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Apple Tablet to Launch in Early 2010 Using Chip Platform From P.A. Semi?

mondp said:
As an artist, If i can draw on it like a Wacom Cintiq, i'm getting one. :D
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Yeah wishful thinking...I mean I'd be all for a portable tablet with the power of a MBP and the Wacom Cintiq level touchscreen seen in their 12" model. But that's just a dream I have that will never happen.

But still I wouldn't expect this touchscreen device to be used with a pen or the pressure sensitivity levels you find in a wacom device.
 
MacHiavelli said:
What is it for?

iPhone/iPod Touch = Small
MB/MBP = Good size

Who wants something too big for a pocket? If you are going to carry a bag, use your MB/MBP.

Can someone explain how it fits in and who the target market is? :confused:
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A portable device for watching movies, imagine running Plex on this....oh it won't be x86. I expect it'd have iPod Touch style apps though....

A bit big for a PDA. A bit expensive for simple web browsing, but would be great at that. How would iPhone/Touch apps deal with the screen size? The Itunes/app store concept would fit well though.

It'd be ideal for medical apps and data entry.

To be honest, I'd buy one if it had a dual core atom or similar x86 compatible processor so it can run snow leopard....but with a proprietary chip that means standard OSX apps will not run? I don't think so.
 
puffnstuff said:
Steve Wozniak is on the board with Axiotron and what ever POS 9" tablet Apple comes with can't compete with the Axiotron tablet because theirs is an actual macbook with wacom sensitivity making it good for designers.
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If it contains most of an actual MacBook, it's a heavy brick compared to an iPod Touch.

Apple won't have to compete with this because whatever they come up with will sell 100X more units. Why bother to compete with stuff that sells such a tiny unit volume that it's way off the radar?

According to old science fiction novels, typing on (qwerty) keyboards is for secretaries. Many people (you, etc.) are trapped into using them now, but the populace will want to move on to some devices or interfaces that are more modern as soon as they become sufficiently usable and popular.
 
DELLsFan said:
An attached arm seems more likely to be what they'll do.
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I hope it's strong then!

DELLsFan said:
Hardly replicating it. I can see some folks simply appreciating the option to use an external keyboard. Many more will be satisfied without one.
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Fair enough. I'm coming around to the idea of this thing more, but I'm still not totally convinced. There are times when I'd like to watch video or surf the net, but feel the iPod touch is to small/limiting (especially when it comes to video format) and the MacBook is too much of a hassle. If it had OS X and a nice stand and most importantly was cheap then it's something to consider. I still wouldn't consider it idea for things like document editing or proper work. I guess the main issue I have with it is it certainly isn't worth the price that people are mentioning.

chstr said:
since when does the ipod come with 3G???????
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Aside from that. :D
 
I had this vision of a sort of roundish "pop-out" back that could be used as a stand to sit the thing upright on a desk, but also that your hand could go comfortably and securely inside of to hold it while walking around like a catcher's mitt.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
I think the "MacBook" moniker will be retired with the white MB. The tablet will be under the MacBook Air line. There will be MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. The MacBook name will get a first class one-way ticket to visit Mac Cube.
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Despite my name and my love of my Cube I still laughed at that last sentence.

:p
 
firewood said:
There's a whole generation of people where a lot of them don't have eyes sharp enough for these tiny iPhone size web pages any more.
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Oh man, is that true!

I had an original iPhone and liked it, but got rid of it because I wasn't using it much.

Last week I went and bought an iPhone 3GS, thinking it would be the same experience only better. But there's just one problem I didn't consider: I'm 47 years old any my eyesight has completely gone to hell in the past two years!

Seriously, I can't read anything small or up close any more without reading glasses. And I don't feel like carrying reading glasses everywhere I go just to use my iPhone.

I'm going to return the iPhone this week. Not because there's anything wrong with the iPhone, but because the iPhone is practically useless to me with my bad eyes.

I'm going to take a tough hit on the restocking fee, but that's the way it goes.

I'm looking forward to whatever tablet or netbook or whatever Apple comes up with.
 
Battery Life

If the device does not run at least a whole day or more on a single charge...
Then the device will fail in it's first incarnation. :(

Jobsy mate... The Battery :)

For example if the MacBook Touch is used in a hospital... reading some telemetry from my guts... we don't want the battery to fail whilst taking my all important squeegy readings...?
Or whilst I'm giving an interactive 3D modelling demo of my multi-million-mu$ha engineering project to my clients... the pad battery dies in mid-context!! Ayah!

Got it? :rolleyes:


Oh wait!.... Now we just need an LCARS menu system!!!
 
I dont know if it has been suggested, but I have been wondering if it will be a keyboardless BUT still foldable netbook, like a macbook air with dual screen and a virtual keyboard.

I like other artist also would love wacom functionality, but also realize it is most likely a pipe dream.
 
More...

chris7777 said:
I dont know if it has been suggested, but I have been wondering if it will be a keyboardless BUT still foldable netbook, like a macbook air with dual screen and a virtual keyboard.
I like other artist also would love wacom functionality, but also realize it is most likely a pipe dream.
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All the Apple patent filings relating to this device point to a tablet form factor.
There's never mention of a fold-out, slide-out keyboard. It will most likely end up like iPhone/iPod with a virtual keyboard.
Other patent filings also suggect there may be stylus detection along with the existing multi-touch finger pad detection, and possibly finger nail detection specifically for context menus.
Apple did file some earlier flip-phone patents which had touch screen interface on each leaf...
But their focus now appears to be on the tablet form facter.

But hey dude if you've been a MacRumors reader since 2008 you should have read much of this :rolleyes:
 
firewood said:
If it contains most of an actual MacBook, it's a heavy brick compared to an iPod Touch.

Apple won't have to compete with this because whatever they come up with will sell 100X more units. Why bother to compete with stuff that sells such a tiny unit volume that it's way off the radar?

According to old science fiction novels, typing on (qwerty) keyboards is for secretaries. Many people (you, etc.) are trapped into using them now, but the populace will want to move on to some devices or interfaces that are more modern as soon as they become sufficiently usable and popular.
Click to expand...

But aint't it just what apple is doing best? Letting other company's research the tech and then turn unprofitable hardware into a cash cow? That's what happened with Mp3 players, apple did not invent but turned it into magic.

I'm hoping for the tablet with sensitive touch capabilities. And if apple where smart and REALLY visionairy, they make it a base platform for domotica systems. That is the future of home entertainment.

But Apple isn't THAT far ahead of their time. I think that apple is happy with the toys they are making. People buy them, so why not.

I said it before, they should change the name in Macintoys.

Oh well, as long as it gets my stocks up ....
 
OMG!!!! OMG!!!! OMG!!! OH MY GOD!!!!! I can't wait for this. I mean I will have no use for it because I already own an iphone and a MBP. I mean I just can't wait <YAWN> Will there be a jailbroken community for this also so I can put apps on it like I want. I'm assuming it will just be a glorified ipod completely closed off. I wonder if I'll be able to change the dock or will I have to download winterboard. Then there will be all this LAG controversy. I have to go!
 
10 inch not so big...

People keep thinking this device will be unwieldy but really it's not too big at all.

I realized tis some time ago when people were talking about the rumor than an large order had come in for 9.5" touch screens some time earlier this year .

Anyway... the rumor is 10 inch now, but some people are forgetting that that is 1) the diagonal measurement, and 2) remember, there's no keyboard...

One of the American standard paper note pad sizes is 6x9.5, which is quite easy to hold in one hand.

10 inches diagonal screen is 8.7x 4.9 @ 16:9, considerably smaller even if you give 1/2 inch on each side for a border.

Also, does no one remember the Apple patent from last year ( I think ) that showed an iphone looking device being put into a slot on the side of an iMac like monitor?

I think that this device, when it comes out, will either be revolutionary or a flop. I'm hoping for the former!

Saw what you want about Apple. No other company is sticking its neck out so far and attempting to innovate so much... Whether its a success or not.
 
Marx55 said:
STOP THE PRESS !!!

The Apple Cocktail project is for the Apple Tablet on September 2009, as "The Financial Times" reports. SO, THIS IS NOT A MERE RUMOR:

"'It's going to be fabulous for watching movies,' said one entertainment executive."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0b7b66fa-7a45-11de-b86f-00144feabdc0.html

WOW, WOW, WOW !!!
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Umm... "Cocktail" is the repackaging of liner notes, album covers, lyrics and extras for music albums.

Yes, the tablet is mentioned in the article as well, but I don't want people to be mislead about the name
 
DELLsFan said:
Not surprising, since I believe your premises are somewhat flawed. Though you are correct about the request for better keyboards, you conveniently left out the part that Netbook manufacturers have complied with these requests on the whole. 92% of full, normal keyboard size is just about right for most. The DELL Mini 10v is an example of such a device. (Oh, and BTW, you can install Mac OS X on it as well). The tablet may offer utility comparable to Netbooks (features we just don't know yet), but it won't be a Netbook.
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I didn't "conveniently left out" anything. You actually didn't disagree with me on any particular part of the argument, so I don't know what you mean by saying that my premises were "somewhat flawed." I'm fully aware of the fact that most customers are already content with the keyboards on the average netbook nowadays, and I decided not to mention it simply because it had little or nothing to do with the argument. Actually, what you said above reinforces my argument if anything. Those customers would have no reason to buy the tablet unless it offers something significantly different from netbooks, so the device is obviously for a different market than the one for netbooks.

Somebody else said that those who want better keyboards simply wanted a cheap laptop, and that's right. That's PRECISELY what netbook has become. It started as a curiosity for geeks (= Eee PC 701, with tiny keyboards, tiny screen and SSD 4GB), and ended up becoming a cheap laptop for the general public. It created such a huge market exactly because of that - appeal to the mass.

So the fact that netbook is effectively just a "cheap laptop" is pretty much irrelevant in terms of this topic. Actually, that's rather another reason for why the tablet is not meant to replace the netbook in any way. They didn't want any cute gadget, but needed a cheap and light-weight laptop with functional keyboards and USB's and whatnot that has power enough for basic tasks.
 
huntercr said:
People keep thinking this device will be unwieldy but really it's not too big at all.

I realized tis some time ago when people were talking about the rumor than an large order had come in for 9.5" touch screens some time earlier this year .

Anyway... the rumor is 10 inch now, but some people are forgetting that that is 1) the diagonal measurement, and 2) remember, there's no keyboard...

One of the American standard paper note pad sizes is 6x9.5, which is quite easy to hold in one hand.

10 inches diagonal screen is 8.7x 4.9 @ 16:9, considerably smaller even if you give 1/2 inch on each side for a border.

Also, does no one remember the Apple patent from last year ( I think ) that showed an iphone looking device being put into a slot on the side of an iMac like monitor?

I think that this device, when it comes out, will either be revolutionary or a flop. I'm hoping for the former!

Saw what you want about Apple. No other company is sticking its neck out so far and attempting to innovate so much... Whether its a success or not.
Click to expand...

Yep 10inch is pretty close to metric paper size A5, i know it's a rare day i don't have an Notepad of that size with me for sketches. or notes, random thoughts that would take vastly more time to get in to a computer.

It's a great size to carry, I guess the it comes down to input methods.
they could range from existing Cocoa Touch methods, would cooca touch be needed 10" inch if the Resolution super high then the standard Cocoa Controls would mostly be big enough so no need for Cocoa Touch controls. It would maybe need both pen and finger touch screen for input. Like the iPhone you would want to "Have" to use a stylus but at times would be useful.
 
I have a possible use

MacHiavelli said:
What is it for?

iPhone/iPod Touch = Small
MB/MBP = Good size

Who wants something too big for a pocket? If you are going to carry a bag, use your MB/MBP.

Can someone explain how it fits in and who the target market is? :confused:
Click to expand...

As a doctor, this would be good for recording patient visits, and uploading wirelessly toa server. It would stay in the office so it wouldn't need to fit in the pocket.
 
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