New Apple Lust Objects

u r pt of the problem

a tablet with a keyboard aka a laptop?

I'm definitely curious to see what Apple do in this area. You kinda think they would have made a tablet by know, but the existence of the MacBook Air suggests to me they have gone as small as they want to with a physically keyboard (and it also demonstrates that they fundamentally do not get the ultra-portable btw).

And I want puppies and unicorns and rainbows.

Would probably go for a tablet. Inkwell does pretty good with even my handwriting so they have the chops there. Will definitely be in the market for the stand and keyboard accessories, though.

ok cozen is right, you are part of the problem. ; )

i think they'll do the tablet and promote it like a big iPod touch. Rumors say it may have verizon internet but not voice, so you can walk around with this thing, watch movies on it while commuting, use it for gps, jot notes in it, check email etc, just not use it for serious work.

excuse me if I say tht sounds shit

I think it sounds great; browsing on the phone/touch sucks, as does reading pdfs, writing emails longer than a sentence. Though I'm not sure how they'll making data entry a pleasure on a tablet-sized console either.

i'd like a computer that sat on top of a desk... do u think they'll come out with one?

Umm. I write a shitload on my iPhone -- including this, right now -- and yeh, although it's not perfect, I can't see how it could be any better given the size of the thing.

I'm assuming the tablet would be substantially bigger, in which case I'd be just as well with my trusty 12" PowerBook, no? Basically: anything even fractionally bigger than my iPhone isn't something practical to keep in a pocket; if it has to go in my bag, it might as well be a laptop.

lol at putting a tablet computer in yr pocket

that's a big-ass pocket

all the tablet rumors i've heard have seemed like wishful thinking or the pronouncements of known and reliably wrong commentators. the FT is not a reliable source. if it was the WSJ or NYT then maybe.

I'm assuming the tablet would be substantially bigger, in which case I'd be just as well with my trusty 12" PowerBook, no? Basically: anything even fractionally bigger than my iPhone isn't something practical to keep in a pocket; if it has to go in my bag, it might as well be a laptop.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:16 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i feel this

appletablets gonna be wildly successful lyin around on the couch surfin teh net ebook readin device - add a peripheral keyboard to stand it up and and make a lil ol laptop - students will love it w/the etextbooks on there and the small footprint for classroom note takin

All you people hating on the tablet secretly own a Kindle

lol at putting a tablet computer in yr pocket

Yeh, but to me that's pretty much what the iPhone *is*: a computer that, awesomely, fits in my pocket. And because of that, I'll forgive it its inevitable input flaws.

Anything even a bawhair bigger, though: why am I not going to want a proper keyboard? Unless I'm missing the point big-time, keyboards are REALLY FUCKING GOOD for TYPING AND THAT. A tablet is going to be a crap combination of size and stupid, unreliable input, I fear.

u all are really way underestimating the whole ebook aspect of this

Yeah, basically this is about having something more usable for a lot of what the iPhone already does. And even using wifi the iPhone is pretty slow on rendering webpages, compared to a laptop; presumably the tablet would be better equipped for that.

appletablets gonna be wildly successful lyin around on the couch surfin teh net ebook readin device

You might be right ... I just can't help feeling: "Yeh, but I can do that with either my laptop or my phone". Having a screen that needs a peripheral keyboard doesn't appeal at all ...

... although lecture notes: hmm.

it would be awesome if people did use it as a phone and put this 7-inch thing up to their heads

Not going to happen.

The tablet I mean. People be putting 7" things up to their heads all the time amirite.

http://jamericanmuslimah.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/old_cellphone.jpg

I'm really lolling at this because we were joking on Saturday about getting an iPhone the size of the giant fake display ones at the Apple/AT&T stores in the mall and it seems like Apple overheard us and was like "Actually...."

e-paper makes a huge difference, too. the iphone screen is great-looking, but ePaper's still better to read on

seriously, the tablet rumour has been around for a decade. nothing has changed and there is no new information. i don't get this fait accompli.

The rumors seem pretty substantial right now, pointing toward 2010 release though.

The price is gonna suck on this, though: I bet we're talking US $700-$800.

i give the FT a bit more cred than AppleRumors, and it's no surprise that music biz is leaky as all shit, so that story definitely took it into "possible" from "no way at all", which is what I had been thinking

"pretty substantial"?

there are 16m college students in the us alone - within a few years there will not be any more printed text books - once all those kids have ebook readers ebooks will become way more popular and more people will want ebook readers - a lot of people will look at the itablet and say o its a good size and shape for reading books its surfs teh nets sends emails etc hey I AM GOING TO REPLACE MY HOME COMPUTER W/THIS THING

Thinking about this: fuck, all I really want is quality handwriting recognition on the iPhone. And a little stylus or something.

Look, an exclusive photo of the new tablet:

http://www.touchpodium.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/giant-iphone-mac-os-x.jpg

People are repeating the same stories. People are reporting on speculation. There is no primary source for this. It's just an echo chamber. It happens every time and it's always wrong.

The FT story: UK papers have never got an Apple scoop right.

within a few years there will not be any more printed text books

Unless every school in America suddenly doubles their endowment, this is not happening.

(Apart from a music one, I think FT got iTunes Store)

fuck 1 stylus

I get this btw: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/07/01/megnut-iphone

Don't think there's a gap for a product between iPhone and Laptop that wouldn't be worse than either.

Good to see tablets being a success on Windows though.

The appleinsider stories are the ones that have the air of truth to me, but of course this is just rumors. Def. not "always wrong" though: rumors about iPhone were around for a while.

I agree w/that as well. Mac Pro + iPhone is much better setup right now than trying to keep desktop/laptop in sync or trying to use laptop as primary

xp

Also, this current round of tableting is essentially a music one again

Unless every school in America suddenly doubles their endowment, this is not happening.

― Four-TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN! (HI DERE), Tuesday, July 28, 2009 10:34 AM (2 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they can easily make the same profits from ebooks as printed books - the students save the printing costs and the school saves distro costs and everybodys happy

The failure of Windows tablets is largely the failure of Windows, right? I tried out tablets a few years and they were the suck wrt input; handwriting recog was ass, e.g.

xxxp yes, appleinsider have been on an amazing hot streak for a couple of years now and their ideas are intriguing to me.

they can easily make the same profits from ebooks as printed books - the students save the printing costs and the school saves distro costs and everybodys happy

i think it's fun to say "oh let's predict the future," but until an ebook reader comes out that everyone is happy with (i.e. students can take notes on them and highlight texts) books totally going away in colleges ain't gonna happen

Don't think there's a gap for a product between iPhone and Laptop that wouldn't be worse than either

Exactly. At least: not yet. But it does depend what happens with eBooks ... don't think that's going to be quite as fast a development as is being suggested on this thread, though.

i linked to this in the kindle thread, interesting--they're getting there with digital books but it's not perfect yet

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203577304574277041750084938.html#printMode

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_baker

lol like students read anyway, what matter is that they have FACEBOOK