Apple is going to announce an ebook reader next week

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Harmon

It was the interface, not the applications. It takes about two seconds to learn how to get to and start up an iPhone app. You don't have to dig through menus, or worry about what folder something is in.

Apple changed the way we interfaced with computers, then it changed the way we interfaced with PDAs (which category includes cell phones.)

I'm hoping that they are about to change the way we interface with tablets. I expect the change to include ebooks, but I don't expect the ebook aspects to be primary. I expect the tablet to be an entertainment device - games, movies, music, books, magazines. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it will interface somehow with TVs. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it can be charged by placing it on a charging pad. I wouldn't be surprised to find that it streams Netflix.

It won't do anything that isn't already being done. It will just be done more easily, and more expensively, and, as you say, with more "cool."

That would be real cool...

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I would be astounded if Apple came out with an E-ink reader. I don't see it happening.

+1

Apple leaks EVERYTHING of importance months ahead of time. If they had an e-ink reader in the works for next week, we'd all know so much about it already, we'd be dead bored.

The iTablet is coming ... I get that. If Steve Jobs thinks netbooks are "a really dumb idea" and has said repeatedly that Apple will never release one, what makes anyone think he thinks a single-purpose "me too" e-ink reader is waiting up Apple's corporate sleeve?

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

-10"+ OLED display.

Um, as I linked, no. There are simply not OLED screens of that size being made in any quantity, or the facilities to build them in the next few years.

SensualPoet - As I said, it's just as well there are decent Reader apps which will need minimal work to port from the iPhone to the iSlate...

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by kjk

What lock-in/issues do Apple's iTunes songs have again?

Well, when iTunes when lookking for what music was available and at what price. And it asked me to install iTunes . Ok, screw you. And isn't iTunes still aac instead of mp3 ?
While amazon need their own app to download mp3, that not a big ressource taking app. And they do have a NATIVE linux version. (that actually lead me to at my screen. Woo ! someone know linux exists ).
So sorry, amazon wins.

[poshm]

What's iTunes got to do with this mythical Apple tablet?

I think there may well be a tablet device but announcing it next week, I can't see it.

[darius]

Originally Posted by poshm

What's iTunes got to do with this mythical Apple tablet?

I think there may well be a tablet device but announcing it next week, I can't see it.

It's how you're going to buy books, music, games, videos and maybe even magazine subscriptions.

[poshm]

Originally Posted by darius

It's how you're going to buy books, music, games, videos and maybe even magazine subscriptions.

Oh right I'm on track now - being a bit slow this morning

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Um, as I linked, no. There are simply not OLED screens of that size being made in any quantity, or the facilities to build them in the next few years.

SensualPoet - As I said, it's just as well there are decent Reader apps which will need minimal work to port from the iPhone to the iSlate...

What link? And what makes you so sure aPple wouldn't find a way to have them made to their specs by any of all their undercover manufacturers?

[pking36330]

Originally Posted by poshm

I think there may well be a tablet device but announcing it next week, I can't see it.

Wall Street Journal article yesterday: With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry—and expand Apple's influence and revenue as a content middleman.

[Penforhire]

It'll be fascinating if the device really does have a 10" OLED screen. Several industry watchers claim there is not enough manufacturing capacity today for an order of this size to not be noticeable. If it is OLED then there is a massive underground (unknown) facility somewhere.

I don't expect the hardware to be amazing. I know a lot of people don't like iTunes (I don't like the interface myself) but THAT is what they're selling, more than the hardware. It is similar to how the Kindle is selling Amazon's books-by-whispernet, not amazing hardware. Having one place to go for all media, iTunes in this case, is seen as an advantage to the average consumer. One stop shopping and simple click-to-buy.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Harmon

It was the interface, not the applications. It takes about two seconds to learn how to get to and start up an iPhone app. You don't have to dig through menus, or worry about what folder something is in.

Apple changed the way we interfaced with computers, then it changed the way we interfaced with PDAs (which category includes cell phones.)

Um-that's exactly how I start an app on my cell phone/PDA. I still don't see how iPhone changed anything? Except the marketing, of course.

And that, IMO, is Apple's strongest point-I'm not sure where they got the expertise because they sure don't have it with the iMac, but where ever they learned it, I'm not going to deny that they definitely do know how to market the iPhone-but that's really the only innovation I see in it. (Well, except for the multi-touch I previously mentioned.)

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Well, Mike Shatzkin think that Apple is going to offer publishers a new and better split of the retail price.

This is the first bit of hype about the Unicorn tablet that has pleased me. Bring on the price wars!

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

What link? And what makes you so sure aPple wouldn't find a way to have them made to their specs by any of all their undercover manufacturers?

The link to ElReg earlier in this thread. And "undercover manufacturers", lol. No, if they're not willing to seriously slash production or wait at least a year...

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Um-that's exactly how I start an app on my cell phone/PDA. I still don't see how iPhone changed anything? Except the marketing, of course.

And that, IMO, is Apple's strongest point-I'm not sure where they got the expertise because they sure don't have it with the iMac, but where ever they learned it, I'm not going to deny that they definitely do know how to market the iPhone-but that's really the only innovation I see in it. (Well, except for the multi-touch I previously mentioned.)

Bleh.... I strongly disagree. Marketing helps with the first sale, but repeat sales are dependent on the quality of the product.

Apple often makes outstanding products and that's a fact. I also feel that the prices, if factoring design and workmenship, are often justified. I just picked up a new 27" i7 iMac, and it's probably the best DT computer I've ever seen.

And the iPhone was a game-changer in many important respects, and most of the industry appears to agree. I switched from HTC (WM6.1 & 6.5) and haven't looked back.

As to iTunes, it is intuitive and it works well. I personally use Windows 7 MCE as a front end, but I can attest, that iTunes is considerably better designed than, say WMP.

I certainly hope the iPAD is as significant as the iPhone. We'll know in a few days.

[Krystian Galaj]

( http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/22/ )

And the news text there ( the original has links ):

I got my Zune a few days before the iPhone was announced.

It was a smartly manifested little brick to be sure, its combination of brown and green oddly compelling, but the iPhone represented an object so profound that multiple industries were warped by its mere proximity. You could hate the company utterly, vomiting at the sight of their vile and bitten crest, and then still tumble to this assertion's fundamental truth: that their portable computer, which is also a phone and a bunch of other shit, changed the world.

Now they want to make a really big version of it, to which I say yes.

UPS is telling me that my Nook will arrive on the 25th, just two days before (most people believe) Apple is set to announce their thing, which is awesome. This is more or less how it always happens when I decide to make my move on a piece of technology. I'll try to find something ironic to read on it before it catches on fire, burning itself out of existence.

It's got to be so annoying to compete with Apple, at anything really, because it's not like they're doing something fucking crazy. Everybody's had these ideas before. The difference, and this is grim if you are a competitor, but the difference is that everyone else spends a lot of time (and often, money) determining why those things aren't possible. And then it comes out, for real, only you didn't make it. Some other guys did. And when you come out with what is (on paper) a better version of the same thing, maybe even multiple times over, it's too late. You made a "product" to compete with their "product," tastefully arranging your regiment, only to discover that they hadn't made a product at all - they made a narrative. A statement about how technology should interface with a life.

I'm not saying this to be mean, or get my kicks, or to engage in psychic vampirism. Competing with these fucking people must be a genuinely harrowing state of affairs.

So, does it make sense to determine whether this device will make a difference based just on specs, and on previous devices?