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A few silly observations: 1. They bested Apple at their own game: it has no hardware buttons. Rubin even mentions that the single iPad button can get disorient

A few silly observations: 1. They bested Apple at their own game: it has no hardware buttons. Rubin even mentions that the single iPad button can get disorienting at times. 2. The thing costs $10,000! So much for the Apple tax. Let's start complaining about the Google tax!

thenduks 16y ago
I'm not sure I get that first one. The reason, IMO of course, that the iPad rotates to any orientation is just for personal preferences. I only ever hold mine in one of two orientations (button at bottom, button at left) and thus I am never 'disoriented'. Besides that, having at least one hardware button is really quite useful when (inevitably imperfect) apps go screwy. Also, non-standard placement of home button, anyone? In short: I think, considering this is a prototype, you wont actually see very many tablets without hardware home-type-button. It may sound good in theory but I expect it would be really frustrating in real life.
amvp 16y ago
1. Agreed. While I like hardware buttons in general, the fact that the device is otherwise orientation-less, sometimes leaves me sliding my finger around the edge looking for the button (particularly in the dark). A glowing button would solve this 50% of the time for me. But always having it on the bottom edge (i.e. an on-screen button) would fix it 100% of the time. 2. The $10k figure he gave isn't the retail price, but what he thought it cost to individually fabricate the prototype device.
gregpilling 16y ago
In regards to 2 - I would bet that the tablet in his hands cost far in excess of $100,000 not $10,000 - or even higher, depending on how you account for engineering time. The raw materials won't cost that much, but building one-off prototypes is horribly expensive. Luckily they will amortize that cost over a million units or more so the cost of the first one is mostly irrelevant.

thenduks 16y ago

I'm not sure I get that first one. The reason, IMO of course, that the iPad rotates to any orientation is just for personal preferences. I only ever hold mine in one of two orientations (button at bottom, button at left) and thus I am never 'disoriented'. Besides that, having at least one hardware button is really quite useful when (inevitably imperfect) apps go screwy. Also, non-standard placement of home button, anyone? In short: I think, considering this is a prototype, you wont actually see very many tablets without hardware home-type-button. It may sound good in theory but I expect it would be really frustrating in real life.

amvp 16y ago

1. Agreed. While I like hardware buttons in general, the fact that the device is otherwise orientation-less, sometimes leaves me sliding my finger around the edge looking for the button (particularly in the dark). A glowing button would solve this 50% of the time for me. But always having it on the bottom edge (i.e. an on-screen button) would fix it 100% of the time. 2. The $10k figure he gave isn't the retail price, but what he thought it cost to individually fabricate the prototype device.

gregpilling 16y ago

In regards to 2 - I would bet that the tablet in his hands cost far in excess of $100,000 not $10,000 - or even higher, depending on how you account for engineering time. The raw materials won't cost that much, but building one-off prototypes is horribly expensive. Luckily they will amortize that cost over a million units or more so the cost of the first one is mostly irrelevant.