This is Apple's chance to add another piece of hardware to your growing collection. I think that rather than limit the function that it has i.e.: netbook it should build upon or integrate with your current macs and technology needs... this is what I mean, if they added an infrared port that enabled you to send signals to your home AV equipment and had the ability to send signals to x-10 or home automation equipment with the inclusion of the touch screen it would be the best remote control on the market that would be fully programable, who wouldn't buy it? An iSight camera could allow for video ichat in a much more portable device than the laptop ... this would appeal to the kids out there that currently text this will help grow the market share. In addition with software like delicious library the isight could be used as a portable barcode scanner to create libraries of your DVD's or an inventory of your tools or even a shopping list that could have the groceries waiting for you at the supermarket. The back to my mac functions mean that the main storage can be on your home computer that you can now access from anywhere thanks to the new time capsule or airport software so it does not need a large hard drive and can use a 8-32 Gb ssd. The tablet could be used as a tablet for photoshop with the addition of a stylus or even a mouse replacement if used as a big trackpad. If the tablet had a dock it could be used as a second screen for dashboard or even rss feeds. It would make a much better e-reader than anything out there. I think that this is the approach that Steve will make when he introduces it upon his return... Much like the iphone when it came out... it is so much more than a netbook and we will have to pay for it. I know that if it had the features listed above I surely will.
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Agreed
I think it should be cheaper but the low range MAY be $800 and priced up to $1500; wouldn't surprise me at all.
I think it should be cheaper but the low range MAY be $800 and priced up to $1500; wouldn't surprise me at all.
Am I right in saying that my graphing calculator's display is worse? Similar size to the iPod touch, 160x240 resolution.Never thought about it that way, but it's pretty true. I don't know if it's just that I'm used to iPod touch/iPhone eye-candy, but seeing the low-resolution screens on the DS can be pretty startling at times. I was hoping that the DSi would have much higher screen resolution, but no. Same huge pixels as before.
To me, anything better than that isn't bad at all.
Leopard runs quite well on 1.6 GHz Atom Netbooks (Seen it on a MSI Wind, not bad at all). But as someone said in here, the Atom is 32 bit and I doubt Apple wants to support 32 bit architectures with Snow Leopard. If you take a low power Core 2 CPU with low clock speed (think Macbbook Air) and a reasonable graphics chip (think Geforce 9400M) and just have a huge battery (same tech as on the 17" Macbook Pro), you got yourself a pretty useful and responsive tablet.
I can actually imagine a thin 10" netbook with a touchscreen instead of the keyboard and trackpad. It won't be much worse than your average netbook keyboard with the too small keys and you have a reasonable tracking surface for surfing.
You can actually type reasonably fast on a touch keyboard if it's designed well. Standard sized keyboards are good for touch typing, but those huge ergo keyboards are even better. There's always some compromise with size.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sabon
It should look and act like one screen and be exactly like the iPhone/iTouch but with a bigger screen and a faster processor.
Plus more RAM and more flash storage.
Originally Posted by Sabon
It should look and act like one screen and be exactly like the iPhone/iTouch but with a bigger screen and a faster processor.
Plus more RAM and more flash storage.
I really doubt Apple will ship a $500-600 Netboot. I've often heard that Apple wants to be the Porsche of computers: high class, high quality, high costs. If they were to build a cheap/inexpensive computer for that range, that would ruin their image. Look at the Mac Min i and how long it goes between updates.
Also, I think Apple fears it'll cannibalize sales of its other computers. I've heard in different threads and computer magazines that Netbooks are really selling these days. If that's true & Apple makes a competitive netbook (something in the price range of other netbooks), I can see the other Macs sales going down. I remember in 1996-97 when we had the clones hearing how that stopped because the clones were severely cannibalizing Apple's computers. And kinda rightfully so: Power Computing was selling a 225 MHz Mac while Apple was stuck at 200 MHz.
Also, I think Apple fears it'll cannibalize sales of its other computers. I've heard in different threads and computer magazines that Netbooks are really selling these days. If that's true & Apple makes a competitive netbook (something in the price range of other netbooks), I can see the other Macs sales going down. I remember in 1996-97 when we had the clones hearing how that stopped because the clones were severely cannibalizing Apple's computers. And kinda rightfully so: Power Computing was selling a 225 MHz Mac while Apple was stuck at 200 MHz.
Apple has done this numerous times before. They vehemently denied any interest in a video iPod right up until the release of such, saying nobody would be interested in video on such a small screen. They denied they were working on a phone right up until the announcement of the iPhone. Is it time to repleat history? I seriously doubt however that it will be released at anywhere near the current netbook prices.
I totally agree with this - apple always strives to add to ecosystem each person has with their high tech toys, and this would be one more "I can't live without it" device that will have wide acceptance with current mac users, and bring in a whole new group of switcher.
I don't think it's going to be a netbook. People are just throwing that term around for something smaller than a notebook. I'd say it's much more likely to be a scaled up iPod Touch/E-Reader/Web Browser/Email device with wifi/bluetooth and the app store.
The device will be a touch tablet destined to be the KINDLE - KILLER
Am I the only that sees this happening? Just like Apple transformed the music download business they will now take on arch enemy Amazon.
Just wait and see.... I predict the itunes store will have thousands of ebooks for sale by year's end...
THE ORACLE OF DELPHI HAS SPOKEN
Am I the only that sees this happening? Just like Apple transformed the music download business they will now take on arch enemy Amazon.
Just wait and see.... I predict the itunes store will have thousands of ebooks for sale by year's end...
THE ORACLE OF DELPHI HAS SPOKEN
I disagree with both of you. If you go find a non-Apple computer with EXACTLY the same specs as an Apple computer and compare them side by side, the Apple computer does NOT cost more.
Does the other computer cost too much for what they are delivering? Yes. For one, Windows is overpriced. Two, Dell's hardware is not nearly as good quality wise as Apple. HP does, but Dell definitely does not.
fact check...
The Atom 230 (single core) and Atom 330 (dual core) are x64 processors.
http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35641http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35635
The Atom 230 (single core) and Atom 330 (dual core) are x64 processors.
http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35641http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35635
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)
It's members of web forums who focus on what Apple can't do not Apple themselves. It's a comment Apple made once, then quoted over and over on websites.
DELLsFan said:
Actually, they do. It's called the iPhone (a computer that happens to be able to make and receive cellular calls).
And besides, I'm quite sure Apple could sell a quality computer for far less than $500 - as long as they were willing to seriously "Think Different" about their margins, advertising, and long term market share.
Am I the only one who would really rather Cupertino stopped saying what they can't do and focus on what they can? If anyone could do this with style, it's Apple!
It's members of web forums who focus on what Apple can't do not Apple themselves. It's a comment Apple made once, then quoted over and over on websites.
Agreed. So in order to do that, it cannot have an Atom. I can't think of anything more brutal than trying to run Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver (ugh), iTunes, and multiple pages in Firefox at the same time on an Atom. My own 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac can handle that without a hitch. A friend of mine has a Hackint0shed Acer Aspire One (1GB RAM + Atom) which is very pokey. (It was even pokier when it had Windows XP, but pokey is still pokey.)
So, considering that you can't put a Core 2 Duo in a netbook, it would make better sense to go for a full-sized tablet. Expensive? You bet. Mac tablets would get snapped up in spite of that.
I don't see why the Kindle is even considered a threat to any Apple product. For one thing, nobody uses it. Number two, it's a black-and-white E-BOOK READER that runs on Sprint's network (which probably won't exist by year's end) and by that definition doesn't have anything in common with any Apple product. It's not like somebody is going to say, "Screw the iPhone, I'm getting a Kindle!" because it's obviously apples and oranges here.
So why do people even bother poking fun at it? It's not an iPhone competitor at all.
eBooks are a fad from the "dot com" days that for some reason, refuse to die. When I want to read a book, I go to my room and pick out a real one off the shelf.
Nah, the tablet as a workhorse is dead. Microsoft placed all their bets on it a few years ago, but tablets flopped miserably against regular notebooks in the same price range.
A tablet netbook, on the other hand, would be useful. As long as it handles mail, browsing and maybe streaming some fullscreen video over WiFi, but is still so small that you can't help but bring it along everywhere you go, it's gonna be good. A jumbo iPod Touch, an Atom-powered tablet about the size of four iPhones, yeah, I'd buy it. I just hope they won't screw it up by forcing you to buy it along with an AT&T data plan or something.
It's somewhat awkward with another Apple mobile computer using Intel's CULV/ULV mobile processors. Expect another forced reduction in hardware performance to keep it from infringing on the MacBook Air.
Laptops already have a track pad; touch screen only makes sense if it's replacing not supplementing that as an input. To me, at least.
What possible benefit would a multi-touch monitor on a laptop have?
I wouldn't put it past them to discontinue the MBA in favor of another device. It's not like it would be their boldest move ever.
The MBA may not be as much of a flop as the Cube or the Newton, but it must have sold below expectations. They could scrap it without losing too much business. Prospective MBA buyers wouldn't die from carrying a unibody MB 13" instead.
I always found the MacBook Air quite awkward for what it is especially with netbooks around. It's trying to cash into the premium market with the thinness and light weight only to get kicked to the around by ~$500 netbooks.
It might be time to rethink this strategy.
How do you know it sold below expectations, you have access to some internal Apple documents or what?
