Apple Tablet Rumor Wrap Up

Since the Apple event is this afternoon, and the submission bin overflows with Apple Tablet rumor stories, I'm putting up a few of the more choice links here so we can all speculate for the next few hours. A McGraw Hill CEO confirmed the tablet on CNBC last night, basically saying it is a big iPhone that has content agreements with publishers. Another blogger wrote in with a expectation list for the event, and technologizer had a nice history of fail in the world of tablet computing. Feel free to add your own rumor, speculation, and exhausted eye rolling below.

Comments

i'm waiting for:

[madddddddddd]

iphone nano

Re:i'm waiting for:

[Ksevio]

Personally I'm hoping for an iPhone Shuffle.

Re:i'm waiting for:

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow... it's mostly dead space. WTF is with that huge black frame?!

Has Apple forgotten the meaning of the golden ratio?

Re:i'm waiting for:

[madddddddddd]

you would like the frame to be 39% of the body?

you want it shaped like your front door?

has slashdot readership forgotten the meaning of not being dumb?

Re:i'm waiting for:

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid post is stupid. I'm complaining because the area of the frame is easily larger than the display itself.

Re:i'm waiting for:

[madddddddddd]

i will bet you $100,000 that the area of the frame is not larger than the area of the display.

you can't be this dumb.

is that you michael dell? jealous?

Apple's strategy

[schmidt349]

Sure it could be the next G4 Cube, but I think Apple's approach to emerging new computing niches gives them a fighting chance. Microsoft just throws Windows on the device complete with all the crappy desktop metaphors and UI widgets that are completely irrelevant to the new form factor -- witness Windows Mobile and all the Windows tablets. Apple at least rethinks usability.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Finallyjoined!!!]

Correction: Apple at least rethinks usability properly.

Microsoft bungs hundreds of millions at "usability" & we end up with the stupid ribbon... Pah!

Re:Apple's strategy

[Monkeedude1212]

I don't mind Apple trying new things, but I fail to see what this device has going for it that is essentially "New".

It sounds like it'll be either an IPhone thats too big to fit in my pocket, or a small, touchscreen Netbook, Whereas I don't particularily have a need. If it doesn't fit in my pocket, it goes in a bag. If I'm putting it in a bag, the bag is about the size of a brief case. I don't see where in my adventures it'll be any more practical for me to pull out a tablet than it will be to pull out a Macbook.

I honestly think Microsofts Touch-Table-Top-Screen-Thing has more applications than this. But all in all, they are both "Meh" products.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Wingsy]

"I don't mind Apple trying new things, but I fail to see what this device has going for it that is essentially "New"."

Ya think that may be because you haven't even seen it yet?

Re:Apple's strategy

[Low Ranked Craig]

Depends on what you want. If this device is essentially a big iPod touch, and has a good online store for e-books, this is exactly what I want. A device that will let me read a book, listen to music, watch a movie, and browse the internet. I really wanted a kindle but the thing is a unitasker with an e-ink screen and that doesn't work for me. I don't want this to do coding or write documents. This will be much more convenient to carry than my MacBook.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Monkeedude1212]

I'm basing my view around all the rumours that are flying around it.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

Correction: Apple at least rethinks usability properly. Microsoft bungs hundreds of millions at "usability" & we end up with the stupid ribbon... Pah!

Do you really think the ribbon was anything to do with usability? As far as I can see, it was about having a patentable UI element that OO.o and its ilk couldn't copy.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Tom]

Microsoft just throws Windows on the device complete with all the crappy desktop metaphors and UI widgets that are completely irrelevant to the new form factor -- witness Windows Mobile and all the Windows tablets. Apple at least rethinks usability.

Apple at least thinks about usability. When's the last time that MS did that? I can tell you: Just prior to the launch of Win95, after even the final user testing showed that this "start button" concept is stupid, dumb, user-unfriendly and counterintuitive. They finally put the "Start" label on it (it was just the windos logo before that, yes a straight copy from the Apple logo on the Apple menu bar, except that that's always been on the menu bar where users expect menu things to be) and then added the "click here to start" animation when you first launch the OS, because even the label wasn't enough.

That's how MS thinks about "usability". Explains a lot about the trainwreck that every new windos edition adds to, doesn't it?

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

I fail to see what this device has going for it that is essentially "New".

Lock-in. Ten years ago, would anyone have predicted that products like the iPhone or the Kindle could possibly have any success at all? Back then, it looked like there was a trend toward more freedom, and new products would be competing to be more open and usable than one another.

Somehow, in the last decade, the personal computer market has accepted (in the sense of people actually spend money on some of the products) that personal computers don't need to be totally open to developers; that personal computers can use the same development model as video game consoles, and some people (maybe a minority, but a big enough niche to make a profit and get a SHITLOAD of publicity) will actually buy them.

So what's new here? Well, look at the tablets of the past: they were programmable by the Little People. They were personal computers in the old sense, where when you bought one, you totally owned it, and you could even start a software business on one if you wanted to, with no limits to what you could do. Not this time. This time it's going to be closed up, have a centralized app store that only sells approved products, and yet people are considering it newsworthy and even predict some success.

This isn't some obscure wackjob company that you can safely laugh at by default when they try to commit atrocities against hackers; it's Apple. The atrocities are there, but not the laughter. The mockery will be there, but tinged with a very real feeling of fear and bitterness. This fucking piece of shit just might still be in the news the day after tomorrow. And that's sobering. We're nearing the end of the personal computer revolution that took off about 3 decades ago. We're seeing Apple destroy something that they played such an important part in creating. That's news. First it was the handheld, now it's something bigger. In a few years: the desktop?

Re:Apple's strategy

[lastchance_000]

Why would anyone want to?

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Who would even want to copy that piece of crap? It was one of the reasons I switched to OpenOffice in the first place.

Re:Apple's strategy

[kevinmenzel]

Having played around with several of the old Chicago builds, I'm pretty sure you'll find that it was labeled "start" fairly early on, at least by the first beta build. See screen-shots at http://toastytech.com/guis/chicago.html.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

Lock-in. MS Office is pervasive in schools and in business, and a drastically different interface makes it harder for users to shift. True, for a short term the Ribbon is pushing some users who have the choice away from MS Office, but I think that MS are planning to ride that out and by agressive deals with schools, colleges, governments, etc get people locked in.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

And I'd switch to OO.o too, if I wasn't obliged to use MS Office for work. But that's one of the ways lockin works.

Re:Apple's strategy

[ID000001]

I think using a LED / LCD screen for book reading is going to put a little more strain on the eyes then e-ink display. Which might make it not suitable for a good amount of people. If being doubled as e-reader is the major selling point, this is likely to be too expensive to count. Of course, Apple have a few years to let this go. We will see.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't mind Apple trying new things, but I fail to see what this device has going for it that is essentially "New"." Ya think that may be because you haven't even seen it yet?

Yes, the proper order is first MonkeeSee and then MonkeeDude.

Re:Apple's strategy

[trickyD1ck]

Please, watch this presentation. I was actually impressed by the amount of usability research they put into the Ribbon. Also, data show, that users like it, so enough of these horse laugh comments already.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Man On Pink Corner]

If the tablet solves the e-reader problem, I'll be happy with it. Right now there are no e-readers that make me want to use them to read newspapers, books, and technical documents. All of them have one gaping flaw or another.

Think of whatever gadget Apple is announcing as if it were just another household appliance. I don't care if my e-reader is "open" any more than I care if my dishwasher is. I just want it not to suck. It will live on my kitchen table where there used to be a two-week-thick pile of newspapers, and that's basically all I ask of it.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd switch to OO, if it wasn't a slow and bloated wanna-be Office CLONE.

Re:Apple's strategy

[lastchance_000]

I understand what you're saying, but I disagree that the difference in interface would be a large hindrance to someone switching. Of course, it would be for some people, but since something like Open Office has an interface that's common to a huge number of desktop applications, for most people it should be simple to switch.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Low Ranked Craig]

The real difference is that Microsoft does usability by committee. A really big committee in the traditional product management, focus group, search for enhancement requests, etc. Apple doesn't do focus groups or surveys. They don't always end up with the best usability, but it's usually better than most in my experience, although I'm finding Windows 7 to be pretty usable. Apple designs things they want to use every day.

Re:Apple's strategy

[andereandre]

can't watch it, it needs silverlight.

Re:Apple's strategy

[drerwk]

If the resolution it high is there still a problem with LCD vs e-ink? Ambient light issues?

Re:Apple's strategy

[lastchance_000]

Great point. See here for an example.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet the ribbon is the primary reason I refuse to use Office 2007 (or newer). Sometimes making yourself unique to keep people from copying you makes your product less desirable.

Re:Apple's strategy

[waitwonder]

According Bill Gates "Usability" is the stamp you put on packaging.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Shining Celebi]

This time it's going to be closed up, have a centralized app store that only sells approved products, and yet people are considering it newsworthy and even predict some success.

Predict some success? The Apple tablet has been a huge story even in the mainstream press for months and it's been nothing but fawning, salivating coverage about how this is the Next Big Thing. With all that advertising, I'm sure it's safe to say those predictions are right -- it's going to be a huge success, regardless of the factors you mention and regardless of whether it's actually good. I can't imagine any other company getting such adulatory coverage everywhere from the New York Times to Reuters to PC World for months about a product nobody even actually knows anything about.

Re:Apple's strategy

[cgenman]

Do you really think the ribbon was anything to do with usability?

Maybe patents had something to do with it, but it is classic Microsoft usability. It takes a cohesive, existing system, and layers on top an additional UI element that they hope will make all of the other UI elements make sense. Microsoft rarely removes elements.

It's like Windows 7 filesharing. Not only did they keep the old Samba based filesharing, but they added an additional type of filesharing on top. Now you have the joys of setting all of the permissions twice, only now you don't really know which goes to which.

Or the godawful and inconsistent side panels. Why you'd want a system-level UI element taking up that much room just to offer to print photos for you is anybody's guess. But the side panels simply replicate functionality that can be achieved by right-clicking, double clicking, going to the menus, option clicking, or sometimes multiples of the above.

Or for that matter, Word: where each separate program module has its own interface elements. This is true whether those interface elements would make sense elsewhere, or replicate other functions / settings within the application. Or are just legacy and don't really matter anymore.

Apple, on the other hand, actually streamlines. They removed the disk drive, removed the com and serial ports. When spotlight became the way to search in OSX, they removed the other ways to search. Instead of just trying to add, so as not to upset old users, they actively redesign the whole system to be usable as a whole. While I have low hopes for the tablet as a piece of hardware, I'm excited to see the interface conventions it comes up with.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Gilmoure]

Yup, I'd be happy with one with only wifi connectivity, for use around the house, if it can stream movies from my iTunes home server I have setup.

Re:Apple's strategy

[ColdWetDog]

That's actually a good question. You see lots of received wisdom stating that e-ink is "easier on the eyes" because of no refresh or various other issues, but I don't see any studies or real data.

I look at LCD screens all day. No problems. Yeah, crappy screens are bad, but if it has decent resolution, decent colors and the ability to change brightness, I'm not sure that it is a big issue.

Battery life and use in sunlight, however, go to the e-ink machines.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading this, I can't help but think of...

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Ma8thew]

That's stupid.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Add to that the potential capability to employ "Back to my Mac" services for MobileMe users. You have all that, plus the ability to remotely control a more powerful computer from wherever you are to get your heavier lifting done, then trade files with it over iDisk.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Azureflare]

This ties in to exactly what Apple is doing. McGraw Hill releases their textbooks for iPad -> Schools adopt iPad -> Locked in!

It worked for Microsoft, why not Apple?

Re:Apple's strategy

[Asclepius99]

I disagree here. I'm always amazed by people that are, shall we say, less tech savvy and their inability to find things in menus that aren't set up exactly like the program they usually use. I'm not even talking about renaming things, just putting them under a different tab. The amount of people that can't do this is staggering.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

but since something like Open Office has an interface that's common to a huge number of desktop applications

I think MS was -- maybe still is -- hoping to change that. I'm waiting for reviews of new software from MS enthusiasts that complain of software with menus looking so dated...

Re:Apple's strategy

[Azureflare]

Usually eyestrain is a result of glare/backlighting on LED/LCDs. It wears down the eyes.

If the iPad is using a PixelQi screen or something similar, then there won't be backlighting most of the time (it uses ambient lighting and reflective display to enhance the pixels), and there won't be eyestrain. In fact, it is almost exactly the same as eInk, but extremely cheap AND capable of color.

If this catches on, the Kindle won't stand a chance. Sorry.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Azureflare]

Battery life and use in sunlight, however, go to the e-ink machines.

Clearly, you have never heard of PixelQi or mirasol. eInk doesn't win in usage under direct sunlight anymore. Perhaps battery life, but that remains to be seen.

Re:Apple's strategy

[cgenman]

For some of us, there is need for a computing device that you can use while walking from place to place. The Laptop works well when you can sit and setup, but a tablet would be helpful for situations where you're talking to people, running errands, or generally being physically active. There are already iPhone / iPod Touch and other smartphone / PDA custom solutions for these people, but a bigger screen and a task-specific interface would be nice.

Which is not to say that apple isn't going to position this as an ebook, since the above is a pretty small market.

Re:Apple's strategy

[kencurry]

I am the only one that hates how the e-ink flashes black when you flip a page? I find that really distracting, and makes the device unreadable for me.

Re:Apple's strategy

[gtall]

won't watch it, it needs sliverlight.

Re:Apple's strategy

[gtall]

It isn't the rumors that are fliying, the device itself will have wings and fly. It will be truly revolutionary.

Re:Apple's strategy

[farble1670]

maybe he's responding to what TFA is saying about it, as is every other post here. here it is again, for your reference.

A McGraw Hill CEO confirmed the tablet on CNBC last night, basically saying it is a big iPhone that has content agreements with publishers.

Re:Apple's strategy

[oji-sama]

No, I tried one and decided to never buy one that flashes like that. The change was also unbearably slow. When I had a PSP, I read a lot of books on it. The resolution was pretty low, but that wasn't really a problem. Now I'm reading with N810 and it's pretty good for the purpose. (Although getting used to FBreader was a PITA). I wonder if the smaller screen of N900 makes reading less enjoyable.. Maybe not, but probably the font size needs to be a bit bigger.

Re:Apple's strategy

[natehoy]

They could have saved a boatload of money by having a llama eat brightly colored food, vomit, and take a picture of the result. Patentable, unique, and all you need is a llama and a camera. Oh, wait, the folks from WinAmp might sue them over the llama thing. Scratch the llama. Go with a muskox.

For small-platform computing, do the same with a chipmunk (to accommodate the smaller screen sizes).

Possible backronym: Beginners Application Regulation Framework.

Re:Apple's strategy

[geektweaked.com]

I think all companies have their innovative products alongside the products that just sorta get phoned in. Sure, there's a couple lazy product managers within Microsoft that are willing to ship the same boring crap over and over again. Then there's the people working on Surface that are doing serious R&D into multitouch interfaces. Even the Zune/ZuneHD are pretty innovative products that really had a lot of thought put into the interface.

Re:Apple's strategy

[raddan]

Our company president (I work for a large multinational publisher) told us yesterday that this will be a color e-reader (he said "four-color", but I think he's thinking in terms of a 4-color process, not a 4-color display) capable of playing video. He knows this because Apple has spent the last two weeks getting publishers on board. Interestingly, Apple sat down to hammer out details on content distribution, but still refused to let content producers even see a picture of the device! Publishers are, of course, so eager to get good footing on this platform that they're apparently giving Apple the benefit of the doubt now. Amazing how things have changed since iTunes and the iPhone came out.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Spykk]

It sounds like what you want is a netbook. Which of those tasks that you listed will be improved by a big touchscreen? A netbook will likely cost you a lot less and comes with a keyboard.

The only niche I see for tablets is applications that need to be portable and need to have a large touchscreen. Once something is too big to put in your pocket you're going to carry it in a bag that could just as easily carry something a little bigger/useful.

Re:Apple's strategy

[dilvish_the_damned]

When you claim "meh" on my iTablet thingy, this will only increase my smugness because we both know you secretly want one. Even if you really don't. the more you deny it, the more the rest of us will know you really really do.

Go ahead.

Re:Apple's strategy

[DragonWriter]

Ten years ago, would anyone have predicted that products like the iPhone or the Kindle could possibly have any success at all?

Probably; the Blackberry, while less technology advanced, pretty much was a "product like the iPhone" 10 years ago.

Somehow, in the last decade, the personal computer market has accepted (in the sense of people actually spend money on some of the products) that personal computers don't need to be totally open to developers

I don't think the "personal computer" market has done that all.

The market for a number of completely new devices that sit somewhere between traditional PCs and older mobile devices that had completely fixed functionality with no third-party apps (or even first-party apps besides those pre-installed) has accepted that limited openness to developers is acceptable (and I'm not even sure that those markets have really accepted that, so much as having lacked viable, price-competitive alternatives that aren't severely disadvantaged by the tightly-controlled dominant player was well-established first and has a major pre-existing network effect advantage.)

Re:Apple's strategy

[soupd]

Apple is run by a design maniac; someone who is passionate about technology and makes a lot of use of the products his company sells. Oh yeah, and he also gets the final word in everything. It's no wonder then that Apple have a more coherent design in many products than Microsoft, which very much is based around agreement-by-committee. Apple/Jobs design isn't perfect but the results speak for themselves.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Lodragandraoidh]

Low Ranked Craig: Bingo!

Plus add:
Handwriting recognition - a la 'Newton'
Longer battery life.

Then I will use the hell out of it. I don't want to carry around a laptop, cell phone, MP3/Movie player, and a paper notepad (for those time I need to scrawl something quick or when typing in a meeting is too distracting - or I want to draw a friggin' picture/diagram! [drawing with a mouse or touch pad on a laptop is epic fail])

Re:Apple's strategy

[Monkeedude1212]

Your attempt at arrogance fails because thats not how Apple fanboys operate. They simply promote the product in the same way: They gush over how marvelous it is and how its "Revolutionary" or "Game-Changing" before the product is even released, and simply must buy it as soon as its available.

So, I will safely deny it. I do not want whatever Tablet Apple is producing. It may have a niche market and may be profitable, but until I see it do something my current devices cannot (Desktop, Laptop, and Smartphone) then I see no need to spend money.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Cronock]

The mp3 player wasn't "New" when they released the iPod. The cellphone/smartphone wasn't "New" when they released the iPhone. Apple's skills are making those things better and advancing them, integrating new technologies into them.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Lodragandraoidh]

Can you easily draw a diagram or picture on a netbook? Can it recognize your handwriting and convert it to text?

Can you take notes in a corporate meeting without interrupting the meeting (or those on the conference call) with the clacking of your keyboard?

Can you make a phone call with your netbook?

Will the battery life of your netbook be comparable (unanswerable at the time of this writing).

These are applications where I think a table could excel.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Fear the Clam]

The data also show that old users resent Microsoft pulling the menu option. Way to alienate your user base. Considering how long they kept WP keystrokes as an option in Word, I find it funny that they suddenly felt that the menu had to be pulled altogether, without even an option to display it.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Arthur Grumbine]

This ties in to exactly what Apple is doing. McGraw Hill releases their textbooks for iPad -> Schools adopt iPad -> Locked in!

If this is part of Apple's strategy, they'd better make sure their tablet is fully functional for the blind. This requirement would seem to present more difficulties if it does end up running a modified form of the iPhone OS (vs. OSX). We'll find out shortly...

Re:Apple's strategy

[BitZtream]

Most people who give the ribbon bar enough of a chance don't mind it or even like it after a short period of time.

I don't use Office enough to get used to it, but I don't really see anything inherently wrong about it for the average user other than wasting a lot of screen real estate.

Like most things, once you get used to it, it works fine for every day things.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Alamais]

The parts of W7 that are 'usable' are basically exact copies of Mac OS X things. From 'pin to Dock^H^H^H^HTaskbar', to vector icons (though I don't know, I didn't even try Vista, so maybe the unabashed copying started there).

Unfortunately for them, it's at an OS 10.0 level. Networking is miserable, especially backwards-compatible networking (I have yet to get W7 to see XP/Mac SMB machines on my workgroup), every setting now takes two or three times as many clicks to change, you can enlarge icons and text, but only so far (no 10-foot interface).

I installed a school copy on a school computer to try it out. I was hoping to go to 7 at home so I could get 64-bit (more RAM), and DX10/11. I'm one more crash/random IP address loss/file sharing frustration/primal scream away from giving up and going back to XP.

Was Vista actually worse than this? How is that possible?

Re:Apple's strategy

[JesseL]

The N810 with FBReader is the best ebook reader I've ever used. Set the colors to green on black, rotate 90 degrees to a portrait layout, and few other little tweaks and it's perfect. Crisp fonts, no eyestrain, easy page flipping with +/- buttons.

Re:Apple's strategy

[stewbacca]

The committee, however, is devoted to profit margins and not usability.

Re:Apple's strategy

[MrSteveSD]

I also hate the trend of computing devices becoming locked down. It really is a massive step backwards. I certainly won't be buying a locked down Apple iSlate, but would certainly consider buying a similar open product from a competitor. I think that companies need to make more of the fact that their products are open. In a world of locked down systems, openness should be marketed as a selling point and also used to tarnish closed products.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Capt. Skinny]

As far as I can see, it was about having a patentable UI element

Or perhaps it was about adding something new for the sake of adding something new. You can't sell a new version of your software without adding new functionality, but after umpteen versions of MS Office products, they pretty much had all the functionality anyone could possibly need in a word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Thus began the process of finding solutions for problems that don't exist.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always thought that the ribbon was a glitzy version of the Toolbar object. I think anyone who wants to model its behavior without stealing its look could use the toolbar UI elements.

Re:Apple's strategy

[hairyfeet]

Actually while you might think it to be lock in, I remember reading an article with one of the Office team (my Google Fu sucks, maybe someone can find it?) talking about why they cooked up the ribbon.

They had so many features in Office 2K3 that it was becoming hard for even vets of Office to find new features, simply because of the layers of menus and sub-menus. To illustrate he talked about how Bill Gates called him and said "I love the new features you added to Excel" and then listed features that had actually been in Excel since Office 2K. When he pointed this out Bill kept insisting it just had to be new features because "he was a master of Excel and knew the UI by heart".

So by trying to design it to be tasked based instead of menu driven they hoped it would allow new and old Office users alike to find the new features as well as try ones they hadn't noticed yet. While I personally prefer my Office 2K (runs great on Win7 64bit BTW) after using Office 2K7 I can see why they went with the ribbon. The amount of features in 2K7 would be really hard to deal with when using a 2K style menu system. And as the guy from the Office team said "everyone uses on average 10% of Office but it is a different 10% for everybody and it would cause havoc to start cutting features that users depend on."

While I would have preferred a way to switch back to a classic interface I can see why they changed. You can only add so many sub-menus before the thing just gets too cluttered. And since I haven't had any trouble opening 2K7 docs thanks to the compatibility pack for 2K-2K3 it isn't like I have to use 2K7 if I don't want to. Personally I'll be sticking to my nice simple Office 2K as long as it continues to run well, which it does on Windows 7 quite nicely. And most of the SMBs I've talked to seem to be happy with 2K3 and aren't talking about switching anytime soon, so if it was an attempt at lock in it wasn't a very good one, especially since the compatibility pack is free.

Re:Apple's strategy

[slasho81]

Do you really think the ribbon was anything to do with usability? As far as I can see, it was about having a patentable UI element that OO.o and its ilk couldn't copy.

Before you propagate another conspiracy theory, watch this.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Herve5]

Too bad you posted AC, I'd have friended you ;-)

Re:Apple's strategy

[Azureflare]

Looks like I might have to eat crow on this one. I haven't seen any mention of the iPad using a PixelQi or similar type of screen yet.

Re:Apple's strategy

[Tamran]

This ties in to exactly what Apple is doing. McGraw Hill releases their textbooks for iPad -> Schools adopt iPad -> Locked in!

It worked for Microsoft, why not Apple?

Not to mention, this product is already so popular with women. Check out this commercial for it

Re:Apple's strategy

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, I'll bite.

First of all, not all of microsoft's UI elements are junk. Maybe you don't like the ribbon and maybe there's a lot of others who don't. Fair enough. I'm agnostic about MS, Mac, linux, etc. But I like the ribbon. I think it makes sense and it's a practical solution to that takes advantage of having use of a graphical interface in a way that, frankly, is one of the first real extensions of the paradigm I've seen in mainstream computing for a while. Everyone's got menus, buttons, text and scrollers. Everyone's got WYSIWYG. I've used Word every day for more than a decade and I still sometimes scratch my head looking at icons for buttons that I don't often use. Iconic buttons don't get the job done because often it's too hard to reduce a complex abstract concept to a tiny pictograph that everyone will understand. Buttons and button bars don't scale very well with varying screen and window sizes. The ribbon is not perfect but it does present information in a logical way that scales well with window size and takes advantage of the graphical nature of the screen to convey information to the user in ways that buttons and menus can't do. They didn't get the implementation perfect, but I think that overall, it's a better strategy for managing complexity than button-bars and menus and I think that as they refine their product, it will be appreciated as a real improvement on the status quo.

Patentable UI? Apple lost that case a while ago. Maybe MS can afford to patent it and defend it. Since i'd consider it a real and non-trivial invention, I think this is one of the very few times that a patent legitimately applies to software. I don't disagree with the ethic that software should be free when it can be, but MS didn't throw a few monkeys in a room and wait for them to come up with this. They deserve to take whatever credit or blame they can get.

Lock-in? Office is not cheap. Even for schools, a free copy of OO.org is a lot easier and cheaper to deal with than licensing any form of commercial software. In today's environment where budgets are being slashed left and right, I don't see how you're going to beat a product that offers the same basic functionality at much lower cost. MS may be able to "lock-in" some business users and maybe some governments for a while but I don't think there's any question that OO.org or one of it's cousins is going to become the dominant office program. MS knows this. They have to compete on features now and I think they're within their rights to make sure that they get paid for what they invent.

I agree with most of the Free Software ethos. However, there are plenty of situations where sharing Freedom doesn't put bread on the table. Frankly, the only way that I can see Sun making a rational decision to support OO.org is as a long-term investment in which the cost of OO development is about the same as the cost of licensing MS Office for Sun to use internally and the relatively higher cost for development of OO is offset by the commercial value of the reusable software technologies developed in pursuit of a viable OO and by the advertising and sales it generates for StarOffice and other Sun products. It is also a relatively low-cost way to do long-term erosion of Microsoft's cash cow, which will make it easier to compete with MS in other areas where the enormous monopoly (or monopoly-like, if you prefer) profits allow MS to buy their way into dominance of nearly any software product area that they choose. It's a game that Sun/Oracle has to play consistently and carefully on a long time scale. Oracle is surely familiar with the opposite side of that coin regarding the erosion of a cash cow.

There's really very little chance that we'd have a really viable main-stream office competitor without the financial backing of a company like Sun. But Sun wasn't a company that looked like it was going to be around for the long-term. So if you're going to blame MS for trying to protect profits with patents, you really have to ask yourself, what

Re:Apple's strategy

[david_thornley]

Somehow, in the last decade, the personal computer market has accepted (in the sense of people actually spend money on some of the products) that personal computers don't need to be totally open to developers;

It wasn't during the last decade, it was when personal computers spread beyond the hobbyists. Blame the original IBM PC if you like. While it was nice and open, what lots of people wanted to do was set up on people's desks with certain software installed, locked down by corporate policy. (You could blame Texas Instruments in how they went with the TI-99/4, but that was a flop anyway.)

And, indeed, most desktop and laptop computers are open. On Windows 7, MacOSX, Linux, *BSD, whatever, you can install what software you like and write your own if you'd prefer. I see no sign of this changing.

What did change is that devices became smart. Nobody expects to program their car, although there's a heck of a lot of computing power in there. People generally don't expect to program their game consoles, although those things are just locked down personal computers. Until recently, nobody expected to program their cell phone. How many people want to program their Kindle and/or Nook?

The difference, from your point of view, is that many devices have gotten to the point where they can be considered personal computers. I view my iPhone as a phone that does all sorts of neat stuff, not as my personal computer. I have real computers when I want to write software. I don't know what role the Apple tablet is intended for.

However, I am rather curious about one thing: why do you malign a piece of hardware you know nothing about?

Re:Apple's strategy

[EvilBudMan]

What about LED displays? There would be no back lighting. Now only if they could be made smaller. Maybe Apple is coming out with a 60" monitor too?

Re:Apple's strategy

[Kelbear]

Yes, I was forced to make the switch about 2 weeks ago starting a new job that used office 2007 on all computers by default. It was rocky at first but I got used to it and I've found qualities that I like in 2007, such as the alt-key throwing up key reference bubbles on every icon so that I can learn the keyboard navigation more quickly.

However, I don't like that all the keyboard navigation I'd already memorized had been switched around...but again, I got used to it. I had already tried to switch on my home computer several months ago and hated it, but having it imposed on me at work was the impetus needed for me to stare hard enough to learn it properly.

The layout is indeed an improvement to 2003's, it's just a pain to learn a different one when I've already memorized the last one. I appreciate Format Painter.

However, while I appreciate the key reference bubbles when I press ALT, I HATE that they've removed the ability to customize keys! I used ALT+R to highlight in red, ALT+B to highlight in blue, and ALT+G to return to normal formatting. But in Excel 2007, customization has been removed, now all you have is Macros, and all macro hotkeys must use CTRL. Almost all the letters in combination with CTRL already have a function bound to them. That leaves me with a combination of CTRL+ALT, or CTRL+SHIFT as the modifier, and hitting CTRL+AlT+G just isn't practical with one hand. Too awkward, too slow. That means I have to waste time reaching over for the mouse all the time. Not good. Adding Font Color or Fill Color to the Quick-Access toolbar allows you to assign them to ALT+ number keys, but unlike 2003, you can only assign them to open the font color or fill color menus, which I don't need. I want it to /apply/ the color so I don't have to keep moving for the damn mouse.

If someone knows of the Excel 2007 workaround to get this Excel 2003 functionality, I'd love to hear it.

Re:Apple's strategy

[hudsucker]

I remember reading an article with one of the Office team (my Google Fu sucks, maybe someone can find it?) talking about why they cooked up the ribbon.

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/tags/Why+the+New+UI_3F00_/default.aspx

Re:Apple's strategy

[mdwh2]

You talk as if Windows and Apple are the only two companies in the mobile computing market! They're not, by far.

And the worst UI I encounter on Windows are when I have to use Quicktime or Itunes, sorry. So I simply don't trust all these claims, which are never backed up with actual examples, just flimsy "Oh it's better, it just is, honest, I can't explain why".

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

Actually while you might think it to be lock in, I remember reading an article with one of the Office team (my Google Fu sucks, maybe someone can find it?) talking about why they cooked up the ribbon.

Yes, I know the official reason. But it doesn't make sense. They could have made things just as task oriented with menus as with the ribbon. And look at it this way: if you have so many tools in your workshop that you have trouble finding them in the draws and cabinets, and aren't even sure what you've got any more, would you try to solve the problem by getting rid of all of the drawers and cabinets completely, and dumping all of the tools in a heap on the floor?

There's already a well established and successful way of handling that sort of complexity, used by image manipulation programs and to some extent available in earlier versions of office. Lots of detachable and customisable toolbars that can be shown or hidden according to the task in hand. Dock the ones that you use a lot, show the ones that relate to your current task, and ignore the rest. One of the most annoying features of the ribbon is the way it keeps flicking away from the task in hand. I've been driven half-crazy at work today trying to work with shapes. Insert a new canvas and put some shapes in it. Click on a shape, and select the layout tab. Do what you want with the layout, click on the canvas and -- woah! It's flipped back to the home tab! Click layout again to add a new shape, click the shape and -- woah! it's flipped back to the home tab! Ok, the shape layout tab and canvas layout are different toolsets, but any sane software will let me have both open on my desktop at once. The ribbon actually ignores the task I am working on. Microsoft think they know better than I do what I'm trying to do.

Unlike some here, I don't think MS are stupid or incompetent, at least as far as usability is concerned. If the interface change does the exact opposite of what they say it will do then I'm pretty sure they know that, and that there's something else going on.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

1. I think you should find out what "conspiracy" means.

2. The only thing in there that was news to me (I've been using Word since v2.0, pretty much all day every working day) was MS actually admitting to bad things like designing to look good in demonstrations rather than actual usability (admitted for Word 2000). And I can see a lot of things that are plainly wrong in their process, such as a focus on exceptional tasks rather than common ones (designing document layouts rather than working with a strict template created by your corporate communications department) and a focus on what people didn't like about previous versions and "fixing" them, completely ignoring what they did like to make sure they retained it. There was also a clear focus on using the mouse rather than keyboard, which is entirely the wrong focus for a task that is primarily text entry (although it makes sense for the -- rare for most users -- task of design of new types of document).

Incidentally, if everything is now accessible from the ribbon (as stated in that video), where is the command to show/hide field codes? Sure, there's a hot-key, but if it's on the ribbon I've not found it yet.

Still. There is one thing they have clearly achieved. They were not happy that Office 2003 was "good enough", and sure enough, now it isn't.

Re:Apple's strategy

[dotancohen]

can't watch it, it needs silverlight.

All five of the download options don't work for you either? I was able to open four of them on my Kubuntu machine, almost stock as it was installed last week

Watch "The Story of the Ribbon"
(Video, audio, and slides)

Download "The Story of the Ribbon"
(Slides and audio only, Windows Media, 146 MB)

Alternate Formats:

Download for iPod
(.mp4, 121 MB)

Download the PowerPoint slides only
(.pptx, 20 MB)

Dowload the slides only as a PDF
(.pdf, 19 MB)

Re:Apple's strategy

[hairyfeet]

Did you actually watch the video? We are talking about 31 toolbars, 3 different task areas, and a huge task pane in 2K3. It was a total mess man! And they tried fixing it with intellisense and hiding non used menus and just got complaints. What works on Photoshop is NOT gonna work on Office, because Photoshop is used by pros who are willing to read manuals, watch videos, and take the time to learn the new UI. If you watched the video you will see that a good 85% of Office was NEVER being touched, simply because folks didn't know how/where/what to do and didn't want to spend time hunting and pecking looking through toolbars.

But ultimately you have to remember that you and I, guys that will actually read tutorials or instruction manuals and watch learning vids are NOT anywhere close to what the average Office user is like! Trust me, as a PC repairman I come across Sally Secretary and Bill in marketing all the time, and they just don't think like us dude. I find huge amounts of crap running in the taskbar that they have NO idea what is, what it is doing, or even if they need it or not, same goes for program files, and if it takes them more than 5 minutes to master something? Forget it pal, it just ain't happening. THAT is the average Office customer.

And slightly OT, but that is also why I think ultimately Linux is doomed on the desktop. One has to actually think occasionally to use Linux. Be willing to explore, learn new things, read the occasional Man page. The first time Sally or Bill have a problem that can't be fixed with "clicky clicky" you can give it up, that PC is going to the shop or in the trash. They do NOT like to think, they do NOT want to learn, they want the least amount of steps possible, visual everything, icons everywhere (man you should see their desktops, with so much shit that you can't even tell if they have a wallpaper or not) and "clicky clicky".

So while I will be sticking with my rock solid low resource Office 2K, I can understand why they went the way they did. It is like Windows 7, everyone bitched and moaned when they changed away from the 98-XP UI, but people like my dad fell in love with it instantly. And I have to admit the Win7 UI is growing on me. If I didn't already have the functions I use memorized in Office I can see the new visual approach being appealing. We just have to accept it ain't made for us but for those like my dad.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

Yes I did watch the video. What I think you are missing is what Sally Secretary, or indeed Eric Engineer actually needs to do with Office. The reason most people only use 5% of the functionality of Office is that people only need 5% of the functionality of Office to get their job done. When I write a document at work I have to use the corporate template or the document doesn't go out. And when I use the corporate template, almost everything on the ribbon is greyed out, because when I'm writing a technical report I have no business changing the font or the number of columns, and neither has Sally Secretary when she's typing a letter to a customer. But Microsoft has decided that I have to have all that stuff in the ribbon, cluttering the visual field, even though I cannot use it. Sure, somebody needs access to those things, to design the templates, so they're not "bloat", although forcing them onto the desktop of people who will never need them is a damn good way of making them look like bloat.

Yes, the task panes were a big mistake in earlier versions of Office, but the ribbon clearly isn't a solution to that problem because the reviewing pane keeps popping up when I don't want it. "39 toolbars" is only a problem if you have them all open at once. Sally Secretary will only ever have two or three open in her career. And the person designing templates, whether corporately or ready-rolled ones for download, is going to have to think a bit -- at least enough to hit the "help" button from time to time -- whether they or Microsoft like it or not.

Re:Apple's strategy

[andereandre]

I gave up too early, got scared when I saw silverlight. Thanks for the tip, I watched the whole thing and it was worth the time.

Re:Apple's strategy

[GundamFan]

Am I the only person ion earth that likes the ribbon? And yes, I use OO.o to and don't have a problem with that interface ether.

Re:Apple's strategy

[hairyfeet]

Well you are working at a very different beast than most folks. From the sounds of it MSFT would have been better off offering your company a "locked down tighter than a nun's thighs" edition, with only corporate approved buttons allowed. But a good portion of Office is sold not to supermegagigantacorp, but to "Bill's parts supply store" and "Joey college kid" and "Dr. Bruce" and those folks are the ones I'm talking about best served by the ribbon.

But your post simply proves what I have been saying for a looooong time: That MSFT fucked up when they decided they needed "one product to rule them all" instead of sticking with the Win9x/WinNT home/business model. If I were running MSFT I would continue to sell and support a stripped down low resource XP Pro for corporate use along with a Win7 Corporate that would have all the pretty turned off and XP Mode ready to deploy, with a built in VM tied to the Intranet for those needing IE6, along with the corp's choice of 2K3 or 2K7.

This would give a low resource and an ultra low resource path for corps, give them the choice of deciding whether 2K3 or 2K7 is right for their employees, and allow minimizing retraining and hardware expenses. As you have illustrated there are places where 2K7 simply isn't the right tool for the job, just as there are places where Windows 7 Business simply doesn't make sense. Instead of "one product to rule them all" this IMHO would allow a better more tailored approach to meeting the needs of both the big corps like yours, and the "Joey college kid" types, all with a minimum of expense since big corps don't want new bells and whistles they want stable, secure, and easy to manage with GPO. In the long run this would make more sense than trying to shoehorn everyone into the same box IMHO.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

Well you are working at a very different beast than most folks. From the sounds of it MSFT would have been better off offering your company a "locked down tighter than a nun's thighs" edition, with only corporate approved buttons allowed.

Except somebody in the company develops templates, so we need those bits too. MS do offer the locked down version, through document protection (which is why those options are greyed on my ribbon); my gripe is that they are still on my ribbon.

But your post simply proves what I have been saying for a looooong time: That MSFT fucked up when they decided they needed "one product to rule them all" instead of sticking with the Win9x/WinNT home/business model.

There I do agree with you -- and I think it's made them lose sight of whether MS Word is an overpowered word processor or an underpowered DTP package.

If I were running MSFT I would continue to sell and support a stripped down low resource XP Pro for corporate use along with a Win7 Corporate that would have all the pretty turned off and XP Mode ready to deploy, with a built in VM tied to the Intranet for those needing IE6, along with the corp's choice of 2K3 or 2K7.

That's one way. More flexible would be just one set of office tools with just basic functionality, plus plug-ins for those tools only some people would need. So I wouldn't have the plug-ins for creating styles on my work computer, but corporate comms would. I would have the bibliography plug-in (if it were good enough, which the Office 2007 bibliography feature isn't) but corporate comms might not. My only fear with that is what Microsoft's a la carte pricing structure might look like. I'm assuming MS wouldn't open it up for 3rd-party plug-ins (beyond the existing macro capability, which usually seems to be disabled anyway) so the maintenance and interoperability issue needn't be a biggie.

Re:Apple's strategy

[hairyfeet]

The problem with going with a Firefox style plugin extension system is there would still be temptation to overload it with the bling, cause lets face it, MSFT since Darth Gates retired have had a serious case of Apple envy. By separating the corporate from the small business from the home, you wouldn't have the "must have moar pretty pretty!" pressure, they could work directly with the supermegacorps to find out what they wanted in an OS/Office combo, which as I said would most likely be a nicely locked down XP Pro (low resource so no need for expensive hardware) with Office 2K3 all tied together with easy to deploy IE6 VMs and easy to manage GPOs.

But it looks as though we agree on one thing, in that MSFT lost its way when old Billy stepped down and Ballmer went for the "one product to rule them all" BS. Trying to shoehorn everyone into a consumer OS (which as much as I like Windows 7, it IS a consumer OS with a whole lot of bling) just doesn't work in a corporate environment, as your posts prove. Likewise trying to force everyone into the ribbon interface of 2K7, which is obviously more for noobs than pros, is equally stupid. MSFT seems obsessed right now with Apple and spreading to every single sector they possibly can, while ignoring the needs of their golden goose, the corporate purchaser.

Ultimately I think this will eventually bite them right in the ass, as some Linux is gonna come along and offer an Exchange/Sharepoint/Corporate desktop/ Server killer, which if you haven't tried Xandros Business server + desktop it is getting pretty damned close. By trying to create "one product to rule them all" they are ignoring the needs of their corporate consumers and someone WILL come along and give them what MSFT won't: a nicely locked down, low resource corporate desktop easily managed by any MSFT grad with GPOs and a nice Exchange replacement. Testing out Xandros Server on VMs to see if it is right for my SMB customers it is REALLY damned close, with any MSFT paper tiger able to use XMC to manage Xandros desktops and Scalix built in to replace Exchange. It even plays nice with AD servers, it just needs a little better management of Windows clients to really be a threat IMHO.

But your posts are just proof to me that MSFT isn't focused on its corporate customers and core businesses and has lost its way. IMHO ever since Ballmer took over they have just stumbled from one idea to the next like drunken elephants, caring more about image and share price than about customer's needs. And it will bite them in the ass, sooner or later.

Re:Apple's strategy

[digitig]

The problem with going with a Firefox style plugin extension system is there would still be temptation to overload it with the bling, cause lets face it, MSFT since Darth Gates retired have had a serious case of Apple envy.

If the bling is in plugins then that's fine by me: I just won't have those plugins.

By separating the corporate from the small business from the home, you wouldn't have the "must have moar pretty pretty!" pressure, they could work directly with the supermegacorps to find out what they wanted in an OS/Office combo, which as I said would most likely be a nicely locked down XP Pro (low resource so no need for expensive hardware) with Office 2K3 all tied together with easy to deploy IE6 VMs and easy to manage GPOs.

The trouble is, all that does is change "one product to rule them all" to "two products to rule them all". If anybody can deliver real flexibility it would beat that hands down.

Likewise trying to force everyone into the ribbon interface of 2K7, which is obviously more for noobs than pros, is equally stupid.

Exactly. I wouldn't mind the ribbon if I didn't have to use it! It makes life easier for the noobs and the cost of making it more difficult for the pros, and the pros aren't happy. Which is why I would like to see something more flexible. Still, I understand in the next release the ribbon becomes (more readily) customisable (which according to the video they didn't do in 2007 because they didn't have time. Another great idea - rush it out before it's finished!) which might improve things.

Re:Apple's strategy

[hairyfeet]

I don't know if you can get one of the IT guys in supermegacorp to help you out, but if you can you might want to show him this, which is a free tool to give 2K7 back the 2K3 style menus. Not a perfect solution, but a hell of a lot better than dealing with the stupid ribbon if you have experience in the classic office. I bet the IT guys get enough bitching about 2K7 they would probably welcome a way to go back to 2K3 menus as well.

Early Prediction

[pete-wilko]

My prediction: that the massive amount of hype built up for this will mean a spectacular write-up of the device regardless of the quality - or else there will be a lot of egg on various 'tech reporters' faces. Also I loved the penny-arcade comic on this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/22/

Re:Early Prediction

[delinear]

Definitely. In fact I'd be surprised if a lot of sites haven't already done the write up and are just waiting to add in a few keywords from the speech so they can be first to publish. I love that Apple are thinking about style and usability, but at this rate they won't even need to try pretty soon (maybe today is that tipping point, we'll see).

Re:Early Prediction

[itsdapead]

My prediction: that the massive amount of hype built up for this will mean a spectacular write-up of the device regardless of the quality

My counter-prediction: when Jobs stands up and announces a larger version of the iPod Touch and the availability of ebooks on iTunes, lots of people will start publicly whinging about the fact that its not powered by zero-point energy, doesn't come with free, unlimited mobile broadband, the books still cost as much as paper books, has less space than a Nomad and is generally lame. Meanwhile, all the media bods who hyped it up will start scouring the land for pundits who now want to knock it down.

Re:Early Prediction

[pete-wilko]

It's a bet! Will have to wait 3-6 months after release though to see how it plays in the wild.

Re:Early Prediction

[itsdapead]

Just reading the comments on Macrumors.com... I'm feeling quietly confident :-)

Of course, Slashdot hates it, but Steve didn't get where he is today by designing products to appeal to the typical /.er...

My toilet

[digitalsushi]

I'm excited, cause this is going to really shrink down the pile of magazines on my toilet tank! I love how Apple can always class up everything I do in life.

Re:My toilet

[SquirrelCrack]

I was thinking the same thing this morning!

Re:My toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

Who reads magazines? Seriously.

Re:My toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

That stack of magazines didn't cost $1000. I'm just sayin'......

Re:My toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

Psst, perhaps you should be the first to patent and offer a TP roll holder accessory for the Apple tablet.

Re:My toilet

[Man On Pink Corner]

Sarah Palin?

Re:My toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

There's an app for that..?

Re:My toilet

[launchpad72]

That is a great... That is just where this tablet PC is going to end up.....In the toilet.

Re:My toilet

[DarthVain]

Ya, like anyone is gonna want to touch that thing. Seriously.

Re:My toilet

[iron-kurton]

Would it be called the T-Printer? Would it print the magazine content on the rolls?

Re:My toilet

[Sechr Nibw]

Better get the patents rolling on this idea then: a UV sterilizer shaped like an i[whatever] with a TP holder. That way, when you're done, you just put the i[thingy] back, and the pressure activator at the bottom will start disinfecting it for the next user!

Hell, you could add a power cord and security tether to it and put them in bathrooms at classy restaurants or something.

Re:My toilet

[mdda]

iPhone, iPad, iP

Re:My toilet

[Anonymous Coward]

So, instead of toilet paper you used newspapers and now you may be able to use apple tablet.

Re:My toilet

[Gilmoure]

Yup. have been meaning to build a magazine rack for the last couple years. Might need to make some kind of swing arm iPad holder.

Ooh, 5 minutes to start!

Re:My toilet

[DaThrill]

Nah... it would be called the iCrap

Re:My toilet

[DarthVain]

That or a squeegee attachment...

of course the Apple fanboys won't even have to turn it on!

I'll wait for a clone

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of how frustrated other hardware makers are racing to create a clone of a device they haven't seen.

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[delinear]

I should imagine that the hardware for a tablet (assuming it IS a tablet they're announcing and that it doesn't do something astoundingly revolutionary with the hardware beyond giving it nice rounded corners) is pretty stable by now, it will be in the software that the potential gains will lie. What can they do with the UI and functionality to allow it to succeed where so many tablets have failed, that will be the big question.

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[SpinyManiac]

Axiotron are clearly worried about it, they've got a sale on. They convert Macbooks into tablets, who would buy one if Apple enter the market?

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

An Apple tablet would certainly be bad news for them; but they might have a future among people who want OSX in tablet form.

Unless Steve Jobs accidentally mind-melds with Richard Stallman in the next hour or so, the tablet is almost certainly going to be a hard-locked app-store only product. Further, the odds that it is x86 are somewhere between slim and none, and slim is bleeding to death.

If most of Axiotron's customers were more or less casual users who just had to have an Apple tablet for some reason, they are completely fucked. If, though, they are substantially people who want to be able to draw directly on the screen in photoshop, or otherwise do full OSX stuff in tablet form, they might survive.

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[park3r]

That's assuming the tablet Apple releases will be a touchscreen Macbook. The device they're probably going to unveil is, according to rumors, a large iPhone/iPod Touch running some variant of the same operating system. They're saying it's basically a large mobile device optimized for ebook reading and other media. A Modbook would be a different class of device.

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what everyone said about the smartphone market...until the iPhone came out and all the hardware manufacturers went "Oh shit!" And all the software manufacturers went "How can we copy that?"

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[Anonymous Coward]

I read this as mind-melds with Richard Simmons. Now that made me metaphorically spit out the coffee that I need to get soon.

Re:I'll wait for a clone

[ColdWetDog]

Yep. I just popped over to the Axiotron website. For $700 I'd jump on the conversion unless the iWhatever runs OS X ... Axiotron just might be happy that it's all over and done with - for anyone sitting on the fence, we can finally decide.

Touch screen apps has come of age

[Twillerror]

Looking at the history of the tablet it always seems to be a PC with a touch screen. MS Word or Excel and a tablet don't go together.

The start menu, task bar, and general navigation of a full blown PC (win or mac) doesn't directly translate.

It is very likely that this tablet will just be a big ole iPhone. I think everyone who has used their smart phone on their couch has gone "God I wish the screen was just a few more inches".

The "content" portion of the web will translate very well to the new tablets.

Any app that requires but load of editing...especially with text won't work. Imagine writing a book, some C++ code, or fill in a form with 20 inputs on one of these things. Even with a slide out keyboard these sort of tasks suck. People will make simple music and video editors...but real work just has to be done on a full pc.

That said the tablet could be put in a doc and instead of translating the pc to a tablet...it'll be the other way around. This is where MS might have some advantage for some folks...especially in business.

A Chrome OS tablet has to follow with what is essentially an Android phone with a slightly bigger screen. MS will come out with something like Windows with a simple interface...or Zune(just rebrand the thing already MS).

Wouldn't it be great if you could get one tablet with all three OSs....

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[gad_zuki!]

>I think everyone who has used their smart phone on their couch has gone "God I wish the screen was just a few more inches".

But Im not willing to pay $800-$1500 or whatever the tablet costs for the privilege of casual couch surfing. Especially when I can just park a laptop on a side table next to my couch and have a full fledged system for $500.

Not to mention, some of the apps Id like to run have been banned by Apple's censors. I dont know why Id spend all that money for a gimped machine.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[delinear]

Yeah, with a dock for the office I can think of a bunch of niche areas this could fill nicely. I can't see how it could fully replace a significant portion of the desktop or laptop markets, but maybe that's the idea (since Apple already sell into both markes, it's likely just an attempt to close down on anyone else capturing that niche in the middle and a few stragglers from either market). Of course, a bunch of people will also buy it because of who made it, and a few more to use for couch surfing / as a remote interface for other devices in their home. I've seen dozens of articles saying it will revolutionise the e-book market, that claim I'm quite dubious about. Having tried to read books on big screen PDAs and laptops, it just doesn't feel right - some combination of e-ink and transparent OLED seems to be the right answer there, and if this was that I'm sure we'd already know about it.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Anonymous Coward]

But some people will....and a lot of people will want to. I didn't spend $600 on an iPod, but I have several now that the price has come down.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[larry bagina]

no shit. I mean, you're the kind of guy who won't even pay for an apostraphe.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[0100010001010011]

But Im not willing to pay $800-$1500 or whatever the tablet costs for the privilege of casual couch surfing.

Then don't. This product isn't for you. Why is it when ever Apple does *anything* Slashdot takes it as a personal affront? The iPod (lame), the iPhone (better Smartphones exist), the newest MacBook Pros (No Express Card slot), The built in batteries, etc. Apple, or any other company, isn't forcing you to do anything.

When McLaren or Maybach come out with new cars do you all complain that they're over priced and don't appeal to you? Why do you do it with computers?

Sort of reminds me of this xkcd. Fine, the Apple tablet doesn't appeal to you, why even bother making a comment?

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[NatasRevol]

I read the first two sentences of your comment and went:

Dock + Tablet = desktop AND laptop replacement, if all you do is basic computing.

Not sure why you didn't. Seems logical. Though I seriously doubt there will be a keyboard+mouse+charger+monitor dock for a few years, if ever. It's just not Apple's style.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Rockoon]

Translation:

Apple fanboy sees all negative observations as complaints, and ends his post with a question where he is wondering why anyone would ever publicly make negative observations about Apple or Apple Products.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Steauengeglase]

Wow, comparing an Apple tablet to a McLaren. And some wonder why Apple's fans are so often labeled elitist.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Anonymous Coward]

When McLaren or Maybach come out with new cars do you all complain that they're over priced and don't appeal to you? Why do you do it with computers?

I do complain about it with cars. The problem is your analogy doesn't work. The real analogy is when people go out and spend 30,000 on a honda and keep spouting how awesome honda is and how honda has never made a bad car, and that hondas last forever and have better stereos and get better gas mileage, etc, etc... ad infinitum.

Then you actually go and compare cars and you notice that Honda makes a damn good car, but it's not the best. If you want the best cost to reliability ratio you can get a ford focus. If you want a car that's fun to drive you can get a mazda, if you want something that will last 10x the miles of a Honda you can get a subaru.

The problem here is that Apple repeatedly puts out good products that get heralded as the best despite hard evidence to the contrary. People who know about computers get sick of people talking about how great apple is-- just like people who know about cars get sick of people talking about how great honda is.

Apple is good, but it's not worth what you are paying for it.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[mr_gorkajuice]

Fine, the Apple tablet doesn't appeal to you, why even bother making a comment?

Cause Apple fanbois are fun! Basically the same reasons why fundamentalistic atheists finds it amusing to tease religious people.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Anonymous Coward]

Better translation: Apple products are for idiots.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[vadim_t]

Because the 10 articles that get posted every time Steve Jobs scratches his butt are getting very tiresome.

Slashdot doesn't have an article about every new product Sony or HP make, and I don't see why Apple is any more noteworthy.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Anonymous Coward]

you two should have a blind date, considering you won't even pay for a spellchecker.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[gad_zuki!]

>When McLaren or Maybach come out with new cars do you all complain that they're over priced and don't appeal to you? Why do you do it with computers?

I already own a macbook and an iphone, so I am part of the demographic they are targeting. I see the tablet as potentially like the Macbook Air. An expensive concept thats targets a niche. I dont see why pointing that out along with Apple's horrible app store policies is such an affront to you.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Darth Snowshoe]

What you mean to say is "Apple is good, but through a lot of research and investigation, I can usually find a product that is (somewhat, in some aspects) better, at a somewhat lesser cost." Some people don't want to make a sport out of finding the very best bargain in, say, a cellphone. How many cellphones were on the market this year? Some people are willing to pay a premium for a product that is known to be good, without all the uncertainty and the shopping around, etc. My time is valuable and already has a lot of constraints on it. I just want to use the phone, and not have to answer to a lot of (annoying) arguments like "Why didn't you buy a StirrupoPhone T2100? It has higher camera resolution and is $50 cheaper." Also there is a critical mass around Apple products now that ensures they will be supported in the future. I can put my Zune right next to my HP2100 printer and my MS "virtual locker" in the pile of "cool, fairly expensive products that are now no longer supported because they made their money and then discarded their customers, over my protests"

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Lodragandraoidh]

You forget their trump card - the Apple Newton's handwriting recognition software; Newton lovers for years have been calling for Apple to release the Newton OS (including the handwriting recognition embedded in it) into the wild to keep their beloved Newtons running on new hardware as the old machines expire. Apple continued to refuse on this issue.

Enter the new tablet. As a result I am hoping and praying that the handwriting recognition on the thing will be a juiced up version of the auto-learning handwriting recognition software from the ancient Newton. Processing power and memory availability would make that work even better than it did ~20 years ago (when even given the limits of available processing power/memory it did an amazing job to learn/decode MOST people's scrawls).

If that were the case, then it could very well serve as a writing instrument that could decode my scribbles. Add Iphone capability (accessed through a bluetooth headset), and I would pay for that - and use the hell out of it.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[bonch]

Uh, complaints are negative observations.

I like how you didn't refute his point about Slashdot's need to bash things as if it's some personal insult that the things exist in the first place. Remember the initial reaction around here to the iPod and iPod mini?

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Noodlenose]

the iPhone (better Smartphones exist),

Such as, pray?

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[iron-kurton]

Do they even have docks for laptops yet? My 2-year-old MBP doesn't, and it bothers the hell out of me (cables! cables! more freaking cables!)

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[farble1670]

It is very likely that this tablet will just be a big ole iPhone. I think everyone who has used their smart phone on their couch has gone "God I wish the screen was just a few more inches".

note really. the reason why a touchscreens works so well on a phone form factor is that you can reach the extent of the screen by simply moving your fingers around. if the screen is much bigger than that, you have to move your entire arm, which is an exhausting (and eventually crippling) exercise.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[NatasRevol]

Apple doesn't. BookEndz does though.

http://www.BookEndzDocks.com/Products-New_Products.html

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[bonch]

Because the 10 articles that get posted every time Steve Jobs scratches his butt are getting very tiresome.

You're full of it. Slashdot doesn't post that much Apple news, and when they do, it's something newsworthy that everyone is reporting.

Slashdot doesn't have an article about every new product Sony or HP make, and I don't see why Apple is any more noteworthy.

Seriously? Apple is one of the most influential tech companies today and has changed industries with the iPod and iPhone, and you don't understand why people are interested in seeing their new product?

Some people will forever have an irrational hatred of Apple. Logic just goes out the window for them. Even posting news about Apple gets their blood boiling for no reason.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[farble1670]

Fine, the Apple tablet doesn't appeal to you, why even bother making a comment?

let me understand this. this discussion is reserved for people that have positive things to say about apple / the apple tablet rumor?

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Draek]

Uh, complaints are negative observations.

But not all negative observations are complains.

I like how you didn't refute his point about Slashdot's need to bash things as if it's some personal insult that the things exist in the first place.

He did, indirectly. I'll do it directly then: we don't, so stop taking any criticism of an Apple product as if its some sort of personal insult against you.

Remember the initial reaction around here to the iPod and iPod mini?

Yeah. Not at all different from the initial reaction around here to Windows XP, Vista, 7, the Xbox and Xbox360, the PS3 and PSP, Android, the Palm Pre, Amazon's Kindle... fuck, every single product relevant enough to have a Slashdot story posted about it ever.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Gilmoure]

Hmm... how much would I pay for a few more inches?

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[stewbacca]

No, I think the fanboy is right on this one. We don't obsess about the inclusion/exclusion of features in other companies' products quite like we do with Apple. Like the fanboy said, if it's not for you, buy something else. Apple isn't going to broaden their product lines to appeal to more people any time soon.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Lodragandraoidh]

I've been a Dos/Windows user/owner for over 20 years, every version from Dos 3.X to Windows 7 (including ME - ugh...). I've also used/owned Apple machines from the Apple II to the original Mac and now the newer iMAC, MacBook and MacBook Pro. I also have loaded and used Linux in various flavors since the early 90s shortly after the first distros became available (Slackware, TurboLinux et al to Ubuntu most recently).

First I want to say that all this arguing about what is 'best' is really a personal preference. There is no 'one true OS' in any real quantitative sense. Given the right (right for YOU) combination of OS and hardware any of the operating systems I listed above will be right for you.

That being said, FOR ME - I find the Apple OSX interface to be the most intuitive/pleasurable to use; I also like the integration between the hardware and the OS - more things 'just work' than on other operating systems. That said, the drawback is your hardware is NOT going to be the most bleeding edge gaming rig class system on the planet; but for music, video, authoring, editing of all the above, and other mundane tasks it has the right selection of tools and interfaces that is 'just right' (Goldilocks reference notwithstanding).

Now -- for Hosting server side applications - I find Linux to be far superior to either Apple or Windows. A beowulf cluster of Apple machines is too painful to contemplate from a monetary perspective; all that UI goodness is essentially wasted in a server. Windows is too flakey (even the latest Win7) for production quality installations - and the number of machines required makes it more costly as well - except in some specialized niches where the service being provided is not available under Linux or Mac (exceptional cases only - and I avoid those if at all possible).

Finally -- I do use Windows 7 for gaming. It is certainly better than XP in that regard and more stable. There are more game titles for Windows than the Mac - another key point. However I don't trust Windows with key applications because I've had too many bad experiences, not only with the desktop versions, but also their server versions - more so than with any other OS. As a result I think of Windows as a 'toy' designed by comittee, it doesn't do anything (aside from gaming) very well. For my critical applications - 'mediocre' is not good enough.

So to your point, from my experience, there is no one 'best' OS for all things; they all excel in different areas - and picking the right one for the right reasons is the best policy.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[stewbacca]

I don't know the low-brow people you must hang around with, but who seriously goes on about how awesome a HONDA is?? A HONDA???? Unless you are 16 and are into modding-street racing, nobody brags about a Honda.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[stewbacca]

I think I fall into the category of "don't want to make a sport out of finding the very best bargain". Sure I could have gotten a Dell Laptop for a couple hundred bucks less, but it wouldn't have OSX (like the rest of my computers at home) and it wouldn't sync easily with my iPhone and iPod (or maybe it would, but why even worry about it when I know a Macbook will do it fine)?

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[NatasRevol]

Damn, I was wrong.

Sweet!

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[vadim_t]

You're full of it. Slashdot doesn't post that much Apple news

So why are there at least 3 stories on a product nobody knows yet what's it like?

1
2
3

and when they do, it's something newsworthy that everyone is reporting.

Then everybody else is obsessing over it too much as well.

Seriously? Apple is one of the most influential tech companies today and has changed industries with the iPod and iPhone, and you don't understand why people are interested in seeing their new product?

Meh. The iPhone is only new in the US, smartphones were around long before Apple made one. The iPod is yet another MP3 player, and Apple is now making yet another tablet. It's not industry changing, it's yet another variation on something of which at least 10 variations exist already.

Some people will forever have an irrational hatred of Apple. Logic just goes out the window for them. Even posting news about Apple gets their blood boiling for no reason.

This whole subject deserves maybe 1 post, once something is known about the device. Any more and it gets annoying and tiresome.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[bonch]

But not all negative observations are complains.

Yes, they are.

He did, indirectly. I'll do it directly then: we don't, so stop taking any criticism of an Apple product as if its some sort of personal insult against you.

Nobody does. You're make up strawmen to attack.

Yeah. Not at all different from the initial reaction around here to Windows XP, Vista, 7, the Xbox and Xbox360, the PS3 and PSP, Android, the Palm Pre, Amazon's Kindle... fuck, every single product relevant enough to have a Slashdot story posted about it ever.

I guess you aren't aware of the infamous Slashdot gaffe, so look up the original iPod announcement. The summary says, "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Everyone complained in comments that the iPod mini was an overly expensive 4GB USB drive that would flop in the market, then it became the top-selling iPod. The criticism was huger than the other things you listed, excluding the Windows products.

There's just a contingent of Apple-haters who hate Apple and their users and will naysay everything they make, even as each product changes the industry in some way. It's like John C. Dvorak criticizing the new-fangled "mouse" that shipped with the Macintosh in the early 80s.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[Rockoon]

I am not complaining that you are an idiot. Its just an observation.

Re:Touch screen apps has come of age

[anethema]

Ha I read your post after the announcement and was going to ask how you felt looking back, but you saw it!

Staying with Paper

[BodhiCat]

I am not giving up my paper books. They just have a certain feel. I love sitting up at night reading with a bowl of snacks next to me. I just can't see using a Kindel or Tablet for most of my reading.

Re:Staying with Paper

[Cronock]

Paper books can be great for many things. I'm not a fiction reader at all, but I have tons of educational/instructional books for my certifications and hobbies. These books get outdated quickly and have overflowed my bookshelf. I really hate the idea of throwing away $50+ books. I would love to get these electronically and be able to archive them and mostly forget about them, but still have them in the event that I'd have to go back and relearn something from years ago. Doing that without having 125lb boxes in storage in the garage would be a nice advantage. And anyone who moves a lot knows the feeling of dread you get when you reach the "Books Very Heavy!" box.

Re:Staying with Paper

[genghisjahn]

I love books. I love the old books smell. I love (or loved) going through used books stores and finding good stuff. After having a Kindle, I wish all of my content was on the Kindle. Having it all sync from the Kindle, to the PC, to the iPhone is freakin' great. Yes, I know some of you have DRM concerns. Yes they are valid, but I'm talking about the eReader vs. paper as a medium. I don't care about the medium anymore. There is nothing sacred about the pages of a bound book. It's the story or information that I want and the Kindle environment provides it better. When my Kindle was stolen a few weeks back, I didn't lose all my content. All my notes, highlights and books were available on my iPhone and through the PC. When I replaced the Kindle, everything came right back. It's not a perfect device, but it's a damn good one. I'm eager to see what the arms race in eReaders provides in the future.

Re:Staying with Paper

[ServerIrv]

The interviewer in the linked CNBC video agrees with your initial thought. She stated, "I'm glad I went to college when I did. I love the smell of my books."

My question is this. If you were in college right now, would you rather have the eReader version that makes all your highlights and books safe, or the paper version? You've already highlighted many of the pluses of the eReader version, but do the following pros outweigh them? Being able to buy and sell the used version of a book (lower capital investment, and greater potential percentage resale price). Being able to lend someone a book without lending them your whole book collection.

Re:Staying with Paper

[Gilmoure]

I collect books and have a little over 2000 volumes (about half in storage). And I've been reading books on hand helds since I got my Newton 120. Have been wanting a Mac tablet ever since I got my Wacom 6x9 back in mid '90's. Just seemed right to go and have a screen under the touch field.

Am really looking forward to this. Hope it is a tablet.

Re:Apple Bets Farm on Heterosexual Computing

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't feed the troll!

I was considering one to replace my macbook

[antifoidulus]

but if the rumors of it running the iPhone OS are true, I will pass. Not being able to easily load whatever software I want on to the thing is a big turnoff. Not to mention the class of programs that can run on the iPhone OS are pretty limited(I doubt Apple will release XCode for the tablet....)

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[BodhiCat]

Ya, two things about the iphone that limit its usability: 1. small keyboard 2. lack of a good text editing program. The tablet could solve the keyboard problem by having a bigger screen, but if it doesn't have a good text editing program, then its just an iphone/ipod-touch that's too big to put in your pocket.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[antifoidulus]

That and lack of flash support, love it or hate it, a lot of sites have yet to upgrade to html5 for video, so we are stuck with flash. Unless Apple has struck a deal with Adobe to allow flash on the tablet, there are going to be a lot of web sites that aren't accessible from the tablet.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[Anonymous Coward]

Even a bigger screen will not make the key board any better; there's no real feed back like on a real keyboard. I need some tactial feedback.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[TheRaven64]

iPhone OS can mean a variety of things. It definitely means an ARM CPU, possibly from Apple's in-house team (I've not head much from PA Semi since Apple bought them). It doesn't necessarily mean UIKit-only. There's no technical reason why you can't run AppKit apps on an iPhone, Apple just chose not to include the framework. This was done for a couple of reasons, but the most important one was to force developers to redesign their UI for the small screen, not just recompile Mac apps and call them iPhone apps. With a tablet, this reason goes away, because the screen is larger, and it could easily handle full ports of Mac apps and iPhone apps. If they do include AppKit, then it becomes a third CPU to support for Mac developers, but if your code already runs on PowerPC and x86, then it's going to work on ARM with a straight recompile unless you use any inline assembly. Just tick the 'Tablet' box in the targets inspector in XCode and recompile.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[SquirrelCrack]

Man up and learn Objective C

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[egomaniac]

It doesn't "definitely" mean an ARM processor any more than OS X "definitely" meant a PowerPC processor. OS X already runs on three different kinds of CPUs (ARM, PowerPC, and Intel), and it's certainly not impossible to imagine a fourth.

Even most of the iPhone OS itself already runs just fine on Intel chips, as any developer with access to the iPhone Simulator knows. I run iPhone apps on Intel all the time (though admittedly it requires a recompile).

Now, the new tablet will almost certainly run existing iPhone apps without modification, which either means an ARM CPU or a Rosetta-like technology to handle the emulation. I agree that the thing most likely has an ARM chip and will run existing apps natively. But we won't know for sure what chip it uses for a few more hours.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[Serious Callers Only]

Unless Apple has struck a deal with Adobe to allow flash on the tablet, there are going to be a lot of web sites that aren't accessible from the tablet.

I suppose another way to look at that is that unless Apple strike a deal with Adobe, there are going to be lots of web sites scrambling to make a website which is accessible from the growing legion of their customers who use iPhones and tablets. At the very least they'll have an HTML version as well as flash, at which point, the question arises, why bother with Flash at all? Flash can pretty much be replaced by HTML5 nowadays, and Apple is definitely hostile to it (and rightly so).

I imagine that's the game plan, and while it's audacious, it might just work.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[ls -la]

Man up and learn Objective C

Knowing objective-c isn't going to do any good if there isn't a program on the tablet to compile it.

And is it really worth porting all your favorite FOSS programs to objective-c just to have them on the iSlate anyway?

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[Anonymous Coward]

That and lack of flash support, love it or hate it, a lot of sites have yet to upgrade to html5 for video, so we are stuck with flash. Unless Apple has struck a deal with Adobe to allow flash on the tablet, there are going to be a lot of web sites that aren't accessible from the tablet.

It's not that Adobe didn't 'allow' Apple to install Flash on the iPhone. It's that there simply wasn't a version of Flash that ran on the ARM processor until fairly recently (the past few months).

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[Viewsonic]

They really wont. Flash has cemented itself already. It's like saying the iPod wont be a premier mp3 player. Flash just is. If a device like the tablet will not run flash that also in turns allows sites like Netflix, Lala, Hulu, etc .. Basically any standard site that everyone can access from their $500 PC and laptops, and cant access on a $700 device that is basically built for couch surfing it will be a dud. As much as people love/hate Flash. It is 100% needed. I don't use the browser on my touch simply because 90% of the sites just aren't functional these days without flash support of some kind.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[yabos]

"I doubt Apple will release XCode for the tablet...."

Why wouldn't they? They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they didn't. It might run existing iPhone apps but running on a tablet is different and running your app with an interactive debugger like you can do with the iPhone or iPod Touch is a necessity if it's going to run 3rd party apps. The iPhone took off because of the App Store. While I hope this tablet, if it's true, is not tied directly to the app store, it should at least be able to have 3rd party apps running on it.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[Darth Snowshoe]

Yeah, and who knows when Apple will crack the impossibly-complex 'text editing' problem.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[King_TJ]

I really don't think they were ever intending this to replace one of their portables. (That would kind of shoot themselves in the proverbial feet, since ideally, they'd like people to buy BOTH a notebook of theirs and whatever the tablet turns out to be.)

We'll all know soon enough ... but my thoughts throughout this whole thing were that Apple's main focus is on finding a good way to sell digital versions of print media to people, via iTunes, just like they already do with music and now with video/movies. This device will primarily be a "means to that end", just like the iPod was for music.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[FreakyGeeky]

You "doubt Apple will release XCode for the tablet"? That's crazy. Of course they're going to release it. I think they'll release it TODAY.

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[Serious Callers Only]

It's like saying the iPod wont be a premier mp3 player.

No, it's like saying that the iPod/iTunes will change a lot of people's habits and encourage them to use AAC instead of MP3, which it did.

I don't use the browser on my touch simply because 90% of the sites just aren't functional these days without flash support of some kind.

I guess we surf different sites - I rarely disable flashblock, and nowhere near 90% of the sites I visit use Flash for any non-advertising content (closer to 20%).

Re:I was considering one to replace my macbook

[b1t r0t]

Why should there be any sort of requirement to compile a program on the same device that you run it on? It's standard with embedded development to use a bigger computer for compiling, etc. You don't hear people whining that they can't run GCC on some tiny Linux-based router with 16 MB of RAM, do you? Or that it somehow makes the device less "open"?

If you're going to whine, at least whine about the right thing. You will presumably need an iPhone dev kit to allow it to run your code, which (as I hear) allows downloading to a maximum of ten different devices. And anyone else who wants to run your open source code will also need a dev kit.

So...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Was the McGraw-Hill guy one of Apple's planned leaks, or is he going to start waking up, sweating bullets, to 3AM phone calls from Steve Jobs?

"Terry, you have shown all the subtlety and restraint of somebody who sells dead trees for a living. Know that your pain shall be equalled only by my serenity."

At this point the line goes dead. Terry will never know if this is because Steve is fucking with him, or if it is just AT&T's shitty service disconnecting Steve's iPhone.

Re:So...

[BitwizeGHC]

You know how Obama got a special BlackBerry?

Well, Steve gets a special iPhone.

Talks to his own personal comms satellite. You can always hear him now.

Re:So...

[WilliamBaughman]

"Terry, you have shown all the subtlety and restraint of somebody who sells dead trees for a living. Know that your pain shall be equalled only by my serenity."

I think that's the funniest thing I've read in the last year, bravo! In all seriousness, the CEO or Orange (Stéphane Richard) already hinted at video chat, so I doubt that Terry McGraw is first on "the list." Further, I don't think that either has spilled the beans in the way that ATI did in 2000 which made Apple kill all mention of ATI being in the G4 Cube...

Re:So...

[binarylarry]

That's great, but have you ever used a satellite phone?

It's

not

fun

Re:So...

[Minwee]

That's just because your satellite doesn't have an orbital mind control laser on it.

Re:So...

[Phoenix138]

"Terry, you have shown all the subtlety and restraint of somebody who sells dead trees for a living. Know that your pain shall be equalled only by my serenity."

If I could, I would give you all of my karma points right now. Absolutely brilliant.

overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[WillAdams]

Givens:

  - upgraded iPhone OS
  - ARM or custom CPU
  - purchase content through iTunes
  - ebooks will be extensions of Apple's ``LP'' format so will be multi-media w/ HTML, CSS, and nice cover graphics / icons in the interface

Possibilities:

  - handwriting recognition
  - stylus

Not going to happen:

  - Intel chip
  - run Mac OS X apps

William
(who will be getting an Axiotron Modbook instead)

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[dropadrop]

My thoughts too. Apple is earning too much from the App Store to make this a traditional "osx device". I would not be surprised for multitasking, but apps will come through the store.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[neoform]

Handwriting recognition technology/research is even further off than speech recognition. If it's included, it will surely be a stapled on feature and not something core to the product.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[TheRaven64]

Apple is earning too much from the App Store

I take it you missed yesterday where Apple disclosed in their financials that they don't make a profit from the app store directly, only through increased hardware sales?

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[lordholm]

The handwriting classifier tests I have seen (included a number of variants such as ANNs and SVM kernel machines), in general faired better than human beings on handwriting recognition.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[Sir_Lewk]

Wonderful. The portability and convience of a macbook, combined with the openness of an iphone.

I'll take three.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[EvanED]

I've got a tablet PC (i.e. a convertible tablet) and the handwriting recognition is actually pretty good, at least when you stay within English words. Sometimes things like URLs can make you go letter-by-letter, and there seems to be little hope of it getting to recognize math and such*, but it's plenty usable. OneNote even has what I call "fuzzy" handwriting recognition, in that if what you write can match a couple different words, searching your notes for either one will produce a match. (In this way it's actually way better than converting the whole document using handwriting recognition, which fares pretty poorly in spite of what I said about the overall state of things.)

(* At least Win7 actually has a "math input panel" where you can write mathematical expressions -- reasonable complex ones too, e.g. with integral symbols and such -- but it's not something I think you're likely to use.)

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[dropadrop]

I take it you missed yesterday where Apple disclosed in their financials that they don't make a profit from the app store directly, only through increased hardware sales?

I have to say that sounds surprising given the cut they take and the amount of work the app store must take to keep running. I have to assume they are counting some other expenses in that direction. I do understand that checking each submission will cause a lot of work, but the successful apps gross so much that it should more then make up for the difference. They probably want to reduce negative press on the app store (they are doing it for the money) until they build it large enough.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[ColdWetDog]

I take it you missed yesterday where Apple disclosed in their financials that they don't make a profit from the app store directly, only through increased hardware sales?

True enough, but the OP is wrong anyway - just because you run a more or less generic version of OS X doesn't mean you cannot load programs from the app store. Apple could open the system to allow for app store use for the Great Unwashed and what would essentially be a jailbroken iPhone for the Rest of Us.

IMHO, not likely to happen, but I don't see any reason that they couldn't do it that way.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[witherstaff]

I read that article and I took it to be a sort of hollywood accounting trick. I wonder if in the AT&T agreement they had to share a percentage of App store profits or something along that line?

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[bhsx]

Why has noone speculated on a possible Pixel Qi screen?
http://www.pixelqi.com/
They have supposedly been ready to ship for a couple months now and plenty of prototypes are floating around. There's no way any of the PQ girls and guys would let it slip out, since this would be their first actual product launch. They wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their image, and the LACK of rumors of a Pixel Qi screen makes me think I'm on to something (in the sense that this rock keeps away tigers, as I haven't seen one since i've had this rock...).

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[maxume]

At worst, their financial statements will be obfuscatory, they will not contain outright misinformation.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[BitZtream]

Yea, and Hollywood movie studios take a loss on every movie they make ...

Accounting, much like statistics in general, can be warped to show just about anything you want it to.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[MrSteveSD]

I take it you missed yesterday where Apple disclosed in their financials that they don't make a profit from the app store directly, only through increased hardware sales?

If they are not making a profit from locking people into buying approved apps from their store, then why not allow people to run any apps they chose from any source? Openness is a valuable feature that will also increase hardware sales. Many people, myself included, will not buy such locked-down systems like the Iphone.

Re:overgrown iPhone / iPod Touch

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," "Spider-Man" and "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" didn't make any money either.

Shouldn't that be...

[Zwets]

..."exhausted iRolling"? ;-)

you know

[Anonymous Coward]

I REALLY wish someone would just completely release true specs of the tablet, if it exists, before Apple does. Not because I would get any enjoyment out of knowing about the device, I just get a lot of satisfaction at watching Steve Jobs throw a tantrum because his ridiculous product release drama got sabotaged.

Call me a Cynic

[COMON$]

While I am excited about this device I theorize it will be just good enough to sell and give some ooo's and aaaahhh's but largely it will fall short of the mark so we can buy the next models. This is by design for good profitability. However I think that if Apple releases a less than complete product now, they risk the google netbook or another slate device stealing the market from them.

Re:Call me a Cynic

[Anonymous Coward]

it will be just good enough to sell and give some ooo's and aaaahhh's but largely it will fall short of the mark so we can buy the next models. This is by design for good profitability

I don't think Jobs is capable of that. He wants things finished and perfect as much as possible.

Re:Call me a Cynic

[COMON$]

So is that why there is no 3G in this device? I am an apple fan but seriously, don't you find it interesting how often something comes out from apple that is cool but missing one key factor, only to have that factor added in 1 year? Upgrades I can understand but basic functionality? Check the history of the iPod and iPhone for a good example.

Re:Call me a Cynic

[COMON$]

Crap I rescind this comment, it does have 3G, I am happy with the device and very pleased to be wrong. Prices aren't too bad either.

TV and Kindle Competitor

[PackMan97]

My predictions: 1. TV Replacement - Built in HDTV antenna , will work with Apple TV or another wireless TV spec to stream TV directly to the tablet. Sure, we know about internet TV and hulu, but I'm talking over the air TV and live TV. Killer feature for something this size. 2. Kindle Competitor - My bet is a new display type that has a very low power ambient light setting that allows the screen to be as easy on the eyes as a Kindle or other eInk reader. So, while this will be a laptop/phone hybrid, it's really going to go after the TV/Paper publishing angle for it to have mass appeal. While it can surf the web and do general laptoppy/phone things...I see it as really something that's looking to create a new market and kill netbooks and eReaders all in one swoop.

Re:TV and Kindle Competitor

[Anonymous Coward]

My prediction... more predictions, up to, during, and after the announcement.

Then a flood of CmdrTaco/iPod references, followed by a lot of stone throwing at Apple fanbois by Tux fanbois.

Re:TV and Kindle Competitor

[delinear]

To kill netbooks it needs to not be £1,000 when it lands, otherwise it's not going to compete with a £150 netbook with a real keyboard.

To kill e-readers it'll need something technologically revolutionary to make it easy on the eyes for prolonged usage and easy on the battery (apparently they go for a couple of weeks without a charge with WiFi disabled, considering the very best netbook battery life I've seen is 10 hours, I don't think they're going to get anywhere near that with a tablet PC no matter what they do with the backlight levels). I'm not completely ruling out the revolutionary technology to compete with e-ink, but I can't help thinking if that was the big secret it would have been too big even for Apple to keep the wraps on and we'd have heard something.

I don't think it will kill anything, I think its aim is to sit in the overlap between desktops, laptops and netbooks, if it runs OSX, has some variation of the app store and ideally some built in functionality to control various devices around the home then that'll probably be good enough.

Re:TV and Kindle Competitor

[Gates82]

Really, you think the company that wont even put a measly FM radio tuner on their mobile audio devices is going to release a product that lets you view over the air TV broadcasts. Highly doubtful.

--
So who is hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?

Re:TV and Kindle Competitor

[Ma8thew]

HDTV antenna? No way. Apple have never provided an official TV tuning solution, I don't see them starting now. They are pushing the iTunes store has a content source hard.

Re:TV and Kindle Competitor

[Steauengeglase]

I predict you'll be reading Cringely blog or Calacanis tweets again this afternoon.

Re:TV and Kindle Competitor

[trapnest]

My iPod has an FM radio tuner...

Best rumor source yet...

[rayharris]

Jason Calacanis got his tablet 10 days ago

http://twitter.com/jason

Highlights:

- $599, $699, $799 depending on size and memory
- iPhone OS with multitasking
- OLED screen (no size given)
- Verizon and ATT for 3G, WiFi
- Front and back cameras for video conferencing
- Thumbpad on each side for mouse gestures
- Fingerprint scanner for login with up to five profiles
- TV/Monitor output and wireless keyboard
- HDTV Tuner with PVR
- Solar panel for recharging (more a gimmick)
- Battery life is "great" in ebook mode, 2-3 hours otherwise
- No word on name

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[slimjim8094]

hehehe... that guy is full of it. "apple tablet connects to other tablets over wifi for gaming. There will be LAN parties with these things, people playing First person shooters"

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[rayharris]

Yeah, he claims a custom "Farmville" apps is awesome. I guess some people are easily amused. But the rest of the specs seem pretty much in line. We'll see in a little bit.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[zzyzx]

It's the TV output that makes this interesting to me. Could this be an Apple TV that actually works? Add a decent digital audio out, the ability to stream from iTunes, and a decent (256-512 gigs) amount of storage space and this device becomes a lot more interesting as a portable video player.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[Low Ranked Craig]

Bio: "I'm a cereal entrepreneur: Founder of Weblogs, Inc., TechCrunch50, Silicon Alley Reporter, Engadget & Mahalo.com"

Mmmm. cereal.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[swb]

I'm just in love enough with my iPhone to buy one right away, but ONLY if I can get it without a manditory cell service.

I see this as an around-the-house, wifi kind of device and would not haul it around (I already haul around my laptop for work and my iPhone, hard to see this replacing/replicating either).

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[NatasRevol]

You mean just like you can with the iPhone/iPod Touch games??

Yeah, that's unreasonable.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[jo42]

You forgot:
- Makes the sun shine out of your butt!

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[Benzido]

Apple will never put an HDTV tuner in any product, because it commits the product to a bad user experience - either when reception is bad (for mobile products) or when the UX from the cable provider is bad (for plugged-in products).

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[Ma8thew]

Jason Calacanis got his tablet 10 days ago

No he didn't. He is not-so-subtley taking the piss in his Twitter feed.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

Choice quotes from TFT:

"Farmville for Apple tablet is a huge game changer"

"Planting seeds in farmville on my apple tablet.... So cool how you shake the tablet to plant seeds then wobble it to spread water around."

Either that account has been hacked, or you've been trolled.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[Admiralbumblebee]

I just have to point out that he was completely wrong. Not that anyone should expect anything different from the guy. It's kinda his MO to just spout mindless bullshit to get publicity.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[rayharris]

Yep. I didn't know who he was before. Now I know he's a first-class prick.

Re:Best rumor source yet...

[fusiongyro]

What a stupid asshat. I can't believe anyone ever believes anything he says.

Patience

[gmuslera]

The real announcement will be in 2-3 hours (depending on previous chatting and other products they want to be sure everyone knows about before the big one),and according to the rumors, will be available to the public at least in march.

So, why hurry? Probably won't be nothing earth shattering, with high odds that will be essentially a road to approved-by-them apps, DRMd content, and not so top of the line hardware. Probably there were already announced in CES enough good and open alternatives to it.

Of course,could be big surprises, like announcing a game

Re:Patience

[Anonymous Coward]

That was awesome cant stop laughing. Thank you!

Re:Patience

[Eponymous Coward]

Why hurry? For some people, it's fun.

How about a bad analogy? Compare it to the superbowl. Why speculate on how the game will go or even bother watching it? It will be over soon and you can just find out the score.

Rumors? Bah

[darjen]

I just don't care much for all this speculation and rumors. Waste of time in my book. Wait for the device to come out and judge it on its merits.

Re:Rumors? Bah

[Arthur Grumbine]

...judge it on its merits.

Blasphemy! May the Lord strike thee down with a mighty vengeance! May His turtleneck-clad arm rain righteous retribution down upon thee, and may all thy children and thy children's children be cast into the fiery pits of Unpopularity!

Re:Rumors? Bah

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot&Apple: Rumors for nerds, stuff that I don't really care about.

Major Scoop

[GraZZ]

Apple will today announce a partnership with Taco Bell to deliver tacos wirelessly through the new iTablet. This will prove to be the final nail in OLPC's coffin as the west moves to end world hunger via electronic food distribution.

Also it will wash the dishes.

Re:Major Scoop

[JakeD409]

The folks modding this "Informative" are in for a major disappointment.

Re:Major Scoop

[Anonymous Coward]

What? You're saying I'm not getting an iTaco?

Re:Major Scoop

[Anonymous Coward]

I would imagine that the "major disappointment" you mention will come from the lack of network access or lack of electricity in the target areas for food distribution.

Cringeley has a picture and beta tester comments

[udittmer]

http://www.cringely.com/2010/01/apple-tablet-twit/

Speculating on rumour is pointless

[benwiggy]

OFFS.

Whilst I'm intrigued by the rumours (half of which are Apple-generated to build up hype, the other of which are created by people who think they know what's in Steve's head), comment on them is pretty pointless, and falls into the following categories:

[ ] No one will buy this. Epic fail.

[ ] Missed opportunity to add technology X

[ ] I like it, but it's too expensive

[ ] This is going to change everything.

Re:Speculating on rumour is pointless

[PhilHibbs]

What's wrong with a little bit of pointless fun?

Apple tablet and SAAB

[Kupfernigk]

Both on the same day. Those of us for whom it's only a frigging computer or only a frigging car can get on with some work.

The funny thing is, I can remember when SAABs were above the run of middle manager mobiles, and when Apple hardware really was superior to much of the competition. But those days are long gone.

The thing to watch - the thing that car makers and vanity goods makers don't tell you - is the percentage of their budget that is marketing. The really good stuff is the stuff that is not cheap but sells with hardly any marketing budget.

Being old and boring I shall continue to make do with my laptop that has an all-black carbon fibre reinforced case and my car that has a little silver propeller for a brand symbol. After several years of heavy use of both I can't find anything that would persuade me to change. It would certainly take a bit more than a tablet PC or a car brought to you by the guys who produced the Lada.

Re:Apple tablet and SAAB

[Anonymous Coward]

No one cares about your BMW, or your harrumphing disapproval of any Apple product produced after the retirement of the Motorola platform. Shouldn't you be buried in a tarpit, turning into oil?

Re:Apple tablet and SAAB

[mcgrew]

Being old and boring I shall continue to make do with my laptop that has an all-black carbon fibre reinforced case and my car that has a little silver propeller for a brand symbol.

I'm old, but few call me boring. Nevertheless, I drive a seven year old car, and just bought a laptop for $20; it needs a new battery and hard drive and it's good to go. But I can see the benefits of a tablet computer, although I'm not going to pay $500 for one.

Re:Apple tablet and SAAB

[geektweaked.com]

I get the BMW reference, but is the "all-black carbon fibre reinforced case" a ThinkPad reference? If so, I will agree heartily, though it's only a matter of time before Lenovo completely ruins these things.

state of the apple address

[circletimessquare]

apple->music industry: conquered

apple->movie industry: hostile natives, sending in missionaries and evangelists of the "future"

apple->print industry: conquest being launched, lift off seconds away

genuine future:

internet->music: free*

internet->movies: free**

internet->print: free***

*creators will make money from live gigs, promotions, advertising, personalized content, etc. no distributors needed. distributors will evolve into hype machines and portals/ gateways delivering mass audiences to content. creators will continue to sign contracts to them for a cut of revenue, for delivering audiences. but its not necessary to sign a contract at all to become successful, its voluntary and usually for the pop bands

**the movie industry has always, and will always, despite every new tech threatening to kill it, fill cinema houses and make money thataways

***ad revenue is real and genuine for newspapers and will always exist. it will be a lot smaller, yes. and some superstar reporters will spin off from newspapers and become their own internet reporting gateways (see nikki finke: http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/ ). in this way the internet will "atomize" some newspaper reporting where the departments/ individual reporters will report directly to readers, unrelated to any particular newspaper, much like musicians don't need distributors anymore. despite all the doom and gloom about newspapers, nothing on the internet can ever or will ever replace the service, for example, the poughkeepsie journal delivers for the residents of poughkeepsie, new york ( http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/ )

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

If it doesn't allow

[thrillseeker]

me to take notes on it with some sort of stylus, then it's worthless to me.

Re:If it doesn't allow

[PhilHibbs]

You can already get an iPhone stylus:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/a31f/

Re:If it doesn't allow

[mikael_j]

I feel the same way except instead of note-taking I want to be able to sketch/draw/paint with it, it doesn't have to be a full-fledged Painter clone but a decent digitizer (on-par with say, the old Graphire3) and something along the lines of Sketchbook Pro (damn good program with only one real shortcoming, there is no way to rotate your workspace unless you actually want to rotate the actual image which results on data loss over the long run, but it's sweet on a tablet or a Cintiq).

/Mikael

A "tablet"

[UseCase]

Its an enima that once consumed attaches itself to your spinal cord allowing you to "see" a HUD over every part of your life, download books and browse the web as a small glowing apple pulsates on your back. There is a rumored problem with overheating but otherwise....

Ha Ha, All jokes aside I think its going to be a game changer!!

But does it have wine from the USB port?

[benwiggy]

http://www.mensup.fr/usbwine/

Here is hoping a contract is not required

[Shivetya]

to properly use all the features.

It is rumored you can buy it without a contract attached, I am just concerned one is still needed to access all the content available or for specific features.

Re:Here is hoping a contract is not required

[PhilHibbs]

If it's like the iPhone, you will be able to use it over your wifi. Does it need to be connected all the time, everywhere? Are you going to whip out your i (that's my name prediction) and go online in the middle of nowhere? No, I don't think so, and the bandwidth that you will expect on a device of this size will disappoint you on 3G. Sure, it will have 3G, and you will be able to use it, but I expect that 95% of use of this device will be in the home.

Deja Vu

[Logical Zebra]

Didn't Apple already try this? Wasn't it called the "Newton"?

I'll probably look silly in 3 hours time but...

[abigsmurf]

All the rumours point to this being an expensive device, more expensive than a Pay as you go iPhone.

A lightweight, fast web browser you can use on the coach and with side use as an e-reader is a tempting proposition. However I would want that at a price comparable to a netbook.

I'm not going to pay £600+ for a pure fun gadget. It would need to be a real workhorse for that price and the failings of tablets in the past have shown they just don't cut it for heavy usage.

eye-rolling emoticon

[ryrw]

Suggested emoticon for eye-rolling:

QQ

Re:eye-rolling emoticon

[PhilHibbs]

That's the "crying" emote.

Re:eye-rolling emoticon

[fangorious]

Looks more like a "Holy Crap there's a huge-ass spider on my hand!!!!" emoticon to me.

No high hopes.

[rindeee]

If it's a full blown computer and has iChat (with built in front facing camera for video chat) then I'm in for up to $600. If it comes out of the box hamstrung with iPhone OS Appstore only apps...forget it. It wouldn't pay $300 for it. I'd love a tablet and there are a million uses I can think of for it, but if I can't go to Sourceforge and download my favorite OS X apps to run on it, it's no more useful than an iPod Touch. Regardless of any of this, if the $1,000 unsub price I've seen thrown around is accurate, there's no way on Earth I'll buy it. A tablet is less useful than a notebook (Macbook). I'm certainly not going to pay more for it.

iPredict

[PhilHibbs]

iPad? iSlate? iTab? iNeedOneOfThese? No, just i. That's what I think. The device will be called the i, and it will run iOS (followed by another quick lawsuit and settlement with Cisco).

great

[pydev]

If Apple legitimizes 10" OLED tablets with capacitive screens as a product category, that's great. I really loathe the eInk readers.

However, I still prefer Android or Chrome as the OS, over OS X.

PVP sums it up correctly

[Khan]

I think Scott's got it right:

http://www.pvponline.com/2010/01/27/time-capsule/

What, and end the habits of a lifetime?

[Kupfernigk]

Half the Internet is porn, half of it is unverified rumors. Only one tenth of it is actually useful.*

*Yes, I know this adds up to more than one. Five percent is overlap (some porn and rumors are useful) and five percent is because since you did the last survey, traffic has gone up by 5%.

price $800 WITH 2 year data plan also locked down

[Anonymous Coward]

price $800 WITH 2 year data plan also locked down like the iphone. unlocked price $1000? $1200?

also all new macs other then the new 6 core $3000 mac pro are to come with data planes or no plan for $300 more.

Ribbon might be a bad example

[tepples]

Microsoft bungs hundreds of millions at "usability" & we end up with the stupid ribbon

I'm not convinced that "the stupid ribbon" is the best example of your thesis. Perhaps it is easier for novices to learn a program's tabbed toolbar than a program's menu bar. For one thing, recasting a pull-down menu as a toolbar keeps a class of actions on the screen where the user can see them rather than overlapping the document and disappearing once the user chooses an action. As I understand it, most of the whining about Ribbon came from 1. people who rely on muscle memory from previous versions of the product, the same sort of people who would get confused between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org anyway, and 2. people concerned about the legal fees of putting up prior art from 2002 to invalidate the patents that Microsoft engineers were applying for over tabbed toolbars. Sure, Ribbon has room for improvement, but it took a couple iterations for Apple to get pull-down menus right too.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[oji-sama]

It definitely is not stupid. I've used the old version too much and can't really say I like it, but my mother (very much non-tech) got a new(ish) laptop and was very happy that 'the new Windows had this toolbar that makes things easy'. Took a while to understand that she was talking about the ribbon in Office...

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[Simon Brooke]

Microsoft bungs hundreds of millions at "usability" & we end up with the stupid ribbon

I'm not convinced that "the stupid ribbon" is the best example of your thesis. Perhaps it is easier for novices to learn a program's tabbed toolbar than a program's menu bar. For one thing, recasting a pull-down menu as a toolbar keeps a class of actions on the screen where the user can see them rather than overlapping the document and disappearing once the user chooses an action. As I understand it, most of the whining about Ribbon came from 1. people who rely on muscle memory from previous versions of the product, the same sort of people who would get confused between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org anyway, and 2. people concerned about the legal fees of putting up prior art from 2002 to invalidate the patents that Microsoft engineers were applying for over tabbed toolbars. Sure, Ribbon has room for improvement, but it took a couple iterations for Apple to get pull-down menus right too.

To be honest I think the problem Microsoft has is that if it doesn't actively look different, people won't see it as a new version, so they won't pay for it again. I know this from programs I've written - if you make changes customers can't see, they're very unwilling to pay for them, even if they make significant improvements to speed, usability, stability or something else important to the customer. Word 2007 really isn't any better than the previous version - it isn't more reliable, it doesn't have any useful new features. Why should anyone who has the existing version pay for the new one?

Because it looks different. They can see it has changed. It doesn't matter that this burdens them with new training costs for no actual benefit: they can see it's new, and, therefore, must be improved.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[stewbacca]

People bring a lot of bad computing habits with them, to include reliance upon File - Edit - etc. etc.

Sometimes new IS actually better, regardless of how use to the "old way" you've become. I like the ribbon...more importantly, I like the increased productivity offered from contextual based right clicks. I can do about 90% of everything I need to do from the right click options.

I suppose power users hate the ribbon, since it broke all their super-secret shortcuts and macros, but for most of us, we just type, highlight and apply some format to the typing.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[Again]

I've said it before but the ribbon breaks the way that I use an application. Whenever I open a new application, I first go through all the menus to make myself familiar with what is available. I then go through the preferences to see what options I have.

The ribbon breaks the first of these and makes me feel claustrophobic. It took me a little while using the ribbon interface before i figured out why I hated it so much. There was no way to quickly scan my available options.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[tepples]

Whenever I open a new application, I first go through all the menus to make myself familiar with what is available.

Then whenever you open a new application that uses tabbed toolbars, go through all the panes to make yourself familiar with what is available.

There was no way to quickly scan my available options.

What makes it so much more difficult to quickly scan a set of toolbar panes than to quickly scan a set of pull-down menus?

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope.

I recently worked for Really Big Bank, on a team of long time IT folks, spread across every practice of IT you can have.

The ribbon killed everyone's productivity, it was THE topic of discussion at every meeting, because someone was always being upgraded, and they were always having issues.

And the consensus was that it never got any better, even after a year of use.

Then to top things off, you can't save in the newest version because your document will be useless to anyone not yet updated. Please don't tell me how this is not possible, everyone here knows better.

I go back to 1997 on all Office programs and the ribbon, they've made some things better and some things worse with each upgrade, but the newest version of Office in general, is 100% turd.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[tepples]

And the consensus was that it never got any better, even after a year of use.

Had they solid arguments to support this?

Then to top things off, you can't save in the newest version because your document will be useless to anyone not yet updated.

Anyone not yet updated from Office XP or Office 2003 can ask IT to deploy the compatibility pack.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[mdwh2]

The problem I think is that it tries to be both a menu and toolbar, but fails at either. The whole point of a toolbar is to hold a few of the most commonly used actions, via an icon. But now everything's an icon, it's a lot harder to memorise where and what everything is. At least hunting through menus, you can see the descriptions straight away.

Worse is that although the ribbon is categorised, it may be that commonly used actions are on different tabs. So suddenly, you have to repeatedly click between the tabs, for every action you want, when before these actions would both be on a single toolbar.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[tepples]

So suddenly, you have to repeatedly click between the tabs

Which is the same number of clicks as if the tab titles were pull-down menus and the buttons were items.

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[initialE]

The ribbon was the wrong way of doing things. The UI concept of Vista and 7 is based on searching - as in you search in the start menu for the application you want. Why shouldn't office behave that way? Instead of hunting high and low for what you need, giving up and then using the online help to key in the terms of the function you already had a name for, why not just key in that name in an application-specific search bar?

Re:Ribbon might be a bad example

[Again]

What makes it so much more difficult to quickly scan a set of toolbar panes than to quickly scan a set of pull-down menus?

I can't scan icons the way I can a list of words.

iJust

[Jhon]

iWish iCould iFford iOne.

Can't wait

[BlackHawk-666]

I can't wait to buy one so I can sit on my couch, with my favorite TV show playing, and this puppy on my lap allowing me to read all my COLOUR FUCKING PICTURE BOOKS! Honestly, if it's a Kindle replacement, great - but I don't read pop-up books with pictures of cute dogs anymore, black and while will be fine.

What is it good for, bar reading on the crapper - which I'm a fan of?

If I want to browse the web I have a comfy chair and desk with a decent PC for that. Same for music, video editing, email, anything that would involve me having to press more than 3-4 buttons repeatedly...hell, I don't even txt I find that too annoying. I'd rather call the person.

I could use it at the kitchen table as a uber geek way to give my family the 'book off' I guess. I could whip it out in cafes and make the other fools who only have iphone jealous. Though the iPhone does tuck away in the pocket a little better when getting there.

I could watch some tv on it, but my 46" LCD streaming H264 from my PC does that far better.

I could head into the garden and browse the web on it - but maybe I should be getting my face out of the days dramas and simply sit and enjoy the garden instead.

All it's really going to be good for is allowing data, drama, work and other tiresome issues to penetrate even further into our lives. There needs to be some places you can go and get away from that - for me, I walk away from my PC and it's all behind me. For others, they constantly suckle at the teet of Twitter like alcoholics on a bottle.

Re:Can't wait

[natehoy]

COLOUR FUCKING PICTURE BOOKS!

Your pr0n habit is honestly your own business, but I for one didn't need that image. Or are you referring to a colorized version of the Kama Sutra?

Re:Can't wait

[BlackHawk-666]

I was thinking more along the lines of "Run Spot Run"

My prediction

[ScottForbes]

It'll have a stylus and handwriting recognition, and they're calling it the "Newton."

Re:My prediction

[not-my-real-name]

It'll have a stylus and handwriting recognition, and they're calling it the "Newton."

They will never call it "Newton". My money is on Leibniz

Re:My prediction

[lordholm]

That sounds a bit derivative :)

Actually....

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

>Since the Apple event is this afternoon,

Actually, it's this morning in San Francisco. The Apple Universe runs on PST. :-)

Re:Actually....

[imakemusic]

Pre-sales tension?

Tablet PCs

[MaWeiTao]

One thing that we can be sure of is that Apple is going to tout this tablet like they've invented this type device. The people at Apple are smart in that they aren't early adopters of new technologies. Others do it first and run into the issues anyone will face with technology in it's infancy. The segments of the market generally starts petering out as those guys move onto devices and that's when Apple jumps in.

It helps immensely that developing both hardware and software Apple has the huge advantage of good integration. With every other hardware maker they have to go with whatever is available at the time. The software developers, mainly Microsoft and Google have to partner with a hardware company. That almost always consists of an existing product being customized to their needs. Unfortunately this always results in a compromised product. There's nothing like being able to do everything in-house with teams working back and forth.

I have a Sony tablet PC, which I got second-hand. It's the U70 if I'm not mistaken. It came out back in 04 or so, when PC makers were eager to push the technology. It runs Windows XP and performs reasonably well actually. Unfortunately, these things were mainly hindered by the OS. Instead of developing a customized OS to enhance usability they were basically making them full-fledged PCs but more compact. This generally made them a pain to operate. I suppose it was just a sign of the times, because although Sony offered various on-screen input methods the keyboard was generally not given much on-screen real estate. They were still expecting users to interact with the device using a stylus. The touchscreen itself was good but certainly doesn't compare with what is possible with the technology today. The upside was that I could connect a monitor and keyboard to the thing and use it like a regular PC.

The device was a novelty, as a tablet today is for most people. Mine sits around collecting dust most of the time. However, for a couple of weeks I used it when I was traveling and it was great. That's where the compact size is a real asset. Being able to pull that thing out and start browsing the web is excellent. And the good thing is that because it's a PC, basically, I get a proper browsing experience and can do anything I might need to do at home or in the office. It's not a compromised experience like Smartphones provide. However, the lack of a physical keyboard is a problem if you expect to do a lot of typing with the device. I'm sure touchscreen technology has improved to the point where typing on-screen is a bit better than it used to be, but it probably still won't be great. Some of the newer Sony tablets use integrated physical keyboards, but I'm not sure if those are any good.

The fact is, if you've got an iPhone, which most people interested in this tablet likely do, there's little need for this device. If this thing is running a version of the iPhone's OS then there's even less use for it. In my opinion a tablet should be a more portable alternative to a laptop, not a big brother to a mobile phone. Otherwise I expect these things to collect a lot of dust. I don't use my tablet PC for much of anything nowadays; I've installed automotive diagnostics software on it and even that doesn't get much use.

Re:Tablet PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't going to be the last model, and there may be a tablet macbook in the future.

While you may not have much use for this, it's likely to find a nice in at least two markets: digital media integration in the home, and educational use.

Re:Tablet PCs

[tibman]

I know how you feel about older tablets and recently put mine through some upgrades. I have a Hitachi VisionPlate.. basically one giant touch screen. It came with XPe on it and now runs Puppy and Gentoo. It currently has 512MB Ram, a 660MHz Crusoe proc (weird thing) with 3x 4GB MicroDrives for space. Upgraded the wireless from b to g.

I was very happy being able to upgrade the thing from cheap junk on ebay. I doubt Apple's tablet will sport that capability.

Pictures here: http://tibman.livejournal.com/59574.html

Re:Tablet PCs

[crumbz]

"One thing that we can be sure of is that Apple is going to tout this tablet like they've invented this type device. The people at Apple are smart in that they aren't early adopters of new technologies. Others do it first and run into the issues anyone will face with technology in it's infancy. The segments of the market generally starts petering out as those guys move onto devices and that's when Apple jumps in."

Umm, Newton?

"The fact is, if you've got an iPhone, which most people interested in this tablet likely do, there's little need for this device. If this thing is running a version of the iPhone's OS then there's even less use for it. In my opinion a tablet should be a more portable alternative to a laptop, not a big brother to a mobile phone. Otherwise I expect these things to collect a lot of dust. I don't use my tablet PC for much of anything nowadays; I've installed automotive diagnostics software on it and even that doesn't get much use."

Have you tried reading a book on the iPhone's screen?

Re:Tablet PCs

[Viewsonic]

I don't suppose you remember the Apple Newton tablet PC back from the 90s do you? Is this an example of Apple waiting around for others to run into issues and then come back later to release a product? I agree with everything you after that, but your first paragraph is typical anti-Apple fanboy ranting that is completely ignorant on the subject.

Re:Tablet PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

They may not be first, but I doubt they were just waiting for the problems to be solved. The tablet has been in development (AFAIK) for about 3+ years and constantly sent back by Jobs.

ehhh....

[Ephemeriis]

I'd like to see a tablet done right. Microsoft really hasn't delivered that yet. Maybe apple can. I've been impressed with their iPhone/iPod Touch.

But I guess I just don't see what all the excitement is about. It's a new piece of hardware. Sure, I like gadgets and all... But folks have been frenetically hunting down any hint of rumor about this thing for a year or so.

Stupid.

[spacemky]

Tablets are a stupid idea. But then again, so is the name "iPod" for a portable music player.

"Double-size" iPod Touch

[Anonymous Coward]

If they do that for roughly twice the price, with and without a cell modem option (cheaper without), it could sell, especially if they are throwing in new ebook media capabilities at the iTunes store. It wouldn't be especially innovative, but it could be the same kind of well-crafted combination that the iPhone represents (plenty of companies built smartphones before).

It's a long shot, but what would be truly innovative would be if they could add some kind of remote desktop connection (transfer files / manipulate remotely / stream media, etc. over wireless) in a way that was even easier than iTunes to manage. Kind of like a wireless Xterm for your Mac, where the desktop still does the heavy lifting, but you can control things remotely and view the results. I'm doubtful we're there yet, although it is fun using ssh from my jailbroken iPod Touch, as long as there isn't too much typing to do.

So it may not be for you...

[itsdapead]

My prediction: if people perceive this as a laptop/PC replacement it will fail. Pen/touch-based PCs are a niche market for people who need to use a full-blown PC while standing up. Otherwise, if you're doing substantial writing, you need a keyboard.

If, however, it is sucessfully pitched as an "appliance" for instant-on armchair web browsing, media playing, reading and casual gaming then, although it might not be what you want, I think it will find a market, because it does something that existing tablets* don't, and it will benefit from the existing iPhone/App Store ecology. If the price is right, I'd like something like that as a supplement to my "real" computer.

(*By "existing tablets" I mean "established" tablet/pen PCs, not the latest crop of Android etc. tablets which may be direct competitors with the iProduct).

Good news everybody!

[itsdapead]

Its also available in suppository form!

Confirmed!

[LeonPierre]

I have it on the authority of no less than 5 people closely related to the project that the new device will do no less than end world hunger, rebuild 3rd world nations, fix the energy crisis and the economy, and help those poor drowning polar bears whose homes have melted away....

But this next piece of information you will not hear from any reputable website, as they are too afraid to publish it:

It will do no less than make unicorns shit rainbows

You can quote me on that.

Re:Confirmed!

[mr_gorkajuice]

Is that it? Pfft, I'll pass.

Re:Confirmed!

[christurkel]

Lame because it won't stop Slashdot editors from posting dupes. If it had that built in, I'd buy it.

Re:Confirmed!

[Minwee]

And it also makes perfect paninis every time.

Anyone else turned off by forced cell service?

[swb]

It remains unclear whether or not the device will have, let alone require, cell service, but am I the only one vaguely turned off by the idea you'd *have* to buy it with cell service (and thus pay an additional $1500-2000 for it)?

As a ~10" device, it isn't iPhone-portable. While toting it around is probably thing #1 people will want to do with it, it seems much more like the kind of device you'd leave at home -- taking your iPhone for maximum portability or your laptop for maximum computing. And at home -- and many coffeeshop type places you'd take it -- will already have wifi.

I don't mind the *option* of cell service; certainly there are a not insignificant class of users who will want cell mobility with it, but with an iPhone OS its not completely a laptop replacement and the size acts as a mobility hindrance, unless you carry that 12" manbag everywhere you go.

Re:Anyone else turned off by forced cell service?

[EvanED]

...but am I the only one vaguely turned off by the idea you'd *have* to buy it with cell service (and thus pay an additional $1500-2000 for it)?

Nope. In fact, the only reason I'd be only "vaguely turned off" instead of "completely turned off" the thing (if that's true) is because I was only vaguely turned on in the first place. Otherwise, it'd be a deal-killer.

(The forced contract and app store are basically the two reasons I don't currently have an iPhone; if both were changed, I would very possibly pick one up on very short order.)

OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

a new mac item!

My mac-gina is pulsating with excitement!

I have to buy it or I won't be cool! ...bunch of tools...

And on the same day, the Archos A7IT is unveiled

[Anonymous Coward]

http://archosfans.com/
Cheaper, Android, and many things more!

Ok, this will be it...

[thrill12]

. screen of 1024 * 800, e-ink and LCD combined . 1GB memory . 64GB flash . 1GHz+ Atom CPU . wlan 802.11n . battery life 16 hours . no multi-touch capacitive touchscreen as it uses a stylus for input . onscreen keyboard input as well as handwriting recognition . easy note sharing across multiple tablets (wireless, compare iphone bumping) . speech synthesis built-in . multimedia capabilities limited . color grey Let's see how right I was...

Re:Cringeley has a picture and beta tester comment

[NatasRevol]

He could at least source his material. He'd have a cow if someone didn't do that for him.

http://twitter.com/jason

Re:Seriously

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Are you getting DP'ed by a couple of Apple hipster twinks?

Tablet appeals to me...

[PottedMeat]

I don't own a smartphone and probably never will. Why? I don't care for doing much of anything on a tiny screen and I'm certainly not going to spend an extra $30 a month for a data plan that gives me a window of that size to the internet.

I do own a laptop which is great to have but it's just too clunky to carry around and to deploy in any random wifi hotspot that I come across. Sure I did that at first but eventually got tired of it.

A tablet hits a perfect middle ground for me. It's large enough for me to read any ebooks, etc that I have and gives me a screen large enough to provide a laptop-like internet experience.

eInk vs LCD

[Space cowboy]

I really don't get this. I sit in front of an LCD monitor all day, every day, and read and/or type away. I touch-type, so even if I'm typing, I'm looking at the screen. I don't get tired eyes, I don't have a problem reading for hours on end.

I went into the local bookstore and saw one of these e-ink readers (made by Sony, I think), and I thought the display was truly awful - blurry, low-contrast, and far-and-away more difficult to read.

Perhaps it has to do with the different ways that OSX and Windows (which most people are used to) put type on the screen. OSX tries to mimic print layout as much as possible. Windows attempts to line up to the pixel matrix on the screen. I'm not saying Windows is wrong in this - it's a matter of preference - but I far prefer the smooth characters on an OSX display.

I guess it's "common knowledge" that eInk is "better", but I'm not seeing it. I wonder if it's just common knowledge that eInk is better than Windows LCD displays ?

Simon

Re:eInk vs LCD

[abigor]

LCD screens are tough to read outside or on transit, where there's a lot of natural light. Even where I'm sitting right now, on my couch with a window behind me, causes readability problems.

There's no question that a good e-ink display like the Kindle is far more restful and natural to read. The real issue is one of cost/benefit: is it worth it to you to give up speedy refresh and colour for enhanced readability?

Re:eInk vs LCD

[nomadic]

I went into the local bookstore and saw one of these e-ink readers (made by Sony, I think), and I thought the display was truly awful - blurry, low-contrast, and far-and-away more difficult to read.

Sony's ereaders aren't that great in the readability department, but the Kindle is really nice and crisp. It definitely depends on your manufacturer.

Overcharge!

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet Apple will charge probably 3-5x more than other tablets, and will make it look extra shiny.

Re:Overcharge!

[PhilHibbs]

Good job I'm already posting rather than modding, becaue I couldn't choose between "Insightful" and "Redundant" anyway.

Newton a comparable product?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure it could be the next G4 Cube ...

Perhaps Newton would be a better comparable product.

--
Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Re:It is good marketing

[seandiggity]

No less a visionary than Bill Gates

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!111

...sorry, it's been a long time since I actually laughed out loud at anything on /. If BG has any vision of the future, it's the classroom scenes from Serenity.

Writing is a bad interface.

[harl]

If the product turns out to be Apple's ebook reader then ignore what's below as it only applies to tablet computing.

Tablet computing has been tried over and over. It always fails. I don't think this is a technology limitation I think it's an interface limitation.

First off writing is slow. The key board is some thing we did right early on. Maybe it would work better with an eastern word level character based language rather than a western letter level character based language.

Second my hand writing is shit. I'm not unique in this. Sometimes I can't read it. I don't expect others to read it and and if capchas still work then computers are going to have trouble with it.

Re:Writing is a bad interface.

[TeknoHog]

I have a Nokia N800, it's one of their earlier tablets with no keyboard. I have found the onscreen virtual keyboard surprisingly fast and practical, so I have little interest in handwriting recognition or other alternatives. It probably helps that I know qwerty from over 20 years of use, so I can tap around the virtual version by a quick glance. For comparison, try typing on a regular keyboard with a single finger, it's not so bad if you think of the alternatives.

Newton would be a better comparable product?

[perpenso]

Sure it could be the next G4 Cube ...

Perhaps Newton would be a better comparable product?

For those unfamiliar with the Newton it was Apple's handheld computer from about a decade or so ago. It did not catch on but it was a pretty interesting device, had third party apps, too large for most pockets ...

--
Perpenso Calc for iPhone and iPod touch, scientific and bill/tip calculator, fractions, complex numbers, RPN

Hysteria

[Aphoxema]

Apple probably had no intent to make an "iTablet" until this hysteria started. They have the unique position where they can probe their market effortlessly just by consumer speculation.

"I wonder what an Apple tablet computer would be like..."

"Yeah, that would be cool, an Apple tablet"

"THERE'S AN APPLE TABLET COMING OUT!?"

"Dude I bet they'll call it the iTablet!"

"No, iBoard or something would be way more Different"

"No no no, they're calling it the iSlate, this dude told me, he's like, on the inside and shit!"

"Oh, man, I can't wait until the iSlate comes out!"

Apple: "We neither admit nor refuse the possibility of an Apple crafted tablet PC, but trust us, if we did it it would be super awesome."

"OMG APPLE SAYS THEY'RE COMING OUT WITH AN APPLE TABLET SEE YOU IN CUPERTINO!"

Re:Hysteria

[Coopjust]

Are you kidding? They've been controlling the leaks for months.

There was an article her on /. from a marketing director admitting that, off the record, senior executives purposely "let it slip" and suggested reporting it to build up hype.

The textbook CEO yesterday knew damn well what he was doing- that was completely intentional to sustain the hype.

Re:Hysteria

[Aphoxema]

Their conspiracy has reached deeper than I suspected... perhaps, even now, the words I type are carefully crafted by their influences.

Two more items

[commodoresloat]

-Wireless
-More space than a Nomad

EReader and textbooks

[niteHawk337]

Something that was pointed out to me by my wife who's in Educational publishing... the one technical thing that's kept textbooks off of ereaders like the kindle and nook is the lack of color - textbooks need to have a full depth of color for the illustrations. The admission by McGraw-Hill seems to point in this direction.. Now the publishers want to keep dead trees in circulation for monetary reasons aside, I wonder how this'll catch on - I have an ereader, and the eink is fantastic for reading.. a OLED or LCD panel is just going to make it VERY hard to spend hours buried in the book for studying, I would think.

It isn't a tablet

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple's vendors and partners are producing pieces they think will become part of the next iThingy tablet. But it isn't so.

Apple is secretly assembling these bits and pieces into A NEW GAME CONSOLE with genuine color graphics. The new device, iCon, will almost be compatible with the popular Nintendo wii and the exotic Sony PS3.

Games, such as Guess The Number, once only available on the iPhone, will now be capable of presentation on massive LCD television displays.

The paper and cardboard packaging will be phenomenal and the devices will be made by Apple in California.

It's one thing to make fun of apple products

[commodoresloat]

It's quite another to make fun of them when they don't exist yet.

Solar panel

[commodoresloat]

You're right the solar panel is a gimmick, but the tablet will still get excellent battery life because it will mostly be powered by the user's sense of self-importance.

For every action...

[weston]

Apple fanboy sees all negative observations as complaints, and ends his post with a question where he is wondering why anyone would ever publicly make negative observations about Apple or Apple Products.

And in turn, the anti-fanboy sees any positive observations--heck, in some cases, any observation at all--as threats to the legitimacy of his alternative of choice.

See also "But what's wrong with the way Perl does it?"

Re:Apple Bets Farm on Heterosexual Computing

[Arthur Grumbine]

Don't feed the troll!

You, sir, have just fed the troll. Congratulations, you're an idiot.

If irony were strawberries we'd all be feeding the trolls smoothies right now.

Don't Want

[stewbacca]

I don't get the hype this time around. I don't need a bigger iPhone. I need a smaller laptop.

Service Outage

[RedTeflon]

With all those iphone users in one place lets see if it brings the AT&T network to a stall yet again.

Sent from my iPhone

Re:It will have

[Gilmoure]

The Apple tablet kicked my dog and stole my girl friend!

I'm curious if it is x86.

[drfreak]

If so, it could be the coolest Windows tablet yet given the proper Boot Camp drivers. Much as I enjoy OSX, when it comes to work, it is nice to run Windows 7 on my MacBook. Given that tablets will be used more and more by doctors, I know they would love to be using their EMR with pretty Apple hardware.

Given all the new tablet features introduced in Windows 7, it would be a bit ironic for Apple to have the first hardware where the masses might truly want to use it.

Re:I'm curious if it is x86.

[Dotren]

I'd be interested in seeing if it could run Windows 7 as well. I could probably make due with OSX if it ran the full Office 2007 suite (including OneNote).

I've been keeping my eye on tablet technology lately to see if it could be a viable solution for a higher ed classroom or mobile lab. From what I've seen of OneNote, it could be huge for students if it were running on a really nice multi-touch device.. preferably one with an optional stilus. I've looked at the Dell tablets, and while they're nice, they're more of a laptop with a touchscreen (granted, the screen can lay down to cover the keyboard and make a full tablet) and are pretty expensive.

Even if the iPad would be horrible for this scenario, I'm hoping it may encourage some more advances in the tablet market.

It is confirmed, the iPad

[riker1384]

They're showing it now. It's called the iPad and it looks like a big iPod Touch or iPhone. Big-ass touchscreen.

It's an ipad

[achten]

There is one already http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/business/ipad.html Er sorry it is iPad not ipad

Live News Feed

[Anonymous Coward]

Live News Feed: http://live.gdgt.com/2010/01/27/live-apple-come-see-our-latest-creation-tablet-event-coverage/

iPad?? LMFAO!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't be serious. iPad? How many maxipad jokes do you want to hear? Too Silly.
I was holding back on getting an Entourage edge but not anymore.

omg ipad

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG honey I blew up the iphone!

I'm going back to bed...

[pandrijeczko]

...wake me up again when there's one I can put the software I want to on it, not what Apple wants to.