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Tablet Mac Becomes Reality
teknokracy writes "MacMod has a story about a unique Mac hack. Joseph DeRuvo Jr. says: 'As a Photographer and a Dyslexic the idea of being able to use a Tablet as a platform for showing photographs, editing, and an extension of my badly organized memory is very appealing. ... So taking matters into my own hands I cut into a Dual USB iBook and didn't look back.' It seems our intrepid hardware hacker hasn't just flipped around the LCD and added a semi-functioning touch screen - he's completely engineered a new kind of mac portable, complete with a CF reader, properly installed touch sensor, and topped it all off by properly engineering it all into an Ives-worthy design. With all the trouble these particular iBook models have experienced, why not hack one up for fun and turn it in to something useful?"
Sweet Hack! One thing concerns me, though: he had to remove the keyboard. How in the world does he type on this thing?
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
Mirror of the page is available via Google cache
With all the trouble these particular iBook models have experienced...
Not to mention what its users have gone through.
Could this potentially void my warranty?
To me the real market of Tablet PCs have always been Mac users : they love cute, functional stuff, are often designers / artists / scientists... But Apple probably doesn't think its worth it. If only they were not this expensive... I would get one in an heartbeat.
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
The site is already down. Using the NYUD cache of it shows a message that the site is down...MirrorDot has it though.
If Apple released a tablet computer (oops sorry, can't use the English word 'Tablet' anymore its owned by MS) i think they'd take the market - make it a little bit smaller tho and im sure they would manage to fit a slide-out keybord in there too!
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I don't how many will agree but I'd never buy a TabletPC if I had other options.
What I like about laptops is that when it's closed, the LCD screen is protected.
Whether it's coding or writing a novel keyboard is still the way to go.
TabletPC is a Microsoft marketing strategy, but to me it's in beta stage as the technology such as handwriting a voice recognition is simply not ready yet, it works sometimes but not good enough for production environment.
It's been done before
Kearney: "Hey, Dolph - take a memo on your Newton: beat up Martin."
Eat up Martha.
Kearney: "Bah!" (throws the Newton and it hits Martin in the head)
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
I'm amazed at the interior shots. He didn't even take the plastic cases off of things like the flash card reader or the firewire hub he added. He didn't even solder the new USB cables directly to the devices -- there are entire molded plastic plugs in there!
Step 3: Profit!
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.
Proof, if proof was needed, that Macs are so simple to use that even a complete idiot can use one!
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Until the site comes up again:2 3255/
http://www.engadget.com/entry/12340006530
Contributed by Joseph DeRuvo Jr.
Friday, 10 December 2004
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Close to 12 years ago I caught wind of an Operating System called PenPoint. This was one of the first pen driven operating systems out there. I had contacted them and spoke of how so many people had been left out of the technological revolution and I had thought it was due to the awkwardness of the current state of hardware and software design. At that time I would have hoped Apple would have risen to the challenge to develop a Tablet but as it turned out it was Microsoft who took the chance.
Working with a computer all day long, I have to say that there is nothing quite as pretty as OS X. It is by no means perfect, as a Photographer running 4 Epson printers and depending on the quality of output, it is a continuous frustration and I am afraid the fault lies with Apple not Epson.
As a Photographer and a Dyslexic the idea of being able to use a Tablet as a platform for showing photographs, editing, and an extension of my badly organized memory is very appealing. I had purchased an early QBE, which I was happy with, except for the problem of going between the QBE and all my other desktops which are Apples, it was always the odd man out, in addition to the frustration of finding cross platform software. So taking matters into my own hands I cut into a Dual USB iBook and didn't look back.
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The first thing to consider is what I needed it to do. As a Wedding Photographer I needed something that would serve me in the field, so it needed to have:
-A built in Compact Flash Card reader
-Firewire (USB would be to slow)
-Two built in hard drives (so that the flashcard could be written to both at the same time)
-Extra Firewire ports for external hard drives and DVD burners.
-Bluetooth built in for keyboard and mouse when needed
-touch screen and the driver board for it.
Some functions I wanted to keep intact:
built in mouse click
on off switch
built in CD burning
good air port reception
mic for voice recognition
ability to put it into sleep mode when I close the cover
Putting it all together I have to thank God wasn't so bad, miracles happen everyday.
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The first problem was how to make it touch sensitive. I obviously had thought of going with Wacom but, using their technology would require a different screen configuration which would make it more difficult. Thank God I had found out about Troll Touch, they were a pleasure to work with. Troll Touch are makers of touch screens for Kiosks. They were one of the few manufactures that had a driver written for OS X, the digitizer sits in front of the screen and is touch sensitive, while the driver board runs through a USB port. A resistive digitizer is good and bad, it means you can use your finger to navigate and click, even ink will recognize your hand writing, but you do not have the full functionality of what a Wacom tablet will give you.
The second problem was how to fit all this inside. I had acquired the shell of a dead iBook so with that I took the top plate and used it as a spacer. Recognizing that I had no need of a keyboard I pulled that out making room for the extra hard drive and slot for the flash card reader. I also had to make room for a USB and Firewire hub in the shell. Not to make light of all this but it is a creative process, like baking bread, there is a recipe but, there is also some room for making it up as you go along. After opening the thing up and figuring out where everything will fit, I started to look into removing the screen and hinges. I also came to the (frightening) realization that to get the hubs to fit and not have their cables running from the o
A-Day
Hey, great idea! I've got a business proposition: You do the recompile, I'll install it on the Toshiba!
Mac OS X would be much better on a tablet than Windows.
Apple should license Mac OS X to a tablet PC manufacturer. (Producing it themselves would be too risky.
I know that the idea of a tablet Mac has been discussed to death and even rebirth, it's been around so often, but the sheer amount of interest in a tablet mac, one with that special Apple touch and attention to detail garners such an enormous amount of interest every time it's mentioned that I seriously wonder why Apple hasn't decided to take a risk and Just Do It(TM).
/.'ed, but also the mirrors and the fact that almost every second user created prototype on Mac fan sites is a tablet or PDA style device shows that the interest certainly is there. An Apple Tablet could have a design and features that would finally make the tablet concept kick off, since it's an utter niche product on the Windows side of things.
The fact that not only is TFA's server
Think about it. What could Apple do to make people want a Tablet and what would its target market be? My ideas, by no means perfect, would be:
1. A device that is bigger than current PDA's but smaller than current Windows Tablets, i.e. somewhere around ISO A6 size, or just a bit bigger than the old Newton. This would make it easier to hold (current Tablets are too heavy and too big to hold in one hand while writing with a Pen) and at the same time have enough space for a useful interface and space to sketch on for artists.
2.Very good handwriting recognition. This is important. I think they were getting there when they killed the Newton.
3.An OSX variant with a simplified interface which is more geared towards using a Pen. This would mean perhaps larger controls and a Dock replacement, perhaps a sliding Dock so that necessary apps are within easy reach.
4.A touch screen that enables users to use their fingers as well as a pen. (Therefore the larger controls)
5.Wireless videoand audio streaming. I know Apple has been working on a protocol that is supposed to be good for video streaming. This would or could perhaps tie in with other Apple products such as the iPod and Airport Express where this Tablet could be used as a remote control. This is why being able to use it with one's fingers would be important.
6.Other software and hardware tie ins with Apple products and software, such as the ability to use it as a monitor on movie sets with firewire or usb connectivity, or a cut down version of FCP or iMovie that allows one to cut small video clips. Perhaps a small paint application as well, or a sound editor.
7.It should be shipped with applications that leverage the platform such as a simple sketching application for students and artists, a Apple writing application that makes taking notes as easy or easier than WinXP TE's note taker. Perhaps make the sharing of sketches and notes and media simple via Rendezvous.
8.Apple should make Frameworks for this OS variant available in XCode in order to allow developers to come up with nifty applications as they have for the classic OSX. Java should be included as well to make it interesting for current mobile developers.
9.The target market would be students for artwork and note taking, home consumers for its tie in with Airport Express and iTunes and the iPod, industrial users for use as a digital notepad and checklist, and enterprise users for its note taking and sketching abilities and the ability to make presentations.
This is all a wet dream of course, but I think I'm not alone in wishing for a Tablet with that special Apple touch.
'quick, free fix'? Hah! My G3 iBook logic board failed about once a month for the last 9 months or so.. I got it in November 2002, first failure was in late 2003. They kept replacing the board for free, only for it to fail again a month later. 'temporary hack', perhaps, but not 'fix'.
.. phoned them up last time it failed and asked if they'd replace it (hadn't asked before because I didn't want to be without the iBook, and they were giving me 3-day turnarounds on the repairs), they took one look at my repair history and agreed, and I'm now typing on a brand new 1.2ghz iBook G4.
Mind you
Admittedly my history is much worse than all the other iBook owners I know who own machines from the serial number range, but most of them have had at least one logic board failure. Note that the serial number range covers *years* worth of the iBook models, it's not just a single batch.
Yeah... but as someone who worked in I.T. in a factory environment before, I've seen the way most portables (and even PDAs) get treated by most "field inspectors" and the like.
They're dirty, beat-up and left sitting in rather harsh environments on a regular basis.
Perhaps that's the real reason Apple hasn't been thrilled to build a pen-based tablet computer. They're all about elegance and building a machine a user can really be proud to own, and will take exceptionally good care of.
(Don't believe me? Why would their favorite system design colors be snow white and easily scratched/smudged aluminum?) I love my new Powerbook, but it'd literally get dented up and badly oxidized in days, in some of work environments I saw inspectors using their black plastic Dell laptops in where I used to work.
I would have first sumbitted all my picture to the rumor sites and said it was a new model for MW in January, just to drive the fanboys nuts.
forget it.
that black thing is a cover and puts the system to sleep when it is closed! and it opens up and is used as a stand! Its perfect, what are you talkng about?
Tablet? Is a Powermac G5 with a cinemadisplay duct taped on the side also a tablet?
http://www.macmod.com.nyud.net:8090/Limages/storie s/mods/i-Tablet%20_Images_7total/20041006--001016. jpg
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I can see the usefulness of a tablet PC in a medical clinic setting when a healthcare provider is interviewing a patient. As it is now, it's common to have a desktop in the examination room to lookup test results. It would be nice to have something more portable with existing capabilities (ie, wireless) and an application (and some clinics do) where you would have a checklist (at a bare minimum) of items to mark yes/no during the patient's history taking. The current hardware doesn't seem to be portable/rugged/usable enough just yet. PDA's (mostly Palm-based around here) are everywhere now, but not tablet computers.
No man's an island, unless he's had too much to drink and wets the bed.
That would be, ahem, _copying_ innovations from Redmond (and don't start the usual BS about Newton, notice that _Tablet_ PC has a _tablet_, not a touch screen). And it's morally hard to copy your competitor's innovations when you blast them at every trade show for copying your own. So mark my word, there will never be a Tablet Mac, except if Tablet PCs become a wild, raging commercial success that's too tough even for Jobs to ignore.
My first goal was to build a "Tool" that would do what "I" needed, and it has served me well, yes it is a bit thicker than I would like, but I can still not find a Tablet Slate out there that has a Flash Card reader and is able to burn CDs. Both of these things are important for what I do being a Wedding Photographer and teacher. I am looking to update the original post at MocMod with detailed photos of the work as it was in progress. Secondly, and maybe more importantly was the goal to get Mr. Job's attention, although he has not gotten in touch with me yet, I have not given up hope. Why do I want his attention? What would I say anyway? The same thing I had said in a letter 13 years ago to Mr Kaplan at The Go corporation (the people who brought you PenPoint) you might not even remember them, but it was a beautiful idea. At any rate I went on about how the Technological revolution was leaving some people out and how their design idea would open up the possibilities to have varied groups of people (who are too often disenfranchised) join into the conversation. All of you people are the "more" some of you are the "different" there have been many great strides made in these 13 years, but I am still waiting, because "I THINK MORE CAN STILL BE DONE". I am a faithful person I say Thank God I have been able to do what I have done so far. I was unable to speak intelligibly until I was 5 years old, my parents had been told that I was "mildly retarded", but I am faithful that Miracles happen and that things can change. I would like to see more people have the opportunities to change their lives due to the technology that is available to them. Thank you all and God Bless Joseph DeRuvo Jr.
...kinda cool. But I certainly wouldn't do it with a Mac under warranty. I'd wait for a 3 yr old iBook to play with it first. Then again, I'm not so good with modding electronics. Ask my dad about the "time machine" I made with our family TV.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Thinking of just sawing the stand off my 17" iMac G5 and making it touch screeny... Voila!
Say hello to my little sig.
I'm not super familiar with OS-X, but IMHO essential for the use as a tablet, does OS-X allow you to switch to portrait mode?
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."