Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

the next iMac should have this...

Tallest Skil said:
The doctor thing is absolutely correct. Remember I said to ignore everything but the screen at first? Well, we're back to that. :D

Redesigning the OS to be multitouch absolutely cannot happen unless the hardware shapes are changed, as well. Otherwise we would have problems like that.

I always say this about the HP touchscreen computers: "I think the general argument against this is: tired arms."

That's also why I wrote "desktop" with quotation marks. Desktop computers that use OS XI wouldn't look anything like what we're used to seeing in a computer, but that's to be expected. We're used to seeing: screen, keyboard, mouse, towery part or something behind the screen.

But reaching out to touch the screen becomes severely problematic.

It's vertical. That's tiring.

Since we're supplanting the keyboard and mouse as input devices, we're freeing up the desk portion of our desktop. What to put there, I wonder...

The screen. Or, probably, in the case of Apple, the entire computer.

Think wedge, or even think flat surface–whichever is more ergonomic for you. A slightly angled screen (15 degrees?) allows for wrist comfort in the manipulation of the GUI. Instead of a static keyboard, we now have the entire computer screen at our fingertips...

Yes, the glass is covering the screen of current computers, but isn't it also just "covering" the screen in the iPhone/iPod touch? The glass in question provides the durability that soft touchscreens (like the really, REALLY old one on my LC 575) don't have. Would you rather Apple have gone with a soft touchscreen on the iPhone?

And to the mouse being such a perfect tool; yes, the mouse is great. An entire generation (myself included; no, I'm not lying about being 19) grew up in the world of the mouse.

It will be difficult to change at first, but...

Remember the Macintosh 128k. Look back at the response there; people comparing the perfect tool that was keyboard input on the Apple II and saying the mouse was a gimmick.

"About the only thing you can't do... is ignore them. Because they change things."

I don't have a 100% complete, point-for-point plan as to how Apple will transition us away from the mouse and keyboard. If I did, I would post it... wait... If I did, I'd be under Apple's NDA and wouldn't post it, but that's beside the point...

The point is: I don't know HOW they will do it, but they're going to do it. It will be radical at first, but the mouse was tossed aside as a children's toy at first, too.
Click to expand...

You should write science fiction.
 
zombie1210 said:
You should write science fiction.
Click to expand...

Your posts remind me of the naysayers from back in the day, "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer. - said in the early 1970s ".

Things that seem amazingly far fetched or even silly years ago have come into the mainstream.
 
NT1440 said:
Your posts remind me of the naysayers from back in the day, "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer. - said in the early 1970s ".

Things that seem amazingly far fetched or even silly years ago have come into the mainstream.
Click to expand...

I am the ghost of H.G. Wells
 
zombie1210 said:
You should write science fiction.
Click to expand...

It's interesting, though, how some of our greatest scientific advances came out of science fiction.

Arthur C. Clarke dreamt of the use of geosynchronous satellites as telecommunications outposts, and geostationary orbit is now named after him. It's filled with thousands of GPS and data transfer satellites.

From Star Trek, we have created an actual teleporter–though we can only move electrons now.

And you can't just throw off the parallel between the attitudes at the advent of the mouse and the current attitude toward a fully multitouch OS.
 
Tallest Skil said:
It's interesting, though, how some of our greatest scientific advances came out of science fiction.

Arthur C. Clarke dreamt of the use of geosynchronous satellites as telecommunications outposts, and geostationary orbit is now named after him. It's filled with thousands of GPS and data transfer satellites.

From Star Trek, we have created an actual teleporter–though we can only move electrons now.

And you can't just throw off the parallel between the attitudes at the advent of the mouse and the current attitude toward a fully multitouch OS.
Click to expand...

You are a true visionary.
 
MacHappytjg said:
Well for u be less negative about things :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

iMacmatician's sig is a concise statement of how we both view Apple.

I realize that being an Apple Pessimist means that we shoot down all optimistic views, but know that even I: The Great Apple Pessimist... was too optimistic for MacWorld. Even I... expected more than we got.

I think that that says a lot about what Apple has become, eh? :(
 
I just ordered a Pro instead. Fully loaded.


$26,858.90

Ships: 4-6 business days Free ShippingNext business day delivery available
 
I agree with Tallest here, I believe that Apple will continue to improve multi-touch to phase out the mouse.

What I believe that will happen is that Apple will make a keyboard, much like the shape of the current aluminum ones, but it will all be one giant glass multi-touch trackpad (no keys). There will be a screen behind the glass touchpad, that will allow you to dedicate sections of the pad to the keyboard, a track pad, and even a numeric keypad.

Want to make the keyboard bigger? Just drag it over to the left or right. Want more room to click? Push the keyboard over to the side. Want a ton of room to click? Hide the keyboard and make the entire thing a huge touchpad, with programable gestures.

I think it would be awesome if they released this, change two major parts of the computer that have been in use as of, 199x? Earlier?
 
proj_keyboard.png


Or just project it onto your desk.
http://www.luxist.com/2006/07/31/projector-keyboard/
 
MysticMage said:
I think it would be awesome if they released this, change two major parts of the computer that have been in use as of, 199x? Earlier?
Click to expand...

1984 in practical use (Macintosh 128k), earlier with Xerox patents.

Your idea is not unlike that of the Optimus Tactus, and I like it.

But I still think that that is transitionary. Something like this will probably be the PC equivalent of OS XI until Microsoft gets their game together and makes a trans-spacial 3D multitouch OS of their own.
 
madog said:
Pretty much, my whole stupid rant was just to point out the fact that there probably won't be anything super-fantabulous with the new iMacs and everyone will disappointed. Hopefully they remove the current USB/FW ports this time and add all mini/micro display ports and USB ports and introduce some new 1-pin FW port that doesn't exist on any cable or device, and make it so every time you plug in a peripheral the iMac bitch slaps you. All while they create it out of a solid piece of gold plated platinum to increase the price point and reduce features and still get to claim that it's "innovative".

:(
Click to expand...
I agree with you here. I think we'll see quad-cores in at least the 24" models, although I'm not putting my eggs in that basket. Other improvements will most likely be like what happened with the notebooks, NVIDIA chipset, new GPUs etc., and likely not much numerical spec bumps. I don't think we'll see anything big (*cough* 28" iMac *cough*) and in fact, I even think we might not see Firewire 400 in the 20" iMacs.

And I agree with Tallest Skil on the whole multi-touch thing.
 
Tallest Skil said:
1984 in practical use (Macintosh 128k), earlier with Xerox patents.

Your idea is not unlike that of the Optimus Tactus, and I like it.

But I still think that that is transitionary. Something like this will probably be the PC equivalent of OS XI until Microsoft gets their game together and makes a trans-spacial 3D multitouch OS of their own.
Click to expand...

The idea of a input device with visual feedback and shifting keys, fully integrated with the desktop environment is 100x better than the idea of the multitouch "Minority Report like" screen.

About the succesor of OS X I think that first there are other areas with higher priority than a VR I/O scheme, like:

-kernel, hybrid o truly microkernel. If now is based in Mach, perhaps in the future could be L4, Coyotos, Hurd microkernel... Creating a super stable OS, even with buggy basic services.

-Cloud computing: a major trend in the future, how will Apple deal with it?

-Getting further in the UNIX scheme. Perhaps OS XI should be a Plan 9 like OS ,the experimental succesor of Unix build by Bell Labs (All computer or OS resource is a text file, all resource on the net is local..)
 
Tallest Skil said:
Bingo. Well, no physical keyboard. We'll still need a way to convey language.

I'm talking about a fully gesture-based OS. No more cursor. No more cursor means that we are not bound by the limits of one point of access. We can use all ten fingers in one gesture, or we can manipulate up to ten data modules at once doing different tasks.

The entire look of the OS will be different, as well. In OS XI, Apple will redefine what it means to have a GUI.
Click to expand...

get with the times man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back