the information we’re hearing is that Apple is thinking much larger for another version of the product, maybe all the way up to the 15.4″ size that it currently uses for one version of the MacBook Pro. If you think that would be way too big for an iPad, we’re also hearing that this other tablet would be quite a bit different from the one revealed last week. Namely, it could run a version of OS X much closer to the traditional version that runs on Macs.

Seems weird that they would come out with a tablet that runs OS X.  Unless the OS was radically different, I don’t see them slapping multitouch on Snow Leopard (like Microsoft has done with Windows 7).  Traditional Desktop OS’s have never been popular on a tablet device.

I think it’s very possible in the near future to see larger applications of multitouch capability from Apple, but not running on traditional OS X.

The iPad.  It’s a large iPod Touch.  It doesn’t run OS X.  It doesn’t multitask.  It doesn’t have a camera.  It’s not a typical computer. It’s a new way to think about a tablet experience.

Lots of folks have been criticizing the iPad for what it isn’t, instead of praising it for what it is.  What it is, is a great user experience.  A user’s experience of a product goes way beyond the functionality of the software and dives deep into the usability of the software, the design of the hardware, the design of the context in which you use your hardware, and how all of these things are brought together into one product.  All of these things have been thought out exceptionally well with the iPad.

The software serves a purpose.  Lets take for example the operating system that runs on the iPad.  The iPad runs a version of the iPhone and iPod Touch OS.  This operating system has been in use for almost three years now, and it works great for a touch scenario.  It’s an operating system custom tailored to be touchable.  How fitting it is then to use this operating system instead of Snow Leopard, an operating system that is not designed for touch.

The software is usable.  There are some decisions that have been made by Apple that don’t provide a higher functioning of their new iPad, like the absence of multitasking. This is a huge pain point, but this decision was a decision that was made to make their software more usable.  With apps running in the background things can start to run slow, battery life can no longer be measured correctly, app performance isn’t guaranteed, developers have to worry about how their application behaves while running in the background, the OS needs a new metaphor for task switching and task killing, and down the rabbit hole of issues we go.  I’m not saying multitasking shouldn’t be there, I’m just saying that it’s not there for a reason.  When they figure out a way to guarantee a perfect user experience given all the issues multitasking creates, they’ll give it to us.

The hardware is well thought-out.  The shape, size, weight, battery life, and bezel around the iPad’s screen were all created with function in mind.  How are people going to use this product?  How are people going to hold it?  What about a two hand experience using their thumbs?  What about a one hand experience with a finger?  Given the uses for this product, how long are people going to be away from an area where they can charge their device?  What’s the multitouch experience going to be like?  The capacitive touch screen is extremely high fidelity compared to other solutions.  The more accurate the touch, the less you notice that you’re using a computer and the more natural the experience feels.

Apple’s products create an experience beyond the software.  With their operating system they’ve made the statement that “hey, this isn’t your laptop – it’s not a replacement for the exact same experience that you can get on a laptop or a desktop machine.”  This forces us to use this product as it was designed – away from the computer, away from the point and click of the mouse, maybe even away from the high-stress multitasking madness of a typical computer experience (It’s hard to concentrate sometimes with 50 browser windows open).  They’ve thought about an experience that other people haven’t.  They know what users want, but they also know what is possible, and create their experience accordingly.

So what’s the function then?  What’s the purpose?  If it’s not a laptop, and not a smart phone, then what is it?  When do I use it?  What’s it for?

I would like to call the iPad a peripheral computing experience.  It’s a device that enhances and/or creates an experience beyond your typical lap or desk bound computer scenario.  I place smart phones in this same category, but I believe the iPad provides a different experience than a smart phone.  An experience that we’ve never experienced before.

I’d like to hope that we’ve learned over the past 15 years that tablets suck at being normal computers.  They’ve all failed miserably at mass adoption and have only lived on in niche applications.  The iPad is a new direction for the tablet that can actually work.  The iPhone and iPod Touch exist as proof that the iPad will work.  Apple knows this better than we do: we don’t want a tablet that can do things the same way a computer can.

The iPad fills a gap.  It fills the gap between what a computer CAN do, and what a computer is inconvenient to use for.  Lots of things can be stuck in this gap: photo browsing, reading (on and off the web), watching videos, listening to music, playing games, sharing articles or sharing information to name a few.  These are all things that CAN be done on a computer, but experiences that can all be improved upon – experiences that can take advantage of multitouch capabilities.  Hence the iPad.

There are a few more images over at Engadget.

There seem to be a lot of tablet announcements coming out this year at CES 2010, hopefully this doesn’t steal any thunder from the announcement Apple is bound to make at the end of this month.

Got your attention?

The sensor device that is used has an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and can detect full body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition.   I’m surprised how well the sensors interpret the physical movement – it seems pretty accurate!

I would love to see the sensor device reach beyond gaming and make it’s way into productivity applications.  It would sure beat capturing gestures with a webcam like we’ve seen others doing.

For more complete coverage of the demonstrations of Natal at E3, check out my buddy’s new blog, Atom6. He’s got some more videos posted there as well.

The biggest downfall to me is the resolution.  at 2880×900, it’s hardly a very high resolution.

iPhone OS 3.0 available worldwide June 17th

My weapon of choice this year for the Keynote stream was http://www.macrumorslive.com.  They have a good stream text feed, and an even better streaming pictures feed.  The pictures updated more often than the text, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they caught every slide…  I also listened to the audio stream at http://live.twit.tv.

Without further ado:

iPhone 3GS!

• Same external design, all new internals
• Faster than the 3G.  2.1x faster loading of messaging,  2.4x faster sim city load, 3.6x faster for viewing an excel attachment , 2.9x faster for loading the NYTimes app.
• Brand new Camera: 3 MP, autofocus camera.  Also captures video (finally).  30 fps.  640×480 video.  You can scrub and edit video and send it straight to YouTube, MMS, email, and MobileMe too.  These features are also available for developers to use in their applications.
• Voice dialing
• Digital Compass
• support for Nike+
• Better battery life: 30 hours of music playback, 10 hours of video playback, 12 hours of 2g talk, 5 hours of 3g talk time.
• $199 is the price for the 16Gb.  32Gb $299.  Black and white colors. 3G is still available for $99 dollars!!
• 3GS iPhone is available June 19th.

iPhone OS updates:

• there are 100 new features… Cut/copy/paste/undo (works across all apps), landscape mode in Mail/Notes/Messages, MMS support (send and receive photos/contacts/audio files/locations) in Messages app (29 carriers in 76 countries will support MMS at launch — AT&T not until later this summer), search (mail — even on server, calendars, media, notes), spotlight (search everything in one place — first page of the home screen).
• rent and purchase movies from your iPhone!
• Parental Controls
• Tethering: Share iPhone’s internet connection with your computer (but I’m sure it’s going to be expensive…) Works wired and wireless over bluetooth. Seemless experience.  BUT AT&T DOESN’T SUPPORT IT!!  GARBAGE!
• Javascript is 3x faster.
• Inclusion of right to left languages and others.  Now support more than 30 languages in the iPhone OS.  One of the big advantages of a software keyboard.  They all have portrait and landscape mode keyboards.
• FindMyiPhone.  MobileMe users will be able to log in to MobileMe and find their phone if they lose it!  GPS location and everything!  It’s crazy.  Tons of awesomeness there.  You can play an alert sound from the webpage, and even wipe the data from your phone so that people can’t see the info you’ve got on it.  Then when you find it you can just restore the phone from a backup.
• Peer to peer connectivity over bluetooth!  Available in any application!
• Turn by turn directions and google maps can be integrated into any application.
• Push notification

Updated Laptops: MacBook Pro spec update and the starting price dropped $300.  They also added a 13″ MacBook Pro.

Expose has been updated (the dock at the bottom of the screen): The functionality is more like Windows 7.  You can click and hold an icon in the dock and Expose will show all of the app’s windows.  The same works for dragging things into an application – you can drag items to the dock, have the app’s windows pop up, and the drop it into the correct window.

Exchange 2007 (latest version) is now supported in Mail, iCal, and Address Book!  This is big for all the Mac users that work in large corporate environments that use Exchange. You can even see previews of Microsoft Office documents if you don’t have Office installed.

Microsoft is going to release a TouchPack for Windows 7 that will come bundled with the Retail version of Windows 7. This pack includes some multitouch applications, including some games.  Looks like it should be fun times at your nearest Win7 machine.

Zune HD Video Hands On from Gizmodo on Vimeo.  Click the link to go to Gizmodo’s page.  They have a picture gallery of their hands on experience with the Zune HD.

One thing to note – they didn’t show any multitouch interactions in the video… not sure if that means anything or not.

It looks pretty sweet, I’m not going to lie.  It looks a lot faster than the iPhone 3g from a CPU perspective.  I’m still waiting to hear about the development story though.  What is this thing running exactly?  The answer to that question is going to make or break my decision to the buy one for myself.

The Zune HD was finally announced officially by Microsoft on Tuesday. Here are the quick details:

• The Zune HD is targeted at the iPod Touch – it’s not a phone.  (Darn)
• The screen is slightly smaller than the iPhone (480×272 vs 480×320), but so is the device.
• The screen is OLED.
• Multitouch is enabled, but they didn’t give details about how well it would work.
• Zune HD will play HD content through an adapter only – not onto the Zune’s screen.
• More details will be announced at E3.

There are three things that stick out to me:

• Microsoft said that the Zune HD is not a ZunePhone, and that they’re not building a ZunePhone. However, Microsoft is still working on a phone offering that will integrate into your Zune music.  This ties in with what Microsoft is saying about driving their Zune brand “deeper” into the Microsoft community.
• Zune HD Radio?  Cool.
• The development story for the Zune was unannounced, besides their statement about it running on a highly modified version of Windows CE – which really means the development story could like like anything.

More details will be announced at E3.