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The world doesn't need an Apple tablet, or any other
Beta News ^ | January 2, 2010, 1:34 PM | Joe Wilcox

Posted on 01/03/2010 3:35:38 AM PST by Swordmaker

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To: freedumb2003
check this out. http://quereader.com/ That's the one that apparently is working with B&N .... flexible ... like a real book. THAT is what will sell the next megareader product.
41 posted on 01/03/2010 8:58:53 AM PST by Centurion2000 (Something is seriously wrong when the .gov plans to treat citizens worse than they treat terrorists)
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To: Centurion2000

42 posted on 01/03/2010 9:02:40 AM PST by Centurion2000 (Something is seriously wrong when the .gov plans to treat citizens worse than they treat terrorists)
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To: Swordmaker
Dalrymple couldn't give me any good functions that can't be done with iPhone. He can surf the Web, run applications, send e-mail, share digital content, consume digital content and more using iPhone. Apple's rumored tablet -- if there really is one -- can't functionally be all that different from iPhone, which also is a tablet.
Same goes for the Saturn V booster -- can't do anything with it that can't be done with a bottle rocket available at any roadside stand. ;') The analogy works because the iPhone is already an unnecessarily expensive alternative to an ordinary $30 prepaid cell phone. :'D
43 posted on 01/03/2010 9:38:16 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Happy New Year!)
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To: Spktyr; AndyJackson
You do know that the top designers at many of these foriegn firms are American, right?

Andy is guilty of "hasty generalization", an overly broad comment. What is an American? When we say Japanese or Chinese we know what we are talking about. When we say American it is wide open. There are many Japanese and Chinese Americans.

The difference is the culture in which they are raised. America, at least in the past, admired and encouraged personal freedom and creativity. The other two are more disciplined cultures where conformity is more the norm.

The natural consequence is more creativity in America.

I suspect Andy is just condemning the socialization of America which does indeed depress creativity and encourage conformity. However, we are not done, yet. We will fight these Communists off.

44 posted on 01/03/2010 9:40:25 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government)
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To: AndyJackson
Job's is an enormous exception in American industry. American products generally suck in terms of quality because they are not designed for the function they are to perform. Apple under Jobs leadership has been the glaring exception to that rule, and if folks would pay attention and try to emulate him rather than denigrate him, America might actually be able to compete again in the world, by building products that folks want to buy. They might even learn how design automobiles once again, though I don't hold out much hope there. Most Americans don't even know what product design is. So they look at Jobs and scoff. And scoff. And scoff. And look at where their taxes go and see GM bailouts and they look at Jobs and scoff.

I'd put more stock in that if Apple hadn't spent 20+ years with it's wagon stubbornly hitched to a hardware stump.

45 posted on 01/03/2010 9:47:37 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Centurion2000

>>And flexible. I’m waiting on Plastic Logic’s product to come out. Something I can use as a newspaper, reader, technical manual with a touchscreen and the ability to pickup signal from an anchor is what I’m looking for.<<

And don’t forget the ability to smack a dog on the nose for not waiting until we go walkies... LOL

I think we’re all waiting for UltraDevice (TM), but the author seems to think that everyone uses their PDAs (especially the useless iPhone) for everyday net and productivity use.

He is flat-out wrong.


46 posted on 01/03/2010 10:18:16 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Centurion2000

FWIIW, “Que” means “What?” (or “how?”) in Spanish.

The site is a little light on details but I’ll check back next week.

I always like to see new stuff and to see if anyone has really built a better mousetrap.


47 posted on 01/03/2010 10:24:38 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: freedumb2003

PS: I should have put quotes around “useless” for the iPhone — I was referencing his “analysis” of it.

It reminded me of that Mary Tyler Moore Show episode when the theater/movie critic hated beloved and critically acclaimed classics.


48 posted on 01/03/2010 10:28:47 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Mind-numbed Robot
I suspect Andy is just condemning the socialization of America

If that is what you call the present preservation of an unworkable status quo. What I am condemning is the rife incompetence that pervades our institutions public and private and tying down competent folks like Lilliputians. It is trying to find out who leaked a security memo sent to 10,000 addresses internatioanlly, or who leaked the American Physical society membership roster rather than dealing with the underlying substantive issues. It is the inability to bring a legal action to an efficient close recognizing the legal rights and obligations of the parties in interest. It is belief that the redneck market will keep the largest US auto manufacturers afloat, forgetting that even rednecks like cars and trucks that actually run. It is the view that everything is never ending process, that all accounts can be kept and settled to the nickle, that we can protect folks from the consequences of their own actions, that we can endlessly call people to account, but whatever the waste of doing the accounting, never count that which actually counts.

If that is socialization than so be it. I think it is something more fundamental something that goes to the core of what it means to be an American, the grit and peronal integrity that suggests that socialization is a bad thing and to be resiste and that competence and knowledge and hard work count for something.

Economcally it is the undestanding that sound money is important because it is only by keeping strict accounts in real money that represents real people's labor can we keep track of what is productive and what is waste, what is useful and what is useless. Sound money values land for the value of its economic rent. Unsound money sees real estate as a high leverage means of riding the crest of financial inflation.

We veered of track sometime in the late 1950's or eary 1960's. We have wandered ever farther since, and are now so far off track that few folks have any idea which way to head. Too much debt from too much financial product creation? Solution- create some more. We have to learn to recognize when folks are worth listening to and when they are not. Very few folks are worth listening to, very few of the folks we do listen to anyway. The fault lies in ourselves. We listen to the folks who tell us what we want to hear rather than to the folks who tell us what we need to know.

49 posted on 01/03/2010 10:52:49 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Spktyr
One of the keys is going to be handwriting recognition that doesn’t suck.

I think that handwriting recognition is not as relevant as it used to be. I can't even remember the last time I sat down and wrote something out by hand. Other than signing my name to documents, everything is typed out. At the work place, cell phones and email are my primary methods of communication. I input calendar appointments and such directly into Outlook or into my smartphone using a keyboard. In fact, I can type far faster than I can write.

So I think handwriting recognition is not going to be the killer app people once thought it was. Now voice recognition - that's probably where the future lies.

50 posted on 01/03/2010 10:54:45 AM PST by SamAdams76 (I am 72 days away from outliving Jim Jones)
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To: Swordmaker

I’ll buy one if it includes the whole OS, not just a closed system like the iPhone.

I’d love to take an iTablet on vacation and run Dreamweaver or InDesign.

Ed


51 posted on 01/03/2010 12:38:44 PM PST by Sir_Ed
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To: pnh102

I’m reserving any judgment until Apple finally unveils the thing. It depends on whether Apple builds in some unknown that practically creates a new product category everyone will want to copy, as the iPhone and iPod did.


52 posted on 01/03/2010 2:20:41 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Swordmaker
And let's not forget that this iSlate/iTablet will only be v1 in software and hardware. And if AAPL sells anything close to the predicted 10 million units in the first year, then v2 the following year will be even better.

The OS may or may not be closed, but it will be some subset of OSX as was the iPhone - but certainly not a version of the iPhone OS.

Prediction: AAPL will sell more than 10m units in first year, other competitors (kindle, que, et al) combined won't even come close...

53 posted on 01/03/2010 2:51:13 PM PST by PIF
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To: SamAdams76

Voice recognition that works and works well has been around for years and has made no difference whatsoever in the sales of tablets that had it preinstalled. Besides, nobody wants to be sitting in a Starbucks or McDonalds dictating a confidential memo to their computer out loud.


54 posted on 01/03/2010 3:44:40 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr; SamAdams76
handwriting recognition is not going to be the killer app people once thought it was. Now voice recognition - that's probably where the future lies.
Voice recognition that works and works well has been around for years and has made no difference whatsoever in the sales of tablets that had it preinstalled. Besides, nobody wants to be sitting in a Starbucks or McDonalds dictating a confidential memo to their computer out loud.
My money is on Sam's point. I agree that VR exists, but it still isn't really ready for prime time; I know someone who needs it badly, and whose speech is easy for me to understand - yet VR performance is bad enough that the system doesn't get used.
I assume that the privacy issue is soluble with a mask with a microphone in it.

When VR really works I expect it to take off because people who can type faster than they can speak are thin on the ground. And I see no reason why the continued geometric improvement in tech shouldn't reach the goal of VR which is only slightly, if at all, less accurate in a computer than in people.


55 posted on 01/03/2010 5:26:59 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (DRAFT PALIN)
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To: Spktyr

You have no idea what you’re talking about, apple fanboi.

The G1 isn’t a droid. I had the G1. It got all the upgrades, except may possibly not get 2.0, but if not, only because it doesn’t have enuf memory space for it. I have the droid phone, and it’s a terrific phone.

And if by “droid history” you mean Android history, the Android OS is exploding — about 15 plus handsets running it now, and expanding, plus moving into tablets and netbooks.

I’m glad you like your iphones. Unlike some of you apple fanbois, I don’t have rude, uninformed, and untrue things to say about products that compete with the products I use. I am not personally threatened by a product that competes with a product that I consume. In fact, as a conservative, I believe that competition is good for all consumers, and ultimately brings better products at better prices to the marketplace.


56 posted on 01/03/2010 8:32:53 PM PST by webschooner
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To: Swordmaker
The world doesn't need an Apple tablet, or any other

While technically correct, people do not NEED anything but food, water and a relatively warm place to sleep, they have a infinite number of wants. Maybe one of the things they want is this tablet thingy.

I would not bet against it.

57 posted on 01/03/2010 8:41:02 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (I miss the competent fiscal policy and flag waving patriotism of the Carter Administration)
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To: webschooner

Sorry, but the G1 is an Android device. And the history so far is that if you buy a 1.X device, you won’t be getting an upgrade to the 2.0 OS.

So, yes, I do have an idea of what I’m talking about.


58 posted on 01/03/2010 9:09:55 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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