[kilechki]

With the comeback of rumors regarding an Apple "Tablet", I was wondering what kind of effort would be needed to make OS X "fit" on a "light" mac with two major constraints : screen size (max 8") and processing power (say, half a mac mini).
In my mind, a version of OS X "nomad" would be reduced to the three main functions of a tablet : input, browse and find. That is to say inkwell + ipod interface + spotlight. With that combination, you can cover the wide variety of uses of a PDA, a phone, basic computing functions and obviously an "extended" iPod with broader multimedia abilities.
My question is : is it possible? Has Apple the capacity, as of now, to build an OS "to go" based on OS X technology and trying to create a true mobile paradigm GUI and feature-wise. Or does it require a full and independent team of developers in order to create a separate environment?

As of now, I haven't seen any device that really has a great UI that allows to quickly do what I would want with a small piece of hardware : get quickly to the data I need, or input data quickly. I would be very happy to see Apple make a try in this area - although the phone market will probably never be touched by Apple, even as a combination with a PDA.

If there is a big "no" on Apple's ability to build such an OS, then one can assume all we will see is a Powerbook with no less than 11" screen size. Isn'it?

[bowwowman]

Apple, with it's current technology, cash reserves, and infrastructure, CAN do just about anything it wants to

BUT, they are not going to develope something unless it will:

A) give them a leading market position (iPod/iTunes)
OR
B) Shake up the tech world (switch to intel)

Steve has publicly stated many times that Apple will NOT go back into the PDA arena, nor get into tablets......so who knows what they have up their sleeves for the future

[DeathMan]

I would prefer they keep Mac OS on macs. the iPod isn't running OS X. It has its own little OS that we don't care about. A tablet would be useful to me as a reader. Thats about it. Something I could write notes on, sure. maybe even draw, if its going to have high resolution, that could be really cool.

I want a tablet that I could read from in high resolution, that would format ascii in a few different ways based on conventions, could display ebooks, and pdfs,

As a "tablet pc" type of thing, if it could also work as a note taker, and would be able to sync with address book, and iCal, it would be a hit. (for me)

So if I wrote a note like

Joe Smith
[email protected]
123-1234

It would be smart enough to add that in my address book. If I wrote somewhere:

meeting with joe@9pm on Saturday.

It would schedule that into iCal for me.

This combined with a basic outlining capability like Omni Outliner, and some organizing, I think would be a really useful tool.

Of course if you could set it down on the table and and a keyboard would appear on there, and you could type on it, it would be sweet, too.

This type of a tablet would be very useful to me, but I would prefer that we kept the whole, aqua, itunes, widgets, core image, and all that crap out of it.

[SirCastor]

Maybe the solution for the keyboard could be one of those little projection keyboards. The little lighter-sized tabletop ones. Those things are pretty sweet. (I've never gotten to use one, but they look cool)

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by SirCastor

Maybe the solution for the keyboard could be one of those little projection keyboards. The little lighter-sized tabletop ones. Those things are pretty sweet. (I've never gotten to use one, but they look cool)

Or how about decent voice recognition. It'd be pretty nice if Apple developed voice recognition software good enough that anyone could dictate what they want to type.

I think software and microphones nowadays are capable of suppressing most background noise so I don't think the computer would go nuts when other people a few feet away from it would start talking. Or maybe the voice recognition software could be triggered via a button or a specific word command (somewhat like what has been available to us for the past 15 years.)

At the very least, the voice recog software should be good enough at recognizing single letters so that people can spell out the word (this is already probably faster than typing the damn word on a tiny keyboard or a 'virtual/projection keyboard' with no tactile feedback.

And with a Dictionary/Spellcheck tied into the whole thing, correct words should be recognized. A way to force unrecognized proper nouns should exist so that the computer.

If Apple hasn't had a secret Voice Recognition team locked up in 1 Infinite Loop during the past 15 years to develop the ultimate voice recognition software, I'll be very disappointed. The speech recognition software we have now is unacceptable.

[kilechki]

They do look cool, although their ergonomic must be awful. Try to hit a table in wood or marble like you would on a keyboard : it's much noisier, there's no feedback, and it certainly is a good way to develop a carpal syndrom.

I'm more with Deathman on this issue. The important thing is to get the device understand as much as it can from as little input as possible. I can't see how a true, successfull tablet could be any near from the keyboard paradigm. Hence the importance of a perfect reconigtion system and a powerful, centralized search engine that can bring accurate data instantly.

[olePigeon]

Tablets aren't popular because it's faster to type than it is to write. If you have something that big, get a friggin' laptop. If you want partability, get a Palm or PocketPC, or whatever.

[Salty]

The only reason I could see Apple making a tablet was to build upon a house's already built in Macs. Once they hit 20% market share or something I could see it. As well in a few years when Intel has these new lighter power using chips made for things like tablets and PDAs and what not I could see it. But no chance even within two years.
I mean I'd love to see it, but we won't. Ultimately the laptop is as best we're getting a tablet in many ways is a step down really if we wanted a tablet what would make sense is to have a screen that could flip down over the keyboard, or go straight with it so it's one big slab and you could still type but have a touch sensitive screen, or ultimately flip all the way back and use pen input. But ultimately... it's really not worth the cash right now.

[Peabo]

you could always buy a tablet PC and install OS X for Intel when it's out & inevitably patched again!

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Or how about decent voice recognition. It'd be pretty nice if Apple developed voice recognition software good enough that anyone could dictate what they want to type.

Eye think this is immanently in possible with currant tech knowledge E.

[kilechki]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Eye think this is immanently in possible with currant tech knowledge E.

Hehe.
Moreover, voice recognition raises some serial issues regarding security/confidentiality. Not even to mention that taking notes allows to select information and to better organize it.
Mix the iPod wheel with a sensitive pad and you get an interesting way to both browse information efficiently and input data with ease. Add some function-dedicated keys (one to get an "additional layer", dashboard-style, and one that would be the equivalent of command-tab), I guess you get a powerful interface that no PDA/phone maker has been able to ship yet.

Well, Apple seems to have all the knowledge it needs in order to build a "tablet". However, I don't think we'll ever see such an apple-branded device. At best, we'll probably get some small laptop, with maybe a 10" screen.
Should we ever see a media center-like device from Apple, however, then there could be some passive remote control that would recognize handwriting and that would control all compatible wireless devices in your home, plus the ability to write some mails, web adress... This could work with some OLED technology, or even with no screen at all.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by z0ne81

you could always buy a tablet PC and install OS X for Intel when it's out & inevitably patched again!

Yeah, why wait?