Some personal thoughts about the Apple Tablet

Mr. Martin, As I began to read your article, I groaned inwardly, thinking 'oh no, yet another self-serving say-nothing article downplaying the validity of a tablet and then reversing the argument at the end. There is so much poor, contradictory, factually sparse writing on Apple-centric blogs that I often despair.
However, I laughed out loud at your plaintive cry of admission to an irrational exuberance for all things Apple. I just read it to my wife, a recent convert to the RDF etc, and she broke up. Your words are so much a description of our own weakness for all things Apple.
I am the same. It's agonising. It can be costly - I have owned about 40 Apple products over the last 30 odd years and given many laptops and iPods to family as gifts. But the value of the changes in my personal and working life due to Apple products and the fact that some of their invaluable DNA has rubbed off on me makes me the winner in every way, including financially as a minor shareholder, in my work as a database solutions developer and accountant, in my personal life as a writer and general fooler-around with computers.
Thank you for a brilliantly funny and painfully insightful article. It really hit the spot dead centre.

Well done Sir.

Chandra

I don't know what Apple will do and I won't sit here and say whether or not it will be a hit. For all intents and purposes the MacBook Air was supposed to change the whole portable notebook arena instead it was not the hit that Apple probably hoped for and instead the netbooks came out as the ultra portable winners.

As for iTablet its hard to say. There are a lot of Mac users who I think would love a device that is a MacBook in a tablet form. If the rumors are accurate we won't see that instead we will see an oversized iPod Touch which to me is the same as shoving Android on a notebook and expecting it to succeed. I can;t see it doing well but like others have pointed Apple seems to have the knack at creating a need for something we don't know we even need.

The rumors about this being a great eBook device I don't know. I think its good for people who have a need for color content but unless the battery will last like 8 hours I cannot see it replacing something like a Kindle. The reason people like Kindles is because the screen does not shine into your eyes burning out your retinas inducing headaches like LCD's do. And even among the hard core readers who this may apply too they reject even the kindle a device built from the ground up to appeal to readers books are always just cheaper.

That's basically what I'm expecting. Steve Jobs doesn't say this is going to be the 'most important thing he's ever done' (assuming he really did say that) if it's something that's already been done. We will be impressed.

I can't wait for all the Apple Tablet speculation to be over already! Here is a pretty great video from CNet on the rumors and DateCheck, the "app of the week" http://bit.ly/brNodX

About three weeks ago, my old Powerbook (which worked great, thank you very much) was knocked to the floor, smashing the screen. It still works hooked up to an external monitor, but is pretty much toast as a laptop anymore. This puts me in the market for replacing my mobile computing platform and I'll give the tablet a good look. If it has sufficient power and size for my writing, light photo editing, as well as the normal web surfing and e-mailing, I might just dive in and get one. Otherwise the most likely replacement will be a new or slightly used Macbook.

I have a Mac Pro for most of my work, and an older MacBook for when I'm in the field. No iPhone, but an iPod Touch meets my mobility needs. That said, the MacTab might fill a need. It depends on what I can do with it. Give me Wi-Fi, the ability to run some apps like those I use on my Touch -- imagine drawing with Brushes or SketchBookx on a larger screen! -- and let me read documents of my choosing (I'd download a bunch of my PDFs) and I'd probably buy a MacTab -- if the price is right. $1,000 is too much for me.

Here's my guess.

They're going to change the nature of books, and maybe even publishing. They're going to make books that are interactive in nature. An example is, in the Harry Potter Books, you have scenes discussed that can be visually represented. It could include video, flash, you name it.

These new books will make the kindle look lame.

I also think that you're going to see them create a new iPod that has the ability to subscribe to a wireless service. Without the wireless, it will be just like a standard iPod touch. But it will provide you with a data option, if you elect to use it.

Ditto. Can't even see holding out for three days.

I feel your pain. thats exactly how i was when the first iphone came out. 3 days later i was running from store to store trying to find one. now ive been first in line at my att store two years stright waiting for the 3g and 3gs

I've said it before and I'll say it again: my buying this depends on if I can draw with it. I'm not really expecting the precision of a Cintiq or anything, but something that is very passable or has a specialized stylus is what I'm hoping for.

I've been wanting something I can draw with and have a full tool palette with me at any time for a loooong time now. Cintiqs are nice, but I don't like that they need to be hooked up to your computer to operate. Something portable like this is far more ideal for a guy like me.