Jimtac.com

There’s a lot of talk right now about the much rumoured mythical Apple tablet computer, and with all of this talk comes the rampant speculation. With random speculation people also come out saying that they have all kinds of “leaked information” from “an undisclosed Apple employee”. Well I don’t have any of that, but I do have my wish-list for what I want this device to be/do… Here goes:

1. A high quality remote desktop client. I want it to be able to smoothly control my Mac mini/MBP/PCs running VNC, even over back to my mac.

2. The keyboard should take advantage of the Apple patent filed which makes uses the whole hand for text input on touchscreens. I want it to bring up a small keyboard when one palm is on the screen, and a larger split keyboard when both hands are placed on the screen. I can’t stand not having a backlit screen when in a low-light environment, which is why I have one of my MBP’s as my couch computer, instead of one of my less pricey computers. A glowing OLED screen would solve it like my iPhone does.

3. I want it to have an iPhone-esque home button that when pressed once brings up the rear facing camera, once more the front facing camera. Aaaaaaand… when it’s held down for 3 seconds it launches the iPhone OS to run apps and the home button works like it does on the iPhone, until held down for 3 seconds again.

4. Total connectivity: USB, bluetooth, Wireless N, The MB Air’s remote drive, 3G SIM slot (not locked to a carrier), an SDXC slot, a dock connector for syncing/charging/using iPhone accessories [I said wish-list, not spec sheet]

5. A 10 hour battery…

6. An AMOLED screen.

7. The ability to control my AppleTV/Front Row by using their native interfaces while still watching content on them.

8. Essentially a 10.1″ MacBook Air with a touchscreen where the keyboard and trackpad are, minus the clamshell.

9. A 32/64GB SSD option

I know why I want one, and it’s the same reason that I wanted  a netbook, and an iPhone before that, and even a laptop before that. I want a device that will allow me to do all of the tasks that I want to do while mobile, but that I don’t need a massively powerful computer for. I have a desktop PC for my work-horse type things like video editing, or gaming. What I want is something that I can carry and not have to open up, set on a surface, angle the screen, position myself to type, and then get down to launching a browser and pulling up a website, when [like on my iPhone], I press a button, slide to unlock, open the browser and pull up the website. Sure, sure… I know, I know… It’s very much a “first-world problem” but hey, I live in the first-world, and anything that helps me maximize what little down time I have anymore, is something that I crave.

I use my iPhone for just about everything, but even with mobile safari being as amazing as it is, it’s just not the same experience as a larger screen… Plus, it can’t do flash… [fail]

Since my phone goes everywhere with me, and my computer does not, especially with the iPhone being “good enough” 75% of the time for most casual computing tasks, I have less of a NEED to buy this device, but if it hit’s a fair number of my wish-list, I’ll certainly buy one, and enjoy it.

Here’s hoping,

Tim