needing a stylus, what if perhaps you had a sort of gesture that acts as a pinpoint for drawing or writing? I was thinking and if you take the three digits you use to hold a pen or pencil, and press them together as if you were holding a pencil and it disappeared so what yo have is your middle and index finger touching each other with the thumb positioned in the middle, you have a gesture where the three together make a space in the center without any flesh.
Now seeing as how smart the multi touch software is, it should be possible for it to sense the disturbance in the field caused by the three fingers but pick up the dead spot in the center or simply triangulate the center based on the dimensions of the disruption in the field.
That center point then would be your source for drawing or writing. I just picked up my touch and was imagining it (man a thing some of us have a hard time doing) and it seems like if it was implemented properly, you could solve the problem of trying to draw with just a single finger (which i would imagine isn't very precise).
To add to it, apple put in a patent for even more gestures, some described as using three or more fingers and one that even described as the position of holding a pen or pencil, or stylus.
With something like this, you could easily draw or use it as a note pad, and have the connivence of the device being very portable. The 5" screen would make it lighter than a larger screen as well as being cheaper. Throw in wifi and this would be an awesome device.
I dunno, just a though
Sounds interesting, but do I want Apple building it? Not especially. It's not the right product for them and they're not the right company. We saw with the Leopard delay that Apple has only so many resources that it can throw at any one project. That's not a criticism of the company: perhaps that's the price of pushing such incredible products. Maybe there are only so many people capable of working at Apple. These are my concerns when I hear people describing the product you just described. Only an extremely small number of people would jump all over such a device. I'd rather Apple keep pushing out products for the consumer / pro-sumer, and not some very small slice of the professional market. Let's leave devices like that to WACOM and the rest of them.
If this rumor is really true are you going to be that upset? I mean it doesn't really effect you and you don't have to buy it. I'm sure to some people this seems like a really cool device. Different people need different devices for different things. You can't call something a peice of garbage without even seeing it or using it. That's wrong.
I really think this could be a really sweet product. I wouldn't buy one right away. I would have to wait a while and read some reviews, but I would probably buy it. I've never seen an
product that I didn't like.I totally agree here. Is this new device going to be used as an internet communicator or computing? If the latter, no thanks...I already have an iphone. If for computing at 5.5" and touch only, it be limiting IMHO. I can't imagine working with iWork on such a small device and how unproductive it would be to work with Numbers.
I just recently bought the Asus EEE PC (Black 4GB) and I love it! Installed Windows, OC'd to 900MHz and installed 2GB RAM. This thing is soooo ultra-portable, light and FAST! I can take it anywhere and it's cheap. I don't have to worry about it getting knocked up or losing it. It cost me only US$400 where I live. I'll think about it if they come out with a 10" and maybe even a 12" ultra-portable "computer". But at $400, it'll be hard for them to beat.
Its going to be funny as hell when all your rumor folks are watching the conference Jan 15th and see NOTHING that has to do with this. HAHAHHAHHHHAHAHHAHHAH]
do you really think a patent that was filed a month ago or even 6 months ago has a chance in heck to go into production a month later? WOW, you are NOT business people are you?
FINALLY someone who USES their BRAIN. No sarcasm.
You know, I get laughed at quite a bit on these forums. But I've been using Mac's since age 7 (The SE, in all its 68000 glory). I've never been wrong. get with the with reality people. Seriously.
do you really think a patent that was filed a month ago or even 6 months ago has a chance in heck to go into production a month later? WOW, you are NOT business people are you?
FINALLY someone who USES their BRAIN. No sarcasm.
You know, I get laughed at quite a bit on these forums. But I've been using Mac's since age 7 (The SE, in all its 68000 glory). I've never been wrong. get with the with reality people. Seriously.
Yes, I will be upset because Apple has shown quite clearly that they don't have an enormous amount of manpower to spread across a ton of products. Something like this would be detrimental to the rest of their product line.
Based on the stats, it's a useless piece of garbage.
In any case there's no way Apple is going to build what was described in this thread, so I'm not worried.
You can use almost any cellphone or smartphone in bed or on the sofa. Just set it to vibrate.
Seriously though, who gets upset about someone releasing a product that they have no intention of buying? I don't play golf, but there are all these companies selling high tech golf clubs, what the hell are they thinking? Don't they know I don't play golf? And what's with all these pick-up trucks they're selling these days, I don't need to haul stuff!
Yeah, I saw it. But in that instance the iPhone was simply a controller for a remote system. That itself was a pretty neat idea. But I'd like to be able to record wherever I happen to be. I'd like the proper software on whatever device I had, and have the option of plugging in a mixer or USB microphone.
There are ultra-portable studio recorders available that use flash media, but their price point (often from $500 - $1000) is too high, IMO. For a bit more money, if I could have something that small that could not only record but do other computer-based tasks, I'd get it in a heartbeat.
You can use almost any cellphone or smartphone in bed or on the sofa. Just set it to vibrate.
Seriously though, who gets upset about someone releasing a product that they have no intention of buying? I don't play golf, but there are all these companies selling high tech golf clubs, what the hell are they thinking? Don't they know I don't play golf? And what's with all these pick-up trucks they're selling these days, I don't need to haul stuff!
For the third time: because Apple don't have the manpower to add lots of new products to their lineup. I don't want it to delay more important, more universal things like laptops and operating systems.
I'm sure what you describe, as I'm understanding it, would be techniclly possible, but it wouldn't solve the problem that the stylus addresses, in that you want accuracy and you want to be able to see where the point is to do this.
Maybe it's not that they're laughing at what you say, but rather how you say it?
Though many of you may feel you have no need of a mini-tablet and think it would be a mistake for Apple to produce one, this is a steadily growing product segment that will only get bigger. It appears to me that many of you on this forum would be classified as power users, which means your needs actually represent more of a niche and not the mainstream computing population.
My wife is not a geek at all, but she does use a computer on a daily basis. A mini-tablet would fit her needs perfectly. She doesn't carry around a laptop because of the size and when she is out and about she doesn't really need a full keyboard. The screen on a phone is a bit small for prolonged web surfing and document reading.
Her mobile computing needs fit almost exactly the points that Intel makes about the Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs):
- Access information, content and services when and where you want.
- Communicate via email, IM, chat, or blogging.
- Be entertained with videos, games, music, pictures or TV on the go.
For her, a mini-tablet would not be a laptop replacement device (she doesn't own one now), it would be a companion device to our desktop. For what she wants to do, she can't justify buying a laptop and definitely wouldn't want to carry one around. A mini-tablet however, at a reasonable price would mean one more Apple customer.
I think a well designed and priced tablet would be a hit with the consumer market and I can see many use cases in the business market as well. I say for Apple to bring on the tablet...the time is right and they have the right user interface to make it work.
My wife is not a geek at all, but she does use a computer on a daily basis. A mini-tablet would fit her needs perfectly. She doesn't carry around a laptop because of the size and when she is out and about she doesn't really need a full keyboard. The screen on a phone is a bit small for prolonged web surfing and document reading.
Her mobile computing needs fit almost exactly the points that Intel makes about the Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs):
- Access information, content and services when and where you want.
- Communicate via email, IM, chat, or blogging.
- Be entertained with videos, games, music, pictures or TV on the go.
For her, a mini-tablet would not be a laptop replacement device (she doesn't own one now), it would be a companion device to our desktop. For what she wants to do, she can't justify buying a laptop and definitely wouldn't want to carry one around. A mini-tablet however, at a reasonable price would mean one more Apple customer.
I think a well designed and priced tablet would be a hit with the consumer market and I can see many use cases in the business market as well. I say for Apple to bring on the tablet...the time is right and they have the right user interface to make it work.
It would have to be seriously cheap. Like, $200 to $300 cheap, in order to work. And since Apple is charging $300 for the AppleTV, I'm not sure I see that happening.
As long as it has a pen (ala dell xt - so its possible apple), can install normal programs, I'm 90% sold if its not too expensive.