Amazing Things

Yes, the Macbook Air is freakishly thin. Apple has done some pretty amazing things. However, I think that they may be spreading themselves a little thin, from the iPhone to the Mac, to the Apple TV. I just fear that something like the iPhone delay may happen again. I realize that there is a lot of pressure on Apple, both to do impressive things and to make impressive amounts of money to impress shareholders with. Steve Jobs is a brilliant manager and I am sure that he has some plan. Continue to expect great things.

A Halo of Air

Many people are familiar with the "iPod Halo Effect," or people with iPods buying Macs, iPhones and Apple Products. iPhone owners hear many reactions similar to, "You have an iPhone?!?" Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, you've heard about the iPhone.
I believe that Apple wants the same thing to happen with the MacBook Air. People will hear about it, remember it as that ultra-tiny notebook and want one, just like the iPhone. Hm, might this increase Mac adoption, at least in portable computers? We'll have to see.

Why touch screens are hard

The world is abuzz with talk of a new mac tablet or ultra-thin MacBook, and with Macworld now only one day away, people are brimming with anticipation. However, I do not believe that a mac tablet is really viable. Here's why:

Current Tablet PCs use an incredibly low resolution display to make targets bigger. A Macbook tablet would probably have a display comparable to today's model, Which is pretty much required to run OS X. Anything less would most likely not be able to fit the system preferences window on the screen. Then you have a problem, specifically the size of the menus as a target. this is something best shown in a picture:

That little dot is about the size of a stylus tip. That big dot is my finger (approximately). Even the stylus dot in the center of a menu item is still pretty close to the edges. Stylus input programs and operating systems should have a high tolerance for error and large targets; normal Mac OS X is too unforgiving if I stray a pixel or two, ano don't get me started about using my finger (it spans three menu items).

I am more willing to believe that Apple is planning a 12" Powerbook-esque ultra-portable and thin MacBook, because it would be stylish. Every now and then, Apple refreshes its product line, like how the iMac got a titanium case. The MacBooks were last visually refreshed when they first came out, so it would seem that they would be due for a refresh. What better difference than thinner? Refreshing.

Brave New Worlds

Welcome to 2008.

I think that my first blog post of the year needs to start with a little rememberance. And, to quote directly from Apple's website:

"Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone."

There has been much talk in the news about the Macworld announcement, and whether there will be a sub-notebook, a 3G iPhone, an iCar, a tablet, and iTunes movie rentals. For now, I will focus on the sub-notebook and the tablet.

Currently, both ultralight notebook computing and Tablet computing is not mainstream, it makes up 1.5% for tablets and for ultralights; well, it can't be found on the first page of a google search for it and therefore is too small to matter (I would guess around 0.5%). So, if Apple makes a sub-notebook, a tablet, or a sub-notebook tablet, it will have to attract more than the 2% of mobile computer users that are interested in this kind of technology. Apple sells 5 computers. It would not necessarily be worth it for apple to add another computer into the mix, and therefore a harder choice to make at an Apple store, just to capture a small part of the market for computers overall.

What I would expect in terms of branding is for Steve Jobs to announce "We've made the MacBook thinner!" at Macworld, and then reveal the new ultralight MacBook that would replace current macbook models. Just a MacBook upgrade that makes it even more portable.

Off of the top of my head, I can only think of a few reasons to use a tablet, and most of them are for designers. Throw a little Apple implementation into the mix, and the market opens up a little. However, try these exercises to remind you of what using a tablet may be like.

• Touch the top, then the bottom of your screen repeatedly for three minutes.
• Write (with a pencil) for a couple of hours.
• Compare your finger to the size of the icons in the menu bar, and the size of the menu itself.
• Draw 1/2 cm boxes on a piece of paper at irregular intervals. Quickly use a pencil to draw a dot in the center of each box.

The iPhone can pull off all of its touch screen awesomeness because it is in a very small form factor and large, finger-friendly buttons and targets. The Mac OS would have to have a major UI overhaul to accommodate simple tasks such as pressing the close buttons– and not all of the apps will follow this new behavior. In addition, if one wanted to use an Apple tablet with a tablet version of Windows, Apple would need to provide various hardware buttons on the tablet itself to appease the windows gods. Oh, and just a final blow: Text recognition does not work in Parallels.

Apple has a fair bit of work to do before it starts implementing a tablet, however an ultralight may be possible, or a new Apple TV, iTunes rentals, or iTunes radio. It's all in the hands of the gods, now.