Apple Working on 10-, 13-, and 15-Inch Tablets?

[qbricc]

Remove-all?

The direction Apple is moving in points to the eventual release of a tablet product.

Apple has began removing 'moving parts' from its line up and replacing them with software solutions.

Examples:

No Click wheel - Ipod Shuffle - voice control
No Superdrive - Macbook Air - Remote disk / itunes
No spinning HD - Macbooks/Ipods - SSD
No Keyboard - Iphone/Ipod Touch - touch screen
No trackpad button - Macbooks - multigesture
No Blueray - all lineup - itunes

Add to this things like Wifi, BT, wireless backup, airtunes, itunes streaming and MobileMe. Everything is in place for Steve Jobs to make the computer he wants to see which only has an On/Off button.

Many people might be unhappy about the removal or lack of somethings or welcome them, either way it doesn't seam to stop Apple from doing it.

P.s. I'm not saying all the above examples are a good thing, just that this is the direction Apple are heading in.

 

[corinhorn]

I think some people apparently seem to have romanticized ideas of the very first tablets some years ago where people would draw or handwrite in it--looked so cool at the time right?

Ahem...yes and that would get old very quickly. The reason the iPhone works as a mini tablet device is its small size--the lack of a physical keyboard isn't a problem due to the limited scope of typing and that it can be done with one hand standing up, walking, sitting down--you get the point. Plus you look to the virtual keyboard. In a real laptop size keyboard most people don't look down to their keyboards when typing, it makes for very fast writing. You can't do that with a laptop-sized tablet. Any virtual keyboard would take up first of all half the screen like it does in an iphone, half the screen! it would mean you would have to have your eyes on the keys and not the monitor since there is no touch feedback. nobody would claim writing a 3 page document on the iphone is better and easier and faster than on a keyboard. You woudld need a stand of some sorts for correct viewing angle unless the thing was always in your lap. It simply makes no sense as a laptop replacement. Plus carrying around a 3 piece tablet (tablet, stand and keyboard) is about as "forward" looking as buying a Pentium computer and claiming because it has 4.5 GHz it's faster. A laptop is one piece.

What can you do with a tablet that u cant with a laptop? what advantages are there? The only ones i can think of are again, drawing with your finger or stylus and handwriting. Wow, I am so very impressed.

The people clamoring for a tablet clearly haven't thought out what it would entail or why it would supposedly make it a superior product than a laptop.

Agreed

 

[miketcool]

Let me get this straight..people are justifying this keyboard-less device by telling us to "well prop it up" and "attach a keyboard via bluetooth" well... wouldn't that basically make it a laptop again?

No, the laptop is a nice integrated solution. I will carry my Belkin Tablet Jack around with a foldable bluetooth keyboard and wireless external optical drive. This is better.

 

[munkees]

I really want to a tablet, but I have a few concerns for the ones that run for screen MacOS X

A) can RAM be upgraded
B) will the graphics and HD now be on par with the MacBook or MacBook Pro

personally I want a multitouch screen tablet, if it is a smaller, could say large iPhone device, with it own app development, then I fine with that, what I do not want is an underpowered MacBook, with full Mac OS X.

just my 2 cents.

 

[RebootD]

No, the laptop is a nice integrated solution. I will carry my Belkin Tablet Jack around with a foldable bluetooth keyboard and wireless external optical drive. This is better.

So instead of just carrying a laptop people would rather carry separate parts to make a Macformer device? (Applebots, roll out!)

 

[MacFly123]

I can't. Some people still need a physical keyboard.

Apple just happens to have the most sleek compact BluTooth keyboard already available! I promise you it will work with these tablets. If it didn't it would be a HUGE fail on Apple's part, and I'm sure they know that.

http://www.apple.com/keyboard/

Most rumours these days have turned out to be true, so I am believing them more and more. No idea if I would want a tablet though, why not just get a Macbook?

I am absolutely sure these tablets exist and are in development. I think the rumors like this one are starting to get closer to truth. I can see at least a couple models coming out. Maybe the small one runs a beefed up iPhone OS and the bigger one runs full OS X. That makes sense as a logical new product line for Apple. I am excited to finally see them become reality!

Also, I think that most people that don't get the point of the tablet (which seems to be a lot of people) don't understand that Steve will make this more than just a tablet. It will definitely have unconventional features and uses that people have not understood yet, such as finally linking completely home entertainment, computing, and mobility in one!

This will be a huge success. Before the iPod and iPhone came out, lots of people lacking vision listed endless reasons as to why they would fail, but that is because they don't have the foresight and understanding of how it will all work.

On that note, Bill Gates already lusts over the iPhone in jealousy but won't allow himself or his family to get one, and we all know that he has an obsession for the tablet form factor. I can't wait to see him drooling over Apple's tablets and seeing what he has always dreamed of, but not being able to have one, even having billions of dollars hahahahaha! THAT WOULD SUCK! Bill Gates FAIL! haha.

I can totally see him hiding in a closet as his wife catches him with an Apple Tablet lol.

 

[alent1234]

Think about what your saying though. You are basically stating the same old argument that was around before the iPhone came out. Everyone said it's stupid and you can't do anything with that and how the people waiting on line for the first gen iPhone were dumb. When they realized they needed to save face, because the iPhone was actually a beautiful little device, they started saying things like, "oh I'm waiting till all the bugs are fixed, I hear iPhones have problems" I was laughing, like what bugs lol. All I'm saying is have some valid points cause the iPhone is pretty much a netbook already lol.

it only took off after the buy in price was cut, MS Exchange support was added and the apps store came. if apple didn't add these i would have just bought a blackberry or some winmo phone for myself.

 

[operator207]

Agreed. Be interesting to see if Apple goes with the iPad slate design or the HP TX-2 convertible tablet swivel display design. I'm betting Apple will go with the slate design with the option to hook up a physical keyboard.

I am glad someone brought this up. Many people think (not necessarily here) that a tablet and a convertible are the same thing. They are not.


I would much rather see a 13" - 15" (maybe the 15" is a bit big, but I think the 17" MBP is a bit big myself so...) convertible MBP. Dedicated videocard, dual dvi, 8gb ram expandable etc. Same specs of the current 15" MBP, only in a convertible configuration. THAT would be my dream laptop/convertible.
I loved my HP t4200. It was not the fastest, but it was the perfect size for portability and productivity.

 

[miketcool]

On that note, Bill Gates already lusts over the iPhone in jealousy but won't allow himself or his family to get one, and we all know that he has an obsession for the tablet form factor. I can't wait to see him drooling over Apple's tablets and seeing what he has always dreamed of, but not being able to have one, even having billions of dollars hahahahaha! THAT WOULD SUCK! Bill Gates FAIL! haha.

I'm sure Gates has enough in his home to man any apple fanboy faint. State of the art doesn't mean mass produced. I am sure he has a plethora of things that are much better then the iPhone to care. How many imported cars do you own? They have a wonderful mutli-touch interface with the sexiest haptic feedback...

 

[qtbeta]

Ergonomics and Usability - the next iBook?

So as I lie in bed and type this with the screen at a right angle to the keyboard, i wonder how i will be able to do so in a tablet setup. Maybe I cant lie in bed or in a chair and do so anymore? Perhaps if the tablet folds like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now that would work, but the screen real estate would be limited in that orientation. A folding tablet (iBook 2.0?) would be much more portable as well.
What I would love to see this device do is function as a keyboard and cpu and have an HDTV function as the screen. I could then take it with me as a full functioning computer and then get a 42-inch display when i get home.

 

[localoid]

... Also, I think that most people that don't get the point of the tablet (which seems to be a lot of people) don't understand that Steve will make this more than just a tablet. It will definitely have unconventional features and uses that people have not understood yet, such as finally linking completely home entertainment, computing, and mobility in one!

Or, in the words of Kara Swisher (of All Things Digital), "The Jesus tablet will walk on water and also turn fishes into money".

 

[hypermark]

My thesis all along has been that Snow Leopard is the pivot OS between the iPhoneOS and MacOS, branches, and whether that means the ability to run Mac Apps unmodified, recompiled or some new form of new hybrid runtime model, it just makes sense that the Tablet is where Apple confronts the matrix between all of these different form factors, something that I blogged about in:

Apple, the ‘Boomer’ Tablet and the Matrix
http://bit.ly/46CtH

Check it out if interested.

Mark

 

[Marx55]

Apparently Apple has already filled this category with a multi-touch device running full Mac OS X...

Nope!

Too HEAVY!
Too LARGE!
Too port-limited!

 

[dicklacara]

I agree with you to extent... but I'm still excited about a tablet. However, no one on here has addressed the main problem with said device:

How do you type on it while standing/walking?

Remember, there's (apparently) *no* physical keyboard. On a larger device, like the supposed iTablet, I'm really curious on how they'll overcome this UI problem. Imho, I think this is the biggest reason why it's taken so long for this fabled device to come out.

w00master

Easy! There's an app for that! No reason that you couldn't have several virtual kb options:

-- full-size QWERTY
-- mini QWERTY (like the iPhone)
-- full Dvorak
-- speciality: 9-10 keypad, thumb-pad, stenotype, speedweiting
-- customizable: include, arrange and resize keys as needed/desired for app

You would lay flat for the traditional virtual kbs.

You would hold in 1 or 2 hands for thumb-typing.

You could lay on crook of arm for one-finger typing on the virtual kb of choice

*

 

[Marx55]

On that note, Bill Gates already lusts over the iPhone in jealousy but won't allow himself or his family to get one, and we all know that he has an obsession for the tablet form factor. I can't wait to see him drooling over Apple's tablets and seeing what he has always dreamed of, but not being able to have one, even having billions of dollars hahahahaha! THAT WOULD SUCK! Bill Gates FAIL! haha.

I can totally see him hiding in a closet as his wife catches him with an Apple Tablet lol.

Actually, it is here with a Mac Table!!!

First picture of:
Next Apple moves will be Books and Games…
http://spidouz.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/next-apple-moves-will-be-books-and-games/

 

[mabhatter]

Well, naturally.

The notebook/netbook design is so stupid. It always was. With the use of touchscreen, the tablet is now poised to eradicate the laptop market in the next 5 or so years. So expect all the laptop designs to become tablets.

It's good to hear a rumor of full OSX tablets in development. If it is nothing more than a rumor, I would be shocked. With the miniaturization of all components, we will see larger OS in iPhones/iPT as well, but probably a long way from anything as complex as a full OSX.

People pooh-poohing the tablet are weird. Technology and market forges forward, and design is always changing. More efficient form and function will evolve. We're probably on the cusp of a sizable form/function change within portable computing devices: the multi-touch tablet.

you hit the reason people bash tablets.. there are no GOOD multi-touch ones. There have been touch screen PCs since Windows XP was released (<2001) but they suffer from being massively expensive compared to notebooks (thanks Wacom which has patents required for Windows tablets) and the software apps never really worked as "touch" apps.. even Win CE suffers from requiring a pen and being "fidgety" (icons too small, entry boxes too small, using slider bars on windows... Trying to use a finger just like a mouse)

The big reason iPhone has been successful is that they have crazy strict UI rules and they didn't let anybody write any apps for a whole year so Users got used to Apple's "new way". Building a new platform with all new apps is exactly what needed to happen on the "other" platform... so if Apple does a tablet they need to rework all of OSX... and the GUI APIs for older apps, or they have to make a new platform with new programs that compensate for using fingers instead of mouse and keyboard.... i.e. build from iPhone OSX. For any tablet to succeed there can't be "bad apps" that means no "legacy" apps if they don't play nice with the new GUI... as soon as you get YYY app "performs badly on a touch screen" the gig is up. Devs won't help... they haven't helped MS tablets with new, exciting apps one single bit in 8 years. This is where Apple beats MS because they put their OWN money on the line for manufacturing devices... not somebody else's... so they get to be as pig-headed as needed to make the product shine. (and they don't have a monopoly to lose either if the developers don't "like" being challenged)

 

[dicklacara]

So as I lie in bed and type this with the screen at a right angle to the keyboard, i wonder how i will be able to do so in a tablet setup. Maybe I cant lie in bed or in a chair and do so anymore? Perhaps if the tablet folds like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now that would work, but the screen real estate would be limited in that orientation. A folding tablet (iBook 2.0?) would be much more portable as well.
What I would love to see this device do is function as a keyboard and cpu and have an HDTV function as the screen. I could then take it with me as a full functioning computer and then get a 42-inch display when i get home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtN_TkZUOt4&feature=related

Use with virtual kb configuration that suits your position in bed-- lying, sitting, tablet held above head, on floor, etc.

*

 

[Pierremaison]

Well, naturally.

The notebook/netbook design is so stupid. It always was. With the use of touchscreen, the tablet is now poised to eradicate the laptop market in the next 5 or so years. So expect all the laptop designs to become tablets.

It's good to hear a rumor of full OSX tablets in development. If it is nothing more than a rumor, I would be shocked. With the miniaturization of all components, we will see larger OS in iPhones/iPT as well, but probably a long way from anything as complex as a full OSX.

People pooh-poohing the tablet are weird. Technology and market forges forward, and design is always changing. More efficient form and function will evolve. We're probably on the cusp of a sizable form/function change within portable computing devices: the multi-touch tablet.

Can you really see that happening? I struggle to picture how this would be comfortable to use when sat at a desk or for prolonged periods of time.

 

[rtdunham]

...The only thing I can assume here is that Apple bundles Bluetooth, and expects you to lug around a BT keyboard anywhere you would need one....

if we're gonna be lugging around a tablet AND a BT keyboard (and i find some appeal in the idea) the keyboard's gonna have to be protected. I can't imagine all those keys banging around against stuff in a backback, for ex.

So what if they marketed the BT kbd with a
1) perforated aluminum cover that protected the keys, and that when removed from the keyboard could unfold slightly to function as
2) a prop to hold the tablet in a satisfactory viewing position
or
3) a heat-venting device, to hold the tablet off the table when it's in a flat position.

 

[rtdunham]

Apple has began removing 'moving parts' from its line up and replacing them with software solutions.

Examples:
No Click wheel - Ipod Shuffle - voice control
No Superdrive - Macbook Air - Remote disk / itunes
No spinning HD - Macbooks/Ipods - SSD
No Keyboard - Iphone/Ipod Touch - touch screen
No trackpad button - Macbooks - multigesture
No Blueray - all lineup - itunes...

Yours is one of the better thought-out and compelling posts on this thread. Well done.

So instead of just carrying a laptop people would rather carry separate parts to make a Macformer device? (Applebots, roll out!)

I see what you've done there! Another compelling argument, presented with wit.

You guys have to be careful or some of the less-reasoned posts on this thread (ok, maybe my own included) are gonna look even worse.

 

[feflower]

There is no way Apple would produce (eventually) a laptop without a dedicated keyboard. To carry them separately would discourage people from carrying it at all. Sure, I believe, there is a market for a pure tablet (legal/medical professionals, children in vans, couch-potatoes, airline passengers,


The next logical step if Apple first produces a pure tablet would be to make a touch screen laptop with full keyboard. I don't think this next step would be hard to take...Plus it would alleviate fears of unprotected screens. A USB hookup to a keyboard would be fine, but when I go to the library I don't want to carry a keyboard.--Perhaps they are thinking of a "detachable" bluetooth keyboard/protective hood? That might be an idea. Going to presentation with everything ready--detach keyboard.

I'm not sure if Apple is thinking of a "virtual" keyboard such as this one:

http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/

Most people, I think, need a physical and audible feedback when typing.

I've mentioned this before. Touch plus voice commands/dictation would be be method of the future.

If there is a 10" laptop, about 60-120 gig SSD, touch-screen, full keyboard, sub $1000, this would be the perfect entry model for college students and create a new army of lifetime Mac users.

I want a laptop dedicated to portable school work: word processing, note taking, pdf reading, email to send assignments, and a adapter for a large 24" monitor. Maybe PP or Keynote for class presentations.

 

[racer1441]

15 inch touch tablet.......

After I cleaned up my mess from seeing the announcement, I'd buy one right away!

 

[Tallest Skil]

Nope!

Too HEAVY!
Too LARGE!
Too port-limited!

You really expect them to put more ports on this tablet than on the MacBook Air, don't you?

 

[farmboy]

I disagree completely, tablets are the redundant design in my opinion. Touchscreen keyboards are a complete joke compared to what most people can do with a physical keyboard.

Also, the concept of the tablet naturally means that the device needs to be small and extremely portable. Anyone requiring a good deal of power out of their notebooks would never be satisfied with a tablet.

"never"? So 45nm chips and new batteries and new hard drives/solid state storage won't make it feasible to have portability AND power? Just wait and see in the next couple of years.

As far as keyboards, let's just say you haven't seen everything yet. Tactile response can be simulated quite effectively on a touch-screen like surface. Ever go back to an IBM Selectric and type on it for a minute or two--that was state of the art tactile response typing and it now feels absolutely impossibly clunky (it was a typewriter, kids. We used those to communicate rapidly before computers). Even the keyboards of 10 years ago pale compared to today.

 

[Marx55]

You really expect them to put more ports on this tablet than on the MacBook Air, don't you?

Yes, IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO IT -- Check this out (450 g only and 5-inch screen):

OQO model 2+
http://www.oqo.com

Tiny, but a full computer with all ports and more.