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What Will be the Killer Feature of an Apple Tablet?

...most of you guys are thinking very much "in the box"

A bunch of random thoughts...but I have been dreaming of a lightweight, Apple designed tablet ever since I saw the first iPod touch.

  • Front facing camera would be nice.
  • Integrated cellular or at least bluetooth tethering to the iPhone.
  • Everyone keeps yelping about lack of a keyboard, but does anyone want the standard keyboard and mouse anyway? Accessories is where it is at people! Every Mac enthusiast knows that.
  • Bluetooth versions of external devices that can sync when you return to your desk this will be the coolest thing ever.
  • I personally would mount it in my car and use it to watch movies and surf the web via voice commands while sitting in traffic for 4 hours a day.
  • I am a software project manager by trade, so the ability to draw with my finger and take notes and have it instantly digitized is a huge draw for me to a tablet.
  • I have tried almost every tablet PC ever developed, and the biggest problem was the heat and the fact that they were FRIGGIN HUGE and heavy.

A tablet the depth and feather weight of the MBA with external devices that are connected via Bluetooth that can stay in your bag is the kicker!!!
 
Eidorian said:
Get a laptop with hardware video acceleration and never turn it off. I don't understand how people can still complain about boot times in this day and age unless you have a few hundred processes at startup.

Yes it sounds like a laptop and I use mine for what you described.
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It still looks like **** near your home stereo setup. It's still running a desktop OS. It's not integrating well (nor would you want the laptop to integrate well, because it would stop being useful as a laptop).

It really is nothing like a laptop. Completely different use cases. Coming home, voice command to play some music. Check up on your IMs/messages/etc that have come in whilst you were out. And so on. No hassle with cabling, no faffing about running iCal and a 2ft UI on a 10ft television. And so on. Nothing new, all the components have existed already, but Apple is good at integrating them into something cohesive.
 
Karvel said:
I honestly don't get it.

Big enough for movies? It's a FLAT SURFACE, do I watch it placed lying across my lap on a train and spend the journey looking down at my crotch? Or do I have it placed vertically against a mountain of drinks bottles that I have created on the table just to watch something?
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Agreed. I cannot see it being useful at all to anyone who wants to avoid hurting their necks.
 
JKColo22 said:
especially not at a price tag of $799. Now.... If it was subsidized through a carrier and had mobile 4G, I might pick one up at a $199 price point
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I don't believe it, I don't believe it.:rolleyes: If somebody gives you a $600 loan repayable over two years, you will buy the device, otherwise not.
 
4np said:
You're not going to read eBooks on your iPhone / iPod as the screen is too small. You're not going to read eBooks on your laptop as it doesn't read well either.
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Having read free books on my laptop(s) since 1995, on the occasional desktop computer, and currently using the Kindle app and Stanza on my iPod Touch, I disagree.
 
I read through the Gizmodo and PC World articles, and while they make plenty of great points, they are not Apple. Apple knows exactly what the Killer Feature will be, and they will sell millions of them. That is why Apple is Apple, because they innovate. The people at Gizmodo and PC World simply don't think like the architects at Apple. It's a different mindset.;)

Also, didn't a rumor a few months ago about this say that Apple was going to "define the damn market" or something to that affect. That's because what Apple is going to do simply hasn't been done before.

It is not going to be simply a bigger iPod Touch, nor a netbook looking device. Both of those are too obvious for Apple.

I also disagree about eBooks. I would love for Apple to compete w/ the Kindle.
 
I think I got it.
The killer app will be LCARS :D
That will 100% guarantee that all star trek fans will buy the tablet.
 
Here's what I'm expecting:

- Very thin and light. So much that it makes existing tablets and ESPECIALLY notebook/tablet hybrids look like kludgy, primitive dinosaurs.
- Excellent battery life.
- Handwriting recognition that blows everything else out of the water.
- The ability to dock it at home and use it as a normal computer (kinda duo-style).
- Runs full-blown OS X (quite possible with the touch-friendly optimizations added in 10.6).
 
It had better have a damn good killer feature, because at this point, before we have any real information on this product, I can't imagine any reason I would buy it. The potential uses I see for a tablet are light web browsing, photo and movie viewing, and document viewing. The selling point is that it is small, light, has a good screen and a good battery. But why would I spend hundreds of dollars on this product when I already have a MacBook that can do all these things and is small, light, and has a good screen and battery.

The only people I can see buying this are those who have desktop computer and who want something that they can take around the house with them that's less expensive than a laptop. In that case, the killer feature might be the tablet's ability to stream content from the desktop. In this sense, I see the tablet as more of a niche product like the Apple TV than something that everyone wants. It might have its uses, and it will be a neat toy to show off, but it's not something that will be ubiquitous.
 
arn said:
I disagree.

iPhone with mobile safari but no multi-touch -> still pretty awesome
iPhone with multi-touch but no mobile safari -> eh

arn
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I agree that mobile safari was the biggest single feature. But multi-touch is a close second. I know people who got the 1st generation iPhone and only used it as an iPod touch + Phone (ie, no data connection except over Wifi). It was still an awesome phone, iPod and iPod touch for them.
(That was partly because before the official introduction of the iPhone in my country, mobile data could easily cost you $100 for 50 MB.)
 
Killing feature?

You already have the Jazz Mutant Lemur http://www.jazzmutant.com/

Is a programable multitouch midi controller just like the Apple tablet. You can create your own interface and asing functions to several realtime controllers.

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The tablet will be an incredible remote control specially for kiosk, studios of every sort and home.

Imagine being able to have to watch TV while surfing the web from your bed. Or controling every appliance in your recording studio from a custom interface.

I mean, the posibilities are endless.
 
4np said:
Oh, I really thought those people on the train with books, newspapers and magazines in their hands were reading... my mistake...
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Of course they're not reading. They're just looking at the pretty pictures.
And that's what the tablet will target. :D
 
iindigo said:
Here's what I'm expecting:
- The ability to dock it at home and use it as a normal computer (kinda duo-style).
Click to expand...

Just add an L-shaped foot stand and it converts to an iMac with BlueTooth keyboard and mouse.
 
manu chao said:
I don't believe it, I don't believe it.:rolleyes: If somebody gives you a $600 loan repayable over two years, you will buy the device, otherwise not.
Click to expand...

Ha... Well taken, but the inclusion of wireless, anywhere browsing is a selling point for me. Otherwise I have my iPhone for quick, on-the-go browsing and my MBP for everything else. I would be opposed to buying the tablet and then having the option of getting 3/4G browsing through a carrier, in which case I would be locked into a contract, at an additional expense anyway.
 
miiles said:
Again, there is no point to a tablet, assuming Apple does nothing completely ground breaking with it. I have read posts saying that they are popular in the health care market, what else is popular in the health care market? Windows. I cannot see Apple making significant strides into the health care market with an OS X based operating system.

Now I hope I am wrong, but unless there is something truly ground breaking with it, I cannot see it being successful. I do not think there is a large consumer market for a tablet device the way it has been presented in mock-ups (a large iPhone type device), not like some tablets in PC market that have a swiveling screen that can be folded down so it functions as both a tablet and small laptop.

Someone convince me otherwise.
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Apple will release their first computer running Windows! THAT will be COMPLETELY unexpected! ...and unwanted...
 
Compile 'em all said:
The killer feature of the iPhone was its multitouch screen. Precise, responsive, and smooth. All other phones at the time had either clunky keyboards, or you had to use a stylus.

The iPhone didn't sell because of "Mobile Safari".
Click to expand...

I agree that the iPhones incredible interface was the killer feature. But I'd also say that the mobile implementation of the web through that interface (and Safari) was certainly part of the "kill". No other handheld device, and I believe this still holds true even with all the new competition, weaves through the Web (pardon the pun) as elegantly as the iPhone interface does. Pinch to zoom, scrolling, tapping, it all works incredibly well with the touch interface, giving almost visceral feel to web browsing.

With that in mind, the "killer" feature of the Tablet could simply be a better, faster, enhanced, complete (full Flash and Java) web browsing experience, on a larger scale but with the same elegant interface. After trying different touch UMPCs and Archos products, that alone would be enough for me. It needs to be light and thin like the Kindle, but as powerful (or more so) than a netbook.
 
I'm telling you all right now, it is going to be a digital photo album... As of right now, there is no device specifically made to be a digital photo album. Apple is a company that specializes in media... It might also include digital videos.
 
oculus42 said:
Having read free books on my laptop(s) since 1995, on the occasional desktop computer, and currently using the Kindle app and Stanza on my iPod Touch, I disagree.
Click to expand...

Point taken (I have done so myself as well) but what I was trying to say that reading books on either a computer and / or iPhone / iPod Touch is not ideal. A proper book / magazine sized device with a good thought out user interface (what Apple's really good at) would work much much better and could be a killer feature.
 
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