6 ms·

Paul Buchheit: Tablet thoughts

78 points by peter123 17y ago

adriand 17y ago
Paul's ideas for what could be possible with this device are very interesting. But I can't help but wonder if Apple's new tablet could turn out to be the Google Wave of consumer devices: a super-hyped disappointment. Apple has a very good track record, but sooner or later, they are going to release a device that will fall short - maybe even well short - of the fever pitch of hype that precedes it. Could this be that time? I doubt it...but you never know.
- novum 17y ago
  Apple has released poorly received products before. Perhaps you recall the PowerMac G4 Cube, the Newton, the mighty mouse, iMovie '09...
  - ggchappell 17y ago
    The Lisa, the Apple III, ...
  - ellyagg 17y ago
    Yep. If it happens, it won't be the first time, won't be the last time, won't be Apple's death knell, won't be a sign of decline.
  - jstevens85 17y ago
    Yes, Apple has released a bunch of shitty products before, but none of them received any hype. I think what the parent is saying is what happens if Apple can't meet the expectations and the hype that has been appearing in the mainstream press for some of Apple's latest products. Apple's reputation could really take a hit.
  - GHFigs 17y ago
    And nobody even remembers the iPod HiFi.
- charliepark 17y ago
  One of the problems with Wave was that it was Google doing the hyping. They did a terrible job managing expectations. With the Tablet, Apple hasn't said word one about it even existing, let alone what we could expect from it. Anything pundits have claimed it could / should / would do is, for the most part, moot. I like Paul's "sharing" concept. I'd love to be at a family gathering with my brothers-in-law, and all sit on the couch and toss MP3s at each others' Tablet disk images, creating a shared library of files.
- city41 17y ago
  I always thought Apple TV was that mythical "failed Apple product." I admit to being a big Apple fan, so certainly I am biased. But Apple has a knack for shaking things up and a great track record of doing it. I will admit I've held off on buying a netbook because I want to see Apple's response to them first. I don't mean I will necessarily buy their response, but I am confident their response will change the scenery a lot.
  - borism 17y ago
    Apple TV is indeed like Google Wave in that everybody talked about it but noone cared. Tapplet on the other hand is the (hypothetical) product that everyone is talking about and many people care. If Apple fails to meet expectations on this one it will be an epic FAIL. (my personal opinion is that they're indeed bound to disappoint, as almost everyone have had so many differing expectations about this device that meeting those is impossible, and most probably it will just turn out to be iPhone/iPod touch with a bigger screen - zero novelty)
    - city41 17y ago
      I disagree. The iPhone is a great example. It really did disappoint on a lot of levels: AT&T only, no multitasking, the draconian app approval process, still no multimedia SMS (this one boggles my mind), etc. But overall, it's been a huge success and threw the entire industry for a loop. I'm thinking the maclet will do about the same thing.
      - olefoo 17y ago
        iPhone has multimedia messaging now, but it's usually more convenient to send emails or use an app to post to whatever.
      - borism 17y ago
        except everyone already knows everything about iPhone OS
- potatolicious 17y ago
  The author touched on something that has bothered me for years. It's been how long since Windows came out? Since te internet became common for home PCs? And yet we still can't share files. I'm serous, we can't. Not out of the box, not on any of the common OSes. Try this. You have a document - be it picture, PDF, whatever. You want to share it with someone in the same room as you. Can you, on a stock, out-of-the-box machine (i.e. no special software installed/configured) get the file to the other machine faster than using a memory stick? Nope. Windows File Sharing is a joke, Apple File Sharing a bit less so (thanks to Zeroconf/Bonjour) but still crappy... The sort of ad-hoc file sharing problem has been grating on me for years - we've advanced so dramatically in every field, but still cannot manage this very simple problem. I saw Avatar recently, and this split-second scene where one of the scientists grabbed an image on a desktop machine and "tossed" it onto his tablet... that blew my mind way more than it should have. Without the whiz-bang touchscreen holographic technology, the premise of this operation should be second nature to us by now.
  - rimantas 17y ago
    I find it funny that Apple recently just provided an easy way to share music: you see the other computer's music library in iTunes and can just drag and drop songs from there.
  - wheels 17y ago
    And yet we still can't share files. I'm serous, we can't. Not out of the box, not on any of the common OSes. Uhm, what? Does one click on "file sharing" in the "Sharing" settings of OS X's control panel count as "not out of the box"?
    - sachinag 17y ago
      I will say that technically, that option is there, but in my experience, it very rarely works as well as it should. We've just reverted to using Dropbox.
    - GHFigs 17y ago
      That counts as "not terrible", but is still more involved and less reliable and less flexible than Dropbox for the common case.
mechanical_fish 17y ago
Bump folks! I hope you are listening to this! Though for all I know your iPhone software already does Paul B's photosharing trick... I'm the world's laziest beta user so I don't know.
- gcheong 17y ago
  I think the Divyshot folks have something like this already.
antirez 17y ago
Currently there is no computer, in any form, that is successful because it can be used together with other people in a physical sense. I think this new product must be great to use alone or will not meet the masses. So even if this vision can be reductive I continue to think at this new product as a larger more powerful version of the iPhone that is mainly a portable device. Portalbe does not mean the only usage is to carry it around outside your home. It feels natural that such a device is something you can lean on the table while cooking to read the news from internet, or to watch a film while on the bed after a destructive 2010 party like I'm doing right now. Also of course in the "outside" world it's a great experience if the device is light enough. For instance I never take my laptop outside in the plane when I flight, as I feel uncomfortable to do it, my macbook is too weight and requires too space. So what I use is my iPhone indeed, but it's totally inadequate to perform tasks like writing a blog post. So actually I can see why this device can be a success. I also can clearly see (it's years I think that I could start a startup about this issue) how people are not able to share an image with one click, but this is, IMHO, an entirely different problem that should be addressed in some other way. When I heard about Google Wave the first time my first reaction was: now people will be free to share things with one click in real-time, but my feelings with Wave are not good, it's not as "simple" as I dreamed, so I guess we have to wait for a new solution.
- scythe 17y ago
  >Currently there is no computer, in any form, that is successful because it can be used together with other people in a physical sense. I think this new product must be great to use alone or will not meet the masses. Game consoles come to mind.

78 points by peter123 17y ago

Paul's ideas for what could be possible with this device are very interesting. But I can't help but wonder if Apple's new tablet could turn out to be the Google Wave of consumer devices: a super-hyped disappointment. Apple has a very good track record, but sooner or later, they are going to release a device that will fall short - maybe even well short - of the fever pitch of hype that precedes it. Could this be that time? I doubt it...but you never know.

novum 17y ago
Apple has released poorly received products before. Perhaps you recall the PowerMac G4 Cube, the Newton, the mighty mouse, iMovie '09...
- ggchappell 17y ago
  The Lisa, the Apple III, ...
- ellyagg 17y ago
  Yep. If it happens, it won't be the first time, won't be the last time, won't be Apple's death knell, won't be a sign of decline.
- jstevens85 17y ago
  Yes, Apple has released a bunch of shitty products before, but none of them received any hype. I think what the parent is saying is what happens if Apple can't meet the expectations and the hype that has been appearing in the mainstream press for some of Apple's latest products. Apple's reputation could really take a hit.
- GHFigs 17y ago
  And nobody even remembers the iPod HiFi.
charliepark 17y ago
One of the problems with Wave was that it was Google doing the hyping. They did a terrible job managing expectations. With the Tablet, Apple hasn't said word one about it even existing, let alone what we could expect from it. Anything pundits have claimed it could / should / would do is, for the most part, moot. I like Paul's "sharing" concept. I'd love to be at a family gathering with my brothers-in-law, and all sit on the couch and toss MP3s at each others' Tablet disk images, creating a shared library of files.
city41 17y ago
I always thought Apple TV was that mythical "failed Apple product." I admit to being a big Apple fan, so certainly I am biased. But Apple has a knack for shaking things up and a great track record of doing it. I will admit I've held off on buying a netbook because I want to see Apple's response to them first. I don't mean I will necessarily buy their response, but I am confident their response will change the scenery a lot.
- borism 17y ago
  Apple TV is indeed like Google Wave in that everybody talked about it but noone cared. Tapplet on the other hand is the (hypothetical) product that everyone is talking about and many people care. If Apple fails to meet expectations on this one it will be an epic FAIL. (my personal opinion is that they're indeed bound to disappoint, as almost everyone have had so many differing expectations about this device that meeting those is impossible, and most probably it will just turn out to be iPhone/iPod touch with a bigger screen - zero novelty)
  - city41 17y ago
    I disagree. The iPhone is a great example. It really did disappoint on a lot of levels: AT&T only, no multitasking, the draconian app approval process, still no multimedia SMS (this one boggles my mind), etc. But overall, it's been a huge success and threw the entire industry for a loop. I'm thinking the maclet will do about the same thing.
    - olefoo 17y ago
      iPhone has multimedia messaging now, but it's usually more convenient to send emails or use an app to post to whatever.
    - borism 17y ago
      except everyone already knows everything about iPhone OS
potatolicious 17y ago
The author touched on something that has bothered me for years. It's been how long since Windows came out? Since te internet became common for home PCs? And yet we still can't share files. I'm serous, we can't. Not out of the box, not on any of the common OSes. Try this. You have a document - be it picture, PDF, whatever. You want to share it with someone in the same room as you. Can you, on a stock, out-of-the-box machine (i.e. no special software installed/configured) get the file to the other machine faster than using a memory stick? Nope. Windows File Sharing is a joke, Apple File Sharing a bit less so (thanks to Zeroconf/Bonjour) but still crappy... The sort of ad-hoc file sharing problem has been grating on me for years - we've advanced so dramatically in every field, but still cannot manage this very simple problem. I saw Avatar recently, and this split-second scene where one of the scientists grabbed an image on a desktop machine and "tossed" it onto his tablet... that blew my mind way more than it should have. Without the whiz-bang touchscreen holographic technology, the premise of this operation should be second nature to us by now.
- rimantas 17y ago
  I find it funny that Apple recently just provided an easy way to share music: you see the other computer's music library in iTunes and can just drag and drop songs from there.
- wheels 17y ago
  And yet we still can't share files. I'm serous, we can't. Not out of the box, not on any of the common OSes. Uhm, what? Does one click on "file sharing" in the "Sharing" settings of OS X's control panel count as "not out of the box"?
  - sachinag 17y ago
    I will say that technically, that option is there, but in my experience, it very rarely works as well as it should. We've just reverted to using Dropbox.
  - GHFigs 17y ago
    That counts as "not terrible", but is still more involved and less reliable and less flexible than Dropbox for the common case.

mechanical_fish 17y ago

Bump folks! I hope you are listening to this! Though for all I know your iPhone software already does Paul B's photosharing trick... I'm the world's laziest beta user so I don't know.

gcheong 17y ago
I think the Divyshot folks have something like this already.

antirez 17y ago

Currently there is no computer, in any form, that is successful because it can be used together with other people in a physical sense. I think this new product must be great to use alone or will not meet the masses. So even if this vision can be reductive I continue to think at this new product as a larger more powerful version of the iPhone that is mainly a portable device. Portalbe does not mean the only usage is to carry it around outside your home. It feels natural that such a device is something you can lean on the table while cooking to read the news from internet, or to watch a film while on the bed after a destructive 2010 party like I'm doing right now. Also of course in the "outside" world it's a great experience if the device is light enough. For instance I never take my laptop outside in the plane when I flight, as I feel uncomfortable to do it, my macbook is too weight and requires too space. So what I use is my iPhone indeed, but it's totally inadequate to perform tasks like writing a blog post. So actually I can see why this device can be a success. I also can clearly see (it's years I think that I could start a startup about this issue) how people are not able to share an image with one click, but this is, IMHO, an entirely different problem that should be addressed in some other way. When I heard about Google Wave the first time my first reaction was: now people will be free to share things with one click in real-time, but my feelings with Wave are not good, it's not as "simple" as I dreamed, so I guess we have to wait for a new solution.

scythe 17y ago
>Currently there is no computer, in any form, that is successful because it can be used together with other people in a physical sense. I think this new product must be great to use alone or will not meet the masses. Game consoles come to mind.