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Tablets

paulgraham.com

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Re: Tablets

#181

Post by roadnottaken »

gammarator wrote: post #145
PanMan wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone is already the biggest camera in number of pics on Flickr. I think the camera ( non slr) switch has largely already happened..

An interesting question for the DSLR makers is what they could learn from the tablet. The pictures are great, but especially at the entry level there's opportunity for improved interfaces and easier publishing. ( http://www.bythom.com/design2010.htm ) has some interesting ideas.

I think one of the biggest issues is transfer. It's SO easy to get your pictures off the iPhone -- no wires, no computer, dead-simple (hence the Flickr succes). High-end camera-makers would be wise to add 3G/wifi/cloud features, although the file-sizes of high-res photographs might be prohibitive for a while...

Re: Tablets

#182

Post by replicatorblog »

skeletonjelly wrote: post #158
replicatorblog wrote: post #17

This is absolutely right. My company been working on a medical device accessory for the iPhone and the possibilities the "tablet" form factor are amazing. Lower Cost Structure - In our industry (diabetes) you give away hardware to get ongoing disposable revenue. This hardware is expensive to produce and develop. Plus you spend a lot of effort on areas that don't add much value e.g. reinventing the wheel re: display d…

Not being an iOS developer I'm a little in the grey here. How would developing a product for the private market go in terms of distribution? I gather your product is for mass consumption?

Its just like any other iOS accessory. The app is distributed via the App store and the hardware through retail channels.

Re: Tablets

#183

Post by replicatorblog »

dave1619 wrote: post #143
replicatorblog wrote: post #17

This is absolutely right. My company been working on a medical device accessory for the iPhone and the possibilities the "tablet" form factor are amazing. Lower Cost Structure - In our industry (diabetes) you give away hardware to get ongoing disposable revenue. This hardware is expensive to produce and develop. Plus you spend a lot of effort on areas that don't add much value e.g. reinventing the wheel re: display d…

Wow, that's a pretty cool diabetes blood tracking device. Kudos to you and your team.

Thanks! BTW, we are hiring iOS developers if you are looking to work on cool tech and help 300MM people world wide live longer healthier lives!

Re: Tablets

#184

Post by jawee »

duck wrote: post #37

The fact that you can change font sizes easily means the iPad effectively replaces reading glasses. Really? I mean it might help someone not need reading glasses for the tasks they do on the iPad... but they still have to have them to read the dinner menu, instructions on the box of food, and so on. If you can't replace it fully how good is it? The iPhone replaced regular cell phones because of the fact you no longer…

I still find it more comfortable to sit with my mobile devices and reading glasses than with extreme font sizes. Even my desktop computer now I prefer reading glasses.. and even more so as the device shrinks.

Re: Tablets

#185

Post by pg »

alex_stoddard wrote: post #144
pg wrote: post #34

Incidentally, I know the Wikipedia article has been deleted, but I'm assuming someone will fix that. (Is this the current world record for deletionism, or have there been more egregious examples?)

It looks like there is some confusion over whether the correct term is etherialization or ephemeralization. The wikipedia article on ephemeralization is somewhat more complete and what is linked from the page on Fuller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization Other internet sources seem to indicate that ephemeralization is the term he used.

You're right. Fuller says that etherealization was a name suggested by someone else, but that he preferred to stick with ephemeralization. I fixed the essay. Thanks!

Re: Tablets

#186

Post by replicatorblog »

dejb wrote: post #157
replicatorblog wrote: post #17

This is absolutely right. My company been working on a medical device accessory for the iPhone and the possibilities the "tablet" form factor are amazing. Lower Cost Structure - In our industry (diabetes) you give away hardware to get ongoing disposable revenue. This hardware is expensive to produce and develop. Plus you spend a lot of effort on areas that don't add much value e.g. reinventing the wheel re: display d…

Doesn't it concern you that Apple could shut you down at any stage? They could easily just decide that your app isn't suitable for their store. This would be especially true for industrial applications where there might be good reasons to want to step outside their TOS or guidelines.

When has Apple shut down apps in the store? There was the purge of bikini pic apps and the Google Voice issues, but I can't think of another example of good, useful apps being pulled out of the store capriciously.

Re: Tablets

#187

Post by eru »

ludwigvan wrote: post #107
parbo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sweden, a mobile phone is called a "mobil". In Germany it's called "handy".

In Turkey, they are called "cep telefonu" or "cep" in short, for "pocket phone" or "pocket".

And it's pronounced roughly `djep' or perhaps `shep'.

Re: Tablets

#188

Post by jawee »

someone_here wrote: post #6

The real thing that makes these "tablets" interesting is the number of features they have packed into them. The "ease of use" that people are talking about when referencing Apple's products is just a part of Apple's marketing for their devices. Android (and Maemo and MeeGo and etc) devices are much more capable and much more hackable. Why the praise for such a bland device such as the i-OSes when there's an awesome O…

My mobile device progression has basically gone like this: Palm OS -> Maemo -> iOS -> Android

I could do more on Maemo and even Palm OS than I could ever do on iOS and Android. There were features everywhere... The Sony CLIE series of Palms had multi-tasking abilities, great MP3 players, better organizer features, and more powerful apps on average than it felt like my iPod Touch did. Maemo had features everywhere... I could video chat before Facetime was every dreamt up, I had full featured applications (Abiword with a foldable and pocketable keyboard is missed), and web browsers came out that were fantastic (I could use full Facebook, Google Reader, and such in the Tear browser just as well as on my desktop). And the cool interaction features existed too.. on Palm OS I had a universal remote control. On Maemo I could use a Bluetooth'd Wii Classic controller to play Mario in a NES emulator. Features were everywhere.

But why did I switch to iOS and later Android?

They just weren't fit for a touch interface. Using dedicated apps like the iOS model fits much better for ease of use with a touch interface. When I got the iPod, I switched from using full-featured versions of websites to settling for a reduced web experience that was more information-based.. and having to make notes of what to look at later on the computer. It separated bringing the computer experience with me to making a new mobile experience. When I have a computer nearby, it's not so bad. It does make for a nicer experience.

Android feels a lot like iOS... almost like a slightly more functional and open copy of it. It's no where near where Maemo was. Still, it's enjoyable as a mobile experience, instead of just transplanting everything I could do on a desktop to a mobile-sized device.

That said, I still miss Palm OS. I almost went for a used Palm OS phone instead of an Android phone, but I decided I wanted something built for the Internet.

Re: Tablets

#189

Post by brianpan »

grayrest wrote: post #138
pkulak wrote: post #122

"I wouldn't be surprised if by playing some clever tricks with the accelerometer you could even replace the bathroom scale." I'd be surprised. Very, very, very surprised.

I was mystified at this. I can't imagine a way to measure weight with accelerometer that doesn't involve spinning around in circles or jumping up and down on springs.

1) Please put your iPad on the bathroom tile and step on to it...

Re: Tablets

#190

Post by ams6110 »

rdl wrote: post #108
cryptoz wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, I am not comfortable taking my $800 iPhone out of my pocket in front of a door in a dark alley, whereas a fist full of keys makes a damn fine improvised weapon. If this startup is done right, I see no reason to force you to take your phone out of your pocket in order to use the key functionality. It's not like the physical shape of the phone has anything to do with the key aspect, so it may as well just stay…

Key issues: you don't want to just unlock automatically whenever you approach. You don't want to run wires to the door lockset, and it needs to be very low power. Ideally you want to use an existing oem lockset because making things out of atoms is painful. You don't want to abuse the battery on your phone via a background app either.

There is such a thing as over-engineering. In fact a real engineer, as discussed here recently, knows when simple, proven, low-tech solutions are the way to go. Keys aren't going away anytime soon.
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