Turns out, Apple's veil of secrecy applies internally, as well. Former engineer Edward Eigerman spoke with Bloomberg News this morning about the atmosphere at the company before a major product launch—turns out, it's not all wine and roses.
Eigerman has a unique perspective on the extreme lengths Apple goes through to prevent leaks, having been fired for accidentally slipping software to a client a week early.
The upside is that only a very few people in Cupertino know what's actually going to be announced today, so they're as excited as the rest of us! The downside is that they're also likely in a debilitating paranoiac state. But, hey, you take the good with the bad, right? [Bloomberg via Cult of Mac via 9to5 Mac]
Turns out, Apple's veil of secrecy applies internally, as well. Former engineer Edward Eigerman spoke with Bloomberg News this morning about the atmosphere at the company before a major product launch—turns out, it's not all wine and roses.
Eigerman has a unique perspective on the extreme lengths Apple goes through to prevent leaks, having been fired for accidentally slipping software to a client a week early.
The upside is that only a very few people in Cupertino know what's actually going to be announced today, so they're as excited as the rest of us! The downside is that they're also likely in a debilitating paranoiac state. But, hey, you take the good with the bad, right? [Bloomberg via Cult of Mac via 9to5 Mac]
The reason Windows tablets have sucked is that they've crammed desktop interfaces onto tablets. Assumedly, the Apple tablet's magic is in the interface. So it's funny that Apple's secret tablet from over 14 years ago made the same mistake.
The Newton was still in production. But what Apple secretly pitched to select medical centers over a decade ago wasn't a Newton. It was a 10-inch-or-so tablet, running an interface that was much, much closer to the full desktop Mac OS—Mac OS 8 at the time—modified with pen input. Though pitched to the medical market, it was a general-purpose computer that was in the advanced prototype stages. It never shipped. (Much like another ancient Apple tablet.) That's the story, according to one of the few medical personnel who saw the monstrosity.
Imagine something like this, but not quite as swishy.
After this Mac OS tablet was apparently killed in the night, we wouldn't hear about another tablet until after Jobs returned, talk of Inkwell in 2000—the pen input software ultimately built into OS X—with the word of a "tablet" first emerging in 2003.
Apple's still interested in medical IT applications, actually, one place tablet PCs have actually managed to gain traction. Last year, it quietly partnered with Epic Systems, one of the major electronic medical records companies, to test software on the iPhone for accessing patient medical charts. Perhaps less than coincidentally, Apple execs have supposedly been spotted making visits with some frequency to Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in LA, to talk about a new device, and how the hospital might use it. An Apple tablet would make for one very fancy clipboard.
The reason Windows tablets have sucked is that they've crammed desktop interfaces onto tablets. Assumedly, the Apple tablet's magic is in the interface. So it's funny that Apple's secret tablet from over 14 years ago made the same mistake.
The Newton was still in production. But what Apple secretly pitched to select medical centers over a decade ago wasn't a Newton. It was a 10-inch-or-so tablet, running an interface that was much, much closer to the full desktop Mac OS—Mac OS 8 at the time—modified with pen input. Though pitched to the medical market, it was a general-purpose computer that was in the advanced prototype stages. It never shipped. (Much like another ancient Apple tablet.) That's the story, according to one of the few medical personnel who saw the monstrosity.
Imagine something like this, but not quite as swishy.
After this Mac OS tablet was apparently killed in the night, we wouldn't hear about another tablet until after Jobs returned, talk of Inkwell in 2000—the pen input software ultimately built into OS X—with the word of a "tablet" first emerging in 2003.
Apple's still interested in medical IT applications, actually, one place tablet PCs have actually managed to gain traction. Last year, it quietly partnered with Epic Systems, one of the major electronic medical records companies, to test software on the iPhone for accessing patient medical charts. Perhaps less than coincidentally, Apple execs have supposedly been spotted making visits with some frequency to Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in LA, to talk about a new device, and how the hospital might use it. An Apple tablet would make for one very fancy clipboard.
On the cusp of the Apple event, new patents have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, showing a proximity-sensing multitouch screen amongst other features. It could be a patent for today's product announcement, or The Future.
Patently Apple dug up the goods for 13 patents, all of which have been authorized by the USPTO for Apple to use, some years after Apple first filed for them. The timing is worth considering, with the closeness to today's event either being a deliberate hype tactic for whatever's announced today, or coincidental (and for future products.)
The 13 patents include an Automatic Detection of Channel Bandwidth, Color Management System,
Apparatus and Method for Rotating the Display Orientation of a Captured image, a
Video Conferencing System, Interface for Providing Modeless Timeline Based Selection of an Audio or Video File, but none are quite as telling as the Proximity Detector for Tablets.
On the cusp of the Apple event, new patents have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, showing a proximity-sensing multitouch screen amongst other features. It could be a patent for today's product announcement, or The Future.
Patently Apple dug up the goods for 13 patents, all of which have been authorized by the USPTO for Apple to use, some years after Apple first filed for them. The timing is worth considering, with the closeness to today's event either being a deliberate hype tactic for whatever's announced today, or coincidental (and for future products.)
The 13 patents include an Automatic Detection of Channel Bandwidth, Color Management System,
Apparatus and Method for Rotating the Display Orientation of a Captured image, a
Video Conferencing System, Interface for Providing Modeless Timeline Based Selection of an Audio or Video File, but none are quite as telling as the Proximity Detector for Tablets.
For today's tablet launch, I just wanted to remind you how Apple launches new products. The gadgets themselves are, eh, they're OK, but the showmanship—that's the magic.
For today's tablet launch, I just wanted to remind you how Apple launches new products. The gadgets themselves are, eh, they're OK, but the showmanship—that's the magic.
A MacRumors forums member has posted a screengrab of the iPhone Dev Portal which updated the terms and conditions yesterday (supposedly) with the line "need to update this for the 27th launch." So there'll be a new iPhone OS, hmm?
MacRumors forum member Withnail explained the screengrab he pasted on 'The Apple Tablet Rumor Roundup' thread:
"I had let my developers license lapse, and I wanted to renew it today. I noticed that the portal went down for a while with the "We'll be back soon!" placeholder.
When it was back up, I went in and renewed my account. I thought the Ts&Cs were a bit funny."
This adds further weight to Flurry Analytics' claims just days ago that they detected up to 50 different Apple Tablet-like devices testing apps, traced back to the Cupertino HQ of Apple. They were apparently running OS 3.2, suggesting the tablet would merely be a larger version of the iPhone, and not a completely different platform. [MacRumors forums via 9 to 5 Mac]
A MacRumors forums member has posted a screengrab of the iPhone Dev Portal which updated the terms and conditions yesterday (supposedly) with the line "need to update this for the 27th launch." So there'll be a new iPhone OS, hmm?
MacRumors forum member Withnail explained the screengrab he pasted on 'The Apple Tablet Rumor Roundup' thread:
"I had let my developers license lapse, and I wanted to renew it today. I noticed that the portal went down for a while with the "We'll be back soon!" placeholder.
When it was back up, I went in and renewed my account. I thought the Ts&Cs were a bit funny."
This adds further weight to Flurry Analytics' claims just days ago that they detected up to 50 different Apple Tablet-like devices testing apps, traced back to the Cupertino HQ of Apple. They were apparently running OS 3.2, suggesting the tablet would merely be a larger version of the iPhone, and not a completely different platform. [MacRumors forums via 9 to 5 Mac]
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The reason Windows tablets have sucked is that they've crammed desktop interfaces onto tablets. Assumedly, the 
On the cusp of the Apple event, new patents have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, showing a proximity-sensing multitouch screen amongst other features. It could be a patent for today's product announcement, or The Future.
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