If you can imagine an iPad the size of Apple’s largest iMac, with the iOS multi-touch interface plus the power of OS X, then you can imagine the next generation of computing.
You’ll use it tilted at an angle on your desk like a drafting table. Or, you’ll tilt it up for TV or presentations, or flat for using it as a table. Or you’ll use it as a coffee table or a kitchen counter top. The point is: You’ll use it.
Apple has a gazillion patents for their version of this technology. Microsoft has already promised a consumer version of Surface. The third generation of desktop computing (after command line and GUI generations) is coming.
But Google has already announced the operating system for their giant desktop multi-touch PC of the future.
Google announced and shipped an upgrade to Android (version 3.1), plus announced a future version of Android that will ship later this year (code-named Ice Cream Sandwich). Together this news represents the first desktop consumer multi-touch system ever announced. The now-shipping version has resizable windows for widgets and USB peripheral support, wireless control of household appliances and the ability to accept Kinect-like gesture commands.
These capabilities are ho-hum for 10-inch tablets, but killer features for desktop touch tablets.
More importantly, Google says the version available later this year will work seamlessly on all screen sizes. They say it’s the end of Android fragmentation.
The question for the comments area below is: Will Google’s hardware partners beat Apple to market with desktop touch tablets in the same way Apple beat Google with mobile tablets?
Go here to read the details.
(Photo courtesy of Evoluce)
