Our iTablet Dreams: What TUAW is wishing for

I'm the kind of guy whose literally on the go everyday. You see I drive a bus and my shifts are split shifts with anywhere from 2 to 4 hours downtime between routes. During my downtime I usually kill time with a book but with a new Itablet I could kill time in so many different ways as well as use it for work. The main uses for me would be as a multimedia device such as an ereader, video games, mp3 player and movie player. One feature (or app) I would really want offered would be an organizer so as to keep track of my work schedule (time and place I would start my route, my days off etc) as well as appointments, due dates of bills etc. This app would really rock if after I entered it the app could maybe remind me depending on the work, appointment, bill due date etc by maybe using a ring tone as a warning so I would not forget.

One huge feature I would really like to see is I would hope that Apple would give its customers the option of forgoing on a extra monthly bill for internet access and just allow us to tether the Itablet with an Iphone or whatever cellphone we have. Now that would really rock. Yeah yeah I know I'm living in a dream world.

Battery life I'm not to concerned about as long as I could get 4 to 6 hours life from the device I would be happy. Hopefully Apple will also provide other items to compliment the Itablet such as a recharging dock or maybe a nice stand so as to be able to prop the tablet up and sit back and watch a movie as well as a nice protective sleeve to keep the device from getting scratched and beat up. Finally I want to see ebooks offered on Itunes. They already have audio books why not take the next logical step and add ebooks as well.

Now if Apple could only make their tablet also work as an e-reader, they would sell even more. If storage and handling ereader functions are no problem, this might make it even more viable.

To quote "About Last Night": Give it to me now for the love of Christ!

That is awesome and really making an iTablet all the more likely, especially after seeing this concept below. Its definitely looking to be on its way!

http://bluemintstudios.com/concepts/mactouch.htm

This product will likely use the iPhone OS - and share all of the functionality of other devices on that platform. This includes communications, multi-media, and applications.

The differentiation will be:
1. Larger screen
2. Support for books/magazines via iTunes in color
3. Always on high speed internet from Verizon
4. HDTV - over the air
5. Replacement/companion to AppleTV. Watch on the device, or use video output to a larger screen. Sync with your media library, or stream over your local network.
6. Video conferencing over iChat or Skype with a front facing camera. This would include voice calls over the internet.

For this to work, the software will have to wow the market, more so than the hardware.

iPhone OS on a tablet would be the most retarded thing ever. Who would want that? Seriously.

I won't say that it will cause the tablet to fail, because there are lots of people willing to drink the kool-aid, but I will say it will cause it to suck. There's not way I'd give Apple that much control over my phone let alone an actual computer.

No thanks.

I want something as a bedside healthcare provider I can carry in to a room, use with gloves on if need be. The touch screen needs to work with anything, be it a finger, a stylus, a pencil eraser or tip of pen-no ink of course. Our options now are laptops or tablets that are just way to heavy. No one uses them. Maybe Jobs saw something when he was getting his liver transplant and got some ideas.

I would like a tablet with a 9.7" screen that runs iPhone apps, and acts as a kick-ass iTunes controller and portable Apple TV.

Many readers seem to want an Apple "Eierlegende Voll-milch Sau", a German word mean egg-laying, wool- and milk-providing pig". It's the unrealistic wish to have everything in one object.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you accept its rather limited data entry capabilities because of its pocketability. But on a non-pocketable device? Not! You certainly won't be thumbing much on a large screen. But touch-typing on a large screen? That's kind of broken, too. Why wouldn't you just use an Apple bluetooth keyboard? Oh wait, Apple doesn't believe in those, having crippled the iPhone and Touch so that you can't use the Apple keyboard with your Apple device.

But if you're going to use an external keyboard with the tablet, you might as well just buy a MacBook Air. So what's the use case for the tablet?

The only market I see for this putative device is as a reader that's sexier than any other on the market, with the added benefit of being able to run the occasional App Store app. For this it will need very long battery life.

I think the Apple is thinking in three computing categories:

1: Personal always on portable - iPhone
2: Personal computer - iTablet
3: Powerhouse - Mac

The iPhone is your life in you pocket, docking to your mac or iTablet

I think the tablet will take over as the 'computer for the rest of us' for things such as browsing the web, checking facebook, iChat, iPhoto, iMovie, Ganes, etc. The stuff that we do at home for play, & life in general.

The mac will carry on as it has done, doing everything, but also proper work, like writing documents, Photoshop, etc

The tablet could work alone, which it what apple is expecting for most users. This is how they will take back the personal computer market - we don't need all the work stuff at home, leave that for work with the mac. The iPhone syncs to the tablet. also providing 3G.

If you are lucky enough to have a mac at home, the tablet would be able to access it's resources to further the power of the tablet. You would have access to it's storage & processing power, but so tightly integrated the average user wouldn't even realise the files were stored outside the tablet. This is why snow leopard is able to wake up for network requests on a wireless network - so the tablet can access it's resourses even when it's asleep. ("With Snow Leopard and a compatible AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule base station, however, your computer can go to sleep yet continue to share its files with other computers and devices, waking when you need it and sleeping when you don’t." - www.apple.com/macosx/refinements)

The tablet would run iPhone OS, but with much more of the underlying power of Mac OS X exposed to developers.

I hope so anyway!