dicklacara
macrumors 6502a
Why? Apple has been quite successful delivering products/experiences where "less is more".
Why would they consider delivering a netbook, where "less is less"?
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Steve Jobs Almost Entirely Focused on Tablet Project?
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Why? Apple has been quite successful delivering products/experiences where "less is more".
Why would they consider delivering a netbook, where "less is less"?
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JFreak
macrumors 68040
NT1440
macrumors P6
I dont really think one is meant to take the place of the other, but as with all apple products, to coexsist (and sync via mobileme 😛). But hey if it suits your needs better than a macbook, by all means go for it!
The tablet is quite revolutionary, nicknamed The Methane. It features a fuel cell battery that runs on methane.
Jobs was screaming at the employees again because in his absence they contracted for the methane from a company that collects it from animal sources.
Jobs wants methane produced from vegetables only.
The delay is because the vegetarian battery is very sensitive and testy.
Jobs was screaming at the employees again because in his absence they contracted for the methane from a company that collects it from animal sources.
Jobs wants methane produced from vegetables only.
The delay is because the vegetarian battery is very sensitive and testy.
Well if it has built in bluetooth then Apple (and other 3rd parties) can market BT keyboards for the device. If they combine this with smooth handwriting recognition software it would make for a good sales pitch of "type documents in your dorm/at your office then take it with you and take notes and mark-up documents on the tablet itself during class/at meetings". I am a corporate attorney and I can tell you that when I'm at a Hearing 90% of the people around the table have laptops so they can have all of the filings from cases available to them, and they can type out notes. If there was a lighter/easier way to carry around all of this info and take notes and mark-up documents with a virtual pen (e.g. circling a section of testimony that the Hearing Examiner has just mentioned was especially persuasive to him/her) I think it would be a valuable tool, and a way to continue the transition of macs into the workplace.
For that model to work, though, it would have to be able to run either Mac OS X or there would have to be a version of Pages and Numbers that would run on the tablet's OS and be fully compatible with Word and Excel files.
peterdevries
macrumors 68040
63dot
macrumors 603
WTF? I personally can produce all the methane needed. It's said to be the Diet Coke I like to drink. 😉
HiRez
macrumors 603
You may be right, but if that's the case I most likely will not be buying one. Fracturing Mac software into three different categories is just too much IMO. I think they either need to expand the iPhone multitouch interface into the full OS X, or they need to go the other way and find a way to gracefully translate iPhone OS (Cocoa Touch) to a much larger screen (it would not be pretty as it is right now). A lot of people are going to want this tablet to run software they know and love, like Photoshop, Office, Xcode, Lightroom, etc., and most of the big manufacturers are not going o rewrite their complex software for a new OS. Games are not a big problem since most of them take over the screen and run a custom UI anyway.
And I would hope is has built-in 4G as well as 3G. We've already seen how the iPhone has crippled AT&T's fragile 3G network. That's the other thing, if this thing is locked to Verizon it's probably no deal for me as well. I'm already paying every month for Comcast (home internet) and AT&T (iPhone), there is no way I'm forking out to another provider for yet another data fee.
My 2 cents.
So there has been a lot of speculation as to what and why a tablet will be needed. Quite simply, because Mac users love graphic interfaces.
My 2 cents is that the tablet will be a multi-purpose unit that functions as a portable Macbook (presentation unit, on the fly editing, multimedia player, the new way to do mobile business... period). The unique feature is that it can function as an extra monitor or giant touch screen mouse pad when paired with your current Mac unit. Wacom is about to have it's worst nightmare.
If Mac was to make a tablet... THIS would be what I'd want it to do.
So there has been a lot of speculation as to what and why a tablet will be needed. Quite simply, because Mac users love graphic interfaces.
My 2 cents is that the tablet will be a multi-purpose unit that functions as a portable Macbook (presentation unit, on the fly editing, multimedia player, the new way to do mobile business... period). The unique feature is that it can function as an extra monitor or giant touch screen mouse pad when paired with your current Mac unit. Wacom is about to have it's worst nightmare.
If Mac was to make a tablet... THIS would be what I'd want it to do.
You don't think the ability or not to run Mac OS X applications is a huge differentiation? The lines are really:
iPhone 3G 3Gs (2 sub models on memory ) {phone capability being the significant differential along with small screen}
iPod Touch ( 2 sub models on memory) [ iTablet ] {lack of legacy voice network being "benefit" 🙂 better CPU/Graphics/screen. }
MB, MBA , MBP {general portable computing device. }
or same but the tablet moved to the Mac OS X portables major product line
[iTablet ] , MB (?) , MBA , MBP
The one that is 'funky' is the MBA. If "ultramobile" (lightweight, carry everywhere, possible second computer ) is need trying to fill then the a Mac OS X tablet vs. MBA ..... which one is folks going to take? However, could see them nuking the MB since it is aligned with the wish that portables can't drop below $1000.
The stranger move would be to kill of the MacBook. But could see them doing it to reserve space for a Mac OS X tablet. If it is a iPhone OS tablet then MB gets revised and moves down like it should.
Treating the 13/15/17" displays as different models is like breaking apart the models on processor speed ( or flash size for the iPods. ) It is a component that goes into the system. Not a model line differentiator.
Or to pigeon hole folks into iPhone OS vs. Mac OS X ?
If Apple allows more Mac OS X and iPhone OS overlap then folks will be choosing which side they want. [ These tablet rumors are extremely muddled with a large group assuming the tablet is going to be Mac OS X device and another assuming it will be an iPhone OS device. ]
Why would Apple kill off the MB? The natural evolution of the MB is to move under the $1000 price point. That is what computers do over time; get less expensive. Apple has been swimming upstream from that for years. Can't do that forever.
What Apple may be trying to do is transform the form factor of what the sub $1000 portable computer would take on (if it is a general computing device with Mac OS X. ) Apple has dropped the floppy drive , the expansion slots , etc. .... this could be dropping the keyboard. ( depending upon how it is done that may/may not work out. Could like have some major ergonomic problems if what folks are drawing as concepts. )
However, if this is a iPhone OS device... killing off something in another product line makes no sense. Did Apple TV kill off the Mac mini ??? Does the Time Capsule kill off Mac mini??? Serves substantively different function means both continue.
Just as true for the MB if it is not an Mac OS X device. They will have a huge hole in their matrix for the sub $1000 with a very constrained device.
The point that folks are missing a bit is that celluar data network companies are going to get into the "ultramobile" computer selling business.
High speed wireless data networks with affordable service fees is a new reality that was not present when Jobs came up with that "two box" strategy. The world has changed. Strategies need to change with the world.
Back in the "two box" era Apple had just come out of an era where there was several conflicting lines. So countered that with an extreme. It was an over correction.
For the individual major product lines have 2-3 models. But if you try to lump all of the major product lines into one, then it is easy to blow them out into a larger list.
Conceptually Verizon's 4G wireless network would deliver the similar speed and QoS that allow folks to use Comcast to dump their home phone service. Namely, if going to carry around a iTablet and Verizon allows VOIP then could dump the iPhone.
Longer term that could be the tradeoff. Whether want wireless VOIP all the time or want a legacy voice + data wireless.
Short term if will likely be non iPhone folks that would buy the tablet. It is only iPhone folks who are saying the Tablet data contract doesn't make sense. There are far, far, far, far more folks who do not have an iPhone than those who do. Maybe, just maybe, Apple is trying to sell to people they haven't already sold something in the wireless data network solution space yet???? There are 100's of millions of them. The folks with the more mainstream phones who are not paying huge total lifecycle cost for them.
cult hero
macrumors 65816
Yeah, I really wish people would stop trying to define what qualifies as a "toy" or "serious work" for me. Typing at all is hardly considered "serious work" if you're a cab driver.
The point is, just because YOU don't have a use for it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I have absolutely no reason to own a Power Mac in a professional capacity. Huh. Why does Apple sell that overpriced piece of junk? I don't need it so no one needs it.
YES! When Steve gets cracking things start happening. I can't wait to see this product - I think it's going to be a real Kindle-killer. Not that the Kindle is so revolutionary - I think the tablet will be the thing that really kills print books.
arkitect
macrumors G3
killerwhack
macrumors regular
Can't stop change
The dissemination of information by cutting down trees, pulping the fibers into paper, printing on the paper, binding the paper and loading the bound paper into airplanes and trucks to send around the world is hereby, obsolete.
Yeah, reading a book is more pleasant and enjoyable and all of that, but it is also on the way out. The kids won't care. Eventually, they will not know any other way.
Don't worry, we will all be gone by then but mark my words, it will happen.
The dissemination of information by cutting down trees, pulping the fibers into paper, printing on the paper, binding the paper and loading the bound paper into airplanes and trucks to send around the world is hereby, obsolete.
Yeah, reading a book is more pleasant and enjoyable and all of that, but it is also on the way out. The kids won't care. Eventually, they will not know any other way.
Don't worry, we will all be gone by then but mark my words, it will happen.
arkitect
macrumors G3
*shrug*
We'll see… or not as the case may be. 😉
But I do believe that the rumours of the death of print have been greatly exaggerated.
peterdevries
macrumors 68040
Yeah, that's what the guy said, who sold slabs of stones in a package with a hammer and chisel, when Gutenberg showed up.. 😀
Tablet - Macbook - iPhone/iPod Touch interaction
I hope a lot of design thoughts are going into interactive usages between the Tablet and other Apple devices, like Tablet-MacBook, Tablet-iPod Touch etc. Like the remote control apps on iPhone/iPod but support much more use cases.
Must be well integrated with my MacBook and my iPod touch! Including using the tablet as a touch controller/input or additional viewer. Think about using it for running presentations as well. Must think of it as part of the system rather than just another gadget standalone device.
I hope a lot of design thoughts are going into interactive usages between the Tablet and other Apple devices, like Tablet-MacBook, Tablet-iPod Touch etc. Like the remote control apps on iPhone/iPod but support much more use cases.
Must be well integrated with my MacBook and my iPod touch! Including using the tablet as a touch controller/input or additional viewer. Think about using it for running presentations as well. Must think of it as part of the system rather than just another gadget standalone device.
arkitect
macrumors G3
Har har…
You're missing a few thousand years there…😉
Don't get me wrong… I am a great fan and user of eBooks and they have great potential.
I just don't think it is going to be so precipitous.
Mind you, the convenience of just grabbing your "electronic library" when you run out of your burning house is not to be underestimated. 😀
peterdevries
macrumors 68040
Nitpicking 😀
I agree, but now good e-readers are finally emerging, I think the market will grow rapidly. I see however even greater potential in the area of magazines and newspapers with online delivery and premium content for subscribers. The publishers could lower the price of a subscription as less paper is wasted and more subscriptions are delivered electronically. It would also make it less cumbersome to do trial subscriptions, and probably best of all: they could deliver the mag all over the world, as opposed to a few countries now. What a potential.
I would jump on the possibility to convert my Esquire subscription to an e-mag type.
jayducharme
macrumors 603
Drifting through all those links, I ran across this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEXe4UN3Y3U&feature=player_embedded
With so much talk of MS always stealing ideas from Apple, there's a section of the Slate demo called "Tabletop" which directly copies the behavior of MS's Surface.
peterdevries
macrumors 68040
That piece of footage was made by someone not employed by Apple. In addition, many companies are now copying multitouch gestures from the ones that Apple introduced. That isn't such a surprise, as there are only so many ways you can use a finger to move or resize stuff on a touchscreen.
The tablet computer is a dead market. It's not happening, period.
But something else is coming...
But something else is coming...