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Apple Tablet Coming in 2010?

whychr said:
Let's think about the many other attempts from non-apple manufacturers to sell tablets and how they failed?

A tablet is so cumbersome to handle. How do you hold it, using your right hand? left? Place it in your lap? On the table? But then your view does not fall perpendicular to the screen. How would you type? Using both hands?

I am sure apple is smarter than that, and all their products have been innovative and kick ass, they wouldn't do just a tablet... maybe a two screen tablet/netbook using a touch screen interface that can be also used for a touch screen keyboard? I don't know?! But just a simple tablet would suck even if it comes from apple!

Anyways, I had to throw in my 2 cents...
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OK, this has been debated to death.. The problem with tablets up to now is that they haven't been done right. They have been based on Windoze, lacking right ergonomics, lacking real multi-touch interface, unsightly, and just plain pain to use. If there is one company that can do tablet right, it's Apple. Remember Newton in early 90s? It had a very loyal fan base, but the device was ahead of its time.

So I think there is a huge opportunity here for Apple, and they have the chops to execute this well.
 
Although how unlikley everything about the tablet idea is i think one main point about the e-reader is overlooked.
Battery life is a big deal and thus making reading books on a non-epaper screen pointless... many many new e-paper screens and lcd screen can be made VERY TRANSPARENT... so has anyone thought there might be a dual layered screen incorporated???? i mean it is plausable. and maybe even could drastically expand the battery life of the iphone or at least for certain apps like email reading/sending and chatroom type apps and of course ebooks. well. anyways. peace, love, and pretzels.

well, i mean a really trasparent epaper screen over the normal iphone (or tablet) screen.
 
I agree with a lot of the comments against a tablet. So many people buy a Macbook that don't really need all that it is capable of, but it is the cheapest Apple and the best looking/coolest/hippest laptop, so they get it and use it for word processing, presentations, internet, music, movies and that is it. All of this (and more) could be had in a tablet-esque device for $500-700, you will have many less people buying a Macbook not only because they have a cheaper device for their needs, but on top of that, it is the next hot thing.

Apple would really have to differentiate to make it work for them.
 
Alright then, screw waiting for Apple.

I'll blow $3000 converting my MBP to a Modbook Pro instead, because a $3500 MBP isn't already expensive enough. And you can bet if I do that, I'm going to be keeping it a while (and not buying Apple's product when it comes out).

This is getting ridiculous. Apple seems to be outright abandoning the graphics and design fields. Since we have no way to get an "absolute coordinates" mode on the trackpad, and we have this psychotic mouse curve, and wacoms intuos digitizer pens can't stop skitching out with OSX, there appears to be zero possibility of getting accurate interaction with our computers. Hey, a Cintiq display would be great, but then we can't use the cinema displays...

Really, really wonderful, for anyone who has to ever draw anything accurately.

wtf apple.
 
griz said:
This product falls right between a Macbook and an iPod. It certainly doesn't replace either.
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Of course not, but it takes some customers away from both. If Apple announces such a product nine months before release, some percentage of customers who would have bought existing products will sit on the sidelines until then.
 
JGowan said:
I can just picture the scenario that ensues:

S. Jobs calls T. Cook in a panic! "Tim, we have to get media all over this right this second and let the world know about this product. Word on the street is that TraceyS/FL is about spend his money elsewhere!!!!"

Get over yourself. They've got 30 BILLION in the bank -- I don't think they'll announce Jackshiz until they want to.
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She. SHE will be spending HER money elsewhere.

And it's fine, i have need for 3 of them and am not excited about a Dell 10v, but that is what i'll be buying instead over the next year (at least 2 of them, will greatly depend on finances).

Apple is letting me down greatly in this area.... i never thought i'd "hackintosh" but i will if i have too. Money is just too tight right now, but i will not run a Window's box for a kids computer.

And yes i know i'm not the target demographic Apple customer - no need to tell me to get over myself.... i have just as much right to express what i want as anyone.

A pre-release preview would prevent me from doing something i don't want to do, but need to. It's that simple.
 
MacRumors seems to be the one driving this rumor. It's become self-perpetuating, and way past its 'sell by' date.

I love you, MR, but PLEASE move on.
 
houdinize said:
I agree with a lot of the comments against a tablet. So many people buy a Macbook that don't really need all that it is capable of, but it is the cheapest Apple and the best looking/coolest/hippest laptop, so they get it and use it for word processing, presentations, internet, music, movies and that is it. All of this (and more) could be had in a tablet-esque device for $500-700, you will have many less people buying a Macbook not only because they have a cheaper device for their needs, but on top of that, it is the next hot thing.

Apple would really have to differentiate to make it work for them.
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But it's Apple and you think they'll be happy giving them away? They'll charge a lot more, especially if it's revolutionizing. Up to $1200-something more likely. Then there's the ones copying Apple and they might have the pricetag your speaking of.

ThunderSkunk said:
Alright then, screw waiting for Apple.

I'll blow $3000 converting my MBP to a Modbook Pro instead, because a $3500 MBP isn't already expensive enough. And you can bet if I do that, I'm going to be keeping it a while (and not buying Apple's product when it comes out).

This is getting ridiculous. Apple seems to be outright abandoning the graphics and design fields. Since we have no way to get an "absolute coordinates" mode on the trackpad, and we have this psychotic mouse curve, and wacoms intuos digitizer pens can't stop skitching out with OSX, there appears to be zero possibility of getting accurate interaction with our computers. Hey, a Cintiq display would be great, but then we can't use the cinema displays...

Really, really wonderful, for anyone who has to ever draw anything accurately.

wtf apple.
Click to expand...

Amen to that.
 
Small Apple tablet running Autodesk Sketchbook Pro would be heaven for a lot of artists.. IF it has some sort of pressure sensitivity and Wacom (or similar) support..

If it has capacitance based multitouch then it’s not going to be so useful. Can a device have both?
 
ThunderSkunk said:
and wacoms intuos digitizer pens can't stop skitching out with OSX, there appears to be zero possibility of getting accurate interaction with our computers. Hey, a Cintiq display would be great, but then we can't use the cinema displays...

Really, really wonderful, for anyone who has to ever draw anything accurately.
Click to expand...
I agreed with everything you said upto the intuos pens part.. I've never had any trouble with mine under osX at all.. ? I use both the standard pen and the airbrush in both osX and Windows on the same machine with no issues whatsoever..

But I'd still want a portable wacom/apple official tablet mac. :D
 
illitrate23 said:
why do you think it will not have a colour screen?
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I don't think *it* will exist at all.

Devices exist to do things. To convince people to buy a device, it has to offer the ability to do one thing better.

If you want to write emails, a tablet is worse than a Macbook.
If you want to listen to music, a tablet is worse than an iPod.

The ONLY application that we know works better on a tablet format is book reading. And all reading devices use e-paper displays to get a 50 hour battery life.

If you propose a colour screen, we end with a tablet that isn't even good as a reader.

I love buying cool new Apple goodies. But I am not paying $800 for a device just because it makes a good digital photoframe. I need a truly compelling application. A new device needs to do just one thing better than a Macbook or an iPhone. Mr. Munster seems unable to describe what such a usage might be.

C.
 
houdinize said:
I agree with a lot of the comments against a tablet. So many people buy a Macbook that don't really need all that it is capable of, but it is the cheapest Apple and the best looking/coolest/hippest laptop, so they get it and use it for word processing, presentations, internet, music, movies and that is it. All of this (and more) could be had in a tablet-esque device for $500-700, you will have many less people buying a Macbook not only because they have a cheaper device for their needs, but on top of that, it is the next hot thing.

Apple would really have to differentiate to make it work for them.
Click to expand...

Word processing? Presentations? On a 9inch multitouch surface?

Everyone is against this thing because they don't know what it's all about yet. It will NOT be a tablet computer like we think of it. It will be a completely new category and it will be highly innovative. I see it being used for internet/music/movies and basic apps. it's OS is said to be BETWEEN iPod touch and macbook, not one or the other. I think that most people here aren't open minded enough about this. Once we see what it actually is and what it actually does then everyone will be drooling over it. I agree $600-$900.
 
So let me get this (rumor) straight:

1)Essentially 1+ years from now Apple will release some kind of computer that is somewhere between $500 and $700 yet comes with a 7-11" touch screen.

2)According to someone, somewhere, people of the world are disliking Netbooks even though they are FLYING off the shelves of any vendor/store that stocks them.

3)The Apple unit will be mainly a larger iTouch (which is what, 5 inches today?)


I don't get it...Apple's trying to call something a "tablet" that appears to be nothing like a tablet. Apple is trying to sell this thing for substantially more than current Netbook prices (which are about $225-$350 street price) and even still more expensive than quite a few pc-based laptops. If this thing is supposed to be more of an iTouch on steroids, I can't fathom Apple is going to sell many at minimum $500. If this thing is supposed to be more in line with a cheaply-priced laptop (Apple refuses to call it a Netbook) then the jury will have to see what features/enticements are in it to lure someone who wants a cheap cheap laptop/netbook/whateva-ya-want-to-label-it to surf while on the couch or bring on vacation (like I did last week) and take up the space of a large paperback book.

I like Apple and their ability to innovate...but this is either a really poorly written rumor or there are some serious features that have not been leaked into this rumor.

Yes, I know the thing will have a touchscreen...but touchscreen technology has really been gaining ground over the past 3 years outside of consumer-based laptop-style computing. Sooner or later it will finally gain ground in the consumer computer business whether it's a laptop or an entirely new way of computing even in the desktop and server worlds.

Basically, I'm pretty excited to hear more about this rumor...but as someone else pointed out already, many people are looking for a cheap(er) laptop item from Apple now (and the past few years)...not another year+ from now. While "we" wait, more folks will gladly plunk down $225+ for a netbook, use it for WHAT IT IS INTENDED TO BE USED, and possibly even hackintosh it to make the owner feel cooler.

-Eric
 
zombitronic said:
I would consider something like this as dramatically different, but I wouldn't expect it to be priced in the $500-$700 range:

macbook-touch-beta-20.jpg
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Whoever designed this is a genius.
 
What about the cloud?

puffnstuff said:
If it cannot handle photoshop,illustrator,etc then I do not see the point in it. That's the only reason why I want a tablet.
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The tablet doesn't have to have the computing power of a MacBook Pro if it can access the cloud and let the servers do the heavy lifting. Imagine the tablet as just a portal to the internet. Who wouldn't want a lightweight device with a decent sized screen if you could practically run any cloud program that you want?

That's the future of computing anyway, isn't it?
 
iJeep said:
- a 10 " tablet, nine times the screen size and resolution of the iPhone, resembling the iPhone from the looks an being roughly as thick
- thus immediately working with every existing iPhone app

what do you think?
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I am an iPhone dev and having the current iPhone apps fun in fullscreen on this presumed new device is not possible because apps are built for the 320x460 or 320x480 iPhone's resolution. While the apps might run just fine under emulation just like they do in the simulator, having it running in small window make no sense whatsoever. Unless the iPhone apps will run like widgets or something.

It will be interesting though to see if Apple would go the centralized store model with the MacTouch or go the usual route of letting devs implement whatever they want. My bet would be they will ditch this appstore model for this new touch device.
 
nagromme said:
While on the surface, I don't like the idea of fragmenting OS X into three versions, they could end up very close under the hood (Snow Leopard-based) as well as in the development arena (Xcode with mostly common APIs). And if a tablet ever comes, there really IS a need for something in between Mac OS X and iPhone OS X as we now know them.

The iPhone works so well because it doesn't try to shoehorn a desktop OS and UI into a 3" screen. Apps are MEANT to run at that size, and interaction is of a new touch-centric kind that works great. Meanwhile, current tablets work so badly because they do try to shoehorn a mouse-and-keyboard OS and UI into a stylus interface.

Trying to make the iPhone OS work "as is" for a bigger tablet could be a mistake: the apps SHOULD be different for a different screen size, and the productivity/power could be closer to a desktop Mac, so why waste that? Only you want real touch-interaction that's designed for touch alone (which Mac OS X is not).

So.... a third branch sounds plausible to me. A new OS branch and a new device family (no stylus required) that makes tablets actually useful to the general public--finally.

I'd hope the tablet offered a full OS X mode for running desktop apps in a pinch... but it might be a mistake to release that mode too soon: it would give developers less reason to make REAL Apple tablet apps. And we've seen what great things devs can do with a new platform when they really target that platform's strengths.
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Agreed with many points. Although I have advocated iPhone OS on the rumored mini-tablet, I also think that the iPhone OS needs to be extended in one form or another for it to best fit a mini-tablet. A mini-tablet would be far more capable in terms of hardware (especially display size). I think a new branch is quite possible, especially given a 10" display size, although I think the OS will be closer to the iPhone OS than Mac OS X.

Shiner said:
At $500-700 this would destroy apple's profit margin on the macbook!! How do these idiots even get to talk to people? Why do we listen? Guys it is simple economics and apple is the master of these prices. Ipod gets people who want apple and a cool device in the $150-300 range. Iphone gets the people that can afford a monthly bill of $100. Macbook gets the consumer that wants a laptop for $1000-1200 on average. The rest is gravy for apple. Why on earth would they release something that would steal all the profit from their macbook laptop? They wouldn't do this. It has nothing to do with quality vs quantity and all that crap.
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The mini-tablet will have NOWHERE NEAR the performance of the MacBook. Plus it may use an iPhone OS variant and even a hybrid OS would be less full-featured than Mac OS X.

Ubik1981 said:
Whoever designed this is a genius.
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Absolutely a genius.
 
nwmac said:
The tablet doesn't have to have the computing power of a MacBook Pro if it can access the cloud and let the servers do the heavy lifting. Imagine the tablet as just a portal to the internet. Who wouldn't want a lightweight device with a decent sized screen if you could practically run any cloud program that you want?

That's the future of computing anyway, isn't it?
Click to expand...

I'm a huge cloud computing fan and have been since the late 80s.

However, folks need to remember that the cloud doesn't just magically materialize. Points to consider are:

1)Who buys the computers that are on the cloud? Someone has to own the computers that power the cloud.
2)Technology needed to convert your (example: Apple iDVD) code/programming calls to a cloud that can decipher, run, and return a result? This is a huge topic to consider.
3)Responsibility...for everything...who "owns" what...who is responsible for system hacks or network hacks or privacy or breaches of privacy etc?
4)Pricing...everyone wants to make a buck...and once you get into pricing, you fall back to #3 since someone is paying for a "service". Big difference in the world (of responsibility) for free vs. paid services....and not just computer services.


There are a lot more considerations but cloud computing/grid computing/parallel computing technologies are definitely cool...and have been talked about for quite some time.

Ever use the BOINC project/platform?

-Eric
 
iSee said:
Ugh. Does anyone else have "rumor fatigue" re an Apple Tablet.
I'm just tired of hearing about it.
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lol, yeah, I never thought I would say it but yeah. I'm with you on this one. I'm finally tired of all the tablet rumors. :( I want some stuff to materialize already.
 
All I know is that for the past 5 years we have been seeing Apple thinning and flattening the keyboards on the macs. Now that users are comfortable typing on flat keys and even on a flat surface on the iphone, it's only a matter of time before we see a fully touch enable on screen keyboard.
 
We've been hearing about this for years, Apple knows it will fail which is why they haven't released one.

dizzy13 said:
I think I'll stick with my iPhone and 13" MacBook, but I can see how this would work for some people.
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What is the use of this device if you already have these things?
 
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