Why Ink? Could it be that....

[eric halfabee]

Just a few thoughts on why have they put Ink (Newton) handwriting recognition into X. Just speculation of course, from someone who doesn't have a clue.

Now, I know that some folk will have graphics tablets – can't be more than 50% though? How many do you think. Anyway whay are Apple bringing this to OS X – and btw I think its cool – when they have taken a long time (in some peoples views) in bringing more user requested and possibly more needed features to OS X.

Could it be a indication that SJ is after all going to do a PDA type thing after he said he wouldn't (hey and don't believe everything you hear or what people say, even our beloved Stevie boy can tell the odd porkie), but even so, why would he include it in OS X? Maybe a PDA running 'OS X for very small screens'?

Could it mean they are gearing up for an Apple Tablet notebook type portable?

What about writing onto touch screens?

Just wondering thats all. Silly thought and all.

Cheers

Rich

 

[Matrix Agent]

Mabey this is what you were getting at, but it seems like an OK idea. Now the ink is in OS X, its going to push the market on tablets just like it did on USB and FW. Now, here comes apple marketing a tablet computer. Use it as its own separate, large-PDA type machine, or plug it into the mac as a tablet solution, double featured.

What I would eventually like to see is built-in tablets in machines like the PBG5. Not complete elimination of the keyboard though. Keystrokes and typing are simply more efficient.

The holy grail of computing would be a machine that could read lips with 100% accurracy. That would be cool.

 

[eric halfabee]

Yes a lip reading computer would be cool, but what if swear at it a lot (like I do now), would it tell you to stop or its going to tell your mom or swear back!

 

[nkuvu]

Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but I have heard that lip reading is a skill where the lip reader is guessing about 75% of the time.

I'm kind of thinking that would make things difficult at best for the computer... But hey, what do I know? Steve might already have one.

 

[ddma]

If a lip reader was built in Mac OS X, would we see a "HIL" preference?

 

[lethe]

see what slashdot has to say about that issue.

 

[fryke]

Back on topic I like to add that this is a technology that can and will be used in appliances. Web tablets are okay, but right now nobody wants one. They're too expensive anyway and can't replace a 'real' computer, right? Well, what if they were cheap enough to be a wireless (AirPort AND Bluetooth) extension to your other computers? A 700 MHz G3 is more than enough for a Web Terminal that doesn't have to do computing intensive tasks itself, right? So I can pick up the iPad (?), go to the smoker's corner and take some notes, read my mail (write some in Inkwell) and browse the web. It'd be my PowerMac though where I do Photoshop, for example. Other appliances... Public terminals. "Just write on it." They could even use the famous 'Scotty tries to talk into the mouse of a Mac' Star Trek clip for an ad. (Steve Jobs walks over to him and says: "Just write on the screen with that pen.")