NY Times: Steve Jobs “Extremely Happy” With Tablet, Which Has Surprising UI

When it rains, it pours — and it’s pouring tablet rumors. The latest is from the NY Times, which says Steve Jobs is “extremely happy” with the upcoming tablet, and that it will have a “surprising” UI.

In a report that’s basically a rehash of tablet rumors, the Times adds a couple of tantalizing morsels.

According to the Times, a senior Apple employee said: “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

And another recently-departed Apple staffer added: “You will be very surprised how you interact with the new tablet.”

What this surprising UI is, the Times doesn’t say, unfortunately. It doesn’t even hazard a guess. Gestures? The iPhone’s already there. Voice? Same — and it doesn’t even work that well. Handwriting recognition? Remember the Newton.

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What else is there? A little rubbery red button like an old ThinkPad? A virtual scroll wheel?

Link.

6 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, Apple Tablet, News, Rumors |

porkchop1234
Since we’re all hazarding guesses towards rumor I may as well throw a few of my own into the concoction.
The new UI will be a cerebral interface which will work on the users thought patterns. Upon first boot the new itablet will do a neural scan of your brain pathways and will forever be linked to your thought patterns via a Apple one of a kind cerebral mapping and recognition software package that comes bundled with the tablet. The downside of this is when in public the guys better be careful what they think when a hottie comes walking by otherwise the next time they look down at their screen hardcore porn movies will be playing.
The new tablets form factor will be paper thin and you will be able to roll it up or fold it like a newspaper and stick it in your back pocket. This is due to the new super secret cutting edge nano technology that Apple has where they grow micro sized nano bots at their super secret nano bot farm in China. The downside to this kind of form factor is pray you’re never stuck in the washroom doing a number two with no toilet paper on hand or you’re gonna have a hell of a hard decision to make.
Finally the new tablet will be unbreakable. Apples use of super dense yet ultra light materials found only on the planet Krypton will make the tablet indestructible to all including Superman. The downside is Superman will never buy a tablet because the materials are highly poisonous to his system and him even holding it would render him a mortal.
You know the funniest thing about writing this silly post is knowing that eventually someone will come along and actually think I’m serious. Face it the nets littered with enough dim witted people…..
(waits for someone to mention a Microsoft employee)
MacRat
“Remember the Newton.”
Yes, i still have a MessagePad 200 on the shelf. The handwriting works great.
Unfortunately everyone remembers the Newton 1.0 OS which had handwriting recognition that was outsourced to Russia. The Newton 2.0 OS had handwriting recognition that was created by Apple’s research group… This code is part of “Inkwell” included in the Mac OS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkwell_(Macintosh)
ged
As if he would say Jobs is extremely UNHAPPY.
Homer says Duh!
Rags
You sure are half witted mortal from Redmond
Ray
what about motion gestures, like those in proj natal demos?
David
Harking back to some rather odd behavior by early iPhone users, maybe the new interface will be able to respond in some way to the thickness of the touch. You know, to be able to distinguish between a finger or two and a tongue?