Today Apple announced their latest and greatest device, their answer to the netbook and ereaders, bundled nicely in a ~242x190mm package with an impressive 13.4mm depth: the iPod Touch XL. They decided to go with another name, and I now understand why they didn’t go with the much cooler sounding Slate or iSlate: the device is anything but. It runs iPhone OS, makes use of the same apps you can get from the app store and doesn’t come with a f*****g stylus. A slate is something I envision being able to write (i.e. not type) on, and a digital slate would allow me to write, in a non-destructive way, in the book, paper, etc. that I’m reading. I say write because most of what I would be writing would be either a) a pain or b) impossible to type. What Apple has offered me, well that has yet to be seen.
On a positive note, the device does look like it would make for an excellent ereader. I do a lot of reading and if i could have a lightweight, functional device to do that reading on, I would be trilled. It would also cut down on the amount of printing I have to do and allow me to more easily keep track of what I am reading. But as I mentioned earlier, I like to be able to jot things down on the items that I’m reading. Being a chemists, the type of jotting I do isn’t well suited for a keyboard. The type of jotting I do isn’t well suited for Pages or Keynote. There are ways to get by, but it is horribly inefficient and breaks to flow of writing, which is why I stick to LaTeX for things that need to be typed. For the rest, I rely upon a pen of pencil as it works best.
And that is why I am upset with today’s announcement. I was looking forward to having a device that was designed to be a tablet, not one with tablet features added on as an after thought, that could do some heavy-ish lifting, when needed, but would primarily serve as a storage space for recent publications and notes. Had Apple not ignored the most obvious feature – at least in the my mind – for this device, they would of had me sold. They would have had me sold × 2 as I most likely would have gifted my brother with one. As is, I am skeptical and sitting on the fence until March when I can handle one myself.
Imagine, the 20-30 lbs. of books you used to carry with you to class has now been reduced to 2 lbs. Instead of having scattered notes in notebooks, you can take your notes in specially formatted textbooks right next to the information said notes pertain to. If Apple didn’t want to do it, a third party could jump in with some form of OCR application to digitize your notes into a more legible form that you could once again annotate/edit or archive for posterity. Instead we get an extra large touch that makes for an awesome color ebook reader and doubles as a picture frame.
I’m not impressed; The ZuneHD had me more excited than today’s release and that coming from the person who now owns 3 iPods (including the iPTμ). Something like this might help, but it still looks like it would be more adapt at creating something more akin to a finger painting than anything useful. It is priced to sell, however, and that is very pleasing to see coming out of Cupertino. At $499, I have no doubt that these will sell fairly well but as I left kindergarten many years ago, I’m no longer too keen on the whole finger painting thing…no matter how sexy and svelte my finger may be. Steve, let me know when you decide to release something for us grown-ups and then we can talk.
Would you believe me if I told you that you were looking at six vials of silver? Or that the only source of illumination was the ambient light in the room and camera flash. From my reading, the synthesis is pretty straight forward and you can almost acquire all the necessary materials without contacting Sigma…provided you [...]
It is now official, I have committed myself for the next 4 or so years to research in the Dalton group. I am excited about the years to come, and I’m lucky in that I was accepted to a group that didn’t readily advertise itself as seeking new members. There are likely to be many [...]
