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John Gruber: No Camera on Apple Tablet

Keystone Presentation Speculation

While probably completely wrong, whats a rumor site without speculation?

Steve nears the end of his presentation and says,
"I would like to address the tablet rumors that have been flying around for some time now".
"We will not be building a tablet".
"They are bad for a variety of reasons which have left them to niche market status".
"We dont see any growth there".
"But, I do have one more thing for you...we call it the Macbook Touch".

The real key for apple is to distance themselves from tablets. There are lots of awful tablets out there. By defining their product, they can also define what makes it a success. Rather than allowing other peoples dreams and desires to define it for them. If they call this thing a tablet, they are in for a headache.
 
I think this device will spend most of it's time on your coffee table or in the kitchen. You'll pick it up and put it down 100 times a day to read your email, a book, recipes and magazines. Mothers will take photos of the kids and email them. Kids will photograph themselves and post them on facebook. When grandma comes over you'll take a dozen family snaps and print them. When it's not in use you put it on it's stand and it becomes a digital photo frame. Unfortunately for the geekier amongst us, I think this will be a living room device and as such it needs a camera.
 
I'm not buying into this one at all.

First, there have been others that have been considered just as reliable as a source to say otherwise. Kevin Rose and others have said it will be much more than just a giant iPod Touch device with a camera. Other podcasts have had guests on as well claiming that it will be more than just a consumable media device, much more.

That's why until it comes out in a couple of weeks these rumors will persist. While nothing is guaranteed, I think it HAS to be more and from all the reports it will be. So that means video camera, maybe even gesturing motion like Project Natel by Microsoft type of stuff. But who knows, all I know is it must have a camera if they want more use out of it.
 
anubis said:
If I want to take a photo of something, and a 10-inch tablet is about as bulky as my Canon 5D and L-series lens, then I will select the one that blasts the other away in terms of picture quality. The last thing the world needs is more crappy pencil eraser sized multi-MP photo sensors in every device you carry
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anubis said:
Do you honestly think people would embrace walking around with a bulky 10-inch tablet to snap bar codes for price checks? It's not much different than suggesting people do this with their 13-inch macbooks, and I can't say I've ever seen anyone do that.
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And yet the mac book has a camera in it, no?

I'm not sure why people are against something that takes almost no space and adds essentially nothing to the cost. Cameras are useful things. I probably wouldn't use it on a daily basis, but I don't use the audio in jack on my Macbook either. I wouldn't argue that that should be removed...
 
louiek said:
I think this device will spend most of it's time on your coffee table or in the kitchen. You'll pick it up and put it down 100 times a day to read your email, a book, recipes and magazines. Mothers will take photos of the kids and email them. Kids will photograph themselves and post them on facebook. When grandma comes over you'll take a dozen family snaps and print them. When it's not in use you put it on it's stand and it becomes a digital photo frame. Unfortunately for the geekier amongst us, I think this will be a living room device and as such it needs a camera.
Click to expand...

I can't think of a single living room device with a camera right now, unless you consider the addons for consoles. So why does a living room device need a camera again?

You seem to think a camera, not just a webcam is in the making too. I can see the possibility for a webcam (but I don't expect one). I don't know why they would add a camera... a tablet isn't exactly camera sized. I'd think it would be more likely that people would be able to wireless transfer pictures from their iPhone to the tablet.
 
A webcam makes sense, because it's in Apple's other computing products. Although, personally, I don't use the iSight or know anyone else who uses it. :confused:

But any other camera doesn't really make sense. Who is going to carry around a 10" tablet to take pictures? DSLRs are already inconvenient enough.
 
na1577 said:
A webcam makes sense, because it's in Apple's other computing products. Although, personally, I don't use the iSight or know anyone else who uses it. :confused:

But any other camera doesn't really make sense. Who is going to carry around a 10" tablet to take pictures? DSLRs are already inconvenient enough.
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You are mistaking cause and effect. You don't carry a tablet to take pictures. You take pictures because you are carrying a tablet.
 
paradox00 said:
I can't think of a single living room device with a camera right now, unless you consider the addons for consoles. So why does a living room device need a camera again?

You seem to think a camera, not just a webcam is in the making too. I can see the possibility for a webcam (but I don't expect one). I don't know why they would add a camera... a tablet isn't exactly camera sized. I'd think it would be more likely that people would be able to wireless transfer pictures from their iPhone to the tablet.
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But... a webcam is a camera. Take a single frame from a webcam and, hey presto, it's a still image, hence it is a camera. They cost pennies to put into devices these days. The cheapest gadgetphone has video/still image capabilities. Leaving out a webcam on the fabled iPod Slate is like leaving out USB on a PC. It's entirely possible, but it'll cost you in the market much more than you'll save on manufacture. Apple would be stupid to omit this, but as they seem to change USB/firewire functionality on every iteration of their macbooks/iMacs - it wouldn't surprise me if they did do something so idiotic. But it's a long shot. Even St. Steve isn't that dumb.
 
IMHO John is wrong

Every laptop, and monitor has a camera, some of the ipods have a camera, the iPhone has a camera.

If the new device is suppoced to be about media..... guess what... The camera produces media.

I think John is off on this one.
 
louiek said:
I think this device will spend most of it's time on your coffee table or in the kitchen. You'll pick it up and put it down 100 times a day to read your email, a book, recipes and magazines. Mothers will take photos of the kids and email them. Kids will photograph themselves and post them on facebook. When grandma comes over you'll take a dozen family snaps and print them. When it's not in use you put it on it's stand and it becomes a digital photo frame. Unfortunately for the geekier amongst us, I think this will be a living room device and as such it needs a camera.
Click to expand...

I don't exactly hear people clamoring for a device that lives in your kitchen or a really expensive photo frame with a probable data plan.

Apple may have a trick up their sleeves like with the iPhone but I can't recommend this to anybody when you can get a netbook on the cheap and it is a FULL computer. If rumors are true then it will be a flop.
 
paradox00 said:
I can't think of a single living room device with a camera right now, unless you consider the addons for consoles. So why does a living room device need a camera again?
Click to expand...

Actually I can think of one, my iPhone. It sits in the living room, gets used by me, the missus and the kids for web surfing, watching tv shows, facebooking and taking lots of photos. There's a perfectly good MacBook Pro in the study and a camera in the draw beneath it but the iPhone is just so damned convenient it gets used more. That's what I think will be used to differentiate this product from the cheap netbooks people will tell you to buy because "they're half the price and do twice as much", it will be the convenience.
 
Cander said:
Or a dock. I keep picturing some kind of multipurpose dock. One for at your desk that lets you connect to a keyboard and mouse to use as your productivity tool. Then pop it out of that dock to take to your living room and dock to your TV and use as an AppleTV. Then when you go out or to bed, out of the dock it goes to be used as a mobile surfing, email, games, ebook, and/or media player for bed, bathroom, or travel.
Click to expand...

It seems to me the computer has become the new "television", an "idiot box" that goes with you anywhere at anytime. From this description (which is fairly spot on), computers are the next "best friend" that goes to work with you, helps you communicate with others without actually being face to face, and then sleeps next to you in bed. Hell, I'm guilty of it. I watch television on my Mac Pro with EyeTV, I use Facebook, I work on my Mac, and hell, there are some days I never have to communicate with people face to face as I work and study from home.

My point is society generally is becoming more and more anti-social through computers. Technology is meant to facilitate life, not define it. All these rumors of an rumored new Apple device are fantastic and entertaining, but is another device really necessary to live life? I look around the NYC subways and streets, and there are more iPods, iPhones and iDevices keeping people from human interaction than ever before. Remember when pay phones where the main mode of human telephony? Now human conversation is being replaced with emails and text messaging. Some comments in the rumor mills have suggested this new device will read lips for communication, or further may even detect touch-free hand gesturing in front of the screen. WOW. Now we don't even need to directly communicate with COMPUTERS. It's mind blowing.

In the end, put technology away and try to communicate with people the old fashioned way: directly. ;)
 
I would be disappointed if there weren't some type of iSight camera in the front for video conferencing but it wouldn't prevent me from not buying one. Video conferencing would come in handy since I'm slowly converting my out of state relatives in switching to MBP's or a Tablet if it does come out.
 
EagerDragon said:
IMHO John is wrong

Every laptop, and monitor has a camera, some of the ipods have a camera, the iPhone has a camera..
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Agreed 100%. It'd be pretty weird in the lineup. Even the macbooks and ipods have em. Here's a device in between, and... no isight? Whrt?

I mean, it's possible, but then, anything's possible at this point, since it's still all... rumors & wishful thinking.
 
that sucks..
I was hoping it would have ichat or that I could talk with skype with my friends.

hype is over. it's gonna suck.
 
Thex1138 said:
If there's a choice between LCD and OLED... OLED of course, even if the dollars are higher...
:cool:
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Is that for the crappier lifespan, the worse visibility in daylight, or the arguably unimpressive power consumption when displaying dark on light background?
 
cmaier said:
A tablet is the perfect form factor for the business traveller, and the business traveller would likely appreciate a webcam more than most (to conference with the kids back home, teleconferences with the home office, etc.)

I don't believe the rumor.
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You sir . . are on point. ;):apple:
 
Rocketman said:
I agree and I think the iSlate will make it worse. My wife already spends more time on the iPhone at restaurants and before and after sex than she does "eating".
Click to expand...

Perhaps your screen name has something to do with that later part? Slow down the countdown before blastoff! :D

Mark
 
jsnuff1 said:
this is apple's chance to take the netbook market by storm, but with all these supposed features missing it seems like they are targeting this to a niche market instead of mass market.
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I personally wouldn't expect a camera on a netbook. I'd be happy enough if the tablet is a touchscreen web/email/ereader that uses iTunes for its content and apps. I'm not expecting a full computer that I'd use for content creation or programming. If it's just basically a big iPod Touch with a few new features I'll be buying one.
 
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