Steve Jobs famously once quoted Picasso as saying: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” And by that metric, Apple is a lousy artist.
Apple is stolen from by just about everybody. Microsoft and other companies steal design and interface ideas from Apple’s OS X. Cell phone handset makers steal Apple’s iPhone design elements. The new tablet market is essentially Apple’s iPad plus the tablets that steal ideas from the iPad. Everybody has stolen Apple’s approach to app stores.
There’s a difference between stealing ideas and stealing intellectual property. Stealing winning general approaches to doing things like multi-touch gestures on a tablet device is good. Stealing the code to do that is bad.
Microsoft has long been accused of stealing Apple ideas in the many designs of Windows that have occurred over the years. Windows has tended to be more challenging to use than OS X over the years, and Windows products tend to be less elegant. Because of all this, Apple fans often dismiss Microsoft as a company without innovation.
In fact, the opposite is true. Microsoft’s research wing is an under-appreciated engine of invention, in my opinion. And while Microsoft fails to productize some of its best inventions, it’s also occasionally successful at implementing new ideas in real products.
I’ll go further. Apple and its customers would benefit enormously if Apple were to steal the following five key ideas from Microsoft.
1. Multi-player gaming from Xbox Live
Apple platforms historically lagged in the lucrative gaming market. But now, thanks to the iPhone, iPad and App Store, Apple now dominates gaming (measured in the number of titles available on the platform).
iOS games are great — and some of them are already multi-player. But an integrated multi-player gaming and communication system like Xbox Live would benefit the iOS as a game platform more than anything else I can think of.
Instead of wasting time trying to make music social with Ping, Apple should instead focus on making gaming social.
By offering iOS developers a standard server platform for connecting players, Apple would give iOS games a huge boost. Such a system would enable far-flung gamers to find games, play against each other, chat with each other and generally enjoy all the many benefits of Xbox live, but on iPhones and iPads.
Such a system would also enable Apple to standardize how game servers function, and optimize performance of iOS games.
In general, stealing the Xbox Live concept from Microsoft would enable Apple to sell more iPads, enable developers to sell better and more expensive games, and boost Apple app revenue as game titles become more lucrative.
2. Gesture control interface from Kinect
The new Apple TV I got for Christmas was a welcome addition to my home entertainment system. But the last thing I needed was another $#@!ing remote. My Apple TV remote is minimal and elegant, but it’s an additional remote to the three I already had. Its tiny size makes it harder to find and easier to lose, as it slips between sofa cushions. And the buttons on it are a little awkward to use; it’s very easy to press the wrong thing on the dial.
Apple is constantly trying to minimize buttons and controls. Why not get rid of the remote altogether by stealing Microsoft’s concept for gesture control on the Kinect for Xbox 360?
The Apple TV remote simply functions to navigate on-screen options, and control play, pause, stop and so on movies. I’d love to control all that with hand gestures and skip the remote.
3. Pen input from the Tablet PC
The Tablet PC platform sucks for several reasons. One of these is not that it supports pen input, but that input requires a pen. The whole flawed concept of the Tablet PC is that it’s regular Windows, plus a pen layer. The iOS multi-touch finger-input system is vastly superior, and iPad sales prove it.
However, now that iPad rules the tablet world, the addition of pen input officially controlled and sanctioned by Apple would benefit the platform in myriad ways.
Personally, I have zero interest in using a stylus for navigation or app control. I just want to use a pen, well, as a pen.
Apple’s iPad 2 roll-out emphasized a point I’ve been making from the beginning: iPad is not just a content consumption device, but it’s great for content creation as well.
Pen support would enable people to scribble notes, draw pictures and most importantly write legal signatures.
Apple should steal the pen input idea from the Tablet PC. Of course, the iOS would continue to use multi-touch for most tasks, and for interaction with the OS itself. But it should enable us to write stuff with a pen, just like in real life.
4. User interface from the Windows Media Center
Sometimes, in moments of frustration, I feel like iTunes for Windows is the single worst application ever written for the PC. All major aspects of it, from connecting files to syncing to setting up podcasts is clunky, backward and counter-intuitive. Performance is absurdly slow, taking literally seconds sometimes to respond to simple mouse clicks.
The whole thing makes no sense, because Apple is so good at interface design. Sometimes I think Apple makes the PC version of iTunes deliberately horrible to punish Windows users into switching to the Mac.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Media Center is vastly superior in every way to iTunes, from interface to performance.
Of course, Media Center exists for an entirely different purpose than iTunes — it’s really designed for using a Windows PC as an Apple TV type device. And for that, Apple TV is better.
But the ugly, clunky, non-intuitive train wreck that is iTunes for Windows has got to die. If Apple can’t figure out how to make a Windows application, then just steal user interface from Microsoft’s Windows Media Center.
5. Cell phone/tablet interaction from Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Surface deserves more attention and credit than it gets. For starters, it’s the only major MPG (multi-touch, physics and gestures) device to hit the market before the iPhone did.
No, it’s not a consumer device, and it’s not ready for the consumer marketplace. But Surface has some interface elements that are even more “magical” than iOS.
One of my favorites is how a Surface tablet can recognize objects placed upon it. If you drop a piece of paper on a Surface 2.0 PC, it can read it. Better still, Surface can recognize digital cameras and cell phones, spilling out their pictures and enabling you to move documents from one device to another by sliding them across the screen.
Apple wouldn’t need to add all this capability, just steal the core concept for connecting an iPhone or iPod Touch to an iPad.
Apple is going to add near-field communication technology to iOS devices anyway — why not use that to connect the devices to each other?
Imagine placing your iPhone on the corner of your iPad, and being given the option to grab files or pictures directly from the phone and slide them onto the iPad, or from the iPad to the iPhone. You could also theoretically copy apps from one to the other.
Microsoft Surface gadget interaction is a bit of interface magic that Apple should just steal.
258 responses to “5 Killer Ideas Apple Should Steal From Microsoft”
im not sure if a pen input device will ever come to ipad. steve jobs has said it’s a bad idea, but he could be lying.
Pen input is still clunky right now. The problem is that people dont want to carry around a stylus with their tablets, you can lose them easily. And, the ipad is still too big and heavy to carry around, and you have to hold it with your hand leaving your other hand to type. I would love to be able to just write with a stylus on a tablet, and then my hand writing can automatically turn into computer text. I would like to bring a tablet around with me and write on it like a small notebook. Something like the Microsoft Courier would be perfect, where you can use the stylus to write, draw, cut and paste.
Completely agree – my biggest complaint about the iPad and in my opinion what prevents me from using it heavily in business situations is the lack of pen dynamic. No matter what anyone says – its completely lacking when taking notes at a meeting. – Completely.
Um, you CAN use a stylus with the iPad. A number of companies still them specifically for the iPad. Sure, there specific functionality such as handwriting recognition, but you can work everything with a stylus if you want. The only thing that might make it even better would be a pressure-sensitive screen…
Why not incorporate the excellent XBMC media everything program.
Windows media center is a joke compared to XBMC.
Why apple needs to steal any thing from MS? U can buy MS products. lol!!!
Dumb.
How about my pet peeve when switching to OSX. Only having one corner that you can adjust window sizes from. I think Microsoft’s “any corner, any edge” idea is far superior.
Good article! I especially like the surface idea, it’s a very good invention!
Pen input? You mean a stylus? Listen to the 2007 introduction of the iPhone: nobody wants a stylus; and I have my Wacom to use a pen. No need for an iPad or stylus here. I run Windows virtual, no need to copy. VLC is a terrific app next to iTunes. Gesture control: get a touch pad.
Ah, whatever, this is a silly article if you’re asking me.
Come on!! The iPAD is too big and heavy. Don’t know where your head is. The screen size is great for what tablets are mean’t for and as far as being heavy. What do you want a tiny 7″ screen that weighs the same or more. Lap tops weigh more but do you complain about them. There are carry bags for the iPAD just like Lap Tops. Get your head out of the sand and smell the roses
Apparently, Lion can do this.
Isn’t GarageBand for iPad pressure sensitive?
Wow, no thanks. On all counts.
“Good artists copy; great artists steal. And by that metric, Apple is a lousy artist.”
Considering what Apple “repackages” from the open source community, I hardly find this comment to be truthful. Sorry.
check Plex for mac its amazing
That is very good news indeed!
In a ‘fake’ way. It depends on the iPad itself moving as a indication of how hard you are pressing. For example, it doesn’t work if the iPad is flat on a table.
You can buy a pen stylus for the iPad/iPhone for $10, and it works great for painting and some games. In general, your finger is much more intuitive for other things.
If you want a pen interface, go grab a stylus. Done.
The only thing missing with the pen interface is the pressure sensitivity issue, which will improve in the future I’m sure.
Apple’s GarageBand now uses the accelerometer to simulate pressure sensitivity, and it works great! Now if only the paint app developers caught on to that idea.
“There’s a difference between stealing ideas and stealing intellectual property. Stealing winning general approaches to doing things like multi-touch gestures on a tablet device is good. Stealing the code to do that is bad.”
In an ideal world, this would be true. Unfortunately, in the real world, we have software patents. These mean it’s not outside the realm of possiblity that a company could sue another company for ‘stealing’ something that you and I might consider merely an ‘idea’.
Not so much pressure sensitive as force sensitive, it apparently uses the accelerometer to detect the sudden motion of the iPad when you strike it with your fingertips while playing the instruments.
The WritePad app does this wonderfully!
My biggest pet peeve is along the same lines. There’s no real maximize button, which bothers me.
How quickly people forget history. Apple did steal. Everyone one stole in regards to the beginnings of the personal computer. Just ask Xerox.
I agree, GAMING PLATFORM over Ping, and yes A NEW REDESIGN REVAMP of iTunes for Mac and others…
> Lap tops weigh more but do you complain about them.
a MacBook Air feels lighter to me, than an iPad2, due to its weigh distribution…
ummm, I’m not sure you have a broad enough concept of “surface.” iChat lets you share your screen so it’s very much like surface. I used to play scrabble with my Grandmother that way.
the other things you mention, I think, are niche products; I could care less about XBox, etc… so let Microsoft have that market…. it’s not good or great; it just is.
The power apps for apple are MobileMe and the app store; Microsoft Live is there too. but “zero admin” computers is what it’s about. (aka Joint Venture)
And, if Apple makes that work, they’re in the enterprise space and that will ripple down into consumer preference and that will make Microsoft’s life difficult.
I think I’d take Apple’s vision over a wacky click-bait list. Call me crazy.
Ummm, the iPad already has #1 – 3.
#1 is called Game Center and is part of iOS 4.
#2 is called “Remote” and is made by Apple: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app…
#3 is covered by several styli that are available for the iPad– including the Pogo Sketch. For stylus-friendly apps, I highly recommend Penultimate: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app…
#4 is basically a rant against iTunes. That’s fine.
#5 Surface interaction is cool, but it isn’t widespread (and I don’t think it ever will be). Besides, I’m not sure I’m okay with the idea of Near-Field Communication anyway. I’ll just stick with Bluetooth, thanks.
No that’s not accurate. Lot’s of people carry Windows tablets in work areas because of the pen/ink interface. Any place you walk and take notes. Swipes and voice are good but there are allot environments where you don’t want to do that.
There are loads of pens being sold for iPad and they work really well for taking notes and scribbling
They already have pens for the iPad, not by apple, but they work really well! Check online.
Word. Apple would not have survived the transition to x86 without open source
Apple delivers on technology when it is ready and when it is great. Not one of the “ideas” mentioned here is ready, let alone great.
Microsoft and other companies(apple) steal design and interface ideas from
Apple’s OS XAmigaAsk Xerox what? Apple gave Xerox 100 thousand shares of Apple stock for the privilege of merely looking at a GUI in action and being able to spend an hour or two asking some engineers questions. In my mind that is called buying the right to be inspired by something. People in Apple were already toying with the idea, however, they needed to sell the idea to Jobs. The GUI at Xerox was running on a huge mainframe. Apple build everything from the ground up and made a thousand improvements to what Xerox started. It is kind of what Apple always does. Takes a good idea and makes it a lot better. Apple engineers did the unthinkable at the time by being able to come up with a sophisticated GUI and make it run on such a low powered device.
the entire fundamental computer GUI was stolen by apple from xerox.. Jobs admits this.. apple was just better at steeling it than microsoft was…
the real genius is the idea..not the repackaging..
So, you think Apple should steal the pen to tablet idea from its own past Newton pad?
try the app “penultimate”
please, how can you call it repackaging? so tell me, is selling a tomato the same as selling tomato sauce?
I like your article, and it’s a decent reminder for us who are getting buried in news releases that seem like they originate in Apple sales departments. And I will say that I’ve gotten tired of the Microsoft bashing that’s gone on for too long. But I’m not ready to turn it onto Apple either. I have gravitated into the Apple Universe, because so many things “just work,” but I too have some recollections of other platforms, notably Palm, that had features that I miss. When Palm PDAs were all the rage I loved the fact that I could scrawl things into notes that their character recognition software converted to text.
To me a virtual keyboard is a step backwards. Yes, I love my iphone4, (and will eventually buy an iPad2 or iPad3) but I wish that I could Palm script text into it. I DO use Dragon dictation, but as well as that works, there are still times I’d like to be able to sketch directly into the file. Apple has been a game changer, they’ve shaken things up, shifted the device paradigm, and that’s good. But they’re not the only innovator. Hopefully market forces will adjust, and some of that multibillion dollar war chest that Apple is sitting on will get spent acquiring some of the outlying technologies that can be integrated into OSX, and iOS applications.
Apple does have a facility for execution reminiscent of the Bill Walsh 1980s, iteration of the 49ers. Right now Apple is carrying the ball downfield, setting some new records, arguably new technology goals, and having their day on the field. And “their day,” is a “day for the consumer, end user.” But this too shall pass, and we’ll be catapulted forward by some other technology innovator.
Wow, Apple tv > Media Center. Someone took a good deep chug of that koolaid. I guess Apple tv is good if you want to pay Per episode, but with no news, no sports and no up to date programming? Yeah, I’ll take Media Center on a 55″ tv with cableCARD any day.
“productize”? Well done. You’ve invented a new word to use where an existing one would have sufficed. “Produced” or perhaps “brought to market” would have worked fine but why let a lack of education, or the inability to use spell-check, stop you from writing.
So, you’re stealing the air you breath now? Free is free, not stealing.
I would be happy with a consistent maximize button, cut and pasting files with merging folders instead of overwriting them, the Aero snap feature, and an actual uninstaller for Adobe like products which are akin to a 300lb house guest with leprosy. When it’s time for them to go, you know you’re going to be finding bits here and there for months to come.
FAIL. Ever heard of Webkit? What about Apple’s open source Grand Central Dispatch?
Perhaps you MicroSheep doesn’t know that Apple sold more iPad in 9 months than a decade of Microsoft tablet devices combined?
HORRIBLE ARTICLE. What’s this, a Microsoft shill piece?
1. Steam offers it before xBox live, and it’s already available on Mac. iOS has GameCenter.
2. Microsoft BOUGHT the technology and repackaged it. Again, not MS innovation.
3. Apple was first to popularize stylus in the 90s. Maybe you’ve never heard of Apple Newton?
4. iTunes is the most popular media player software for a reason. And it’s not because Microsoft media center is ‘better.’
5. Microsoft surface is an expensive gimmick. What real phone can interact with it? And MS surface is SURELY popular. NOT.
And the Kinect sold more than the iPad? What’s your fucking point? That just bc it sells a lot means its perfect? I like your logic.
Just bc stylus is not for you doesnt mean its not useful. Ever heard of Wacom?
What are you? An Apple shill?
1. Xbox Live launched in 2002. Steam? 2003. GameCenter? 2010.
2. Microsoft bought the Kinect hardware but developed the software in house. You know, the actual brains of the thing? Apple had an opportunity but passed.
3. Apple Newton? Not even as successful as Windows Tablets!
4. iTunes is the most popular media player software for a reason. You need it to use an iPod. While iPods are good, iTunes sucks. It’s a necessary evil and needs a complete rewrite. Yes, Media Center is better. Try taking the Apple tinted glasses off and try using it.
5. Surface is not a consumer device and was never meant to be.
Thanks for playing.
Oh yeah, my bad. I forgot this.
I’m calling BS here, the Kinect sells 4 million, the iPad sold 14.8million. ….
http://firstain.com/index.php/…
I like how you combined sales for the iPad and iPad 2. Way to cook up numbers, guy!
Well, I don’t have any Apple products. Do they credit the open source developers who wrote most of their code in their OS somewhere? And Webkit – also hawked from open source.
Microsoft’s Surface did NOT come to market before the iPhone. It was announced 5 months after the iPhone and it was released 10 months after the iPhone was.
Uhhh… Darwin/FreeBSD. Besides, WebKit is based on Konquorer’s khtml library….
C’mon… fess up. You’re five years old, aren’t you.
I’d love to see Apple officially sanction or release that pressure-sensitive library that company released as a tech demo last year for the iPad. Being able to get the screen to only recognize the stylus tip instead of any other part of my hand that brushes the screen would be great. All of the painting and sketching apps I have would be much, much more effective with pressure-sensitivity.
On an unrelated note … it’s getting tiresome whenever someone has the kneejerk reaction of “Apple stole everything from PARC!” No, they didn’t steal. Xerox went into that deal with their eyes open and got a pretty good return on the opportunity, in the form of a ton of Apple stock. It’s not like Apple sent in some guys to cause a distraction while the others snuck out the backdoor with a PARC mainframe underneath their jackets.
Oh really. What about the iPhone 4 antenna issues?
And, then what about the issues the iPad 1.0 had after it launched? see,
“Apple’s support forum is being bombarded by user complaints centering on the iPad’s inability to maintain a full, steady Wi-Fi connection.”
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
If this is ready and great, obviously your expectations from Apple is really low.
Get real. Apple technologies have enough problems (like anyone else).
Xerox had Smalltalk, the first mouse/windows system working on micro computers in the 1970’s, and for $50.00 one could buy Smalltalk that ran on the Intel 8080 by 1980. Both Lisa and Windows were forks of Smalltalk.
this is perhaps the worst list you could have come up with other than the pen on tablet idea.
Jump lists – don’t just start the program from the dock, start the actual document you want right from the desktop. Once you get used to it any other method is very tedious.
I think the point aaronhampshire and Loose64 are trying to make is Apple’s ecosystem wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for the open source community. Apple and others owe the open source community a lot.
Sorry about that, Ab333.
The inane commentary from both sides of the fanboy divide gets to me sometimes.
Oh please the only reason Xerox didn’t proceed to a smaller PC setup was because the bigwigs who ran Xerox didn’t have the foresight to see what a revolutionary idea they had in their hands. Jobs stole the idea of the point and click GUI interface and in turn Gates stole the idea from Jobs and created Windows. Oh and for your information they didn’t build anything from the ground up they just redressed the GUI interface system and scaled it down to run on a home PC.
I love this article. Especially additional “stylus mode” for iPad3! That will be awesome.
Xerox released the Star way before the Mac but they weren’t successful to sell the device. And Apples GUI approach is different to that of the Star, as I know they saw the Alto, which is a previous model. Nevertheless, the Mac is the first successful computer with a GUI.
Smalltalk is a programming language and no system. You mean something different.
Stylus support is unlikely. The problem is the technology of the touchscreen. You can’t support pixel-precise drawing, because of the area a pencil needs to make input on a capacitive touchscreen.
Windows models used the shitty resistive touchscreens, good for pen support but bad to interact with fingers.
And Kinect, Wii and Move are awful in my opinion. I don’t want to wave like a idiot in front of my TV or computer to make an input. It’s not helping to make it better, it’s just annoying.
He was listing IMPROVEMENTS
That word was a better descriptive term than simply produce and it isn’tthe first time it has been used. How about looking into the real messge behind this article instead of playing forum troll over a grammatical nuance to satisfy whatever pathetic desire you have to disregard the content and purpose of the post?
Penultimate is great but only if you have never used a tablet pc. The accuracy is terrible with any stylus compared to digital pen tracking for document signin or hand written notes. For meical professionals, I for one would really love for Apple to get on the ball and add this or of functionality.
Gamecenter is by no means remotely close to what Xbox Live offers. Period.
Using Remote is still using a remote or did you fail to understand that he meant having a device that used a camera based motion tracking system to navigate on screen without a physical device in hand?
Surface is wesome but I don’t see it becoming a consumer ready tech in the near future. Great idea but suffers from Microsoft not knowing how to implement it in devices that are widely used or even being able to market it well.
no, your wrong, he’s right.
the iPad 2 would make it 20 million.
I am with you on the lack of a maximize button. I hated that… ultimately the best I could do involved a shareware app for the mac… check out two apps, SizeUp (the more powerful) and Cinch. both are at http://irradiatedsoftware.com/ . sorry if it sounds like an ad.
I agree that the comic-store-guy sneering at the word was basically a waste of time. but, we all have to admit, all these dumb posts in reply threads below articles are basically 90% wanking.
‘Hawked’ implies they don’t give back. http://www.opensource.apple.com
By the way, I make #5. http://infinite-labs.net
iTunes and iTunes store is a disgrace for commercial products.
I know that its extremely successful and I know it works, but I have really hard time figuring my way around, getting information on products, not to mention how bloated it is.
and I am an Apple fan and a Microsoft hater. iTunes should go back to playing music.
I think iTunes store should be Apple’s Digital Store, something completely different like Mac App Store. Apple Digital Store should include every digital thing Apple sells media to software
Mike, do your research.
1. Apple has Game Centre
2. Apple has iPad as a gesture controller for Apple TV.
3. My finger is always with me. A pen would need a string to not get lost. There are 3rd party pens available for iPad but not many people buy them.
4. “Media Center is vastly superior in every way to iTunes” except in making selling songs or money or syncing an iPod. Does Media Centre do Zune sync? Oh yeah, Zune is now dead.
5. BAS ? Really? Come on Mike, the Big Ass Table is not a consumer device and yes, there are some neat concepts that one can put a few things on it and have them recognized. iPhone has a camera and various apps that recognize things too.
It has a voice recorder. You could try touch typing. You can get Dragon Dictation. You can buy 3rd party pens.
You could try one first before you open your mouth.
The pen input on iPad makes complete sense. In my opinion, the killer app for the iPad will be handwriting recognition. I would love to throw away my notebook and paper calendar and all the crap I carry and replace it with my iPad2.
I’ve said on numerous occasions that the lack of a Wacom digitizer is the only thing keeping me away from an iPad. The weight is great, the screen is excellent, and the battery life is outstanding, but a capacitive stylus just doesn’t do it for me when it comes to note-taking. Not precise enough, and palm rejection is a crapshoot. (Plus, you don’t have to give up capacitive multi-touch at all.)
“Apple should steal the pen input idea from the Tablet PC. Of course, the iOS would continue to use multi-touch for most tasks, and for interaction with the OS itself. But it should enable us to write stuff with a pen, just like in real life.”
This is the sort of input paradigm I don’t feel has been fully realized yet. Touch to navigate, pen to create. They are different input methods and should be treated as such, and thankfully, the author realizes this.
As for Xbox Live-style gaming…I just don’t see that working out too well on iOS simply because iOS has issues with nice, tactile controls for traditional game genres (if it needs a virtual D-Pad and buttons to emulate a gamepad, it’s the wrong type of game)…but I’ve always thought that the iPad would lend itself well to tabletop-style gaming, which is very social to begin with.
And the first three likely aren’t any good whatsoever for math formulas, graphs, diagrams, etc. Not all information is plain text or easily spoken.
At least there’s plenty of capacitive stylus options on the market and software to use them with, though they’re nothing compared to Wacom or N-trig.
I can say with certainty that pen input is most definitely ready right now, and it’s certainly great for my uses.
Try a Tablet PC with a proper Wacom or N-trig digitizer installed, along with OneNote. It’s just like digital pen and paper…that allows for grab and drag, copy and paste, and search, among other things, while leaving one’s handwriting the way it is (unless explicitly told to convert to plain text). On dual digitizer systems, your fingers will pan/scroll and zoom. That’s how it should be done.
But for it to be done properly, there needs to be a dual digitizer system of some sort, or at least a way for the system to tell fingers apart from the pen. The iPad as we know it lacks the necessary hardware to do that, unless those capacitive stylus patents include a means of having the pen detect when it’s near the iPad screen surface so it can start ignoring/disabling touch for palm rejection’s sake.
I know Apple can do it if they want to. The technology is out there. They just have to put it together-not just the hardware, but the software experience.
You’re right. I don’t want a stylus. I want a Wacom active digitizer pen and software that can use it.
And the Tablet PCs I use have that functionality built right into the screen. More intuitive for me than a decoupled drawing tablet (believe me, I’ve tried with a Graphire4), and much more portable than a Cintiq (which needs AC power and is even less portable than a Tablet PC by itself).
Apple would do well to integrate a Wacom digitizer into the iPad. They don’t have to give up capacitive multi-touch to do it, either. There is nothing to be lost, only gained by adding the best pen input system I currently know of.
Most Windows Tablet PCs do not use resistive digitizers. They used something far, far better for pen input: electro-magnetic resonance digitizers, usually from Wacom. (I’m sure you’ve heard that name before; it’s only the standard in drawing tablets, after all.)
You’d know if you used one that had it. The screen would be tempered glass, not a soft plastic layer like resistive, albeit unlikely to react to your fingers on older models. Newer models have a dual-digitizer setup where you have capacitive multi-touch AND Wacom (or N-trig) pen input, complete with palm rejection and pressure sensitivity.
The technology’s already there. Apple just has to use it.
Lose them easily? I guess they’re the same people who never brought pens and/or pencils to class as students. “Professor, I didn’t bring a pen because I thought I’d lose it…”
I won’t deny it’s a flaw, but I’ve never lost any of my Wacom Penabled pens. (Good thing I haven’t, because unlike resistive digitizers, you can’t just use a plastic toothpick on a Wacom Penabled device. For that matter, you can’t use any old Graphire/Bamboo/Intuos/Cintiq pen, either.)
I don’t find the iPad too heavy at all. It’s delightfully light when you’re used to Windows Tablet PCs, most of which I don’t find unbearably heavy at less than 4 lbs.
As for handwriting recognition for instant conversion to plain text…that’s doing it wrong, if you ask me, and why handwriting recognition is seen as a horrible thing. (Cue “Eat up Martha” and “Egg freckles?” jokes.) With the way I use OneNote, I never, ever convert my digital ink to plain text because I can read my own handwriting just fine. (Trust me, it’s anything but chickenscratch.) It’s still recognized, but in the background; it makes a nice search index for all your digital handwriting.
The Courier looked like an extension of the paradigms OneNote was aiming for, which is why I was so excited about it…but, alas, it’s just a concept. What a shame. Microsoft would have a nice foothold in the tablet/booklet market if they would’ve just greenlighted it.
If Apple were to make such a device, they might even improve upon it for all I know. Someone in Cupertino must recognize the value of distinguishing pen input from touch input and making them work together.
Perhaps because I’ve never used a traditional Tablet PC with pen I’m missing something here but the iPad and iPhone, etc already supports a pen, provided the pen has a special conductive thingy that fools it into thinking it’s a finger. In some cases people in Japan have been able to just use some sort of packed up sausage thing to interact on the screen during the winters when their fingers are too cold.
The question is why does it need to tell the difference between a pen and finger? Seems to me the only thing the iPad needs in that respect is pressure sensitivity. That said I’m still amazed at how they achieved a psudo pressure sensitivity using the accelerometer.
They wouldn’t integrate with Wacom though would they? The Apple way would be for them to do it themselves, create the APIs for the iOS for apps to take advantage of stylus based inputs. Then they wouldn’t have Wacom’s name associated.
Not that it’s a bad thing to be associated with Wacom, but that Apple wouldn’t do it if they could just do it themselves.
They wouldn’t integrate with Wacom though would they? The Apple way would be for them to do it themselves, create the APIs for the iOS for apps to take advantage of stylus based inputs. Then they wouldn’t have Wacom’s name associated.
Not that it’s a bad thing to be associated with Wacom, but that Apple wouldn’t do it if they could just do it themselves.
Out of interest, has it actually been confirmed in a web article that the methods by which Apple achieves psudo-pressure sensitivity it using the accelerometer doesn’t work when the iPad is held/not held in certain ways?
Concerning the pen, as many others have said before there are already third-party pens. I don’t see Apple ever officially support pens, but I can see them inadvertently helping third-party pens out through doing things that have consequential benefits that Apple never intended to happen.
From what I gather based on NamelessFragger many replies, current pens that support the Apple touch screen aren’t accurate enough. All that Apple would have to do is in future alliterations is tighten up the accuracy of their touch screen hardware detection, which I presume would benefit fingers and pens alike.
Then Apple would need to apply that thing they did to the iPhone 4 where the screen looked like it was printed ontop of the glass onto the iPad to further increase that sense that what you’re drawing with the pen is going accurately onto the screen.
Apple could then offer pressure sensitivity on the screen (rather than using the accelerometer). They might do that because Apple have a habit of releasing sense features, such as gyro, accelerometer, GPS location, digital compass, etc. These hardware only features have given apps new toys to play with and have encouraged people to upgrade to the latest hardware so that they can take advantage of the software. What other hardware feature could Apple now release? Pressure sensitivity. Complete with iOS APIs.
I think then, third parties have everything they need to create good pen support, without Apple ever going back on their stance.
lame. lame. lame. Apple already has half of these things, the author merely doesn’t like their implementation. The other half are copyrighted and impossible to “steal.”
Also, the idea that Microsofts labs are a hotbed of innovation is simply not born out by these examples. The best one (Kinnect), was invented by others and bought after the fact by Microsoft. In fact, Microsofts version of the Kinnect device pales next to the original.
Also, not exactly true that the surface was a shipping product before iPhone, and how does a giant plastic box with a mini-tower and some video cameras bolted to the inside walls qualify as an “innovative product.” People were doing exactly that sort of thing with multi-touch for *years* before the general public even heard of it. It’s not original at all, whereas what Apple did with multitouch (designing an entire multi-touch GUI for mobile devices, was entirely new.
worth mentioning that the maximise button and the re-sizing a window from any edge are currently in the OS-X Lion beta and due to be implemented before the end of the year.
Well seems like Apple will be happy to make you happy. As Nutz pointed out Lion will support any corner any edge resizing and it seems Apple is encouraging people to create full screen modes for their apps.
Part of the issue seems to be that capacitive digitizers need a finger-sized contact area to work. I don’t see why else every capacitive stylus has a relatively fat nib/tip compared to a resistive “plastic toothpick” stylus or a Wacom/N-trig active digitizer pen.
The way Wacom digitizers work is that they have a digitizer board BEHIND the screen that emits an electro-magnetic resonance field. A specialized pen can use this field for positioning, power (Wacom pens don’t need batteries), and communication all at once, and it can do so while hovering a short distance above the screen. Pressure sensitivity is done through a sensor behind the pen nib, and the data is communicated over the EMR field. The digitizer board itself doesn’t sense pressure. (N-trig may work similarly, except that they only use a single capacitive multi-touch digitizer that also generates a field usable by their pens, and some of their digitizer layers lack an excitation coil needed to power their battery-less pens, so they offer battery-powered ones in such cases.)
In short, it’s an entirely different subsystem than the capacitive multi-touch digitizer, at least in Wacom’s case.
Apple could implement some of this functionality with a special capacitive stylus like they patented recently. Bluetooth would be used for communication, and they could add sensors near the nib for detecting when it’s near the iPad screen (to tell the system to switch to pen input mode and ignore touch for palm rejection’s sake) and measuring the pressure applied to the nib. It likely won’t help with precision since such a design still depends on the capacitive digitizer for positioning, but palm rejection and pressure sensitivity would go a long way toward making them great inking devices.
these guys have an interesting idea for stylus….
https://www.kickstarter.com/pr…
As I explained above, in response to one of your other comments, Wacom digitizers work very differently and are independent from resistive and capacitive digitizers. This is how dual-digitizer systems can tell touch and pen apart.
The reason for wanting to be able to differentiate between them is the “touch to navigate, pen to create” interface paradigm that hasn’t been heavily utilized outside of a select few Tablet PC apps (OneNote 2010, for instance) and maybe the upcoming HTC Flyer. A proper setup would have the user scrolling and zooming to the desired area, then just writing with the pen, then panning somewhere else with fingers, then doing more editing with the pen-no need to change modes or tools. It’s seamless and intuitive, at least to me.
Apple may be able to pull this off without changing the base iPad hardware, but it will require a very specialized capacitive stylus not much unlike the one they patented recently. The iPad’s capacitive digitizer will be used for positioning, so the precision won’t touch Wacom, but palm rejection and pressure sensitivity could be accomplished by putting sensors around and in the pen nib/tip, then communicating the readings from those sensors via Bluetooth. (Palm rejection is triggered simply by bringing the pen near the iPad’s screen, and a sensor detecting that fact and telling the iPad to switch to pen input mode, only registering input from the pen’s pressure sensor. The problem is making the pen proximity sensor only engage when near an iPad screen…)
Of course Apple would make their own pen input APIs. They’re not bound to legacy software support like they would be with the Mac OS.
What Wacom would provide is just the digitizer hardware. Apple would simply present a new API specially designed for pen input that any iOS developer could use if desired. If they go along with those capacitive stylus patents and make an actual product out of those as well, they could have those work under the very same API, I’m sure. Shouldn’t matter what digitizer hardware is used so long as the system can tell when a pen is in proximity to the screen and how much pressure is being applied to the nib.
yes these 10 inch tablets are simply too big to be mobile devices. i dont want to walk around holding the ipad all day, it would strain my wrists.
but the problem is the ipad wasn’t designed for stylus input. there isn’t any hand writing recognition, no speech to text software. It was designed for just touch input. just getting a stylus for the ipad doesn’t work
Perhaps I’m stretching my imagination here, but perhaps it would be possible for Apple to upgrade the precision of the capacitive digitzers so it can recognise contact areas smaller than a finger. I’m not hardware expert so perhaps I’m just suggesting a load of rubbish, but it seems possible since Apple are good with shrinking stuff, so they could tighten the precision.
As for palm rejection, it would just be a case of the screen software detecting a large surface area being pressed which isn’t moving much compared to a finer touch point.
On the subject of the pen stylus pointy thingy, I can imagine third party manufacturers taking advantage of those iPad magnets to keep it in place when people have finished with the pen.
The impetus would be on app developers to come up with their own hand writing recognition software. It would be a pain for them sure, but then even if Apple provided their own API someone would always make their own which in their view is better.
It may be possible for capacitive digitizers to have greater precision. I just haven’t seen them yet. Perhaps it’s seen as unnecessary when they’re just going to be used with fingers, but if anyone has the clout to convince the part suppliers otherwise, it’s Apple.
Palm rejection is a tricky issue…sure, it could notice a strange, large touch point that doesn’t move much and a much smaller pen point nearby, but if the palm touches the screen first, it might register improperly as a pen input. I had this problem with Penultimate when trying out an iPad shortly after its release, though they’ve revised their palm rejection implementation since then.
One workaround would involve analyzing any touch points for half a second or so before determining whether it’s a pen or palm, but that could interfere with the nuances of quick pen input.
The easiest solution is just to have different systems for pen and touch entirely, but that means a hardware change. A potentially expensive one, given how much of a price premium Tablet PCs have over conventional notebooks. (My guess is that Wacom charges a fairly high price for their Penabled digitizers, and that cost gets passed onto the consumer.)
No, there isn’t any support page yet for this specific topic, but the accelerometer depends on the iPad actually moving to detect acceleration [by definition]. If the iPad is stationary and can’t move in the direction force is applied [ie, by your fingertip], the accelerometer must [if calibrated properly] return zero.
U mad?
Fuck You. Its people like that make me hate Apple. Stupid fanboy trash.
Mike – you seem to get worse with every one of your stupid articles. MSFT is run by a bunch of morons (although they have a lot of bright people working for them) and you look to them for innovation? Putting the two together is an oxymoron. MSFT didn’t invent Kinect – they bought the technology. There are already products out there that support pens on apple devices. You truly show your colors when you talk about iTunes on a frik’n PC!!!!! Get a Mac! And Surface?????? ROFLOL!!!!!
This. Plex is better than XMBC and is integrated into all Apple devices including iOS and Apple TV (jalibreak required for ATV).
Hey moron – it is a word used frequently in marketing and business.
Who the hell are you a troll for?
Try Note Take HD. It is a very good notepad app. I use it exclusively for note taking now.
Try Note Take HD. It is a very good notepad app. I use it exclusively for note taking now.
How can a word be a “better descriptive term” if the word simply doesn’t exist? a good descriptive term would be one immediately understood by many. The whole point of a descriptive term is to make others understand what it is you are saying. Using a word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary hardly promotes understanding. It does however quite successfully lower the credibility of the whole article. How can anybody be expected to have faith in the veracity of an article if it includes non-existent words.
So you are stating that frequent use of the incorrect makes it correct. Excellent. Which fine on-line institution did you get your degree at?
Your forgetting the amount of work Apple has to do to get the open source projects they use on the rails (give it some direction) and make something usable of it.
Your also forgetting that Apple upholds the licensing model and sometimes even adopts the projects.
J.
1. game center
2. Not a good idea. Use your iPhone or iPad as a remote.
3. Good one. You can buy third party pencils. But they lack the most important piece of a pencil: its sharp point. Precision writing like you do on paper can only be done if you can see the tip of the pencil and it has to be very small to be effective. I suspect that such a small piece of conductive material isn’t recognized by the current iPhones and iPads because its simply to small to be recognized as input. So this means the touch screens must have a a much higher input resolution be used in this way.
4. & 5. The app stores now united in one program (iTunes) will be split up in the same way as is done on iOS (iTunes (music store), App store and iBook store). I suspect that the backup and iOS install service of iTunes will disappear too because future versions of iOS will be able to update and backup via WiFi sililar to aTV and Mac OS X devices.
The apps for the three (or more) stores can be very simple and based on the web interface.
As for device recognition: Apple uses ad-hock WiFi networks for that (Lion and iOS 5.0). No need for cumbersome and expensive Surface stuff or even RFID.
J.
“Gamecenter is by no means remotely close to what Xbox Live offers. Period.”
The point is that ‘something like it’ is already in place (and can be extended enhanced etc.)
“Using Remote is still using a remote or did you fail to understand that he meant having a device that used a camera based motion tracking system to navigate on screen without a physical device in hand?”
Bad idea with a room full of people making gestures. As bad as voice control.
J.
“So you are stating that frequent use of the incorrect makes it correct.”
Actually it does make it correct. Language is alive you know.
Shakespeare would have been seriously hampered if he hadn’t invented words to better express himself.
J.
“2. Microsoft bought the Kinect hardware but developed the software in house. You know, the actual brains of the thing? Apple had an opportunity but passed.”
To my knowledge this isn’t true. Kinect is sold as a complete product to MS and only needed to be integrated into MS and others existing products (so games must be adapted to be able to use it …).
So all the hard work (hardware and software) was done by the Israeli.
J.
.. or stealing Xerox’s code. But Apple did hire some key Xerox software engineers who implemented the windowing system.
But I wouldn’t call that stealing, that’s hiring.
J.
Oh, no doubt. I’m not saying Apple is evil. I just think they “repackage” a lot from the FOSS community. It made me question the authors intro statement. That’s all.
Well weren’t you just the brightest bulb in your class you pompous blowhard. Here’s the definition for that “invented new word” as you called it. Do try to get yourself an education. And seriously, go find something meaningful to do with your life.
productize – v : to take a capability – a new service, product or product feature – that the company has provided to a single customer or a few customers on a custom basis, and turn it into a standard, fullytested, -packaged, -supported and -marketed product offering of the company.
or this one:
Verb
productize (third-person singular simple present productizes, present participle productizing, simple past and past participle productized)
To modify something to become suitable as a commercial product.
Actually, I’ve got several apps that do voice recognition and handwriting recognition.
I have a very good note-taking app that I can use to write, and it types very accurately what I write with my stylus… (It doesn’t work well at all with my finger).
I also have Dragon Dictate on my iPhone that recognizes speech very well and transcribes what I say.
Unfortunately, neither of these tools will replace what is quicker for me… typing and editing.
As well, some people may not be aware that the iPhone/iTouch does have voice recognition for a small set of commands to control your phone while you are preoccupied or driving a vehicle. I can dial the phone, call a contact, or control the iPod functions with just voice. And, it works almost 100% of the time.
Additionally, the functionality in the OS allows for very sophisticated apps to be developed.
I dont’t think Apple wants to integrate something into the OS that isn’t fully developed or reliable, and the handwriting recognition and voice recognition technologies just aren’t good enough yet.
Look at it this way, when a multimillion dollar IBM computer (that played Jeopardy recently) doesn’t have voice recognition, that would be a sign that voice recognition still has a long way to go!
Now, if I could get the Watson/Jeopardy AI system on my iPhone, then I would be very happy… but unfortunately, that required several dozen terabytes of ram, and something that doesn’t fit in my hand yet.
A lot of people tend to forget when Apple used to implement technologies before they were ready, like the Newton. They had handwriting recognition in there, that was really quite good and they got raked over the coals for implementing it because it wasn’t perfect. Even the CEO at the time was heard to say he couldn’t use it for daily use… so why did they release it??
Apple consistently gets berated for not having everything “built-in” to the iphone/ipad, but I would venture to say I have yet to see a better system in a phone or tablet… including all of the prototypes i’ve seen coming out this year.
Hmm apple do copy……. Konfabulator and Lite Switch spring to mind immediately.
LOL! These are all patented features dumbass. Microsoft would sue them into oblivion. Then again, lawsuits are probably coming from all the features Apple stole from WP7 and claimed as their own.
Apple has stolen more ideas and products, and called it innovation, more than any company on earth.
I recently came across this item http://www.kickstarter.com/pro… and thought about our conversation @NamelessFragger:disqus
Funny how fanboys(euphemism for macf*g) claim Microsoft steals from apple but then they turn around and tell apple to steal from Microsoft, supporting OUR argument. Fanboys are so hypocritically stupid it’s mind boggling.
I’ll buy a Mac when it can run 90% of the programs out there and isn’t 2x the price for 1/2 the power
its just as powerful, runs just as many programs, unless you have oracle/ms project on your personal computer, which you don’t, costs 20% more, and is 5 times more reliable
freerange- there would be no kinect if MSFT didnt invent the technology. & what do u have against surface? Mac is hard to switch over to, ugly & old. Surface is old, yet its still considered an amazing device, except by moronic idiots such as yourself.
totally agreed to everything you wrote there thanks for sharing =)