7th September 2011, 10:01 PM
I dunno, tablets occupy a form factor that's pretty useful. Big enough to show a good size working space while small enough to be far more portable than a laptop (no bag required, just a purse or jacket pocket). Phones can do similar tasks, but the screen space is pretty restricting.
Tablets are still flawed in a number of ways though. Foremost is the complete shunning of buttons in favor of the touch screen. I think the touch interfaces are actually very nice, but I don't consider the stylus nearly as "dated" as everyone else. While I type much faster than I write, I still write much faster than I "hunt and peck" on a touch screen. I'd much prefer to use a stylus to hammer out some notes with some handwriting recognition (which has come a long way since the Newton).
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xc3JzS0K3ys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(Also there's the matter of how finger based touching simply reminds me that I'm a disgusting bag of mostly water leaking oils on every single surface, fully deserving of the eventual obliteration all organic life shall face in the silicon quickening.... thousands of years ago in the future where the past has occurred.)
Really though, the biggest issue is the lack of buttons. Just looking at an iPadd, I see space along the "margins" of the device for gaming buttons. Their placement would be a little less than ideal, but it'd be a lot better than controlling a port of Secret of Mana with a touch screen, that's for sure. (That port does look nice, I just feel it's wasted on those controls. Let's stick that on the 3DS along with a translation of Seiken Densetsu 3.)
To add to that though, instead of just boosting the power of the next iPad, why not shrink down the die and work in a sliding keyboard/controller for the thing? If they did that, I can easily see "tablet" sized devices replacing the laptop form factor, while eventually people finally make the leap and invade the "wrist watch" form factor in full force with something like the iWatch. Really, a watch with a touch screen, a few easy to press buttons, and a much longer lasting battery (thanks maybe in part to a liquid paper display) could basically destroy the whole idea of carrying around a phone in one's pocket. Heck work in some wireless bluetooth headphones with batteries recharged by kinetic motion from your own head and there's no need to even hold the thing up to your head like a secret agent (though even that still leaves the hand freer than before). I wear glasses so that idea works for me pretty well. Text messages would probably be the only difficult part of that adjustment, but seriously, VOICE people, it's futuristic!
Tablets are still flawed in a number of ways though. Foremost is the complete shunning of buttons in favor of the touch screen. I think the touch interfaces are actually very nice, but I don't consider the stylus nearly as "dated" as everyone else. While I type much faster than I write, I still write much faster than I "hunt and peck" on a touch screen. I'd much prefer to use a stylus to hammer out some notes with some handwriting recognition (which has come a long way since the Newton).
<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xc3JzS0K3ys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(Also there's the matter of how finger based touching simply reminds me that I'm a disgusting bag of mostly water leaking oils on every single surface, fully deserving of the eventual obliteration all organic life shall face in the silicon quickening.... thousands of years ago in the future where the past has occurred.)
Really though, the biggest issue is the lack of buttons. Just looking at an iPadd, I see space along the "margins" of the device for gaming buttons. Their placement would be a little less than ideal, but it'd be a lot better than controlling a port of Secret of Mana with a touch screen, that's for sure. (That port does look nice, I just feel it's wasted on those controls. Let's stick that on the 3DS along with a translation of Seiken Densetsu 3.)
To add to that though, instead of just boosting the power of the next iPad, why not shrink down the die and work in a sliding keyboard/controller for the thing? If they did that, I can easily see "tablet" sized devices replacing the laptop form factor, while eventually people finally make the leap and invade the "wrist watch" form factor in full force with something like the iWatch. Really, a watch with a touch screen, a few easy to press buttons, and a much longer lasting battery (thanks maybe in part to a liquid paper display) could basically destroy the whole idea of carrying around a phone in one's pocket. Heck work in some wireless bluetooth headphones with batteries recharged by kinetic motion from your own head and there's no need to even hold the thing up to your head like a secret agent (though even that still leaves the hand freer than before). I wear glasses so that idea works for me pretty well. Text messages would probably be the only difficult part of that adjustment, but seriously, VOICE people, it's futuristic!
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)