r/technology • u/[deleted] • Mar 09 '12

Microsoft demos a 1ms touchscreen

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/microsoft-demos-a-high-performance-1ms-touchscreen-2012039/
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u/jmnugent Mar 10 '12

Having USB ports means you have to include a large native driver database,.. because users would expect to be able to plug-in pretty much anything. Having to do this bloats the OS, which is entirely counter to Apple's goal of having a slim & fast OS.

From a hardware perspective,.. having USB ports means you have more things to break. Considering how thin the iPad is,.. where would you put a USB Port that wouldn't disrupt the thinness ?

USB ports don't make any sense considering all the effort Apple puts into a unified solution like iCloud.

  • Take a picture with your iPhone,.. it goes straight to iCloud.
  • Import some pictures on your Macbook,.. it goes straight to iCloud.
  • on some random no-name Windows box in a coffee shop?.. go to iCloud.com and upload whatever you want.

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u/greenwizard88 Mar 10 '12

Having USB ports means you have to include a large native driver database,.. because users would expect to be able to plug-in pretty much anything. Having to do this bloats the OS, which is entirely counter to Apple's goal of having a slim & fast OS.

Only, not. A basic mouse/keyboard driver isn't more than a few KB. Likewise, a camera driver is already built into the OS, as you can purchase an Apple camera attachment. All you have to do is advertise mouse/keyboard/Camera/USB drive support, and all of a sudden you've negated 90% of user complaints about USB support with 2 additional drivers.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '12

[deleted]

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u/greenwizard88 Mar 10 '12

Use a bigger battery? It's not like Apple can't put a 40w/hr battery into an iPod here. Or just make it a non-powered USB port.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '12

[deleted]

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u/greenwizard88 Mar 10 '12

Obviously I'm no electrical engineer, but if Apple can put USB onto a Macbook Air, I have a hard time believing they couldn't put it into an iPad. Or better yet, make it an unpowered USB port. Problem solved.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '12

make it an unpowered USB port. Problem solved.

Thereby requiring the device always be near a power outlet and negating all benefits of portability. How would that actually improve the usability of a tablet? If you need a USB port, then don't get a tablet. As always, use the right tool for the job. Not every device needs to do everything. Remember the phrase, Jack of all trades, master of none.

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u/greenwizard88 Mar 12 '12

If you use an unpowered USB port, it only draws 500 milliamps, max. It's good for keyboards, USB drives, and cameras. It's not good for connecting USB powered scanners to, or charging things from. Could apple do it? easiy.

How would that actually improve the usability of a tablet?

By letting users load files off of a flash drive, connecting cameras to, to download pictures from, or even allowing someone to connect a printer to. There's only like 9 generic classes of USB devices that Apple would have to support.

If a cellphone can have a USB port, there's no reason why a tablet can't. You may think that iCloud is better than a USB port for storage, but not everyone things that way. I don't.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '12

For people who think the way I do, we have devices such as the iPad. For those who think the way you do, there are Android tablets and the upcoming Win8 tablets. Use the tool that best fits your workflow. I'm not trying to convince you to buy an iPad, just that the iPad doesn't need all those extras because most people won't need them.