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Hardware Hacking Businesses Apple

Tablet Mac Becomes Reality 276

Posted by CmdrTaco from the with-a-little-elbow-grease dept.
teknokracy writes "MacMod has a story about a unique Mac hack. Joseph DeRuvo Jr. says: 'As a Photographer and a Dyslexic the idea of being able to use a Tablet as a platform for showing photographs, editing, and an extension of my badly organized memory is very appealing. ... So taking matters into my own hands I cut into a Dual USB iBook and didn't look back.' It seems our intrepid hardware hacker hasn't just flipped around the LCD and added a semi-functioning touch screen - he's completely engineered a new kind of mac portable, complete with a CF reader, properly installed touch sensor, and topped it all off by properly engineering it all into an Ives-worthy design. With all the trouble these particular iBook models have experienced, why not hack one up for fun and turn it in to something useful?"
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Tablet Mac Becomes Reality More

Tablet Mac Becomes Reality

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  • Sweet hack! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by IO ERROR ( 128968 ) <[su.rorreoi] [ta] [rorre]> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:02PM (#11066437) Homepage Journal
    Sweet Hack! One thing concerns me, though: he had to remove the keyboard. How in the world does he type on this thing?

    • Re:Sweet hack! (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Writer ( 746272 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:12PM (#11066506)

      How in the world does he type on this thing?

      Using Inkwell [apple.com], which is part of OS X. I've read [beanblossom.in.us] that it was developed from the handwriting recognition technology developed for the Newton.

      • Ob. Simpsons Quote (Score:5, Funny)

        by Zorilla ( 791636 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:16PM (#11066524)
        Kearney: "Hey, Dolph - take a memo on your Newton: beat up Martin."

        Eat up Martha.

        Kearney: "Bah!" (throws the Newton and it hits Martin in the head)
        • I can't find a link, but I read somewhere that the reason the Newton sucked that way is because John Scully didn't understand that recognising print handwriting rather than cursive handwriting was the way to go. Print is more feasible than cursive from a programming perspective, yet he insisted on cursive.

          • Re:Ob. Simpsons Quote (Score:4, Funny)

            by macmurph ( 622189 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @01:45PM (#11066958)
            I printed "Chris" into a Compaq iPaq and it recognized it as "Anus". I nearly died on the floor from laughing.

            A true story!

            In contrast, the Newton 2100 handwriting recognition is still considered awesome.

            I once had a chance to play with one. I signed my name and it recognized my signature and converted it to text...I was blown away.

          • the newton can do both, and you set which one you want to use. I quite like the cursive recognizer, and have it set to that, but the print recognizer is great too.

            as far as i understand it there are separate engines for each. you set which one you prefer when you're setting up your newton, and it uses the one you set.

            long live the newt :-)

            -Leigh
        • That kind of rubbish handwriting recognition was only true on the early Newtons, when Apple licensed the technology from someone else. In the end, they dumped it and wrote their own, giving much better results in the later models.

          Microsoft now license the original software for us on the Pocket PC.

          • Re:Ob. Simpsons Quote (Score:4, Interesting)

            by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @04:41PM (#11067827)
            "Microsoft now license the original software for us on the Pocket PC."

            The Transcriber handwriting recognition on the Pocket PC is a modified version of Calligrapher, from PhatWare. It was not developed by Apple.

            The block recognizer is based on Graffiti licensed from Xerox. The letter recognizer is based on Jot licensed from CIC, the same company that developed Graffiti 2.

      • Re:Sweet hack! (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Lycestra ( 16353 )
        The engine was named "Rosetta"

        proof that Mac OS X has the same engine, the easter eggs from the Newton still work on Mac OS X.

        A friend who has more consistent handwriting than I showed me. Write out Rosetta 3 times, and you will get "Rosetta Rosetta Hey, that's me!" Same thing happened on the Newton.

  • Google Cache (Score:2, Informative)

    by Dugsmyname ( 451987 )
    Mirror of the page is available via Google cache [216.239.63.104]

  • Poor iBooks (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:04PM (#11066446)
    With all the trouble these particular iBook models have experienced...

    Not to mention what its users have gone through.

  • Just curious... (Score:5, Funny)

    by vidnet ( 580068 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:04PM (#11066454) Homepage
    Could this potentially void my warranty?

  • Tablet PC (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FiReaNGeL ( 312636 ) <fireang3l@@@hotmail...com> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:05PM (#11066455) Homepage
    To me the real market of Tablet PCs have always been Mac users : they love cute, functional stuff, are often designers / artists / scientists... But Apple probably doesn't think its worth it. If only they were not this expensive... I would get one in an heartbeat.

    • Re:Tablet PC (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ninthwave ( 150430 ) <slashdot@ninthwave.us> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:18PM (#11066536) Homepage
      Having to work with engineers who do field inspections. Tablets are very much appreciated by people in many different areas. Just imagine any profession that used a clip board pre digital and you have a place where a tablet can be used.

      • RE: field inspections (Score:3, Insightful)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 )
        Yeah... but as someone who worked in I.T. in a factory environment before, I've seen the way most portables (and even PDAs) get treated by most "field inspectors" and the like.

        They're dirty, beat-up and left sitting in rather harsh environments on a regular basis.

        Perhaps that's the real reason Apple hasn't been thrilled to build a pen-based tablet computer. They're all about elegance and building a machine a user can really be proud to own, and will take exceptionally good care of.

        (Don't believe me? Wh

    • Re:Tablet PC (Score:3, Interesting)

      by pben ( 22734 )
      The first thing that Steve Jobs did when he returned was to kill the Newton. We all know that Jobs never makes mistakes, so if it uses a "pen" it will not have a Apple logo on it.

  • Site already down... (Score:5, Informative)

    by AtOMiCNebula ( 660055 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:05PM (#11066457) Journal
    The site is already down. Using the NYUD cache [nyud.net] of it shows a message that the site is down...MirrorDot [mirrordot.org] has it though.

  • Id hit it!! (Score:5, Informative)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:05PM (#11066459) Journal
    If Apple released a tablet computer (oops sorry, can't use the English word 'Tablet' anymore its owned by MS) i think they'd take the market - make it a little bit smaller tho and im sure they would manage to fit a slide-out keybord in there too!

  • TabletPC = Bad idea? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by elh_inny ( 557966 )
    I don't how many will agree but I'd never buy a TabletPC if I had other options.
    What I like about laptops is that when it's closed, the LCD screen is protected.
    Whether it's coding or writing a novel keyboard is still the way to go.
    TabletPC is a Microsoft marketing strategy, but to me it's in beta stage as the technology such as handwriting a voice recognition is simply not ready yet, it works sometimes but not good enough for production environment.
    • Toshiba has one with a swivel screen. Thus, protecting the screen and it has a keyboard.
      http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cm o d.to?coid=- 26373&sel=0&rcid=-26367&ccid=1291021&seg=HHO&sel=1 &src=AMEM&WT.srch=1

      Judging from the specs, I bet Linux would run fine on it. I don't own one (yet) but they appeal to me because it would be great for graphic editing and web browsing -- especially when used in the laptop configuration where you can type and touch hyperlinks on the screen

    • Re:TabletPC = Bad idea? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Reverberant ( 303566 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:25PM (#11066570) Homepage

      I recently bought a Tablet PC off eBay (Compaq TC1000) for use in a data acquisition system. I can see how the Tablet PC might be useful for certain vertical applications (like my own), but IMHO it's not a very good platform for general computing.

      Suprisingly, the handwriting recognition is not that bad (with SP2). The biggest problem I've found is that the OS is simply XP with a few "tablet" features bolted on. The Tablet PC really needs an interface developed from the ground up to make use of the pen-based interface.

      For example: As we all know, Windows uses the second mouse button for contextual menus - some of these menus are not easily accessible (or accessible at all!) using left-clicks. Left clicks and left double-clicks can be done by tapping the pen, but right-clicking is done (on my machine at least) by holding the pen to the screen for a few seconds. This is pretty kludgey; the contextual menu pops up at unwanted times, like when I'm trying to drag-and-drop icons, or maybe when I'm thinking for a moment and I'm letting the pen rest on the screen.

      That's one example, but their are others. Like I said, the handwriting recognition isn't too bad, but it's awkward for entering things like URLS (despite some helpful tools such as ".com" buttons). My model is "convertible" tablet, and I find that 90% of the time I'm using it in laptop mode.

      YMMV

      • Two-button issues? That's where a Mac tablet would come in -- the OS is designed such that you can do pretty much anything with one button only -- that's why the second button, when it exists, just sends control+click on a Mac. Microsoft needs to take a cue from Apple and redesign Windows in general to be clean enough to use with one button -- it'd make tablet and accessibility a lot easier.
    • How is this flamebait? If anything, history has shown us that since the days of the first typewriters, the keyboard comes very close to the ideal data input device. Even if you only type a URL every now and then, anything but a keyboard is inconvenient, slow and clumsy. The recent handwriting and speech recognition products actually work very well, yet all this stuff never really took off. I think the reason for that is simple: typing on a keyboard is still the best way to enter text, and likely always will
    • You have no idea what a TabletPC is, do you? Most TabletPC's out there are basically just laptops with the ability to flip the screen over and lay it flat to make a tablet. So there is nothing you can do with a regular laptop that you can't with a TabletPC.
    • >What I like about laptops is that when it's closed, the LCD screen is protected.
      >
      You can get a case for most tablets that protects the screen while still allowing you to use it (try using your laptop when it is closed ;)).

      I bought my tablet used, probably from somebody who thought this would be a good replacement for his laptop, it isn't. However, it is great for web browsing, reading email, taking notes, monitoring other devices, and reading eBooks. For $20 a month, I have access to the entire

    • For coding or novel writing? Sure. Bad idea. But as a clipboard replacement? How about this - would you like to ditch your old trusty clipboard that you carry around and use standing up for eight hours a day with.... a laptop? I think tablets can be extremely useful without handwriting or voice recognition. They just need durability (for the outside crowd) and extremely accurate pen positioning (for the art crowd).

      As an aside, on the subject of HWR - I just don't need it. Until it is virtually perfect in

  • It's not unique (Score:5, Informative)

    by Reverberant ( 303566 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:08PM (#11066478) Homepage
    It's been done before [archive.org]
    • That thing looked more like an Etch-a-Sketch.

  • He could have saved a lot of bulk! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ben Jackson ( 30284 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @12:20PM (#11066545) Homepage
    I'm amazed at the interior shots. He didn't even take the plastic cases off of things like the flash card reader or the firewire hub he added. He didn't even solder the new USB cables directly to the devices -- there are entire molded plastic plugs in there!
    • He couldn't have saved a lot of bulk, because he was using a pre-made casing. No matter how empty he made the inside, the outside is still going to have the same dimensions.

      I'd prefer to look at it as room for creativity. What else would be useful (and not too heavy) for a computer like this one? My first thought would be a slide-out keyboard, like the mouse on my dad's tiny laptop. Push a button, and *shoop* a keyboard which is supported on your desk-surface. (This allows you to save a LOT of bulk in supp

    • Re:He could have saved a lot of bulk! (Score:5, Informative)

      by photoworkplace ( 839658 ) <joseph@photoworkplace.com> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @03:05PM (#11067354)
      Listen I'm no engineer I do not have a machine shop available to me, I did the best I could to get the thing working. I could not save any more room then the height of the hard drive, the flash card reader case had the guide rails for loading the flash cards in,( I did not want bent pins, or to fumble with trying to get the card seated when I am in a hurry ) Also, I wanted to be able to remove the individual components when I needed to, I had already gone through one bad USB hub. So that's where I was coming from.
  • With all the trouble these particular iBook models have experienced

    What trouble is that? I have one of those and I'm quite happy with it (although I use it as a second system only). Can someone explain?
    • the logic board is known to fail quite often. apple has an extended repair program.

      http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/

      • Um, it doesn't fail "quite often", and only affects models within a certain serial number range.

        I got my 'Book in October 2001 and it has been flawless. Besides, a problem is only really a problem if there is no fix, and the link you posted details a quick, free fix.

        Seriously, Apple's white iBooks have been rock-solid for everybody I know who has one. Because of its value and durability it's one of the best-selling laptops of all time. Just because a batch has been identified with a specific (potential

        • I second that.

          I've owned a dual-usb white ibook since late 2001/early 2002 and have had no troubles with it.

          I was lucky in that I didn't get one with the faulty logic board and have loved using it. They are solid laptops and nowhere near as clunky as most of the PC based laptops I see which seem to like the idea of large volumes and bulky components. :(

          My only gripes with Apple's iBook:

          • No PCCARD or CARDBUS slots.
          • Software locked against using iDVD. (No good reason for this since there are external DVD

        • Re:What trouble? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by FuzzieNorn ( 203503 ) <fuzzieNO@SPAMwarpedgames.com> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @02:21PM (#11067145) Homepage
          'quick, free fix'? Hah! My G3 iBook logic board failed about once a month for the last 9 months or so.. I got it in November 2002, first failure was in late 2003. They kept replacing the board for free, only for it to fail again a month later. 'temporary hack', perhaps, but not 'fix'.

          Mind you .. phoned them up last time it failed and asked if they'd replace it (hadn't asked before because I didn't want to be without the iBook, and they were giving me 3-day turnarounds on the repairs), they took one look at my repair history and agreed, and I'm now typing on a brand new 1.2ghz iBook G4.

          Admittedly my history is much worse than all the other iBook owners I know who own machines from the serial number range, but most of them have had at least one logic board failure. Note that the serial number range covers *years* worth of the iBook models, it's not just a single batch.
  • They should have fairly low power consumption and the LCD panel is about the right size to fit in most people's center console. Plus, you can put wifi on them trivially. Just add USB GPS and some navigation software... woops! You can only get nav software for windows. (You can get map software for Mac or Unix...)
    • Untrue - Route 66 [66.com] works just fine on my Mac with a USB GPS receiver, thank you very much.

      • First of all, Route 66 is the name of the company, not the product. What product are we discussing? If it's Route USA for Macintosh, it doesn't appear to be navigation software, but map software, just like Microsoft Streets and Trips, but unlike (for example) Delorme Street Atlas, which will announce to you (verbally or using ideograms) when a turn is approaching and which way you need to go.

        If it does navigation, it certainly doesn't say so on their webpage. Sounds to me like you have only provided me

        • It most certainly does do navigation - I've used it many times, it works pretty well. The main gripe I have with it is that it doesn't automagically reorient the map when you change direction, and as you mention, it doesn't verbally announce turns.

          But it does route-planning, route-recalculation (albeit with manual triggers), and has Points of Interest for all the areas I've visited.
          • Not verbally announcing turns is inexecusable on any OS that includes a speech synthesizer. That includes Windows XP, and MacOS since 8.0. (IIRC not all macs that could handle speech came with speech stuff for some reason, but I might misremember.)

            Streets and trips has route planning, manual recalculation, avoid areas, and construction information via the 'net, but it lacks the announcements (even prerecorded samples could do the job, frankly) or in fact any means of handling waypoints and GPS, which is w

          • I agree about the speech thing. I've found Route 66 to be incredibly crummy program in general though. It has been unable to find addresses on several occasions (when other software could), and the interface is horrible. I've actually started using Microsoft MapPoint on a Virtual PC (which has several great plugins, including a turn-by-turn voice direction one. It's too bad - one of my major reservations about getting a Mac was the lack of mapping/navigation software. Seems it was justified.
    • I haven' t actually tried Route 66's Route 2004 [66.com] yet but it looks nice and I've heard very good things about it. If you are looking for GPS road navigation software for OSX I'd give it a shot, it's only $40.

      If you are looking for maritime navigation only then there are lots of options out there.
      • Route 2004 is not a navigation package. Route 66 does have a navigation package for PowerPC but they don't appear to have one for Windows or MacOS. This is why I mentioned map and navigation software separately in my comment. Route 2004 seems to be the same thing as Microsoft's Streets and Trips, though they have a Mac version. It's a map program; it does route planning but no route tracking which makes it pretty useless in the car. I'm not going to be peering at the screen trying to figure out what my next
  • problem. Everything that would be needed in a tablet PC doesn't fit in a tablet PC. Almost but not quite.

    Hence, no practical (read $ paying) market place for it.

    Maybe as a wireless remote to a server, the thing would be okay, but you then need the kind of wireless environment to support it. (Love to work there.) PARC probably has something like that set up already.
    • 'Maybe as a wireless remote to a server, the thing would be okay, but you then need the kind of wireless environment to support it. (Love to work there.) PARC probably has something like that set up already.'

      Yes, they do [parc.com] (or did) and called it ubiquitous computing [google.com].

      • When I worked there a few years ago, there were more tablet-based installations than I saw today (stuck onto walls around CSL, mainly). Ubiquitous computing seems more focused on adding cool functionality to things you already have, making them work together and talk to each other. I'm not saying they might not use them, but it doesn't seem to be the primary focus.

        Lea
    • I can see the usefulness of a tablet PC in a medical clinic setting when a healthcare provider is interviewing a patient. As it is now, it's common to have a desktop in the examination room to lookup test results. It would be nice to have something more portable with existing capabilities (ie, wireless) and an application (and some clinics do) where you would have a checklist (at a bare minimum) of items to mark yes/no during the patient's history taking. The current hardware doesn't seem to be portable/

  • Here's a picture of it, at least (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Until the site comes up again:
    http://www.engadget.com/entry/123400065302 3255/
  • Didn't even bother to mirror the pictures, huh. Somebody else's problem. Thanks a bunch for the text mirrors, though, so I can read how cool this must actually look.

    What in the hell good is Google, MirrorDot or NYUD without pictures!?

  • Full article text (Score:3, Informative)

    by 4-D4Y ( 825020 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @01:05PM (#11066781)
    Contributed by Joseph DeRuvo Jr.
    Friday, 10 December 2004

    20041006--001014.jpg - 30.27 KB

    Close to 12 years ago I caught wind of an Operating System called PenPoint. This was one of the first pen driven operating systems out there. I had contacted them and spoke of how so many people had been left out of the technological revolution and I had thought it was due to the awkwardness of the current state of hardware and software design. At that time I would have hoped Apple would have risen to the challenge to develop a Tablet but as it turned out it was Microsoft who took the chance.

    Working with a computer all day long, I have to say that there is nothing quite as pretty as OS X. It is by no means perfect, as a Photographer running 4 Epson printers and depending on the quality of output, it is a continuous frustration and I am afraid the fault lies with Apple not Epson.

    As a Photographer and a Dyslexic the idea of being able to use a Tablet as a platform for showing photographs, editing, and an extension of my badly organized memory is very appealing. I had purchased an early QBE, which I was happy with, except for the problem of going between the QBE and all my other desktops which are Apples, it was always the odd man out, in addition to the frustration of finding cross platform software. So taking matters into my own hands I cut into a Dual USB iBook and didn't look back.

    20041006--001012.jpg - 31.42 KB

    20041006--001013.jpg - 28.96 KB

    20041006--001011.jpg - 37.68 KB

    The first thing to consider is what I needed it to do. As a Wedding Photographer I needed something that would serve me in the field, so it needed to have:
    -A built in Compact Flash Card reader
    -Firewire (USB would be to slow)
    -Two built in hard drives (so that the flashcard could be written to both at the same time)
    -Extra Firewire ports for external hard drives and DVD burners.
    -Bluetooth built in for keyboard and mouse when needed
    -touch screen and the driver board for it.

    Some functions I wanted to keep intact:
    built in mouse click
    on off switch
    built in CD burning
    good air port reception
    mic for voice recognition
    ability to put it into sleep mode when I close the cover

    Putting it all together I have to thank God wasn't so bad, miracles happen everyday.

    20041006--001017.jpg - 41.28 KB

    20041006--001015.jpg - 42.57 KB

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    The first problem was how to make it touch sensitive. I obviously had thought of going with Wacom but, using their technology would require a different screen configuration which would make it more difficult. Thank God I had found out about Troll Touch, they were a pleasure to work with. Troll Touch are makers of touch screens for Kiosks. They were one of the few manufactures that had a driver written for OS X, the digitizer sits in front of the screen and is touch sensitive, while the driver board runs through a USB port. A resistive digitizer is good and bad, it means you can use your finger to navigate and click, even ink will recognize your hand writing, but you do not have the full functionality of what a Wacom tablet will give you.
    The second problem was how to fit all this inside. I had acquired the shell of a dead iBook so with that I took the top plate and used it as a spacer. Recognizing that I had no need of a keyboard I pulled that out making room for the extra hard drive and slot for the flash card reader. I also had to make room for a USB and Firewire hub in the shell. Not to make light of all this but it is a creative process, like baking bread, there is a recipe but, there is also some room for making it up as you go along. After opening the thing up and figuring out where everything will fit, I started to look into removing the screen and hinges. I also came to the (frightening) realization that to get the hubs to fit and not have their cables running from the o
  • If they don't make it built it yourself. I saw someone do a Mac Tablet before. I wish I had the time, and desire to just spend my free time and money designing shit like that. I will just stick to the coding side of things, I'm cheap so sue me.

  • Tablet + Mac OS X = WINNAR (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sabNetwork ( 416076 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @01:38PM (#11066933)

    Mac OS X would be much better on a tablet than Windows.

    1. the system is designed to be used with a one-button mouse, so the "right-click dilemma" doesn't exist
    2. everything is huge-- the fonts, the icons, the buttons--and hard to miss with your pen
    3. the menus at the top of the screen would require very little precision to access

    Apple should license Mac OS X to a tablet PC manufacturer. (Producing it themselves would be too risky.

    • Mac OS X would be much better on a tablet than Windows.

      1. the system is designed to be used with a one-button mouse, so the "right-click dilemma" doesn't exist

      Come on. OS X gets around the right click dilemma by using a modifier on the keyboard. it's just as hard to ctrl-click on a tablet as it is to right-click
      • You are partially correct. It is possible for everyone to use contextual menus using control-click.

        However, Apple interface design standards ("Human Interface Guidelines") state that every operation must be possible without using contextual menus. For the most part, every application adheres to this requirement. Contextual menu commands are available in the applications menus.
        • I'm a little confused. I'm not on a mac right now, so please explain this for me. If I'm browsing the web, I can right click on a link and open it in a new window, or I can right click an image and save it to disk. If I use the application menu to select "save image as" how's it going to know which image to save?
          • It doesn't.

            To save an image, drag it to your desktop (or a folder window).

            To open a link in a new tab, drag it to the tab bar.

            To open a link in a new window, select "New Window" from the File menu and drag the link to the new window. (I admit, this is less than perfect.)
            --
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Rehashed to the death, but.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by theolein ( 316044 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @01:50PM (#11066985) Journal
    I know that the idea of a tablet Mac has been discussed to death and even rebirth, it's been around so often, but the sheer amount of interest in a tablet mac, one with that special Apple touch and attention to detail garners such an enormous amount of interest every time it's mentioned that I seriously wonder why Apple hasn't decided to take a risk and Just Do It(TM).

    The fact that not only is TFA's server /.'ed, but also the mirrors and the fact that almost every second user created prototype on Mac fan sites is a tablet or PDA style device shows that the interest certainly is there. An Apple Tablet could have a design and features that would finally make the tablet concept kick off, since it's an utter niche product on the Windows side of things.

    Think about it. What could Apple do to make people want a Tablet and what would its target market be? My ideas, by no means perfect, would be:
    1. A device that is bigger than current PDA's but smaller than current Windows Tablets, i.e. somewhere around ISO A6 size, or just a bit bigger than the old Newton. This would make it easier to hold (current Tablets are too heavy and too big to hold in one hand while writing with a Pen) and at the same time have enough space for a useful interface and space to sketch on for artists.
    2.Very good handwriting recognition. This is important. I think they were getting there when they killed the Newton.
    3.An OSX variant with a simplified interface which is more geared towards using a Pen. This would mean perhaps larger controls and a Dock replacement, perhaps a sliding Dock so that necessary apps are within easy reach.
    4.A touch screen that enables users to use their fingers as well as a pen. (Therefore the larger controls)
    5.Wireless videoand audio streaming. I know Apple has been working on a protocol that is supposed to be good for video streaming. This would or could perhaps tie in with other Apple products such as the iPod and Airport Express where this Tablet could be used as a remote control. This is why being able to use it with one's fingers would be important.
    6.Other software and hardware tie ins with Apple products and software, such as the ability to use it as a monitor on movie sets with firewire or usb connectivity, or a cut down version of FCP or iMovie that allows one to cut small video clips. Perhaps a small paint application as well, or a sound editor.
    7.It should be shipped with applications that leverage the platform such as a simple sketching application for students and artists, a Apple writing application that makes taking notes as easy or easier than WinXP TE's note taker. Perhaps make the sharing of sketches and notes and media simple via Rendezvous.
    8.Apple should make Frameworks for this OS variant available in XCode in order to allow developers to come up with nifty applications as they have for the classic OSX. Java should be included as well to make it interesting for current mobile developers.
    9.The target market would be students for artwork and note taking, home consumers for its tie in with Airport Express and iTunes and the iPod, industrial users for use as a digital notepad and checklist, and enterprise users for its note taking and sketching abilities and the ability to make presentations.

    This is all a wet dream of course, but I think I'm not alone in wishing for a Tablet with that special Apple touch.
    • Take:

      1 Newton 2100 for HWR Quality:

      2 CompactFlash slots for Music and Storage (microdrives must be supported):

      1 Zaurus SL-C3000 (http://www.dynamism.com/sl-c3000/) for form factor, bright touchscreen display, keyboard, NetBSD/FreeBsd/OsX (or linux) :

      add Ethernet, and 802.11b/g, USB 2.0:

      Full day battery(8 hrs) battery life with user replacable, standard AA NiMH batteries :

      Support, source code, and a vendor supported dev. community:

      Stir Vigoriously, pour into a sub $600 package:

      Sell hund

    • Re:Rehashed to the death, but.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JamieF ( 16832 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @02:38PM (#11067222) Homepage
      There's a big difference between attention and sales. Lots of people want all kinds of mutated Macs - dual-G5 powerbooks, tablets, a new Cube, you name it, somebody has a concept sketch and is convinced that if Apple spent a ton on R&D and made them, they'd sell at least one.

      If Apple made a turd-shaped Mac, a few people would buy it, and 1000 stories would talk about it, and everybody would clobber any web site that broke the story by going there all at once.

      That doesn't mean that a turd-shaped Mac would make Apple any money.

  • If I would have done all that work... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Myuu ( 529245 ) <myuu@pojo.com> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @02:48PM (#11067268) Homepage
    I would have first sumbitted all my picture to the rumor sites and said it was a new model for MW in January, just to drive the fanboys nuts.

  • ugly? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by oojacoboo ( 839655 )
    that black thing is a cover and puts the system to sleep when it is closed! and it opens up and is used as a stand! Its perfect, what are you talkng about?
  • Has anyone done a TrackPoint/NippleStick/eClit hack for the iBook or Powerbook? I really want one but I absolutely despise the carpal-tunnel-inducing pointing device that Apple insists on providing.

  • Tablet? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nbohemen ( 610864 )
    Tablet? Is a Powermac G5 with a cinemadisplay duct taped on the side also a tablet?

  • Apple will never release a Tablet Mac (Score:4, Interesting)

    by melted ( 227442 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @04:05PM (#11067667) Homepage
    That would be, ahem, _copying_ innovations from Redmond (and don't start the usual BS about Newton, notice that _Tablet_ PC has a _tablet_, not a touch screen). And it's morally hard to copy your competitor's innovations when you blast them at every trade show for copying your own. So mark my word, there will never be a Tablet Mac, except if Tablet PCs become a wild, raging commercial success that's too tough even for Jobs to ignore.

  • It's been a pleasure (Score:3, Interesting)

    by photoworkplace ( 839658 ) <joseph@photoworkplace.com> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @04:24PM (#11067759)
    My first goal was to build a "Tool" that would do what "I" needed, and it has served me well, yes it is a bit thicker than I would like, but I can still not find a Tablet Slate out there that has a Flash Card reader and is able to burn CDs. Both of these things are important for what I do being a Wedding Photographer and teacher. I am looking to update the original post at MocMod with detailed photos of the work as it was in progress. Secondly, and maybe more importantly was the goal to get Mr. Job's attention, although he has not gotten in touch with me yet, I have not given up hope. Why do I want his attention? What would I say anyway? The same thing I had said in a letter 13 years ago to Mr Kaplan at The Go corporation (the people who brought you PenPoint) you might not even remember them, but it was a beautiful idea. At any rate I went on about how the Technological revolution was leaving some people out and how their design idea would open up the possibilities to have varied groups of people (who are too often disenfranchised) join into the conversation. All of you people are the "more" some of you are the "different" there have been many great strides made in these 13 years, but I am still waiting, because "I THINK MORE CAN STILL BE DONE". I am a faithful person I say Thank God I have been able to do what I have done so far. I was unable to speak intelligibly until I was 5 years old, my parents had been told that I was "mildly retarded", but I am faithful that Miracles happen and that things can change. I would like to see more people have the opportunities to change their lives due to the technology that is available to them. Thank you all and God Bless Joseph DeRuvo Jr.

  • well... (Score:4, Funny)

    by catdevnull ( 531283 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @05:36PM (#11068106)
    ...kinda cool. But I certainly wouldn't do it with a Mac under warranty. I'd wait for a 3 yr old iBook to play with it first. Then again, I'm not so good with modding electronics. Ask my dad about the "time machine" I made with our family TV.
  • Thinking of just sawing the stand off my 17" iMac G5 and making it touch screeny... Voila!
  • ...he's completely engineered a new kind of mac portable...

    Now flies 45% farther with the same velocity applied to previous powerbooks! Truly a breakthrough!

  • Landscape or Portrait (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wwwillem ( 253720 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @06:58PM (#11068579) Homepage
    I'm not super familiar with OS-X, but IMHO essential for the use as a tablet, does OS-X allow you to switch to portrait mode?

  • So could he sell this? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by inkswamp ( 233692 ) on Monday December 13, 2004 @01:05AM (#11070242)
    I wonder what the legality is of this guy starting up a small business to mod iBooks this way and resell them?

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