Rumor: Is this Apple's new Newton or UMPC?

[yvanleterrible]

Has anybody ever seen or heard of a virtual mouse? This would be a clever way to use a touch screen. It could be a tiny spot on the screen, anywhere you choose, that you'd use with a finger and that would control a cursor; much finer control.

[spanky]

i'm very excited about the possibility of apple's gesture technology coming to something like a tablet. an advance system would make navigation simple and easy.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by spanky

i'm very excited about the possibility of apple's gesture technology coming to something like a tablet. an advance system would make navigation simple and easy.

today Apple was granted a patent for a docking station that is likely to be for a UMPC device. computerworld.com/action/article

[mobilesalesman]

Originally Posted by spanky

i'm very excited about the possibility of apple's gesture technology coming to something like a tablet. an advance system would make navigation simple and easy.

UMPC's and tablets really do not have any navagation issues that would need to be filled by Apple. The problem is that for a small jacket size mobile device a touch input only is not really what most would want as a touch type keyboard is still the prefered input for most. For larger tablets it is the same, while then the pen input would work most still prefer a touch type keyboad. There has never been any big demand for a pen input slate computer for the mass market, for the niche techies there is a small segment that do buy them.

What Apple should do is use the technology to create the first touch type keyboard jacket pocket computer that can run desktop programs since MS made the error of pushing the 7" devices that nobody wants.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by mobilesalesman

UMPC's and tablets really do not have any navagation issues that would need to be filled by Apple. The problem is that for a small jacket size mobile device a touch input only is not really what most would want as a touch type keyboard is still the prefered input for most. For larger tablets it is the same, while then the pen input would work most still prefer a touch type keyboad. There has never been any big demand for a pen input slate computer for the mass market, for the niche techies there is a small segment that do buy them.

What Apple should do is use the technology to create the first touch type keyboard jacket pocket computer that can run desktop programs since MS made the error of pushing the 7" devices that nobody wants.

I don't know... for the 7" devices, UMPCs and small tablets, touch-input would suit them just fine. Sure, it would be nice to have a keyboard for serious touch-typing, but outside of that, I'd take a touch-screen input for most UMPCs I've seen.

'Course, I am the very model of a modern Techie General...