Apple Tablet: iPhone OS vs. OS X Matters Less and Less
As January 26th approaches, I’m caving on a formerly adamant desire for the Apple Tablet: Running full OS X.
I wanted a tablet based on OS X for one, huge reason: the freedom to install proper OS X apps on it. VLC. Handbrake. Hulu Desktop. Photoshop or Illustrator on an Apple Tablet would absolutely rock. I’d love an Apple Tablet that is more similar to a MacBook than an iPod Touch.
But increasingly, the reasons for Apple to go with the latter are more convincing. Ease of use; millions of users already familiar with the iPod and iPhone, and the huge success of the iTunes App Store. And Apple, historically, likes the control. They have an opportunity to create a really closed environment where they monitor the installation of every application and they control the vast majority of the user experience.
I hold out some hope of two tablet versions (say an iTablet and a Tablet Pro) where the latter runs full OS X, or a hybrid OS (say OS X with running iPhone apps in a layer above), but my gut feeling is an iPhone OS based tablet.
Still, I find myself less bothered by a “huge iPod Touch.” Chalk a large part of it up to spending a few weeks away from my Mac Mini(s) and the MacBook, relying only on the iPhone. Despite not being very productive, I was wholly entertained and didn’t miss the MacBook. Enough so, that I believe the an Apple Tablet could do most of what I do on a MacBook.
My rational, nerdy side really wants full OS X — while the emotional side is going to let it slide, and I plan to buy an Apple tablet regardless. The MacBook will fade into obsolescence without an upgrade.
And I can see millions of mainstream users doing the same thing. What OS some hot device runs is irrelevant, so long as it performs as advertised, easily. Most will be wowed by videos, music, eBooks, multitouch, a camera, and whatever other glossy tricks Apple includes.
They won’t give a crap about the freedom to install OS X apps (most likely own PCs), or whether some iPhone app developers find the app approval process frustrating. Apple has made buying apps an impulse buy, as easy as purchasing music. It’s become a convenience worth paying for — with freedom as part of the price — and yet, I’m going along willingly.
It can be admirable to eschew a particular technology on principle alone (I do this with Facebook) but when said tech reaches a point of critical mass, you run the risk of cutting off your nose to spite your face, as the future marches along without you.
That last sentence was a bit odd. Must be the hum of the reality distortion field in the distance.
I’ve changed too — but in a completely different direction.
Background: I commented here months ago about wanting the full OS X. About not wanting to have to deal with the App Store. To some degree I still feel that way. In fact, for a “tablet” form factor “computer” I will still insist on one thing: let me have the ability to geek-out in some manor.
In other words, let me be able to install a different OS.
But that’s actually not where I was headed with my comment. Not at all. Here’s what I want January 26th:
An fully functional home media center.
The Apple TV is crippled because I can’t simply use it’s USB port. Even if I hack into it I’m still limited because I can’t use my 5.5 terabyte RAID 5 storage on multiple TVs.
The Mac Mini is crippled because I can’t do a single cable connection to anything. I need one for video and one for audio. And even then if I want something better than 2 channel stereo I’m limited to a single TV.
Wireless? For that I’m finding out the rather odd limitations inside of iTunes. Still haven’t figured out how to share one iTunes library to both a TV and a laptop.
So here’s what I’m hoping Apple does:
(1) Some kind of very portable media device. Runs iTunes and can use an external library. Wireless enabled with OTA subscritions for various media.
(2) An inexpensive dock for the device. One that has both a USB port (for that external library) and an HDMI port. One with some “intelligence” — read: wireless — so that my mass storage unit can be directly cabled into my main TV and if I wish to buy additional units (which I will) for the other TVs I can.
I’m more than willing to spend some $$$ for one driver (this “tablet”) and three docks. And sure, I’m more than willing to tote that “tablet” to various rooms in order to “drive” my media on-demand to my TV. Hell, I’m even willing to buy 3 or 4 of these “tablets” — or would that be iPodTV? — and not have to tote them!
Barring something to replace that incomplete Apple TV, I’m going to have to go back to being able to geek-out with whatever they come out with. Otherwise, I’m probably going to spend my next $1000 on an alternative for that Apple TV and MacMini I have instead of Steve Jobs’ latest toy.
You know, I want exactly what you describe, too. I have an increasingly less useful Apple TV hooked up to the television. And I do think it’s suspicious how the lonely Apple TV is the only product that didn’t see a refresh last fall (well, except for that cosmetic software update). So I hold out hope this tablet has some connection to the Apple TV. Especially with rumors of it being some uber entertainment device.
The dock idea sounds brilliant, or some wireless dongle so you could have the Tablet in your hands while you watch tv, as some sort of super touch screen remote. I would really be into that, since I’m currently embroiled in a Harmony Remote / iPhone app project to control everything in my entertainment system.
The Tablet will run OS X, just like the iPhone does. Apple only has one core OS. What you’re talking about here is the user interface, which, if you think about the form factor of a tablet, can’t be either the Mac’s or the iPhone’s. You can’t manipulate right clicks and tiny dock icons with your fingers, and you can’t have a 10-inch screen filled with Tweetie 2. Neither scenario makes any sense.
This is why Microsoft tablets have always failed to gain any momentum. All Microsoft did was slap a touch screen onto Windows. Which doesn’t work at all. If Apple wants to succeed with this thing, it needs to make the tablet BASED on OS X, so that there’s a commonality of function, and so that developers can learn to code for it easily, but it also needs to give the tablet its own unique UI, to accommodate the bigger screen, bigger battery, and potentially more powerful chipset.
The end result will probably be closer to an iPod touch than a MacBook, but I fully expect it to have some Mac-like functionality. Like multitasking of 3rd Party apps. Perhaps basic editing of office documents. In other words, the software will be more powerful than an iPhone. It will use the app store, of course, and maybe even be able to run iPhone apps in a smaller window, or something. (Speaking of which, it will probably get some sort of windowing interface, unlike the iPhone.) But it will also get its own apps, which is where the crossover into netbook functionality comes in.
So, no, you won’t be able to run Handbrake on it. (Don’t see why you’d need to do that without a DVD drive and on the go, anyway.) Or Photoshop. (Can you imagine trying to tap on a flyout menu with your fingertips?) Though I suspect eventually Adobe, or a smaller competitor like Pixelmator, will end up with its own tablet app to do some basic photo editing. Something that can open PSDs and make some adjustments. (The iPhone already has a really weak version of Photoshop.)
The bottom line is that you’ll have to buy new software for it, but that software will be cheap, and it will give you most of the functions you want in a portable computer, unless you’re a super power user who can’t live without Final Cut Pro on the plane. In which case, you’ll fortunately have the option of still carrying a 17-inch MacBook Pro.
The tablet doesn’t need to replace the laptop for those of us who want a Mac on the go. What the tablet needs to do is get the remaining people who have never had a laptop but have always wanted some computing functionality when away from home. Or people like me, who realize now that a laptop has always been a compromise as a primary computer, and who are considering going back to a full desktop for the power stuff, while still having an inexpensive way of doing some computing on the go beyond what the iPhone can do.
Interesting. A totally new UI, something in between an iPhone and a MacBook. One thing Apple could do help this along is make Tablet specific apps of some of the iLife apps or iWork suite.
The post above is my mind also coming to terms with the implications of the app store (still). So Adobe could make a lighter version of their apps, but they’d have to get approval from Apple first. Still rocks my world, that.
But I am definitely more on board than not. Personally blown away by how many iPhone apps I’ve purchased since getting the iPhone, and contrasted with some shareware I intend to purchase but just haven’t gotten around to, since going to some developer’s website and paying, etc.