1993 iPad design principles.

[MiJuConcept]

​

The iPad was designed as a reflection on the design of existing tablets and laptops in the marketplace. It was intended to fill a gap between the Newton and other tablet offerings from Windows-aligned companies.

Apple was possibly the last company to offer a tablet. Prior to this there was a huge computing gap between the Newton and Powerbook (MacBook).

The 1992 Powerbook was to become the grandfather of the iPad and also the first TFT / LCD iMac in 2004.

iPad brief
-----------------
* Chop off the monitor / lid of the Powerbook
* No ports other than Data / Power / Video
* Touch screen (no stylus) (was mentioned in recent Jobs movie speaking to John Scully)
* WiFi

The iPad 2 corrected the situation where video out was omitted from the first iPad.


2004 iMac Brief
------------------
Take the base of the Powerbook motherboard and sandwich behind the LCD screen.
This design provides a cost / power / heat / speed difference to the workstation Mac.
Make it slender / narrow - fit entire assembly into monitor housing

The 1992 Powerbook was one of the technologies which gave rise to new apple products by redesign and innovation. It took almost 10 years for the transformation to be complete and this was largely caused by delays in large format LCD screens.

Apple was the type of company that never wasted a good idea. Especially ones which were so obvious and immediately available. In other words, the LID became the iPad and the BASE became the iMac.

Dont mention the rounded corners ....

 

[rafark]

It's like comparing a mouse to an elephant: they both have two eyes and a mouth.

 

[MiJuConcept]

It's like comparing a mouse to an elephant: they both have two eyes and a mouth.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

There was a smart home concept video in the 80s produced by Apple that includes voice activated assistants, tablets, wireless networks and all that. Of course, Space Odyssey 2001 was there 20 years earlier.

 

[bensisko]

The iPad was designed as a reflection on the design of existing tablets and laptops in the marketplace. It was intended to fill a gap between the Newton and other tablet offerings from Windows-aligned companies.

Apple was possibly the last company to offer a tablet. Prior to this there was a huge computing gap between the Newton and Powerbook (MacBook).

In Apple's world, yes. In the world at large, there were tons of products that filled the gap between what was a PDA and a laptop.

Including (but not limited to):

• PocketPCs (which became more and more powerful over time)
• Windows CE/Mobile Tablets (like the Clio, which were kind of weak)
• Windows Portable Media Centers (portable Media Players, but much more powerful than the iPod)
• Windows Origami/UMPC ("Mini" tablets that ran full Windows XP)
• Netbooks (running Windows and other mobile OSes)

Apple created the Newton and was a gold standard for PDAs (in terms of idea - in terms of practicality, it was Palm that would take the market - right up until the need for a "simple" PDA went away because of more powerful mobile phones and, eventually, the smartphone). When Steve Jobs cancelled the Newton, Apple went back to focus on the desktop, but the mobile device never left their thoughts - they struggled to come up with something that was more than a PDA, but less than a laptop. Even during the Netbook craze, the iPad was on the drawing board but was put on hold to make the iPhone first.

The 1992 Powerbook was to become the grandfather of the iPad and also the first TFT / LCD iMac in 2004.

iPad brief
-----------------
* Chop off the monitor / lid of the Powerbook
* No ports other than Data / Power / Video
* Touch screen (no stylus) (was mentioned in recent Jobs movie speaking to John Scully)
* WiFi

The iPad 2 corrected the situation where video out was omitted from the first iPad.


2004 iMac Brief
------------------
Take the base of the Powerbook motherboard and sandwich behind the LCD screen.
This design provides a cost / power / heat / speed difference to the workstation Mac.
Make it slender / narrow - fit entire assembly into monitor housing

The 1992 Powerbook was one of the technologies which gave rise to new apple products by redesign and innovation. It took almost 10 years for the transformation to be complete and this was largely caused by delays in large format LCD screens.

Apple was the type of company that never wasted a good idea. Especially ones which were so obvious and immediately available. In other words, the LID became the iPad and the BASE became the iMac.

Dont mention the rounded corners ....

The iMac was less of a design inspired by the Powerbook and more an evolution of Macs they had been making since the birth of the Macintosh. In fact, the iMac was NOT the first to incorporate the flat design with a laptop-style display - that occurred with the 20th Anniversary Mac in 1997. Shortly thereafter they released the original gumdrop iMac, then moved on to the iMac G4 - a flat panel display rotating over a base, which then evolved into the iMac we know and love today.

I'm not sure that I would agree that Apple never wasted a good idea - in fact there are several examples of good ideas that I consider to be "wasted" by not continuing:

• The Duo concept - The idea of docking a mobile machine to a desktop setup to take advantage of additional power. The Duos were big and bulky, but it's a concept that is (and I feel has been) prime for a comeback. Look at today's MacBook Pros - with Thunderbolt 3 they can take advantage of an external video card. How cool would it be if I could "dock" my MacBook and get extra power, ram, storage, graphics while still using my primary computer? I get most people would just get an iMac/Mac Pro and use a network to share files, but I think the dock concept is still a good one.
• The iMac Arm - The floating display was a great concept! True, I could get a third part monitor mount, but having it built into one system was a beautiful thing. From a Design perspective it was absolutely beautiful (and still looks futuristic sitting on a desk). From a practicality standpoint, I loved being able to move and adjust the display - especially when showing other people something on the display or adjusting it so I could still watch stuff while working on another computer.

There are other concepts and ideas that Apple had that they just gave up on or never followed up on.

 

[MiJuConcept]

• The Duo concept - The idea of docking a mobile machine to a desktop setup to take advantage of additional power. The Duos were big and bulky, but it's a concept that is (and I feel has been) prime for a comeback. Look at today's MacBook Pros - with Thunderbolt 3 they can take advantage of an external video card. How cool would it be if I could "dock" my MacBook and get extra power, ram, storage, graphics while still using my primary computer? I get most people would just get an iMac/Mac Pro and use a network to share files, but I think the dock concept is still a good one.

There are other concepts and ideas that Apple had that they just gave up on or never followed up on.

Im afraid Intel took up the slack on the Duo concept. Apple had the option of making a minimalist MacBook Air, the concept was this;

Unreleased personal processing hardware was the MacBook Air with the following hardware removed;
* screen
* keyboard
* battery (enough battery only for shutting down)
* Optical bay
* Sync to cloud storage for files
* Rebuild using backup image

This was intended for the education / corporate / automotive market. You allow your PC to become your credential for access globally but more importantly a seamless computing companion for all your mobility needs.

An estmiated 50% of global computing requires the power to run word processing and a thin client terminal. In a large proportion, mobility plays an important part in productivity. Symbiotic relationships between appliances and personal computing are growing exponentially.

Take a quick look at this;

It took Intel about 10 years to get this far.

(BladeBook remains in limbo).

The design brief was
------------------------
* small form factor
* use televisions / aircraft screens / docking stations
* no fragile components
* no repair components
* Use all existing resources and appliances as components required to complete the system.


Prediction for the future
----------------------------
* Magnetic docking (no pins to wear out or break)
* Apple TV becomes your main PC at home with a docking station
* Home appliances ship with a slot and you decide what to install
* Apple takes up the slack on lifestyle with home automation support for other vendors
* Cars become a personal assistant, guest computing via a personal card

 

[bensisko]

Yeah, I've seen the Intel concept, but it will never take off.

It's also not quite the Duo concept. I would rather see a personal device (be it an iPad or a MacBook) that is ultra-mobile which you can bring home and plug into a larger experience to become a more powerful machine. What's really taking over for the Duo, though, is the Cloud. The thing holding it back is devices that try to be everything (instead of being very good at one thing, then relying on other devices to take up a purpose of being better at a single thing.

I think Intel's concept would have taken off in the early 2000s, but today we have the Cloud and a host of powerful devices.

 

[MiJuConcept]

Yeah, I've seen the Intel concept, but it will never take off.

It's also not quite the Duo concept. I would rather see a personal device (be it an iPad or a MacBook) that is ultra-mobile which you can bring home and plug into a larger experience to become a more powerful machine. What's really taking over for the Duo, though, is the Cloud. The thing holding it back is devices that try to be everything (instead of being very good at one thing, then relying on other devices to take up a purpose of being better at a single thing.

I think Intel's concept would have taken off in the early 2000s, but today we have the Cloud and a host of powerful devices.

What we are seeing now is the emerging importance of the individual. Not just your preference for apps or music but the rise of life experiences in sterile wastelands called URBAN. To overcome the stench of living in a city we rely more heavily on the ability to control things around us and this experience is increasingly becoming evident in the car, house and workspace.

If you are going to spend 90% of your life inside 5 rooms + a transport device, your pocket computer or 'bladebook' is the key to having all those preferences stored OFFLINE where you determine the profile. Cloud is ok for old information which might be used more than once. But that model doesnt fully satisfy creative needs / education needs where the challenges are evolving.

Apple responds to creative needs because people will spend money to be pleased.We either produce content or we experience content someone else provides. Either way their has to be a device we carry around or it will become an implant.

Im quite certain iPhone covers this territory well enough. Perhaps the application here is durability.