McGraw-Hill CEO Confirms Apple Tablet, iPhone OS Based, Going to Be "Terrific"

[dongmin]

It's less than 24 hours away and he didn't say anything we don't already know (read: assume).

It's one thing for there to be rumors flying around. It's another for the CEO of a company deep in negotiations/cooperation with Apple to confirm the imminent arrival of a spanking new Apple product and even details like what OS it's going to run on.

Apple has NEVER let this kind of public confirmation of an unannounced product by anyone other than Steve. NEVER.

So I'd say I'm with the camp that says Steve is royally pissed about now.

 

[jordanh91]

spoiler warning next time pl0x



...Seriously though, Mr. McGraw kinda ruined it for me... Ah well, I still hope to see what OS4.0 looks like :3



Also, he said "Uh" way too much... I don't think he was speaking from a script or anything

 

[disagree]

Apple's making a tablet!?

 

[kernkraft]

The trend is to have basic functions

If anyone imagined it would be anything else but an iPhone OS then you are dreaming.

Not necessarily. It could be a combination of the two OSs. Or something in-between.

 

[Dragonlance1561]

You're not even making any sense. iPhone OS IS OS X

I love it when people pull out this line. I'm sure someone would be happy with a Ford instead of a Ferrari because they're both cars.

It's more like the difference between a Lamborghini Gallardo and Audi R8 (or Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg); they've got the same underpinnings, but one is obviously better (both the former in this case).

PS: I'd have gone for a SEAT/VW or SEAT/Audi relationship if I knew about SEATs. The contrast would have been better.

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I thought iPhone OS was just OS X with Cocoa Touch instead of regular Cocoa (and a different UI). Anyways - he did not say the tablet would run iPhone OS, he said: "And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system..." This means it will likely have a different UI while still using Cocoa Touch under the hood.

 

[cmaier]

Apple's making a tablet!?

That joke never gets old. Oh, wait, yes it does.

 

[tdream]

Intentional Leak. This primes the 24 hr news cycle for maximum exposure tomorrow.

Ordinary folks (unlike all us Apple-obsessed types here ) will hear the teaser tonight - or in the morning - that Apple's, "up to something". Curiosity piqued, they'll come home from work tomorrow and make a point of checking the news. And at that precise moment, the tablet will be on all the front pages. Easy! No work required. So very Apple.

Leave it another day, and the front pages will be talking about something else, and the masses won't be bothered hunting for the story.

Up to something? We know exactly what it is thanks to this jackass. The mystery has been deshrouded, the mystic is gone and for what?... a business news spot filler... puhllllease!

I agree with a previous poster, off with his head!!

 

[ImperialX]

Whether or not it's a controlled leak, I don't care. I'm more interested in this "based of iPhone OS". What exactly will the UI be?

 

[JohnnyQuest]

That joke never gets old. Oh, wait, yes it does.

Just read comments on Gizmodo or Engadget to see some other HILARIOUS jokes. My favorite is "I'm going to laugh so hard when there's no tablet tomorrow!"

CONFIRMED, BITC#.

 

[kavlo26]

He should know better. It was Steve's job to "announce" the actual existence of a tablet.

 

[Niteace]

This is definitely a controlled leak. There is NO WAY he would release any info on the tablet before tomorrow, especially so publicly and especially the day before the big announcement! This was done to further increase attention on tomorrows announcement.

I honestly wouldn't want this thing to run Snow Leopard. Too much of a battery drain. My laptop doesn't last that long so I couldn't imagine a device with less available space being able to hold on to battery levels. Its overkill on a device like this. This is a media consumption device, it doesn't need full OSX. It will be a more powerful iphone OS( which lets not forget is a version of OSX anyway! ), tailored specifically to the tablet's needs.

 

[Sabenth]

i am sorry this is like some kind of drama in a soap frankly get what ever it is you need to show case out and about burst a few bubbles cause its a big version of whats already out. Then let us get on with the mundane things in life like living. I notice that no one has even mentioned that nokia won the round one of the legal distube with apple yet UPDATE 2-U.S. trade body starts to probe Apple on patents

 

[boncellis]

This reminds me a little of when Apple let slip the PowerMac G5 on its website the day before it was announced. Jobs's recognition of the slip-up was funny.

 

[thepineapple]

Of course it will be a variant iPhone OS. App Store is a very juicy market with alot of money.
Probably the AppStore icon on this thing will be bigger then ever!

Guys don't forget that tomorrow we might also see an Core i5 mbp or 22inch iMac with touchscreen that you could undock and use as a tablet
and why not an iPod touch with video camera i mean all these things that we've been waiting to see.

 

[Thex1138]

Crusty the CEO Clown

Well he's a conservative business man who wet his pants at Apple 'gifting' him with revenue for 95% of the books they publish. All by the way of Apple's hard work.
He did nothing except make a deal with Apple to spruik eBooks on the Apple Tablet.

I'd say he's an opportunist who's scrambling for whatever eBook product leverage he can get. I don't believe it was a sanctioned move.

His book deal was already sealed so he doesn't care now.

Another aging and crusted conservative CEO asking for the wet nurse on the business channel.

 

[Arran]

McGraw-Hill CEO’s “slip“ is all part of the gag. I have it on good authority that Apple are announcing a smart foodmixer tomorrow.

There's more.... I heard it's a solar powered smart foodmixer! Ooooooh, Aaaaaaah.

 

[kernkraft]

Simple is good. I like simple (as long as it's reasonably priced).

Besides, the simpler the OS, the less hardware it requires, meaning that the cheaper that the device will be (to a certain point, don't expect $200 Apple Tablet). That is good news, isn't it? Most people do email, video, web-browsing and some basic functions on the computer. For most people, a netbook-type tablet would be more than enough.

But I can imagine that graphic designers might be disappointed. Who knows? With a cheaper, more accessible tablet, perhaps there is more incentive to develop something that will really help creative work easier.

I worry about the screen though... on the previous pictures, I can see reflections.

 

[tdream]

This is definitely a controlled leak. There is NO WAY he would release any info on the tablet before tomorrow, especially so publicly and especially the day before the big announcement! This was done to further increase attention on tomorrows announcement.

I honestly wouldn't want this thing to run Snow Leopard. Too much of a battery drain. My laptop doesn't last that long so I couldn't imagine a device with less available space being able to hold on to battery levels. Its overkill on a device like this. This is a media consumption device, it doesn't need full OSX. It will be a more powerful iphone OS( which lets not forget is a version of OSX anyway! ), tailored specifically to the tablet's needs.

Controlled leak? My a*se. Do you really think Steve Jobs et al built up a list of rumors far and wide from different sources, rising to an enormous crescendo on the 26th only to have it "leaked" by some CEO berk on a 2bit network... methinks you're not thinking clearly...

If anything this is like spitting in Steve's face, maybe he didn't like the terms of the agreement but had to accept them anyway or else face losing massive revenue. He did it, but he didn't like it, and this is a way of getting back at Steve. Stealing this thunder. Remember Steve hasn't been on stage for a long long time and it's only once in a blue moon you get to annouce a product like this.

 

[cmaier]

I worry about the screen though... on the previous pictures, I can see reflections.

Of course you do. The losers who faked them had to play with all the features of their raytracing programs.

 

[NeuralControl]

Did he really just say that? He could not have waited a day? I hope he gets an earful from Jobs and Apple.

 

[Gatesbasher]

Yeah, I remember that. I loved those books.

Ignoring the newspaper/magazine consuming tablet aspect (Dave Bowman and Frank Poole had them in 2001,) the prototype for this is really everybody's "personal computers" in The Mote in God's Eye. People would come into a meeting, slap their computers down on the table and they would sync with the agenda and a checklist, they would access remote libraries, take notes with a stylus, etc. Kind of an outrageous concept for 1974, but many people in the computer business have said that it was their inspiration.

 

[sushi]

Agree that it is a well timed leak.

So much speculation on the tablet. What a wonderful way to calm down expectations and create a better environment for it's introduction in a few hours.

 

[MattInOz]

Totally agree. This is going to be another flash-on-the-iPhone debacle. Tomorrow will be day one of people calling for OS X to be on the tablet, hacks to put OS X on the tablet, people refusing to buy cos it doesn't have OS X and Windows people saying "My tablet has a real OS instead of one designed for a phone".

If it has anything less than OS X then Apple are doing the job by half.

What parts of Mac OS X or Windows for that matter do you want?

Both have one serious problem that to date has lead to the failure of all tablet devices.
They where made with the assumption you will be sitting down when using the computer.
That is such a first principle of those systems that you can't just graft on support for other ways of working.

Now that the iPhone Variation of the OS has broken that and forces developers to rethink the interaction to suit. The new OS will quickly scale to cover the full range of machines. Making things that couldn't work before workable. Plus the ability to scale will mean this time it could be seemless across devices. Not just moving one to another but working as a cluster.

 

[NorrisKillsKids]

So how positive are we that the Tablet will be using OS 4.0. Honestly that's 80% of what I'm interested in as I'm not in the position to get a tablet any time soon but I am planning to get an iphone this summer, so I really want to see this new OS.

And if the tablet is using a variation of the iphone OS can we assume that it will be the same (just smaller scale) on the next iphone? I must have these questions answered.

 

[zap2]

There's no need. Using the iPhone OS means that the device will be completely locked into iTunes and the AppStore. It won't be an open or free platform. It will be a DRM-infested, fancy looking control mechanism, nothing else.

Unless somebody brings an Open Source operating system - or even Windows - to this gadget, it won't be worth buying or using. I don't need Steve Jobs to tell me what applications or content I want to use or consume - or create - on a device that I have purchased.

So it's awfully simple: If this thing uses a closed operating system like the iPhone OS, it will be a complete waste of time and money.

Why do those who prefers an fully open OS attack closed systems as if they are evil?

Perhaps...its just not for you! I'll agree Apple could open the iPhone OS up a little, but at the end of the day, its not the end of the world for me.

If it was...I'd use another product. In fact, I currently have an open tablet device(Android based)