Why Everyone Has High Hopes For Apple Tablet 596
waderoush writes "The deafening roar of anticipation around Apple's expected 'iSlate' announcement on January 27 is strange, to say the least, given the public's utter apathy about tablet computers to date. What's going on? Xconomy's analysis makes three points. 1) Previous tablet makers have shown little imagination around UIs and how a touchscreen changes things. 2) With the iPhone, Apple has shown what's possible in this regard. 3) There's latent demand for a mobile computing device that's smaller and lighter than a laptop but has more screen real estate than a smartphone — something reminiscent of a Star Trek tricorder or PADD. Hence the hopes for the iSlate — which are so high that it may be difficult for even Apple to meet them."
Re:I hate fake media hype (Score:2, Informative)
The U.S. Northeast does not thaw out in February.
Try April or May.
Article is myopic, overlooking past examples (Score:5, Informative)
No mention of Go Corporation and PenPoint (Jerry Kaplan's _StartUp_ should be required reading for everyone who writes anything about pen computing). The NCR-3125 came out in 1991, running one's choice of Windows for Pen Computing or PenPoint.
Fujitsu in particular has been doing pen computers running various versions of Windows for a long while, w/ models of the Fujitsu Stylistic ranging from the 500 (1993 or so) to the contemporary ST6012.
William
(whose NCR-3125 was donated to the Smithsonian by the guy he sold it to)
Re:FIRST!!!! well almost (Score:2, Informative)
...but Apple's been known to make fairly large mis-steps before in other areas (camera in the nano, not the Touch; Apple TV; Newton; one-button mouse; etc)
For the record, I don't see the problem with the one-button mouse.
I suppose it's a problem for people with just one hand, but given that you have control and command and option keys on the keyboard, I've never seen why it's important to put more buttons on the mouse.
Re:I hate fake media hype (Score:3, Informative)
Re:FIRST!!!! well almost (Score:3, Informative)
Re:1 word. Niche application (Score:3, Informative)
With virtualization I can run BSD (FreeBSD and Dragonfly BSD in my case), Linux (usually CentOS), Windows Vista, or whatever else I want to run. I have a real UNIX host OS with nearly all the tools that I need/want (hey, apple, where's my 'vmstat' ? seriously... wtf?), and when I want to relax and work on hobby stuff I can run Photoshop and Lightroom (I've made a hobby of photography on and off since I was about 12 and recently made the switch from 35mm to digital SLR to encourage myself to go out and shoot more).
I used to make fun of Mac hard core before OS X came along, and took a really long time to get into it, but now that I work with it a lot, I'm pretty impressed. I studied literature and history in college and know a lot of art school people through my sister, so I always knew a lot of Mac users. I wouldn't say I'm particularly artistic (photography is every bit as much a science as it as an art, but I can't really draw for shit... I'm a half-decent writer though). That said, I'm actually kind of excited about the possibility of an "iSlate" myself.
I have a Wacom tablet and I can doodle fairly efficiently (about as well as I'm able to) on it in Illustrator, but if I didn't have the disconnect between where I was drawing and where the picture was appearing, it'd be nice. If the tablet had a little thing for a stylus like a Palm Pilot and used the Inkwell stuff natively so I didn't have to get my grubby fingers over the screen all the time, then I think it'd be something nice to just chill out with on the sofa and read or sketch. Whether or not it'd be good for "serious" art work or anything, I don't know, but I'm not a serious artist so my opinion doesn't really matter on it.
A lot of tablet devices in the past have seemed like they might be neat, but turn out to be sort of #fail. If this is done right, then I think that it would be really popular and depending on pricing I may be inclined to pick one up in the future (I doubt I'd be a first-gen adopter). Otherwise, this might just turn out to be an expensive gamble, but there will still be a lot of people who buy them and use them just 'cause its an Apple product and convince themselves its bad-ass to avoid buyer's remorse.
However, its not official yet so there isn't really anything to get worked up about with this specific product. Time will tell and if its real, then I'll be willing to at least check it out.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:CES 2010 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Oh, my poor rotator cuffs (Score:3, Informative)
...only the Troll whine about Crysis.
Actual users use them in their intended limited role which is not
so much a problem because a lot of users aren't bothering with
games that require overpriced gear anyways.
That was probably the biggest point of the netbook: most modern PCs
are highly underutilized and people can get by with a lot less than
what is being pushed at them.
Re:iSlate? (Score:3, Informative)
If Apple hasn't even announced the damned thing yet, then why are we calling it the "iSlate"? Has slashdot really sunken so far as to making up product names for products that don't even exist? What is wrong with just saying "speculated Apple tablet"?
Because Apple has trademarked the name "iSlate". They did this through a dummy company they set up. They also aquired "islate.com". They may not end up using it but they have shown interest enough to pay money to make it theirs. This is BTW the same thing they did when reserving the name "iPhone". If nothing else, to give a name in the rumors that such trademarks create.
Pants are overrated. (Score:4, Informative)
Pants are overrated. May I recommend a Utilikilt? They're sturdy, and have pockets. ... if you live in a windy environment, you may want to wear some underwear. Also, watch out for cold metal chairs.
Pants are less overrated than I originally implied, but kilts are still [sometimes] awesome. ;)
Re:1 word. Niche application (Score:5, Informative)
iMac comes in the 3GHz Core 2, i5 and the i7. You may want to go to apple.com and click on the big f'n picture of the iMac before you post next time...
I do agree with you on the "slow" model refresh, but I haven't notice a real need to be on the bleeding edge either...
Re:FIRST!!!! well almost (Score:3, Informative)
Personally, there's a Best Buy around the corner where you can buy one. If you don't want to leave your room, type newegg.com in your browser and buy it there instead.
Who is better equipped to buy and plug in a more advanced mouse? You or the guy described above?
Keep in mind that on Macs it's not even "go buy another one" anymore; it's "open up System Preferences, click on Mouse, and enable the second button".
Anecdotes are evidence? Hardly... (Score:2, Informative)
Anecdotes are not evidence. I'd have thought most people on Slashdot would get this. But once again, we see the mod abuse: factual information is modded down because it disagrees with the worldview of an Apple fan, whilst your anec
Let's see market share data. Have they breached even 10% yet? And if you're a mod reading this, have the decency to respond with a rational argument, rather than modding down just because you can't bear that some posts an argument that you are incapable of refuting.
By this childhood reasoning, I might as well claim that Amigas aren't a niche, because I have a load in my room. Which is it?