pass me the pain killers...
... my neck is killing me...
The problem with any portable device which requires too much input AND too much time viewing output, is one of comfort.
So, I want to watch a video on my snazzy tablet. Great, so where to I put it?
Do I hold it? Do I balance it against something? Does it come with a stand?
I want to type something on it. Great, so long as it's a short missive and I don't type too much, no problem. But then, what's the point? Where is the benefit over a lightweight, tiny portable device?
I do hope Apple get this right and show us how a Tablet *could* be of benefit...
... I can think of three *killer* applications, but I don't believe they are ready for prime time yet in a single device..
1. Accurate and easy voice recognition
2. Accurate and easy to use stylus recognition - as in, draw or write on touch screen
3. Tablet incorporates an e-book reader as easy on the eye as paper (e-ink), with no DRM and totally standards compliant - PDF.
If all of those are in the Apple tablet or slate and work extremely well, I'm sold.
But of course, from the e-book point of view, Apple would *never* go with an open format - they would almost certainly introduce an iTunes only option without the ability to read open formats.
The more I think about this, the more I predict an eventual Fail for Apple - nice face, shame about the legs... and that will certainly be a fail due to Apples insistence on locking down the hardware, even if they get the rest of it right.