“On June 30, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals various new advanced vicinity sensors coming to future iPads,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “Apple’s patent makes it clear that vicinity sensors will be a tool that will fit into the enterprise quite nicely.”
“New vicinity sensors coming to the iPad include RFID, Infrared and Ultrasonic,” Purcher reports. “The latter utilizes advanced 3D scanning and imaging capablilities.”
Purcher reports, “The advanced sensors are designed to locate office equipment anywhere within an enterprise and could actually devise floor plans to properly located devices. Users will also be able to drag document icons to the printer or videos and/or art to a video projector for a presentation using Keynote or Power Point. Without a doubt, Apple is aiming to further advance the iPad into the enterprise.”
Read more in the full article here.
Hey Ballmer – you asshat. How’s that strategy of yours now? Can you just picture manufacturing and office environments with iPads all over walking down the halls, effortlessly synching and controlling based on embeded RFID style technology? Loading docs have this tech all over for shipment to track incoming deliveries. These are often proprietary, verticle-solution systems. sure, they work fone, but then you engineer a database to take this data, feed in to to a accounting system, x-over to engineering, etc.. our just wave it in front of an iPad. RFID-like iPads (and other IOS devices..?) all working in an iCloud. Fsck Office 365…who needs it, other than…you.
Apple is eating you alive on the consumer side, landed on the enterprise shores, and is working its way inside. We read the RIM employee letter – when is an MS letter going to appear? In addition to you, anyone and everyone in your corproate-ring-of-mgmt-stupidity needs to go….
…but wait. Apple’s not done taking all your cheese just yet, so nevermind. Please stay…for as long as THAT takes. Long on Apple.
He’s the thing Uncle Fester; if you put on a costume disguise, and waddled in to any coffee shop – in Redmond WA too…say the Tully”s in Redmond Town Center, not far from your office. [here’s a Google map..sure they’re evil, but Bing sucks…http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Tully's+redmond+wa&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Tully's&hnear=0x54900cad2000ee23:0x5e0390eac5d804f2,Redmond,+WA&ei=7cMMTvHBGpCssAPG5-yfDg&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&ved=0CBMQtgM%5D
you’ll see all the Apple products you can stand. Ask what seperates them from others – like your – products. It’s the user experience. Below the leadership at RIM – employees know this. I’m willing to bet your employees do too. Recall all those iPhones your employees used to get you to pay for? Maybe you don’t. Lovely.
Now, I’m not the first to warn you of this, and likely not the last, and to make it easier on you, since I live nearby, I’ll be there tonight. Look for the big-ass 17″ MBP with the glow…both from the log and my smile.
May you continue to serve the equally stupid board of MS now, and in to the future. Like the sight of RIM imploding? Get used to it. You’re on track to experience it from the inside. Many of my neighbors and friends work there, and are desperately trying to leave. Many have, to Amazon, Boeing and other employers…but you knew that because you’re recently sponsored ’employee incentive’ programs to retain talent.
RIM was crushed by both Apple brilliance, and RIM leadership morbidity. RIM has less $ to fall back on, and you see the results. But with $$$ and a stupid board, you’ll continue (I/we hope) until it is too late to correct. Google/IBM/HP/Oracle will be there to pick up the backend (recall; they all hate you), and Apple will be there for the users and consumers – both corporate and individual.
MDN; time to start the DCW for MS after RIM flames out?
Ballmer’s fucked. He just doesn’t know it yet. Microsoft’s Office 365 sucks balls. In fact the whole Office 2010 suite sucks balls. Ribbon is an abomination that should have been aborted before it was born.
I must be the only person on the planet that actually likes the ribbon interface. Most of my co-workers complain about it too.
For some reason I totally click with it. I can work much faster in 2007/2010 word or excel than I can in the 2003 versions which is the ‘standard’ everyone here at work misses.
I’m with you Dude. The people who hate the Ribbon are the same people who hate Macs because they’d have to learn something new.
Anyone who thinks the old “button soup” menus were better than the ribbon probably preferred System 9 when OS X debuted.
The people that hate the ribbon are the people that actually use it, those that are far more productive than you. It is the infrequent or just plain incompetent users that find it ‘better’.
I really like the Ribbon interface more. When it came out I thought, “Hmm, maybe Microsoft is learning something.”
That said, Microsoft isn’t looking so good when it comes to retaining market share. Apple will gobble up a ton of market share as tablets become a more ubiquitous platform in enterprise.
How’s that for vision?
@jmk
That was a seriously good rant.
RFID etc., used for this stated purpose is great. Just make sure that actual owners of the devices can turn the stuff off as they desire. No fracking RFID chips or other market tracking garbage is going to run my life.
“Users will also be able to drag document icons to the printer”
Ahhhhh, reminds me of the desktop printer in the classic Mac OS.