iPhone Started as 'Safari Pad'?

[MacRumors]

The New York Times's John Markoff reveals that the iPhone began life as a "Safari Pad":

Apple’s multitouch technology began life not as a cellphone, but as a notepad-sized skunkworks project internally dubbed Safari Pad, run by Tim Bucher, then Apple’s head of Macintosh hardware. To his credit, Mr. Jobs seized on the technology and morphed it into the iPhone.

This adds a bit of information to a revealing Wired article which reported that Apple engineers had spent about a year working on a Tablet PC before being redirected to the iPhone project.

Recent rumors have suggested that Apple may be reviving a mini-tablet project with a device 1.5 times the size of the current iPhone/Touch. The rumored Apple device is expected to also incorporate Apple's touch OS X that currently powers the iPhone. Adding to our expectations, Apple executives have described their mobile devices as the first "mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform" with a belief that the new Software Development Kit (SDK) will broaden this platform even more.

Article Link

[notjustjay]

Bring it on.

[xbigman15x]

Is there some speculated price range of the tablet?
Additionally, what is the purpose of the tablet?

[David G.]

Mobile safari pad, eh. It's kind of funny, I'm at a restaurant now posting on my iPod touch. That ability is just awesome.

[Kar98]

Apple may be reviving a mini-tablet project with a device 1.5 times the size of the current iPhone/Touch

What, a device Apple users have been begging to be allowed to buy from Apple of a decade? Why would Apple offer something like that?

[macintel4me]

Nothing really new in this article.....

[ntrigue]

O! Are you suggesting the Tablet I've waited a decade for is rumored to arrive?!

[cowboy fan]

Originally Posted by ntrigue

O! Are you suggesting the Tablet I've waited a decade for is rumored to arrive?!

They all start out as rumors.

[Zwhaler]

Very interesting, but I don't think we will see a tablet this year at least. Perhaps at next Macworld, and I have a feeling that if we see a tablet like computer, it won't be a tablet, but something radically different yet fimilar enough to be considered a tablet (just like apple does with most of their products )

[xbigman15x]

Personally, i think the iphone is a much more ideal product than a tablet used for, well probably what the touch is used for. No wonder Jobs switched them to the iPhone.

[neven]

Originally Posted by Kar98

What, a device Apple users have been begging to be allowed to buy from Apple of a decade? Why would Apple offer something like that?

"Allowed"? You make it sound like Apple had the iPhone, multi-touch and all, ready to go in the 90s, but they were too busy rubbing their hands in villainous laughter to rain it down on you.

I'm sure dozens of different mini-computers landed on Steve's desk and were promptly returned because he hated them. Even the current iPhone, great as it is, has many hurdles to jump before it becomes a full-on tablet device.

The ease with which one can photoshop the Apple logo onto the picture of a 6" all-screen device nowadays fools many into thinking that Apple can obviously make such a product easily. It's not just hard to do; it's hard to know just *what* to do.

[mikky05v]

i like the idea of a pad laptop

doubt i would purchase one unless they get real creative with the prices..

[MacGeek7]

Originally Posted by mikky05v

i like the idea of a pad laptop

doubt i would purchase one unless they get real creative with the prices..

i think the term you're looking for there is "tablet"

[LizKat]

Bets on whether handwriting recognition is involved?

And if so.. then... still no stylus?

[asdavis10]

Alright Apple, get those engineers and programmers back to work on a tablet Mac.

[Diode]

I highly doubt this ... but what do I know?

Could be a perfect platform for the intel Atom chip.

[AoWolf]

We heard rumors of this incredible mobile apple device showing up in back rooms of obscure apple events here and there. I wonder if these devices were indeed real and became early iPhones.

[neven]

Originally Posted by LizKat

Bets on whether handwriting recognition is involved?

And if so.. then... still no stylus?

You can have that today with Ink if you use a pen+tablet. Try it on a Cintiq 12WX and you'll get an idea of what a 12" tablet with that type of input would be like. I'd really hate it if that was my main method of text entry - it's clumsier than T9, let alone iPhone's keyboard.

[iJesus]

Originally Posted by LizKat

Bets on whether handwriting recognition is involved?

And if so.. then... still no stylus?

Have you read the rumors on the patents apple has for hand writing recognition?

You simple pretend you have a stylus in your hand and the screen recognizes it as such.

[tuneman07]

IDK about all this tablet talk, but when I first saw the Iphone I thought it would have been cool if it was a bit bigger. I know everyone is obsessed with small but as a guy who wears baggy pants quite a bit the Iphone could easily probably be 2 times as big and still be just as portable. I just want a bigger screen- maybe a fold out Iphone??? that would be cool.

[Gherkin]

Maybe all the recent rumors about an Apple Tablet coming out are just referring to this now defunct R&D project that evolved into the iPhone?

[tirerim]

Originally Posted by Gherkin

Maybe all the recent rumors about an Apple Tablet coming out are just referring to this now defunct R&D project that evolved into the iPhone?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Though the rumors have persisted, despite the iPhone proper probably having started development at least two years ago, so maybe not.

[ezekielrage_99]

It really wouldn't surprise me if we seem an Apple PDA within the next few month especially after Intel has announced the release of Atom.

[Demon]

Just get 3G on the damn iPhone first! what country still uses EDGE for data??!?

[Demon]

Originally Posted by ezekielrage_99

It really wouldn't surprise me if we seem an Apple PDA within the next few month especially after Intel has announced the release of Atom.

i would be in complete shock if that happened in the next few months. They can turn the Touch and iPhone into a decent PDA with the SDK. A brand new device is not practical at all. (in the next few months)