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Apple Placing Orders for Tablet Components? Connectors, 10-Inch Screen

With rumors swirling of both a 7" and a 10" device, also with conflicting release dates (early 2010, late 2010), does anyone think it's possible Apple might be releasing TWO devices? A 7" device that is basically a larger, more feature filled iPod Touch, and a 10" device that could be more of a "Pro" device, meant to be a netbook rival, that runs a modified full Mac OSX? There are so many "confident" sounding rumors on both screen sizes that just maybe BOTH sizes are coming, with different intended uses.
 
chris975d said:
With rumors swirling of both a 7" and a 10" device, also with conflicting release dates (early 2010, late 2010), does anyone think it's possible Apple might be releasing TWO devices? A 7" device that is basically a larger, more feature filled iPod Touch, and a 10" device that could be more of a "Pro" device, meant to be a netbook rival, that runs a modified full Mac OSX? There are so many "confident" sounding rumors on both screen sizes that just maybe BOTH sizes are coming, with different intended uses.
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Yeah now that does make some sense. Apple could release the pro version at the start of the year and the 7" towards the end of the year. However again they would have to be careful not to crash too much into itouch sales
 
itsbarry said:
In other words, let Apple do the thinking when it comes to the tablet. They have better ideas than you, trust me.
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I hope so. Right now I can't see any point in myself owning a tablet, when I have a perfectly fine iPhone and iMac.
 
zed2 said:
Yeah now that does make some sense. Apple could release the pro version at the start of the year and the 7" towards the end of the year. However again they would have to be careful not to crash too much into itouch sales
Click to expand...
no... the 7" should go first
i suppose.

:apple:
 
chris975d said:
With rumors swirling of both a 7" and a 10" device, also with conflicting release dates (early 2010, late 2010), does anyone think it's possible Apple might be releasing TWO devices? A 7" device that is basically a larger, more feature filled iPod Touch, and a 10" device that could be more of a "Pro" device, meant to be a netbook rival, that runs a modified full Mac OSX? There are so many "confident" sounding rumors on both screen sizes that just maybe BOTH sizes are coming, with different intended uses.
Click to expand...

There was a rumor on this site, several months ago, about Apple going with 2 devices. A 6" and a 10", one would run iPhone-like OS X, and on would run a Mac-like OS X. But since then, we've heard less and less about the 6" version of the rumor.

I'd be quite happy if they did a 6" iTablet (based on iPhone OS X) and a 10" MacTablet (based on Mac OS X with tablet optimizations). The only people I can expect NOT to be happy about it would be Axiotron.
 
chris975d said:
With rumors swirling of both a 7" and a 10" device, also with conflicting release dates (early 2010, late 2010), does anyone think it's possible Apple might be releasing TWO devices? A 7" device that is basically a larger, more feature filled iPod Touch, and a 10" device that could be more of a "Pro" device, meant to be a netbook rival, that runs a modified full Mac OSX? There are so many "confident" sounding rumors on both screen sizes that just maybe BOTH sizes are coming, with different intended uses.
Click to expand...
That doesn't make much sense. If the devices are powered by ARM processors (which is assumed at this point), we will not see OS X running on them. OS X is a great operating system for traditional computers, but it is not optimized for touchscreen input. It's also a little resource heavy for a low-power device such as the iPhone/iPod touch and the power requirements of a tablet device. ARM isn't really the right processor architecture for running full-blown computers.

Next, the marketplace has largely shunned the 7" screen size in favor of 10" devices (i.e., netbooks). While I doubt this tablet would be a netbook competitor, it seems unlikely that Apple would make their initial foray into this area with a 7" device seeing has the marketplace prefers the larger screen.

Also, there are no rumors as of yet saying that Apple had ordered 7" parts. My guess is that they have a 7" device on the drawing board, but it may or may not see the light of day. Heck, there are probably prototypes of a wide range of screen sizes and types in some lab in Cupertino.
 
cvaldes said:
it seems unlikely that Apple would make their initial foray into this area with a 7" device seeing has the marketplace prefers the larger screen.
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Don't forget that all these devices have to drive regular desktop OSs and apps. Running OSX on a 7'' screen wouldn't be fun, either, but the iPhone OS and apps have already been designed for limited screen estate.
 
cumbersome OS naming needs refirm

cvaldes said:
If the devices are powered by ARM processors (which is assumed at this point), we will not see OS X running on them. OS X is a great operating system for traditional computers, but it is not optimized for touchscreen input. It's also a little resource heavy for a low-power device such as the iPhone/iPod touch and the power requirements of a tablet device. ARM isn't really the right processor architecture for running full-blown computers.
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But the iPhone OS is OS X underneath - kind of OS X lite! And it runs pretty fast on the iPhone's ARM processor.

This proves how awkward Apple's OS naming has become as it's product range increases.

I think they need to emphasis OS X and then rename thus:
OS X Mac 10.7
OS X Mobile 3.x
etc
 
kzin said:
3) you can't do true multi-tasking on it (don't give me the old saw "you don't need true multi-tasking, task switching is good enough!" ... you'll make yourself sound like a 1994 Mac OS fanboy)
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Why are you assuming that the next version of the iPhone OS running on a new device with a different processor won't be able to do true multi-tasking?
 
7" vs 10"

Could it be that there will be a 7" and 10" touch device? 7" being the tablet and 10" being the desktop peripheral (keyboard)?
 
What i want more than a tablet is a touch screen macbook pro. I would still like their to be a tablet but a macbook pro with a touch screen, keyboard, and track pad seems more usable to me.
 
123macman said:
What i want more than a tablet is a touch screen macbook pro. I would still like their to be a tablet but a macbook pro with a touch screen, keyboard, and track pad seems more usable to me.
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It gets very fatiguing touching the screen when it's positioned like in a mbp.
 
MizuInOz said:
I have a company with over 250 employees and we are 100% Apple. (they a;; have iPhones that the company pays for).

If this puppy is real, I can see using it to replace laptops in meetings and exchange ideas with electronic white boards, share notes, use the "cloud" in our system to amalgamate ideas and then pass the leapfrogged ideas back and forth AND all real time. And do it with handwriting recognition that automatically converts to - or let's say marker type face (a little dig at Apple there - worst type face for the iPhone - IMHO).

I have been hoping for a tablet form for a long time. We use a programme called LabAssistant and I have always said that it would work best on a tablet - like a clipboard.

Price points and form factor (screen size) will not be a consideration as long as we can use a real OS not an paired down version of 10.6

There are some benefit to a tie in to the Apple Store (iTunes) but I do not think that is limited to a particular OS. It (the store) is a transfer agent that allows you to download and then install in multiple formats and OS's. Think about it.

Cheers from Downunder.
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What will you do if it comes with a non-multitasking version of the iPhone Os?
Would you still be able to deploy it and work around a non-full version of OSX?
 
Bubba Satori said:
What will you do if it comes with a non-multitasking version of the iPhone Os? Would you still be able to deploy it and work around a non-full version of OSX?
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I think you'll see mac os touch, with a beefed up UIKit and at least OS-level multitasking, but not mac os snowleopard. Mac os apps will not work, even with a recompile, but iPhone apps will.
 
itsbarry said:
Who wants a "less powerful" laptop? That's like saying "I want a less faster Lamborghini". The MacBook Air is less powerful than the MacBook, and people complained about that. Why make something to run desktop applications weak as hell?
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A tablet will most likely be geared toward media consumption, which doesn't require an immensely powerful processor. This has the advantage that battery life will be longer AND the tablet will be cheaper.

That's why I think people expecting to do photo editing using photoshop, Wacom like functionality etc will be sorely disappointed. In addition it will probably not run Crysis..

What it needs to be able to do is snappy surfing, downloading and editing of emails, playing HD movies full screen, playing music, render e-books, and run apps from the app store. It can do that with a moderately powerful processor. For everything else that needs more power, I'm sure apple will point you in the direction of it's iMac, Macbook Pro and Mac Pro lineup.
 
Maybe not the best name, but . . .

Apple better make sure they deliver the iSlate on time! Otherwise, the media will have a heyday with that name.
 
peterdevries said:
What it needs to be able to do is snappy surfing, downloading and editing of emails, playing HD movies full screen, playing music, render e-books, and run apps from the app store. It can do that with a moderately powerful processor. For everything else that needs more power, I'm sure apple will point you in the direction of it's iMac, Macbook Pro and Mac Pro lineup.
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These rumors remind a little of the iPhone days. The speculation about a phone from Apple divided people into those who yawned at the idea of a new phone (me) and those who thought anything from Apple would be revolutionary.

I also remember Job's introduction: he said Apple was launching three revolutionary products -- a widescreen iPod with touch controls (big applause); a revolutionary mobile phone (huge applause); and a "breakthrough internet communicator" (very little applause).

I would argue that the third item was the truly revolutionary one, but people didn't see it at the time.

Any tablet Apple introduces has to do something new -- maybe not immediately, but eventually. A tablet that simply surfs the web or uses iPhone functions will be, like the Air, simply a new way to do old things.

A tablet, though, that replaces print products (which is what Hearst and Condé Nast are betting), or let's you watch TV remotely (bye bye Slingbox) or things I can't even think of . . . that is the one that will succeed.

One thing for sure, Apple has to make sure it has processing power. If it is under powered the tablet will be looked on the same way many people see Netbooks -- nice idea that doesn't work for them.
 
Eidorian said:
It does seem that Apple is ordering a lot of displays for products that haven't been released yet. :rolleyes:
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If you believe all of the display-related rumors over the last two years, they've already purchased enough 7" and 10" displays to put one in every home in the U.S.

Or, it could just be that some of these rumors are completely wrong.

I wonder which it is.
 
so cool

I agree, there has to be a pony in this raft of rumors somewhere - is this device finally the one that actively observes it's owner's eyes (and things in the environs that it is pointed at) in anticipation of service?
 
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