Apple copies PCs yet again

[Asher]

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/05/10.18.shtml

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=ptxt&S1=D504,889.WKU.&OS=pn/D504,889&RS=PN/D504,889?tMoJk

Wow, a tablet computer! The patent even explicitly mentions Tablet PCs.

I wonder if Agathon's claim that these are useless devices will hold true once Apple copies the tablet PCs already on the market in a few years.

[MrFun]

I thought you had recently become somewhat of a fan of Apple?

[Agathon]

I said I wouldn't buy them as I consider them a bit daft. If you are going to draw, then buy a box of crayons.

But I'm also on record saying that if Apple made one, it would be far better than anything that the PC world had, simply because Apple does these things properly and doesn't end up with some half-assed POS like Windows. If they just come up with something that is exactly like the tablet PC then it won't sell, because those things are overpriced and silly.

Once the PC world copies the new spin that Apple puts on the tablet, mass adoption will follow, just like it did with the Macintosh and iPod.

[MrFun]

How about an Etch-A-Sketch, Agathon?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Apple does these things properly

If by properly, you mean charge more for less and make fanboys think they are getting a better deal

[Agathon]

How about an Etch-A-Sketch, Agathon?

As far as I can see, that's about what a Tablet PC is. I always thought that voice control would be more useful than being able to scribble.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
As far as I can see, that's about what a Tablet PC is. I always thought that voice control would be more useful than being able to scribble.

Not everybody just writes words for a living. Some of us need to diagram and do math, which is hard to do with a keyboard.

[Agathon]

Not everybody just writes words for a living. Some of us need to diagram and do math, which is hard to do with a keyboard.

Most people don't need to. Given the quality of the diagrams I have seen drawn on tablets, I don't hold out much hope. Ten bucks says that the majority of drawings done on tablets today are humorous doodles of women's breasts.

But I guess in your neck of the woods people like to do pretty drawings rather than meaningful use of language.

[Asher]

Real world example #1:

I meet with my software engineering group in our lab. We're given the specs from our "customer" for the solution they want. We're then at the point where we need to design a system, componentize it, form teams and assign them appropriately.

Guy with the tablet PC opens up OneNote and the group huddles around the screen, and we begin to make some fundamental design decisions. Diagrams are drawn -- we start brainstorming and assigning components into packages, which are then assigned to teams. But we change our minds the more we think about it -- he can just click and drag to rearrange parts of the diagram cleanly at will.

We've got a great design plan now, in a very clean format. He clicks the mail icon in the top left, and instantly emails it to everyone in the group using the school's wireless network.

The purpose of tablet PCs isn't so you can draw art on them, it's so you can draw freeform diagrams or text on it. The keyboard (and mouse) is extremely limited in situations like the above.

In the old days, it would be done on paper and incredibly messy. Then maybe scanned in and emailed to everyone like that. But that's slow, it's less optimal, and it's ugly.

Tablet PCs do for diagramming and freestyle text what word processors did for writing.

You sound like the idiots who shunned the computer word processors when they came out.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Agathon

Not everybody just writes words for a living. Some of us need to diagram and do math, which is hard to do with a keyboard.

Most people don't need to. Given the quality of the diagrams I have seen drawn on tablets, I don't hold out much hope. Ten bucks says that the majority of drawings done on tablets today are humorous doodles of women's breasts.

But I guess in your neck of the woods people like to do pretty drawings rather than meaningful use of language.

Since "most people don't need to" it's not useful? I think it can be useful for students in a variety of subjects. Math is obvious, but even in Poly Sci, there are diagrams drawn involving the relationship of various theories and what not.

[MrFun]

That's a good, illustrative explanation, Asher.

[Agathon]

That's not the real world. Your job has little to do with the sort of thing most people do for a living. I guess that your job is one of the few that entails mailing poorly drawn cartoons to illiterate co-workers.

Perhaps if you got out more you would realize that there's a reason that Tablet PCs have failed to take off outside of a few areas. Never mind. I bet Apple will do it right and then they will.

[Ramo]

everythign's c a copy of of everythign lese. onluy reaiosn w e say otherwise us to **** withotu Asher. duh... cuz ****ignwith asher is fun. i tidell you.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
That's not the real world.

Seeing as it happened last year, I beg to differ.

Your job has little to do with the sort of thing most people do for a living. I guess that your job is one of the few that entails mailing poorly drawn cartoons to illiterate co-workers.

You seem to grossly underestimate how often diagrams are used.

Engineering uses diagrams, I believe.
Physics does.
Hey, doesn't chemistry?
Hmm. Even Political Science.
Math maybe?
etc.

You're surprisingly narrowminded for someone who is supposed to be expanding our mind's horizons...

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Agathon
I guess that your job is one of the few that entails mailing poorly drawn cartoons to illiterate co-workers.

** grabs a bag of popcorn