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1979 Apple Graphics Tablet vs. the iPad
CWmike writes "When Apple launched the iPad earlier this year, it was the culmination of fans' long wait for the company to enter the tablet market. There's no doubt the iPad is a revolutionary device. But in 1979, an earlier generation of Apple users used a different kind of Apple tablet, back when the word meant something else entirely, writes Ken Gagne. The Apple Graphics Tablet was designed by Summagraphics and sold by Apple Computer for the Apple II personal microcomputer. (Summagraphics also marketed the device for other platforms as the BitPad.) To be clear, this tablet was not a stand-alone computing device like the iPad. Instead, it was an input device for creating images on the Apple II's screen, and it predated the Apple II's mouse by six years. Apple II fan Tony Diaz had an Apple Graphics Tablet on hand at last month's KansasFest, an annual convention for diehard Apple II users. He and Gagne, the event's marketing director, compared and contrasted Apple's original tablet with the iPad, snapping photos as they went." The contrived comparison is as silly as it sounds — but it's a fine excuse to look at some ahead-of-its-time gear, even in the form of an annoying slide show.
Why compare the AGT to the iPad? Pretty much the only things they have in common is a touch sensitive surface. It's closer in function to a Wacom.
The iPad(TM) is really boring.
Boring like minimalist music. Boring like Gregorian chant. Beautiful, and fascinating for its exploration of something more distinct in a single tone - but boring like an appliance.
But is it art? ;^)
Ryan Fenton
Hardly. Digitizing tables date back to the 1950s.
Apple had a crude input device made for them in 1979 that was called a "tablet" because its shape resembled... um, a tablet. Coincidentally, Apple recently introduced a mobile computing device that is also tablet-shaped.
Slow news day, eh?
And these two are related how?
"back when the word meant something else entirely"
Uhh-- a graphics tablet was so named because it vaguely resembled a stone tablet. A tablet PC was so named because it uses an input pen like a graphics tablet and you can write on the screen.
The word still means the same thing, at least since the advent of graphics tablets. Just because you're not necessarily drawing pictures with the pen doesn't mean its not a graphics tablet built into a pc.
And I'm sure many other slashdotters hate the device. So I'm going to talk about my Android Tablet.
Sadly it looks exactly like an iPad but considering how bad Chinese techis are at making something look decent I suppose I can settle for them cloning something they already know looks good. When I say looks exactly I mean it really does, with the exception of having two usb ports 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD port it really does look exactly alike, plus it has a aluminum.
I had to troubleshoot some nasty bugs, high pitched whine, tilted screen and while it has a accereromitor the chinese devs configured to function really weird, it only goes to portiat mode when the device is upside down, I quess thats for laying down.
But all can be forgiven considering how cheap the thing is, plus I've always wanted to try my hand at programming for android but I don't need a smartphone.
Perhaps the only thing I like about the iPad is how it has sparked a ton of Chinese manufacturers to become device makers in their own right. Many of them may be dependent on Apple's formfactor but beyond that they're building some fine cheap systems.
I'd say the iPad is more "evolutionary" than "revolutionary". The only difference between it and similar devices that predated it is that it's backed by Apple's marketing machine and a truck-load of cash, gold and jewels.
As for the article at hand... a tiny, tiny giant Meh from me -- you can even compare it to the stone tablets of the ancient Greeks, if you are so inclined.
Another day another apple slashvert. How very fucking tedious.
Hi Steve!
I read the article. There isn't much overlap between the two devices in terms of functionality.
No, what it means is that the Acolyte Tony Diaz has re-discovered a precious holy relic from the hallowed First Golden Era of the God-Emperor Steve Jobs, (May the Holy Kidney Protect Him). Such a relic proves the Divine authenticity of the Miracle of iPad and serves as a reminder of the omniscience of the God-Emperor Steve Jobs, (May the Holy Kidney Protect Him).
And yet, apple didnt expand on the graphics tablets and now another company (wacom) holds the industry standard and specialises in input devices for artists and graphic designers. I don't deny apple's innovation here, I just am curious as to how that came about.
Back in 1979, Apple was a hacker company, breaking new ground.
Now they're a boutique. Their products aren't technological innovations, but re-use of existing technology in more comfy or trendy ways.
What computer science breakthroughs occurred with the mp3 player, or tablet?
With comfy/trendy products, you buy status symbols for conspicuous consumption. "Who are you better than?" is the eternal question of the fearful, and buying an iPad makes you for at least six weeks seem a lot cooler than your neighbor without one.
Futurist Traditionalism
Another day another apple slashvert. How very fucking tedious.
It doesn't have to be. We can have fun with this.
I don't know, even days we just pick on fanbois - although, that's been getting a bit boring too. But there's still room for creativity like; "Ha ha fanbois! You're now mainstream and you aren't so different or rebellious anymore!"
Or "Hey fanbois! Like Jobs says, 'You have a computing appliance'. What's it like to have an expensive toaster?! When are you going to get your Apple branded microwave the .....iWave?"
On the odd days, we can pick on the F/oSS guys. "Hey guys! Apple has this and they were PAID to do it because they hate it! Why can't you guys do something better out of love?! Huh?!" Or
"Pfffft! F/oSS guys! Apple took BSD and look what they did! And you guys are wasting your time with outdoing MS? Apple did their own thing and look at them!"
And then, every Tuesday of Months were the temperature rises above 90 in Anchorage, we defend MS and say how MS did do things better than Apple here and there. - I'm not creative enough for those examples, so your on your own coming up with those.
So there you go.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
If you're making a comparison(not that this even remotely is) wouldn't the Newton be a more resonable one?
The comparison was kind of silly, but one thing I did find interesting: The use of a "toolbar" on top of the 1979 graphics tablet (pg 5 in the article) - much like most paint programs and many other apps of the last 20+ years that have had a graphical interface. Somebody said graphical tablets were around long before 1979, did any use such a convention?
no comment
Depressingly I remember the AGT from when it was new. Used one at a computer fair when I was 12 in amazed mode.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
We were taught how to use them in my jr high computer class. (20 years ago) The program I used had a few pre-built shapes (circles, rectangles, lines, etc) that you create via the tablet. Of course, I didn't realize it then, but apparently that class has prepared me to use the iPad.
The fashion sense of the presenter in those photos, with the ring and huge gold bracelet. Surprised the medallion didn't get in the way.
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
Tablets are new-fangled compared to the pantograph, a scissor/accordian linkage mechanism that digitized pen position by means of two potentiometers. I am unable to find a trace of the third-party commercial one for the Atari 8-bit on the Internet, but this research one will give you some idea -- except the one for the Atari was 2 DOF, was an input device only (no robotics or force feedback) and actually more closely resembled the classic Renaissance pantograph from the Wikipedia link. Recall that the Atari 8-bit had eight "paddle controller inputs" that were essentially slow 8-bit A/Ds -- two of these were used to encode position where the software would convert the pantograph arm angles indicated by the potentiometers into a 2D location.
Actually, it would be more correct to say that the pantograph was the predecessor to the scanner rather than to the tablet, since due to its clunkiness the purpose of the pantograph was to copy from a piece of paper rather than to create something new on a piece of paper. Even into the early 1990's, flatbed scanners were $5,000.
OK, a digitizer and the iPad both have a rectangular surface and they have cables. On that note let us compare the roof of a 67 Chevy to a shark fin.
Seriously, though... I don't recall ever really using the AGT for much, except maybe once or twice just to see what it did (my parents probably actually got it for my older brother, but I doubt he did either.) It was really just a high-tech toy without much practical application, so maybe the comparison isn't so bad after all.
I think it was fun to see the comparison, I grant that touch technology has been around even longer, but it was still an interesting experience to be recalled to that old device and think whether I ever would have predicted this new one.
FTS- "KansasFest, an annual convention for diehard Apple II users." I am now a college graduate. Last time a saw an Apple II being USED was in kindergarten. Ever since then, computers have just gotten more useful. I'm being slightly facetious and maybe a little ignorant, but what do they do at this conference? Play number munchers?
Decades ago I wrote a map digitizing app for the Mac II and that tablet, which in the mid-eighties I think had been rebranded as the MacTablet. I used LightSpeed Pascal (I was still in college.) It was cool. I even added a logarithmic feature for contour maps. The app would draw a picture of what you were tracing, inside a small window, while it streamed the digitized coordinates to another small window. Because I built it for engineers to use, it also had a recalibration feature during which the app auto-calculates the map scale. It let you save the image as a bitmap file, and you could spool the coordinate stream to a flat file.
That was back when I rocked.
"Crude and slow, clansman. Your attack was no better than that of a clumsy child."
The Summagraphics Bitpad was used as the graphical input device for the Perq. Rather than run a silly paint program, it allowed us to use the Perq as a CAD workstation to design the Perq II. Prior to that time most schematics were drawn on paper and netlists generated by hand. Graphical design saved countless hours and mistakes.
The Bitpad was fantastic compared to some of the other input devices of the day.
appel's first user tool was the Newton.
i laugh at iphone/pod people, i still own my newton,
kinda hard to get support for it at mac.stores.
The full session schedule is available online.
Some of the presentation's titles: "Magic with Macrosoft: Machine Language Speed for Applesoft Programmers"; "Apple's Growing Divide Between Users and Programmers"; "How to Use Your Apple II as a Dumb Terminal for Mac OS X"; "73H 0r3g0n 7r41L Game Mod"; "Apple III: A Closer Look".
The HackFest programming competition is especially cool.
Ugh, too many links/pages to read. How about we do one page with its print page?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
you buy status symbols for conspicuous consumption.
I don't know about other Apple hardware, and don't care, but Macs are more than just that. Mac hardware is better than typical PC hardware. And up until Windows 7 OSX was clearly more stable and usable than MS OSes.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
The comparison got me wondering ... would an App that lets you use the iPad as a tablet device to a Mac (or any other OS) be worth developing? Is it already out there?
There are some similarities between the iPad and Apple Graphics Tablet. You can use the iPas AS a graphics tablet. http://www.appcraver.com/drawing-apps-ipad-art/