BoomTown » touchscreen

While Fanboys Breathlessly Await Steve Jobs's Apple iTab, They Should Probably Thank Bill Gates Too

Kara Swisher — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:10:54 +0000

Way back in the fall of 2001, when BoomTown was but a less-aged version of myself, I attended a keynote speech at the now-defunct Comdex show in Las Vegas, where Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates continued to bang the drum for one of his long-running obsessions: The tablet computer.

“The tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available whenever you want it, which is why I’m already using a tablet as my everyday computer,” Gates said at the time to the audience gathered at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. “It’s a PC that is virtually without limits and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”

Well, that did not happen.

But Gates did keep his promise about using a tablet–he kept on doing so and also harping on the topic all the time, with Microsoft even releasing a giant tabletop Surface several years ago and supporting multitouch in the coming Windows 7.

I recall Gates talking about the idea of how important the tablet is on innumerable occasions, more than any single concept I can recall.

It is ironic, then, that all the hype has suddenly and firmly coalesced around the particulars of the tablet that Apple (AAPL) will be unveiling in the coming months.

And now that CEO Steve Jobs is back fine-tuning the whole shebang, the obsession has moved into overdrive, punctuated only by endless stories about every single new app for the iPhone and fights over some of those new apps for the iPhone.

It’s a complete aside, but how ironic is it that Apple has somehow managed to make Google (GOOG)–the Skynet of the Internet–seem like a victim over this Google Voice shrillathon?

Back to the Apple tablet, which is playbook hype for iconic computer giant.

Besides being a secret project everyone in Silicon Valley seems to know about, the coming device is enjoying full-on breathless reportage of every single possible button and every possible feature, with every single bit of functionality parsed, dissected, masticated and spat back out.

But let’s be honest–in the end, this Apple tablet is probably going to be some kind of giant, sleeker, more glorified and doubtlessly niftier version of the iPod touch, called the iTab or the iPad or the iAmSoCoolAren’tI?, at three times the price.

Now, as it turns out, Microsoft (MSFT) is also at work on a table device, this time called the Courier.

This development became known recently after a demo video of it in use was somehow “leaked”–three guesses about which software giant in Redmond, Wash., put that out, and the first two don’t count!–to Gizmodo.

It seems to be some kind of tablet mixed with a journal mixed with a day planner, with a hinged two-page look. Digital writing and a stylus are involved, but also lots of touchscreen action.

Well, I say, good for Microsoft, and perhaps for Gates, who has now mostly disengaged himself from the day-to-day particulars of the behemoth he built, including the Courier.

Nonetheless, in all likelihood, Apple will still garner the most buzz in this tablet faceoff and will, more than likely, sell more.

A delicious irony, given that in their fascinating and long-running rivalry, it has usually been Jobs playing the hopeless dreamer and Gates the one who makes bank from the dreams of others.

No longer, which should make this round between Microsoft and Apple the most interesting of all.

Speaking of dreaming of dreams, it is always a good time to post the video of Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream”:

Microsoft's Vision of the Future–and the Inevitable Spoof

Kara Swisher — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:09:55 +0000

One of my favorite “world-of-the-future” videos recently has been one done by Microsoft Office Labs, because it does not seem ridiculously fanciful or impossible to imagine actually happening sooner than much later.

Part of an “Envisioning” series, the “Productivity Future Vision” video below sketches out a world of smartphones, touchscreens everywhere and a whole lot of innovative interacting.

The look is sleek and smooth–which is unusual for Microsoft (MSFT)–with a bit of “Harry Potter” whimsy, and all without falling into the trap of a lot of such imaginings and making the way we live someday seem like “The Jetsons.”

But, of course, the folks at IGN.com’s Sarcastic Gamer managed to find the perfect way to poke fun at the video from the software giant in a spoof that hit the target deftly.

Watch each and enjoy:

The Jesus Tablet Will Walk on Water and Turn Fishes Into Money

Kara Swisher — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:39:12 +0000

BoomTown is certainly going to be one of the many-so-many who immediately fork over whatever it takes to get my mitts on the upcoming tablet device from Apple.

And that’s why, according to a new report from Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Gene Munster–who is monk-like in his devotion to writing down every scrap of information he can scrape up about whatever Apple HQ in Cupertino, Calif., deigns to release–it’s going to be raining money down on the company, just like manna from heaven.

That would be $1.2 billion in revenue in calendar year 2010, after he estimated that Apple (AAPL) will sell two million units at a price of $600.

“While at first glance this may appear to address a niche market, we believe the addressable market is larger than that of the Apple TV, of which Apple sold about 1.2m in its first year,” wrote Munster.

He apparently spoke to some leaky Asian component suppliers, who have received orders from Apple, to be “fulfilled by late CY09.”

Munster, who also provided the mock-up image of the Jesus Tablet seen above (it will take its place next to the Jesus Phone and Jesus Pod), wrote that the device was pretty much a larger iPod touch.

It will run all the usual apps and have some extra ones, specially designed for the big screen, he predicted.

It will also be Web-connected and, of course, is a touchscreen and play all kinds of media, like music, games and video.

But don’t call it a netbook!

“We believe an Apple tablet would be priced 30%-50% below the $999 MacBook, and would offer best in class web, email, and media software,” wrote Munster. “In other words, we believe Apple’s tablet would compete well in the netbook category even though it would not be a netbook.”

Also, there will be a 3G modem–personally, we all pray Apple picks Verizon (VZ) and not AT&T (T) to be the mobile provider–with a possible subsidy on the sale of the device.

The hype around the new and doubtlessly innovative Apple product–my vote for a name is that it will be called iTablet–is likely to grow into the fall, especially if it is introduced by the miraculously on-the-mend CEO Steve Jobs.

Apple fanboys: Can you say Hallelujah?

Immersion: The Full D7 Demo

Kara Swisher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:18:03 +0000

Immersion (IMMR) is the innovative company behind haptic, or touch feedback, technology for some videogame consoles and mobile phones.

At the seventh D: All Things Digital conference, Immersion demoed its TouchSense for touchscreen keyboards and Immersive Messaging.

With TouchSense, the user is not only supposed to be able to get haptic feedback, but can also feel the virtual keys.

Immersive Messaging will also use haptic feedback, as well as gesture recognition, to send messages that employ physical senses rather than text.

See Walt Mossberg and the Immersion guys trade digital hearts. No, really, they did.

Also, I “twiddled.” Don’t ask.

Here’s the video of the full D7 demo:

[ See post to watch video ]

Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo: The Full D7 Session

Kara Swisher — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:15:41 +0000

As President and CEO of Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo runs the world’s largest mobile phone maker (with roughly 36 percent share) and one of the few top tech companies in Europe.

It’s a hard-won and enviable position, but a tough one to maintain, especially in a souring economy. And that is even more of an issue for Nokia (NOK) now, with new rivals like Apple (AAPL) emerging in the sector the company has long dominated.

Both Apple and Research in Motion (RIMM) gained market share at the company’s expense in the first quarter, with innovative touchscreens and apps, features that Nokia has been late to the smartphone party with.

Kallasvuo talks about all this and more in an interview with Walt Mossberg at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference.

Here’s the video of the full D7 session:

[ See post to watch video ]

Plastic Logic: The Full D7 Demo

Kara Swisher — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:11:32 +0000

Reading books and newspapers on a handheld device has gotten to be a hot arena in the consumer electronics business, especially after the introduction of the Kindle from Amazon (AMZN).

Plastic Logic will come on the market next year with its e-reader offering. So, the Silicon Valley-based company gave a sneak preview of the device, including a first look at the gadget’s innovative touchscreen user interface at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference.

Look ma, no keyboard!

In all seriousness, the controversies around how content is going to be paid for and delivered have been growing over the last year, as media companies struggle to reinvent troubled business models.

Here’s the full D7 demo to Walt Mossberg and me:

[ See post to watch video ]

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow… 3-D Digital Ski Slopes Even Cooler

Kara Swisher — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:00:06 +0000

Wishing I had had the foresight to head up into the Sierras in California before they finally got a ton of snow dumped on them this past week, I was fiddling around the Web looking for various ski sites as a way to approximate being there.

And, like all things in mapping, the best way to see slopes is now in 3-D, the technology that is going to become more and more prevalent on the mostly flat Internet in the years ahead–and well beyond the more obvious applications.

Along with touchscreen technologies that will come much sooner to the general computing experience, 3-D is a feature that adds amazing depth and resonance to the online experience, especially as more information is added over time.

If you don’t think so, here are two of the 23 slopes that Ski.com has up now, for example. While they do not show falling snow (yet!), click on through for a very cool experience of looking at and manipulating a mountain before schussing down it–or, in my case, tumbling down it.

Park City, Utah:

Zermatt, Switzerland:

Goodbye BlackBerry (and Hello iFart App?)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:00:11 +0000

Hello, my name is BoomTown and I am a reformed CrackBerryaholic.

How bad was it? Here’s the worst story: I was holding my BlackBerry in my hand, inadvertently for once, when I gave birth to my son in 2002.

Long story short: I was emailing away throughout labor, suddenly had to have emergency surgery, was quickly drugged into paralysis and forgot it was gripped in my hand–all until the anesthesiologist looked at me like I was a freak.

I should have been embarrassed by that. I was not. Hence, that makes me a full-fledged Blackberry addict.

Actually, I was one.

Because over the weekend, while casting about for a good New Year’s resolution (Work less? Nope! Exercise more? Double nope!!), I impulsively decided to dump what is pathetically one of my more satisfying and reliable relationships ever for a questionable new one.

That’s right, I have finally abandoned the BlackBerry for the iPhone.

I have no idea what possessed me, but suddenly I had to change dramatically and change now. (I could blame the influence of fellow CrackBerry user President-Elect Barack Obama for that mood.)

So, I finally made the dreaded switcheroo from the devices made by the fine folks at Research In Motion (RIMM), which I have used since the first stubby little block of greyish plastic until the last stubby bigger block of reddish plastic.

To be honest, I have been flirting with the idea of leaving my longtime love for a while now.

Almost sneakily, I bought an iPhone from the get-go when it came out from Apple (AAPL) in June of 2007, because it was just too cool a device to pass up.

I was instantly delighted by the touchscreen swooshing and squinching, its breakthrough quality as a handheld media player, the Internet access that finally worked and the generally clever way of organizing contact and other information. I also liked the voicemail recording a lot.

Not so much the AT&T (T) cellular network, of course, but that was livable. What was not, as it was for a lot of people, was the poor email experience, specifically the virtual keyboard.

To say my entire life revolves around email and texting is to go overboard. But not by much. It is, in fact, the bane of my partner, who has learned to live with it grudgingly.

My obsession has even turned into mimicry by my other son, a three-year-old, who grabbed a small and rectangular block of wood recently and started tapping on it with his fingers, proudly declaring, “I’m Mama working!”

Oh dear. Like I said, I am pathetic in this regard (on the plus side, I don’t drink, do drugs or watch “Dancing with the Stars”).

But my issues with the dullish BlackBerry slowly mounted, from its too-small screen, to the substandard Internet experience to the limited ways to store emails to the overall clunkiness of it.

And when the apps came out for the iPhone, it got worse, since the ones on BlackBerry just are not as robust at all.

And with those apps, I now did not even have to really launch a browser and click away in frustration. Instead, I could largely rely on an increasingly interesting array of software that made my digital life a lot easier.

I am not including the iFart app in this group, of course, the kind of toddler programming that I had thought I had left behind when I started ignoring Facebook apps. Verdict: Eww.

In any case, my BlackBerry still had those lovely clickety-clack keys that have always been a joy to press and with which I could write a book in a very short time, I had become so adept at using them.

So, I had great hopes for the BlackBerry Storm, with a clicking-like virtual keyboard, as the solution to all my problems. Or so I thought.

When I first saw it, I knew this was not what I had been waiting for, which was underscored by Walt Mossberg’s review.

The weird push on the glass screen made me feel like it was going to break with every click. What I really wanted was the tactile feel of the keys and not the click feel.

The G1 smartphone from Google (GOOG), of course, offered a real keyboard and the big touchscreen. But it just looks and feels too much like–let’s be honest–a pair of clogs I once wore in seventh grade and have regretted ever since.

And, while there is a Palm device reportedly coming out this week with a touchscreen and a slip-down keyboard, I guess I have finally become tired of waiting for something that is perhaps not possible: A virtual keyboard that feels real.

Thus, I gave into the iPhone and learned to live with my all-thumbs typing.

And, as many have said, I am actually getting better at that. Not speedy, as I was with the BlackBerry, which–ironically–has caused me not to use the iPhone as obsessively and to put it down a lot more.

Except that, as soon as I do put it down, it is immediately picked up by my now six-year-old, the very person who had endured my incessant pregnant clicking.

As it turns out, he is obsessed with the many game apps I have downloaded for him onto the iPhone–currently “Crazy Penguin Catapult.” (Verdict: Unusually fun.)

So much so that he sneaked into my bedroom yesterday morning and spirited my iPhone away for a session while I slept late.

What can I say? Like mother, like son.

In this regard, let’s hope not.

[Photo credit: Cool, but creepy BlackBerry Baby image is from All Media.]