Posts Tagged ‘Tablet’

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Apple iPad: That’s it?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

So, the long-awaited Apple Tablet announcement has come and gone. It’s got everyone talking and a subset of them are currently having multiple orgasms over the next “must-have’ tech from Apple.

Am I the only one who’s underwhelmed by this? It’s just an iPhone on steroids. Not even that…that might be more interesting. No, it’s an iPhone with a learning disability. It grew up to be linebacker huge but with no corresponding increase in features and the more “fun” stuff of a novel product. Okay, novel-ish since tablets/slates have been around for a while.

Where’s My Flash?!

The specs are here (or here for those who like it official) and aren’t bad or anything but there are some things missing:

  1. Flash support for the browser (I mean, c’mon)
  2. A web-cam capable camera for iChat (Macbooks have this)
  3. Support for a stylus (think pinpoint touch resolution)
  4. USB ports for peripherals

Note: I swear that article didn’t have its own “what’s missing” list when I started writing this.

In the end, this is just the marriage of the iPhone with an eBook reader. Or, just a glorified eBook reader…taking it away from the computer class and putting it in the gadget class.

Features, Features

It’s all about the features offered (and missing)…who cares that it’s a slate? Been done. Aluminum body some Mac heads will be making love to? You DO have an Air right?

No, outside of the larger multitouch screen (oops, been done), there wasn’t anything new hardware-wise here. It’s about how the damned thing will operate. But, with an iPhone OS…well, there ain’t as much to do in this particular neighborhood.

What you’re going to do with it:

  1. Watch movies and videos
  2. Read books, news, magazines
  3. Listen to music while doing #2
  4. Look at your photos…joy
  5. Fuck around with apps
  6. Play games (1 out of 6 ain’t bad)

What you’re NOT going to do with it:

  1. Replace your notebook in college or when you’re working on that MBA.
  2. Travel with it a lot (laptop vs eBook reader with apps…hmmm)
  3. Connect to the Internet (at least not if you do #2)
  4. Quickly share documents with someone standing next to you
  5. Use this to be productive

Yes, I mentioned the “P” word. My garage is littered with fancy devices that were cool when they came out but ended up in some box. Why? Because once everything wore off and you’re in that gadget afterglow, you realize you have no other use for it. Look at all those iPhone games you’ve loaded onto your phone. How many of them are you really playing actively today? Right.

Potential Productivity

My biggest disappointment is the lack of an app on launch that will do the whole notebook thing. I mean, Christ, it’s called iPAD for crying out loud. And, here’s the funny part: you don’t need to do anything with the hardware really. Check out engadget’s coverage of the iPad…namely the video near the bottom of the article. Now, advance to 0:50 in the video. Watch the part where they’re playing with the presenter’s tools for the presentation. Look at that fucking potential (the yellow lines).

Picture this:

You’re going to a meeting that someone already sent you a PowerPoint for (so organized…must not be a start-up). You’ve loaded that bitch (the PowerPoint, not the meeting organizer) up and are toting all you need: your hot new iPad.

As you follow along with the presenter, you’re drawing lines and funny faces and all sorts of other shit on the presentation itself! Just like you used to with the printed copy you printed/got. Now, you double tap a spot on the presentation and an annotator’s note box shows up and the virtual keyboard activates. BAM, you note how stupid the idea on the slide is and that you need to call Bob ASAP).

Meeting’s over, you head back to your desk and plug that iPad in (will the Thai version be called iPadThai? Yum…). Sync and BOOM all those annotations are on your PC/Mac along with the original (or a copy of) the presentation. Now, you’ve got everything in there and don’t have to manually copy anything in. If it was your sorry assed presentation, you could even update it with the changes you made! Fuck yeah!

Then you wake up and it’s all a dream because Apple things looks beat out features. Surprise, surprise.

Price = Innovation?

Some areas of the media ecosystem, perhaps lacking anything better to say, are talking about the price “revolution”.  Is it a revolution? Sure if you consider paying more for an iPhone a revolution. Of course, Apple is going to try to avoid cannibalizing their Macbook sales. Wouldn’t you want to avoid having people buy an iTouch iPad when they can buy a Macbook for more. Oh wait, this is supposed to be the crowning achievement for Mr. Jobs.

How is this a revolution? It isn’t. It’s an annoyance. If I wanted an iPhone…wait, I HAVE an iPhone. It cost me $299. I’m good. If I wanted a tablet…oh, well, I’ve got a Macbook. Okay, sure, that cost me upwards of $1999. I guess nowadays, it’ll set me back $999 (at the low end).

Realistically, why not just add the needed features  (see above) and price it near $999 or even AT $999 and make it an option. Do you like laptops, grab the Macbook. You want something interesting/cool that actually does what you need? Grab the iPad.

Sure, it might cannibalize some parts of your laptop sales…I mean, it’s natural. It’s a slate, dammit. But, if you can offer it for less than $999, wouldn’t the higher margins that $999 offers you can more than compensate! Besides, the slate isn’t for everyone.

Where’s the Apple Magic?

You want to know where the REAL revolution is? Check that one slide about the AT&T deal. Check out the different bullet points. No, not the one about the $29.99 unlimited data package. This one:

No contract – cancel anytime

Sweet fancy Moses! AT&T isn’t going to milk you with a two-year fucking contract and an early termination fee of $150 or more?!? Isn’t that their bread and butter? How the fuck?

I guess the potential of millions of unlimited data subscribers is enough? I mean, they might lose their iPhone exclusivity so why the fuck–what’s that? Oh, I guess they might not lose it now. Hmm.

Wait a sec…could it be AT&T and Apple managed to do a deal where exclusivity (read: bread and butter) continues but the price AT&T pays is no contracts and a low unlimited data price for 3G? Better yet, could it be that that extra $129 you pay for 3G versions of the iPad isn’t solely to cover the cost of a 3G transmitter/receiver? Could it include a small subsidy that gets passed on to AT&T?

Who knows but it’s the most interesting part of today’s announcement.

What now?

Well, despite all this crap, the question’s out there: will you (or I) get an iPad? I think the answer is: probably. After all, it’s not that expensive and it’s intriguing enough that it’ll be worth the pick up–in a few months.

The MacSlaves will buy it in two months and supply the rest of us with v2 of the iPad when Apple releases a new version six months later with something better.

For the saner of the crazies, we’ll likely pick it up as a birthday gift or other selfish excuse for a gift for ourselves and be done with it. We’ll read our books and flip through our photos and get frustrated at those games that rely on the accelerometer. And, hopefully, by then, someone will have finally invented the REAL iPad app and we can call it a day.

out

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Tablet Games?!

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

As much as I’m looking forward to the potential of the Apple tablet, I’m also a bit pissed. I wanted a slate/tablet PC ages ago (early 2000s) and at the time they were all Windows-based (which I don’t necessarily mind…I’m not a Machead any more) and they didn’t offer a thing that was compelling over a regular laptop–plus they were more expensive than a more powerful laptop/desktop replacement.

Now, Apple comes along and Jobs swings his mighty wand. BLAM! The tablet market is reborn (though probably for the majority of people out there, it’ll be more like the big bang of the tablet industry).

You could argue that Amazon’s Kindle started this mess but it’s not like the Kindle’s anything but a book reader…or is it?

I don’t know about you but I forgot what it was like to use a monochrome monitor and black and white TV back in the 90s. Why would I want to play some EA game on a Kindle? Unless they unveil the “color” Kindle tomorrow, I’m not biting. It’s a friggin book people…

Meanwhile, the fervor over Jobs’ master creation that he’s so anxious to unveil continues to mount (I’m telling you, I would have to laugh if the Jan 27 announcement has nothing to do with the tablet…that would be typical Jobs dangling the carrot in front of all us asses).

A tablet renaissance is coming and it could eventually mean the end of the laptop. After all, the netbook craze came and sort of went (it’s still out there but the news isn’t covering it like it used to). But, that already created a sort of subniche off the main portable computer industry. With the tablets–which had been relegated to the fringes of PC land–you’re going to see (assuming Apple’s designers did the right thing) a huge rush to make tablets and carve out a piece of the “new” market.

The thing is, though, are we really getting anything worthwhile? So, what if we get some fancy Mac tablet (and eventually some updated PC tablets)? iPhones did a great job of opening up the smart phone market to people who probably wouldn’t have bought an HTC and didn’t care to hassle with Windows Mobile. iPods made MP3 players hip (and took them away from the geek alpha dogs). Will the iTablet/iSlate/iFlatiMac change the PC industry as a whole? Probably. But not by as much as the other devices. Most people already own a computer of some kind. Of course, they might decide to go Mac now and make Apple the 2% marketshare company (as opposed to 1%).

One thing it might do, though, is kick the PC industry in the pants again. And that’s always fun to watch…

out

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Apple Tablet = Verizon Exclusive? Ugh…

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Not sure if this is a complete lock-in but if TheStreet.com is right, then the Apple tablet’s wireless traffic is going to head for Verizon.

Like the article says, the good news is that means you’ve got a chance to grab a tablet subsidized down from whatever high list price Apple will likely slap on it.

The bad news is you’ve got to use Verizon. Granted, they’re 100x better than T-Mobile. But, my experience with them a few years ago was enough to drive me to Cingular (pre-AT&T “our-name-is-better” Wireless). They’ve got the best coverage? The best network, you say? Wonderful…except when your calls keep dropping out mid conversation because you passed some stupid “bubble” in their network. You’d think that driving through the middle of Los Angeles would leave you largely immune to that when you’re with a company that touts its network coverage.

Not to say that AT&T is some sort of white knight in all this. Five bars is great but if nothing’s passing through those five bars, who gives a fuck?

In the end though, you all will win to some extent. You’re going to be locked in to two-year contract but you might save a lot. After all, the new iPhones (each time they come out) list around $599 to $699 without the subsidy. But, then go down to $199 to $299 with it.

If the tablet comes out at around $999 or $1299 list, then the question is how much is Verizon willing to subsidize that sucker? We’re talking 100% more expensive than the iPhones that AT&T subsidized but despite that subsidy, AT&T profited.

I’m thinking they’re going to go for 30-50%. It’s costly but they’re also probably anticipating this to be the next “iProfit” device from Apple, whether it ultimately delivers or not. Apple’s track record so far would tend to back that up but then again, tablets have been around for years and no one’s really cared. Apple and it’s whole design aesthetic might be what pushes the tablet market into the mainstream but it’ll all depend on how they deliver the apps on it.

Unfortunately, all we can do is wait…seven days before we find out more (unless Apple pulls a fast one and just “shows” the press iTunes with books on it…I’d love that.

out

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Microsoft’s Secret Crush on Apple

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

So, the NY Times is saying Ballmer is going to announce Microsoft’s own slate tablet that it brewed up with HP at CES. Gizmodo’s got a demo of a prototype (which looks like it’s virtual until you see the photos further down…okay, it still looks virtual).

Let’s start with the device first. I’m torn here. On the one hand it looks like what you’d expect a business-centric slate device should look like: an organizer. The ability to mix handwritten notes with photos and the like are a given (I mean, otherwise, you’d have an early 2000s slate PC which didn’t take off for a reason…who wants a boring barely functional PC?). The multi-touch support is also a given now that the iPhone is so ingrained into society as a whole now.

But on the other hand, just like my Palm which is sitting in some box somewhere with CAT3 cables and some dohickey for some device I no longer have, if all it does is act as a glorified personal organizer, why in the hell would I pay $1000 for that? Why not just pay $50 and get a paper organizer and be done with it?

If that’s the extent of what the tablet’s going to be able to do (I’m assuming Microsoft’s hoping there’ll be more apps but I’m also assuming they’re going to make sure Word, Excel, and Powerpoint all work on it…right? Hello?), it’s useless beyond being something to show off in a few years as a “this is what it used to look like before they made it better”…kinda like those brick cell phones from the 80′s.

Granted, I have no idea if Apple’s going to be smart enough not to make their tablet a larger version of an iPhone (iPhone 3GSH…the H is for HUGE). But, they’ve also got to be thinking the device HAS to to somehow leverage their App Store. I mean, you’ve got to be stupid (or Apple) to scrap a huge industry you created yourself just so you can shine a spotlight on some new creation from the darkest regions of your R&D labs.

Now back to our show. Or rather, Microsoft’s. Pretty funny that we only just got wind of the tablet announcement the day of Ballmer’s keynote. I mean, after all, doesn’t someone who’s keynoting one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) electronics conventions in the world plan their speach ahead of time. It couldn’t be because Jobs blew a sweet kiss of rumor talk into the ear of the WSJ just a couple days ago and because Macworld Expo is around the corner, could it? Couldn’t Microsoft just announced it at Macworld–oh, yeah, they only sorta like the Mac.

Maybe Microsoft should stop playing the frenemy card and just ask Apple out. Tell Apple how beautiful their designs are…for people who like designs. And show off your every-day-practical design and engineering…you know, the same design engineering that made Vista such a success.

Or maybe, you could talk about how great it would be, now that Macs run on the same hardware as PCs, if you could just figure out a better way to let Macheads and Windozers just-just get along.

On the plus side (for me; Microsoft, we’re done here, move along), at least this means Apple will have some potential competition (in some demographics). But, Apple’s track record means, all that will happen is Apple will keep it’s price at $1000 and Microsoft/HP will down it to $750 somehow ($850 with Microsoft Office bundled with it! A savings of over $199!!!!).

Stay tuned…

out

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Apple Tablet Coming…Duh…

Monday, January 4th, 2010

It seems mainstream (read: non-technical) media is catching up on the whole Apple Tablet thing and the fact that Macworld is coming in just a month. The Wall Street Journal posted a little tidbit on the fact that an announcement is imminent for February and a tablet might ship in March though that estimate “could change”. Surprise, surprise.

I guess all we can do is wait…until some guy at Apple who craves attention leaks out more details prior to Macworld. Of course, we won’t know if that’s Jobs and his disinformation used to root out the treasonous unfaithful from his sect.

out

UPDATE: I guess WSJ adjusted the wording of their article but TechCrunch seems to be more concerned with pricing. $1000 doesn’t seem to be enough for a tablet device.  Really? You think so? What about this line:

“…such a price could include a subscription to a nationwide Wi-Fi wireless service such as those run by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, which provide Internet access at thousands of hot-spots such as airports, hotels and restaurants.”

Have you considered the possibility that $1000 is the subsidized price? They could throw it out there for $1500-2000 retail and give it to you for $1000 with a two-year contract with AT&T or whoever. In fact, doing that and making that carrier the exclusive seller of the tablet for a couple years could make it easier for them (relationship-wise) to start offering the iPhone on other carriers in the US. Stay tuned…

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Jobs happy about tablet? We in the right universe?

Monday, December 28th, 2009

So, the Apple Blog posted something about some sort of tablet that Apple is working on. Go figure.

It seems someone at Apple whose first name is Steve likes where they’re at with the tablet project. That plus the fact that there’s that little gathering up in SF…what’s it called? Something about a Mac and maybe a town? Mactown 2010?

Besides, when was the last time Steve Jobs was happy about anything? Maybe he’s going senile and finds that completing any major project at Apple within a decade is worth smiling about.

Seriously, though, the big thing they talk about is the keyboard interface and honestly I think they’re giving Apple engineers designers too much credit. It sounds less like some sort of Sci Fi self-electrocuting keyboard and more like there’s some sort of cover or overlay that you’ll flip on top of the screen to switch to keyboard mode. In other words, it’ll look great but be sort of stupid at the same time.

All I can say is I just hope they finally unleash it in February so we can stop with the rumor mongering about what it’s going to be like and start with the–uh–speculating about how soon a second generation will come out that will do it better and for less. Or to put it another way, when we dorks let out a resounding “ahhh” when we find out six months later a better version came out and put our “bleeding edge” version to shame. Remember, school starts in September!

out

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Time’s Tablet-Friendly Format is a Long Time Coming

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Despite all the newspapers going bankrupt and blogs talking about the death of newspapers, it’s about time (no pun intended) someone from the industry finally embraced the new medium (namely, technology) better.

TechCrunch posted a bit of coverage of Time, Inc.’s digital version designed for tablet computers. I don’t know which one works better with the other. I really think if Apple throws their tablet into the fray, they’ll really kick that segment into gear. Right now, it seems tablet computers are purview of niche/specialized markets that need or work better with tablets. I’ve wanted to get a tablet for some time but the limited coverage and selection combined with high prices compared to comparable laptops just didn’t make sense. Plus, the convertables always seem like they’re one snatch away from splitting in two.

But, if Apple makes it cool to carry a tablet, especially for the college generation, applications that take advantage of the format can find themselves riding that wave of growth. For the newspaper/magazine industry that is slowly but surely being forced to decide whether cutting down more trees is worthwhile in a world where bits and bytes make printing costs next to zero, it could be the technological “innovation” that saves them.

The trick here is the business model. The TC article mentions an app-store-like model (you buy the app and get access to the content). Meh. Honestly, if you were publishing a commemorative one-time digital magazine, you’re good to go. But, this is updated content. You need a subscription model but you need to find the right price point and a good way to tease people into that subscription model. Tiered models that allow access to limited amounts of articles and news? I mean, we’re used to magazine subscriptions but you’re also competing against free sources for news and information out there.

It really comes down to providing compelling content that people can’t find anywhere but really want to get to. Maybe you just offer two ways of getting to the articles? The traditional model offers a monthly subscription rate of $5-10/mo for unlimited access to articles and content. Content older than say six months gets archived and requires a small fee to get access to (or offer a premium sub that gives unrestricted access to your archives).

The other model dishes out articles or sections of magazines for one-time fees. Fees can (and should) be small ($0.50-1.00). Make the site members only unless you want to (and feel you can get) offer advertising to cover that. Just don’t for the love of God assume you can give away X amount of news for free then require a fee after they exceed that. In other words, don’t give away the farm and expect people to pay for the left overs.

My main concern for Time and other news/magazine companies is that they’re too stuck in the 20th century to figure out how to deal with 21st century norms. Like the 18th century vampire hoping to modernize himself, they might latch on to a newer Web 2.0 company but that could just leave an empty husk rather than Vampire 2.0.

out

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Apple Tablet: Oh, yes, there is going to be a pen!

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

According to the Apple Blog–which in turn got it from Apple Insider–notes that a recent patent filing from Apple indicates a possible pen for the still rumored Apple Tablet. Of course, patent filings tend to be more preemptive it seems than proactive these days. Who knows? I wouldn’t put it past Apple to throw out a misinfo patent just to fuck around with all of you (and me, I guess).

Anyhow, if it IS true then great, Apple’s making my tablet. Now, just throw in some buggy software with a nice UI and it will be a true Apple with Apple DNA through and through.

How’s about you (Apple) devote some extra time to making improvements I really need (you fix that stupid stopwatch thing yet?) or want (you stop discontinuing my podcast updates at random intervals yet?) or maybe even require (fix bluetooth so it works like it did in the original iPhone–which is to say, it actually worked and didn’t crap out for no apparent reason)?

out

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Steve Jobs is back…Tablet anyone?

Monday, August 24th, 2009

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Steve Jobs is diving into the Tablet project himself. Still recovering from his stealth liver transplant, he’s supposedly knocking things around and causing the usual stress for Apple employees.

Of course, Apple and Steve-o are both denying doing anything other than them sitting around watching their stock price go up.

Just the rumor (and from the WSJ no less) is enough to tell you this project is solid again. Though, keep in mind it’s failed to go anywhere in the past.

As the article mentions (and I’m sure some of you Macheads know), they’ve looked at doing a better Newton for some time. Previously, they ran into brick walls: “the first time because the battery life was too short, and the second time because there was insufficient memory”.

Nowadays, though, outside of battery life issues, the cost of flash memory and other components are low enough that the day of the tablet seems to be nigh. Price estimates still fit into the $399-999 range and are likely to be relatively competitive to netbooks since that’s the real competition for this product.

Of course, you need to add in Apple’s profit dividend into the price. I think $599 and $799 seems like the right prices, differentiated by memory/disk space. Wouldn’t it be cool though if they could have another price point to fit 10″ and 14″ tablet size. Mmmm…tablets…

Time will tell. I think a September announcement would be too early. I think an announcement timed with Macworld 2010 (with something suitably 2010-themed) and availability timed with the 2010-2011 school year to be the best bet right now.

Stay tuned!

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Apple Tablet: 2010 More Likely…Duh

Friday, August 14th, 2009

TechCrunch felt it was time for them to join in the Apple Tablet fray. Maybe it was because they wanted to let the rest of the world fall all over themselves making predictions like a frenzy of stock traders in a sell-off and just walk into it like the over-confident banker that feels like he’s seen it all.

Even so, 2010 makes the most sense…you’d have expected a serious amount of hype already about this if it was about to launch. Also, given Apple’s history with the college crowd, the whole furvor around textbooks recently (Kindle, B&N), and the natural fit of a tablet + notetaking + digital textbooks, it would make more sense to make it available before the Summer of 2010.

Besides, I can imagine Steve Jobs or Jonathan Ive beating the Apple engineers on the head trying to get handwriting recognition (and the process of auto-correcting/spellchecking a la the way the iPhone does it now) into that 99th percentile. After all, that’s the main hurdle for a tablet device…if you’re going to make one, you’ve got to make it work like that. A glorified iPhone won’t cut it and is really just a waste of time…kind of like the whole nGage thing. They had an opportunity to lock in a lot of people with a great idea but then they had to fuck it up with mediocre tech and a really dumb design flaw.

I Apple goes that route and ignores handwriting in this tablet, I can see another round of photos showing people holding their tablets up to their ear.

out

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