Can the iSlate kill off Web 2.0?

Soft keyboard not a barrier

The iphone/touch and presumably islate (or whatever it will be called) has a reasonable soft keyboard so it won't prevent people using it.

It won't stop Journotards having their ego bruised that's for sure.

Compaq TC1000

Sorry but my old Compaq was the best of both worlds.

It may have been a bit of a clunky processor, but you could remove the keyboard and it was a nice 11 inch screened media tablet. Click the keyboard back on and it was a laptop.

If HP could have developed it to be touch screen rather then dedicated stylus, it would have been the full deal.

Bored by all this talk of islates, nothing new to see here.

(Written on my Lenovo Tablet PC with touch screen, but not as portable as the TC1000).

Sorry ...

... can't comment, I don't have a keyboard.

Oh, and what of PEBKAC w/o a keyboard? :)

heh

The end of loser-generated content? If Only.

Lol Irony!

Happy are the days

If only this comes to pass. There are very few sites with comments worth reading. Most, especially tech sites are filled with fanboi rants..The reg is one of the few sites with comments worth reading as some people here know what they are talking about! Youtube on the other hand makes me wish for a day ruled by a tablet

lol kbds suk 4evr txtspk ftw!!!

I suspect we'll just see more "txt spk" all over the net. Some commentards even resort to it when they have a proper keyboard, so a touchpad "virtual keyboard" will just make it more common.

How long until Internet Explorer incorporates that FireFox plug-in that hides all the idiot-speak from Youtube etc?

It will still be capable of input...

I like the argument. But it will still be an input device: there'll be a virtual keyboard or it will be capable of handwriting recognition. So while the temptation to input might be diminished, it will still be there. And iff it does voice recognition, then the temptation to yell a comment will increase ten-fold...

(There are no comments as I type this. So apologies if I'm the ten-zillionth person to note this.)

"Tablet computers are coming"

Again, Apple have created a new concept.

A tablet computer!

Hmm. What was that pen input computer I was using yesterday with the detachable keyboard? It couldn't be a tablet, Apple haven't released those yet!

Mobility + Touch + FBook + Twitter = more interaction

Hmmm.... i dont agree wit the premise of this piece at all. Mobile devices with limited text input whether they be iPhone's, iSlates or any other brand of mobile phone are certainly not for writing a novel on but they are perfect for tapping the brief chunks of text needed to interact with your mates anywhere you happen to be. Everyone that I know that has a such a mobile device is using services like FaceBook/Twitter more than ever before...and there doing that in the bus queue, on the train & down the pub!

Look at how the limited none ascii keyboards on mobiles have not in anyway got in the way of the immense volume of text messages tapped out each day... this is the metric you need to look at for these new devices.

Really?

Really? Does El Reg just publish *anything* that's submitted to it? What a vapid pile of crap; the iCanvas/iSlate/iTablet won't change the way people interact with their computer because it won't be a computer, it'll be a tablet device that is little more than a scaled up iPod Touch.

The tablet PC was a really bad idea and has failed on numerous occasions because manufacturers tried to shrink the whole of the PC down into a tablet form factor and sell it as a computer. The iPhone/Touch were scaled up from a PDA with a few more features squeezed in so you got a consumer electronics device that worked like a small tablet. It wasn't ever marketed as a computer.

If Apple position their tablet as a computer then they'll fail miserably because people will complain about the lack of the keyboard and the fact that it doesn't do everything that a computer does. If they position it as a media device where they can consume media (ebooks, films, music to a lesser extent) and slap on some applications as a side thing then it's just a large screen version of the iphone/touch and will do well with a certain sector of the market (the twats).

It's the same problem that smart phones have. If you put in a keyboard people expect it to be a computer but if you put on a touch screen you have a phone that does some clever things. Windows Mobile is a retarded idea for that very same reason, people see Windows and are too dumb to understand that they can't do everything as well as they can on their desktop.

All this still makes it irrelevant to how we interact with the computer because it will always be the lesser functioned little brother of the desktop and the laptop and most likely bought as an addition to, rather than a replacement for, a proper computer.

Oh, shit, I just wrote several pages of nonsense. Maybe if I pad it out with some apple/google hate I can get myself an El Reg staffer job.

errrr... no.

"Removing the keyboard from the front of the internet might just let consumers get back to consuming while producers produce."

They're not removing the keyboard from the front of the internet. They're essentially taking the keyboard and superglueing it onto the bottom half of the monitor... with an option to make it invisible when you want to consume, and show it again when you want to comment about what you just finished consuming.

How is this going to change anything at all?

I'm not convinced..

I find the first statement a bit .. misleading..

regardless of what you take away, a computer is still a device which requires input.. and while I can see the arguement you're making in regards to the trend of people watching content more than creating it, I can't fully agree - Granted, compared to 10, 15, 20 years ago, the types of content, and the way we view it have.

look at it this way; there are far more machines available, and being used in homes, work, schools, factories, stores, ect ect today than ever, and in most aspects, the type of work they do hasn't changed, just the way they acomplish them. Sure, kids and university students will waste their 1000$-2000$ machines to FB and play farmville, but just as many of those students will be blogging, trolling forums, and finding new ways to make absolute rubish hilarious on the internet. Look at the exponential increase in meme's on the internet over the last decade, look at sites like 4chan (shudders)... this stuff isn't going the way of the T-Rex, it's just getting started.

at my apartment, we have 3 lappy's, 4 desktops and 2 ipod touches/iphones. each device gets used alot each day, and all for different things, but it doesn't take away from any of the individual devices.

Bah, this is almost turning into a rant, but to summize; so long as there is a medium, content and commentary will be created - it may not always be the same as it's predocessors, but it will be there.

On my iPhone 3GS

@Bill Ray and this article

I don't know what to make of this article. Its like something between a reporters wet dream, of the end of user generated content leaving only reporters speaking to the masses, combined with some kind of sycophantic PR pitch for Apple Tablet computers. As for Keyboards are dead attitude, yeah right, heard it all before.

Plus as for "What could be more natural than making a comment on the film you've just watched?"

I would suggest its more natural not wasting my time adding a comment that will be buried in 10 seconds by 1000 other comments, half of which are meaningless juvenile attention seeking rubbish. The 2.0 web doesn't need my thoughts on every bloody moment of my life and hell will freeze over before I share every thought I have with the web, let alone suffer the corporations who are eagerly working to find ways to profile my every bloody word.

As for "very absence of a physical reminder converts the user into a consumer of content rather than an active participant."

There's more options in life than just passive "consumer" zombie and attention seeking "active participant" superficial sheeple.

How about actually making something via a computer?! ... e.g. writing a letter or a book, painting a picture, editing photos & videos, programming, making music, editing cad style designs to help make something in the real world, etc.. Computers are after all tools! ... This article portrays computers as little more than an interactive notice board!. If that is the only superficial aspect of computers you can see, then you are in the wrong job.

As for "Desktop and laptop computers are ill-suited to the consumption of content"

Again sounding like an advert for Tablet computers. Just because my PC has a keyboard, I don't have to use it! Also your pitch for Tablet computers sounds like its designed as a sheepleware product. Don't think people, we your content providers will feed you with content. You make consumers sound like cows!. Feed the cows and then milk them for money and yet more marketing information, so you can find more ways to feed them! Sit back and consume and we will feed you content. It sounds like the Wall-e style Dystopia! Feed consumers, feed more, feeding is good, don't ever unplug, tell us what you want us to feed you.

"It would be optimistic to suggest that the blogosphere will cease to exist"

*optimistic* ?! ... thats more of this its good to feed consumers attitude. I'm sure some in the media and in marketing would love the idea of no more user content, only company chosen content to feed to consumers.

Pass another marshmallow, before the flames on this article finally die down. ;)

If it walks like a duck...

Replace the physical keyboard with a touchscreen keyboard, it's still a ... keyboard.

I've only seen one article about the iPhone-cum-tablet, which was mostly about the iPhone really, and that came courtesy of Gizmodo.

Actually the article was 90% bollocks, but the good part was about Jef Raskin who pretty much foresaw the iPhone, as an information appliance.

This isn't the death of Web 2.0 unless it's the start of Web 3.0. Detaching the browser in favour of applications; or information appliances if you like.

Even that's bollocks, because any alternative input is just an alternative. Keyboards aren't going anywhere until we have implants and telepathic-like abilities, and everyone lives in a world designed by Peter F. Hamilton (e-butlers/u-shadows, fans will recognise).

Talk about hype overtaking common sense.

BS

"it changes how we perceive and interact with computers, and that's going to fundamentally change the internet itself."

It's still a computer. Try some critical thinking and stop simply regurgitating what Apple tell you to. "It will change the internet itself" ? For fucks sake guys, Apple have their own marketing department and don't need you chaps to do their job for them. Further, tablets have been done by others, all this will be is another tablet, with some nice design features.

Change the internet my hairy arse.

Who is Tylr Drdn?

Methinks it be time for a fight club sequel. This time "Jack" should be a frustrated blogger/journalist with a penchant for buying into every new meme and fad gadget produced.

No keyboard =/= no input

I use Twitter on my iPhone all the time. And Facebook - the advantage there being a lot of communication is non-text based; adding a photo or clicking 'I like this!' doesn't exactly require a keyboard.

And write emails on my Blackberry Storm. (although - to be fair - if it's a long email I compose it on the iPhone and forward it to the Storm, as it's keyboard is diabolical in comparison)

I think you're making a very early, very unlikely assumption.

@Ashley Stevens

Why the probably. This comment without any probably.

I LIKE KEYBOARDS

I LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE TYPE IN BLOCK CAPITALS SO IT LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE SHOUTING

if you really want interaction to stop....

enlist the support of polititians. They could come out with a keyboard tax, which would encourage a migration to iphones and slates. They could introduce an upload charge, even a few cents a word would help. With the new funds, they could finance a decent censorship scheme.

Bleah

Given that an iPhone requires a 3 year contract @ $65 for 500MB data/month, I doubt that an iSlate/Pad with a cellphone contract & subscriptions for news pages will make economic sense. I, for one, will be avoiding it.

XKCD

http://xkcd.com/202/

In any case, nothing will stop a true commentard from spewing ignorant bile into the Intertubes. Nothing.

Nobody makes you read them

Web 2.0 is highly ignorable to most of us... thank goodness.

Bummer if you're paid to care about what the mob says.

Paris, for that reason.