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Monday
Jan112010

The One Thing Apple's Tablet Will Do That Nobody's Talking About

DateMonday, January 11, 2010 at 10:43AM

If you are reading this post, you probably think Apple is releasing a tablet computer soon.  I do too.  But what that looks like, what it can do, and how Apple will position it are all anybody's guess.  Historically (think iPhone), Steve Jobs has taken such circumstances as an opportunity to blow our frickin' minds. 

Oh, and feel free to read up from the bottom if you're in a hurry ;-)

But What's It For?

Many of us wonder where this fits into the Apple product ecosystem. I mean, I have a laptop and I have an iPhone - why do I need a tablet again?

Leo Laporte, on MacBreak Weekly #174, said: "We all not only expect but demand an Aha moment out of this cause otherwise it makes no sense!".  And "If anybody can make a UI that makes you go woah, it's Apple".

He's right - Apple's new product lines are game-changers.  There's always a surprise.  There was a lot of talk about the iPhone, and the touch screen was on the table, but nobody predicted that would allow it to have a full-featured web browser.  When they showed us that New York Times page on mobile Safari, everybody in the room had that aha moment.  And it has changed our world.

So now we guess at the next fancy UI trick, from Minority Report-style gestures to eye and facial tracking to speech recognition.  But there's some missing link, the "aha moment", which I don't think anyone has hit on yet. 

Life, With Tablet

Imagine this.  You are sitting in your living room, listening to media streamed from your computer on your stereo, and controlling the whole thing from your tablet.  You have physical metaphors on the screen for the things you are doing. We've replaced that oh-so screen-real-estate-friendly volume control strip on the iPhone with a knob to turn or a full-sized fader to throw. 

Okay, so here you are throwing faders and sorting your media catalog with multi-touch, and everything is grand.  But now you have some stuff to do at the computer, and you wander off to the other room.  Once you get there, you put your tablet on the desk, let it go to sleep, and start using your mouse and keyboard!  Now, don't you feel like you've just moved back about 5 years into the past?

I sure would.  So how can my fancy-shmancy tablet fix this?  

Tablet, Meet iMac

Well, let's say that my computer is one of Apple's newer iMacs, which can do double duty as both a computer and a big, beautiful display for another machine.  So, let's plug in our tablet and see what happens.  

Oh, that's nice - I've got a sweet-ass control surface and a big, beautiful display!  My movies, newspapers, and magazines look great on that iMac screen.

Hmmm... what if I don't want to use my tablet on the big screen, but the iMac itself?  I mean, the tablet is great cause it's portable, media friendly, and probably pretty when you need to edit a Google Docs document on the fly.  But isn't most of the content on my iMac anyway?  Along with drastically more processing power and overall capabilities?  Why would I want to plug in my tablet if I could just use the computer?

Because of that darned mouse and keyboard, that's why! Now let's take a look at how the tablet could revolutionize the use of my desktop.

Tablet As Touchpad?

As the Wikipedia DisplayPort page says, in the section entitled "Advantages over DVI", :

Auxiliary channel can be used for low bandwidth data such as touch-panel data.

Ahhh... this is all starting to come together now.  

Okay, so I plug my tablet into the Mini DisplayPort connector on my iMac and it becomes a control surface for my iMac.  It can replace both mouse and keyboard, replace just the mouse, or simply be a third control device.  It can also be oriented either in portrait or in landscape.  

Some people swear by the Wacom Pen and Touch tablet - it's an inexpensive way to get a "sidecar" touch interface on your Mac today.  I haven't used it myself, but it has some appeal to me.  And Apple, with the release of the Magic Mouse, might just be conditioning us to use touch not on the screen but on the desk itself.

But that use case isn't really what I'm after.  Now we get to the fun stuff.  

No, Tablet In Control!

Some or all of the screen is dedicated to widgets that control the currently-running application on my iMac.  So if I bring up DVD player I have a beautiful control widget rich with physical metaphors.  

Perhaps I can put some of my Dashboard widgets there?  So now when I bring up the dashboard there's a calculator sitting there on my desk.  Now maybe somebody will create a Dashboard unit converter that's a slick as ConvertBot on the iPhone.

If I am a sound guy, I can bring up Logic or Garage Band and now I have a full-featured ten inch mixer on top of my desk.

If I am a visual artist, I can use the surface with a capacitive stylus.  Not only will I have the usual pen interface, but I can zoom in on the tablet and actually see what I'm editing up close and personal.  

If I'm a 3D animation guy.  Not only can I zoom in on the tablet and manipulate things up close, but I can do it in all three dimensions using multi-touch gestures.  Rotating, scaling, and the like can all be done quickly with one hand while the other hand uses a stylus as needed. 

When the iPhone first came out, rumors flew for about a year about Apple someday releasing a full-sized touch desktop computer.  But I don't actually want one of those unless it's on a wall, hooked into my voice-controlled home automation system.  A full-sized touch screen sitting close enough to reach with my arm just sounds like a recipe for exhausted levator scapulae muscles.  And that's a recipe for a whole generation of people with major neck and shoulder problems!  Bad news.

What I do want is this magical control surface of which I speak.  Giving us physical metaphors to our computer's operations like this would change the world, yet again.  And I hope beyond all reason that Apple will deliver it this year. Is that just wishful thinking?  Sigh... 

AuthorBenjamin Cox | Comment6 Comments |

Reader Comments (6)

Sounds great. I just hope some of the usual suspects are making some heavy duty stands that will hold the tablet securely so I can position and touch it quickly and easily. If I have to keep picking it up and putiing it down to switch to keyboard it will be too cumbersome.

January 12, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterAnthony

Well, in my mind it was laying flat on the desk, next to my keyboard. Or instead of my keyboard depending on my use case. I think that would lead to less arm fatigue. Perhaps you are still thinking of it as a monitor? Otherwise, why have it upright?

Even flat, sliding around would be a drag so you raise an excellent point - it will need to be secured. But a simple rubber mat would prevent sliding and also make it less likely I'll fill the tablet's desk space while it's away. So this is pretty simple in a flat world.

As a pure control surface sitting flat on the desk this thing could be amazing. Strictly speaking it is a display, since it is taking output from the Mac, but it's only displaying stuff you want "at hand" rather than in your face. Kind of like before computers when everything you were working on was on top of your desk.

Can you imagine, though, if Apple allows third-party hardware/software through the dock connector, as the iPhone does? Then you could buy, say, a Pro-Tools-compatible mixing console with a slide-in dock for your tablet. Now they write a custom interface app which allows the tablet to augment the capabilities of the mixer's physical interface. Sounds pretty sweet, eh?

Or a DJ console would have a slide-in spot for it right in between the twin digital turntables. Now I have infinitely more options - I could have a miniature version of Ableton Live's looping interface there and be sequencing and layering as I go.

Oops - there I go again. Told you I could go on forever ;-)

January 13, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterBenjamin Cox

Couldn't agree more. Using the tablet to add multi-touch & pen-based input to existing computers makes perfect sense.

I definitely think the tablet will be marketed at artists. Their "latest creation" invite was the big tip-off to that. I saw another blog that thinks they may include "how to draw" tutorials in iTunes, similar to GarageBand's "how to play instruments" tutorials. That would would be amazing.

Above all else, I think the Tablet will be a computer for people who either don't use computers, or don't like computers. It'll be aimed at artists, parents, grandparents, kids, and everyone who's ever been frustrated by having to install/uninstall/tweak/configure/virus-scan/fix their computer.

If you're curious, I've posted all my predictions on my blog, at: http://www.derekmartin.ca/2010/01/26/last-minute-tablet-thoughts/

January 26, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterDerek Martin

Wow! Original thought, how 'bout that. So, the new "thing" is a Wacom tablet for an iMac, plus a bunch of other cool stuff. That explains the talk of Apple getting into the TV business. So, I can hang my 27" iMac on the wall, cancel my cable TV, newspaper, etc., join Netflix, Hulu (they will charge soon), WSJ, NYT, etc. The Washington Post will be great as they have figured out multimedia better than most.

If I ever leave my house again, I can take this "thing" with me. I have everything I just described in the palm of my hands. I finally realize that a 3G connection is not enough, unless Apple wants to subsidize the purchase price. I need WiFi, or at least 4G to make this puppy work. No 4G isn't enough, we (USA) need to push for broadband everywhere.

This is the most thought provoking piece I read in a long time. Thanks Ben!

January 26, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterDave Lindhout

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