jdray's Journal: iSlate?

Forget the iPhone. I, for one, am waiting for the iSlate. It's Apple's forthcoming ultra-cool personal computer. In essence, it's an iPhone with a larger screen (8.5" diagonal) and no cellular component. The base model has 8 gigs of flash on board, two memory card expansion slots and a USB port for iPod connectivity. Bluetooth allows you to use a keyboard, but Apple's MultiTouch technology makes it mostly unnecessary.

From its release at MacWorld '08, couch surfing will never be the same. The entire family can sit in one room or many, streaming content off of their AppleTV, surfing the web, doing homework or playing games. But the real killer app is in the corporate world. It's the ultimate day planner. WiFi, penetrating nearly every meeting room, connects to corporate e-mail and CRM apps. Large-footprint applications can be comfortably run through a remote-desktop client, but basic Office-like productivity apps run locally (including Office). Suddently, meetings are a place where work actually gets done. Decisions can be made and acted upon all at once. Corporate productivity is up, making it easy to justify the $899 price tag. Laptops have become "old school."

So, c'mon Apple, get with me. Bring my dream to reality as only you can. There's nothing to stop you, and the market is ripe.

Tablet PC anyone?

[bheer]

So ... Apple will invent the Tablet PC and the world will go wild again, congratulating Apple for its innovation?

Btw, a lot of doctors I know have really liked the tablet PC, the form factor makes a lot of sense for use standing up. But yeah, having great handwriting recog (which XP for Tablet PC has) helps, having a weird onscreen keyboard isn't very helpful for moderate-to-heavy data entry.

Re:

[jdray]

If they include Newton-esque handwriting technology, it would be a hit. I forgot to mention that part in my post. The downside I see to current "Tablet PCs" is that they're just notebooks with pressure-sensitive displays that can turn around. The Apple iSlate, at least as I envision it, would be about the size of a steno pad, even in thickness. I've thought since the Palm V that there wasn't any reason to make something like that any thicker. The additional volume afforded by the screen real estate inc

Re:

[bheer]

Newton's handwriting recog inspired Doonsebury cartoons. The field has moved a lot since then (Tablet PCs' handwriting recog is generally considered to rock, for example).

> The Apple iSlate, at least as I envision it, would be about the size of a steno pad, even in thickness

NEC actually did something like that around 2003: http://www.tabletpc2.com/Nec.htm [tabletpc2.com]. That's probably a little thinner than the iPhone. Unfortunately NEC never sold them in the US. Also, they were pricey and NEC doesn't make them anymor