Imagine for a moment that Apple had come to market with a Microsoft Surface-style multitouch table, then take a look at these concept pictures of what it could have been. Forget workstations showing off blue screens of death, instead replace those thoughts with beautiful functional workspaces where placing your iOS device on the table could initiate an iTunes or iCloud sync.

The desk could sync with your Mac or potentially have a Mac built in, perhaps with a portion of the desk’s surface angled upward to serve as a display. Tactile keyboards could likewise be replaced by a digital touch-sensitive version (endlessly configurable to your preferences for individual apps), and any part of the desk’s surface could be cordoned off as a trackpad area. Files could be transferred easily between Macs, iPhones, iPads, and so on by sitting the devices on the desk and swiping file icons across its surface from one device to the other. Shared files could be passed between coworkers via digital inboxes, designated digital “trays” that collect documents sent from other iDesks. And of course, the desk would wirelessly sync to your iCloud account to keep calendars, contacts, and other data updated across all your gizmos.

Source: Mac Life via 9to5Mac

What didn’t we get from Apple during their 2010 special music event? The iPod touch line got an extremely decent refresh, as well as the Nano.   iPhone is getting iOS 4.1 next week with some newly added features and some much needed bug fixes. The iPad will be getting iOS 4.2 – in November, but I’m sure some of us would have liked to see it sooner. And we got an overhauled iTunes. I personally wasn’t expecting a whole new iTunes, so that was the surprise of the day for me. AppleTV was pretty underwhelming in my book (as well as Rene’s).  Click through to see what us here at TiPb would have liked to see and let us know in the comments what you would have liked that just didn’t make the cut this time.

iPhone

iPhone will be getting iOS 4.1 next week. Along with general bug fixes (proximity issues anyone?), you’ll get Game Center and some welcome additions to the camera. I know I wasn’t the only staff member excited by the edition of HDR to the camera, but I would have liked to see maybe some contrast and saturation settings added. I’ve especially noticed it on the iPhone 4, but sometimes pictures in low light settings come out a little too warm (yellow-ish) in my opinion. It would be nice to be able to tweak some settings. Game Center is a welcome addition, but I’m not crazy about the whole carnival-esque layout. I much preferred the original layout from the original 4.0 betas.  I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of iPhone.  There were rumors flying around of a new iPhone, but I think we all know better than that around these parts.  Apple is predictable.  As long as their current business model works, I don’t see them changing that pattern.

iPad

The iPad will have to wait for November for iOS 4.2 – next week would have been nice. Why the hold up? El Jobso really didn’t have a lot to say about the iPad at the event. He seemed a bit rushed. Deep down, I was really hoping to hear about a potential iPad refresh, but I figured that wouldn’t happen until January or so. Did you guys expect anything iPad wise that you didn’t get?

iPods

As far as iPods go, I really have nothing to complain about. I think the shuffle combines the best of both previous generations now. The Nano now has a touchscreen! It contains everything the previous generations had, but aligns better with its sibling product lines. Chad noticed the absence of video on the Nano. I don’t really know if that would both me personally, as I wouldn’t want to watch movies or video on that tiny little screen. To me, this is simply Apple positioning themselves in the market. If you want an iPod with video, you’ll have to step up to the iPod touch now. Makes good business sense to me. Only peeve I have with the new iPod line at the current moment is the back material on the Touch. For the love of everything Jobs, PLEASE pick a better finish that doesn’t scratch when you set it on a pillow? That chrome is just screaming “Scratch me!” How about a frosted material next time guys?

iTunes

iTunes 10! This was the one thing I was somewhat excited about today. I don’t get too excited about iPods since I have an iPhone, so I really have no need for one. Ping sounds like a good concept, but we’ll see if it will catch on. I also like the idea of top 10 lists created by your friends, but you’ll also have to be selective about what friends you have on there. I have friends who listen to death metal, and I don’t want that in my top 10 suggestions lists. To me, that doesn’t sound very intuitive. Some people would have liked to see cloud-based syncing or some version of iTunes in the cloud. We previously speculated that this was why Apple acquired LaLa. Maybe not?  I would have liked to see some more intuitive ways to organize content.  I love coverflow and sometimes even if you group albums the same, you see duplicates in different views.  More than anything, I wanted to see more fine tuned controls.  If anyone sees anything new in iTunes 10 as far as organization I haven’t found yet, let us know in the comments.

Apple TV

I pretty much have the same feeling’s Rene does on this one, so we’ll let him take it from there. But if you’d like to rant or tell us your thoughts, let us know in the comments. Needless to say, I’ll probably be getting one. That may sound odd, but I didn’t have the first generation, or any generation AppleTV. At $99, I can stream all my movies from my iMac to the TV and stop fiddling with burning DVDs or hooking up an output device. And iTunes rentals are cheaper than rentals from Comcast. I’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a new media device for our living room as we’ve been putting it off forever. I’d still have liked to see a LOT more features than what we got. Anyone else picking one up?

I also would have liked to see an update to MobileMe or something along the lines of adding new features.  Streaming would have been nice or the ability to store books or music wirelessly to your MobileMe iDisk.  Other than that, I didn’t expect that many “One more things”.

That about wraps it up, let us know all your thoughts in the comments!

Update: The Hulu Plus application [iTunes Link - Free] is now available within the App Store. We viewed some of the free content on a iPhone 4 over AT&T’s 3G network and it streamed flawlessly.

Today that rumor of Hulu introducing a premium paid service has come true as they have officially announced Hulu Plus. It will run you a cool $9.99/month and that will give you streaming access – via Wi-Fi or 3G – to entire seasons of shows that are already available on the free web service along with other programming that is not available on Hulu’s website. And the good news is it’s just not for iPads but rather every device in the iOS family – iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. There will also be future support for a countless number of other devices such as the Playstation 3 (July) and Xbox 360 (2011). If this sounds like your cup of tea be sure to sign up for the preview invite here.

How many of you are getting ready to do away with your cable or satellite TV service?

Video after the break!

[Thanks to all of you who sent this in!]

Continuing their all iPod Touch, almost no iPhone pre-holiday blitz, Apple has released a guided tour for the new, second generation device and its upgraded 2.1 firmware (available Friday for Touch and iPhone users alike).

The focus remains squarely on games. Sweating yet, Nintendo and Sony? But also shows off the new Genius feature. (Which we’ll be getting on the iPhone as well, right Steve?!)

(via TUAW)

It wasn’t MacWorld 2007, was it? Too much hype, too little delivery? Rumors of secret features and analysts wetting themselves over lower-margin product revelations set the bar too high? Or did Apple just decide to slip under it this time?

Either way, for iPhone lovers like we here at TiPb, Apple spared only about 10 seconds worth of attention. Highlights were limited to Firmware 2.1, which will be available Friday and include better battery life, less crashy apps, and… working 3G?!

Apple’s already made their money for the year on the iPhone, however, so it was time to pump the holiday purses: iPod Nano and iPod Touch. Read on for pics and the full roundup!

Kevin Rose must be smirking, see how several of his predictions came true, at least to some degree.

The Nano has the new/old Tall-Boy widescreen form factor, and comes complete with iTunes 8 compatible Genius music recommendations and playlists, and accelerometer, shake to shuffle, and more colors than a bag of skittles (no, I’ll never tire of that visual).

The Touch looks to be positioned directly against the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, with Spore and Need for Speed featured, along with built-in Nike+ integration, and the same Genius features as the Nano (and the iPhone, right Steve?!)

The Classic gets a one-size-fits all reduction to 120GB only, and the Genius features.

Updated: And iTunes 8, which will be available today, wraps it all together along with skim-able grid view, accessibility improvements, HD TV, the return of NBC (on bended knee?), trippy new Visualizations, and full on Pandora/Last.fm-style recommendations, as rumored.

[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Comment on this post -- or any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card!]

Usually we wait for This Week in Smartphone Schadenfreude to mock review the competition (such as it is), but if they bring the hype, we’ll bring the satire, special-edition style.

Samsung, Nokia (yeah, I’d forgotten about them as well…), and RIM (and RIM) have already sent in their iClones, and now it’s HTCs turn to make mid-2008 look like early 2007 all over again… Ludites and gentlemen, the HTC Touch Diamond.

(At least I think it’s the Diamond, they’ve pre-announced like 100 different Touch trademarks lately, so it could be the Pro or the Cruise or even the Cubic Zirconium for all I can tell…)

Speaking of 2007, as we all know when Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld and pulled the iPhone from his pocket, it’s form factor was exactly like every other Palm, RIM, and WinMob device out there, with a tiny screen, application independent tic-tactile keyboard, always unstylish stylus, and and OS and interface straight out of 2001.

Wait, no it wasn’t. El Jobso unveiled a revolutionary new device with a giant, hi-res screen, multi-touch input, and an interface the likes of which the industry had never seen before. But they (and we) have certainly seen it since — reflected funhouse mirror-like in almost every signature device from every company released post-iPhone.

Read on!

Now HTC does deserve some orientation-sensing, hardware-accelerated props (assuming they cough up non-crippled drivers this time). According to WMExperts.com and HTC CMO John Wang, they’ve replaced Pocket IE with Opera (imagine Dell doing that with Firefox on the Windows desktop…), improved on the default virtual keyboard to the point of earning an official Engadget “messy”, and very wisely done everything they can to hide Windows Mobile, even though the device sports the latest, greatest (all things being relative) version 6.1. (And boy must that have the furniture flying around Ballmer’s tiny office…)

Instead, they’ve layered on custom interfaces to “Multi-Touch Cover Flow”… er… single “TouchFLO 3D” their way through photos, put little green numbered dots to count down emails on their envelop icons, and in a myriad other ways joined the “inspired by Apple in Cupertino” crowd. Still, it’s actually, you know, a decent interface, and the animation is borderline gorgeous (or it would be if the demo unit didn’t sport the responsiveness of a 386 running Vista).

Want to do anything more than the slicken-ing veneer allows, however, want to tweak a setting to access the fabled power of the platform, and its straight back to Windows Mobile 6.1.

Surprise, surprise, if you pile whip cream atop a turd sunday, all that shiny sweetness is meaningless the first time you dig in and really take a bite.

The eponymous touch screen is the old school, resistance type (oh, stylus, where art thou?) but the paltry (and already Apple abandoned) 4GB internal storage capacity is probably sufficient, what with Microsoft creating and abandoning user-unfriendly content services like MSN faster than you can say PlaysNoMore. And it’s a good thing since there isn’t much to watch on that beautiful, if cramped, 2.8″ VGA screen, given the positively tiny 900mAh battery guaranteed to last through a full day of absolutely no use anyway. (For the truly masochistic, of course, a micro-SD expansion will allow an extra moveable part to break and the comforting knowledge that all pressure data is safely stored on something the size of a pinky nail — no chance of losing that! UPDATE: turns I miss-spec’d myself — HTC to consumers: no SD expansion for you! 4GB is all you get!)

On the plus side, however, at least HTC didn’t copy the iPhone’s hardware design. Nope, this baby draws straight from the Zune! Want to zoom a photo, just swirl(?!) your finger around the squirle!

I get the feeling that when Steve Jobs said it would take the competition 5 years to catch up to the iPhone, he was being uncharacteristically generous. While spec-for-spec the HTC Touch Diamond offers a few huge leap ahead in pure smartphone power, it’s horribly out-dated OS, lack of interface innovation, and design straight out of Microsoft’s failed X-Mas 2007 music player book is still too little, too late.

Like Nokia, RIM, Palm, and pretty much every other device maker on the planet, HTC really needs to get in the game, and that doesn’t mean just trying to throw as many specs as possible at a device and hoping some cohesiveness sticks (it never, ever does), or out-innovating each other in iCloning the iPhone. It means having a unique, cohesive visual from the get go, and it means out-innovating Apple. Sadly, the only one proven capable of either these days is Apple. (Soon to be witnessed yet again when they drop the all-but-announced iPhone 3G later this year.)

[Digg link]

Will the Diamond pull folks away from the iPhone?