These are my thoughts about the upcoming Apple tablet….
Fingerworks patents will be used… I think that the UI will get gestures control… but Apple need to standardize them… there are too many degrees of freedom in gestures… as in all apps on a Mac the Command key + S is the equivalent for the Save command… they need to have standard (and simple to learn) gestures for common commands.
I don’t think that the hardware will be so important… the problem with a tablet form factor is interaction (main gestures should be used with only one hand, you need the other to hold the tablet, using it as a notebook would be not so handy) and the hope of everyone is that Apple has solved the problem…
I think that the tablet will have some sort of iPhone OS inside (4.0?)… because with a new version of the iPhone SDK Apple could provide an easy way to make existing iPhone apps work on the tablet… and the AppStore ecosystem is a big plus for a new product.
The guidelines to build iPhone UI controls are tight because of the small space available (3.5″ is not so much). The guidelines to build apps for a device that is probably in the 10″ range cannot be the same… I think some concepts like navigation bar and other UI elements will require a redesign… or perhaps they will be changed in something else.
The rumors said Steve Jobs was happy with the development of the tablet… I think he was happy also with the development of the Cube… I only hope that what Apple will put out meet the expectations.
Less serious thoughts:
The incarnation of this patent could be used to handle gestures without touching the tablet or to have a front facing camera for video chat (ok this is a bit too much…)
