[LINK] Apple iSlate: passport to the future of computing?

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Mon Jan 4 17:51:57 AEDT 2010


Ivan Trundle wrote:
> On 03/01/2010, at 9:31 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
> 
>> ... speculation ... Apple iSlate ... January ...
> 
> ... Some select iPhone developers have been asked to build apps for 
> the device, based on existing iPhone/iPod touch devices - it isn't 
> too hard if you build with scalability in mind ...

Apple did not help by suggesting early on that web designers use the
number of pixels on the screen as a way to check if an iPhone was the
display device: 
<http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/OptimizingforSafarioniPhone/OptimizingforSafarioniPhone.html>.

However, the web browser on the iPhone works well with
ordinary web pages. As an example I found it works well with the Moodle
Learning Management System. Students can read course notes, take part in
text based discussions, play audio and video. About the only thing they
can't do easily is write a 2,000 word essay on the tiny virtual keyboard
(an iSlate with a larger screen would help).

> ... use it with one hand, but I doubt very much if the iSlate ... 
> will be that small...

A 7 inch screen would fit in a device about the size and shape of an 
O'Reilly pocket book (7 x 4.3 inches). This is at the limit of what can 
be held in one hand: 
<http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Human/Human_sizes.html>.

>> ... The iSlate will presumably have a USB interface. ...
> 
> Alas, this is highly doubtful, other than the standard 40-pin port.
> ...

The Apple port provides USB via an adaptor. It also provides video out. 
The highest quality video available from the iPhone seems to be 576p 
Component video: <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1454>.

> ... compete with the Kindle etc - this is extremely unlikely ...

Yes. I am not sure that the specialised e-book reader is more than a
passing fad anyway. It does not make a lot of sense to buy a computer
which is limited to displaying e-books.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274




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