Manipulators
By now, many of the savvy followers of the techosphere have likely heard many a rumor of an Apple Tablet computer, an iPad, or MegaTouch or whatever shiny, touchable flavor of the week the rumor mill has spit out. So, adding fuel to the fire is the Another Perfect Catastrophe analysis of things that have not yet happened. The following is a mix of supreme objectivity through extreme observation as well as an unproven record of being a member of the home computer revolution since they could sell 8 bits and 2k of RAM for $99.
Apple has had it’s share of mega hits and absurd flops. Nowadays it is possibly the smartest judge at what will work in the marketplace. One compelling way they seem to do this is to create products that people don’t even know they need until they see it. You don’t need an iPhone, but you’ll work a double-shift to get one. And if yours should go kaput somehow, you’ll do everything you can to return to the promised land of internet in your pocket. There’s no app for that. Just your hard-earned lucre.
Then, what would make the general public want an AppleTab? At the APC headquarters, we have a way to divine such information. We have a seldom-used system of remote imaging. It’s a complicated thing involving many hours of retro-gaming, incense, and chai tea. Only after entering a level 57-Robotron Strobe Flash trance can we project our consciousness around the Infinite Loop and view the thoughts of other mortals. Jobs just barely qualifies for this mortal status, so our results may be a bit murky.
The Maclet will function as a free standing computing device. It will be more-or-less general purpose. The iPhone-like touch and gesture system will be in full effect. Web surfing, email, chat–possibly with built in iSight. I think a new, tightly integrated version of Remote will be essential, allowing me to dazzle guests with imaginatively themed playlists streaming over my AppleTV and boring slideshows on demand as I cue them up for display on that same AppleTV. And, most importantly, Facebook is always on. Of course, any number of iPhone apps that make sense to port to the larger format with its new-found utility shall be there, ready to purchase from a glowing 256×256 App Store icon.
But that last sentence contains the big question, doesn’t it? What is the new usefulness found in the NewtonPro? Do I need a larger iPhone to keep on my lap? Will it be WiFi only, making it an unusable as a digital Thomas Guide in my car? Will I surf for the identity of the flavor-of-the-moment reality TV stars that I don’t recognize as they are being mocked Joel McHale (yes, probably)? Is that enough to make it a successful product? As I channel Jobs now, I see he’s thinking “no way, José.” That seems a bit cutesy for him to be saying, but that’s what I’m reading.
We all think we want an easy to stash and toss around “living room web thing” and a chopping board that shows us cooking tutorials and recipes, but is it something we want to pay a lot of money for when it comes down to it? Would you use it enough, neck uncomfortably pitched down 90 degrees at your lap, typing furiously at fake keys while splitting attention from the TV? It’s intriguing, but for something that is going to change the world, it better do something more exciting than that. It must do something so awesome you could never live without it after seeing it. But what would that be?
There are some things going on behind our collective scenes that we have to piece together better than that Sherlock inverse-websurfing application ever did. The first part of the equation is that Apple is building a giant, $1 billion data center in North Carolina. From datacenterknowledge.com we get this little tidbit:
The size of the project raises interesting questions about Apple’s ambitions for its online operations. The $1 billion price tag is nearly twice the $500 to $600 million that Microsoft and Google typically invest in the enormous data centers that power their cloud computing platforms.
Well technonauts, we might be reaching now, but beware-this could reach into the crazy-enough-it-just-might-work category. The second part of the equation does not involve the company mentioned, only the technologies employed. Take a look at what OnLive is up to:
Founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime) and incubated within the Rearden media and technology incubator, OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially unveiling in March 2009.
OnLive, together with its Mova subsidiary, lies directly at the nexus of several key trends, all of which are reshaping the way we think about and use digital media:
- The shift to cloud computing, displacing the limitations, cost and complexity of local computing;
- An explosion of consumer broadband connectivity, bringing fast bandwidth to the home;
- Unprecedented innovation, creativity and expansion within the video game market.
Pioneering the delivery of rich interactive media to the home, OnLive will change the way that entertainment applications are created, delivered and consumed.
Did I see the guy responsible for QuickTime mentioned up there? Well, we’re not going to get all conspiracy theory here; let’s stick to our crazy speculation as it is. OnLive is essentially promising a really high performance version of Remote Desktop / VNC that brings big computing power to an otherwise normal computer or dedicated playback box. It sounds really cool. I hope I get included on the beta test.
Now, we’ve seen some computing power being amassed. We’ve seen some technology that uses large amounts of computing power to bring killer experiences to areas that have bandwidth to receive it. But we have a few things to dismiss: the datacenter Apple is building is supposedly not close to any huge bandwidth backbone. I dismiss this! If Apple wants to get bigger pipes, I’m sure they can get them. Secondly is that this datacenter is said to be likely for the use of creatingmore iPhone App Store delivery capability. I say probably not. Their current deals with Akamai and Limelight seem to be working. I don’t remember clicking on an app or song and not being able to get it–except when on my iPhone and AT&T can’t seem to get me the bandwidth required. I think this datacenter is going to be doing some serious consumer end crunching.
More pieces of this puzzle. Moblie Me and iWork.com. Apple has been cranking and cranking on these services. Eventually, they are likely to kick some butt and be worth the price. Maybe if we mix it up like I’m about to explain, we’ll have the killer app for those services.
The SnowBoard will be a 64GB of storage large iTouch with wireless N. It will work as a secondary input device for your primary computer, replacing the keyboard and allowing you to do awesome multi-touch manipulation of your screen data. Being a screen-touchpad-keyboard, it will be able to morph its interface to make the most of whatever app you are using. It will be charging via USB while used in this capacity, which will also be synching items to it for use in its remote mode. Photos, music, email, contacts, and documents will be seamlessly shared.
To take full advantage of the power in this tablet, Mobile Me is required. The Mobile Me service as we know it will be upgraded to allow a lot more data. Perhaps 500G to begin with. In a manner similar to Time Machine, the entire contents of your system are mirrored over to the data center in North Carolina. The apps you own can be executed at the datacenter, and the results will be piped to the tablet a la OnLive.
Tear the MacSlate away from its home computer, and the experience won’t really change, it will just have one less screen. An example to accentuate how different of an experience this will be from the iPhone: we all realize that the iPhone has Photos, but it doesn’t have iPhoto. Now it will. And likely Photoshop as well. Keep in mind that Apple has been working on multi-touch for OS X for a while now. Making their apps all multitouch friendly makes sense for something ported to a tablet.
Oh, and it can stream movies from iTunes. No biggie. And you won’t see it September 9th.
Ok, maybe the datacenter part won’t work–yet. That would, after all, eventually cannibalize the entire Mac sales of Apple. Perhaps it will just use a really slick, ultra-high performance version of Remote Desktop and use Mobile Me’s Back To My Mac feature to take the computing power of your existing computer to do all the heavy lifting. Yes, iPhoto on the tablet via Remote Desktop, squirted over the internets or within your home network–still very cool. I can finally watch mindless television and properly tag my photos at my leisure on the sofa without the oh-so-awkward laptop harshing my groove.
Is this enough to make people buy? I think YES. It’s about time we kill the keyboard and mouse and get started with context-aware morphing interfaces taking us closer to that overused Minority Report analogy. People can truly access their data and applications anywhere they have WiFi to the internet (I don’t want to hash out built-in always on cellular or anything with this. I don’t know what evidence there is for that yet.)
There is, perhaps, one consequence that we should anticipate: In much the same way the iPhone is robbing AT&T of all its bandwidth, could all this application streaming from a datacenter will do the same to the whole internet? Maybe Apple will be the company to push us all over to Internet 2 and really kick ISPs into high gear. That would be cool. Hey… unlikely, but as long as we’re dreaming.
And, now I’m placing relevant links after the story just to see if it suits us and the readers. Direct quotes are linked within the article.