iPad Rumor Wrap Up and Likelihood of 22-Inch TouchScreen iMac

[NickK1066]

I see a touch device keyboard for iMacs would be a natural progression - especially if the keyboard was a completely flat sheet of glass.

That way you can sell the same keyboard for all global regions and the you can add some interesting interactions between the mac and the user.

I see that iPhoneOS is not rich enough for server back ends, nor is it's target platforms powerful enough for tasks such as editing video (iMovie) or creating music with DAWs such as Reason. I'd have though the closed nature would be seen as a legal issue waiting to happen - I can see this becoming an issue for Apple as their share of the mobile market rises.

I can see iPhoneOS being rolled out onto AppleTV (it runs OSX tiger I believe so it's due an update). In short I see iPhoneOS being the commodity OS with low power (ARM-based) hardware leaving OSX to be the desktop/server OS.

 

[DudeDad]

Why do we need touchscreen iMac?

To create a new way to get carpal tunnel!

I'm sitting at my desk now, and I have no desire to reach over and touch the screen. Imagine the repetitive motion injuries that will occur from people reaching over their desks all day long! No thanks.

 

[Journojulz]

I'm sitting at my desk now, and I have no desire to reach over and touch the screen.

If all the computers ever made had been touch screen, we would have been begging someone to invent the mouse.

 

[miknos]

Moving fingers around a +20' screen will be better than wii-fit!

-400 calories browsing the web for 30 minutes!

 

[mikeoc]

Not to be pessimistic, but wouldn't your arms get tired from being raised towards the iMac screen all the time?

That being said, I would love to see some touch Macs! Good news if true!

I don't know, I had the opportunity to play around with a Sony touchscreen PC some time back and used it for about an hour. My arms didn't feel tired in any way after that.

I think the way people would use them is in short bursts of movement - do something on screen, put arms down and watch result of that action, then do it again/carry on if necessary. I can imagine it being a bit of a workout if playing a game or something though but in realistic terms it'd probably be used in tandem alongside a keyboard and mouse.

You know if Apple did make it though, it would be excellently delivered.

 

[little.pm]

Just include a big-ass touchpad on the side of their keyboard!.....this way you can do all the gestures and don't have to go through an ergonomic nightmare.....touchscreen imac don't make much sense to me.

in case that you might not have noticed yet:
The Magic Mouse is a Multi Touch TouchPad also

 

[Sound Evolution]

Macbook's with touchscreen trackpad....

 

[NightFox]

It still amazes me that Apple only got round to registering "iPad" a couple of weeks before announcing it... did they really leave it that late to decide on the name? iPad must always have been at least an option, so how come they didn't register the name months or even years ago?

 

[Belly-laughs]

Dashboard could easily be a touch environment within OSX. Apps and widgets side by side, no app takes full screen, other active apps in the background or in other spaces/pages.

If the iMac goes touch, I would imagine the whole screen would tilt in such a way that it will rest comfortably in front of you. When it enters this position, Dashboard/touchboard will automatically launch.

 

[alent1234]

It still amazes me that Apple only got round to registering "iPad" a couple of weeks before announcing it... did they really leave it that late to decide on the name? iPad must always have been at least an option, so how come they didn't register the name months or even years ago?

in the US Fujitsu had been trying to register it for years for one of their own products

 

[umiwangu]

So, if we believe they knew about the 9.7" iPad, then we should also believe that multi-touch will be coming to the Mac line later this year.

Not necessarily. Why would Apple leak two good bits of information to them? It's possible that 9.7" was the only correct tidbit they were fed.

 

[Raidersmojo]

its sad no one here can "think different" and think apple will just release a touchscreen imac in its current housing without redoing the design. are you guys serious? if you think apple is just going to throw a touchscreen on a 22 inch mac and call it a day then you're pretty asinine.

they're in a lab figuring out the best way to do it right now. my guess is they are already playing on the prototypes.

same thing with a touchscreen os x isn't ready, why not? you don't know what apple is working on. they could have been using 10.7 since last year for all we know. they just don't come out and go "Ok we're now going to make this" then jump into it. a touchscreen OS X has been in work for YEARS.

 

[Pilgrim1099]

It still amazes me that Apple only got round to registering "iPad" a couple of weeks before announcing it... did they really leave it that late to decide on the name? iPad must always have been at least an option, so how come they didn't register the name months or even years ago?

Simple. They got lazy and complacent. This is the problem when they're a victim of their own success, pooh-poohing the tablet market, and then all of a sudden rush the device out and 'control' the media by having a press conference to get all the attention they can get on 1-27-2010.

It's what happens when someone like Steve gets a bit too cocky.

 

[Pilgrim1099]

its sad no one here can "think different" and think apple will just release a touchscreen imac in its current housing without redoing the design. are you guys serious? if you think apple is just going to throw a touchscreen on a 22 inch mac and call it a day then you're pretty asinine.

they're in a lab figuring out the best way to do it right now. my guess is they are already playing on the prototypes.

same thing with a touchscreen os x isn't ready, why not? you don't know what apple is working on. they could have been using 10.7 since last year for all we know. they just don't come out and go "Ok we're now going to make this" then jump into it. a touchscreen OS X has been in work for YEARS.

The touchscreen iMac will most likely have a different design. I suspect they will return to the 'crane' design from 2002 (the one with the lampshade concept) to move the LCD monitor lower and closer to the surface in 45 degrees for better support, so that the person's not reaching far out.

 

[umiwangu]

The touchscreen iMac will most likely have a different design. I suspect they will return to the 'crane' design from 2002 (the one with the lampshade concept) to move the LCD monitor lower and closer to the surface in 45 degrees for better support, so that the person's not reaching far out.

And having to readjust the screen every time you touch it too hard? Doesn't sound too practical to me.

 

[iDisk]

Why does this article keep saying 22" iMac???

Apple is going to enhance the 24" Notebook Cinema Display with Touch functionality.

Then they'll release a 22" ACD 27"ACD 32" ACD

All this talk about a 22" iMac is didly poo IMO

 

[guzhogi]

I see a touch device keyboard for iMacs would be a natural progression - especially if the keyboard was a completely flat sheet of glass.

That way you can sell the same keyboard for all global regions and the you can add some interesting interactions between the mac and the user.

True, the same keyboard could be used for different regions. I've seen keyboards w/ OLED screens on each key that does this kind of thing. What you're talking about is cool, like the keyboards from Star Trek.

2 problems though: many people like tactile feed back. Unless there's a big development with touch screens giving tactile feedback, many people won't buy a touch screen keyboard.

Other problem is cost. Screens, much less touchscreens are still fairly expensive. If you think current Apple keyboards are expensive now, an Apple touchscreen keyboard would probably cost several hundred dollars.

I see that iPhoneOS is not rich enough for server back ends, nor is its target platforms powerful enough for tasks such as editing video (iMovie) or creating music with DAWs such as Reason. I'd have though the closed nature would be seen as a legal issue waiting to happen - I can see this becoming an issue for Apple as their share of the mobile market rises.

I agree, the iPhone OS is too simplified to be a server os, or one that we're familiar with. Without true multitasking, you would have to have a lot of servers which would get very expensive.

I can see iPhoneOS being rolled out onto AppleTV (it runs OSX tiger I believe so it's due an update). In short I see iPhoneOS being the commodity OS with low power (ARM-based) hardware leaving OSX to be the desktop/server OS.

I could see something like this, but what about Front Row on Macs? It would be nice if the two kept in sync.

Also, the AppleTV is in need of a major hardware upgrade. More hard drive space & better graphics. I have quite a few TV shows & movies & those take up a lot of space. I know a lot of people wonder why even have an AppleTV, why not just buy the BlueRay or whatever & how often do you watch these shows & movies? Well, the movies I have are some of my favorites so I like watching them a bit. Plus, I could still rent a few movies on it.

Also, movie quality from iTunes needs to be better, although the US's network infrastructure needs a big boost before that so it wouldn't take hours/days to download an HD movie. When it only takes a few minutes at most to download enough of a movie of BluRay quality to begin playing, we'll be set. With all these bailouts & economy stimuli happening in the US, where's the one for creating better infrastructure for internet & wireless (might as well help AT&T make its infrastructure while we're at it).

Why does this article keep saying 22" iMac???

Apple is going to enhance the 24" Notebook Cinema Display with Touch functionality.

Then they'll release a 22" ACD 27"ACD 32" ACD

All this talk about a 22" iMac is didly poo IMO

Something I would like to see, if Apple does release touchscreen iMacs & ACDs: have the two be in the same size. If there's a 22" iMac, have a 22" ACD, if there's a 30" ACD, have a 30" ACD. I feel this will simplify the building & maintenance of these.

 

[Researcher]

i say lets stick to events.

i say we should give emphasis to the "problematic" iPad. Let's dont forget the hot topic now, that some of our opinions are heard! There will be more articles (which nobody can say for sure that they tell truth and speak with facts) that they will try to keep our eyes away from iPad, and try to make the wholo atmosphere more positive.

NO! iPad is good Apple. You could give more, but you very clever said: **** them. they are sheeps. they will buy both version and i will get easy profit!

NO! Do you want more statistics? 78% of Spain wont buy an iPad while France and Greece are almost 100% pissed of!

Thanks Apple, do you get the meaning now? You let us down...

 

[Winni]

9.7 inch is pretty specific, looks like we'll see a 22" desktop. Wonder if it will run iPhone OS?

Perhaps iPhone OS will eventually grow to be the replacement for Mac OS X in the coming years...

Think about iPhone OS on a big touchscreen with an ATI 5850 and a Quad Core i7 on a SSD...

Running Final Cut and Logic...

Sounds like my worst nightmare coming true.

Who wants a castrated OS on a computer? Especially when it is an operating system that can only install software that comes from Apple's AppStore.

I cannot believe that some of you folks are applauding when Apple turns your computers into glorified consoles.

 

[Belly-laughs]

Who wants a castrated OS on a computer? Especially when it is an operating system that can only install software that comes from Apple's AppStore.

I'd say make Dashboard touch, app enabled. Them little widgets begs to be thrown around, resized, stacked… Then they can leave the OS X as is for the more complex applications.

 

[pa2jonah]

Serious doubts...

about a 22" touchscreen iMac. El Stevo would never allow finger smudges all over that beautiful glossy screen!!

 

[coleridge78]

Simple. They got lazy and complacent. This is the problem when they're a victim of their own success, pooh-poohing the tablet market, and then all of a sudden rush the device out and 'control' the media by having a press conference to get all the attention they can get on 1-27-2010.

It's what happens when someone like Steve gets a bit too cocky.

Ridiculous ad hominem. "All of a sudden rush the device out"? They've been working on it for at least five years.

It's not uncommon for devices to be without a settled name until late in the game (Lisa and Macintosh were both internal code names that stuck after other options were rejected before launch). It's also common to hold off trademarking the name of a product that you want to keep under wraps.

 

[guzhogi]

I cannot believe that some of you folks are applauding when Apple turns your computers into glorified consoles.

I kinda agree; with all this stuff about cloud computing, I see computers needing less & less compute power. Seems like we're going back to the days of mainframes & terminal access.

 

[iDisk]

Sounds like my worst nightmare coming true.

Who wants a castrated OS on a computer? Especially when it is an operating system that can only install software that comes from Apple's AppStore.

I cannot believe that some of you folks are applauding when Apple turns your computers into glorified consoles.

Lol dude did you answer to my post in the "Is Apple taking the professional market serious" <or something like that>????

 

[Tom Jenson]

iPad worth 10 years of R&D?

As much as I like the iPad (with the obvious exceptions regarding multitasking and storage expandability), I really don't feel as though this is the device that had been rumored about for 10 years. It seems as though it is the natural evolution of the iPhone; which of course could have been the real device which was rumored since 2001. I simply don't believe that the iPad is worth 10 years of research & development; the iPhone on the other hand...

As for the touchscreen iMac idea, this won't happen until they create a whole new OS suited for it. Apple won't simply tweak Mac OSX, they'll create a whole new one, Mac OS 11.