Get Ready For The Mac Tablet – It’s A Cert, Not A Rumor
MacDailyNews has posted a rumor about a forthcoming Mac Tablet computer which they call a MacBook Touch. People can call it a rumor if they like, but I think it’s more like a dead-cert. Why? Because tablets are now a compelling value proposition for people – today, the technology works really well; and is available to build at reasonable prices.
How do I know that tablet-like technology can work so well today? It’s because Microsoft has already made a reasonable start. Not many people know this, but “tablet features” are actually built into each and every copy of Microsoft’s Vista. If you spend a few tens of dollars on a good quality graphics tablet (yes, that’s all they cost these days), you can use a pen to input data – writing or drawing – into your Vista notebook or desktop. The hand-writing recognition is a revelation. If the computer can understand my scrawl with near 100% accuracy (which it can), then it can understand anyone’s writing. With zero training. As for drawing, any graphic designer will tell you that a pressure-sensitive graphics tablet is a great way to use a computer for creating fabulous graphic assets. Of course, Microsoft has been trying to push the Tablet PC form factor for a while, but the products haven’t really caught on so far.
So, here’s what I expect Apple might do, if the leadership is feeling really bold: replace the entry-level MacBook product line, with an all-new MacBook Touch product line. I’d guess at the following key features:
- There will be a stylus – inputting text via hand-writing on a large surface works really well, and feels completely natural with fast, modern hardware
- It will be a multi-touch screen, that will work with fingers, as well as the stylus
- It will be a pressure-sensitive screen, to make drawing work well (e.g. thicker lines, when the pen is pressed harder)
- There will be a keyboard, and some kind of funky hinged, rotating screen – like Microsoft Tablet PCs, but engineered to higher standards, so the screen hinge feels really solid
- The software will be better than Vista tablet (which is already quite good), with superior integration of touch (fingers, and stylus) into the OS.
For sure, tablet style notebooks are now ready for prime time. If Apple does something similar to the above, it will be Apple and not Microsoft that takes tablet personal computers into the volume mainstream…
Asam Bashir wrote:
Tablet features are built-in Mac OS X as well, for years, just plug in a Wacom tablet or similar and you’ll see the InkWell pref pane appear in System Preferences. Apple did invent handwriting recognition with the Newton.
Posted 25 Jul 2008 at 5:57 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Ah cool – I didn’t know that! Not much required, then, for Apple to make a tablet-style Macbook.
Posted 27 Jul 2008 at 2:30 pm ¶
Mr X wrote:
I’m not sure what makes you think that it would have a pressure sensitive device that does handwriting recognition:
pressure sensitive – as you say Wacom already do this well – if your a professional/serious artist then your probably going to be better off with a specific piece of hardware? Also it’s clearly a niche area – the PC already does this well I believe in the tablet form and it’s never really hit the main stream.
Hand writing recognition: Do we really need that? – do you find yourself using the handwriting recognition for your emails or do you simply just type? ie drawing aside, isn’t the best way to input information into a computer still typing?
My bet is that it won’t have those features, that the work will have gone into making the user interface of the OS and key apps ‘finger friendly’ (TM)
That’s potentially a lot of work to get right – if you look back at the recent redesigns of some of the iLife apps – is iPhoto & iMovie more finger friendly now than before? Certainly they simplified the interfaces.
Maybe now, finally, putting cover-flow finder view into leopard makes sense…. or maybe it doesn’t have the finder at all…?
With multi-touch and a device potentially large enough to use both hands there is the potential to create a whole new human/computer interface paradigm – we will see how far they go/have got.
One of the interesting aspects is the timing – if the rumour is true – launch around Sep/Oct basically means that it appears to going to be launched *without* significant third party involvement means that either:
1. Current apps will simply work with the gestures – but not fit that well ( doesn’t seem very Apple ) or
2. It will be closed like the iTouch/iPhone – aimed at a specific market niche – “settee computing” (TM) – web browsing, email, chat, perhaps some iLife type apps, music, movies and games.
It reminds me of some of the reviews of this years E3 – all the game journo’s and attendees really didn’t like the stuff on show – people even got up and left during the Nintendo keynote! – the point being Nintendo showed loads of casual gaming stuff – not the sort of thing the audience at E3 is interested in – but the sort of thing that sells by the bucket loads.
Nintendo have got it – so I think have Apple – now’s the time to make a true consumer device – geeks may be disappointed.
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 12:55 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Mr X wrote:
“Hand writing recognition: Do we really need that? – do you find yourself using the handwriting recognition for your emails or do you simply just type?”
The thing is – I would have agreed with you, if I hadn’t seen “regular” people’s reaction to using hand-writing recognition on Vista Tablet PC touch screens. They REALLY LOVE it! A favourite use-case is taking notes in meetings (rather than writing e-mails). The point is – the hand-writing recognition works so well, you can really scribble away in an almost unreadable way, and it still gets the writing nearly 100% correct.
Lots of people are predicting a consumer device along the lines you suggest, though. You might well be right!
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 1:24 pm ¶
Mr X wrote:
How many people take notes in meetings outside work? Not a feature for Apple’s traditional target market… now if they had a speech to text function on the iPhone then that might be useful in meetings!
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 1:45 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Well, a large part of Apple’s traditional market is educational. I think students attending lectures could find this kind of thing pretty useful.
As for the iPhone and speech to text, there’s already a third-party app that does that:
http://www.crunchbase.com/product/jott-iphone-app
Not sure how well it works, though, particularly in terms of length of recordings it can deal with.
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 1:52 pm ¶
Mr X wrote:
Ok good point about the educational use – however students maybe better off with a fly or livescribe pen type device.
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 3:10 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Yes – pen type devices are, on the surface, a lot easier to carry around; and Livescribe, in particular, seems like a neat idea in terms of capabilities.
They’re not perfect, though. These kind of digital pens tend to be a pain to work with in “real life”. Either you have to attach a big clunky detector to the top of the page you’re writing on, to detect pen movements; or you have to use special paper with dots on, so the pen itself can work out where it is.
So a tablet form-factor computer isn’t actually particularly inconvenient compared to the funky pens. Also with a full laptop computer available, there is also a huge potential range of things that could be done for making the most of the lecture. I’m not sure how far along Universities are in their thinking in regard of that kind of thing.
If I was an undergraduate today, I think I’d be wanting to take my laptop in to lectures. Although, I do admit that would be mainly for the IRC back channel, the ability to surf the web, and for playing multi-player video games during the super-boring lectures
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 3:46 pm ¶