Apple's Competition to upcoming Microsoft "Vienna"

[Lt Major Burns]

no, i really want to disagree. i'd like a near-generation of cinema screens to have the multitouch layer, and an ability to have them down on the table at a similar angle to a draughting board. change the way the desk is layed out. consign keyboards and mice back to where they came.my desk should eventually be a 40" cinema display on legs - a return to the draughting table. bring back direct hand-action, not hand-to-eye.

quite literally back to the drawing board.

[Mikuro]

Originally Posted by fryke

Multitouch on trackpads, maybe? I mean: We already have the ability to use two fingers on our trackpads to scroll etc. - why not the squeezing stuff? I'm still not sure whether we'll really be using touchscreens on both desktop and notebook computers by Apple very soon. It makes sense on a handheld, though.

Ick! :P

Nothing would be wrong with multi-touch trackpads, when compared to non-multi-touch trackpads, but the functionality they would offer would be nothing compared to a full multi-touch-screen.

Forget about manipulating equalizer sliders like on a real audio board. Forget about manipulating more than one object at once in general. Even the simple gestures, like the image resize pinch, would be awkward to use without direct contact with the image. It would require an extra level of abstraction between action and reaction. Where would the reference points of the resize operation be when there's only one cursor? The pinch only works because you can grab two spots of the image at the same time. Without the two points of reference, there's no way for the computer to know whether an inch of finger movements should correlate to 100% of the image size or 10%. Same with rotation. A trackpad simply wouldn't allow for that flexibility.

I'm not saying such a thing couldn't be done usefully, but it wouldn't be nearly as useful or feel nearly as natural as a screen.

I won't be happy until the iMac looks like a horribly mutated Nintendo DS. I talked about this years ago, beginning with the idea of multiple mouse cursors. You all said I was mad back then, but who's mad now?!? (Oh? Still me? Damn...)

[symphonix]

It looks like Apple have decided to take on the very real and imminent threat of Vienna by responding directly with a similar offering of their own:

Mac OS X "Plankton" (formerly known as "Barbershop Quartet") is a codename for a future version of Mac OS X, originally announced in February 2000, that has been subject to major delays and rescheduling. It is expected to be the successor to both Mac OS X Leopard Media Centre Edition and Mac OS X Embedded-in-Cheese Edition.

Apple has announced it will be released in 2011, and according to "Smart Computing In Plain English", a technology magazine nobody around here has ever heard of before and not exactly easy to consider a reliable source, work on it began right after the iPod Nano was released. As of February 2007, the name of the operating system used internally is undisclosed and is not used publicly by Apple, though "Mac OS X Startled Budgerigar" has been noted in job postings as a working name for the project.

Apple has refrained from discussing the details about "Blubber" publicly as they focus on the release and marketing of Mac OS X Leopard and other products that actually exist, though some early details of various core operating system features have emerged at developer conferences such as those guys from marketing getting drunk at a pub near Apple last weekend.

I guess Apple have it all in hand then.

[fryke]

Originally Posted by Lt Major Burns

bring back direct hand-action, not hand-to-eye.

That's all fine and well for a few specific jobs. But as long as I have to enter more than a couple of words via a keyboard (and even being part of this _forum_ is a reason for it, even if you spend 8h a day sliding mixers on an audio program right now with a mouse as a job...), I personally still need a fine keyboard that sure as hell _can't_ be one merely displayed on a touchscreen, because it'd drive me crazy.
Believe me: I like the idea of multitouch drawing boards as well. For very specific tasks, that'd be a great idea. But the human-to-computer interface has to be also about common denominators. And as long as E-Mail and the writing of text in general takes up most of the time of a computer user, one shouldn't necessarily jump to the nicely looking sci-fi ideas.

I generally agree that the direct approach of touching stuff where you see it is better than any abstraction layer. However: The mouse works for 99% of people. Most people aren't that good at drawing with WACOM tablets, btw. And those tablets that also double as a second screen to the computer: They haven't really taken off as _the_ way to input data into a computer, have they. Only because it wasn't done by Apple? I don't think so. They are for a specific target audience. It makes sense for them to invest some money into it. And I'm pretty sure that the same goes for multitouch screens for desktop/notebook computers.

(I'm glad I didn't have to either touch-type this on an onscreen keyboard or speak it into my computer while sipping on a latte macchiato at the local café where everybody can hear what I'm saying - only to have to later pick up a keyboard to correct the spelling and actual meaning of sentences etc.)

[zynizen]

I would have to agree with all comments! and as for whats coming, I guess we will just have to wait and see... or touch! :P

[Lt Major Burns]

Originally Posted by fryke

That's all fine and well for a few specific jobs. But as long as I have to enter more than a couple of words via a keyboard (and even being part of this _forum_ is a reason for it, even if you spend 8h a day sliding mixers on an audio program right now with a mouse as a job...), I personally still need a fine keyboard that sure as hell _can't_ be one merely displayed on a touchscreen, because it'd drive me crazy.

i'd be inclined to agree, but i have to wonder, is it impossible for a flat keyboard to be useless to type on? i certainly prefer a laptop keyboard to a desktop for typing long documents on, so what if the next progression was actually flat? just because current touch screens with their clumsy interpretation are rubbish, doesn't mean they all have to be... i'd love to see how this preemptive keyboard input is like on the iPhone. i'm already wanting it as i'm a clumsy typer at the best of times...

[zynizen]

very good point, but, you have to consider most people don't have ergonomic keyboards at present either. I've been typing like a mad man for over 10 years, or since 1992 i believe.. and my wrists hurt. having a flat keyboard like the one I am typing on my macbook pro, is very very nice on the fingers, but eventually, how many years will it take for people to realize they have carpaltunnel?

flat is good, if they can ergonomize the thing. I love apple, but have you ever seen one ergo titanium Keyb? I used to have the Acer ferrari 3400 red notebook, (www.acer.com) and the keyboard was just SLIGHTLY pitched and slanted for comfort, making it a pleasant typing machine for long books like this one...

:P

so, if they did raise the board a bit, sorry it would be 1.1" thick, instead of 1" .. lol

[Mikuro]

Well, there's no reason a touch screen couldn't be raised in the back. The real problem, I think, is the complete lack of tactile feedback. I have to agree with Fryke: I don't think touch-screen keyboards will ever be as appealing as real keyboards.

That does raise the question of where the heck a touch screen should go if not where we put our keyboards. I had never really considered that setup before, and honestly, I don't think it's all that appealing. The whole world does not want to have Artist's Neck.

I think a laptop-like setup could work, with the normal screen as a touch-screen. If it were stable (unlike a laptop) and at a good angle, I think I could use it comfortably with it right behind my keyboard.

It's really hard to say what would work, though. I'd bet Apple is testing a few ideas in their user experience labs. I think they ought to be able to come up with something. It doesn't need to replace the keyboard, or even the mouse, to be very useful. I think it would be suicide to try to replace these things overnight anyway.