Smiles and Cries
Member
hopefully it will not be called Macbook Touch :lol
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The Apple Tablet Thread Of It's Inevitable
- Thread starter ClovingWestbrook
- Start date
- Status
Mr. Dobalina
Banned
Xater said:
I want to believe :*(
That being said, I do see this as a replacement for the low end MacBooks.
JohnTinker
Limbaugh Parrot
This post reminds me of a video of a TED Talk I saw a year or so ago, I can't remember from what TED year it was but the demonstration was of some new zooming/scaling technology where you'd see a newspaper front page and zoom in on it (i think they even had gesture/pinch zooming on a touch screen) and the article would present more information and text when zoomed in. Almost like a glorified PDF but more interactive.Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
I remember a demo of a car advertisement being shown where the ad was just a simple photo with a slogan/tagline but when zoomed in you'd see all of the deal's fine print and specifications of the car like fuel economy, engine specs, etc.
Imagine reading the classified ads and say you're looking for a puppy, 'click/zoom' on the ad and see photos or videos of the puppy, and instant contact information like email.
I think that if a newspaper like this could be developed for a device like the tablet, it could have great success if done by subscription and featured picture slideshows/videos embedded into the front page.
I saw a couple days ago that the NYT was moving towards having their online content all paid/subscription based, and I wonder if something like this could be in store for that.
Shogmaster
Sloppy seconds
What, so you'd prefer to wait until they get a brand new tablet only platform going, get all the devs and ODMs involved, take a few years for them to develop something usable, and then allow us to use the software? OK!krypt0nian said:
If I waited for all that with Tablet PCs, I'd be stuck with you fools still! :lol
Suckers...
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
I like how Shog's tag link is an accurate reflection of the type of weird non-debate he's trying to force into this thread.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
iMac!mrkgoo said:
krypt0nian
Banned
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
See? Now everyone is happy!
crisdecuba
Member
Macbook Touch is actually pretty clever. I would prefer that to iPad, iBook, iSlate, iTab, etc. (Even though some of those are the names I predicted it would end up being).
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
Same as the word about anything: no one knows a single thing at all. It's all just guessing.blu said:
DeathbyVolcano
Banned
what time is the keynote on wednesday again?
DeathbyVolcano
Banned
Sweet, I'll be able to follow it when I wake up and during class.
Kano on the Phone
Member
"Dudes, why do you want to wait for the Playstation 2 when the Dreamcast is out and already has games!"Shogmaster said:
My iPod touch is my TiVo remote, my iTunes remote AND controls my computers when I want it to. I also use it a lot to look stuff up from other rooms. I use my iPod touch a lot more than I would have expected.LovingSteam said:
However, as much cool as a tablet that's just a bigger iPod touch would be, I can't fathom how I'd use it as much. At least not yet. I reserve judgement until I see it. But still. I'd prefer a convertible MacBook with a multi-touch screen and real OS X that could be both a laptop and a tablet like my dad's Gateway. But obviously that's not happening (yet) from all the rumors. So whatever.
I'm not so much excited for a large iPod touch as I am for what future technologies it brings to the desktop computers in the future. If multitouch takes off even more because of this, I can see it making its way into the iMacs, MacBooks and ACD's by 2013 at the latest.
Can't believe it's only 3 days away. I'll be working, but god dammit, I will have my iPod touch with me and will be reloading constantly whatever site I am on from their free wifi network behind my deli counter during slow downtimes.
even more convinced now that the table won't go down the computing route. it just wouldn't be strong enough a contender to its main audiences i.e. professionals who traditionally want tablets and smartphones. Their needs are met by the iphone, blackberry, android phones or small netbooks. tablet can't compete with them for various reasons.
such a mystery, I don't think people will pay a lot of money for news anymore, not with so many free papers and internet sites around. don't envisage a spectacular spangled electronic interactive newspaper either - can you imagine how much work would have to go into that on a daily basis? for magazines its more feasible, but I don't think companies would devote resources they don't currently have to creating tablet magazine 'experiences'. the only way this would be even remotely possible would be if apple created a content management system where people just had to basically copy and paste text and add pictures or something. down side to this kind of approach is everything would be templated and more or less the same, and things like horizontal navigation (note: not referring to menu) would be almost non existent unless again, more work was done by jobs that don't currently exist. a lot of work goes into news websites guys! Don't just think a flashy PDF of a newspaper will satisfy the market either. News sites have video, related links, dynamic lists, comments and so on. for free.
That said the e-reader angle is still the most likely in my mind. But I'm leaning more towards serious gaming now as well, but I don't see either being a home run for apple. Media player just seems too stale to be a huge apple product. Fully expecting to be surprised and wowed.
such a mystery, I don't think people will pay a lot of money for news anymore, not with so many free papers and internet sites around. don't envisage a spectacular spangled electronic interactive newspaper either - can you imagine how much work would have to go into that on a daily basis? for magazines its more feasible, but I don't think companies would devote resources they don't currently have to creating tablet magazine 'experiences'. the only way this would be even remotely possible would be if apple created a content management system where people just had to basically copy and paste text and add pictures or something. down side to this kind of approach is everything would be templated and more or less the same, and things like horizontal navigation (note: not referring to menu) would be almost non existent unless again, more work was done by jobs that don't currently exist. a lot of work goes into news websites guys! Don't just think a flashy PDF of a newspaper will satisfy the market either. News sites have video, related links, dynamic lists, comments and so on. for free.
That said the e-reader angle is still the most likely in my mind. But I'm leaning more towards serious gaming now as well, but I don't see either being a home run for apple. Media player just seems too stale to be a huge apple product. Fully expecting to be surprised and wowed.
malingenie
Member
LOL @ kindle ads in this page
DeathbyVolcano
Banned
Oh man.
So are we going to assume that there's a big artistic draw to the tablet as well, based on the invites and design of the building?
So are we going to assume that there's a big artistic draw to the tablet as well, based on the invites and design of the building?
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Leaks incoming...DECK'ARD said:Apple are busy decorating the building for the press event, covering it with paint splodges by the looks of it:
Shit's getting real!
Question: How many 500 errors will this event cause on Wednesday?
DeathbyVolcano
Banned
Eh, I just wasn't sure. I thought it would've been a cool feature, anyway.
StrikerObi
Member
No ban bet or anything, but here's my list:
Hardware
- 10" or 10.1" LCD screen (def not OLED)
- The screen will have IPS, to facilitate maximum viewing angle (nobody has said this, but it makes a lot of sense and helps explain the supposedly $700+ price tag)
- Available in two capacity sizes: 32GB and 64GB.
- Capacitive multi-touch. No chance of haptic feedback.
- Accelerometer
- An optional 3G connection. It might be subsidized if you opt for one.
- It'll have WiFi and Bluetooth of course and (if you don't opt for 3G) could tether to an existing 3G connection (but probably not in America of course).
- Some sort of dock or stand or something to keep it propped up when you're using it for something like viewing a recipe and can't hold it in your hands, or for when you're on the couch and want to prop it on the coffee table.
- Support for bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so it can be used as a psudo-laptop when necessary. Not included though.
- Dual dock connectors (on bottom and one side) to dock either vertically or horizontally.
OS, Software, and UI
- It runs "OS X" (for tablet, in the sense that iPhone runs "OS X"... for iPhone)
- An iPhone style OS in that it will be locked down. No direct file system access.
- An interface similar to the iPhone's, but as others have said probably with room for widgets on the home screen.
- It'll have more horsepower than an iPhone, so some sort of real multi-tasking will be supported. Something similar to Expose will be used to switch apps.
- The ability to run many existing iPhone apps as widgets.(*see below for more detail)
- Local wireless syncing (or everywhere if you have 3G also, something akin to Kindle's WhisperSync) for iTunes-library media and iTunes purchases only, like an AppleTV. Buy a song/movie/app on one platform, and it auto-downloads to others either from iTunes or is transferred via Home Sharing when the tablet connects to that network.
- Full-on wireless syncing (for email, contacts, calendars, etc) will require a MobileMe account and an active internet connection (so if you don't have 3G, it won't sync until you connect it to a WiFi network).
- App Store. DUH.
- An eReader app with built in support for standard text/book formats like TXT RTF, DOC, PDF, etc. but true "ebooks" in something akin to the Kindle format will require their own reader.
- No standard "e-magazine/newspaper" reader. Publication Houses will each have their own news-stand app with access to their various publications.
Other/Related
- Cost: $699 (32GB) / $799 (64GB)
- Books now available on iTunes, also an iTunes Book Reader app for the tablet and iPhone.
- iPhone OS 4.0 revealed (since it will share a core with the Tablet, if they show a newer version of the OS on the tablet, there's no reason to hold back 'revealing' the iPhone version).
*While I think the tablet will have an accelerometer of it's own, I doubt it will be able to just simply run iPhone apps that use the accelerometer for precise control. The two devices are different sizes, and moving the tablet a little bit would scale to a much larger movement on an iPhone, and vice-versa. Though if the accelerometer APIs take this into account and automatically adjust (or developers program the adjustments in manually) then it could work. This only really pretains to fine-control. Knowing vertical from horizontal is easy. Controlling steering in a racing game requires much more precise control.
Hardware
- 10" or 10.1" LCD screen (def not OLED)
- The screen will have IPS, to facilitate maximum viewing angle (nobody has said this, but it makes a lot of sense and helps explain the supposedly $700+ price tag)
- Available in two capacity sizes: 32GB and 64GB.
- Capacitive multi-touch. No chance of haptic feedback.
- Accelerometer
- An optional 3G connection. It might be subsidized if you opt for one.
- It'll have WiFi and Bluetooth of course and (if you don't opt for 3G) could tether to an existing 3G connection (but probably not in America of course).
- Some sort of dock or stand or something to keep it propped up when you're using it for something like viewing a recipe and can't hold it in your hands, or for when you're on the couch and want to prop it on the coffee table.
- Support for bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so it can be used as a psudo-laptop when necessary. Not included though.
- Dual dock connectors (on bottom and one side) to dock either vertically or horizontally.
OS, Software, and UI
- It runs "OS X" (for tablet, in the sense that iPhone runs "OS X"... for iPhone)
- An iPhone style OS in that it will be locked down. No direct file system access.
- An interface similar to the iPhone's, but as others have said probably with room for widgets on the home screen.
- It'll have more horsepower than an iPhone, so some sort of real multi-tasking will be supported. Something similar to Expose will be used to switch apps.
- The ability to run many existing iPhone apps as widgets.(*see below for more detail)
- Local wireless syncing (or everywhere if you have 3G also, something akin to Kindle's WhisperSync) for iTunes-library media and iTunes purchases only, like an AppleTV. Buy a song/movie/app on one platform, and it auto-downloads to others either from iTunes or is transferred via Home Sharing when the tablet connects to that network.
- Full-on wireless syncing (for email, contacts, calendars, etc) will require a MobileMe account and an active internet connection (so if you don't have 3G, it won't sync until you connect it to a WiFi network).
- App Store. DUH.
- An eReader app with built in support for standard text/book formats like TXT RTF, DOC, PDF, etc. but true "ebooks" in something akin to the Kindle format will require their own reader.
- No standard "e-magazine/newspaper" reader. Publication Houses will each have their own news-stand app with access to their various publications.
Other/Related
- Cost: $699 (32GB) / $799 (64GB)
- Books now available on iTunes, also an iTunes Book Reader app for the tablet and iPhone.
- iPhone OS 4.0 revealed (since it will share a core with the Tablet, if they show a newer version of the OS on the tablet, there's no reason to hold back 'revealing' the iPhone version).
*While I think the tablet will have an accelerometer of it's own, I doubt it will be able to just simply run iPhone apps that use the accelerometer for precise control. The two devices are different sizes, and moving the tablet a little bit would scale to a much larger movement on an iPhone, and vice-versa. Though if the accelerometer APIs take this into account and automatically adjust (or developers program the adjustments in manually) then it could work. This only really pretains to fine-control. Knowing vertical from horizontal is easy. Controlling steering in a racing game requires much more precise control.
StrikerObi
Member
Tobor said:
Great piece. This was obviously spurred by YouTube's HTML5 beta, but I'm surprised he didn't mention it in the piece itself.
YouTube in HTML5 is the best thing to happen to the web in a long time. Step 1 to throwing off the shackles of Flash. YouTube has got to be the most-visited site on the web that uses Flash. Once all the browsers (IE, FireFox, Safari, Chrome -- 2 down 2 to go) support HTML5 video with h.264, YouTube can flip a switch and make HTML5 the default. Flash will just disappear off of their site, and slowly other sites will fall like dominoes. Flash YouTube will remain of course, and videos that can't be converted to h.264 will continue to run in the Flash player. That doesn't matter though. As soon as HTML5 becomes the default (rather than the option), Flash is dead.
Keyser Soze
Member
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
StrikerObi said:
well as much as i can't wait to see flash disappear, i think its going to take more than youtube.
flash adverts and page decoration/navigation are all over the place, and afaik (love to be told otherwise though) there are no tools that come close to adobe's flash authoring stuff for html 5/css based ads. hell the text in html 5 canvas is still boned. i'm not sure css 3 would really cut it compared to flash either.
panda21 said:
None of that matters to users, though. The issue has always been video, the rest is secondary. Once the bulk of video is in HTML5, and advertisers realize that their flash ads aren't reaching a large percentage of browsers, the rest will fall into place pretty quickly.
jamieson87
Member
SephCast said:
Why so tense? :lol
StrikerObi
Member
panda21 said:
It's not a giant iPhone. It is just similar in that it will be touch-based and probably use the style of rounded-square app icons. There's enough room to have multiple apps open, so I don't think apps will be required to run in full-screen. It'd be up to the developer.
This is all conjecture, but I'm imagining something that splits the gap between the iPhone's interface and the Mac's interface.
Instead of iPhone's Springboard, imagine a combination of the Dock and the Dashboard on OS X. Now, instead of being covered in widgets, it has icons to launch applications. You summon and dismiss it with a "Home" button. Call up the "Dockboard" and you can see the grid of all your apps. There's a dock of most-used apps at the bottom, and above that you can scroll pages. Or maybe when you hit the home button, instead of a whole dashboard, the screen just "scrolls" a third or half-way up, revealing a dock of apps (the same effect as when you show the "widget dock" on OS X's dashboard).
Touch an app to launch it and the Dockboard disappears and the app opens. Maybe it fills up the whole screen, but maybe it just shows up on your "desktop" along with a few other open apps and widgets.
The active window has a frame around it, and the others don't. If you tap another app it takes focus and gets a border. If you touch and hold it for, you can drag it around the desktop. If you hold it for few seconds a set of options shows up to do things like minimize, maximize, close, etc. The same set of options shows up when you hold the top of the active app's frame.
Tobor said:
But does HTML5 and H.264 permit managed advertising? ...it doesnt on youtube (yet)
Until the actually publishers of online/on-demand video (which isnt user-generated) can control the advertising revenue streams of their videos using HTML5 i cant see it kicking off mainstream.
StopMakingSense
Member
guise said:
I imagine would be the same as it is on flash, you code it yourself, which is damn easy to do.
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
Looking bk on Apple's old invite, the picture was a small message; I wonder how/if this is too..
Maaaaan! Oh Apple, why can't you be a normal company!!! 
Maaaaan! Oh Apple, why can't you be a normal company!!! 
StrikerObi
Member
panda21 said:
But nobody installs flash to look at page decoration/navigation and ads. They install it for video (and games).
Flash will always be around, especially for games. But the only reason Flash is an 800 pound gorilla is because of video. At a certain point, if/when all or most video runs in HTML5, I won't need to have Flash installed anymore. I don't play flash games, and I'm not going to keep Flash installed just so I can look at those awesome flash-based ads. I'll be happy as a pig in shit when those flash-ads can't load (I use ClickToFlash for now).
YouTube is just the first domino. Lots of users only USE flash for video. As a side effect, lots of companies can take advantage of this and create their whole site in Flash and other sites can put flash ads on their pages. But if people stop needing Flash for video, then for lots of them, there's no reason to keep it installed. In turn, companies will stop creating pages and ads in Flash. In this way, Flash continues to lose dominance until it disappears. You can see this already happening a little bit thanks to the iPhone. CEO of a Fortune 500 company can't access his company's website on his iPhone because the site is in Flash. He tells the web guys to "fix it" (which means axing Flash and making a new site).
Though in reality Joe Average won't uninstall Flash once he doesn't need it. It'll just languish on his system. But when he buys a next computer, he won't install Flash because he will never be prompted to install it to watch a video on YouTube. This is the way Flash dies.
StrikerObi said:
i see your point, but there are some (bad bad bad) sites that actually require flash to navigate properly and use the site at all. those sites are still going to prompt people to install flash, and although i can imagine that minority will shrink, it will take a while
i mean safari/os x comes with a built in flash plugin now so you don't even have a choice about installing it, although i guess you could delete it :lol
Shogmaster
Sloppy seconds
What's hilarious is that in this case, you have the DC and I have the PS2 since TPC are far more powerful.Kano On The Phone said:
Technosteve
Banned
I just turned my pc in to a mac over the weekend, what i really don't like about the mac os x is the single window model, i can't do side by side windows with out a script. Since iphone is limited to one object window at a time it's not a big deal, but for the tablet if i want to browse the web and watch a video at the same time will it let me?
My predictions:
- 10.1" transflective display
- Home button, but it does not take you 'home' like on the iPhone. What it does is pop up a dock, a la OS X, where you can launch iPhone and tablet specific apps as well as items like books that you've added to it for quicker access. The dock is not a permanent fixture on the screen, only appearing when it's specifically accessed (unlike iPhone where its 'dock' is there 100% of the time that you're not in an app).
- In the dock, applications are capable of opening multiple windows, which show up in stacks the same as OS X.
- Books come with tools such as highlight, clip, bookmark, and underlining/free writing through use of your finger.
- Moderate storage on the device. Apple pushes the tablet's connectivity with iTunes on your Mac/PC and its ability to stream movies and TV shows through a subscription model.
- Apple adds the option of a monthly subscription service for TV and/or movies, where you can stream the shows immediately to the tablet.
- iWorks '10 is an HTML5 service that stores your notes/documents from class and work in the cloud so that there is no finder visible to the user on the tablet. The OS gives an option of saving PDFs and other files directly to iWorks/iDisk.
- The device does not have integrated 3G/4G access or, it is access much like the Kindle where people can download eBooks but they have to be within range of WiFi to browse web pages, etc.
- Status