Re: [NTLK] Apple Tablet (New Article)

~~~ On 2008/11/24 00:07, Ryan Vetter at ryanv@me.com wrote ~~~

> I wrote a new article on an Apple Tablet, you all might be interested:
>
> http://www.thisoldmac.ca/wordpress/2008/11/23/what-an-apple-tablet-means-and-w
> hat-it-should-be/
>

Thanks Ryan. Very interesting to me, especially the historical survey of
development, since I'm a relative late-comer to the Newton and all things
Mac. I had no idea about the earlier tablet Mac. Wow!

Especially intriguing is your reference to Jobs' comment when you write:
"Somewhat Tablet related, at the Wall Street Journal-hosted D: All Things
Digital conference in 2004, Jobs stated that he had been proud of an Apple
PDA developed after his return but which was shelved in the end. Perhaps a
Newton successor?"

I can't get past thinking that it would have been a cell-enabled Newton, and
that this may even have been the real the beginning of the idea that
eventually became the iPhone. And the more I think about it, the more I
think that it would have been a mistake to do it then. (And that's not an
easy thing for me to admit.) But I still think the Newton needn't have been
so firmly killed off. If it had been kept active, the Newton would have
benefitted from a load of technical improvements, and might even have
created the Tablet market six or seven years ago, and by now could have been
merged with the iPhone anyway. But I also have to admit that this way
round, dropping the Newton, creating a market-habit of buying Apple
pocket-devices (iPod and iPhone) that cuts across the usual market
demographics, and then coming back to a Newton-successor which of course
will include one of them (iPhone), is a much cleverer marketing strategy
than my way -- assuming of course that Jobs actually planned it and didn't
just stumble onto it, and assuming that he intends to relent and give us
another Newtonish device at last. Two huge and not very reasonable
assumptions, I know.

I also appreciated the way you developed one possible way for Apple to
redeem itself for having stopped the Newton just when things looked like
taking off. Some of it is not that far off my own ideas for a "Newton:
TNG", and I reckon it's a workable direction to go.

I do wonder: what dimensions are you thinking of? You argue for
athickness of .4", and that's pretty much right IMO (I'd say a little bit
thicker but not much, maybe .6"?), but you don't specify the other
dimensions. I can't say I want to see anything as large as what passes for
a "tablet computer" now in length and width (and what those drawings you
show from Apple patents seem to imply), any more than the ridiculous
thicknesses you mention where they look like two laptops glued together.
The screen of the MP2100 with a 3 mm surround seems about right to me but I
suspect you want something a bit larger.

The retractable stand is a good idea as long as it isn't too easy to snap
off resulting in an expensive repair that we ought to be (but won't be) able
to do ourselves. But I suspect that if they include it, they'll design it
really well and most of us will just look and say, "A-a-a-a-h!" with those
silly grins that only a beautiful piece of kit can inspire.

IMHO it's a good article. Fix a few typos and you've got it made! Thanks
for a good read.

 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

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Received on Mon Nov 24 07:26:46 2008