My 5800 is fine for anyone. And it took Apple generations to catch up, even compared with bog standard phones from years earlier (copy/paste, Java, MMS, video, multitasking, running 3rd party applications without the company's permission, tethering - in fact, I believe shockingly they're still playing catchup on some of these things).
For one the market share for iPhones is still much much larger then all the Android based phones out there. It is second only to RIM Blackberries.... Android is still second fiddle...
And RIM is second only to Motorola.
And Motorola are second to only a few companies like LG and Samsung.
And all of them, well they're second only to Nokia.
So yeah, Apple are only second place, second after almost everyone else in the market. But they are ahead of Google at least.
Right now the iPhone is still the winner
*splutter*
Do you seriously believe the mobile phone market consists of just RIM, Apple and Google? I'd assume this was a joke, except I repeatedly see posters under this delusion here - this used to be a place for geeks, now it's overrun by people who have less clue about the tech market than ever a random person on the street.
however you have to be an idiot
Quoted for the irony. Now go up and read some factual market share data on phones.
Hear hear (and it was true when the first Apple phone first came out, as there's long been plenty of other phones from bigger companies in the market, such as Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, RIM).
Imagine if we got a story every single time that one model of phone appeared on one particular network! There'd be no end of stories. No, this clearly isn't newsworthy.
Remember that story when an Iphone was the number one phone, for one particular month, in one particular company (right after that model had been released)? If you think about it, it's a ludicrous premise for a story - there's going to be a number one every month, for every country.
And indeed, as I predicted out at the time, we've never had a story since then telling us what the number one phone is in that country anymore, or indeed, any other country.
What is this? News for nerds? Or Random Trivia About The Iphone? Still, I guess we should be glad we've managed to go a whole day about the istale vaporware rumours.
But how much expense is it when customers are turned away because their credit card is refused for no reason (it's happened to me) - and the business is not even aware of the lost custom?
On the one hand, it's unfortunate that there is little competition if two people want to send money to each other internationally (I was caught out by this recently - Paypal have decided they're going to refuse my credit card, with no reason given, and there's no way to contact them - their contact page times out, and they haven't heard of this thing called "email"; I used a bank transfer, but the fixed fee means it's more expensive for smaller amounts).
But for organisations, surely there are better ways? I mean, here in the UK even B&Bs have started taking credit/debit cards.
On top of that, national transfers can be done for free simply by giving their bank account details.
About 12 years ago when I released some shareware software, as well as accepting cash, I used a 3rd party company that offered a system for shareware authors, that meant people could pay me via credit/debit card. If I as an individual managed that, 12 years ago, what's the problem for an organisation? Or has the competition really be cleaned out by Paypal since then?
The ones that say you can't be fired unless there's good reason, AFAICT.
Yes, you might agree to different conditions in a contract, but the point is that it's not that way by default.
Admittedly you raise a good point - if it became normal practice for these things to be part of a contract, then jobseekers have no choice and the protections in law become useless. Although it is possible for law to trump contracts. (I'm not sure how the law works regarding excessive amounts of upaid overtime, where an employee is unwilling or unable, but the small print in the contract said it was allowed.)
yes, I can opt into the EU directive (surely without any impact on my employment). But "rock the boat" is what I don't need in my life right now.
Well indeed, unfortunately people may still be pressured into doing what their company tells them, rather than the risk of getting fired, and having to sue them for unlawful dismissal. The law doesn't stop a company firing you in the first place, but it can make such firing unlawful.
By the way, all this (and the terrible conditions in Rockstar and EA) is nothing compared to programmers' life in China or Korea, where 14-18 hours a day 6 days a week is the normal life of a programmer. Not that it makes it right, of course.
And in much of mainland Europe, I hear they have much better conditions than us. If we're going to compare, let's aspire towards somewhere nicer:)
Surely it depends on the location - e.g., in US states with "at will" employment, can't they fire you for any reason (unless it's explicitly illegal, e.g., illegal discrimination)?
You don't have to unionize to fix this problem. You just have to quit and go somewhere else if the terms are not acceptable to you.
Indeed - and it seems to be particularly a problem in the games industry, rather than development in general.
I guess the problem is that there's a larger supply of people willing to work for crap conditions in the games industry, because of the attraction of it being "fun". Although then again, I remember a recent story in the UK where the games industry were whining about a skills shortage. Of course, they had to cheek to blame the Universities. The reality is that there are plenty of us with the skills to work in the games industry, we just go elsewhere where the pay's better, and we're not treated like shit.
They should be right at home then - that sounds just like the traditional media.
Most stories are actually propagated from news reported elsewhere - obviously someone must write them originally, but a significant amount of "news" is just as you describe. And it has the same capability for the story getting diluted and transmogrified. At least bloggers, facebook users etc have the decency to either link to their source, or rewrite it in their own words. In the media, stories are just plagiarised, often with trivial word rearrangements in a petty attempt to make it look like their own words. And occasionally news stories are reported originally on the likes of blogs, Facebook etc.
As of Dec 2009 the iPhone has had 78 million sales, and this number does not include millions of iPod Touch out there.
Er, yes it does. If you RTFA: Apple (AAPL) will have sold nearly 78 million iPhones and iPod touches worldwide.
On top of that, wow, you're comparing all of Apple's phones in total, to a single Motorola phone (their RAZR alone sold 110 million!) Motorola have far more of a market share than Apple. Or if you're looking at it from a platform point of view, you need to compare to all Android phones.
The Iphone is a niche player (as is Android too currently, in fact). That's a fact. Even if we did add in the Ipod Touch numbers, which doesn't really improve matters, by that argument we should now throw in netbooks, since the market is now "handheld devices" not "phones", and there's a big market of Windows netbooks (of the order of tens of millions).
Would you make a program for 1% of the platforms, or 99%?
Are you seriously suggesting that Droid and Iphones are the only two phones in existence, and that Apple have 99% of the market? You need to step out of your RDF and check out some actual market data.
but when you see everyone and their 1 yr old baby with an iPhone
I don't see everyone, or many at all, with an Iphone. So there's one person with an Iphone, according to your link - wow! Now show me some actual market figures.
Indeed. I have the 5800, which has a virtual keyboard so would also come out second place. But as well as the option for touch, it also comes with a stylus, which I find even quicker (plus you can use the mini virtual keyboard, which lets you still see most of the rest of the screen). It's a shame he didn't do that - but sadly it seems he, like most the media, only cares about comparing the almighty Iphone.
Finger touch is useful, but I find it odd that the stylus has seemingly gone so out of fashion. And regarding capacitive touch screens, I agree - the 5800 doesn't do multitouch, but I'd prefer the accuracy over complex gestures I'm not likely to use ("one mouse button is simpler", remember Apple fans?)
I guess there must be some market, because of video mp3 players. But at least those have the advantage of being small... for a tablet that's the size of a netbook, I think I'd prefer a netbook for video.
Oh don't worry, you'll still be able to run Photoshop on an Apple PC, running "Mac OS" Windows 8.
There are still a few hold outs for PowerPC and classic MacOS, but Apple has shown it will gladly ditch core technology if it can make money marketing something else. I doubt they'll really care about preserving XCode developers, if they decide to move on. After the Ipod, I guess they'd rather be making popular gadgets that do simple things, rather than complex things like operating systems for a niche market of Photoshop users.
I'm not sure that works - if I'm sitting at my desk, I'd like a far bigger screen, than when I'm walking about, when I'd like it in my pocket. I can see one day we'll have phones that can dock to a larger screen, keyboard and mouse, but I'm not sure I see the point in keeping the screen. Indeed, as you say - "the only thing the user is going to care about is the size of the screen" - in other words, they'll care that it's too small in some contexts, too small in others.
And how do I use the tablet if it's now lying flat on the desk, because I'm typing with the keyboard? Although I guess we could get a stand for it...
As for:
The netbook craze has shown one thing: average users no longer care about speed or enormous screen size.
They no longer care when they want to be mobile. The size of flat screens however as shown that they do still care about screen size at home.
And the netbook is also cheap - what does a tablet offer that's better, when it's also many times the price?
The Apple product may suck, but it will probably sell people on the idea that tablets are "cool." And in a way, that may be the most important thing to go to the next level of interaction with computers.
Tablets are already here. If anyone deserves credit for raising awareness, it should be the media who are the ones actually doing it.
A tablet makes use in some contexts, but it's not going to be something that replaces all kinds of computers. I hope not, anyway.
I agree entirely. It would be funny to see them kill the Mac, and then see the Mac fans have to accept it, but it wouldn't surprise me, they happily ditch technology when it's of no use to them (classic MacOS, PowerPC), and even "Mac" itself is today just a trademark for Apple PCs running an OS that has nothing to do with the original MacOS.
I also share your fears. Thankfully the Iphone doesn't have anywhere near the success that Slashdot fans claim, and I don't see how an expensive and oversized istale would change that. But I do fear a self-fulfilling prophecy: thanks to all the free advertising by the media (including Slashdot), imagine if in 10 years' time, Apple have a monopoly on all mobile computing. We'd live in the locked down world where Apple controlled all released software. Open source would be severely hampered (you'd have to pay to develop, and Apple might only allow one fork of any given program, citing reasons of duplication). Running alternative OSs would not be an option unless you hacked the devices. "Open" computers would become an increasingly rare commodity.
And whilst geeks at least criticised Microsoft's control, which pales in comparison to what Apple want, the sad thing is that in places like Slashdot, Apple are loved.
This was once a place that supported open systems. How ironic that it now supports and advertises Apple's vision.
I agree with TFA that the iPhone OS is the best choice of OS for Apple. Not because it is the best possible OS for a tablet, but because it is a great OS that people like. It has an interface that keeps people buying apps and songs and whatnot
Well indeed, this says it all - it's a "good OS" that let's people buy apps and songs. I do find it interesting that a computer sized and priced device will still be running their phone OS, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they ditch the Mac altogether within the next 5 years.
They've previously shown they have no attachment to particular to technology when they realise it's no good - classic MacOS, PowerPC, so why not OS X too? Even "Mac" itself is just a trademark for what's basically an Apple PC these days. Since they've gone without the trademark for the Ipod, Iphone, and now the Islate, they may well just let it go altogether.
It seems Apple are better off making money from music and gadgets, not computers. Personally though, I do want to see a world where we still have general computers, in the form of small devices too (netbooks, and phones that aren't locked down like Apple's).
Well yes, you've answered your question. Obviously people only talk about humanoid robots when talking about the uncanny valley, because it doesn't apply to the non-humanoid ones! However, plenty of non-humanoid ones do exist. I don't think anyone's claiming all robots must be humanoid - just that some of them will be, and it's interesting to look at the uncanny valley issue.
OOI, what would it do better than a laptop, given it wouldn't be any cheaper than one anyway? And if it's rumoured to only run Apple's phone OS, rather than a proper computer OS? (I hope you don't multitask on that laptop, or want a choice in what applications you have permission to run, or visit a website uses a Java applet.)
It's true enough that a tablet PC that's essentially just a scaled up iPhone would be pretty cool.
Would it though? I mean, for the last ten years people mocked phones that were "huge", even if they were only a few years old. Yet we're now supposed to praise an increase in size, that's like a throwback to the 80s?
But indeed, as you say, cost is the point. I can see tablets working if they were cheap, but anything running a phone OS, at the price of a laptop, isn't going to compete as a computer. Like the current tablets (e.g., Fujitsu Flepia), it'll be a niche product for people who want an expensive e-book reader that does colour and video.
I guess it'd appeal to a narrow band of Apple nerds; even fewer than bought into the Macbook Air.
Heh, I remember that (most people don't). Tonnes of hype, because it was 1mm smaller than the smallest laptop (as if anyone cared). Then along came netbooks, much smaller at a tenth of the price, and no one mentioned the Air again.
I can't help but think they're cleverer than that. Whatever is coming is going to have to be bigger (in the sense of appealing to the populace rather than a tiny subset of it) than a mere tablet even if they make it super snazzy.
They're cleverer in their marketing. I mean, they released an expensive phone that didn't even have basic features like 3G, Java, MMS, copy/paste, nor did it have smartphone features like multitasking or running any apps from a 3rd party, and it followed years after when most other bog standard phones could already run apps and access the Internet. But it still got hyped endlessly - and does to this day - with people convinced that it sparked some kind of revolution. Apple's total market share in phones today is just a few percent, yet you have people - even on geek forums like Slashdot (indeed, especially here) - who seriously believe that Apple are the market leader, with only Google for competition.
We have Iphone stories at least once a day. Even if it's bog standard and nothing special, look forward to having daily istale stories too.
I agree entirely - the Apple IsLate is the new Duke Nukem Forever.
To be honest I just wish Slashot would get it over with, rename to Appledot. I wouldn't complain about this coverage on an Apple site, it's the pretence that this is still a general geek site (or indeed, one geared towards open source - remember those days?) that's misleading.
It's up to you to prove otherwise - and if you try, please do so without using circular logic (the problem is that it becomes circular: the coverage in the media is used as evidence for it being important, yet the coverage in the media is justified on the grounds that it's allegedly important).
Plenty of tablet devices are already on the market, including from major tech companies. Even giving Apple one story, when it's actually released (if "it" even exists), would be more than what most tablet releases got. You see, the problem isn't that an Apple product is getting undue attention - it's that they haven't even released anything, and we're getting "news about there possibly being news in the future".
It's not the biggest story, because right now there isn't a story. Come back in 6 days or whenever the vaporware prophecy predicts, and tell us the story then.
(The Iphone the 2nd most important thing in tech? Jesus Christ, get a sense of perspective. Check out market share figures before you reply to me.)
I generally agree that I can see them becoming more popular in future, but not at today's prices.
However, netbooks still have a huge advantage over them for video - it's a lot easier (IMO) to simply put it on your lap (or desk) and watch the screen, as it's folded at whatever angle you wish. With a tablet, you've got to hold it all the time. We're used to that with books, but with videos it's nice to sit back and relax.
Slashdot Mirror
My 5800 is fine for anyone. And it took Apple generations to catch up, even compared with bog standard phones from years earlier (copy/paste, Java, MMS, video, multitasking, running 3rd party applications without the company's permission, tethering - in fact, I believe shockingly they're still playing catchup on some of these things).
For one the market share for iPhones is still much much larger then all the Android based phones out there. It is second only to RIM Blackberries. ... Android is still second fiddle...
And RIM is second only to Motorola.
And Motorola are second to only a few companies like LG and Samsung.
And all of them, well they're second only to Nokia.
So yeah, Apple are only second place, second after almost everyone else in the market. But they are ahead of Google at least.
Right now the iPhone is still the winner
*splutter*
Do you seriously believe the mobile phone market consists of just RIM, Apple and Google? I'd assume this was a joke, except I repeatedly see posters under this delusion here - this used to be a place for geeks, now it's overrun by people who have less clue about the tech market than ever a random person on the street.
however you have to be an idiot
Quoted for the irony. Now go up and read some factual market share data on phones.
Hear hear (and it was true when the first Apple phone first came out, as there's long been plenty of other phones from bigger companies in the market, such as Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, RIM).
Imagine if we got a story every single time that one model of phone appeared on one particular network! There'd be no end of stories. No, this clearly isn't newsworthy.
Remember that story when an Iphone was the number one phone, for one particular month, in one particular company (right after that model had been released)? If you think about it, it's a ludicrous premise for a story - there's going to be a number one every month, for every country.
And indeed, as I predicted out at the time, we've never had a story since then telling us what the number one phone is in that country anymore, or indeed, any other country.
What is this? News for nerds? Or Random Trivia About The Iphone? Still, I guess we should be glad we've managed to go a whole day about the istale vaporware rumours.
But how much expense is it when customers are turned away because their credit card is refused for no reason (it's happened to me) - and the business is not even aware of the lost custom?
On the one hand, it's unfortunate that there is little competition if two people want to send money to each other internationally (I was caught out by this recently - Paypal have decided they're going to refuse my credit card, with no reason given, and there's no way to contact them - their contact page times out, and they haven't heard of this thing called "email"; I used a bank transfer, but the fixed fee means it's more expensive for smaller amounts).
But for organisations, surely there are better ways? I mean, here in the UK even B&Bs have started taking credit/debit cards.
On top of that, national transfers can be done for free simply by giving their bank account details.
About 12 years ago when I released some shareware software, as well as accepting cash, I used a 3rd party company that offered a system for shareware authors, that meant people could pay me via credit/debit card. If I as an individual managed that, 12 years ago, what's the problem for an organisation? Or has the competition really be cleaned out by Paypal since then?
Which employment laws are you talking about?
The ones that say you can't be fired unless there's good reason, AFAICT.
Yes, you might agree to different conditions in a contract, but the point is that it's not that way by default.
Admittedly you raise a good point - if it became normal practice for these things to be part of a contract, then jobseekers have no choice and the protections in law become useless. Although it is possible for law to trump contracts. (I'm not sure how the law works regarding excessive amounts of upaid overtime, where an employee is unwilling or unable, but the small print in the contract said it was allowed.)
yes, I can opt into the EU directive (surely without any impact on my employment). But "rock the boat" is what I don't need in my life right now.
Well indeed, unfortunately people may still be pressured into doing what their company tells them, rather than the risk of getting fired, and having to sue them for unlawful dismissal. The law doesn't stop a company firing you in the first place, but it can make such firing unlawful.
By the way, all this (and the terrible conditions in Rockstar and EA) is nothing compared to programmers' life in China or Korea, where 14-18 hours a day 6 days a week is the normal life of a programmer. Not that it makes it right, of course.
And in much of mainland Europe, I hear they have much better conditions than us. If we're going to compare, let's aspire towards somewhere nicer :)
Surely it depends on the location - e.g., in US states with "at will" employment, can't they fire you for any reason (unless it's explicitly illegal, e.g., illegal discrimination)?
Though this is why I prefer UK employment laws...
You don't have to unionize to fix this problem. You just have to quit and go somewhere else if the terms are not acceptable to you.
Indeed - and it seems to be particularly a problem in the games industry, rather than development in general.
I guess the problem is that there's a larger supply of people willing to work for crap conditions in the games industry, because of the attraction of it being "fun". Although then again, I remember a recent story in the UK where the games industry were whining about a skills shortage. Of course, they had to cheek to blame the Universities. The reality is that there are plenty of us with the skills to work in the games industry, we just go elsewhere where the pay's better, and we're not treated like shit.
They should be right at home then - that sounds just like the traditional media.
Most stories are actually propagated from news reported elsewhere - obviously someone must write them originally, but a significant amount of "news" is just as you describe. And it has the same capability for the story getting diluted and transmogrified. At least bloggers, facebook users etc have the decency to either link to their source, or rewrite it in their own words. In the media, stories are just plagiarised, often with trivial word rearrangements in a petty attempt to make it look like their own words. And occasionally news stories are reported originally on the likes of blogs, Facebook etc.
Okay, I'll bite - why?
As of Dec 2009 the iPhone has had 78 million sales, and this number does not include millions of iPod Touch out there.
Er, yes it does. If you RTFA: Apple (AAPL) will have sold nearly 78 million iPhones and iPod touches worldwide.
On top of that, wow, you're comparing all of Apple's phones in total, to a single Motorola phone (their RAZR alone sold 110 million!) Motorola have far more of a market share than Apple. Or if you're looking at it from a platform point of view, you need to compare to all Android phones.
Anyhow, Nokia shipped 100 million Symbian phones by 2006, before the first Iphone was even released ( http://www.thesmartpda.com/50226711/six_years_of_symbian_produces_100_models_and_100_million_shipments.php ), and by early 2009, they had sold 250 million Symbian phones ( http://news.softpedia.com/news/Symbian-Foundation-Adds-New-Member-Nuance-117209.shtml ).
The Iphone is a niche player (as is Android too currently, in fact). That's a fact. Even if we did add in the Ipod Touch numbers, which doesn't really improve matters, by that argument we should now throw in netbooks, since the market is now "handheld devices" not "phones", and there's a big market of Windows netbooks (of the order of tens of millions).
Would you make a program for 1% of the platforms, or 99%?
Are you seriously suggesting that Droid and Iphones are the only two phones in existence, and that Apple have 99% of the market? You need to step out of your RDF and check out some actual market data.
but when you see everyone and their 1 yr old baby with an iPhone
I don't see everyone, or many at all, with an Iphone. So there's one person with an Iphone, according to your link - wow! Now show me some actual market figures.
Well yes, that's why he said more than those few mainstream methods. I don't think that implies the other methods he suggested are mainstream.
Indeed. I have the 5800, which has a virtual keyboard so would also come out second place. But as well as the option for touch, it also comes with a stylus, which I find even quicker (plus you can use the mini virtual keyboard, which lets you still see most of the rest of the screen). It's a shame he didn't do that - but sadly it seems he, like most the media, only cares about comparing the almighty Iphone.
Finger touch is useful, but I find it odd that the stylus has seemingly gone so out of fashion. And regarding capacitive touch screens, I agree - the 5800 doesn't do multitouch, but I'd prefer the accuracy over complex gestures I'm not likely to use ("one mouse button is simpler", remember Apple fans?)
I guess there must be some market, because of video mp3 players. But at least those have the advantage of being small... for a tablet that's the size of a netbook, I think I'd prefer a netbook for video.
Oh don't worry, you'll still be able to run Photoshop on an Apple PC, running "Mac OS" Windows 8.
There are still a few hold outs for PowerPC and classic MacOS, but Apple has shown it will gladly ditch core technology if it can make money marketing something else. I doubt they'll really care about preserving XCode developers, if they decide to move on. After the Ipod, I guess they'd rather be making popular gadgets that do simple things, rather than complex things like operating systems for a niche market of Photoshop users.
I'm not sure that works - if I'm sitting at my desk, I'd like a far bigger screen, than when I'm walking about, when I'd like it in my pocket. I can see one day we'll have phones that can dock to a larger screen, keyboard and mouse, but I'm not sure I see the point in keeping the screen. Indeed, as you say - "the only thing the user is going to care about is the size of the screen" - in other words, they'll care that it's too small in some contexts, too small in others.
And how do I use the tablet if it's now lying flat on the desk, because I'm typing with the keyboard? Although I guess we could get a stand for it...
As for:
The netbook craze has shown one thing: average users no longer care about speed or enormous screen size.
They no longer care when they want to be mobile. The size of flat screens however as shown that they do still care about screen size at home.
And the netbook is also cheap - what does a tablet offer that's better, when it's also many times the price?
The Apple product may suck, but it will probably sell people on the idea that tablets are "cool." And in a way, that may be the most important thing to go to the next level of interaction with computers.
Tablets are already here. If anyone deserves credit for raising awareness, it should be the media who are the ones actually doing it.
A tablet makes use in some contexts, but it's not going to be something that replaces all kinds of computers. I hope not, anyway.
I agree entirely. It would be funny to see them kill the Mac, and then see the Mac fans have to accept it, but it wouldn't surprise me, they happily ditch technology when it's of no use to them (classic MacOS, PowerPC), and even "Mac" itself is today just a trademark for Apple PCs running an OS that has nothing to do with the original MacOS.
I also share your fears. Thankfully the Iphone doesn't have anywhere near the success that Slashdot fans claim, and I don't see how an expensive and oversized istale would change that. But I do fear a self-fulfilling prophecy: thanks to all the free advertising by the media (including Slashdot), imagine if in 10 years' time, Apple have a monopoly on all mobile computing. We'd live in the locked down world where Apple controlled all released software. Open source would be severely hampered (you'd have to pay to develop, and Apple might only allow one fork of any given program, citing reasons of duplication). Running alternative OSs would not be an option unless you hacked the devices. "Open" computers would become an increasingly rare commodity.
And whilst geeks at least criticised Microsoft's control, which pales in comparison to what Apple want, the sad thing is that in places like Slashdot, Apple are loved.
This was once a place that supported open systems. How ironic that it now supports and advertises Apple's vision.
I agree with TFA that the iPhone OS is the best choice of OS for Apple. Not because it is the best possible OS for a tablet, but because it is a great OS that people like. It has an interface that keeps people buying apps and songs and whatnot
Well indeed, this says it all - it's a "good OS" that let's people buy apps and songs. I do find it interesting that a computer sized and priced device will still be running their phone OS, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they ditch the Mac altogether within the next 5 years.
They've previously shown they have no attachment to particular to technology when they realise it's no good - classic MacOS, PowerPC, so why not OS X too? Even "Mac" itself is just a trademark for what's basically an Apple PC these days. Since they've gone without the trademark for the Ipod, Iphone, and now the Islate, they may well just let it go altogether.
It seems Apple are better off making money from music and gadgets, not computers. Personally though, I do want to see a world where we still have general computers, in the form of small devices too (netbooks, and phones that aren't locked down like Apple's).
Clarification: the Iphone entered the cellphone market, but it didn't "replace" it, not in the same sense at all as the other examples you give.
It fundimentally can't do that with the unsophsiticated workflow of a smart phone OS.
Indeed, and one that can't even multitask at that.
there's no Uncanny Valley for Roombas.
Well yes, you've answered your question. Obviously people only talk about humanoid robots when talking about the uncanny valley, because it doesn't apply to the non-humanoid ones! However, plenty of non-humanoid ones do exist. I don't think anyone's claiming all robots must be humanoid - just that some of them will be, and it's interesting to look at the uncanny valley issue.
OOI, what would it do better than a laptop, given it wouldn't be any cheaper than one anyway? And if it's rumoured to only run Apple's phone OS, rather than a proper computer OS? (I hope you don't multitask on that laptop, or want a choice in what applications you have permission to run, or visit a website uses a Java applet.)
It's true enough that a tablet PC that's essentially just a scaled up iPhone would be pretty cool.
Would it though? I mean, for the last ten years people mocked phones that were "huge", even if they were only a few years old. Yet we're now supposed to praise an increase in size, that's like a throwback to the 80s?
But indeed, as you say, cost is the point. I can see tablets working if they were cheap, but anything running a phone OS, at the price of a laptop, isn't going to compete as a computer. Like the current tablets (e.g., Fujitsu Flepia), it'll be a niche product for people who want an expensive e-book reader that does colour and video.
I guess it'd appeal to a narrow band of Apple nerds; even fewer than bought into the Macbook Air.
Heh, I remember that (most people don't). Tonnes of hype, because it was 1mm smaller than the smallest laptop (as if anyone cared). Then along came netbooks, much smaller at a tenth of the price, and no one mentioned the Air again.
I can't help but think they're cleverer than that. Whatever is coming is going to have to be bigger (in the sense of appealing to the populace rather than a tiny subset of it) than a mere tablet even if they make it super snazzy.
They're cleverer in their marketing. I mean, they released an expensive phone that didn't even have basic features like 3G, Java, MMS, copy/paste, nor did it have smartphone features like multitasking or running any apps from a 3rd party, and it followed years after when most other bog standard phones could already run apps and access the Internet. But it still got hyped endlessly - and does to this day - with people convinced that it sparked some kind of revolution. Apple's total market share in phones today is just a few percent, yet you have people - even on geek forums like Slashdot (indeed, especially here) - who seriously believe that Apple are the market leader, with only Google for competition.
We have Iphone stories at least once a day. Even if it's bog standard and nothing special, look forward to having daily istale stories too.
I agree entirely - the Apple IsLate is the new Duke Nukem Forever.
To be honest I just wish Slashot would get it over with, rename to Appledot. I wouldn't complain about this coverage on an Apple site, it's the pretence that this is still a general geek site (or indeed, one geared towards open source - remember those days?) that's misleading.
No it isn't.
It's up to you to prove otherwise - and if you try, please do so without using circular logic (the problem is that it becomes circular: the coverage in the media is used as evidence for it being important, yet the coverage in the media is justified on the grounds that it's allegedly important).
Plenty of tablet devices are already on the market, including from major tech companies. Even giving Apple one story, when it's actually released (if "it" even exists), would be more than what most tablet releases got. You see, the problem isn't that an Apple product is getting undue attention - it's that they haven't even released anything, and we're getting "news about there possibly being news in the future".
It's not the biggest story, because right now there isn't a story. Come back in 6 days or whenever the vaporware prophecy predicts, and tell us the story then.
(The Iphone the 2nd most important thing in tech? Jesus Christ, get a sense of perspective. Check out market share figures before you reply to me.)
I generally agree that I can see them becoming more popular in future, but not at today's prices.
However, netbooks still have a huge advantage over them for video - it's a lot easier (IMO) to simply put it on your lap (or desk) and watch the screen, as it's folded at whatever angle you wish. With a tablet, you've got to hold it all the time. We're used to that with books, but with videos it's nice to sit back and relax.