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Apple Tablet Computer?

remote display

I really think that this is a remote display for Macs, PCs and iPods:

At home it is a wifi VNC viewer for any Mac/PC discoverable via Rendezvous.

On the go it is a wired display for your iPod. (Remember, 4G iPods have a rumored hidden feature). Think about the silhouette advertisments with another wire from the iPod to this new viewer!
 
why not a PDA??

I dont know why but a PDA sounds more feasible to me.. I'd love to carry it all around and use it for daily stuff.. I'd love to see small versions of iApps and use them when I'm away from home and that would make me not to carry my powerbook 12" everywhere...

Imagine.. I could schedule myself with iCalPDA, plug in my Canon S50 and transfer files, look them with iPhotoPDA, listen music if I want just like I do with my iPod or even watch divx!.. that could be great with something priced something lower than 700-800 bucks..

I want Newton back..
 
As compelling as an iMac with a detachable screen might seem, here's one reason why I think Apple won't make one:

consider the situation where someone has been using the screen as a tablet somewhere in the house. Cool, pretty nice. On the sofa or terrace or where ever.

Now, you go to your desk, want to use your iMac but: the screen ain't there! Bummer, now yu have to hunt it all over the place, check where someone who used it a minute ago left it. Major pita, I say.
 
applekid said:
I also have a similar thought.

There's plenty of reports that Apple wants to add a remote for AirPort Express. A tablet could it.

But this tablet isn't really a computer. It's more of a remote, as you said. It'll only have a few core apps. Preferably, I'd like to see Safari, iTunes, QuickTime, iPhoto, Address Book, iCal, iSync, and a program for scribbling notes. These mini apps are extensions of existing apps. Hook up to your Airport Express/Extreme/regular network and surf the web, look at photos, control AirTunes, play movies, check out your address books, check your calendar and jot a few notes all on one tablet. Use iSync to sync your Mac and iPod to it all. When it's not in use, it doubles as a digital picture frame.

I can see Steve Jobs saying, this new tablet is an extension of your Mac.

Make it sub-$800, and I'm in.
Click to expand...
This new device will be like a "video iPod" that everyone speaks of, but really isn't.

This device will act as a wireless way to use your home base computer, say the new iMac, allow control of iTunes over AirTunes/Airport Express, allow you to view photos from iPhoto, video from iMovies with a similar accessibility that AirTunes gives to songs on iTunes, along with internet access. Essentially, it's a video device, but much more. Instead of just storing some movies and allowing you to watch on a 2" screen, it'll allow you to stream audio and video from your base computer to this new "tablet". It'll also come with one of the 60GB Harddrives from Hitachi that Apple didn't put into the latest generation of the iPod. Apple said that a 60GB HDD wasn't really needed in an iPod, but it would be great for different, non-existing device. This IS the new device. The HDD would allow you to save video, cache and cookies, and allow it to use it for virtual memory on board the device while still remaining small.

This won't JUST be a remote for iTunes. Why buy such a remote at such a ridiculous cost? This will be much much more.
 
Xgreed said:
I really think that this is a remote display for Macs, PCs and iPods:

At home it is a wifi VNC viewer for any Mac/PC discoverable via Rendezvous.

On the go it is a wired display for your iPod. (Remember, 4G iPods have a rumored hidden feature). Think about the silhouette advertisments with another wire from the iPod to this new viewer!
Click to expand...

I agree with your suggestion, because no way is a conventional all in one PDA from Apple going to happen. The Steve Jobs philosophy, which is diametrically opposed to Bill Gates all in one gadgetry approach, is for standalone Apple devices that work absolutely brilliantly on their own merits. Then you link each device to other Apple products very easily via software which just seems to work. Extend the home Mac/PC to include Xserves in education, and your solution would rock.

The main reason Apple would be crazy to do a variation on a standard all in one PDA is that if you are going to dish out a few hundred on a portable screen it has to be more useful than just being a remote control for iTunes or a neat way of viewing your photos in the kitchen. Also to go beyond a PDA of today it has to have options for inputting text and be more powerful than handheld PDAs, yet be convenient. You have to be able to do things you cant do now, which means that to be oh so Apple, it has to be a portable window on a full blown OSX. The wireless screen/iPod/server solution wouldnt kill the need for laptops because you would be restricted to wherever a server was, and it would increase the demand for Mac desktops in the home because the integration would be seamless and be geared somehow to have more options thasn would be available linking to a PC.

So whatever the screen is like, conventional lcd or a touch screen/wacom type tablet so you have the option to use a pen to take notes on it, or whether it is a standalone wireless screen, or maybe the wireless screen from an iMac, it wouldnt have HDs or processors and gubbins stapled to the back. And it would definitely be part of a solution that included the iPod to take that device onto the next level.
 
Remote Control

Don't know if anyone has already pointed this out, but Salling Clicker plus a bluetooth device makes a pretty good remote control for my "Digital Hub". Using it on my Tungsten T2 gets people really interested and it is very convenient for when I'm using iTunes/DVD player.
However, add some Apple design genius and a little bit of OS X and some WiFi and this baby could be the Dog's Bollocks. Knowing Apple they'd add some kick ass features - I'd like to see some Bluetooth features with phone/PDAs similar to the way OS X already does and some iPod features would make me go out immediately and buy a 4G iPod and one of these babies.
 
There are a few rumors here that could be referring to the same thing.

1) There might be something related to the removable screen/iMac rumor from a little while back.
2) There's this tablet rumor.
3) Then, there's this thread: (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/83647/) It refers to the possibility of a totally new machine being introduced.

I don't know...maybe they're related.

Squire
 
Remote Control.

Remember Steve giving a wry smile when he has been asked about airtunes and that it would be a bit of a drag to always run to the computer to control it?

Well, this is what he was thinking about when choose to stay quiet. Probably a Mac inside, with tablet qualities, primarely used to control your media computers which are in turn streaming music and other stuff to other equipment.

It will have bluetooth, so you can effortlessly attach mouse and keyboard, airport extreme, so you can access all your data with good speed.
So it will be a tablet , can be used as one - but the real gain is to use it as a remote for your household. maybe we'll see some other peripherals doing god knows what in the house - reporting their status to that thing.
 
Remember those iPod "hidden features," and "the imac and detatchable screen are one in the same" hoo-ha? Remember the rumours that 4gen iPods were going to have some sort of video-out? Notice the G5 iMac specs say even the lowest-range one has Airport Extreme built in? The tiny Hitachi 60Gb drive? The one about the G5 iMac having all its bits on the back of the screen? It seems pretty obvious to me what's going on here.
 
sounds good but

tmornini said:
I think this will be a Home iPod.

Likely running, OS X lite, at least Aqua lite.

WiFi to talk to Airport Express. Hard drive to store music.

Looks good on the coffee table.

Runs something much closer to iTunes.

Definitely allows iTunes Music Store purchases.

If they put in an FM tuner, it replaces your home stereo components (short of amp and speakers) with something clearly next generation. Truly a paradigm shift.

Has a dock connector for syncing to your computer for backup.

Keep it simple. Apple could sell a lot of these at the right price. And they could sell a lot of music with them as well.

$600? Oh, boy, could Apple sell a lot of these for $600! Even $800 would work.
Click to expand...

A lot of people complain that the iPod should have an FM tuner and also say Apple should release a TV/FM tuner or wish ATI would give us an ALL in Wonder.

People leave AM out of the question. At least in the US, this where all the News Radio and Talk Radio is - I wonder why audio gadget companies seem to think listening to audio is only about recording speech, listening to audio books, listening to music, but not listening to news and talkradio?

All Tuners should be AM/FM - please stop leaving out the AM. This is going to be the true advantage to the Griffin RadioShark. [which is due any day now, I have a preproduction sample - works great]

Is it a conspiracyto leave out AM?
 
adzoox said:
All Tuners should be AM/FM - please stop leaving out the AM. This is going to be the true advantage to the Griffin RadioShark. [which is due any day now, I have a preproduction sample - works great]

Is it a conspiracyto leave out AM?
Click to expand...

AM stucks... It's mono for a start.. In the UK we have DAB digital Radio, why would you want to include an old Dead technology in a new fancy product, now build a DAB transmitter in there and WOW!!.. I don't think that I've tuned any of my radios to AM in the last 3 years..only did it before because my student radio station was on AM..

I have both audio books and music on my iPod but I always want to hear it in the best possible quality even when I'm on the road.

Including AM is like building a G5 Mac and using it on 10Base-2 (Coax) networks, or AppleTalk (the 2 wire pre ethernet thing)...It's not a nice thing to do and will detract heavily from the products full potential..

---Zed :cool:
 
pourhadi said:
Everyone's saying there's no market for a Tablet Mac and the success would be similar to that of the TabletPC;

Just remember what was said about the iPod when it was first introduced, now look at it...
Click to expand...

And remember the 4G iPods have secret features to be exploited.
 
Well, at least we know Apple is thinking of such a device. Heres my wishlist for it:

Ability to run its own OS.
Ability to view and control the screen of any Airport compatible computer.
Rubberized grips to make holding it better.
It should come with a professional stylus pen, not a piece of plastic.
It needs to be made of the best scratch resistant plastic available.
It needs to have great speakers and the ability to run the sound through Airport Express.
It needs to have AV out.

From the pictures I saw I won't be getting my hopes up. This looks like its just an extension of the new iMac G5. Once we have had the iMac out for a year this thing wont seem so revolutionary. Now, if they make it and charge less than an eMac for it I will have to think about getting one.
 
spankalee said:
Steve NEVER said that Apple had developed a PDA. He only said that he was proud of the products they released, and some products they didn't release, such as a PDA.
Click to expand...
Right. The Appleinsider report of the D: conference left the idea that Apple had actually developed a new PDA up to interpretation, and reports based only on the AI story embellished it into an actual PDA that had been developed and cancelled at the last minute.

It's all bogus, and the real transcript is here.

Mossberg: What's your favorite thing you've not done?

Jobs: A PDA. We got enormous pressure to do a PDA and we looked at it and we said, "Wait a minute, 90% of the people that use these things just want to get information out of them, they don't necessarily want to put information into them on a regular basis and cellphones are going to do that." So getting into the PDA market means getting into the cellphone market. And you know, we're not so good at selling to the enterprise where you've got, in the Fortune 500, five hundred orifices called CIOs. In the cellphone market you've got five. And so we figured we're not going to be very good at that.
 
adzoox said:
Is it a conspiracyto leave out AM?
Click to expand...
It's a conspiracy to keep devices small =) For AM reception you require a very long antenna. Open up any AM-capable radio and you'll find a big bulky core with a winding on it, that's the antenna.

With FM you can use with a much smaller wire or rod, but it still doesn't get very good reception unless you go with a longer piece of metal. That's why the really tiny FM radios tend to provide lousy sound.
 
slayman said:
Imagine this ...
Imagine no book bags! Just an iPod in your pocket!
Click to expand...

mmm maybe you've been out of college a little too long. Why would this (absurd) scheme alleviate the need to carry textbooks?
 
I had looked at the TR series from Sony. I would love a iPad, for work and play. At home, being able to check and respond to email and websurf on something smaller than my PB 12". Something portable that I could take to the office and go wi-fi with, having a BT keyboard and mouse. that would stay in the office. Yet allow me to go into a meeting and have spreadsheets, word docs, and my InDesign docs available. Slowness in that area would not be an issue.
 
PBGPowerbook said:
mmm maybe you've been out of college a little too long. Why would this (absurd) scheme alleviate the need to carry textbooks?
Click to expand...

I can see textbooks being on a server. You still pay for the book, but it would be in the PDF format. DRM could help prevent pirating.
 
If they release a tablet style computer, I seriously doubt that it would be like the fare the Wintel world knows. Personally, I think they have a great line on a thin client. I've always wanted one, because I would only need to buy one nice desktop that could be accessed from anywhere.

If it's a think client I'm down with the idea. If it's just another tablet style PC... well, I guess Apple would do it better than anyone else but I am skeptical. :)
 
I don't believe a word of this new device, but who cares, it's been a while since some really out-there rumor has escaped Cupertino. Let's enjoy it while we can :)

Now I'm dying to go back and read why AM radio has become a desired feature of the device :D

(And since we're there.... I think all radios should play TV audio! Very few do. I'd use that more than AM/FM on a portable player.)
 
Or then there's this...

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet...

Imagine if the guts of an entire desktop PC could be squished into something hardly bigger than a PDA.. it could have a rack-and-pinion mounted thumb keyboard underneath that slides forward smoothly when you want to type. It could also use a pen in the traditional PDA manner. It would have a full color screen, a hard drive, Firewire, usb, bluetooth, wifi, all built in. And still have decent battery life. and most of all, it runs a regular, full fledged, desktop OS - not crippled in any way. It might be more expensive than a regular laptop, but you pay a price for the size.

And Apple could be first to market! Er, uhm, darn.
 
pkradd said:
When filing for design patents, the party filing will sometimes disquise or simplfy the actual device to keep others from knowing exactly what the final form factor is. I understand that Apple filed a patent for the click wheel with an illustration showing it as part of a computer mouse.
Click to expand...
For device patents (wher there's an actual invention involved) it is common for the illustrations to bear little resemblance to the product in which the invention appears. That was the case with the click wheel.

For design patents, on the other hand, the appearance is what is being protected, so the picture does have to look like the real product. (The whole reason for design patents is that copyright law doesn't cover devices; the reasoning for that was to keep copyrights and patents separate, but without the special design patents there would be no general coverage for industrial design art).
 
A tablet is more of a Apple like product than a Microsoft product. I can see it not being as popular for the Windows crowd. They love their keyboards and more importantly that they will only use what everyone else uses.
 
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