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Steve Jobs Meetings, Tablets, and iPhones

RichP said:
I realize there are all sorts of other types of notes that are easier to document by drawing (diagrams, etc) but perhaps a tablet is not the solution to this need.
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A laptop with a touch screen/stylus would be good for this, if you could make the keyboard of the laptop "slide" to the other side, (allowing the screen to be on top) then you could have the best of both worlds, though the engineering would be a bi*ch.
 
UnreaL said:
I got the impression Steve Jobs was God while reading this... Well it certainly reads that way.

The only flaw I see in the launch of a compact MP3/Phone 'iPhone' to Apple is that it will crush the iPod market. Nothing really combines the features of a MP3 player with a phone seamlessly. It will do just what the camera phone did to the digital camera market and subsequently the video market (videos are a booming sucess just not as a method of communication).

People love intergration.
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I guess it's a good thing Apple's never been afraid of doing just that. Remember the iPod mini? Top seller, then at the top of it's game, poof, it's gone. The iPod overall could hardly be more popular, so by that same standard, now's the time to come out with it's replacement.

jW
 
your telling me that a tablet PC is going to be anything but a stupid niche?


Try to use one as you would your own desktop or even a laptop.

you cant, the logistics for everyday use is just not there.

Put a tablet in your backpack after class, it gets scratched to hell from other things inside there, a normal laptop has a lid.

Hold a tablet and try to write something, as you would a clipboard, most people use their lap and not hold it up in one arm.

maybe my perception of a tablet is different from what could possibly be designed, but a floating screen that is touch sensitive just doesnt seem feasible or useful for the masses.

the question is really, WHY do you need a tablet?

I fail to find any real need, unless they become so indestructible and weightless and cheap that youd be stupid not to own one.

i never thought MP3 players were a niche market, the WalkMan invented the portable music market decades ago, MP3 is a progression of formats. A tablet is a form factor change only, one I doubt will ever take off on the levels of replacing laptops.
 
I wouldn't mind having a tablet/laptop combo kind of thing. Take a MacBook Pro, let the display swivel around 180? and close w/ the display face up. It would be too hard to write a whole paper or something by hand. Imagine what that would do to the screen! But if you can write on the screen, that wold be good for a quick note.

Also, it shouldn't be too big, maybe 15" screen max b/c anything bigger would be awkward to carry, especially for kids.

If they do only a screen like thing, like a portable iMac, and not one where you can swivel around the display to get a laptop, Apple should really make a docking station like thing so you wouldn't have to carry it. Maybe something like the Cinema Display stand. It would be cool if Apple made a docking station that added extra hard drives/CD/DVD-Roms. Possibly add like a second motherboard or something to boost the performance (think SLI/Crossfire graphics cards, but w/ other components).

For those saying it's a niche thing, who cares? To some people, a tablet might be a dream come true! Some people may want something bigger & more powerful than a PDA, but not quite a laptop. Maybe something like a PADD in Star Trek?
 
Warbrain said:
Apple will never make a portable with an optical drive that is an external attachment. It limits the usage of the machine and Jobs has had, especially in recent history, the idea that you must be able to use the computer directly out of the box and not have to have extra components like an optical drive to plug in. The computer is meant to be capable of everything that you need it to do for basic tasks and by making the optical drive an extra thing to carry around and plug in will go against Apple's design and will ultimately make it not happen.
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Sony did that with a couple lines of VAIO notebook, and speaking as one who used to work for Sony's main tech support phone center -- and moreover had to deal with customers who bought those things -- it was a complete nightmare. IF Apple were ever to do that, it would generate so much bad press and so many very bad feelings towards Apple that it could actually cause them some serious harm.
 
PDA is not a tablet, it is meant to be very small and carried

laptop with rotating screen is not a tablet its meant for few applications


a real tablet is a doctor holding it one arm, fingers and elbow holding it firm.

those with PDAs and those with laptops arent the same people who would buy a tablet.

applesnoranjes
 
MikeTheC said:
Sony did that with a couple lines of VAIO notebook, and speaking as one who used to work for Sony's main tech support phone center -- and moreover had to deal with customers who bought those things -- it was a complete nightmare. IF Apple were ever to do that, it would generate so much bad press and so many very bad feelings towards Apple that it could actually cause them some serious harm.
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Could you explain why? I can't see why they would make any issues...
 
I can see a Apple Tablet arriving sometime in late 2007. But not a tablet as we know it. Instead:

- A laptop form factor and shape.
- A keyboard-sized touch-sensitive area which will be programmable and will serve as a virtual keyboard, a virtual touch-pad, a virtual draw-pad, a virtual audio mixer console, etc. (see related patent, filed recently).
- Therefore, the screen intself will not need to be touch-sensitive. "Tablet" will refer to the touch-sensitive input area.
- Such an approach, based on a "virtual keyboard", spares the need for handwriting recognition technology, which currently sucks and will continue to do so in the near future.

But such a tablet will not appear until:

- The price of NAND memory drops dramatically. A tablet will be of little use if its battery life is limited to laptop levels. Instead, it should approach phone levels.
- Leopard is released, leveraging this NAND memory and also providing extensive synchronization capabilities.
 
UnreaL said:
It will do just what the camera phone did to the digital camera market and subsequently the video market (videos are a booming sucess just not as a method of communication).

People love intergration.
Click to expand...

Yea Apple, bring 'em on! I want to make sure that the next bootlegged video of an execution for a deposed tyrant dictator is done right; done on a Mac.:D
 
Do you know the difference between God and Steve Jobs?
God does not think he's Steve Jobs... :)

(Adapted from an old lawyer/doctor joke)

Still like him, but wouldn't work for him!
 
Glassbathroom said:
Have a look at this!!!!!!! It seems to suggest that someone else is making the tablet for Apple (with OSX). This is very strange news. I am sure Apple would never want associated products to be launched like this. What doe sit all mean?

http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=2

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook

My first thought was that this must be a hoax, but it doesn't look like it.
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The Modbook title suggests they modified an existing Apple product, much like the orginal iBooks were reconfigured for use with disabled persons. I doubt they would allow a third party braned machine, rather, a resold macbook or macbook pro modified as a tablet. Strange indeed, good find.
 
miketcool said:
The Modbook title suggests they modified an existing Apple product, much like the orginal iBooks were reconfigured for use with disabled persons. I doubt they would allow a third party braned machine, rather, a resold macbook or macbook pro modified as a tablet. Strange indeed, good find.
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I think you might be correct. That makes a lot of sense.
 
Glassbathroom said:
Have a look at this!!!!!!! It seems to suggest that someone else is making the tablet for Apple (with OSX). This is very strange news. I am sure Apple would never want associated products to be launched like this. What doe sit all mean?

http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=2

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook

My first thought was that this must be a hoax, but it doesn't look like it.
Click to expand...

Just showed up in my feed reader. This is going to be very interesting. I fall into the camp that a tablet doesn't have a broad enough market, but if someone else is willing to provide for the niche users that want one I say let them at it. I'm going to be keeping my eye on this one.
 
Really good article.

It's always possible that Apple would just integrate phone functionality into full-size and Nano iPods and just call them iPods still. That's the beauty of the name - Pod - it doesn't really tell you what the product does, just that it's an adjunct of your 'digital lifestyle'.

The next week will be interesting.
 
Non-tablet tablet

I don't necessarily think that a tablet Mac with the whole touch-screen thing is a good idea (although there are enough Palm and Treo users to think that people are ready to use a stylus-based interface).

But I would like to have a turnable laptop screen -- ever wanted to show someone across the table what's on your screen?

After all, Mac is all about sharing.... :)
 
Glassbathroom said:
Have a look at this!!!!!!! It seems to suggest that someone else is making the tablet for Apple (with OSX). This is very strange news. I am sure Apple would never want associated products to be launched like this. What doe sit all mean?
Click to expand...

I seem to recall something like this before, where a company was buying stock iBooks adding a touchscreen and turning them into tablets. Nothing Apple can really do to stop them, unless of course they do release their own tablet the day before and have some patent or other....

EDIT: http://www.itablet.theplaceforitall.com/about.html

B
 
I don't see how an iPhone would kill the iPod market. Not everyone needs or wants an integrated phone.

Think of the 8-gig Nano. For fifty bucks more you can get a 30-gig video, but this hasn't stopped the Nano from selling. Different products for different needs, wants and tastes.
 
Macrumors said:


At the time, the iPod was just a year old, and the Microsoft had recently launched a tablet form factor PC. Jobs reportedly had a number of reasons that tablets were not a product he was interested in producing. These included

- small market
- bad form factor
- high wireless bandwidth not available
- poor screen resolution for medical images

In September 2002, he made a similar public statements expressing doubts about the Tablet form factor.
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Completely off topic... but I'm sick of the two words "form factor." Completely overused, unnecessarily used and incorrectly used. Maybe the word "design?"

End of rant.
 
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