WEBVTT - Is the Apple Tablet real? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.239 and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.840 and I'm editor here at how stuff works dot com 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.400 and sitting next to me as usual as senior writer 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.840 Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, except I'm not saying next to 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.159 you sitting across room. I know. I just didn't want to, 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.120 you know. Yeah, repeat what we just did a second ago. Yeah. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.199 We we do these in batches, and we never know 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.279 which one is going to be first, the other one 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.159 my go live second, and then this will seem like 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:48.360 we're talking from the future instead of like two weeks ago. 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.120 So anyway, let's start this one off before we totally 0:00:52.159 --> 0:01:00.880 get derailed a little listener man. This listener mail comes 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:05.160 from Tossin and seen says, Hi, guys, I love the show, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:07.200 although it did take me a while to get used 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:12.480 to Jonathan. Hey, Chris Palette, you're the man. I don't. 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.120 I don't. I don't like Tossin. I think he's great. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.319 I thought you would. I'm the kind of guy who 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.199 is a late adopter most technology unless I immediately see 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.440 a huge benefit for myself. I owned the first DVD 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.800 player from Sony and the improvement of the experience over 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.560 VHS was revolutionary to me. However, when it comes to 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.400 Apple gadgets, I'm a late bloomer. I got an iPhone 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:36.319 this past February and I was instantly hooked. So now, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.360 based on the new computing paradigm that Apple has created 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.760 with the touchscreen functionality, I am eagerly awaiting the Apple 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:47.000 netbook slash tablet thing. I was extremely disappointed to find 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.880 the news on this is mostly rumor and conjecture about 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.440 release dates. I'd love to hear a podcast where you 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.240 guys can do a little history of mobile computing platforms 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.280 and end with some details anything official from the about 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.120 the Apple to But thanks again and keep up the 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.240 great podcast ps. You guys have slowly become my favorite podcast, 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.760 beating out Josh and Chuck with They're a little too 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.399 preachy for Me topics. Hey, you know we we try 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.600 to beat them as often as possible, preferably when they're 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.440 not looking and we can run. I'd just like to 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:16.079 say it took me a little time to get used 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:21.760 to this email like it a lot. I think you 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.440 should write it more. So we're gonna actually focus mainly 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.360 on the Apple tablet, the rumors around it, and what 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.800 we know and you know why there have been so 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.840 many rumors for so long. The mobile app thing will 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.399 probably talk about in another podcast. We've talked a little 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:37.280 bit about some of the other things like Android and 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:38.720 stuff like that. But oh well, if we're going to 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:40.560 talk about what we know about the Apple tablet, this 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.480 will be like a three minute podcast. Yeah, we can't 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.000 do that because Emily hates it. Okay, she she's she's 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.639 so tired of us starting an Apple like is it? 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.440 Is it real? No? All right, that's it. Well, we 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:54.760 have made that joke maybe once or twice. Apparently that 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.040 joke is now old. We we have jumped jumped the shark. 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:00.840 She's only one person, and you know, no one else's 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.400 she's influential. She's a journalist. I know she's a journalist. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.120 So let's go on to the Apple tablet. Good lord, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.000 I want to get out of here at some point. 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.600 So the Apple tablet, Uh, rumors of this kind of 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.560 popped up ages ago, you know, years and years ago. Actually, 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.720 But Steve Jobs has spent the last two years denying 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.600 he's interested in it. That was a rudimentary time frame. 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.200 I'm just making it up. Yeah. Well, but but even 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:30.200 even before that, there were some rumors based just upon conjecture. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.799 But then Apple filed some patents a few years ago 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.840 that kind of suggested that they were interested in developing 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.600 a tablet. And it's not like Apple hasn't developed something 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:44.600 like this before. True, they have a pretty infamous p 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:48.200 d A that, uh, that kind of is a precursor 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:50.520 to the whole tablet craze. You know, we've got a 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.200 lot of younger listeners, so I'd like to point out 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.800 what a p d A is, or was a personal 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.680 digital assistant or pd A. Actually, they him on the scene, 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:06.240 I guess early to mid nineties. They're very first ones. 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.840 Um like the one that you were about to that, 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.840 but yeah, basically they were they were like, okay, they 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:17.479 were like smartphones without the phone digital planners, you know, 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.120 keep your calendar, send yourself alerts um in some cases email, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.640 especially when they they got later. But you would have 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.120 to sink those with your with your computer. At least 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.240 at first, they couldn't. They couldn't send information out on 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.320 WiFi at the very first, and of course they well, exactly, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.320 this is the kind of thing that that developed over time. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.680 And then of course, as soon as uh Palm started 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.599 with the Trio and some of the others started making 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.720 sort of converging the two, the phone and the cell 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.080 phone and the the p d A, basically we got 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.839 smartphones and nobody wanted an individual p d A anymore. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.760 But that came up with the with one of them, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.600 the very earliest ones, Yes, and that would be the Newton. Yes. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.320 Actually the Newton will play a part in our conversation 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.240 later on. But the Newton um was infamous in that 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:11.520 it had some half baked handwriting technology when it went 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.800 to launch. You just guaranteed we're gonna get listen to me. Look, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.640 it is no secret that the Apple's handwriting recognition software 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.599 was not as good as it needed to be when 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.400 it launched. When it launched, Okay, that's what I'm saying. 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.760 When it launched, saying that the that the last Apple 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.400 Newton to hit store shelves wasn't the best darn electronic 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.120 device to ever grace the planet. It may very well 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.600 have been, but those first ones were rotten Apples. Well, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.200 I have to say, not being an apologist because I've 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:44.279 never actually had my hands on a Newton, but I 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.480 think Apple they're delicious. Yeah. Um, I think it's one 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.320 of those situations where Apple found out then what other 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.560 companies I'm not mentioning names, Microsoft, Pista found out later, 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.920 which is the initial perception of the product. Um, it 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:04.159 didn't seem to matter how much it improved. That initial 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.799 perception really hurts. Yeah, so it's bad if you launch 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.640 a product that one of the most um, most advertised 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:17.359 features ends up not working that well. It takes it'll 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.560 take a miracle for you to recover from that bad publicity. 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.520 And yeah, you know, there might be one or two 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.000 instances of companies that were able to turn a product 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.320 around and go from uh completely being in disgrace to 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.800 being lauded as the best of the best, But it's 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:37.840 pretty rare most of the time. If you get that 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.200 first impression and it's negative, it's gonna stick with you, 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.440 just like Chris was saying, and that was the case 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.599 with the Newton. It had a It became a punch 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:50.280 line really for people who were desperately trying to uh 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.720 to write a sentence and and then you would get 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.440 this garbled message that made made no sense whatsoever as 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.560 the as the device tried to interpret your con scratch. 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:05.560 Now that that's again a precursor to the tablet days. 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.560 When we're talking about tablets, we're really talking about devices 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.960 that have some sort of uh interface like a maybe 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.280 a light pen or even a touch screen, um, that 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.040 can interact either with a computer or on their own, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.679 uh like the way Calm tablets where it's very useful 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.560 for people who want to do design work, um, and 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.920 and h illustrations, that kind of thing where they can 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:35.720 draw directly on a screen and create their their digital drawings. Yeah. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:40.040 And um, you know they're the early The Newton and 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.000 the Palm basically sort of set the stage for that, 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.520 you know, because they offered the handwriting recognition. I mean, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.120 Palm's handwriting recognition was excellent, at least a lot better 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.760 than Newton's original attempt. And of course there are a 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.280 lot of people who swear by the improvements made in 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.800 later Newton's but um, you know, now we've got touch 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.560 screens and there's all kinds of ways to you know, 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.520 interact with it. And of course tablets have been out 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.400 for several years. Yeah, you know, the the tablet form 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.520 factor is not a new thing. The new thing would 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.760 be that Apple getting into this game. And UM. Back 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.120 in August of two thousand eight, the Patent Office received 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.520 a patent from Apple for a device that was essentially 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.880 a tablet that was running on os X because it 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:29.000 was supporting the touch interface and UM, and that was 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.360 really what kind of touched off the the the first 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.880 initial flurry of serious Apple tablet rumors. Now, let's let's 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.720 kind of expand the scene a little bit. In the 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:45.320 computing world, you've got sitting at a desk. I climbed 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.640 the twelve stairs to my office. No, we're not doing 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.880 an audio drama here. The no. When by saying the scene, 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:55.800 I'm talking about the different level, different kinds of computers 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.600 you can purchase. So you know, with Apple they do 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.040 notebook computers and desktop computers. Yeah, you know now that 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:07.760 you say that, Actually that that's kind of interesting because 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.040 the Newton was one of the first things that Steve 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.840 Jobs got rid of when he got back. And UM. 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.200 At the time, Apple's products were all over the place. 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.679 They had all kinds of different stuff. They had an 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.880 education only PD a slash new knee thing called the eMate, 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.440 which had only been out for a very short time 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.559 before it was that was one of the products that 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.040 actually was very well liked, and it just never it 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.080 wasn't really given a chance. And that's the reason Apples 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.680 line is the way it is now is because, uh, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.600 Steve decided to make it into four parts. Basically, yeah, 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.439 you had a desktop, and you have a laptop, and 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.000 you have a consumer version and you have a professional version. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.079 And of course now they're starting to branch out from that. Yeah, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.200 now that they've got the iPhone and the iPod Touch, 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.600 which in a way are manature computers, and they didn't 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.920 have those products back then. So but even even now, 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.600 this is all all very controlled, right, you know, you 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:07.679 still have very clearly delineated lines of products. It's not 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.079 like there's a whole spectrum um so. But but one 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.560 of the big questions was that now that netbooks have 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.520 become pretty popular, you know, you had the combination of 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.560 cloud computing on the rise, you had the recession kicking in, 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.760 so people had less money to spend on things like computers, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.640 and you had these incredibly cheap netbook computers that didn't 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.880 have a lot of resources, but allowed you to connect 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.360 to the web where you could use web services right exactly. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.520 The other part of that people started to ask the 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.240 natural question, which was will Apple get into the netbook game, 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.199 because you know, they don't have anything that's in that space, 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.320 and they could take advantage of that. You know, they 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:50.000 could throw in because one thing Apple's got, hands down 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:55.760 is selling style. Apple. Yeah, Apple cells style better than 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.760 most fashion designers. Um. Their products are beauty full, They're 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:05.880 beautifully designed because they are such control freaks. The applications 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.720 often also look very beautiful because they have to fall 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:15.000 into certain parameters. Um, They're not necessarily going to be 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.640 the best product or application for every single thing you 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:23.280 want to do, but it's gonna look really nice. Um, 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.319 but you pay for that style. They are premium products. 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:29.840 They are more expensive than, uh than PC products. Now, 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.280 before I get all these this listener mail, let me 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.440 go ahead and say if you were to build a 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:39.640 PC that had the exact same computing power as the 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.560 iMac or whatever counterpart, it would probably be about the 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.199 same price. The reason why you find really cheap PCs 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:51.439 is a lot of manufacturers will make PCs with materials 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.040 that are like like slower processors, less hard drive space, 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.920 you know, whatever they're they're using, uh, things that Apple 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.800 would not use. They don't want to use products below 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.959 a certain threshold, okay. And also buying what what they 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:09.560 do and using what they do in the in the 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.320 computers and other devices. It also gives them a very 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.400 narrow set of hardware that they need to support. Uh, 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.199 you know, PC manufacturer might use a whole bunch of 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.280 stuff across the board, and then that means that they 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.720 have to spend you know, the time and effort to 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.040 you know, either support it or end of life at 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.679 e O L it, you know. And yeah, the thing 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:30.680 about a PC is you you can never be sure 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.480 when you purchase one if the company that manufactured it 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.640 is absolutely certain that all the elements inside it are compatible, 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.880 because your video card and sound card might have some problems. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.160 And I mean these sort of things do pop up. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.439 Now with Apple products, it's much more controlled, so you 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.680 don't have to worry about that. So that's another good 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.440 point point on Apple. Actually, yeah, Microsoft has to worry 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:54.120 about that because you know, Apples OS ten has to 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.200 work on all the machines that Apple's ever made that 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.520 were compatible with it. I mean, it knows exactly what 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.080 models will and will not work with it. UM like 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.200 snow Leopard for example, not working on the power PC processors. UM. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.920 But Microsoft has no way of knowing whether you're using 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:14.079 Packard bell from or a Dell that you bought two 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.600 weeks ago, and the processors and those and the kind 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:19.720 of RAM that they use and all that other stuff 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:24.320 are unknown, and so you know, there's some there's some 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.679 issues there. So to bring this back to the Apple tablet, 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:28.640 because boy did we get off on a tangent there 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.640 just saying there's you know that that's part of the 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.120 functionality there is. They go, yeah, we know exactly what's 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.160 in here, and that's gonna work. Well. The point being 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:42.599 that there's the space between the iPhone, which is a smartphone, 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:47.120 or the iPod Touch, which is ani computer. I manage 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.440 your computer slash and P three player. Um, you have 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:57.240 a big, wide gap between that and your lowest level MacBooks. Right, 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.760 there's a there's a big price gap, and there's a 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:05.880 big just device yeah or Mac minie. So uh so 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:07.600 let's say that you know you want to get into 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.240 this netbook space. Well, the Apple executives have already said 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.520 that they would not produce a notebook style computer for 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.880 around five because they would be incapable of creating one 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:22.400 that wasn't crap. The idea here being that they would 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.440 have to um, they would have to compromise their standards 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.240 in order to create a device that would meet that 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.400 price point, and they're not willing to do it. Now. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.320 Some people have said perhaps the tablet could fill that 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.080 niche because it wouldn't be a netbook. It would, you know, 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.680 have no keyboard. It would just be a a device 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.560 that you would have a touch screen. Everything would be uh, 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.560 touchscreen enabled. You might have an accelerometer in there as well, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.440 so that it works like the iPhone and iPod touch too. 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.120 I bet that it's going to have an accelerometer in 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.440 there if they make one. Considering the game's market for 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.680 the ip Yeah, yeah, unterst thing make total sense. So 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.600 this this device would kind of fit in that that 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.800 are that area. You know, you might be able to 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.160 price it kind of competitively with a lot of the 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.600 netbooks that are out there now. As it's turned out, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.800 the rumors appear to state that it would actually be 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.840 much more expensive than your average netbook. I'm sure if 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.359 your average netbook is around say, four hundred bucks. The 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.600 most recent rumors I've seen for the tablets price range 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.320 between eight hundred and a thousand dollars. Now, when you 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:35.640 think the lowest priced MacBook, I think is so that's 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.600 a thousand bucks right there. Would you be willing to 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.480 pay the same amount for a tablet as you would 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:46.320 for an actual full notebook? Depends on what you're going 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.040 to use it for. Yeah, well, I just can't imagine 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:53.320 doing that. It's it's to me, it's really I mean, 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.160 that device would have to be phenomenal for me to 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:57.840 sit there and say, you know what, this is worth 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.880 the same amount as a Mac notebook. You'd have to 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.360 see what the market's going to be for that kind 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.200 of thing. And the market for a tablet computer in 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.120 general is considerably different from the kind of person who 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:15.240 would normally buy a laptop or desktop from themselves, because, well, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:19.480 at least traditionally speaking, the tablet computer has been aimed 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:24.320 at UH professionals in certain industries, like the predominant one 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.520 i've seen as medical, because they carry those those um 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.280 computers with them, and it's you know, the tablet computer 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.360 is much easier to carry than say a laptop, because uh, 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.760 you know, it's more like a notebook would be, and 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.800 then they can make notes on it with the stylists. Um. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:42.880 And it makes a lot of sense actually that that's 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.280 an application that that's sort of a no brainer, and 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.880 you know, I can see artists and things like that 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.520 and people. Possibly there's the idea that people might be 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:55.880 able to consume media like you know, music videos, television shows, 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.720 all that sort of thing using the tablets. So there's 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.200 that possibility as well. That brings us to the question 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.240 of what is this tablet going to use as an 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.800 operating system? Because there are two two different philosophies at 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.360 play here. There are those who think that we're going 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:17.119 to see a modified version of the Mac OS okay, 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:18.520 and then the other people think it's going to be 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:23.560 the iPhone OS. Well, so it'll be either a smarter, 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.600 slightly smarter version of the iPhone or slightly dumber version 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:30.480 of the MacBook. Yeah. See, the the iPhone OS is 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.880 very similar in some ways to the two OS ten. Yeah, 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:37.919 so it's not so you're saying it would basically be 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.800 something in the middle between the two. Yeah, whether but 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.479 whether what approach did they take do they take beefing 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.159 up the ipot or do they take the opposite approach? 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.159 Where you you what would you do? What would I do? 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.959 I would probably just create a brand new OS really yeah, 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:57.760 because it's work. It is a lot of work. I mean, 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.480 we don't even know that this tablet's comeing out any 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.119 time since. Okay, let's let's get that clear too. Here's 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.920 here's what I mean. The reason that was the whole 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.719 patent thing was the first step in thinking that there 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:11.800 was gonna be a tablet. The next step was that 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.920 there was a leak in the supply chain. Uh, not 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.120 like that kind of leak information leak from the supply chain. 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.800 There was there were these Taiwanese companies saying that they 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.520 were pretty creating these these large touch screens for Apple. Uh, 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.200 and they were screens that wouldn't fit on any particular 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.199 device that Apple is currently producing. So that led to 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.400 the whole oh this must be for the Apple tablet thing. 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.119 All of like two thousand nine, up through September, people 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.720 were arguing about when this tablet was gonna be announced. 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:43.840 We kept on thinking, Oh, it's gonna be announced in June, 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.280 when uh, when jobs comes back. No, it wasn't then 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.680 moll is gonna be announced on nine nine on their 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.840 big event. Note that it wasn't on that either. Um 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:56.240 there were six. Yeah, that that's actually that is the 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.560 latest rumor now is Macworrel January. Of course that's the 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.240 next big event that it was us. They're not gonna 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.560 they're not gonna be a macworld, but there's a lot 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.520 of conjecture that they're going to be kind of they're 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.520 not really at c S. Well, according to the head 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.320 of C E S they don't have a space at 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.280 c S and so uh, and it would be really 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.800 hard to fit them into that. I mean, you've seen them. 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.840 They planned those booths out so far in advance. It 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:23.920 would be really hard to squeeze them in some place. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:26.560 Like you know what, Sony, you don't need that entire 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:29.480 width of the the room. We're just gonna cut off 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.119 this last you know, half of it. I don't think 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:37.240 that would work so at any rate. Um, again, all 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.440 we have are rumors, uh, stating that there's gonna be 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:44.080 a tablet at all. Okay, the latest rumors that it 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.880 would be available February two and that we would hear 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.160 about it either at C e S or some event 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.080 scheduled around c E S so that you know, they 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.960 could capitalize on all the tech news that's coming out 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.200 in January. UM, there were some reports saying that we 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:01.080 were going to see it as a a September October. 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.200 I don't think that's happening now, since September is over 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.480 and we're into I mean now. Granted, maybe from the 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.560 time we record this podcast at the time it publishes, 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:10.280 they come out and say it, in which case we're 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:12.400 gonna feel pretty silly and we're probably gonna record something 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:16.600 else in this place in a hurry. Yeah, But right now, 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.639 there's no indication from Apple whatsoever. Um. Although there was 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.080 another interesting development that's going back to the Apple Newton, 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.400 and an old friend of Apple has made a return 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.600 after a very long absence. I'm guessing you're talking about 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.080 Michael Chow. Michael Chow, who was one of the people 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.240 working on the Newton back in the day. Um. He 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:39.960 was one of the champions of the Newton, and so 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.520 he ended up taking a lot of abuse when the 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:48.760 handwriting recognition feature didn't work out quite as planned. Well, 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.480 based on my research, he was the person who convinced 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:53.680 then CEO John Scully that it would be a great 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.960 idea if you included the handwriting recognition in this device. Right, 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:01.479 despite some engineers of arguing that it wasn't ready, they 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.160 went ahead and did it. Anyway, Well, he left the company. 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.800 He's been away for fifteen years, and he's back now 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.520 as a vice president and as the recording as of 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.800 the recording of this podcast, we don't know exactly what 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.480 he's doing, although the rumor mill, of course is flying 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:16.080 that it has to be something to do with this 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.840 mythical tablet. Well, he did, uh spend some time as 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.440 the general manager for Nike tech Lab, which is uh, 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.240 you know there there they do have a partnership, Uh 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:30.040 Nike and Apple do um they make a system that 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:34.480 allows you to collect personal information about your running and 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.920 walking and uh basically you can collect that in your 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:41.800 iPod and upload that to your computer and do all 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.000 kinds of personal statistics. Wired actually did a great article 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:49.080 about it, um about how tracking personal statistics is making 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.639 people more interested in you know, well all kinds of 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:56.399 things really, but you know, workouts. So you know, he's 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.679 it's not like he was completely away from the Apple. No, No, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.600 it's not like you have to be completely immersed back 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.399 in Apple culture so that he can become one of 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.240 the devoted again. But well, I mean they you know, 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.560 that's the kind of thing that's portable electronics right there, 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:16.359 so it's not possibility. But you know, they also have 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.400