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Why Everyone Has High Hopes For Apple Tablet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-the-others-all-suck dept.

waderoush writes "The deafening roar of anticipation around Apple's expected 'iSlate' announcement on January 27 is strange, to say the least, given the public's utter apathy about tablet computers to date. What's going on? Xconomy's analysis makes three points. 1) Previous tablet makers have shown little imagination around UIs and how a touchscreen changes things. 2) With the iPhone, Apple has shown what's possible in this regard. 3) There's latent demand for a mobile computing device that's smaller and lighter than a laptop but has more screen real estate than a smartphone — something reminiscent of a Star Trek tricorder or PADD. Hence the hopes for the iSlate — which are so high that it may be difficult for even Apple to meet them."

6 of 596 comments (clear)

  1. Article is myopic, overlooking past examples by WillAdams · · Score: 4, Informative

    No mention of Go Corporation and PenPoint (Jerry Kaplan's _StartUp_ should be required reading for everyone who writes anything about pen computing). The NCR-3125 came out in 1991, running one's choice of Windows for Pen Computing or PenPoint.

    Fujitsu in particular has been doing pen computers running various versions of Windows for a long while, w/ models of the Fujitsu Stylistic ranging from the 500 (1993 or so) to the contemporary ST6012.

    William
    (whose NCR-3125 was donated to the Smithsonian by the guy he sold it to)

    --
    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  2. Re:I hate fake media hype by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Informative

    I am in a CS graduate program, and nobody in our department is talking about this -- not even the dozen or so Apple fanboys.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  3. Re:FIRST!!!! well almost by KylePflug · · Score: 3, Informative

    Newer macbooks solve this by natively supporting secondary click (either as a designated "right side" click or a two-finger tap (my preference)). I started using two-finger clicking in Ubuntu and am glad to see it on Mac now.

    But no, there's still only one ctrl.

  4. Pants are overrated. by gknoy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Pants are overrated. May I recommend a Utilikilt? They're sturdy, and have pockets. ... if you live in a windy environment, you may want to wear some underwear. Also, watch out for cold metal chairs.

    Pants are less overrated than I originally implied, but kilts are still [sometimes] awesome. ;)

  5. Re:1 word. Niche application by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Case in point: the fastest Mac's money can buy are Core 2 based 3 GHz machines where you can already get i7's

    iMac comes in the 3GHz Core 2, i5 and the i7. You may want to go to apple.com and click on the big f'n picture of the iMac before you post next time...

    I do agree with you on the "slow" model refresh, but I haven't notice a real need to be on the bleeding edge either...

    --
    These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
  6. Re:FIRST!!!! well almost by JetTredmont · · Score: 3, Informative

    Personally, there's a Best Buy around the corner where you can buy one. If you don't want to leave your room, type newegg.com in your browser and buy it there instead.

    Who is better equipped to buy and plug in a more advanced mouse? You or the guy described above?

    Keep in mind that on Macs it's not even "go buy another one" anymore; it's "open up System Preferences, click on Mouse, and enable the second button".