iPod Slate Wish List: What I Would Like in an Apple UMPC

The much rumored iPod Slate turned out to be just that, a rumor. Some say that it was never to be, while others say that it just wasn't ready to be released to the public quite yet. Either way, we don't have it, which means I can still put up a wish list for the features I would like to see in such a device.

Why am I talking about this now? Well, here is hopes that it will be ready and inexpensive enough for the Christmas season (starting in October), and that somehow my ideas/wishes/suggestions will have time to be adopted. Of course, that assumes that someone in Cupertino actually reads my blog.

Hardware
First and foremost, it needs to be very mobile. This means the form factor for the iPod would be perfect, if just enlarged slightly. This will allow for maximum portability, while still being large enough to be able to see/read/use. Also, in addition to the size, the multi-touch display would be invaluable, allowing for operation without a mouse. An iSight camera facing the user would be a must, allowing for iChat AV usage.

Next, ports. Your standard iPod doesn't have anything other than the proprietary iPod docking port, and that needs to change with the iPod Slate. Add a USB port and a micro-DVI port, just like what's present on the MacBook Air. Why? Because occasionally you may want to hook up a USB device of some sort (usually extra storage). The micro-DVI port would be necessary for presentations (i.e., Keynote). That would make this device a phenomenal seller in the business market (and education).

Now input devices. Allow the tethering of bluetooth devices, like the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard. It's thin enough to be useful for something like this, as both would be easily stored in a portfolio. A bluetooth headset would be a given, I would think, and perhaps even a bluetooth microphone alone. Why? An excellent option for people out making a quick and dirty Podcast interview. You can leave your iPod Slate in your pocket, and still record the conversation like a professional.

What about the guts? The processor doesn't have to be really powerful. Let's face it, this isn't going to be a gaming machine. The hard drive could also be small, like the 16 GB solid state drives that are already part of the iPod Touch. That keeps the price down, and gives the user plenty of storage for office work and basic recording. Want more storage? Perhaps have an upgrade to 32 GB. Anything more would be nice, but would price the device beyond overall acceptance.

Also, along with the expected Bluetooth and WiFi, have 3G/4G built into it. Not necessary, but would be really nice for those businessmen traveling, and need something compact. This way you also don't have to worry about including a slot for a 3G card. Of course, people could use the USB dongles available... but wouldn't it be nicer to have it built in? And while we are talking about it, why not have a small stand built into it, so it can stand up on it's side. Perfect for using the bluetooth headset (though this could be a third party add-on that I would pay a small amount of money for ^_^).

And finally, drives. As proven with the MacBook Air, you don't need a drive if you already have a system that can share their drive over the network. If that's the case, why worry about anything more than just the hard drive on the iPod Slate? The innovation that came with the Air can be easily adopted on the iPod Slate.

Software
Make the iPod Slate versatile: allow standard Apple software to be installed. Granted, gaming will not be a huge priority (except for your distraction games like Chess or Cards), but iLife would be nice. I don't think people will be working particularly with iDVD, but iPhoto, iMovie (to a small extent), and Garageband would be almost an absolute must. iTunes is pretty much a given. And, if some games are optimized for the platform... Well that is just the game-maker's win, isn't it? (Hint: WoW and Second Life would be great!).

I would also like to see Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on the device. Why? Because I'm looking for a production machine that will let me write documents easily (with a bluetooth keyboard), show presentations, and let me keep track of information in a spreadsheet all in my pocket. The PocketPC has had this capability in a very limited form for a long time, and it would be a mistake to have the opportunity to improve on this opportunity go to waste.

Next, have a full version of iCal, with all the calendars, subscriptions, etc. This is what is missing from the iPhone and iPods. People that need to live in a calendar to keep their life going in the right direction need it. On top of iCal, have a full version of iChat, Mail, and Address Book installed. It's only logical, and would make it a killer device.

Pricing
Here is the real bottom line: don't price it as high as the MacBook Air. This isn't meant to be a high-end sub-notebook. But it is the most advanced iPod out there. Make it between $600.00 and $900.00, and you will have it sold easily. Students will choose it over any other laptop for their school work, and then choose another machine for gaming. It's a quick and easy way to get people into the Mac platform while still letting them hold on to a PC. When that PC then dies, they will buy a Mac next, because they have had time to compare.

So, that is my wish list. Do I expect everything to be adopted? Not at all. But I do hope that the next iPod Slate will have, at minimum, everything the iPod Touch has, but with Bluetooth for a keyboard, iWork for office work, and a micro-DVI port for presentations. That alone would be a huge leap forward for the iPod.

PDA Ideas: Return of Newton

Today I was reading the posting on CNET.co.uk regarding the top ten Apple rumors, and got caught in the Return of Newton. Now, as you know I have mentioned my wishlist for an Apple iPhone, but if you notice not one of the features were specific to a phone. Instead, they were specific to a PDA that can and will work natively with the Apple computer. It's been a while since I had read about the Newton, and it seems that in the past few weeks (including my trip to Cupertino), the Newton has come up quite a bit.

The reason why the Newton has been referred to so often in the past couple of weeks, in my opinion at least, is because the iPhone has people talking glorified PDA with phone capability. The Newton was so well designed that it easily remains one of the best PDA's one can own. But if that's so, why did it fail? Let's take a look and see:

The Development Team
This information I have is coming from an inside source from Apple, so please take it as the hear-say that I heard. According to the source that I have within Apple, the Newton developers were rather proud of their role. They saw themselves as creating a destiny for Apple that would revolutionize the company into a portable handheld world. And as such, they made some very stupid mistakes.

First, they ignored the budgetary constraints that were placed on the entire company when times were hard. After all, if you were redefining the company's future, why shouldn't you have frequent catered lunches? This, of course, didn't go over very well within company management, or within the rest of the company. But this could have easily been overlooked if the device had been a huge success.

Second, they developed a huge device that made it difficult (at the time) to lug around. Now the device would be acceptable if only because most professionals no longer carry a PDA in their pocket, but rather carry the device in a backpack/briefcase/handbag. But in the early 1990's, it was too bulky to be considered a portable device that was of any use.

Marketing
The final nail in the coffin was the price. At the time, personal expenses could be written off to the company for a device if it was under $500. This means that any more expensive device needed to be tied directly to income, and that limited the purchasing power of more expensive devices within the Corporate world. My source was aware of this, and actually asked the Newton development team if they had run a cost analysis on the Newton, and if their choice of pricing it above $500 was taken into consideration. The answer she received was"We are Apple, people will pay what we tell them to pay."

Yes, blunders like that are precisely why Steve Jobs axed the project when he came back as CEO of Apple. Since then, according to Wikipedia, the Newton has floundered. In the end, though many of the software innovations that were created for the Newton have been implemented into Mac OS X, hope for a Macintosh PDA or tablet PC has been all but dead.

But Why Bring It Up Again?
Good question: Why would I bring it up again? Because so many PDA's that I have used and experimented with have let me down. They either have a battery life that make them virtually unusable, have a screen size that doesn't work well with the applications that I try to run, or they don't work with the platforms that I would expect from my PDA. I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there that has this same desire, and would like to see a decent device come out that not only does everything you need it to do, but is also relatively inexpensive as well.

I've looked at and played with several, including the NEC MobilePro's (which I really liked), Palm Pilots, GPE on an iPaq, and various Pocket PC's. Every one of them has lacked a single feature that I would want om a PDA that works for me. Either it was too complicated to learn how to write (Palm), too small to type (MobilePro), lacked connectivity and syncing abilities (GPE), or lacked native platform support for the Macintosh (Pocket PC).

Added to that is the price. Being fiercely Scottish myself, I don't want to pay a lot of money for something that is scaled down from a Desktop for the same price. Why don't I buy a WiFi + Bluetooth iPaq or phone? Because I can spend that same $400 and build a decent PC running Linux, and have it do more. Nope, if I get a PDA again, it needs to either be closer to the price of an iPod, or it needs to be comparable to the same priced PC. With components becoming less expensive, you would think that would be very possible.

So, what is it that I want out of a PDA? Here is my wishlist:
1. Needs to sync with the Macintosh, and Linux as well as a PC.
2. Provide connectivity (WiFi + Bluetooth), perhaps with 3G phone technology.
3. Support CalDAV standards, and utilize subscriptions to iCalendar formats (either vCal or iCal). Additional MS Exchange Server support would be a plus.
4. Video Conferencing out of the box through open standards (Jabber), and popular standards (AIM, MSN Messenger, Bonjour, etc.).
5. Very simple user interface. I just want it to work.
6. Audio to text dictation. Speech recognition has greatly improved, and should be utilized.
7. Simple developer interface. Use something like Dashboard widgets, and have it drag and drop to the Mac.
8. At least a 10 hour battery life.

There isn't a lot there, if you notice. I didn't say that I was going to require a color screen, though it would be nice. In reality, I would be happy with a black and white screen, as long as it did everything else I like. I also don't really care about editing documents either. If I was going to edit a document, I would use my desktop, or a small form notebook. That is, after all, what they are designed for. But I would need to read the document, or leave notes. While handwriting recognition would be nice, I think voice recognition would be more effective if possible. And finally, I don't care if I can't watch full length movies or listen to my iTunes music on it. That's what the iTV is for, and an iPod Shuffle.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone from Apple is looking at this, but if they are, I hope they understand that the request isn't necessarily for them, but if they would work with a PDA company to develop a device that meets all these specifications, they would definitely have my money. ^_^