Interesting tablet thoughts from John Gruber of Daring Fireball. Having researched the ultra mobile PC market for over three years I’m of the opinion that this space is for multiple niche products and not a multi-million selling success story but if there’s one company that can prove me wrong, it’s Apple.
I have a thousand questions about The Tablet’s design. What size is it? There’s a big difference between, say, 7- and 10-inch displays. How do you type on it? With all your fingers, like a laptop keyboard? Or like an iPhone, with only your thumbs? If you’re supposed to watch video on it, how do you prop it up? Holding it in your hands? Flat on a table seems like the wrong angle entirely; but a fold-out “arm inch to prop it up, Ã la a picture frame, seems clumsy and inelegant. If it’s just a touchscreen tablet, how do you protect the screen while carrying it around?
Of course no one asked me, but IMO: 7″, should support both landscape and portrait VKBs (would be great if display tech would allow a light enough touch for you to tap-type with one hand while you held it with your other hand); desktop display should allow something like OS X’s Spaces but be “swipe-able” like WebOS; a little nub-arm prop like the ones that come with the iMo 7″ USB sub-monitors but that snaps into a recessed cavity on the back of the device would be great for watching video. Protecting the screen? A chemically-hardened screen like on the HP 2730p EliteBook? (but then maybe the display is not so bright-and-shiny; I could stomach that knowing that you could take a baton to my screen and it wouldn’t break, but the mainstream user wants a glossy screen).
it does not matter to me if this device comes from Apple or someone else. I just need a slate-style companion device that has a 7″ screen, has a decent VKB and allows a USB KB plug-in, allows me to view and edit any MS. Office docs, and lets me both consume media and create/produce content on the go. Not a tall order, is it.
– Zeux..>> (from my Palm Pre