Well, William, sighted people like larger screens. A tablet can include a larger battery, faster processor, and more storage. A big touch screen makes apps possible that don't work well on small screens, such as apps that let you draw with your finger, highlight passages in books with your finger, and complex apps that need to display more than just a few little icons at a time. A tablet can be thinner and lighter than a laptop, since there is no need for pieces like a keyboard, track pad, or the palm rest areas that are part of a clamshell laptop design.
In short, working a touch device like the IPhone is easier for most sighted people to learn than even a mouse-driven computer interface, but an IPhone or IPod Touch is too small and under-powered to replace a computer for many tasks. So the tablet will be easy to use like an IPhone, but provide the computing power that the IPhone lacks. If you type a lot, then you'll probably want an external keyboard. Most of the time, though, people don't type much more than short fragments, and on-screen keyboards are fine for that. Plus, keep in mind that the wants and preferences of sighted people don't necessarily line up with what a blind person considers when deciding on the merits of a computing device. A tablet may or may not be a good way for a blind person to compute. I think that many sighted people will like it, though. It wasn't very long ago when most blind people would quickly dismiss any idea that a blind person might prefer using any device with a touch screen interface. Certainly, we all don't prefer the IPhone, but many people use it just fine. Who knows what using the tablet will be like. I'll wait until I've used one before drawing my conclusions. I'm sure that it will be fascinating, even if I end up not choosing to routinely use it. Bryan -----Original Message----- From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionar...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Mann Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 3:23 PM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: apple tablet Maybe the tablet will be more like Apple's version of a netbook. Yes, you can do a lot on an Iphone, but I believe it has some limitations such as only being able to run one program at a time. That's OK for a phone, but maybe not for a netbook type device. On Jan 20, 2010, at 1:28 PM, william lomas wrote: > hi all > > > I heard apple are going to release an apple tablet. what is the point of > this? one can buy an ipod touch and or iphone and use safari, email, have an > ipod, play games, have business applications etc, so is there really a need > for a tablet device? > Would be interested to read constructive ideas as to why a tablet > would be needed Will > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
