If they model these after the iPhone/iPod Touch then this is a loser - I spend 1/3 of the time I am looking at the screen trying to wipe of fingerprints

Hiphopopotamus

Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! This is precisely what I want to see them make. I'd use the living daylights out of such a gizmo. It would be perfect.

Sadly it looks like it's not due out till we loose our carpel-tunnel prone wrists to evolution.

Miranda Kali (Desperate But Not Serious)

apple can suck my fingers, especially since in thirty years we'll all be fingerless from all the electrical exposure.

chanmoss

Yes also with the hands.

Who did they use as a model, Gollum?

strider_mt2k

Those hands make me sick.

CarmenLovesHerNewCanonDSLR

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Must be some mac accessory you have to buy in order to use the emate to impregnate online. I hope it's USB 2.0.

aliskaba

If Apple does the interface for this even half as well as the iPhone, I might even consider buying my first Mac. I'm not a fan of OSX's current appearance or workflow, but the iPhone's is nearly perfect. If they made this tablet's OS look more like the iPhone's but more feature rich and more customizable than OSX, I'd be on that like white on rice. ;-)

Sean Robertson

@aliskaba: Uhm, yeah, let me know how that works for ya..

Jon B.

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity:

i guess if you look at it with your eyes squinted....it kinda looks like a booty....but idk...lol!

beufort67

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Where do you insert... Um you know what?

aliskaba

Wow. Whoever drafted that has clearly never actually looked at their hands.

bysty

Would I find it hard to use an Apple multi-touch device seeing as I have normal human hands ?

RedEye

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: If Steve Jobs could pitch it, I'm sure my fellow members of the Steve Jobs religion will gladly follow his wisdom.

My brethren! Let us mate on the internet! I-Mate! Now includes MP3s to help with impregnation!

aliskaba

@beufort67: @aliskaba: I think the emate made it's debut in "Batman & Robin". I think the films suckiness brought down everyone in the movie, including the emate.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@aliskaba: That's what the Stargate Fleshlight was for, but it didn't take. Seems people are still stuck on this antiquated notion of togetherness. Pffff

Kaiser-Machead's Apostrophe's Power

Touch typing on a touch screen would be weird (even with freakish frog hands that lead in to strange tree trunk arms)

DorkRawk

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Is the e-mate some kind of reproductive computer that connects you online to mate with someone through the internet?

Wow, being able to impregnate people across the world from my sofa. What a cool age we live in.

aliskaba

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity:
the e-mate or the iMate? either way im screwed ;)

beufort67

@Jon B.: Yes, it appears Apple's patent authors struggle with hands. Which poses this question: How much would you have to pay for a lawyer that could win your case if you filed for the same patent with better looking hands, then calling it a completely different system because your patent requires the use of normal hands?

alexmetal

@hario: They're technical drawers, not animators.

I can't wait for the e-mate to roll out!

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@hario: I don't know. But it looks like Steve Jobs is going to infect the world with some kind of plague that will make us all have creepy looking fingers.

I never knew you could get a patent on plagues. Pretty cool.

Maybe we should start a business, plaguesrus.com or plaguesforsale.com

aliskaba

those fingers scare me o.o

Jon B.

iPad

Los Reed

whats w/ the freaky fingers in all these patent filings?

hario

will it have copy and paste?....(sarcasm)

beufort67

Well I can't be too excited about this, since the first picture suggests that it won't exist until superintelligent frog people have taken over the earth.

Kaiser-Machead's Apostrophe's Power

I want one!!!

xoticlad

Apple multi-touch tablet a.k.a The finger Mangler

Enochrewt

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: That was quite possibly the funniest thing I have read on this site. I needed that this morning...thank yoU!

hahaha

efenili

/me runs to register the domain name "hixmofo.com"

WB

Why can't they just release a multi-touch compatible usb or bluetooth touchpad so I can add it to my iMac?

nomayo

Apple copying Microsoft! The plot thickens!

Joseph

I was going to make a comment about those hands and how they're all I care about in spite of this tablet I've been waiting for. But nuts to that, I'm way too late.

mildretard

As the professional hand model for this particular draftsman, you all have made me very sad. :( And as you can tell, it's not that easy for me to wipe away the tears.

92BuickLeSabre

@Hiphopopotamus:

i have found that if u just let all the fingerprints build up...the greasy film that ensues will allow for a slicker screen to slide your finger on, and then you can just turn the brightness up so you cant see the grease trails!

beufort67

Pretty sure this is the patent application. Also, it wasn't so much leaked, as released on the set published date.

getgreg

Did apple just patented the onscreen keyboard?

k2001

The idea of a touch keyboard makes me wonder. I have trouble typing on an iPhone. I'm getting better, but if I try to go to gizmodo on mobile Safari, I'm likely to end up typing "hixmofo.com"

falandil

"handy with drawing" lol

Human Bomb

Somebody at Apple needs to take a figure drawing class... ug :P

duuktoprock

<-- makes my super intelligent frog day...

johnthevulcan

i don't understand it - what is the real patent here? that you press a button on a virtual screen? where is the innovation here??? this is so dull, the whole idea of patents for such obvious things is dull! i want a patent for gravity, for a steering wheel in a car and a system that stops the car when a vertical metal piece is pressed with a shoe....

Bodypainter

The hands remind me of ET or the gray aliens from the X-files.

With all the money that Apple is making you think that they could afford to pay a half-decent artist.

ljj

@aliskaba: I believe the words you're looking for are floppy disk, hard drive, memory stick or the ever popular firewire.

robot-shmobot

Did anyone notice that not only are the fingers pretty creepy, but there come out of the arm, i.e. no hands? What type of "people" is Apple hiring these days?

Razor1973

*sobs into his hands*

92BuickLeSabre

I like the mutant gecko fingers in the first pic.

JEmlay

@k2001: I think Apple just patented the on-screen multitouch keyboard.

.endejas.

I want a Mac Tablet!

Crash Override 777

I think that we are misinterpreting the patents. This shows that Apple (along with the aliens) are conspiring to alter our genetics to produce new modified hands.

DeadWriter

Attack of the Frog People!

travisbean

So, if you bought this "tablet computer" and your hands started to look like that drawing, could you sue Apple?

maven2k

Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a frozen screen should be pretty nice...

ups

It better have 1,024 Pressure Levels and other wacom features so that we can draw on.

alexpr

Do'h! Dont hate on the the poor guy drawing that. After touch typing for hours on a hard flat non-tactile surface your fingertips would be totally swollen too.

TheLostVikings

I don't get it: Tablets are usually meant to be carried around and used. One would find it difficult to carry a tablet in one hand and type with two hands. Even if you're carrying it in two hands, it'd be tough to type with all of those fingers at once (instead of the thumbs; iPhone-style).

In fact, the reason the hand illustrations look so fugged up is because that's the insane carpal tunnel you get from trying to use this thing on a desk. It'd be great if you can attach a wireless keyboard and stand the table up to be used as a monitor, though.

I really don't think I want this any more than I want the WIndows-based tablets. Nope, the iPhone is the perfect size for a tablet-style device.

DW

I, for one, welcome our new iFrog overlords.

JazzBri

Ars just noticed this story and has posted one of their own. same pics. cheers.

socalboomer

@ups: Don't think Ctrl+Alt+Delete works on a Mac anyway :P

In either case, if it has USB ports, which I'm sure it would, you might be able to plug in a keyboard for input as well.

I hope this is Apple's answer to the Modbook.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

Those hands are nightmarish and make me not care what the product can do.

This disgusting distraction must be why patent officers approve so many obvious patents - they can't stand to studiously look at the product and just let it on through.

unspellable

If that's what happens to my fingers using a mac tablet then......aw hell who am I kidding, give me one, deformed fingers be damned.

BiZarRroBALlmeR

I wonder if they'll support either USB or Bluetooth keyboards. You know, for a leaning curve. There's gonna be a lot of people who are rather attached to physical keyboards.

And perhaps a stand to hold the tablet upright for regular-use purposes.

jfreel

Will this require humans to go to the Apple iSurgeon to get those iHands?

qwertyfreak69

first pic looks like an alphasmart. anyone remember those?

dannydutton

What it looks like is a Tandy 100. I was working for Radio Shack in the early '80s when it was introduced.

mwainer

@dannydutton: What it looks like is a Tandy 100. I was working for Radio Shack in the early '80s when they introduced it.

mwainer