Intel Confirms Atom-based Larger iPhone (Mini-Tablet)?

[Monty Burns]

That electronic ink is what makes e-books revolutionary. If the new Apple device has a glossy screen, that will make the eyestrain issue even more apparent. Kindles are incredible.

Now, if you're talking about graphic novels, or comic books, that's a market Apple could exploit. But it's niche.

Full-color Kindle-esque "electronic ink" displays are on the way.

And, what is the big deal with the tablet??? It seems like a terrible idea -- why would they need such a product? You've got Macbooks, you've got the iPhone, and the iPod -- is there really a space in the middle that people are just dying to have filled (obscene jokes go here)? Imagine if something had a similar design and form-factor to the iPhone, but had an 8 or 10 inch screen. Do you know how prone to scratching and breaking that thing would be? And where would you carry it? In your backpack, where you carry your laptop anyway?

I think the iPhone as it is has just about the perfect dimensions, and Apple should focus their attention on making THAT device as good as possible, rather than trying to introduce a netbook or tablet. Maybe a true widescreen iPhone would be good, but otherwise I think an "in-between" product is pretty stupid.

 

[Noiseboy]

Full-color Kindle-esque "electronic ink" displays are on the way.

And, what is the big deal with the tablet??? It seems like a terrible idea -- why would they need such a product? You've got Macbooks, you've got the iPhone, and the iPod -- is there really a space in the middle that people are just dying to have filled (obscene jokes go here)? Imagine if something had a similar design and form-factor to the iPhone, but had an 8 or 10 inch screen. Do you know how prone to scratching and breaking that thing would be? And where would you carry it? In your backpack, where you carry your laptop anyway?

I think the iPhone as it is has just about the perfect dimensions, and Apple should focus their attention on making THAT device as good as possible, rather than trying to introduce a netbook or tablet. Maybe a true widescreen iPhone would be good, but otherwise I think an "in-between" product is pretty stupid.

I assure you that what is stupid here are the people who are incapable of seeing something as valuable and useful simply because they cannot imagine a use for such an item in their limited experience, many of us here have been waiting (im)patiently for an Apple tablet for years because we do have a use for one.
If you think that Apple can work on only one device at a time you are mistaken. They have a campus of thousands of engineers and a cash stash of billions of dollars.

 

[AidenShaw]

the real innovators have failures

If you think that Apple can work on only one device at a time you are mistaken. They have a campus of thousands of engineers and a cash stash of billions of dollars.

I work in an advanced R&D group.

We believe that it's important to have some projects that are failures - if nothing fails, that means that we're only doing "easy" projects and not advancing the envelope.

Apple needs more Cubes, not fewer.

 

[alphaod]

Don't get too excited people—Intel confirmed it.

 

[Sehnsucht]

I work in an advanced R&D group.

We believe that it's important to have some projects that are failures - if nothing fails, that means that we're only doing "easy" projects and not advancing the envelope.

Apple needs more Cubes, not fewer.

I am dying for Apple to release a minitower in the cube form factor. The G4 cube failed simply because it was too expensive compared to a G4 PowerMac with similar specs. This excerpt from the Wikipedia article caught my eye:

Since the Cube's demise, a number of Cube enthusiasts have made modifications to their machines. Some of the more popular upgrades are high performance video cards (complete with ductwork to allow the GPU fan to work correctly in the small Cube case) and third-party CPU upgrade cards (up to 1.8 GHz per August 2005); a few people have even modified their Cubes to take a dual-processor upgrade. A popular upgrade is the Geforce 2 MX, which exists in a version specially created for the Cube. Other popular changes include case modifications such as lighting and extra cooling. The Cube uses the same memory and hard drive components as a traditional desktop machine and these upgrades were common. Although the Cube uses a fanless convection-based cooling system, the mounting points for a standard desktop cooling fan are already in place. Upgraders of the Cube often take advantage of this to add a cooling fan to the system.

Upgradeable Core i7 cube, anyone?

 

[polaris20]

This could be really valuable in the enterprise too, with something like the new Citrix Receiver iPhone app:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313735334&mt=8

Add that to the already existing Exchange connections, VPN, and possibly an iWork/iLife lite, and it would be very cool.

I know we could definitely use them.