Details on Apple's Portable Mini-Tablet Device?

[MacRumors]

A Seekingalpha article claims to have details on an upcoming Apple portable device which is described as a touch screen device. The details are claimed to come from "several different sources" over the past 6 months.

- Touch Screen device Larger than iPhone featuring one distinguishing button or depression on each side
- 5.2" 800x480 pixel touch screen by Balda
- No keyboard, multi-touch only

SeekingAlpha accepts outside article submissions and it appears that this author is simply a new contributor. And the content of his article appears to simply be reprints from his own blog. As a result the information should be considered unreliable until further data can be collected.

The concept of a Apple Mini-Tablet device is not new with first claims coming from Appleinsider in September. At that time, Appleinsider claimed that Apple had an ongoing PDA project described as an ultra-thin slate about 1.5 times the size of the existing iPhone with a high resolution (720x480) screen.

Article Link

[Eidorian]

So should I buy an iPod Touch, iPhone, this bugger, or stick with my laptop?

[Kilamite]

I want one.

[Grimace]

Considering the low resolution, I wouldn't touch one.

[Wayfarer]

Small can be nice and practical, depending on one's needs.

Bring it on!

[Rocketman]

Apple Tablet Not Nano? (ATNN). This might be a strong BUY.

Rocketman

[plumbingandtech]

I'll take one too.

(and I have an iphone.)

[VolceOntra]

Mac Mini?

2nd gen?

[Wayfarer]

Then again, could this be the all new revolutionary "MacinTouch™?"

[Mydel]

Yeah sound cool, but I wanna see first what can it do.

[Kilamite]

Originally Posted by Grimace

Considering the low resolution, I wouldn't touch one.

Considering the size of the device, the resolution is perfectly adequate.

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by Grimace

Considering the low resolution, I wouldn't touch one.

I'm hoping that if only one rumor between this and a subnotebook come true, it's the subnotebook. I do have to say, however, that 800x480 is surprisingly usable for web browsing and daily activities, after almost two months with my Eee. There are a small handful of sites that are a nuisance with it, but if I judge by how often I'm sitting at the Eee and get up to use my iMac or another readily available desktop instead to browse because the screen frustrates me, that almost never happens.

I have somewhat more mixed feelings about 5" though.... that resolution at 7" is already fairly high-DPI. For using it more than in passing for surfing, 5" strikes me as too small.

[AmbitiousLemon]

I have no doubt that Apple is experimenting with handhelds of various sorts - in fact we know for a fact they have been doing so since long before the iPhone was around. I do find the tablet/touchmac/pda the least probable of the various rumors surrounding MacWorld releases though.

I don't expect any radicle new products at MacWorld. I think we'll get a small portable that, while very cool, is still very much just a portable. We'll hear a bit about the iPhone and perhaps see some previews of apps being developed by special third party partners with the sdk. There will be talk of how well leopard is selling. But the main piece will be those new form factor bitty laptops. People expecting anything too far out of the box will be disappointed.

But Apple will continue experimenting with small form factor machines (as they have been for many years now), and as the touch and iphone lines mature we'll see successes of the experimentations trickle down into these existing handheld and small form factor product lines.

[Faye]

Hmm, an Apple N800. I wonder what the pricepoint for that would be?

[Daveway]

I don't see this holding any weight. It's way too niche for Apple to bring out. A 5.5" touch device. Are you people serious?! Its too big for pocket or purse and too small to warrant its own case as a commodity product.

An Apple tablet would have to enter the 12" region to be of any use as an actual tablet people would use to compute regardless of resolution.

[igazza]

haha i dont think so .

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

Interesting but I don't know if I would purchase one or not. It would need a heck of a lot more functionality than the iPhone for me to consider. The 5.2" screen does seem a bit small but once again I'll have to see.

[desenso]

PLEASE do not release such a piece of garbage. Not a useful device.

[MonkeyClaw]

Originally Posted by desenso

PLEASE do not release such a piece of garbage. Not a useful device.

Thats right, hell i used one last week and damn it sucked soooo terribly, who would want to buy one.

Good lord, it amazes me how negative so many people on here are.

Anyways, I'd love to see a micro tablet like they are describing, I could see many uses for something like this, especially after getting an iPod touch and using multi touch on a regular basis. Its just damn cool!

[desenso]

Originally Posted by MonkeyClaw

Thats right, hell i used one last week and damn it sucked soooo terribly, who would want to buy one.

Good lord, it amazes me how negative so many people on here are.

Anyways, I'd love to see a micro tablet like they are describing, I could see many uses for something like this, especially after getting an iPod touch and using multi touch on a regular basis. Its just damn cool!

So what are some uses for this that an iPod Touch is not suited for?

[nine9nin]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

I really believe this has to do with in car navigation gps it would rock if it had winmax I think this would complement the iphone perfectly for hands free calling and no opticaly drive would make a lot of sense for a product like this google map on crack anyone?

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by desenso

So what are some uses for this that an iPod Touch is not suited for?

???????????????????? bigger screen. Start from there.

[::Lisa::]

Wow, nice. Bring it on.
I just bought mysef a iPhone, but I'll take one of these too

[lazyrighteye]

Originally Posted by ::Lisa::

Wow, nice. Bring it on.
I just bought mysef a iPhone, but I'll take one of these too

Congrats on the iPhone, Lisa!

While I agree with others that any MWSF hardware announcements will be less than revolutionary (thinner, ALU MacBook Pros would still = cool), I still suspect we'll see a new device in '08. Something between an iPhone and a MacBook. More UMPC than PDA or laptop.

I love my iPhone. Love my MacBook too. But there are many times something larger than the 'phone and smaller than the 'book would be very desirable.
We'll see...

[desenso]

Originally Posted by plumbingandtech

???????????????????? bigger screen. Start from there.

That's not a use. And if anything, a larger size makes the device less useful.

Here's the only three times that I think I would use a 5 inch "tablet" described in this thread: in bed, on the sofa, or while traveling. That's it. Not in the office where I have a computer, and nowhere that I would bring my laptop. And unless it's less than $300, which it certainly won't be, I'm not buying a device that makes it possible for me to read my blogs while I'm lying in bed.

Something that large isn't pocket friendly. Now I have to carry a bag around to take it with me. I'd rather have a fully-functional ultra-portable than something with a touch screen. The iPhone is great and all, but it's a crutch and a phone, not a tablet computer. Something that blurs the line between the two is useless to me, and I'll be pissed if it steals the thunder at MacWorld, because I have bigger expectations.