What Will be the Killer Feature of an Apple Tablet?

[DMann]

You can't possibly say that Mac development has kept up. They are now creating their 3rd different OS (really 4 if you count the Apple TV). it's impossible for a company as small as Apple to have enough software people to keep all projects moving at a steady pace of development.

Have you checked out the recently released FCS 3 and Logic Pro Studio 9 pro apps yet? These are quantum leap upgrades - Logic Pro now surpasses Pro Tools on several levels. I wouldn't consider Apple's development team(s) "not keeping up" by any regard. Snow Leopard is, by far, no slouch, either.

 

[littledude8209]

You may be able to use the Air accessory but it won't be internal. Apple loves thin and a DVD drive gets in the way. Also Apple has a way of getting rid of technology earlier than it dies out.

I hope you're right about it running Snow Leopard. I get the feeling that Apple likes the way the App Store is even though others are having problems with it. If this tablet is running a modified version of th iPhone OS and is exclusively tied to a carrier, get ready for a world of hurt.

i just really really am hoping for a dvd drive in it. i watch dvd's a lot! and although i do rip most of them with handbrake, there are all optimized for the iphone's screen! that means i'd have to re-rip most of them to get the full experience! one thing that makes me think it will have one though is look at all the computers that they sell at this point. 4 out of 5 have a dvd player built in. but then the thing that makes me think you are right is that this can't be compared to any of those computers, because this will be making an entire different category itself. half iphone, half computer.

if it doesn't have snow leopard on it, i will be extremely disappointed though, and will probably just spring for a refurbished macbook air. the iphone OS is very impressive for the IPHONE, not for a laptop-considered device. i feel like having a giant ipod touch is a very stupid thing to do, but i do trust that apple won't make the mistake of giving it the iphone's OS they will go ahead and put snow leopard on it 🙂

*just keep your fingers crossed 🙄*

 

[naman34]

its simple.
Apple will either release something that everyone will want. Something totally revolutionary and unexpected. Or they'll make something that we want. Our wish product.
Even though they have disappointed the public with products like the appletv,
They can't afford to take a risk with the tablet.
People have been speculating this for ages. They can't afford to disappoint. If this device doesn't come close to our sky high expectations, it'll be a big failure.
Either it'll be awesome, or it wont exist. Plain and simple!

 

[Thex1138]

Alchemy - Part 1

I took some time to compile my personal view on this after reading the many points of view spruiked recently...
A truly mobile palette in my view is one that encompasses the idea of 'always-on' and 'always-connected'
This is achieved in part by iPhone's push services or some other kind of 'live telemetry to and from a server, AKA MobileMe.
Alternately there might also be a localized implementation of that service to your MAC/PC and/or with your mobile phone.
So that is in my view a connectivity 'platform' on which to based user-active features that really allow you to 'keep-alive' your connectivity to your local system at home or office, or mobile roaming via MobileMe and cloud servers.
The first generation might be rolled out with an Atom CPU but I do see however the next cycle implementing the Apple developed and produced CPU architecture. I have mentioned once before that Apple might implement the FPGA chipset which I believe would make the hardware platform very versatile.
Hardware features I am thinking a core set of components already successfully implements including
If it is badged along the MacBook lines then it will have a front facing cam to accommodate video conferencing like other MacBook lines.
No Keyboard at all... No flippety-flop folding screens, no secret slide-out keyboards, it's a tablet, get over it! [If it does have a keyboard I will happily eat the piece of paper I scribed this stuff on of course!!! 😎 ]
Touch Screen - Possibly OLED, WiFi/Bluetooth 3.0/3G-4G[/GPS], 64/128[/256 - not SSD yet!] GB RAM, web cam[front], digi-compass, motion sensor, gravity sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, haptic feedback [possibly screen based], USB [x2], SD slot, external speaker, audio controls, built in mic, on/off button [and FPGA chipset]. External stand device but not built-in.
Since OS X has seen some image shrinkage, I suspect it's compact-ness core will make its way to the tablet - 64bit?.
It will be positioned as a MacBook range device which is why there was space made in the product lines recently.
It may include the FPGA chip which will allow for some true-true multi-task operations on the single chip, and be programmatically reconfigurable by the user or remotely via software upgrade... if not this product cycle then definitely the next...

 

[Thex1138]

Alchemy - Part 2

¿Che cosa volete?Que voulez-vous?Wat wilt u?Was willst du?What do you want?¿Qué quieres?Mitä haluat?Hvad ønsker du?Vad vill du göra?

Consumer perspective...

Software... Well Apple is all about software + Hardware and their seemless integration... iPod Touch/iPhone were sounding boards and tech test-beds for evolution of the emergance and merging of product media streams...
MacBook Touch will be a platform, and in my view it's 'killer' or 'avante-gard' will be as a 'portal device' thus a portal to media, information and everthing else.
It will have the OS X Core and a mergance of iPhone and Leopard but it's foundations will certainly remain with Leopard.

It will be a developers platform but also ba able to run iPhone stuff with some tweaks, but not all.

The Portal Device...
A Web Portal - browser, email, streaming media
media portal - audio, video, imaging, information, subscriptions - via portals, clouds, services or local data
interactive portal - social networking, broadcasting - via web or peer-to-peer [web and wifi]

Content Authoring Tool...
Data management - OS X file operating system
graphics - touch interface changes the way we feel about image manipulation, a more personal 'sense of it
documents - either through the virtual keyboard, pen or external wireless keyboard
Software Development - develop and author software

Entertainment
Games - The development and experience platform
Movies - static as playing a media, subscribe to authors or outlets, itunes
Audio - static as playing a media, subscribe to authors or outlets, itunes
Books - static as playing a media, subscribe to authors or outlets, itunes
Comics - static as playing a media, subscribe to authors or outlets, itunes
Newspapers - static as playing a media, subscribe to authors or outlets, itunes

It's going to be delivered as a device which sets itself aside from the iPhone and iPod Touch so it's foundations will overlap but they will also stand alone as this device is a hybrid Mac/Media device. Macs play music, iPods play music.... so will this... so different products already overlap...

The only imparement I see that may affect the popularity of this device is battery life
If battery life sux, so will Macbook Touch.

But there's no use for us making wish lists for this cycle because Jobsy has already settled on a specification.
It's in the pipe 5-by-5 now and heading for Apple Store shelves either Oktober or Jan 2010...

 

[nickane]

e-Book reader seems easily the most obvious answer.

After that my guesses are:

1) IR port for universal remote functionality. Preferably working with non-Apple products unlike iPhone remote, but more likely to come with an optional home automation hub to tether it to that keeps the whole system running within the apple ecosystem (heaven forfend that they realize they don't make televisions, so you still have to turn them on yourself like some backward couch potato).
2) Docking station that allows it to function as a photo frame when not in use
3) invisibility to all but the uninitiated: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/apple_claims_new_iphone_only


I sincerely doubt there will be an optical drive.

 

[poseidon84]

why are there so many here thinking of snow leopard on it?
Yeah, just look at SL itself. It does have many multitouch features but is still a mouse/keyboard OS. But lets say apple fixes that so you can use touch everywhere perfect. How about them all your million apps you are using in osx? you do realize they need to rewrite them all for you right?

So a iphone os sounds better because there you already have the multitouch os and also million of apps where you can do sketching and photoediting and so on.

 

[Pooshka]

Built-in flashlight would be groundbreaking. :straight face:

 

[ccuk]

Have you checked out the recently released FCS 3 and Logic Pro Studio 9 pro apps yet? These are quantum leap upgrades - Logic Pro now surpasses Pro Tools on several levels. I wouldn't consider Apple's development team(s) "not keeping up" by any regard. Snow Leopard is, by far, no slouch, either.

I would hardly call Final Cut Studio 3 a quantum leap. It is quite frankly a joke of an update, and isn't even worthy of a .5 update. A lot of what is in there should have been free updates to FCS2 and a lot of what should have been in there, simply isn't.

I can't comment on Logic since I have never used it.

Apple are stretched thing on software development. And it is showing.

 

[hanzzzen]

Features of an Apple Tablet

• Around 10,1 inches. Easy 2 move around and compete with those small popular pc labtops.
• Applet keyboard like the iPhone.
• Applications like the iPhone and iPod touch on the larger screen...

In fact... iPod Touch meets MacBook.

 

[poseidon84]

• Around 10,1 inches. Easy 2 move around and compete with those small popular pc labtops.
• Applet keyboard like the iPhone.
• Applications like the iPhone and iPod touch on the larger screen...

In fact... iPod Touch meets MacBook.

Yes please!!!

 

[Lesser Evets]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again and again and again....

STYLUS

Not that it needs one or a holder for one, but if it can allow function similar to a Cintiq but be "on the run", it will corner the market for every kid who does art, every professional who draws, every note taker in the world, and it would make this tablet the instant über-produkt it should become.

 

[poseidon84]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again and again and again....

STYLUS

Not that it needs one or a holder for one, but if it can allow function similar to a Cintiq but be "on the run", it will corner the market for every kid who does art, every professional who draws, every note taker in the world, and it would make this tablet the instant über-produkt it should become.

I will say this again, why are people asking for a stylus? The iphone has a stylus! Why would the tablet be any different?

 

[feflower]

Sorry to say this again

The killer app would be accurate voice dictation and commands via a built-in mic: therefore, the keyboard will be made redundant.

The current MacSpeech is pretty good. Now just have to be able to do the same thing thru the built in mic, and in an noisy environment (subway, cafe, etc).

 

[Lesser Evets]

I will say this again, why are people asking for a stylus? The iphone has a stylus! Why would the tablet be any different?

Yeah. OK. Try reading the ENTIRE post, not just a small bit.

The iPhone does NOT function like a Cintiq. There are several reasons for this, most of which can be solved by better processor power. The rest seems to be in place on the small iPT and iPhone.

 

[poseidon84]

Yeah. OK. Try reading the ENTIRE post, not just a small bit.

The iPhone does NOT function like a Cintiq. There are several reasons for this, most of which can be solved by better processor power. The rest seems to be in place on the small iPT and iPhone.

Yeah, I was a bit to fast. I have just read so many posts here about people saying that they want to have a stylus. But you explained a bit more what you wanted and if more power is what it needs to do it then that is great because I guess the tablet will have more power then the iphone.

 

[unknown mr T]

when it will look like the tablet at 0:54 at the following movie, its going to sell like crazy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6RJp1BazQI&annotation_id=annotation_320899&feature=iv

please release this tablet later this year

 

[BradleyGaulden]

yea i dont see the need for a tablet honestly, basically it would be a larger iphone without the phone, almost as good as a macbook but not quite. i just dont see a market for a tablet.

 

[kdarling]

I will say this again, why are people asking for a stylus? The iphone has a stylus! Why would the tablet be any different?

There's no such thing as an input device that's perfect for all uses. If all you're doing is pushing buttons, then sure, a finger is fine.

For doing real world drawing (and not just the broad strokes we've seen so far), will want a stylus or equivalent. Especially if you're an architect or engineer.

There's an interesting new resisitive screen just announced, that would be perfect for a tablet. It's not only multi-touch, but it's sensitive enough that you can use an actual paintbrush and it will recognize the strokes.

Imagine the uses for artists.

 

[firewood]

why are there so many here thinking of snow leopard on it?

Snow Leopard can run either Cocoa with Finder, or iPhone Cocoa Touch, on top for the UI. The iPhone Simulator (of which there exists a version for SL) does exactly that. It's extremely likely that SL compiles for ARM as easily as it does for x86/64, as portions of SL are said (by Apple) to have been written for the iPhone first.

Since Apple has been diss'ing netbooks (for poor usability), my guess is that they will not use full Cocoa with Finder on anything with a 10" display. Too small. Nor will it use an Intel CPU in the near future for reasons of battery life and weight.

Whereas a 10" display on an iPod Touch will be huge instead of tiny and barely readable. And with an ARM CPU, there won't be any reason to make it thicker than a Touch or iPhone, or heavier than a magazine.

That's just one random hypothesis.

Built-in flashlight would be groundbreaking. :straight face:

My iPhone is my flashlight. Turn it on. Hit Settings and turn up the brightness a bit. Plenty enough light to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night without tripping over the cat.

ymmv.

 

[rtdunham]

...if it had iChat with video, that would be very compelling....

People don't seem to value iChat's potential the way i do (there's an old joke my grandmother used to tell, about watching a parade and observing, "everyone's out of step but my grandson...")

anyway, just one example: Last night i had 14 family members over for a cookout. One of my daughters was in town from florida with her boyfriend; my other daughter was stuck in boston. There were three people at the party daughter #2 had never met. We hooked up via iChat, and i walked the 13" MBP through the house, aiming it at various guests--she chatted with those she knew, and was introduced to those she hadn't met before--she saw and heard them and all of them saw and heard her. Not the same as being here, but certainly second best.

Daughter #1 and bf had strung christmas lights thru the trellis over the patio where the cookout twas to take place, so i carried the MBP out and gave daughter #2 a beautiful view of how it looked with the sparkling lights at dusk.

Way, way cool. Simple to do. And it would have been even slicker with a 10" tablet than with the open laptop moving around.

These kinds of uses, multiplied by a million unique circumstances, have to be the wave of the future: kids at a party? Old folks in the hospital? All the opportunities in between, when it's the next best thing to being there.

The question is what part apple will play in making it happen. When it's as easy and unique a treat as listening to music on an iPod was what, only five years ago?--then you've got a major breakthrough that would again be embraced by the masses.

 

[macnews]

I have said it before, and I'll say it again and again and again....

STYLUS

Not that it needs one or a holder for one, but if it can allow function similar to a Cintiq but be "on the run", it will corner the market for every kid who does art, every professional who draws, every note taker in the world, and it would make this tablet the instant über-produkt it should become.

I agree, a pen input that works better than most on the market - true hand writing recognition, voice control/input/recording/speech-to-text - would be killer. The ability to get rid of the physical keyboard but still have the option for a "pop up" type keyboard ala iphone when needed. It needs to break the notion of what a "laptop" computer should be.

 

[str1f3]

Have you checked out the recently released FCS 3 and Logic Pro Studio 9 pro apps yet? These are quantum leap upgrades - Logic Pro now surpasses Pro Tools on several levels. I wouldn't consider Apple's development team(s) "not keeping up" by any regard. Snow Leopard is, by far, no slouch, either.

I don't think that the same people who work on the pro software work on the OS. The pro apps have a very different in look and feel from the rest of the OS. Look at Leopard. All this talk about Marble/Illuminous" was actually supposed to be in Leopard. We will now have to wait until 10.7 to see this. All these things were pushed off to work on the iPhone. Primary OSX developers like Scott Forstall was taken off of OSX development to work on the iPhone which is his main job now.

Like I said at one point it seemed like Tiger was at least 5 years ahead of XP. Now they are in the same development cycle. OSX may be better but not by as large a margin as it used to be. While the iPhone is a great product, I wonder where OSX would be now if it had the full focus of the people at Apple.

 

[kwiiboy]

This is what it would look like:

(Or something like it)

Features:
Full but tweaked OS (tweaked for multi-touch)
Superdrive
two usb
Wifi 802.11n
maybe an ethernet port
1gig or 2gigs of ram
120gb storage
webcam w/ mic
voice control?
$699-$899
and of corse a glossy glass screen

Made for ereading(ebooks), browsing the web, easy photo viewing (multi-touch interface), art making, and dvd/cd viewing.

These are my wishes!

 

[jakesherwin]

I think, unless it's light enough to hold with one hand for a long period of time it'll be useless... it needs to be able to be held with one hand alone or it's obviously flawed. so heaviness and a bad shape will be the deal breaker.