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Asus Insider Claims Apple Tablet Is Real
CaptainCrunchyApple writes "According to cnet.co.uk the oft-rumoured Apple Tablet PC is actually very real, and on its way soon. CNET claims to have spoken to an anonymous tipster at Asus who claims to be working with Apple to produce the tablet. 'We're guessing it'll be based on Intel Core architecture, a tweaked version of Leopard, and have all the multi-touch, CoverFlow goodness we've seen in the iPhone and iPod touch. All this begs the question: Can Apple turn the Tablet PC into a success when previous attempts have failed? The short answer is 'yes'. Any company that can make a mobile phone with no buttons, no picture messaging, slow Web access and no video capture into the most desirable phone on the planet can easily make tablets popular.'"
Tablet PC's have been cornered by Windows for a while now, it'll be nice to see some competition in the market.
now that the news has broken, Steve will have to punish us for spoiling his surprise.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
"Asus Claimes Apple Tablet Is Real"
Can someone comfirme that, since I really doubte it?
I'll believe it when I see a flashy-looking tablet PC with an apple with-a-bite-out of it logo on it.
Seriously, when has Apple worked with Asus in the past anyway? Apple uses Intel boards for all of their PCs.
My blog
Wow, who could believe ASUS can leak so much details on the design!
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
Three of the most over rated and useless things on a mobile phone.
The link they give goes to an article about the Newton. I don't mean to be pedantic, but comparing a PDA to a Tablet?
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Anyone who has used a windows tablet in the past will surely welcome a tablet based off OSX. I think it's about time someone made a decent tablet pc.
To a nail, every person with a hammer looks like a problem.
Last Monday, Macworld ran a blog item on the diminishing allure of the Mac to artists and graphic designers in the United States. The next day, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story, in the business section, explaining how Mac users in California are a lot more socially and creatively diverse -- read: more strait-laced and less avant-garde -- than you might believe. This month's Computerworld will contain a report by ersatz demographer Mike Elgan that explicitly poses the question: Is Apple the new Microsoft?
Elgan's research on U.S. Census data drives home a point that the Mac vanguard has been wrestling with for a while: The hedonistic, transgressive, radical ethos (and stereotype) that once characterized the Mac community doesn't represent reality anymore. The decline of urban coastal Mac user groups, the increase in the Mac-using population in the interior U.S. and the overall diversification of the Mac community are facts. What's more, Elgan argues, these trends are a function of the growing acceptance of Macs among the American public.
Acceptance? Really? Has Elgan forgotten about the majority of offices that have policies in effect barring Mac use at work, or the Justice Department's recent decision to relax court-ordered restrictions on Microsoft's business practices in the face of continuing opposition from the White House?
Not at all. There is, he says, a vocal, virulent -- and sometimes violent -- anti-Mac movement, but it doesn't negate years of opinion surveys that show a marked increase in tolerance in most Americans' attitudes toward Macs and Mac users. In 1998, for example, a Gallup poll found that only 33% of Americans thought that Macs could perform standard pencil-pushing tasks like running Microsoft Office. By 2007, that figure had risen to 59%.
Growing acceptance means a decline in social stigma associated with using Macs, and a consequent shift in the politics of declaring oneself a Mac user. The more Mac users come out, the more accepting people are around them, and the more accepting the public becomes, the more people switch to Macs.
Elgan's study shows that the number of self-described Mac users in the U.S. has quadrupled since 1998, and the biggest increases are in the country's more socially conservative areas.
Utah is the poster state. Between 1990 and 2006, for example, it went from having the 38th-highest concentration of Mac users in the country to 14th highest. In that same time period, the percentage of Mac users who lived in large cities declined from 45% to 23%. Even more counterintuitive, from 2000 to 2006, the states with the fewest Apple stores had above-average increases in the number of Mac users. And places, like Utah, where a majority of people still believe Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11 -- the reddest of red, the squarest of rectangle states -- saw even larger increases.
Some of the growth in the number of Mac users in conservative areas could be because of migration. And yes, some on-the-barricades members of the Mac community have gotten older and mellower and moved out to the heartland. But the larger trend is simply that as more latent Mac users switch to Macs, they don't need to change or assimilate to fit into the mainstream because they are already very much a part of it.
"The demographic characteristics of the Mac community are converging with those of the mainstream," Elgan says. If you're from a state like Utah or Nebraska, chances are you're going to share a lot with your neighbors whether you're a Mac user or a PC user: "They're rural," Elgan says, "they're religious, and they're Republican."
So what does this all mean for American culture at large?
"Society is beginning to say that being a Mac user is not such a big deal," Elgan says. "What that means for Mac users is that their platform choice won't have the centrality to their identity it once did. Being a Mac user then becomes one of a variety of an individual's competing identities."
In other words, as the challen
I've been looking for a 14" or larger tablet + DVI output. I don't care if Apple makes it, I've been wanting one for a while. I know they will have the later, if they have the former, they will have my purchase. I may prefer a desktop I build myself, but I can't build my own notebook (that is of a reasonable size), and there aren't many pre-builts better than Apple in terms of hardware.
Of course, I may reinstall the OS (I have some issues with MacOS, I like the look and feel I can get out of KDE better), but I'm willing to pay a premium for a decent quality 14+" notebook with warantee.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Does it have motion sensing like an iPhone? Could you reboot the thing by shaking it up and down like an etchasketch? How about drawing by moving the thing around? Now, just because somebody has one of these things in a lab somewhere doesn't mean it's a realistic product. Lots of strange things hiding in labs in this world.
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
I got a Razr because it was cheap, and a good phone. A lot of phones are similar in quality. They cannot hold a candle to the iPhone when it comes to the software interface. I am not an Apple fan boy, and I would GLADLY give up my Razr right now if the iPhone were available to Verizon customers. Do you know clunky its software is, compared to Apple's? If you think the iPhone sucks because it has a few missing features, then that's fine, but you clearly haven't paid attention to how bad a lot of the alternatives are.
I can just see a bunch of road warriors on a turbulent flight watching their computer continually reboot every time they try to do something!
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
OK, Microsoft's tablet PC failed because it was awkward, heavy and ugly. The whole swivel keyboard thing was just plain awkward the touch screen wasn't up to snuff.
I'm sure Apple will have solved the touch screen, keyboard and attractiveness issues, but I just don't see how they'll get around the weight.
No one wants to wear their wrists out holding up something to read it.
Unfortunatly, ASUS will now suffer the Wrath of Jobs. This won't be the first time Jobs nixed a product because some dumbass at the company making it spilled the beans. Someone refresh my memory, when was the last time this happened? Was it the ZFS debacle? I think it happened before that with some hardware once as well...
Thanks to this anonymous poster, we'll never see the rumored Apple Tablet. Thanks
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
what's with all the hate?
why care SO much that you HOPE people end up being unhappy? don't you worry there's something wrong with you?
plus your Apple tax thing is clear BS since you only pay Apple money if you buy Apple products. that's not a 'tax', it's a 'cost' or 'price'. the more you know!
Any company that can make a mobile phone with no buttons, no picture messaging, slow Web access and no video capture into the most desirable phone on the planet can easily make tablets popular.
Gee that doesn't sound weighted.
The No buttons is actually its selling point, not a disadvantage.
Slow Web Access or less battery life? Ill choose Slow Web Access... Btw the reason for the WiFi support is to speed up web access, for most locations that people will be actually using the phone for web access... At Work, in Cafe, home... They would only use the Cell phone when they are on the road and normally they just need to do some rather low bandwidth things...
Video Capture. I guess that would be a nice feature, but being that I almost never even use the camera on my current phone video seems less likely. Video can take a lot of space really fast. Plus using a cell phone you are often in places with bad lighting anyways.
No the iPhone isn't perfect I looked at one at the apple store and I was mostly unimpressed with it. It felt slow and sluggish. It had a nice design I would wait for Gen 2 or 3 perhaps...
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
As much as I'm a "loyal" Apple user ( I came from linux, and I do love OS X ) I will say flat out that Microsoft's handwriting input is years ahead of Apple's. Microsoft has thoroughly integrated it, with very impressive recognition and overall it *feels* right, like MS really put a lot of love into it.
As it stands today, "Ink", Apple's handwriting interface leaves a lot to be desired. In principle, it's nicely done. A good sort of floating scratch pad which you can write on, which will insert into the active doc. But, the quality of the handwriting recognition is pretty poor. God knows Apple has the resources to do this right. I'm sure there's a lot of left over experience from Newton ( if Jobs didn't fire all of those guys ), but as it stands, if Apple released a tablet with Ink it would be useless for anything but consuming media.
Frankly, I don't want to consume media. I want to use a computer, and a tablet is a nice form factor. I know I'd never write code on a tablet, but I'd like to think I *could*. I used to sketch out prototype algorithms using graffiti on a palm ( which I'd later edit/compile/etc on my desktop ), it was a nice thing to be able to do. What I don't want is a real computer which is so hobbled by bad input that it's only good for music, internet and video.
Seems to me Apple *could* do it... but who knows. Microsoft pulled it off, so, let's let competition bloom!
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
I can't afford one running windows. Actually... I am yet to see one used IRL.
Don't see how exactly will an Apple's overpriced version bring the tech to the masses.
And... ummm.. Where exactly is the appeal in the TabletPC?
I mean... hand-held PDA devices - OK. I can use it and hold it with one hand, and put it in my pocket.
But a 14", or 15" or 17" big, clumsy, fragile thing I have to haul around and which I must always hold with one hand when I interact with it (no keyboard to put on my lap, while the screen stays upright), AND the control/input interface IS the viewing interface (so one dies with another in case of a malfunction) - why?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Gizmodo has an article on this with a nice mock-up of the "MacBook Touch"
Article here:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/apple-ipad-touch-tablet-mock+up-is-shiny-iphone+y-319299.php
Very sleek, but I can see this being a pain to keep clean!
No sig here...
Wait 63 days before purchasing any new hardware from Apple, unless you don't mind paying 33% extra to have a new Apple gadget 2 months before others!!!
All that aside, an Apple tablet could be a very cool device. Never had a desire for a notebook of my own (wife already has a MacBook and we have MacMini's in the living room and bedroom for surfing and other media center duties. Then again, I never had a desire for an iPod either and am digging having movies, tv, pictures, and internet on my (i)phone.
I'd probably buy an Apple table if they came to fruiition, but not for at least 18 months after release!!
If this is true, and Asus have just completely blown Apple's surprise, then Asus are about to have a really, really bad day.
Woe betide the man who steals Steve Jobs' thunder.
"Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
Not in my corner of the world, nor in any of the other places I've been to recently, bar the US.
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
when you can have a Microsoft table. :-)
...shallow. Shallow AND pedantic.
I owned a Fujitsu several years ago, and would love nothing more than a decently sized tablet, particularly from Apple. As a designer, being able to have a portable, Cintiq like device would be fantastic. That said, I'm not holding my breath, especially for one with decent horsepower.
A 14" tablet would be a bit large, unless the screen goes to the edge like the iPhone. Having considered installing Linux on the tablet, I am curious what functionality you expect to get? I haven't looked in a while, but has anybody made any progress in a tablet distribution? There was none 3 year years ago.
You only pay sales tax when you buy something, so I guess that's not a tax, either. :)
Cue the "beg the question" trolls who insist the phrase can only be used in the logical fallacy sense and not in the raising the question one.
The tablet situation
First, he said, tablet computers were not a big enough market for Apple to spend its limited resources chasing. And even if the market grew, it would not reach a size to be of interest. The form factor was all wrong. Apple was more interested in defining markets than trying to catch other companies that were busy trying to create a market for questionable products. Still, some of the NIH scientists pressed the issue. Steve's follow-up answer was the most impressive I had heard him give.
First, he said, the wireless bandwidth for huge images, plus the security needed to successfully do what NIH wanted, was just not on the horizon. (Apple staff had been notably fuzzy earlier in the briefing about wireless standards after 802.11b.) Plus, tablets' screen resolution was nowhere near that required for NIH's high-quality medical images. Finally, any product designed to work in the medical field would attract significant liability. The hint was that Apple wasn't interested in anything with that kind of potential liability. That pretty well shut down the issue.
So, no tablet. But NIH at the time had more than 2,000 BlackBerry users. The NIH CIO wanted Apple to push RIM for better compatibility. Tough: Steve basically said it was another niche product, and that while there would be convergence of computing and phones, the BlackBerry was not that product. He did not see that compatibility as an area where Apple should spend any effort. So what will the converged product - what is being called the "iPhone" (even though that's a Cisco trademark) - look like? He said the really converged, ubiquitous devices would have to fit in your shirt pocket, and be better than either a phone or a computer by itself. From:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jan/04/newmedia.media
Since this article ran, Apple has demonstrated two technologies that might change that answer a bit. 802.11n networking approaches the speed needed to work with high-resolution images wirelessly. And Apple is now sourcing LCD screens with very high resolution--the iPod nano screen has about 200 pixels per inch, which is quite close to the resolution of printed photos.
However I'll believe it when I see it. The big question with tablets has always been data entry, and thus they are closely linked with handwriting recognition in the marketplace. Handwriting recognition has been an almost total market failure, so tablets have been an almost total failure. Perhaps Apple will try a full-size onscreen keyboard. Or perhaps they will leverage the new super-thin iMac keyboard technology and do a pull-out or flip-down physical keyboard. Or perhaps most likely is a slight modification of the MacBook product to include MultiTouch...either a touchscreen display or (as hinted in patents) a second, MultiTouch screen replacing the touchpad.
The big question is software. They just released a new OS that will need support. They are already committed to providing and supporting an SDK for the iPhone. And they are undoubtedly working quickly to update applications like the new iMovie, and produce new ones for the iPhone. Apple typically does not release new categories of product without new software to support/drive sales. I have no doubt people at Apple are experimenting with tablets. But I do not believe we will see one released anytime soon.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Some friends and I have been wagering ,free Starbucks for a week, on when this was going to happen. I've been holding off buying another laptop or an IPhone in the hopes that it was soon. New Xcode, objective-c, core animation, and now this. Things are looking up.........
d'uh, the sales tax doesn't go to the company itself.
I doubt OS X will be a popular platform for these particular set of people since it doesn't have anything like openCanvas (majority of my artist friends use the older version because it's networked).Technically Apple can just stamp their logo on toilet seats and it will sell well.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
ASUS has always shipped primo hardware and now they have been hitting low price points, too. Could they become a major competitor against Apple, especially if some relatively straightforward hacks for putting oh-ess-ecks on their machines get published?
If the problem is handwriting recognition, then obviously the solution is not to rely on it.
I'm sure the technology will be present, but I suspect, given their recent experience with multi-touch, that a full sized multitouch keyboard will be present instead. Instead of fighting the "better tablet" game, Apple should move onto the next arena: better handheld computer game, which they have already demonstrated a strong opening move with the iPhone.
GPL Deconstructed
I think that's British spelling.
"Any company that can make a mobile phone with no buttons, no picture messaging, slow Web access and no video capture into the most desirable phone on the planet can easily make tablets popular."
I laughed hard at this. While Apple certainly makes good products, their hype engine is one of the most effective on the planet. I would kind of like to see Apple pull this one off, just to annoy Steve Ballmer.
I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.
I'm not a fan of Vista, I'm just saying you can't have it both ways and expect that it makes logical sense.
I think the type of device we're most likely to see come out of rumors like this is a bigger iPod touch. Although it may support some kind of handwriting recognition, I would expect an on-screen keyboard to be the primary mode of input. I've had mixed feelings about the redesign of Apple's wireless keyboard, but it would go very nicely with a tablet.
I would be quite interested in a product like this. The touch-screen interface on the iPhone and iPod touch is a credible alternative to a stylus, and that's with a 3.5" screen. It is a bit Fisher Price at first, but it's intuitive.
According to - What are we doubting CNet now? "According to CNet, Google announced an open mobile platform yesterday."
oft-rumoured - Just because it's been rumoured for a long time doesn't mean it's any less likely. It may in fact be more likely, as more insiders give more information about it. The iPhone was oft-rumoured, too.
claims to have spoken - See "according to." We aren't doubting CNet's report, are we?
anonymous - He may be anonymous to you, but not to CNet.
claims - This is the only legitimate "IF." The guy we're doubting is the source.
And the rest of your post is based on baseless conjecture and strawman arguments.
But does it run Linux?
What are the reasons (according to the news item submitter) the iPhone would be a miserable failure if not for Apple's usual getting away with murder tricking the consumer into buying inferior products? The fact that it doesn't have buttons, picture messaging and video? Is that supposed to be a joke?
The phone has way-faster-than-3G wi-fi instead of the difference in speed between Edge and 3G. As a bonus, it doesn't have practically half it's current battery life the way it would if were 3G. Fact: right now 3G phones universally have poor battery life.
The "tax" in "Apple tax" is a joke, alluding to the fact Apple products cost more than comparable products from other companies. Of course sales tax does not go to the company. Christ. I can't believe I'm having to explain this.
First - on the topic in question. I don't think an Apple tablet will be much more successful than any PC tablet except with people who are already ga-ga for macs. The reality is Apple really has broken into the mainstream only with the iPod. Most people I know of that aren't either multitouch enthusiasts - and most people aren't - or are mac enthusiasts think the iPhone is cool, but isn't cool enough to justify it all. On the other hand, the iPod appeals to all sectors because it was something new, most people had never really used an MP3 player, whereas the iPhone was entering a market that had already been developed and users had expectations, there were no expectations in the relatively new MP3 player market because most people didn't have any. The same is true of tablets. I expect it will be a success, but only a success to mac users, multitouch enthusiasts, and a few other groups.
Second - as a grammar nazi. It doesn't -BEG THE QUESTION-. It -RAISES THE QUESTION-. Begging the question would imply it tried to use the hypothesis to justify the conclusion. Learn English. Please.
We'll have to agree to disagree. I'm a Mac user, but I own a Compaq TC1000 with XP/SP2 which has been pulling travel duty with me for the past 3 years. After years of reading accolades from Scoble et al about the Tablet PC's handwriting recognition I've tried time and time again to use it as a primary input method. My assessment: it sucks. It works okay (but still not satisfactorily) if you write standard prose but I'm an engineer that uses a lot of industry-specific terms, and the auto-prediction inevitably screws up what I'm trying to write. The other big downside is password input: I try to use passwords with mixed-case letters and punctuation characters and trying to enter those using the handwriting input just doesn't work.
As a result, I use the TC1000 in keyboard mode 95+% percent of the time. That said, the tablet input does work well for field use when I can use the stylus to tap buttons to start data acquisition programs, but as a notepad it just doesn't work at that well for me. But to each their own.
The biggest problem I've had with MS's Tablet PC is that it's basically Windows XP with some tablet features stuck on (I haven't used the Vista Tablet edition, so hopefully it's changed). I've always maintained that if Apple was going to do a tablet, in order to do it right they read to radically rework the interface rather than stick Ink on Mac OS X. The touch interface on the iPhone and iPod Touch seems to indicate their agreement.
Goodness? GOODNESS? What kind of twat actually uses the word "goodness"? What's next? Maybe drop a "truthiness" in there, too?
<sarcasm>Oh, man, Asus and Apple are, like, so hip!!!</sarcasm>
Call me crazy (or skeptical - take your pick), but it sounds to me more like someone is doing a pump and dump than this story having a hint of legitimacy.
At the bottom of the
Have you tried EverNote's RitePen?
http://www.evernote.com/products/technology/ritepen/
It's the best HWR I've found yet --- I use it constantly on my Fujitsu Stylistic (which I've _finally_ gotten booting off an Extreme III 2GB card using a CF-IDE adapter --- for some reason it wouldn't boot from the 4GB card, so it's in the second slot).
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
You know, you're probably right. My experience with tablet PCs is mucking with my friend's -- no real time spent on it. Perhaps handwriting recognition is one of those things like voice recognition. Great in sci-fi, but no matter how good it gets, the keyboard still rules.
I'm thinking one of those dynamic on screen thumbkey systems, like MS displayed a couple years ago. But with Apple's slick touch like with the iPhone's keyboard which learns and predicts. Who knows. All that matters to me is that if such a machine does reach production, I want to be able to use it like a real computer, not a media portal.
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
Axiotron Modbook:
http://www.axiotron.com/
They are great. I use mine extensively (mostly mathematical derivations for research), and I think it is great when any computer manufacturer comes into the playing field.
/Mine is a HP tc4200
MS Windows' handwriting recognition is great, but I don't use conversion much. I just use the Windows Journal to store handwritten notes -- much better than using paper for many reasons.
http://begthequestion.info/
Yes, it does matter.
Oh wait, I'll do it! ATI will half heartedly release an upgraded video card with barely acceptable drivers for OSX. This card will generally work unless you actually make it do something. If you try to actually make it do something, it will set your system on fire. There you go, commence the punishing, Jobs!
God damn it, I want to run UNIX and I want decent video performance in games that were written 5 years ago for the platform! Is that really too much to ask?!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I know this might fly in the face of those who see a "tablet" PC as something akin to a laptop, but I think there is quite a market for a Mac that acts as a desktop computer but that has a touch/pen enabled screen. As a designer, I find myself drooling at the prospect of finally being able to have a true digital pen medium where I can draw and paint right on my screen and see the results in realtime just as though I were using a pen and paper. Wacom tried this a while back, but the price point was so ridiculous that only a handful of starving artists could actually afford the things. Even integrating Apple's touch technology into the current desktop mix would create a whole new way of computing... And we all know how Jobs loves that.
I may dislike Apple; but in the interest of objectiveness, I know this will be a boon to my Macbook Pro-toting art majors. All they need to do is to make their touch panel able to detect levels of pressure.
I always thought the AppleDisplayScaleFactor setting was pretty interesting. It, combined with the vector-based interface of Leotard could work really well with multi-touch. Essentially they have the framework in place to scale any application - in the same way you can scale photos on the touch. I really think a sufficiently powerful tablet could genuinely change how we interact with our computers. I just don't think I am ready to write up a dissertation on such a thing... but that's not the point if it, is it?
Apple won't kill the product if it is relatively far along.
But they will get it even cheaper than ASUS planned to sell it to them for.
ASUS is in breach of confidentiality - the folks here at Slashdot seem to think that corporations play schoolyard games (ATI leak of Apple specs), but confidentiality is codified in contracts - if ASUS has cost Apple materially due to their employee's leak, Apple will probably reap some benefit in terms of product cost.
begs the question doesn't mean what you think it means...it refers to when someone is making the grounds for an argument and in their assumptions, they assume to be true the very thing they are trying to prove.
so stop using it wrong please, you look like a retard when you do.
Nice. I laughed a lot reading that. Sublte.
Ripped from here:
The LA Times
[ think ]
I've reached a point where I can type about 5 times faster than I write something by hand. Further, that handwriting can barely be read by finest trained Pharmacist, much less anyone else. A tablet is a nifty cool idea if you have a use for it. But most people won't. Look at the Nokia "Internet Tablets", nobody is buying them....
http://www.htcherocentral.com
All this begs the question Seriously, I would think that on a news for nerds page that at least the editors would have the slightest idea what "begs the question" actually means.
Lasers Controlled Games!
AAAASSUUUUUSSS!!!!!
Er, no it's not. It's bad spelling.
:)
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
I'm not trolling and if someone could help me with a link I'd appreciate it. But I know for a fact Ive read articles on here that Stevey is prime to ganking stuff off the line when a 'partner' beats him to the punch on announcing an Apple product/idea. Isn't that what happened to ZFS originally? Damn . . . I know there was a /. article about it, but I can't recall the technology.
And by the way, I'm a fanboy, so don't fanboi me other fanbois.
It's not stupid at all. Apple make a huge impact every time they release something major - far and away more than any of their rivals. There's a direct relationship between the secrecy of the company and the buzz for a release, which translates into a *lot* of cash in sales. One of the reasons the iPhone was themost successful consumer product launch in history is the control over information that Apple exerts.
When the benefits are measured in billions of dollars, it makes perfect sense to implement the policy that Apple does. Sure it's an easy shot to blame it on Steve's ego, but it looks like a cold blooded business decision to me.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Apple's insight there was really just how useless those features are. I'm not saying people won't take advantage of them if they're there, but I'm not convinced it really ads much to the "phone experience." And generally I think it's just too costly to use anyway.
Most phone makers/carriers have lost sight of the primary purpose of the phone: to communicate with people, ideally as easy as possible. While cameras and mp3 playing is neat, and could add some coolness to an otherwise boring phone, you can't skimp on good sound quality, noise reduction, etc. I can't personally say that the iPhone is good on any of those fronts either. I've yet to see a cell phone that's a good basic communication device first.
As an example, go out to your local cell provider and see just how many phones have cameras with buttons on the side that you can't lock! Or try to find a phone that actually mentions its audio input/output response.
But if Apple is able to address even a handful of these sorts of problems, it's no wonder they'd be popular... they'd have no competition! I mean sheesh one of the primary things that would make me switch over is simply the ability to save my voicemail onto my computer!
Ok, I'm done complaining now.
...bar the US.
Perhaps that's because the iPhone has only been released in the U.S... Ya think?
And... ummm.. Where exactly is the appeal in the TabletPC?
Geeks read Ender's Game and they want one. Lesser geeks watch a modern Star Trek and want one of the handheld pads.
If only they'd ship the ModBook! Since the ModBook has been delayed, I wonder if that has anything to do with Apple.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook/
http://www.macworld.com/2007/01/firstlooks/modbook_fl/index.php/
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/01/11/unofficial_mac_tablet_draws_record_crowd_at_macworld_high_res_photos.html/
"Wait 63 days before purchasing any new hardware from Apple, unless you don't mind paying 33% extra to have a new Apple gadget 2 months before others!!!"
So that means we're within 2 weeks of the iPod Touch price drop?
Good.
-- Boycott Shell
1.) Has a slate only option for sale (I have a motion M1300 and I love it more than the convertibles because of the writing surface, also it gives out very little if any heat)
2.) Has a wacom with passive stylus behind the screen instead of a touch screen interface or the both with the option to disable the touchscreen by changing a setting. (Another feature that I like from the M1300)
3.) Able to have a windows os installed too and accessible through boot camp.
I would be happy with that. Although it would also be nice if they waited for the AMD fusion or A processor with the graphics processor on the same CPU die, but that can happen when they have a later hardware update.
I've been looking for a 14" or larger tablet
I doubt it will be laptop/notebook sized. Three times the iPhone, 1440x960, 10.5". Something that complements a computer, not something that replaced it. More like a smart clipboard/notepad you carry and occasionally dock with your computer.
They (ATI's marketdroids) announced they had new graphics cards in a new line of G4 Powermacs that were being Steve-noted the next day. (and may have even revealed some specs) All mention of ATI (including a demo, IIRC) got ripped out of the keynote.
Apple was nVidia-only for more than a few months after that. Don't steal the Steve's thunder.
--
"I have also mastered pomposity, even if I do say so myself." -Kryten
Is this anything like Microsoft demanding you buy an OS license for each computer in your building on the basis that it MIGHT run Windows, whether or not it's a PC? Now THAT is a TAX!
Most of the stuff on
Good. If Apple releases a tablet I really hope it won't have handwriting recognition, at least not as a primary input mode. Even good handwriting recognition sucks.
The tiny little screen keyboard on my iPod Touch works WAY better than any mini sized hardware keyboard. A full sized one on a tablet should work almost as well as a real keyboard.
I've never really tried the Newton or Ink, so I can't really comment on the quality. But according to http://www.beanblossom.in.us/larryy/ANHR.html the Ink project is based on the Newton.
From what I understand, the handwriting recognition is based on adaptive neural networks, and with regular single-user interaction they get insanely good over time. There's still a sizable community that won't part with their aging Newtons due to it's supernatural ability to recognize their own handwriting.
Back to the thread, I hope and pray that Apple really is doing a tablet, and that Jobs hasn't killed it due to this leak. I also hope and pray that they pay attention to research in pen/sketch computing and don't simply give people a WIMP-oriented UI and expect a pen to work well.
Two things:
1) No offense, but the Transmeta chip in the TC1000 sucks. I'm using a TC1100 (1.1 Ghz Pentium M, 1 GiB RAM) and it can read my illegible scrawl 95+% of the time. And it anything requires computing power, it's handwriting recognition.
2) Vista Tablet HWR is indeed much, much better, even on TC1100s with Vista shoehorned onto them.
BTW, I wrote this post on my tablet with the stylus (in class it looks like I'm taking notes).
The Tablet PC is a failure outside a niche market. You've got a lot of friends in that market, but that doesn't mean it's not a niche, and it's pretty rare to find one anywhere else.
What would make a Tablet Mac seen as a success or a failure would be whether it could get broad usage outside that niche, so not having OC isn't necessarily as important as you think it is.
It's not bread at oil. In fact I'm oozing one now to white this past.
What are the reasons (according to the news item submitter) the iPhone would be a miserable failure if not for Apple's usual getting away with murder tricking the consumer into buying inferior products?
The range between 'a miserable failure' (what you think you read) and 'the most desirable phone on the planet' (what the submitter wrote) is pretty damn large. A phone can just be "really successful" or even "one of the most popular phones on the planet" without being "the most desirable phone on the planet", so it's not exactly reasonable to assume only the two extreme outcomes were on the submitter's mind.
In addition, the submitter didn't imply that the iPhone succeeded because of a trick. There have been a number of reasons given for the iPhone's popularity, by people both pro- and anti- Apple, as well as every preference inbetween. Why apply the worst cast to the text?
I read somewhere that Wacom (the leading manufacturer of Graphics tablets) owns many of the necessary patents for tablets/tabletPCs. This could explain why Tablet PCs are so overpriced. Certainly their own stuff is overpriced. For example, Wacom do a Graphics tablet with a built in screen called Cintiq, but it costs more than an entire PC.
LCD screens are pretty cheap these days, and Graphics tablet technology is really very old and mature. Why should the marriage of the two be so overpriced?
I have no doubt that Apple is working on a tablet PC. That doesn't mean they'll ever release one. I bet they only release about 10% of the projects they research. I think Jobs himself has stated at one point that Apple is constantly working on a lot of different ideas, but will only bring few of them to the market.
Are they working on a tablet PC? No doubt. Probably more than one. Will we ever see one? Who knows.
Portble hot plate for cooking
Its all about the killer app to justify the tablet. I could see the afore mentioned movie player possibly doing the trick. But for me the killer app would be something that lets me draw boxes, circles, triangles, etc, and cleans them up. Think Visio on steroids with OCR.
And I can't believe that sarcasm escapes you. Well, okay maybe I can believe it. See, that was sarcastic!
I don't know about Microsoft's handwriting recognition software, but writing perl scripts with their voice recognition software is pretty awesome!
"(I haven't used the Vista Tablet edition, so hopefully it's changed)."
There's the root of your assessment.
Tablet PC integration has been thoroughly integrated into Vista, I think in all versions except Basic. I expect the OP was referring specifically to ink and the tablet experience in Vista, because it is highly improved. To begin, there are navigational gestures built into the interface, called flicks, which are used with the pen and help with navigating.
Then there's the inking aspect, which is greatly improved. You can train the recognition engine now and it learns over time your style of writing, and even learns your vocabulary by analyzing emails and documents you write. Before training, accuracy is about 90% in print and cursive, but after training accuracy is upwards 99% from my experience.
Also, another note about OSX is inkwell completely falls apart when you give it cursive handwriting, or mixed cursive print.
For example, I hate Vista with a passion. I think it's the worst designed interface to come out of Microsoft since Microsoft Bob. But I don't care if you like it. My philosophy is that the individual should use what works for him. I'll go beyond that if the manufacturer is doing sleazy things that affect my personal OS choice (for example, claiming that my OS infringes on patents when there's no real evidence of it.) Otherwise, if you like using the piece of crap that is Vista, more power to you
Tablet Magic can be used with a Hackintosh to provide a tablet interface for OSX. It's usable, if not flashy. Last time I saw it running, you could input text with a gesture interface built right into OSX.
I'm buying one the day it comes out. I've been waiting for a Mac Tablet for years now. There have been some really good mockups on the net. I like the one with the base station and external keyboars/mouse/monitor. That would be cool.
The above is not worth reading.
See my 2002 article about the history (and future) of that particular handwriting recognition technology:
http://www.wave-report.com/archives/2002/02220201.htm
I don't know the development history of the technology behind Apple's Ink.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Funny how everyone here hopes that the general public is unhappy with Vista so they will switch to something else Everyone here doesn't do this. Did the original poster? Did you bother to check? I think the respondent use of "everyone" falls under hyperbole, but the bashing and general hatred of Vista is very widespread on
But, if you have the gall to hate something that is en vogue, then all of the sudden there's something wrong with you. You didn't just express hatred of Apple products, you expressed your desire that people who like Apple have bad things happen to them. That's a might different from complaining about the operating system in a public forum. I did not imply bad things should happen to apply users. I do not want them to be subject to identity theft, run over by a bus, etc.. I do want them to suffer miserable service for drinking the Steve Jobs brand Kool-Aid.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
All LCD panels are built out of glass anyway, so there's no physical reason a touchscreen with a glass cover couldn't be just as big as any other screen. The problem in the past is that to do touch, you needed a pressure-sensing layer (which flexes with pressure) in front of the LCD. The protective layer over that could not be glass since it had to flex, so it was plastic--easily scratched and dulled the image somewhat. A major advantage of the new MultiTouch technology is that it uses capacitance sensing, so it does not have to flex at all. It can be placed behind a rigid glass cover, which is clearer and more resistant to scratching.
There may be issues scaling up the MultiTouch sensor, but I doubt the glass cover is one of them.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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Their simplistic design doesn't mesh with my needs as a user. Granted, they are more aesthetically pleasing than your average PC, but I can make a PC look way cooler than a Mac. Where it's really important to me, gaming, Macs just don't stack up. What can you really do with one mouse button? I need options.
They're using their grammar skills there.
It still doesn't explain the fact that Apple offered a crippled device just to protect their "experience", instead of giving users something far more powerful, and giving them the choice to use it if they want to.
That's what Apple *does*. That's their *business model*. It's why I was amazed when they failed to commoditise OS X to the level that they were originally rumored (they were allegedly not even going to provide the BSD subsystem as a user-visible feature).
I agree,
The new transcriber input option in Windows Mobile 6 is pretty awesome, the fact that it recognizes my scribble pretty probably 95% accurate impresses me.
and I will take my Samsung SCH-i760 over the iPhone any day.
Here's news!
All of us that *aren't* grammar nazis don't really care.
Now you feel smart, don't you.
Because if it doesn't, it won't be nearly as popular as the iPod/iPhone :)
Incidentally, now that Macs are Intel arch based, doesn't that actually make them PC-compatible? I guess "I'm a PC!"
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Fm going to have to disagree nth this - I have q Thihhtead 24th Tablet and E almost never have it corves my handwriting into text because 12 doesn't work right. To tone this, Tin going to write what true just typed .
Look at the article's photo:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49293967,00.htm
Now look at the MODbook
http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/modbook/modbook_info_p1.html
The frame around the tablet in the article looks whiter, which I put down to light reflecting at a different angle to the MODbook photo. The key feature here is the oddly-shaped piece around the camera. It's identical in both images. I think it very unlikely Apple would lift that design from a third party.
The illustrations are bland enough to be worthless.
The photo is of a device already existing, that people desperate for an Apple tablet can buy today. I think it has normal warranty support, but the non-Apple-ness of the mod may turn people off.
I don't believe tablet PCs are a worthwhile area for Apple. They may be nice and have some real niches, but I don't see that they're successful enough to warrant an Apple model. I may well be wrong, but I'll only believe in them when I see them released on the Apple website or through some official communication.
Rumours about Apple products are almost always wrong, and there are a few stock market 'analysts' (read: "profiteers") out there who feed rumours, short the stock and make money out of the inevitable stock dip when it turns out the rumour was false after all. I completely distrust any rumours about companies these days, there are too many people with too many conflicting motives.
It's not bread at oil. In fact I'm oozing one now to white this past.
nice. it took me a second to realize wth you were saying :D
I have a Windows Tablet, and I can't remember the last time I used it in tablet mode because I can't get the handwriting recognition to work at all.
I'm just curious as why anyone would want a glorified iPhone with a much larger form-factor? Just make my iPhone better (cough, SDK, cough) and all this "tablet pc" nonesense can go into the dead rumor pile already.
4) Or is it because everyone knows that Apple would only put their brand on a toilet seat if it's the best damn toilet seat that money can buy?
That would be a Bose toilet seat, it would cost $10,000 and would be fit for the U.S. Airforce.
The Apple toilet seat you are thinking of would be the best *looking* toilet seat money can buy (designed in California of course), would only work with an Apple cistern and of course bowl, and the license terms would dictate that you could only use Apple branded toilet paper while seated on said toilet seat.
Perhaps the Microsoft toilet seat would be very cheap and very corporate-looking but 1 time in every 100 would give you an electric shock either when you sit down. But you could use it with whatever cistern and bowl you wanted. The license terms would, however, dictate that you are not permitted to use *any* toilet paper at all nor wash your hands after using said toilet seat (due to piracy concerns).
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I can't say about Apple's handwriting recognition but on my windows mobile device it gets the characters correct about 20% of the time so I've switched back to on-screen keyboard again. I'd like to use the character recognition but I can't get it to work. Is the character recognition better on a Windows tablet than on Windows Mobile?
If anyone pays attention to pen-based UI design, it would be Apple. Take a look at the Newton HIGs some time. They're absurdly detailed and offer in-depth reasoning for the majority of the decisions.
And then Microsoft goes and throws all of that research away when they make Windows Mobile. The single most fundamental point that Apple's people made was that controls should be at the bottom so that the user's hand doesn't need to cover the screen to get to them. Where does Microsoft put the single most used control in the entire interface? The upper-left, such that a right-handed user's hand will cover the entire screen when hitting it. Literally the worst place to put it. The only way to get it more wrong would be to make it hop around the screen.
It's like they took all of the good things from Windows and made them bad, then took all of the bad things and made them worse.
I have seen that tablet! It is big and black and sticking out of the ground. Some apes were fighting by it and then one of them picked up a bone and used it to club another ape.
That is an oddity. I remember Inkwell being touted as high end feature for Jaguar and then it fell off the map in Panther and Tiger. I guess it wasn't buzz-worthy so Apple stop working on it.
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
"Look at the Nokia "Internet Tablets", nobody is buying them...."
I'm buying them... especially the older and very much cheaper Nokia 770 with the excellent built-in aluminum screen-shield. The Nokia 770 is my favourite travelling browser / e-book reader / mp3player. Most people do have a use for the Nokia Internet Tablet, once they've seen and used it.
jesus h christ
one button, picture messaging is hideously expensive, 3g on the way but wifi is good, and noone likes to see themselves on video, let alone be caught on camera while way too drunk and being embarrassingly stupid!
it's not like the rest of the experience counts for anything... oh wait, it does. *rolls eyes*
My dearest AC, it isn't a question of grammar. It is a question of definitions. The phrase simply doesn't mean "raises the question" which has nothing to do with grammar. Of course since you seem to not know the definition of "grammar" this is probably a rather unconvincing argument.
Lasers Controlled Games!
one button, picture messaging is hideously expensive
My picture/audio/video (and text) messages are free (Sprint) and my internet is unlimited.
Da Blog
I've yet to see a cell phone that's a good basic communication device first.
You're just saying that because you've probably not used yet a mobile with Skype and Portrait video calling loaded. Three-year-old HTCs can do this - it's not that hard.
Da Blog
tablet computers were not a big enough market for Apple to spend its limited resources chasing. And even if the market grew, it would not reach a size to be of interest.
Yes, you're right. Apple *has* lost its will to attack new markets. That's why it took *5* years after the Koreans invented MP3 portables before Apple entered with the ipod. Similarly, Apple waited 3 years after others had introduced video handhelds before releasing a video ipod.
The trailblazers have been working diligently on Tablet PCs for a few years now, and some of them are into their second and third generations. That's long enough for Apple to come in, grab what works, and call it its own.
Da Blog
Try finding a 3G signal when you're in a car driving down the freeway.
I think you'll find that it's AT&T's 3G that is extremely lacking. I just finished a cross-country drive. I got 3G most of the way and was using Google Maps on the phone all the way to check out the terrain. Even in the depths of the western deserts I was still getting 1xRTT which brought me down to, shudder, iphoney speeds and Google Maps took forever to scroll. But 3G was usable across the shared Verizon/Sprint network for an amazing length of the journey.
MP3 players prefered by some slashdotters did not sell better than the iPod because they were harder to use, sync and setup for average consumers.
Know what else was popular for a while because it was "easier" to use for "average people" than the more fully featured Internet alternative? AOL.
Da Blog
Stream music to your iPhone. Open-source, no hacking required
You know you can do this really easily with any Windows, Palm, or Symbian phone using VLC, right? Some people use web pages for control whereas I prefer to VNC in. Or if you want an even more turnkey approach, Orb is all set up and ready to go. I think Orb probably even works with iphones, as long as you have the right codecs loaded on your phone. It browses your local disk media and publishes them on ready-to-go web pages. It even indexes tags.
Da Blog
They would only use the Cell phone when they are on the road and normally they just need to do some rather low bandwidth things
When I am on the road I am usually using Google Maps on the non-iphone almost constantly. My average monthly download for that alone seems to be a couple of hundred MBs. Without 3G that would be impossible.
Da Blog
I'd like to see you dial without looking at the phone on a touchscreen.
My phone (HTC Hermes/Mogul) is voice activated. There's a single button that turns on the mic (wouldn't want it on all the time, would we, that's a hard boundary problem). I can tell it to call people, start apps, whatever. It works surprisingly well - I thought I wouldn't use it very much because it's so nerdy looking but it's actually really handy if you're in a hurry and don't even want to take the time to look at the screen or punch numbers.
Da Blog
I'm very surprised it took this long for apple to take a look at the tablet form factor. It's already a proven design, and a I think that it only took them this long because of a "not invented here" attitude that apple has with some of its hardware designs (see apple mice).
If anything I've become more and more disillusioned with apple hardware over time. I still think that their software is great, but for a supposed hardware manufacturer, I increasingly think they aren't up to snuff and are more interested in coming up with a flashy design than making a usable product.
show off! :P
If you're in the US, it's not that difficult to get... SERO. $30/month for unlimited is pretty sweet.
Da Blog
Looking at it now, I think I overdid it a bit. But when I had a Newton that's about how reliable the recognition was. It would always give you actual words, just usually not the ones you were thinking of. :-)
Finally, a replacement for my Newton!
What can you really do with one mouse button? I need options.
I don't know, but all Macs ship with a four-button mouse (left, right, scroll click and squeeze).
what's with all the hate?
The "hate" is just in response to the constant hype.
If it's like the Iphone, it won't be especially desirable or popular - it'll just have lots of hype claiming that to be the case, but otherwise just be yet another tablet PC.