Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

More Apple Tablet Patents - Gesture User Interface?

The thing I can't figure out is why are all these patents suddenly coming out of the woodwork? This one was submitted over a year ago. Is it so difficult to search through that site that unless someone tips macrumors off that it is even there?
 
excalibur313 said:
The thing I can't figure out is why are all these patents suddenly coming out of the woodwork? This one was submitted over a year ago. Is it so difficult to search through that site that unless someone tips macrumors off that it is even there?
Click to expand...

There was a patent filed a year ago, but not this one. The one we're all discussing now was just revealed today and builds on last years patent.

THAT is important because it shows progression on last years patent. In other words, they're workin on it. This may simply be the second step in a longer process, but it could also be the final step in the past years R&D on this project.

Keep in mind also that even though that other "Chameleon" patent was filed last year, that Inkwell and Gestures have been in the Mac OS since Jaguar in '02 and have, for the most part. not been utilized yet. That would mean that this project may have, and probably has, been in the works for the past 3+ years. I would think that a 3-5 year R&D cycle for a project of this magnitude would be appropriate. Afterall, they had to put all the pieces in place [iPod, Mac Mini [or any Mac], Airport Express, etc.]

I believe that this will be a stand alone networked device that compliments [not replaces] Apple's product line [both Mac and Pod] but is full featured when used in conjunction with an Apple Mac or Pod. maybe it'll even double as a reference [not intended for prolonged use] display for the Mac Mini [Apple Cinema Display Mini?]. At a $599 - $799 [current 20" Apple Cinema Display price], this thing would fly off the shelves with the Mac Mini's. Let it store your home folder and then take it to your primary Mac to do the more intense stuff.

This could very well be Apple's home entertainment hub and/or that hub's controlling device which may help corral all of the users home entertainment devices together. I think it'll be exclusive to managing Apple products though.

But STOP calling it a remote!
 
One of the best advances would be developing a plastic that can survive constant contact with a scribe.

One thing I've noticed about using a PDA is that after a while, the screen becomes scratched at regular contact points.

The material used for the screen has to be harder than the material used for the scribe. I wonder what kind of combination it would take to have a screen that wore down scribes and not vice versa.

Just an on the spot theory, an organic scribe used on a screen that incorporates silica. Not to the same level as glass, which would make it far too brittle, but enough to make it scratch resistant. Maybe plasticized silica glass would be hard enough to be used with skin and an organic scribe.

Either way, if Tablets are to be used with scribes on a regular basis, it won't be long before they start to distort the image and have a scratch pattern that matches how the operator uses their tablet.

Maybe a scribe pad would work.
 
Let's Do This

Ha! Neb154... too funny. And I totally agree.
I have a pretty good imagination... and confident I'm more than capable of figuring out how to integrate a MacPod into my life. 😉
If not, Apple will be there to spell it out for me.

This buzz SO reeks of the pre iPod buzz - when everyone dissed the idea, not knowing how it would fit into our (then) happy little Mac lives.

I say "bring it on, Apple."
 
Tablet --cough, cough

It may have some commercial value for those needing electronic signatures, but for the great unwashed masses, it's a solution searching for a problem. If anyone can find the problem, it will be Apple. I'm just not convinced on this one.
 
Finding the right size for a tablet will be interesting as well. I imagine that some people are going to enjoy hauling around tablets with 20" screens, it's a good sized TV wherever they go. I imagine it will fall somewhere between an iPod and a 20" model.

I dunno, a laptop with a 17" screen has always seemed cumbersome to me, no matter how thin it is.

That's what bugs me about the RAZR, sure it's thin, but it is also wider and longer than other phones that are available.

It would be cool if the tablets came with those cool projection keyboards that have been in development. Even if they are only useful when you have a flat surface to project them onto.

I can imagine orienting a tablet to sit on its side on desks while projecting its own keyboard so that it could be used like a laptop. For other situations, you would need at least a virtual keyboard on the screen.

I really look forward to what can be done with tablets though.
 
DaveClarkOne said:
It may have some commercial value for those needing electronic signatures, but for the great unwashed masses, it's a solution searching for a problem. If anyone can find the problem, it will be Apple. I'm just not convinced on this one.
Click to expand...

Does the unwashed masses include all of the "all I wanna do is check my email and surf the web and stuff" crowd? Because that's a pretty big crowd.

Now give them the ability to do it from their sofa in the living room without the distracting notebook screen barrier and with the ability to just as easily set it aside as a magazine that they can easily can comeback to at anytime.

There is a psychology associated with the physical make-up of notebooks that prevent them from being regarded as quick grab and drop tools. This will be that tool.

Think of it as being just as often used and disgarded as a remote control, but a heck of a lot more useful.
 
Might I suggest an alternative reason for these patents other then the obvious OS X Tablet. Consider an e-book device. The introduction of e-ink now allows devices last hundreds of hours on a single charge. Place a digitizer above the screen and use these gestures you have a fantastic means of moving pages.

Beyond that does anyone think this isn't all that original? Seriously. From what I can tell what is being talked about here is what is called a snap box or a rubber band box. I use the gesture used in the animated example all the time to explain to people what it is. The iPod type wheel seems original enough though.
 
anyone remeber the mac promos from way back when, i think the 80s. The one where the guys lays his newpaper on the screen and it scans it in and the computer begins to read the new to him? maybe Steve Jobs was watching Apple's video archives and though to himself "hey we could prolly do that now." I mean the "dock" idea from the 80s finally got realized (the app dock on OS X), right? I think they're just good at thinking ahead of their time, and have to wait a few years before it's actually possible. This may also work into their guesture tablet idea.

also in response to numerous posts here. the 5G iPod is not the video iPod, its a normal iPod that happend to do video. The "iPod" will always primarily be a music player. Steve Jobs has reinforced this idea numerous times. However, there may be a new product called "iPod video" released as a separate product, which could be touch screen and all that. but the iPod will always be the iPod.

This is what i think will be release within the next two years:

--1 GB iPod nano (shifting the current nano capacities from 2 and 4 GB to 3 and 6 GB)

--30 GB [AIDS] special edition red iPod for 9 months.

--Quicktime Theatre or Quicktime Extreme, with a Theatre mode simulating the iTunes UI (with the source list at the left and the tracklist viewer to the right of it, except, when you select a video to play, the tracklist area would fade into the playback viewing area, kinda like how the iPod 5G deals with video playback. And like how the visualizer works when its NOT in fullscreen mode. and all the editing and recording stuff from Pro upgrades would stay intact, just when you start a new recording it places it into the tracklist viewer instead of dropping it onto your desktop.)

--iPhone (completely compatable with your essencial Mac-lications such as Mail, addressbook, ical, ichat, etc.)

--13" WS intel MacBook (replacing the iBook)

--Mac Pro (replacing the PowerMacs)

--MacBook mini (the tablet)

--'numbers', or 'spreadsheet' app for iWork, and maybe 'Database'

--Leopard

--Mac mini upgrade of somekind.

--Quicktime Video Store, part of Quicktime Theatre.

--(and more i cant think of now cus i have to get to sleep if i wanna wake up in 7 hrs.)
 
joebells said:
Only problem with those virtual keyboards that I've read is that they really hurt the hands after a while as the hand is just hitting a hard surface with no cushoning.

I really hope apple comes out with a tablet I would buy it the instant it came out. I really want a tablet as they really are nice but I don't want to get a windows tablet pc.
Click to expand...

This raises the obvious ergonomic problems with a virtual keyboard (including one on a screen) - the fingers have liitle cushioning and the screen is too flat - it has no dimension like a real keyboard, very unforgiving.

Its a great idea, useful for entering in short amounts of text but you wouldn't want to write a book with it.
 
From an artist

As an artist, I'm really excited about the possibility of a MacTablet.

Such a device would be particularly great for artists who like to work on location.

It could also be a portable multi-track recorder for musicians.

Graphics tablets are OK, but the fact is they are not as sophisticated a technology as, say, pencil and paper.

A MacTablet, however (especially when coupled with software like Alias SketchBook Pro) could surpass even that venerable combination.

At any rate, keyboards are not sexy.
 
doogle said:
This raises the obvious ergonomic problems with a virtual keyboard (including one on a screen) - the fingers have liitle cushioning and the screen is too flat - it has no dimension like a real keyboard, very unforgiving.

Its a great idea, useful for entering in short amounts of text but you wouldn't want to write a book with it.
Click to expand...

EXACTLY! The data input feature [keyboard] is meant to be used minimally, and mostly for viewing the results. As in type in a URL and view the webpage.

Any keyboard intensive tasks [writing a book, etc.] are left to be done on the users primary computer, which is hopefully a Mac.

I'm really starting to think that they are going to do the same thing with this as they did with the iPod. Back in '01 I was telling people that the iPod would be the "Trojan Horse" into the windows users household. A couple of years later and for the past couple of years, Wall Street has been calling it the "Halo Effect".

I'm leaning towards believing that this will be the "Pod" product that will introduce users to Mac OSX.

As has been thrown around on this forum several times and following Apple's current naming convention, it's looking like a "MacPod". I'm guessing $599.

Now the question is, will there be a MacPod Pro with superior networking features and/or more? I'm thinking they'll both have read only optical drives to encourage people to buy [any] Mac to compliment the MacPod.

Will both possibly double as Apple Cinema Display Mini's [small reference LCD's] to compliment the Mac Mini? I'm guessing MacPod Pro @ $799
 
I'm a film production student. I take my powerbook to all of my lectures and type notes, although I'm the only one not using paper! There were a few guys that used PDA's a while back but everyone just rolled their eyes at them. I assume everyone's rolling their eyes at me also behind my back, but it's too late to stop taking digital notes now.

What I'm trying to say is that Apple will have to make any tablet computer as popular as the iPod to get it accepted by students, certainly at my university...
 
MacQuest said:
Any keyboard intensive tasks [writing a book, etc.] are left to be done on the users primary computer, which is hopefully a Mac.

Now the question is, will there be a MacPod Pro with superior networking features and/or more? I'm thinking they'll both have read only optical drives to encourage people to buy [any] Mac to compliment the MacPod.
Click to expand...
Let's talk Docking Station! If apple are smart they will put a ridiculously good Intel chip in MacPod and then and potential switcher will be able to hook it up to some sort of MacPod Dock, which would allow it to behave as a normal mac!
 
There are other books than Ibooks out there...

This could also turn out to be a device that could do the same with books that Apple did with music -and tries to do with video. I know Sony is working hard on a portable reader thingy but their attempts so far looks a bit clumsy.
With a slick device that doesn't hurt the eyes (that rhymes...) we might see yet another addition to the iTunes Store...
 
iPad and living room

I remember a while back talk of an "iPad". I just googled and found some old rumors.

Some rumors from 2002


Regardless of those old rumors and what that device would have been at the time. I like the name "iPad".

This could be a whole new line of products that bridge the gap between Macs and iPods, so maybe it shouldn't be a "Mac" or an "iPod".

Then again, as someone else mentioned, if you join this with another recent rumor about Apple's bigscreen TV or media center for the livingroom, this would be a really nice remote-control for that thing. This might not be a standalone device at all but an accessory for something else.

Perhaps the bigscreen Apple TV will have a littlescreen companion. The bigscreen will be for watching video, the littlescreen will be for reading/writing text and navigation. Many people don't like to read text on a video screen 15 feet away, it just doesn't work for everyone. Put that part of the exprience on a "pad" in your hands, and you can read it lying down on the couch or you can do your fancy four-finger navigation on the pad while the results show up on the big screen.

I think there are some interesting ideas floating around and only Steve knows where they will all fit together when and if they get out there. I think they will either be released, and be incredible, or they just won't get released.

I get the feeling something big could happen to how people consume media, and these won't be separate announcements. I think Apple is getting ready to blow our minds and we don't know when or what it will be.


Peuclid
 
hob said:
Let's talk Docking Station! If apple are smart they will put a ridiculously good Intel chip in MacPod and then and potential switcher will be able to hook it up to some sort of MacPod Dock, which would allow it to behave as a normal mac!
Click to expand...

I see where your going with this, but I really think Apple is going to make sure that this device in NO WAY cuts into it's computer sales. It's gonna be like "if you wanna view/manage something then use your MacPod. If you want to create something use your Mac."

I've said it before, this will be a product that COMPLIMENTS a computer, windows or Mac, but will obviously be more full featured and elegant with a Mac.
 
I am glad to see Apple have covered their bases to bring out a touch screen video ipod which has a virtual wheel. Would love ti also see a tablet with a VIIV chip inside. I'll keep saving my money until something cool comes out.
 
danielwsmithee said:
My wife has gotten really anoyed with me poking her and saying "Look it's a Mac," when we are at the movie theater.🙁
Click to expand...

Your not the only one, but do you then go on to mention it after the film as finished 🙄
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back