party shout

also:
"And while I’m talking out of my ass about this like everyone else, “iSlate” is a stupid name. I’ll predict that the product’s name won’t contain “tablet”, “slate”, or the “i” prefix."

MacBook Touch?

talked to onny irl. when are the rest of you visiting?

i will talk to you guys irl in feb (around the 10th, maybe til the 14?)

yeah! fuck yeah dude, can't wait!

that's sweet josh! it will be great to see you again!

I've been having pretty the same thoughts regarding the tablet. There's no way it's called the iSlate, that is the crappest name ever. macbook touch isn't a bad touch, it fits in with the iphone/ipod touch distinction.

so what will it be for? movies, books, magazines, music, apps, etc. sounds pretty cool, although the problem you pointed out about always having to hold it up is really big.

a lot of people are talking about it as replacing netbooks, which doesn't strike me as correct. netbooks are primarily for work. you can type up word docs, work on your spreadsheets, etc etc. these are things that wouldn't be very practical to do on a tablet, i think.

there's also a question about content delivery. of course the tablet will have built-in wifi, but without some sort of 3g/cell data thing that means that it is effectively a large ipod. the advantage of many netbooks is they have 3g built in.

I don't really get who a tablet would be aimed at...I've got a laptop and an iPhone, and there's no way that I'd buy another device. it doesn't strike me as logical that apple would expect people to buy another $800 device. so that means it's aimed at people who either don't have a laptop or don't have an iphone. is that a realistic market to go after?

i imagine the final product will be fairly different from all the speculation, effectively rendering all of this analysis completely worthless!

some hot sezbros action:

awesome dude. you guys are the best.

"netbooks are primarily for work."
this makes me think about the philosophy of macs. macs were aimed to be the a tool for creation. all of apple's electronics (non computers) are primarily or totally oriented toward consumption. (I'd say the iPhone is 90% consumption in practice.) if the tablet were to be a macbook replacement, then it faces a trickier design challenge than if it were just a consumption device. i don't know if i see the "i just use my home computer for watching youtube" people as apple's primary market, though.

so that means it's aimed at people who either don't have a laptop or don't have an iphone.
i've been trying to figure out why people buy netbooks. npd has a report, which you have to pay for. it seems like some were expecting a more powerful computer, and got suckered by the price and a lack of understanding of the performance specs. i also think a lot of people just don't do photoshop or video editing or gaming. i'm not sure those people are apple's target market, though.

so, what could the tablet do that a laptop can't? i got some inspiration when my laptop was assaulted during our NYE party--the tablet could be waterproof. (my laptop appears to be functioning fine, but some parts of it are rather sticky.)

i feel if he were to introduce a tablet, steve would want to say, "now you can do this thing which you couldn't before." i don't know what that is yet. one idea that just struck me is collaboration. the notebook is a one-person device. others may view, but only one person controls it. could a tablet support multiple users simultaneously somehow?

and one more thing: sibling harmonies are the best harmonies.

oh, one more crazy crazy thought. do you remember before the apple TV came out some were looking for apple to make an actual television. what if the tablet ended up being something like that? why? because a laptop-minus would be disspointing. a big iphone makes little sense, but from a marketing perspective, a TV plus might be a nice sell. also, imagine the shitloads of lazy press about how apple will redefine tv industry as they did with music.

update: "Andy Miller, former CEO of Quattro Wireless, has been named the vice president of Mobile Advertising at Apple."

haha, yeah, I was just wondering about that onny.

here is another post: http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/318412000/diy

On the topic of apple tablets:
There has been a lot of chatter and secrecy about the apple tablet at work. But its all speculative, no one knows anything.

I saw a video of the Digg guys while they were hanging out at John Hodgman's home (the only reason i watched this particular video of course... because everyone knows that Hodgman is my make-believe boyfriend) and the Digg dudes were asking Hodgman if he knew anything about the tablet, which he claimed he did not. BUT one of the Digg dudes said that he DID know somethings but he couldn't share. The only thing he could say was that the price would be surprisingly low.
Here is the video:

My feelings about it? Too much hype. I would only be excited about this if i had apple stock, which i dont, so i dont really care.

On the topic of hanging out at partymode in 2010:
I'm going to be in pittsburgh a few times in the next upcoming months. The last weekend in Jan, sometime in Feb, and in mid March, all for the purpose of events leading up to Becky's wedding. I haven't been very good at planning these visits yet, but I am hoping i can snag some time with the partymode crew while i am there. I will keep you alls updated.

On the topic of the Seznec bros:
I gave Brian (my real-believe boyfriend ;) some old Seznec bro music and he informed me that he has been "geeking" on it since i gave it to him a few weeks ago. You guys must return to NY again to do a show. MUST.

hmmm... is albrecht more credible than rose? kevin rose has a pretty mediocre track record (especially with apple).

price may be a huge factor, though... yann, would you buy it if it were $200? if it's $200, then nobody would be expecting it to replace a macbook.

jon, i'm waiting on the "publish to itunes" button in logic pro and final cut pro first. there may be a problem if submission is too easy, though. think of how much crap there would be in the app store if the sdk were free instead of $99. maybe the cost of the pro apps is enough... i don't think such a button would ever appear in garage band or imovie.

there is not enough crap in the app store.

can't wait to hang out agata.

someone yelled at me for using "price point".

1) Awww, nice stuff Sezbros (CocoRingo?)

2) The iClipboard seems like it'll be a lot of fun, but they'll have to put some major spin on it (i.e. reinvent e-books and the newspaper) to sell 10 million units this year.

hahah... I want to call it iClipboard from now on!

here's another post from marco.org. he asks if the tablet could be the super simple computer for people who don't want to deal with the complexities of a file system or quitting applications or, um, double clicking.
http://www.marco.org/318091966

also, dicknose is an asshole:

jonbro, what was the context of getting yelled at for "price point"? is that not a viable term?

onny - i think once it gets around or below $200 it certainly becomes more likely for people like me to consider buying it in addition to a phone and laptop. although the other question is how much crap do i need to have lying around?

but more importantly, if the price is indeed that low what becomes interesting is how they do it? because from a hardware perspective it's pretty much impossible to build a tablet for retail at $200...but if they manage to subsidize it through ads, or a partnership with a TV channel, film studio, or publisher, then that could mean it would have access to lots of exciting content.

glad you all are liking the sezbros stuff. cory put it on his youtube account because he has an amazingly solid fanbase. the ratio of views/comments he gets on his videos is nuts.

anyway, i spent the morning working on a new song of ours. we recorded a live video of it too. i'll post them both here when they're ready!

how much crap do i need to have lying around?
what if it floated in midair?

for reference, here's MS's courier concept. it's pretty slick.

taking the "interesting marketing concepts" idea of this thread and running with it...
one of my favorite scottish breweries is trying an interesting approach to growth...selling equity shares to raise capital (which i guess is standard for many industries, but not so much in the small-indie-brewer-world, as far as i know):

Equity for Punks from BrewDog on Vimeo.

http://www.equityforpunks.com/

I think the argument against price point is that it is in regards to a decision that has already been made. Once you have collapsed the multiples of "price points" into a single price, the point become redundant. Of course you mean you like the features vs. price are what drives you to like that particular price point.

I don't know if I fully buy the argument tho. (not to mention, I cannot find it in my inbox to copy paste here)

Semi-related, the specs on Google's Nexus phone make me jealous.

http://www.google.com/phone/static/en_US-nexusone_tech_specs.html

oh no bro! specs do not make the phone.

"[5] Tri-color clickable trackball"

well, that spec is pretty awesome.

looking at it closer, this seems the one to question: "Teflon™ coated back"

won't that help you drop your phone?

in fairness, "the battery cover has soft rubber on it"

also, lenovo dropped this "hybrid" device at CES.

When closed the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid looks like a regular laptop, and with a rounded aesthetic and a red shimmery paint job it's a nice looking one. Under the lid there's chiclet-style keyboard surrounded by a fun rubberized palmrest with integrated touchpad. When docked, the U1 looks and feels like any other snazzed-up laptop, with an Intel CULV processor and a 128GB SSD running Windows 7 Home Premium. You actually wouldn't know there's a slate hiding in there -- until you pull it out and watch it switch to Lenovo's Skylight UI, a process that was smooth and quick for us.

it looks very slick (for an early prototype), but a "fun" palmrest? really?

my god. this video makes me cringe so hard. who ever decided that steve ballmer should be onstage at anything?!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8444672.stm

"As you see I can flip through the book using the touch experience."

all the tablets at CES plus this makes me wonder if apple is doing a big head fake on tablets. though, given the anticipation, that would piss a lot of people off. or maybe fanboys will dig apple for their badassness...

btw, isn't a macbook air due for an redesign?

"drill down"

that guy needs speaking lessons.

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