14 ms·

Tablets

• replicatorblog 16y ago
  FYI, the link to RFS 8 is broken.
  • pg 16y ago
    I know; I'm making that page now.
• aditya 16y ago
  Typo in the last line: "and inch" should be "an inch"
  • pg 16y ago
    fixed; thanks
• someone_here 16y ago
  The real thing that makes these "tablets" interesting is the number of features they have packed into them. The "ease of use" that people are talking about when referencing Apple's products is just a part of Apple's marketing for their devices. Android (and Maemo and MeeGo and etc) devices are much more capable and much more hackable. Why the praise for such a bland device such as the i-OSes when there's an awesome OS and device market sitting right next to it?
  • xenophanes 16y ago
    "Capable" and "hackable" are completely different than "ease of use". Apple really does have great ease of use (for normal people), and part of how they get it is by reducing the other two.
    • orangecat 16y ago
      I continue to disagree with that concept. Mac OS X would not suddenly become better for normal users if Apple ripped out Terminal.app and forbade anything that replaced its functionality.
  • deleted 16y ago
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  • roc 16y ago
    Features don't make platforms interesting. Windows CE devices had features pouring out of them, but no-one cared. Similarly with maemo. (I can commiserate: I loved my n800. But no-one else did.) Use makes things interesting. Particularly as relates to platforms. If the platform isn't used, its potential is a moot point.
  • theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    IMHO, for the "average" consumer, there's very little difference between the either the capabilities or the ease of use of either and Android phone or an iPhone. It's almost Pepsi vs. Coke. Hackability is completely off the average consumer's radar.
    • piguy314 16y ago
      That's because innovation is a positive externality, people don't consider innovation when they buy an electronic device, but their choices do have consequences (which of course is the definition of an externality). Econtalk did a great show about this and net neutrality: Relevant excerpt from show: What is worrisome--because the Apple iPad is not as open as the cloud? As the PC. That's a market response. That assumes the market response incorporates all externalities. It doesn't. Classic externality for the consumer to prefer the fantastic interface of the iPhone to the long-term innovation. You wouldn't anticipate consumers making buying decisions today incorporating the long-term value of a more innovative platform. No reason for them to do it. http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/04/benkler_on_net.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/04/benkler_on_net.html
  • deleted 16y ago
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  • jawee 16y ago
    My mobile device progression has basically gone like this: Palm OS -> Maemo -> iOS -> Android I could do more on Maemo and even Palm OS than I could ever do on iOS and Android. There were features everywhere... The Sony CLIE series of Palms had multi-tasking abilities, great MP3 players, better organizer features, and more powerful apps on average than it felt like my iPod Touch did. Maemo had features everywhere... I could video chat before Facetime was every dreamt up, I had full featured applications (Abiword with a foldable and pocketable keyboard is missed), and web browsers came out that were fantastic (I could use full Facebook, Google Reader, and such in the Tear browser just as well as on my desktop). And the cool interaction features existed too.. on Palm OS I had a universal remote control. On Maemo I could use a Bluetooth'd Wii Classic controller to play Mario in a NES emulator. Features were everywhere. But why did I switch to iOS and later Android? They just weren't fit for a touch interface. Using dedicated apps like the iOS model fits much better for ease of use with a touch interface. When I got the iPod, I switched from using full-featured versions of websites to settling for a reduced web experience that was more information-based.. and having to make notes of what to look at later on the computer. It separated bringing the computer experience with me to making a new mobile experience. When I have a computer nearby, it's not so bad. It does make for a nicer experience. Android feels a lot like iOS... almost like a slightly more functional and open copy of it. It's no where near where Maemo was. Still, it's enjoyable as a mobile experience, instead of just transplanting everything I could do on a desktop to a mobile-sized device. That said, I still miss Palm OS. I almost went for a used Palm OS phone instead of an Android phone, but I decided I wanted something built for the Internet.
• xenophanes 16y ago
  Another possible recipe for a startup (not saying this would be easy) is to find an important way that Apple is handicapping their devices and overcome it on Apple's own platform in a way that Apple will allow. If you can do that, users will love it and buy your product.
  • theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    Or overcome that limitation on a different platform? (Android, WinPhone 7, etc)? After all, I think a lot of the early interest in Android came from overcoming the limitations of carrier exclusivity (in the US at least) and form factor limitations (options for hardware keyboards, replaceable batteries, larger screens, etc).
  • pbhjpbhj 16y ago
    >If you can do that, users will love it and buy your product. I'm trying now to remember a story relayed here about a company who developed a product that bested Apple, Apple considered buying them/it but the negotiator dropped the ball or something and then Apple wiped them out by besting them. Anyway, if you beat Apple then they'll either lock you out (why handicap it if they'd let you carry on) or integrate your idea working around your IP. You're going to need lots of IP/anti-monopoly lawyers. You might get bought out too, especially if it's cheaper than there end of the court cases ... I guess what I'm saying is that building hardware on top of Apple's platform seems it would always be limited in some way. But I'm probably wrong.
    • ZeroGravitas 16y ago
      You could be referring to the story about how Panic's Audion nearly became the basis of iTunes, rather than Soundjam which they bought instead, though it is quite an old story. http://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/ http://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/
      • pbhjpbhj 16y ago
        Yup, that was it (extract): "Hi Steve, it's Cabel, from Panic." "Oh, hey Cabel! Nice to meet you. So tell me, what'd you think of iTunes?" "Well, I think it looks great! You guys have done a great job with it. But, you know, I still feel we'll do all-right with Audion." "Oh, really? That's interesting, because honestly? I don't think you guys have a chance."
• deleted 16y ago
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• edw519 16y ago
  Developers have used the accelerometer in ways Apple could never have imagined. That sentence is one instance of this sentence: Developers have used <platformFunction> in ways <inventor> could never have imagined. What better argument for open standards, APIs, and community cooperation?
  • alanthonyc 16y ago
    Doesn't the fact that the iPad is itself a closed...errr, integrated...system counter your argument? I'm all for open standards, API's and community cooperation of course. I just don't think that Apple is necessarily the antithesis. The fundamental difference between Apple's position today to Microsoft's monoculture of the previous decade lies in their motivations. Apple wants to make great stuff. Microsoft wanted to control the world. btw PG: I rfs8.html is not on the rfs.html page yet.
    • dnsworks 16y ago
      Right, Apple's shareholders are out there saying "I'm so glad we're making great stuff". Apple wants to make money, no matter how much fandom we bestow upon Apple for having a great design aesthetic, Apple is a corporation whose aim is to make money. Apple is a golden boy because they aren't Microsoft, and if we keep comparing the two, we never give Apple an honest shake.
      • Azuldolphin 16y ago
        I don't know. I've always gotten the feeling that Jobs is a perfectionist to the point of it almost being a pathology. I doubt his motivations are primarily focused on money, especially at this point.
        • mortenjorck 16y ago
          It's probably safe to say titans of industry tend to have a diversity of motivations. In markets like finance, I don't doubt that it's often as simple as money, but the cultural currencies of other markets can be equally alluring pursuits. Industrial design, and in the last few decades, tech, have a currency of having a positive impact on users' lives. UX, basically, specifically with the opportunity cost of bad UX. If there were any way to quantify this -- "quality-of-life improvement credits" -- Apple would likely be quite rich in these as well as simply in financial currencies.
• sanjayparekh 16y ago
  Just tweeted pg this but thought I'd say it here too. This is exactly what iRobot did when they saw the Roomba platform being taken apart and used for projects. They gave hackers the tools to use their platform and now sell quite a few Roomba based development kits instead of just plain old robot vacuums.
• deleted 16y ago
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• ziadbc 16y ago
  The naming convention for these goes back to some research at Xerox PARC http://www.ubiq.com/weiser/testbeddevices.htm http://www.ubiq.com/weiser/testbeddevices.htm Ubiquitious Computing is upon us, and much like the PC revolution, it will have been invented at Xerox and perfected at Apple.
• ulf 16y ago
  I think a really disrupting and interesting field will be tablets as replacement for textbooks in education. The possibilities to create amazing educational material are endless. On the other side, you have textbook publishers, who generally learn a lot of money with ever slightly changing editions and will do a lot to not see that income stream dying...
  • revorad 16y ago
    These guys are trying - http://www.kno.com/ http://www.kno.com/ - but I think it's silly to literally copy the physical form factor of a textbook. I think textbooks will not be replaced by devices like this, but stuff like the Khan academy.
  • eftpotrm 16y ago
    A few years back I was working for a supplier to academic libraries, who also did a lot of ebook sales to this market. In my final days there they were just starting to get interest from some institutions who wanted to buy Sony eBook Readers (as the best devices then on the market) preloaded with 30-50 books, then dish these out to students on some high-cost courses. They felt the students would prefer this (a not unreasonable belief with that volume of material) and it'd be easier for them to manage. So, yes, this sort of device (in the broad sense) will very likely replace textbooks at least partially. I saw it happening first hand a few years ago and see no reason it should have slowed down since.
• luigi 16y ago
  I think they're still just computers, and will be thought of as such. Sure, they're computers you hold in your hand, not the kind that sit on your desk. Gaming consoles and set top boxes are morphing into general purpose computers too. Those are computers that sit on a table near the TV. But they're all computers the same. http://luigimontanez.com/2010/the-computer-for-the-room/ http://luigimontanez.com/2010/the-computer-for-the-room/
  • cryptoz 16y ago
    "Computers" still get viruses, require backups done by the user to be safe from data loss, have out-of-date software packages (each with its own broken update mechanism), take ages to boot up, are clunky and slow...the list goes on. Sure, none of those are specific to the "computer" form factor. But they are all things that people think of when they think about their desktop computer (some mac and linux users excluded, of course: but that's still only 10% of the computer-using population). NONE of those items I just listed are problems with any "Tablet" computer. The form factor is different, but so is the very model of user software and computing.
    • whatusername 16y ago
      iPhones: * Have the potential for Viruses (don't call it an exploit it's a jailbreak is not great security reporting) * Reqquire backups done by the user to be safe from data loss * Since I'm currently rocking a 3G running IOS4 -- are "clunky and slow" Of your 5 points - boot up and software update are reasonable. The other 3 can be absolutely issues.
      • Xuzz 16y ago
        That's not the point. Has anyone actually made a virus? No. Will somebody? Yes. Are they perceived as better in that regard? Yes. The point is that they are not perceived in that way, so people are not scared of them. It doesn't matter how true it actually is, it matters what people think.
      • ZeroGravitas 16y ago
• tomjen3 16y ago
  Replacing keys sounds like an interesting idea, but on one hand you have the problem that the tech needs to be rock-solid (if github is down I get mildly annoyed. If I can't get my door to open, I freeze to death) and you are competing against an already established technology that works really well (rfid tags) and isn't very expensive. That said, I would love to hear more about your idea, if possible.
  • pclark 16y ago
    You can still use a key with the YC startup replacing keys.
• replicatorblog 16y ago
  This is absolutely right. My company been working on a medical device accessory for the iPhone and the possibilities the "tablet" form factor are amazing. Lower Cost Structure - In our industry (diabetes) you give away hardware to get ongoing disposable revenue. This hardware is expensive to produce and develop. Plus you spend a lot of effort on areas that don't add much value e.g. reinventing the wheel re: display drivers. This completely changes the economics of the industry. Higher Product Quality - By taking advantage of the core Tablet attributes like color touch screen display and processor you can do things feature wise that would be prohibitive with custom hardware. The amount of "ooohs" we get showing off our iPhone UI vs the current LCD one is staggering. New Revenue Opportunities - Again our business has thrived on a single revenue stream, the disposable test strips. With connections to the web all manner of "virtual good", subscription services, and other digital business models get opened up. Overall it is a huge win for both user and entrepreneur and is going to fundamentally change a bunch of hardware businesses. If you want to see our product, here is a nice review (http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662351/blood-glucose-monitor-for-the-iphone http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662351/blood-glucose-monitor-fo...)
  • sudont 16y ago
    Interestingly they're still devices. It's just that with iOS (and soon Android) this is the first time a general-purpose operating system is perfect for a device. Cocoa's for-scientist, rapid-development ideology is perfect for using the OS to create an ethereal device. Also, that's some solid hardware/software.
  • dave1619 16y ago
    Wow, that's a pretty cool diabetes blood tracking device. Kudos to you and your team.
    • replicatorblog 16y ago
      Thanks! BTW, we are hiring iOS developers if you are looking to work on cool tech and help 300MM people world wide live longer healthier lives!
  • 16y ago
• pedalpete 16y ago
  Doesn't the etherealization of hardware mean that we won't be referring to tablets, mobile devices, or laptops at all? Isn't the only difference between an iPad and iPhone the screen size. So really, we're starting to refer to these devices based on size rather than power/memory/speed.
  • alain94040 16y ago
    Why do you place more value on "power and memory", than the way people use a device (tablet vs. PC)? Let me give you a clear example: my computer 10 years ago had 128 MB of RAM. My iPhone has 16 GB of RAM. Does that make my old computer not a computer? My point is that the usage is what matters. I still use my computer to browse the web, compile code, run Excel and Word, etc.
    • jaredmck 16y ago
      pretty sure your iPhone doesn't have 16 GB of RAM- iPhone 4 apparently has 512 MB RAM...so still more than your old computer, but not so drastic.
      • alain94040 16y ago
        To be pedantic, Flash memory is closer to DRAM than to disks, although it's used for storage. It has similar access cycles as DRAM, the chip architecture of controller plus array is closer than that of a HDD.
        • megablast 16y ago
          Surely it is more important what it is used for, rather than anything else.
    • pedalpete 16y ago
      we're both trying to make the same point. I used 'power and memory' because I consider those to be the equivelant of 'form factor'. Computing won't reach etherealism until we no longer have to consider this form-factor over that form factor, just like we no longer consider memory or speed.
• Vivtek 16y ago
  What blows my mind is that I might have been able to see this coming in the 80's - but Buckminster Fuller saw it coming in 19 fricking 38. That man was incredible.
  • pg 16y ago
    It was already happening then. It's older than computers. In his day it meant e.g. replacing cams with variable speed motors.
    • Vivtek 16y ago
      Or, I suppose, Jacquard cards replacing cams in the 1800's. There's a lot more history to this than it's easy to see today. But Fuller's insight, Good God.
      • pyrhho 16y ago
        Whenever people drop accolades upon historical figures (Fuller included) I always have to wonder if there is a bit of survivorship bias at play. I'm not saying that Fuller wasn't a complete genius (he definitely was), but I wonder how many other incorrect predictions, and other "geniuses", have been forgotten because they were incorrect.
        • rbarooah 16y ago
          How is this a bias? What value would it be to pay attention to all incorrect statements people have made over the years except to understand why they were wrong? People like fuller who had insight that seems to have lasted over time are interesting because we can learn something not just from the statements they made, but from how they thought that gave them insight.
          • DougBTX 16y ago
            Imagine you have a set of people over history, all thinking in different ways, all making statements about the future. There's a good chance that some of those statements will be true, just by chance. If you don't account for that, you will be biased towards people who just got lucky (the survivors).
• rdl 16y ago
  What's the YC funded startup which is a replacement for keys? As in "We funded one startup that's replacing keys."
  • rdl 16y ago
    Quora advises that it is lockitron.com.
  • daeken 16y ago
    I know you specifically asked about the YC startup, but there are a few really cool lock-related startups out there. There have been a lot of NFC (near-field communication) startups popping up for the last few years, but those require special hardware in the phone, so a company (I can't recall which one at the moment -- sorry) came up with a novel approach: have an app on the phone that plays a series of tones on the speaker, which the lock receives and uses as an audio key. While this could very well be dangerous if not designed properly, it's a really novel approach, and could very well be more secure than existing electronic locks; I know that in the hotel lock industry at least, security is horrendous as it stands, so hopefully this could help there.
    • rdl 16y ago
      I stayed at the airbnb corporate apartment and mentioned a reprogrammable lock as an awesome upgrade to their service back in 2009. I hacked something crappy together with a schlage lockset for my own use, but ended up having to go to Afghanistan a couple weeks later. I actually prefer the usability of what I had to how the lockitron appears to work. Hotel locks are amazingly lame. Audio is an interesting output from the phone; flashing the display in front of a photosensor in a pattern would be cool too. Mechanical locks are basically obsolete in the age of digital photographs and rapid prototyping...if you let me look at a mechanical key for a second, I can make you a perfect copy in 15 minutes.
    • metageek 16y ago
      >have an app on the phone that plays a series of tones on the speaker, which the lock receives and uses as an audio key The series would have to be time-dependent, or you'd be vulnerable to replay attacks. Or maybe the lock plays a challenge and the phone plays the response.
• patrickk 16y ago
  Other stuff being replaced by smart devices: watches, alarm clocks, portable radios, cheap digital cameras, spirit levels, dictionaries and perhaps soon your wallet and physical mass-produced books. Looking at some of the creative stuff people do with mounting their iPad in vehicles, perhaps iPad-like devices will replace traditional dials in cars in the near future. The only reason we even consider calling them "mobile devices" is that the iPhone preceded the iPad. If the iPad had come first, we wouldn't think of the iPhone as a phone; we'd think of it as a tablet small enough to hold up to your ear. Hence the joke calling the iPad a giant iPhone. That was a pretty good description. If the future of telephony is VoIP, then that is pretty much bang on.
  • roc 16y ago
    > "perhaps iPad-like devices will replace traditional dials in cars in the near future." The dashboards of the near future are going to start piping a lot of control over to paired devices, but I think they'll maintain their current level of sophistication in and of themselves. But those paired devices will be a huge opportunity. And in the same arena: automotive diagnostic machines are going to be replaced. (e.g. OBD tools becoming an OBD->bluetooth adapter + software) As well as repair and service manuals. (Who needs a book to tell them when to rotate the tires if the car tells your phone?)
    • patrickk 16y ago
      I'm actually working on a college project getting OBD-II diagnostics to your i-device. Some amazing stuff avaliable already e.g: http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/ http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/
  • archangel_one 16y ago
    I think there's already been some slow moves in that direction - I recall the presenters on Top Gear playing with a couple of vaguely similar things, eg. a Lamborghini where you could cycle the appearance of the dials (so you could make it look like a "jet fighter" or whatever) and a Skyline that had a screen with heaps of different displays (g-force meter and what have you). Those aren't near a fully programmable tablet but I think that's still a long way off since there might be regulatory problems, eg. maybe you have to be able to see the speedometer at all times. I'm not totally convinced I want a fully programmable display though anyway - I don't think that a million customisable settings would enhance my car. But I'm sure there are people who would like it...
• faramarz 16y ago
  As much as the software is the window to opportunity for these devices, the hardware is just as important. Apple's form factor is exceptional! Their Industrial Design sense and abilities is one of the most important recipes to their success, I think. Google unfortunately discounts this, or rather, is late to understand how important UX is in the tangible world as much as the intangible. When you pickup a phone, tablet rather, your first impressions are based on the physical device. The intrinsic value during this interaction is irreplaceable by any software, no matter how good.
• roadnottaken 16y ago
  Tablets are obviously great, but does anyone think they'll really replace cameras or GPSes? It seems to me that tablets will cut the bottom out of these markets (those with casual interest in photography or GPS or computing won't need to buy a dedicated device) but they'll never approach the quality of an SLR or a dedicated GPS. Or am I just being short-sighted?
  • epochwolf 16y ago
    A tablet will do most things well enough for most people but are always niche markets. Look at how music is stored. There is still a market for records. :)
  • raganwald 16y ago
    they'll never approach the quality of an SLR or a dedicated GPS They won't for people who need all of the functionality of an SLR or dedicated GPS. But how many of the people buying such things actually need all of the functionality? Quite often, they don't. They buy more than they need to indicate status, or because they fear having an inadequate device. Tablets provide an alternate form of status at the moment. And the fear of inadequacy is mitigated by their popularity: If everyone is buying one, how bad can it be? Single-purpose cameras and GPS devices are well on their way to marginalization as extremely niche devices. I think that will be true of almost everything a tablet can replace.
  • iamwil 16y ago
    it'll get better and better, meaning it'll squeeze those SLR and dedicated GPS from the bottom, and you'd only use them in extreme and specialized cases. So for all intents and purposes, I think it'll replace cameras and GPSes for the mainstream consumer, and you'd only use dedicated hardware in specialized cases.
  • ugh 16y ago
    The vast majority of people have a casual interest in photography or GPS devices.
  • theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    It's going to take some major technology leaps for cell phone cameras to replace SLR's,but I do think they're already cannibalizing the point-and-shoot market, which was a pretty big part of the camera market (certainly by volume at least). I think if phones started coming with a better flash, it be very hard to justify bothering with a separate point-and-shoot camera. Although, to be fair, most point-and-shoots have a pretty crappy flash as well.
• AN447 16y ago
  I always thought of these devices as 'casual computing'
• chr15 16y ago
  In 2001, Bill Gates said that by 2006 tablets would be the most popular form factor for PCs. They obviously weren't back then. It's funny how Apple changes ecosystems. http://gizmodo.com/5324866/vintage-bill-gates-predicts-tablets-to-be-the-most-popular-form-of-pc-sold-in-america http://gizmodo.com/5324866/vintage-bill-gates-predicts-table...
  • cryptoz 16y ago
    I think MS could have delivered on the prediction if they had changed their software to match the form factor. All Windows tablets run a (basically) stock Windows XP / Windows 7. If the iPad used a (basically) stock OS X, it would not have sold! Too many small buttons, mouse-centered experience, etc. Apple's key was realizing that the software had to change, too.
    • acgourley 16y ago
      This is key. Another interesting observation is that in 2006 tablet manufacturers probably thought it vitally important that users could print
    • Someone 16y ago
      I doubt that MS could have created the tablet boom in 2006. Less than two years ago, Steve Jobs said "we don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk." I think he was right; the hardware just wasn't there four years ago to create something enticing enough. An iPad with the technology of the original iPod touch would be too slow, have too short a battery life, would have cost $800 or so, etc.
• timdellinger 16y ago
  In general, the tablet enables all the ideas that people have had over the years that were perfect "except you'd have to carry around a computer to run the thing". I'd love to see communications protocols and hardware (next gen bluetooth?) developed to allow devices that need a computer to wirelessly use the one in my pocket. I'd also like to see more innovation in the space where users hold tablets while they're facing a television set. The tablet-as-remote-control where the program listings are on the tablet. The tablet-as-gaming-controller where you and your opponent both have tablets (draw a path on a map to move a character instead of guiding the character turn-by-turn).
  • glhaynes 16y ago
    I'm trying to think of something where I'd need more computing power in my pocket - most apps seem to either have enough power in the device itself or draw the extra needed compute/storage from the cloud... just wondering what you have in mind.
    • timdellinger 16y ago
      I'm saying that many things you own would work better if they had a little computing power in them, or if they had access to a computer. So, for instance, it would be too expensive to put a PID controller in your toaster oven. That's why there's a simple thermostat and a simple timer in there. But imagine if your toaster could send temperature data in a bluetooth-esque way to your tablet. The tablet does the proportional-integral-derivative calculations and sends commands back to the toaster. So you get all of the benefits of PID controlled temperature without the cost of the PID controller. Another idea (likely in the works somewhere): tablet as guitar effects pedal.
      • glhaynes 16y ago
        Interesting thought. I don't know anything about PID controllers - are they so compute intensive that they need a processor significantly more expensive than a Bluetooth controller? On the guitar effects pedal: Apple has actually run an iPad ad that included a shot of a guitar plugged into an iPad running an "amplifier emulator" (not sure what the right term is for that sort of thing). Not sure which app it is, but it's probably $10 or less. :)
• pg 16y ago
  Incidentally, I know the Wikipedia article has been deleted, but I'm assuming someone will fix that. (Is this the current world record for deletionism, or have there been more egregious examples?)
  • chaosmachine 16y ago
    It looks like there wasn't much of an article to begin with. Here's a mirror: http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Etherealization http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Etherealization Edit: Someone has already undeleted it.
    • deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
  • tokenadult 16y ago
    The way to fix that problem is with sources. Wikipedia is becoming more and more aggressive about deleting articles without sources, because it has been enough times already by articles that 1) plagiarize copyrighted materials, or 2) appear to cite sources but actually "fudge" the sources, or 3) blatantly push a point of view by omitting to use sources that are readily available. The quality screen for new articles is slowly becoming more stringent, so, no, that is not at all a record for speed of deletion of a new article. The long-term slog, for which I wish Wikipedia well (as registered Wikipedia editor) but would have to be paid to do in the current contentious editing environment, is to add correctly cited, balanced sources to the existing articles that have the problems just mentioned.
  • alex_stoddard 16y ago
    It looks like there is some confusion over whether the correct term is etherialization or ephemeralization. The wikipedia article on ephemeralization is somewhat more complete and what is linked from the page on Fuller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization Other internet sources seem to indicate that ephemeralization is the term he used.
    • 16y ago
• drcode 16y ago
  > I wouldn't be surprised if by playing some clever tricks with the accelerometer you could even replace the bathroom scale. Galileo might take issue with that: http://www.jimloy.com/physics/galileo.htm http://www.jimloy.com/physics/galileo.htm
  • deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  • ghshephard 16y ago
    That's going down. What about going up? And yes, it's not straight-forward - like pg said, "clever tricks."
  • brc 16y ago
    I'm glad there aren't too many dumb readers of HN. Otherwise we'd see a post 'I just stood on my iPad and now the screen is cracked'.
    • ph0rque 16y ago
      Well, the length of the crack would be proportional to the weight, and you could calculate the number from that :~)
  • maxklein 16y ago
    The best way I could think of to actually use the iPad for this would be have a person lay his arm (including wrist) on it. The iPad can use the touch sensitive surface to measure how thick his wrist is and how thick his arm is, and then guess his weight. Using an accelerometer would likely be a worse user experience than just stepping on a scale, but a system where the iPad actually measures your body fat could be easier to use. However, it will likely not be very accurate. Perhaps if one were to set a reference weight at the start, and it just measures delta using the touch screen? Using the accel, a possibility is to see how close a person can swing the iPad towards his body. I assume that this would change dependent on the amount of fat around his arms. A common place people gather fat is on their thighs - thin people often have space between the legs and heavier people not as much. Also a possibility, even if a not very clever one.
• duck 16y ago
  The fact that you can change font sizes easily means the iPad effectively replaces reading glasses. Really? I mean it might help someone not need reading glasses for the tasks they do on the iPad... but they still have to have them to read the dinner menu, instructions on the box of food, and so on. If you can't replace it fully how good is it? The iPhone replaced regular cell phones because of the fact you no longer need two devices. Or... I read too much into that.
  • asmithmd1 16y ago
    I use my iphone to replace reading glasses all the time. Snap a photo, two finger zoom of the photo and you are done
    • mechanical_fish 16y ago
      Presumably there is an app for this. If not, there will be in 10...9...8...
      • klipt 16y ago
        http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/eye-glasses-turns-iphone-into-magnifier-for-oldies/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/eye-glasses-turns-iph...
    • duck 16y ago
      So you don't own reading glasses anymore?
      • MiguelHudnandez 16y ago
        Replacement isn't necessarily boolean. If you fetch glasses out of your pocket less frequently, that's still replacement, just not total replacement.
  • billswift 16y ago
    Or maybe an app that will immediately redisplay what the camera views in a larger format on the screen. Probably be a bit clunky, but might not be too bad. Might even help more for people who need high magnification for reading but whose distance vision is still good.
• DanielBMarkham 16y ago
  Worth noting here that most analysts feel that the reason the original iPod was successful was that it only did one thing in an extremely friendly format. I think the key question here is whether or not the app-universe grows in size until consumers desire separation of widgets again. I know from my own experience that I found I maximize productivity by having separate devices responsible for separate things. For instance, when I pick up my blue iPod it's for education -- I keep books and lectures on there. But when I pick up my black iTouch it's for fun -- I keep only tunes there. My phone -- although it has all kinds of neat wizardry in it -- I use solely for talking to other people. Perhaps both trends are true. Perhaps we end up individually separating our apps into physical devices based on preference instead of tradition. Neat stuff.
  • replicatorblog 16y ago
    I think this is actually part of Apple's strategy. People have collections of used iOS device gathering dust or going on eBay. Now they can hook the old iPhone up as a GPS or alarm clock, or whatever and buy the newest model guilt free.
  • othello 16y ago
    When my iPhone runs the iPod app, it almost physically becomes an iPod. In a sense, the tablet format is more than just a software or hardware platform. It's more akin to a new kind of material - one that you can mold at will, through software, into a myriad of distinct widgets.
    • ZeroGravitas 16y ago
      Do you mean it almost becomes an iPod Touch? Because the iPod pre-Touch was defined by it's clickable scroll wheel interface. Don't underestimate hardware. A slightly dodgy software keyboard like the iPad gets rave reviews, where slightly too small netbook keyboards get slated for not being perfect full size keyboards. It's like Johnson's famous comment on female preachers: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." The key of course is that a capacitive touch screen can do lots of different things okay and effectively disappear when not in use, rather than doing one thing really well and sit there as a big hardware lump the rest of the time.
• anthonycerra 16y ago
  Apple's tablets are just one aspect of this etherealization. The real hero here is software. From the ability to create a physical three dimensional object to the manipulation of DNA - software makes it possible. What's reassuring is that Apple doesn't have control over all the hardware interfaces that make (and will make) this possible.
• lian 16y ago
  This isn't that surprising or revolutionary, it's all just part of the inevitable movement towards ubiquitous computing. It's obvious that we won't always be reliant upon one device's built-in sensors to constantly gather and supply relevant data in real-time, and inevitably we'll have an incredibly integrated network of real-time, physically collocated devices. For now, tablets are great. And Apple is great at supplying them. But by no means does this mean anyone will be enslaved to Apple in the long term – someone else has the opportunity to create an open platform that enables any and all technologies to communicate with each other. Someone else will have to sell this platform to businesses, governments and, most importantly, consumers. And someone else will have to create the other, new interfaces by which we access and derive meaning from this data collection. And the challenge of preventing this from being too closed, too proprietary, is what will distinguish the best approach from the most profitable approach, and where we as users can choose to avoid a "client monoculture." The tablet approach is just a step in an ongoing direction. It's way bigger than this.
• ludwigvan 16y ago
  "For historical reasons, the device in your pocket or purse - the one that you use to browse the Internet and send email, is called a "phone." We need a new name for that thing." Scott Adams. He suggests calling them "head". http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/phone/ http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/phone/ On a side note, I really need an innovation for keys, they scratch my iPhone! So, go, that new yc company, go!
  • nodata 16y ago
    We don't need another name for it. Everyone knows what it is. Some people understand why it's called what it's called, the others can either read up on it, or never consider it. What we now call a phone is developing so quickly now that calling it anything related to what it does now will mean we have to give it another new name in a few years.
  • parbo 16y ago
    In Sweden, a mobile phone is called a "mobil". In Germany it's called "handy".
    • ludwigvan 16y ago
      In Turkey, they are called "cep telefonu" or "cep" in short, for "pocket phone" or "pocket".
      • eru 16y ago
        And it's pronounced roughly `djep' or perhaps `shep'.
• seldo 16y ago
  I look forward to the day when fat people everywhere will pulverize their iPads using them as bathroom scales.
• bfung 16y ago
  seems like there's still a lot of work todo, and a lot of room for growth. A survey of how people use their ipads, coincidentally from today: http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-survey http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-survey
• acgourley 16y ago
  This raises a question of how Apple will deal with "Made For iPod" interfaces that get increasingly generic. Right now they have a good framework for evaluating apps and hardware produced by one company to work together. They don't have a good way to understand hardware from company A working with software from company B. What happens when someone wants to release a NES inspired D-Pad controller for iOS but wants to allow existing game makers to create apps that support it? Right now that is sort-of possible but it's very high friction. Apple is a company who likes to build the whole stack from hardware to software; they feel like is necessary to create beautiful experiences. Will they compromise on this to facilitate a world where you can connect your iphone to any device in the house? If they don't, progress may stagnate, hacks (like communication over wifi) will persist, and potentially they are giving up market share. Obviously they need to maintain the integrity and stability of the iOS devices but in my opinion they error too far on the side of caution.
• devindotcom 16y ago
  Haven't we been calling them tablets for ages? People have been designing around the idea of tablets for decades. They had the ideas for the applications of tablets fifty years ago. I'm not sure I understand what this article says that is in any way original.
  • petercooper 16y ago
    Yeah, I was nonplussed by the response to this piece. If it had 2007 stamped on it instead of 2010 I'd get it, but it's recycling ideas that have become commonplace over the last couple of years.
• prakash 16y ago
  Here's another good example of etherealization: With Skype one can get a US (and a few other countries) number that gets routed to my skype id.
• blahedo 16y ago
  Here's the thing: people who aren't geeks often like and even prefer single-purpose devices. There is, as has been noted (see http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/ http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Bo...), a "pocket exception", but for larger devices, people who aren't us are often intimidated or confused by devices that do many things. And of course there are dangers in making a machine more general-purpose than it needs to be. Machines that are too general-purpose becomes more susceptible and sometimes tempting targets for hacking. (As usual, ground well-trod by xkcd: http://xkcd.com/463/ http://xkcd.com/463/, http://xkcd.com/801/ http://xkcd.com/801/)
  • timcederman 16y ago
    This doesn't explain the iPhone though.
    • Psyonic 16y ago
      "pocket exception," also trendiest phone (phones are fashion accessories as well as devices)
  • tapiwa 16y ago
    The thing is, a lot of people will use them as single use devices. They will just have very different 'single' uses for them. Let's start with the iPod. Everyone uses it to listen to stuff. My brother listens to rap music, almost exclusively. My niece listens to whatever boy band is en vogue today. Very different genres of music. I love audiobooks on mine. Along with music. I have an aunt that has church sermons on hers. Move to computers. I have not used a word processor in months. I spend a helluva lot of time in spreadsheets though. My niece, with her school reports, is the opposite. My nephew is almost exlusively a gamer on his computer. Even the web. Most people have a dozen or so sites that account for 90% (made up stat) of their browsing time. It is a different dozen for all users though. So yes, the vast majority of users will use their devices for only a handful of purposes. It will be a different handful for each user though.
• quickpost 16y ago
  The other question is for Apple - what other sorts of addressable hardware could be added to the iPad to make it even more versatile (temperature sensor, various transducers, etc.).
• albemuth 16y ago
  One thing that now seems ridiculous is the bank authenticator tokens, the blizzard authentication apps are a great example
• pkulak 16y ago
  "I wouldn't be surprised if by playing some clever tricks with the accelerometer you could even replace the bathroom scale." I'd be surprised. Very, very, very surprised.
  • grayrest 16y ago
    I was mystified at this. I can't imagine a way to measure weight with accelerometer that doesn't involve spinning around in circles or jumping up and down on springs.
    • brianpan 16y ago
      1) Please put your iPad on the bathroom tile and step on to it...
    • zachrose 16y ago
      Scale.com. You stand on your laptop and it tells you how much you weigh. http://www.jakeandamir.com/post/6758808/website-ideas http://www.jakeandamir.com/post/6758808/website-ideas
    • deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    • IsaacL 16y ago
      Isn't it obvious? Drop your iPad on the floor; it won't fall exactly downwards, but will veer ever so slightly off course towards you, and the amount of displacement is proportional to your mass. Done.
  • samd 16y ago
    It wouldn't need to actually measure your weight. Bathroom scales are just there to collect dust in the corner and make people feel bad whenever they look at them.
• kenjackson 16y ago
  Tablet is the wrong term. In fact I fear the use of it becoming the term to use as I think it immediately prunes potential avenues of exploration. I think mobile or personal device is a better term as its really about the intent of the device, which is to be with you always. Tablet really seems to describe the form factor. I'm not convinced that the form factor is all that important.
  • RoyG 16y ago
    Form factor means everything; look at how many new iPad only apps there are, strictly due to increased screen size. Jobs made this clear when he nixed the 7" iPad.
    • kenjackson 16y ago
      Let me be clearer. I don't mean form factor isn't important in general. I mean form factor isn't the underlying principle that unites these various devices. Is the Droid Pro a tablet? What about the rumored Playstation Phone? Tablet seems to imply a form factor, and I don't think that's what is important in how we categorize these devices. It's like if we called PCs "beige boxes" when they came out or if we called TVs "two through thirteen dial machines". I expect the form factors for these devices to continue to evolve and improve, yet I think the general category of device will be the same (much like how a 3D LED HDTV is still a TV, although looks very different than an old B&W TV from the 50s).
• orionlogic 16y ago
  i wish there is direct rss feed for the essays other than some intermediary channel.
  • allwein 16y ago
    http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/feeds/pgessays.rss http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/feeds/pgessays.rss
    • orionlogic 16y ago
      That feed doesn't update when the article is published. That's what i was trying to say. Anyway, its not that important to get real time. Oh, the signs of my urge to be informed under the influence of real-time web.
• rbarooah 16y ago
  I think it's clear that Steve Jobs is fully aware of this. It's why he changed the name of the company to Apple Inc, just before announcing the iPhone - he wasn't indicating that he was going to start building hundreds of different consumer electronics products - he was telling the world that a the iPhone and it's variants would replace most of them.
• Chris_Newton 16y ago
  > Many if not most of the special-purpose objects around us are going to be replaced by apps running on tablets. I respectfully disagree. The trend for specialised vs. generalised devices seems to go in cycles over a period of a few years, in a similar way to the classic thick vs. thin client cycle. Consider games consoles vs. gaming on PCs, the iPod vs. mobile phones with media storage, etc. Neither extreme is ever going to take over entirely, and the bias moves as technology evolves. I think this is mostly driven by trying to balance convenience and power. When new tools come along that are generic enough to make a certain broad class of jobs easier, we tend to jump on them. Many jobs get moved to those devices, and specialist devices that used to perform those jobs become obsolete. On the other hand, if you get too generic, you start to introduce waste and therefore inefficiency, which pushes things back the other way. Also, if your generic device is OK at doing lots of things but not particularly good at any of them, there is still a market for specialised devices that do a particular job better because their priorities are more appropriate. We used to write software that ran on desktop PCs, but it turned out that a lot of practically useful software is essentially a simple user interface to a simple database. Native applications had common pain points in this field that could be overcome by hosting the code and data centrally, in areas like installation/updating/backup. Thus Web apps were born. However, today, we're seeing major players in the industry trying to turn just about everything into such an application, and they are failing. It turns out that while Web apps are great for presenting relatively simple database UIs, they are relatively weak at performing most other tasks. Cloud computing is a pretty direct extension of the same argument. I suspect things will go the same way with phones/tablets/mobile devices. A generic mobile device with a bunch of common built-in peripherals and sensors will solve a wide variety of real world problems, and thus various kinds of mobile app have been born. No doubt many more variations will follow over the next few years, as these devices support new functionality that was not previously available and ideas will spring up to take advantage of that functionality. The devices will be good enough for these purposes and will be widely adopted as a result. On the other hand, Swiss army phones could easily start to suffer from both overspecification in breadth of features and underspecification in performance of individual features. For example, the suggestion in the article to replace reading glasses with a smart phone seems unrealistic and oversimplified to me: it sounds great initially, given that we have cameras and screens on these devices, but then you consider the vast range of different reasons that people are prescribed glasses, the consequent individuality of each prescription, and the fact that glasses do not generally require holding in your hand to use them. In short, I'm afraid I don't buy pg's argument here at all. A certain class of applications, some of which already exist and some of which will be developed, will probably move to handheld multipurpose devices. However, specialised tools aren't going away any time soon, because any generic device is always going to be either a poor replacement for a good tool or too highly specified to be efficient for a broad market, even if the technology exists to combine high-quality implementations of all the required features within the required space and cost constraints in the first place.
• walkon 16y ago
  The fact that you can change font sizes easily means the iPad effectively replaces reading glasses. I disagree. Reading glasses are close to the eye and magnify without sacrificing the amount of text to viewable surface area. People who need to significantly increase the font size (i.e. the same people who would use reading glasses) are going be constantly interacting with the iPad to tell it to pan/scroll the viewable (magnified) surface around so that they can see everything. Pagination is only a partial workaround (still have to interact, just deal with the large increase in page turns) and only makes sense with text-type data (e.g. pictures lend themselves to panning, not paging).
• pinko 16y ago
  Am I the only person who thinks the iOS usability is declining as its feature set and resulting complexity grows? It's still simple for me, but while my mother could handle the original iPhone, I think she'd get a little confused by the current one. (Double and triple clicks on the home button, cut and paste UI popping up unexpectedly, etc.)
  • jamn 16y ago
    Of course the complexity will increase as a function of the number of features. However, I'd make the following claims: (1) Some of the functions are simply not that used. You can get by perfectly well without knowing what double and triple clicks on the home button, for example, If you don't know they exist, you will never even notice. (2) iOS has less features than Android and arguably this makes it somehow less powerful but also less confusing for my mom (e.g. no task manager, no intents). (3) Switching to a Mac was actually quite challenging coming from PC land ("where's maximize?", "where's a working Alt-Tab?", etc). I'd say the usability still kicks in as far as how easy it is to do your job for most after the learning curve has passed. Your mileage may vary, but I find myself enjoying using my Mac more than I ever did using Windows on my PC for usual tasks, and that's part of what makes it usable for me. I'd expect a similar phenomenon with iOS.
• buss 16y ago
  I fancy the term "communicator," personally.
• extension 16y ago
  computer minicomputer microcomputer ...nanocomputer?
  • metageek 16y ago
    That'd make sense, but "nanocomputer" already has a meaning: a nanotech computing device.
    • extension 16y ago
      When that field produces a viable mainstream product, they can have "picocomputer".
• gasull 16y ago
  In Spanish the word "tabletas" is already used for this.
• charlesju 16y ago
  I just can't wait for the Kinect sensors to be an open standard with a commododized component in every electronics we have.
• bergie 16y ago
  I'm a bit surprised that there was no mention of Jef Raskin's information appliance concept http://gizmodo.com/5452501/the-apple-tablet-interface-must-be-like-this http://gizmodo.com/5452501/the-apple-tablet-interface-must-b...
• RyanMcGreal 16y ago
  Last summer, I rather surprised myself by using my android phone as a level while working on a backyard building project. Also in the summer, I was camping when my flashlight died en route to the washroom. On the side of the path, I downloaded and installed a flashlight app, and then used it to find my way. I volunteer in an after-school guitar class at my son's school, and use my phone to tune the kids' guitars before class starts. A few weeks ago, a website I maintain went nonresponsive and I used my phone to ssh into the server and restart apache. Just for fun, I installed an app that measures my heart rate using the camera. Just five years ago, if you had suggested these uses for a phone, I would have thought you were nuts.
  • xuki 16y ago
    My Nokia can do flashlight years ago without any 3rd-party app.
• moontear 16y ago
  Was Paul trying to coin the word "tablet" for these kind of devices? I don't know how this is anything new, I have read of the iPad "tablet" or "tablet computer" many times.