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Mac Tablet from OWC

I've seen Mac tablets on eBay a while ago. They were modded iBooks for 2200 EUR ($2500 US) if I remember right. It was an iBook 12" mainboard with all the innards (HDD, RAM, ports, optical drive) in a new case with an included touch screen. OSX supports touchscreens and has the whole handwriting recognition built in, so there's no real software changes necessary. Inly downside: those things were thicker than an iBook, i.e. too thick for a tablet you want to use.

The interesting thing here is that they want to show off that thing at Macworld. I doubt they will have some speaking time at the keynote, but a booth, why not. Apple might handle this company like those guys that make accessories for the iPod. I expect those things to appear on Apple's online store somewhere. The hardware is all Apple, so I don't think there's a legal issue here. Just a different case and screen. Who knows, maybe you can order a BTO Macbook without the case, battery and screen for a little cheaper, so you can send it to the modders (or ship it directly to them from the apple store).

Personally, I wouldn't get one of those because it's basically a crippled laptop but your taste may vary. The built in GPS sounds cool tho... is there any good GPS software for OSX out there?
 
As a real estate agent, I currently carry a Fujitsu T4010 to write contracts paperlessly. It is very cool and easy except for the windoze fight. I can email them efficiently to everyone that needs them and to the clients. They are legal as they become a tiff which is essentially a fax. The clients like it as it goes directly to their email account and they can print it if they need to. I can also print a hard copy at the site however I have never been asked.

I also use the tablet to fill out forms and sign them which is cool because it eliminates faxing generations. Marking up something or sketching something is fast and efficient as well. I ould buy a "Tabbook" (my term) in a minute. I currently run my R.E. vertical software in Parallels but have to print to sign so I have the Fujitisu at the ready in a bag in the car.
 
It's a very safe risk...

Chaszmyr said:
I doubt they really know one way or the other. You, more than anyone, know these people don't usually get any privileged information. They're just taking a risk, and it's probably a relatively safe one.
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It's a very safe risk, because apple is probably subsidizing the whole deal.
 
Clive At Five said:
Does Colorware's paint job void the warranty?

-Clive
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No, it does not void the warranty. A friend of mine wacked his hard drive on a colorware'd iBook and was still under warranty. Sent it to Apple and they replaced the HDD, no charge. But you can't return them to Apple. It's handled like a custom engraved iPod.

I wonder if the people at Colorware take the stuff apart to paint it or if they just cover parts you don't want painted (screen, ports etc) like when you paint a window frame.
 
dejo said:
Yes, Colorware's paint job voids the original manufacturer's warranty but they also include their own one-year warranty (with an extended warranty available).
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Maybe that's new? My friend who sent his in didn't ask, he just sent it to Apple for repair and was not charged for anything.
 
sweetandsour said:
It makes good sense. I imagine this has all been discussed and agreed with apple.

No more tablet R&D for apple, no new product support for apple, no embarrassment if no-one buys one.
But if lots of people buy one, then apple sell heaps of extra macbooks (to OWC) that they already make a good margin on for negligible extra effort.
If the market goes crazy for 'em, then apple can always make their own, having done all the market testing / user feedback for free.

Win-Win-Win situation. Smart.
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Hmm... This is where we find out that OWC is a shadow company wholly owned by Apple, so that they can see what the market will bear for a Mac Tablet without getting their reputation blemished if it's a total flop.
 
I Don't Think Apple Did It

I don't think Apple has their hands in this one. If Apple agreed to let OWC take this on then OWC got something out of the deal as well. Apple wouldn't let OWC succeed in a market while using their own hardware... then when Apple stepped into the market after a few quarters of success OWC just steps over and lets them in. :confused:

Naw... If that happened then OWC has to get something out of the deal besides just selling modded macbooks. They would have to make sure Apple didn't just make a real Mac Tablet and take all of their customers away. I think OWC is just taking a MacBook and modded it and selling it back to customers with a new warrenty. I think it is a bit too much for a computer that doesn't have that much more functionality over a regular notebook. Tablets are more of a niche market than the ultra-portable 11.1 inch screen notebooks. I don't see a wave of tablet owning college students in the library or anywhere for that matter. And when I do see the one or two students that have them they usually use their machine like a regular notebook.

They may flip the screen to show someone how it works or to show a document but how hard would it be to just turn the whole computer around. Other than that you can write on the screen... and that isn't that impressive if you don't do anything outside of animation and graphics. And you don't want to do that on a moderate sized 13 or 12 inch screen.

So of all the features of a tablet (the only 2) all of them can be seen as niche.

Just my 10 cents;)
 
sweetandsour said:
It makes good sense. I imagine this has all been discussed and agreed with apple.

Win-Win-Win situation. Smart.
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Indeed. After all, Apple can always follow its usual pattern: Closely monitor a small innovating company and kill it in a split second if it finds serious commercial potential there. "Killing" in this instance can mean

i) Apple buying OWC and its intellectual property, if it's any worth (as it did with Coverflow) or

ii) Apple utilizing its own touch technologies (see recent patent filings) and thus forcing OWC to obsolescence (as it will do with the ApplePhone).
 
Texas04 said:
Since when do other people.. companies make Mac hardware?

Furthermore since when do other people make computers that can run OS X.
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This has happened before with Mac OS 9 and the clones. However, in this case I do not believe that it is a clone concept. Rather I believe it is what has been done already. I forget the company, but you would give them your laptop and they would repackage it into their form.

I imagine that this may be along the same idea.
 
There was actually another company, I think, before this (going back as far as the iMac G4, I think?), that modified Macs to have touch screens. Anyone rememebr the name?
 
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

This TOTALLY kicks ***!

I mean, I don't care for a tablet myself, and I don't know if this particular product is any good, even so. But this is an awesome sign for the health of the Mac market.
 
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