PBS | I, Cringely Digital Hubris: Apple's Tablet Computer Might Finally Be That Link Between Your PC and TV

PBS | I, Cringely Digital Hubris: Apple's Tablet Computer Might Finally Be That Link Between Your PC and TV: "Apple Computer has been decidedly absent from the tablet game. In part, this has to do with the failure of the Newton, which will always be associated in the mind of Steve Jobs with his former friend and nemesis John Sculley. 'Real computers have keyboards,' Steve has said a zillion times, and he'll mean it right up to the moment he changes his mind.
That moment appears to be coming soon.
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For Apple, doing a tablet really isn't much of a gamble. Macs still dominate the graphic design market despite Adobe's recent switching of allegiances to the Windows camp. The graphics market, which already absorbs a lot of Wacom tablets for drawing on Macs and PCs, can easily support Apple-sized volumes of high-end tablet computers. Give artists a big tablet screen to draw on, add wireless networking and good battery life, then throw this all on top of a powerful and easy-to-use OS, and Apple can be assured of at least breaking-even. They will become must-have gizmos in graphics departments everywhere. It's Apple's BMW strategy all over again, and virtually guarantees at least modest success.
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The tablet PC killer app for the mass market is functioning as a digital hub, a general concept both Apple and Microsoft have been pushing for a couple years. It's the idea that your computer ought to control your TV and your stereo and your VCR. The only problem has been that there isn't a good way to link these things all together, and even if we do, that digital hub isn't anywhere near your TV, at least not yet."