The perfect device for baby boomers and pensioneers
As i already twittered : It looks like the perfect device for my mother (just turned 80).I always did not set-up a computer for her (although i’m storing a couple of my old ones at her home). It would just have been too complicated for her. Still she is very interested to learn about that internet thing. And as her eyes got worse she is not able to easily read the newspaper or regular size books.
Others agree:
A colleague walked into the office yesterday morning, saying: “Now we know what to buy for our parents.”
A future version will probably add a camera (jointly with a camera for the iTouch) and grandma’s are able to have iChats with their siblings and friends.
A home and an away version
I’m happy to see a WiFi only version of the iPad as well as a full mobile version. i already have an iPod Touch and an iPhone and have complementary uses for them at home and away.
I’m not too happy to have no GPS in the WiFi device because with offloaded Maps i would love to use it also in the car or on holiday etc (Romaing charges are just ridiculous high in europe, so i typically offload maps of the region before going on holiday)
A lost opportunity
A lot of people are complaing about missing features. I typically don’t because i firmly believe in simplicity. There are exceptions (see e.g. above).
But right now i think Apple lost an opportunity to not add a MiniDisplay Port and or micro USB port as video and serial connector. May be even add a third proprietary connector if neede.
Placed them side by side and they would not need more room on the device than the 30-pin connector. You could even build an dongle to convert the threesome to a 30-pin connector in order to be able to the existing iPod accessories.
I know it would potentially cannibalize the existing iPod 3rd Party ecosystem (you wouldn’t if you build / sold the above dongle.
But having separat small standard ports would:
make the connector cables much more elegant (no bulky dongles)
beam the port capabilities into the current time
especially would enable digital video out. I suspect that the A4 SoC is perfectly able to do digital video, but having only analog video out has mainly to do with the aging 30-port connector. It may also have to do with making content providers happy)
Open Questions
These have mostly to do with my professional view on the iPad (as the head of the R & D lab of one of the worlds largest newsagencies currently looking very hard at ereading:
When will iBooks be available outside the USA?
Will it offer subscription based pricing models that magazines and newspapers can use (although the app is called iBooks? But we also got used to buy videos etc. in an app called iTunes :-)
Will the SDK contain classes for rendering ePubs or will tht be private to iBooks?
Will ePubs automatically opened with iBooks?
…
Misc
iBooks looks an awful lot like Delicious Library (as others have olso noted). Could swear that Mike Matas (the original designer of Delicious Library that joined Apple in 2005) had a hand on it. But then learned that Matas left Apple in July 2009.
On Monday Apple finally sent out the invites to their January 27th event – widely presumed to be about the RAT (Rumored Apple Tablet). Because everyone and their dog is speculating about what the RAT would or not would be i just like to point you to the summaries that I think most likely are to be correct for most of their parts: Andy Ihnatko (from which i shamelessly stole the RAT acronym above) and John Gruber (Part I and Part II).
Whatever exactly will be announced by Apple (and even if they wouldn’t announce a tablet at all) i’m sure that 2010 will be the year of the tablet, as much as 2008 was the year of the netbook. Because 2010 is (finally) the year of the confluence of all the necessary technologies.
Let’s have a look:
Processors
RightNow there is a multitude of powerful (mostly multicore) processor platforms out there that consume very little power and are still able to en/decode HD video, driver large displays and do 3D-rendering and integrate WiFi / GSM. Most notable the Nvidia Tegra 2, Marvells Armada 510/610, Qualcomms Snapdragon, TI’s OMAP and Freescales i.MX. Important: Practically all of them are ARM-based.
Displays
Touch-enabled displays are now available in all sizes ranges that are of interest for tablets: 5”, 7” and 10”. There are two power-saving display technologies that are production ready in 2010: AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) and PixelQis transflective displays. They are somewhat complementary. While AMOLEds excel at displaying bright images /video and are available at a reasonable price for 5” (and to some extent at 7” display sizes but practically out of scope for 10” displays, PixelQi’s transflective displays in their reflective mode are practically equal to e-ink displays wrt. display crispness and readability in sunlight (while still able to display video), and equal to normal LCD displays in transmissive mode. They are right now manufactured in 10”.
OS
Open Source, Linux based, fast booting OS have also evolved to a quality where they are mass compatible. Most notable Android (a Linux / Java Based OS) has been picked up by most mobile phone manufacturers and also gets traction in into mobile internet devices / tablets (see below). Other contenders are Google Chrome OS /Chromium, Moblin / Ubuntu Moblin Remix and Maemo.
We’ll see. If not (Ed. Apple is building a tablet), hopefully somebody uses Google’s android to build such a device.
Fortunately, this is exactly what is happening and could be seen at CES2010. Partly by replacing Androind with another of the OS alternatives mentioned above. Forget the lame MS/HP presentation, the real action could be seen elsewhere and nearly everywhere (because of the confluence of the technologies i mentioned above).
So without further ado some pointers to my favorite exhibits at CES2010 (sometimes also other events)
10” devices
My personal highlight of CES2010 was NotionInk ADAM, a 10” tablet based on NVidia Tegra 2, PixelQi Display and Android
Notion ink ADAM
More about the device can for example be found here.
The PixelQi Display has also been shown integrated into a Lenov Idea Pad. The video below is especially interesting because it shows the two different display modes using the NYT Reader 2.0 app.
7” devices
MSI Wind has show prototypes of both 10” and 7” dualscreen devices. The video below shows the 10” version as the 7” version was seemingly non functional.
5” devices
Dell has shown the Dell Mini 5, an Android based tablet running on top of a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
A device that is already in the market is the Archos 5 Internet Tablet which is based on Android and features an OLED display.
Set top boxes
The Quanta ebox is a slim set top box based on Marvells Armada 510 chip
Boxee Box: The boxee box is based on the Nvidia Tegra2 and is going to be sold for below $200 by D-Link that won a best of show award at CES2010
Other touch devices
As an interesting side note, TouchRevolution showed off a 7” touch-enabled, android based platform integrated into a washing machine and a microwave
For quite some time i’ve argued that the iPhone / iPod touch is right now my favourite e-reading device (see here, here and here) (Having extensively tested e-ink devices like the Iliad). Hence i drooled for a iTouch like device with a 7-9″ display.
…
IMHO, it is more likely that Apple will enter the netbook market with a typical apple twist by not doing another scaled down version of a notebook, but a device that is dedicated for optimal support of the typical tasks a netbook has to support in a home and car enviroment.: Surf and read on the web, watch video, control your home entertainment systems etc. This device should be the best device for couch surfing as well as showing video to your kids (or let them play casual games) while being in the car.
Ever since the Newton, Apple had technology for this kind of devices and it is more or less a yearly rumour that the Newton 2.0 will finally ship. But this time i think the chances are better than ever.
We’ll see. If not , hopefully somebody uses Google’s android to build such a device.
While being wrong 2008 wrt. to the timeframe (i basically made wrong assumptions about the power consumption of Intel ATOM and LCD displays), i still very much believe in the scenario of an optimized device for mobile entertainment at home (e.g couch surfing) and in car setting.
For the curious: My dream eReading device has for years been an Apple media pad. Right now my specs for this device read as follows: around 1.5 pound (hopefully lighter), beefed up iPhone OS (or better dual boot, full OS at a premium price), 7 – 10” display, wi-fi 801.11n plus 3G, all app store goodness, bluetooth for external keyboard connectivity as well as all other bluetoothy things, plus a PixelQi multitouch display.
The exiting thing : everything except the PixelQi display is available right now, the PixelQi schedule will allow for a WWDC presentation (or a launch at the traditional september special event).
So what i am hoping for and why?
I’ll try to do it along the lines of my introduction and the CES review.
Processor / Platform
I think that is safe to bet that this device(s) will be the first Apple device that will incorporate some benefits of the P.A. Semi acquisition Apple made in early 2008. P.A. Semi was a fabless chip designer specializing in low-power processor design based on ARM CPU cores. As said above all processor alternatives that i mentioned above are also based on ARM CPUs.
Since 1.5 – 2 years are a typical time frames for the the scoping of a design to a production quality chip /platform that can be mass manufactured i think we are on the safe side for that. It is also safe to assume that the platform of the tablet includes the benefits of the long term license deal with Power VR for das 2d/3D graphics as well as video de/encoding . So IMHO the paltform to be used within the table will be feature /performancewise be at least comparable to the Nvidia Tegra 2 plattform.
Displays
As argued above the display technology most likely depends on screen size of the device(s). For 5” it definitely will be AMOLED, for 7” AMOLED is a likely but pricey choice and for 10” it will be either regular LCD or a PixelQi display for the following reason:
As we have seen in the PixelQi videos above, the display seem to be ready for the market. But i remember that they said last year that touch-enabled displays that would not suck (e.g. take away too much contrast) would be more in the June/July 2010 timeframe. So if the the tablet is going to be delayed until June lets hope that this will be the reason.
May be some of the Apple patents with regard to display technology (e.g. integrating touch and display layer in order to come up with a thinner device etc.) will be incorporated.
OS / Applications
I’m sure that the OS will be more twisted toward iPhoneOS than to Mac OS X. The main reason for that is that there definitely will be an app/content store for the device(s) and that the devices will definitely be no general purpose computers. But i’m also quite sure that the OS will be not be identical to the current iPhoneOS. It definitely will support multi-tasking and the User interaction will be different / enhanced. It is also quite clear that there will be the possibility to pair a physical keyboard (most likely a bluetooth keyboard at least with some of the devices.
I’m also quite sure that (some) of the devices will incorporate technology / features from the Apple TV and will more or less be Apple TV 2.0.
Line Up
10” device
I think it is a fairly safe bet that the device to be unveiled on Wednesday will be a 10” tablet. And by 10” i also mean 9.7 or 10.1 ”. The device will basically have the functionality as described by Inathko and Gruber. PixelQi display would be nice, but most likely it will be a regular LCD display.
You already can watch video stored on you’re iPhone and ipod Touch on a big screen, using either a 3rd Party Dock or a special viideo cable. Right now forwarding the signal to an external display is restricted to the playback of the video. All interaction is on the device only (which makes sense for devices like the iPhone).
This changes with the 10” tablet. As said above i expect that AppleTV functionality will be incorporated into the devices. This means that you will be either able to use a Front Row like interface on the device itself and / or more likely use an iPhone or iPod touch with the Apple Remote App. I also expect a dock with gigabit network connectivity, maybe an enclosed 2.5” drive for additional content, eventually DVR and TV-Tuner capabilities and an IR port for a regular Apple Remote. This dock will eitehr come directly from Apple or from a third party provider.
5” device
The current ipod Touch is basically the equivalent of the 5” devices mentioned above. Since the current Zune as well as the Nexus one are already using AMOLED displays i think it is a save bet that the next generation iPod touch will have an AMOLED display. For me it is an open question if the device will have a 5” screen or if the economies of scale wil dictate that the screen is the same size as an iPhone.
May be the chosen route is to keep the iPod Touch form factor as it is and to touch enable the successor to the iPod classic, using a greater display and a harddrive.
7” device
Most likely either a 5” or a 7” device will be developed by Apple since there is not enough potential for diffentiating between the two devices. But may be they will go the MacBook Pro route and offer the same functionality with two different display sizes.
Set-Top Box
If Apple is interested to continue it’s Apple TV hobby, the logical consequence is to strip the 10 inch tablet of the display and use the other parts to build a tiny and shiny Apple TV 2.0. This box can easily be sold for around $200 it may go as low as $150.
Final words
I think it is unlikely that all this devices will be introduced next week, but i would be very much surprised if at the end of the year the line-up wouldn’t more or look like sketched above.
The following video shows the first prototypes of the PixelQi displays i wrote about in my Why Times Reader 2.0 is important article when i characterized my dream eReading device as:
For the curious: My dream eReading device has for years been an Apple media pad. Right now my specs for this device read as follows: around 1.5 pound (hopefully lighter), beefed up iPhone OS (or better dual boot, full OS at a premium price), 7 – 10” display, wi-fi 801.11n plus 3G, all app store goodness, bluetooth for external keyboard connectivity as well as all other bluetoothy things,plus a PixelQi multitouch display.
The exiting thing : everything except the PixelQi display is available right now, the PixelQi schedule will allow for a WWDC presentation (or a launch at the traditional september special event).
So there are no longer any reasosns why Apple couldn’t build this kind of device. Now please do it
Update: The video seems to come from this blog post which also contains some 5Megapixel photots.
So i’m attending TOC and was simultaneously following the Kindle 2 launch (via liveblogs). My impression: Publishers are really exploring all opportunities to publish their content.
To my surprise e.g. Leslie Hulse (Vice President, Digital Business Development at HarperCollins Publishers) stated that Piracy and hence DRM is no big concern. They are monitoring the torrent sites, but see it largely as marketing. She also hinted a couple of times that Apple is moving in the eBook area. At the minimum this could mean that they provide some better means to filter the Book section of the app store. But maybe this means more. (fingers crossed).
Cynthia Cleto (Global Manager for eBooks at Springer Science+Business Media) told the audience that they have given 30000 books to Google for the Google Book Scan and that they are seeing 30% of the traffic to their sites coming from Google.
I already tweeted that the Kindle 2 is still EV-DO only, so no Kindles outside the US soon. In addition the hints that Amazon eBooks are coming to phones (including iPhones) soon are mounting.
All this leaves quite some opportunity for a decent eReading device in Europe. May be one based on a phone OS. To see the potential of a GSM/Wifi-based device one only has to compare the sales figures of the original iPhone being sold only in the US vs. the sales figures of the iPhone 3G.
So all in all i think the market is getting ripe enough to make it interesting enough for a move by Apple. Put up a Books and Magazines Section in iTunes (parallel to Music and Apps, not as a section within Apps), and introduce a bigger iPhone OS based reading device. Use EPUB as the base format and include a Reader with all iPhones etc.
Either Apple moves within the next 6 -9 months or some Android based devices will be the first to do so. All in all i don’t think that Amazon wants to lock their eBooks to their devices. Primarily they want to sell books, the kindle is an instrument to develop the eBook market.
Recently Apple added a a knowledge base article announcing that they are replacing frayed power adapters (sees also here). The wording of that artcle is:
Whether your product is in or out-of-warranty, you can take your adapter (you don’t need to take the computer, however, please do bring the computer’s serial number) to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for evaluation and replacement if necessary. The location of your computer’s serial number can be found in the following articles: MacBook and MacBook Pro. You may be eligible for a replacement adapter free of charge. Make a reservation at the Genius Bar before visiting your local Apple Retail Store. To make a reservation, go to http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/.
Since my power adapter looks exactly that way, (well not exactly the problems are at the other end of the cable), and the MBP is only about 18 month old i thought it might be worth a try. I was not expecting too much, given Apple’s reputation wrt. customer friendlyness. Well i have to say that Apple unfortunately lived up to my expectations.
Episode 1: The flagship store
Since i was in NYC meeting with my friends at the AP, i first tried to exchange the power adapter on a sunday morning in the flagshipstore. Well, i wasn’t able to make a reservation at the genius bar (i”m told that you have to book far in advance). Hence i approached one of the regular staff. This guy wasn’t aware of the exchange program. After checking with some of his uppers i was told to exchange the adapter in germany (i ‘m one of these honest guys).
Sounded ok with me. I briefly thought about buying an adapter just to take advantage of the exchange rate and as an assurance if Apple wouldn’t exchange the adapter in germany. But i didn’t do it, because i was pretty sure that this was not going to happen.
Episode 2: The qualified german resellers
Back in germany i paid a visit to the Apple qualified reseller where the MBP was bought from (For those who don’t know, there are no Apple operated stores in germany. They checked with the Apple Care system, and found out that besides being told otherwise by the company, the computer wasn’t registered with Apple and had no warranty extension.
Don’t worry i thought, the knowledge base article said: “Whether your product is in or out-of-warranty,”.Asked about that the staff told me that i had to directly deal with Apple. Since another Apple store (this one of the biggest german Apple reseller) is only a couple of hundreds of metres away i tried my luck again there. To the exact same result, but they also handed me the number of the support hotline.
Episode 3: The support hotline
I then called the the support hotline (0.14 EUR/minute) and entered the usual loop. Approx. 45 minutes later and a couple of escalations to second level later i was confirmed that i was in fact eligible to a goodwill exchange of the adapter, but i had to provide the serial of the adapter itself in addition to the serial of the laptop. Unfortunately i wasn’t able to read the serial, even with my glasses on. Because the iPhone could not take pictures that focused on the serial, i first had to recharge my N95. Since the support hotline was about to close at 8pm (no 24h service in germany), i was given a ticket no. and told to call again the next morning.
So i charged the N95 and took a nice autofocused image of the serial and called again next morning, quite sure that finally everything was in place to exchange the adapter. How wrong i was! After a first escalation to second level I was told that the serial of the adapter itself was slightly off the number range of the exchange program, but only a little bit. How assuring :-) The knowledge base did not say anything about the serial of the adapter i answered, and i was told that there are rules and regulations they have to follow. The call agent then to another escalation route to customer relations in order to see if at least i could get a voucher for a few euros in the Apple store. But he also came back empty handed, saying that this was not unfortunately this also was not possible. Knowing that the agent itself could not do any more, i asked him to add a remark that this ticket was closed with a very dissatified customer.
Summary: 3+ hours of time and $25 spent for nothing but frustration
So in summary i spent 3+ hours and approx 25$ in phone fees and got nothing but frustration from Apple in exchange. In retrospect i should have bought the adapter in NYC knowing that Apple would never ever think about a goodwill exchange. This would have saved me 3 hours of my precious time and at least 50EUR (phone cost plus lower cost of the adapter in the states).
It is a shame that Apple customer relations isn’t even willing to give some of these bucks back as a voucher for the store, e.g. the phone costs. I’m only using Apple computers for 25 years (starting with an Apple II+). Right now the customer relations guy should have seen that registered only the following with Apple: 1 iBook, 1 Mac mini, 2 Mac Book Pro, 1 Apple TV, 1iPod 4G, 1 iPod nano, 1 iPod touch (not sure if the iPhone 3G is already registered).
Sure this amounts to nothing given Apple’s standards. Or they think they don’t need to do anything, because i’m stupid enough to i would stay loyal to their brand no matter what.
Maybe they shouldn’t be too sure . E.g. the new Samsung X 360 looks quite good, and i’m also a happy user of Ubuntu and Debian. I’m pretty sure that i could get Mac OS X running on this hardware too (if needed)
A lot of people are complaing about missing features. I typically don’t because i firmly believe in simplicity. There are exceptions (see e.g. above).
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8a9d4923-65f3-48f5-b1e7-18ffa66e2483)
