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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.
iphone nano
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.
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/
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.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
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....
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....)
Monstar L
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.
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)
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
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.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
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.
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
I void warranties.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sorry about the mess.
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
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.
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.
iWish iCould iFford iOne.
It'll have a stylus and handwriting recognition, and they're calling it the "Newton."
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.
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.
"If it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"