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I'm stunned that so many want a virtual keyboard touch tablet type of device. Has anybody even considered how impossible that would be to type on?

Seriously people, try out a real netbook, something like the Acer Aspire One or even that Dell Mini, before you go knocking the concept. It ain't underpowered like you think, and it runs OSX just like my Mac Mini does. Even with all the fancy graphics and everything. If you want a Macbook you can tote anywhere in one hand, that's it, and if Apple are smart, they'll take that concept and add their twist.

Most Netbooks have ridiculously small keys. The MSI Wind's alright, but the eeePC is kinda uncomfortable to type on.

A tablet is clearly not meant to be for typing, it's a computer you can use while standing. While some people excel at typing one handed (I know this guy, he rests his thumb nuckle on the space bar and types with the 4 fingers of the same hand. He's faster than me touch typing), it's hard because you still need to balance the laptop on one hand. I'm rather fast and accurate when typing standard text on my iPhone, actually.

When you're normally surfing the web, you mostly scroll and click. Auto-Completion of URLs and search terms works well nowadays, too. If you still need to take notes quickly, just dictate it into the microphone and type it out later, when you have access to a keyboard.

When you're using iLife, you barely need to type stuff. Maybe the name of a new project or iPhoto event.

Using forums, chat and e-mail might get annoying, not as bad as on the iPhone, but still.

If there was a dock or stand to get the thing into an angled, laptop screen position, I would actually be interested in a Mac tablet like this. On the other hand, my life is on my Macbook. Performance is sufficient and I can do all I need to do on it. Will get a new one though just for Snow Leopard and the backlit keyboard.
 
out of pure interest, how would an Atom processor compare to a G4 processor for general computing tasks?

Thinking this could be a great replacement for my dad's G4 macbook.

Seen lots of Atom based Hackintoshes. I feel the Atom is almost as powerful as a G4 system at same clock speeds for general use. It sucks bad on things like SSH encryption though.
 
Seen lots of Atom based Hackintoshes. I feel the Atom is almost as powerful as a G4 system at same clock speeds for general use. It sucks bad on things like SSH encryption though.

It's the equivalent of a iBook G4 (1.3ghz IIRC)

I'm predicting Atom Dual Core, they wouldn't give it a core2duo less they make it compete with the macbook.

I don't think Intel has released a dual core atom yet...
 
My money is on this devise replacing the MacBook Air - with the MacBook Air being the first stepping stone to the new device. Apple needed to test some technologies and the MacBook Air was the result. Now for the next step..
 
I want to see a shopped photo with the following parameters:
(Yes i know, but humor me just a bit.)

Specs:
-Screen: dual 10" touch screens arranged like the DS (minus the buttons)
-Thickness: about 2 kindle 2s
-Gut: anything they used in the iPhone or the Ion platform.

Why?

I think Rumple is spot on with the idea of an eBook. Especially given the past where SJ was talking smack about the Kindle (people dont read books anymore). Now if you take the device described aboved, you might get the following scenario:

Steve Jobs: Isnt this awesome. Its an Apple laptop, its an iPod, its an internet communicator, and its an eBook Reader. (sound familiar?)

Steve Jobs: After a long session of typing on our glassy touchscreen keypad. All you have to do is turn the Apple _____ from landscape to portrait mode and BOOM you have an eBook reader!

I really think that SJ is trying to make a product that beats kindle and netbooks at the same time. Just b/c there are two advantage that this product has. Vs Kindle: well a color screen for one. Vs Netbooks: well it runs Mac OS X Snow Leopard Mobile Version ;-).

Yes a fantasy but just my two cents if it were to happen.
 
Disapointed if it's a clamshell netbook.

I predict that this is not going to be a netbook, why would apple release a small clamshell laptop and take away sales from their macbook, macbook air and macbook pro lines. I personally think the only people who want apple to release a netbook do not want to invest in a good laptop like a macbook or macbook prol. Instead I think it's going to look like a larger ipod touch, which opens the gates for new apps that were not around earlier due to the size of ipods. I see apple releasing an ilife and iwork app for such a device as well. In addition, apple will open a market to sell ebooks, magazines and newspaper subscriptions through Itunes because a device like this would be the perfect ereader due to its lack of plastic, non-screen edges and physical buttons. There is endless possibilities for a large minimilistic touch screen that does not get hot when using. I like my macbook, but it gets hot after awhile of using to surf the web, email, itunes, and so on. I see a touch screen with a power button, isight, and maybe 1 or 2 usb ports hidden like the air. I don't see a full functioning OS like Leopard in it because this is not a desktop or laptop replacement, and having a iphone hybrid os will keep costs down. This is going to be an evolution of the ipod and a re-invention of the tablet. Finally IMO touch screen monitors do not work because your hand would get tired from having to point at a screen sitting in front of you, but if you have a large touch screen sitting in your lap, its an ideal device for multi-touch.
 
Ultra low spec... on purpose

If this is a tablet device, my guess is that it will be more like the OLPC in terms of price and the OS.

+With just enough grunt to do individual tasks a a decent speed, like they have done with the iPhone/AppleTV.

H.264 decoding on-chip (nVidia would be nice, but not small enough?), plus a minimal CPU and non-removable amount of ram (1GB sounds about right, maybe too much!) .

Wifi-only internet seems very likely for first generation, but Bluetooth tethering to iPhones would be nice if allowed by the telcos...

If Apple had the confidence (they already have billions in cash assets), they could make a bunch of em at a decent price.

To breach education markets, I'm guessing it will be cheaper than the original eMac's relative market price.

Example specs:

10" LED backlit glass screen.
Aluminium body
Wifi
Bluetooth
Apple connector (NO USB, FW)
512MB RAM / 1GB
8GB flash memory / 32GB
Touch screen keyboard
Loop for locking device

I could so use one of these....
 
I agree, if it's a netbook, it'll be the BMW of netbooks, and priced accordingly.

The Macbook Air is already the BMW of Netbooks.

The "Macbook Lite" will probably be a result of trickle down technology from the Air. Early Air adopters paid for the development costs :rolleyes:
 
We're all over thinking the "Macbook Lite". Although it's all very fun it also leads to disappointment. I'm betting that it's going to be a 10" Macbook Air. Same internal technology, slightly smaller body, same internal components. No touch screen (as cool as it seems, it will price it out of the netbook marketplace). It will be priced between $599 - $799, same as the Mini.
 
We're all over thinking the "Macbook Lite". Although it's all very fun it also leads to disappointment. I'm betting that it's going to be a 10" Macbook Air. Same internal technology, slightly smaller body, same internal components. No touch screen (as cool as it seems, it will price it out of the netbook marketplace). It will be priced between $599 - $799, same as the Mini.
I think the "MacBook Lite" would be a smaller version of the MacBook Air like the MacBook is a smaller version of the MacBook Pro.
 
Sony Vaio P

Sony-VAIO-P-Netbook-White.jpg


Starting at $899

Now will everyone stop thinking "netbook's" are cheap.

That is the EXCEPTION to the rule. Nice try, though.

D
 
Here's my prediction...


~11" glass multi-touch display
~80GB HDD and 64GB/128GB SDD in higher end model
~The graphics with use the old Intel GMA X3100 chip, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M in higher end model
~1.6GHz Penryn Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1.86GHz for higher end model
~2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM in higher end model
~It'll run OS 10.6 (kind of obvious)
~It'll include 2 USB ports, a mini-display port, a headphone jack, and a MagSafe charing port
~WiFi 802.11a/b/g (probably no N)
~AT&T 3G (with a SIM card slot similar to the iPhone's)
~Tapered, aluminum back
~No removable battery
~6 hour battery
~VGA iSight Camera on front with microphone
~No DVD drive
~No physical keyboard
~Accelerometer
~Will include physical buttons on the bottom of the device (in landscape mode) for brightness, expose, dashboard, volume, a touch screen version of Front Row, eject (for optional, $99 external superdrive) and media playback.
~It will have built in speakers (obvious)
~Lock/Sleep switch at top of device
~Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
~AGPS
~Software for controlling iPhone (SMS and Phone/Voicemail) over USB and/or Bluetooth (If there is ever full Bluetooth on the iPhone)
~The device will be .8 inches thick
~3 models
~$1099 for low end model and $1599 for high end model (Faster CPU, graphics chip, and RAM) with 64GB SDD, $1999 for $128SDD with AT&T subsidies if you sign 2 year contract
~Err-to make my ideas of price more clear...
-$1099, $749 with AT&T contract
-$1599, $1149 with AT&T contract
-$1999, $1549 with AT&T contract


And I'm probably going to be wrong on everything...
 
I predict that this is not going to be a netbook, why would apple release a small clamshell laptop and take away sales from their macbook, macbook air and macbook pro lines. I personally think the only people who want apple to release a netbook do not want to invest in a good laptop like a macbook or macbook prol. Instead I think it's going to look like a larger ipod touch, which opens the gates for new apps that were not around earlier due to the size of ipods. I see apple releasing an ilife and iwork app for such a device as well. In addition, apple will open a market to sell ebooks, magazines and newspaper subscriptions through Itunes because a device like this would be the perfect ereader due to its lack of plastic, non-screen edges and physical buttons. There is endless possibilities for a large minimilistic touch screen that does not get hot when using. I like my macbook, but it gets hot after awhile of using to surf the web, email, itunes, and so on. I see a touch screen with a power button, isight, and maybe 1 or 2 usb ports hidden like the air. I don't see a full functioning OS like Leopard in it because this is not a desktop or laptop replacement, and having a iphone hybrid os will keep costs down. This is going to be an evolution of the ipod and a re-invention of the tablet. Finally IMO touch screen monitors do not work because your hand would get tired from having to point at a screen sitting in front of you, but if you have a large touch screen sitting in your lap, its an ideal device for multi-touch.

How arrogant! A 'good' laptop? Seriously? How wrong are you? I could list off over TEN reasons to buy a netbook over a MB or MBP. I own each and I own an OS X Acer One. The arrogance and complete lack of understanding with some Mac users is appalling.

D
 
Tempted

Hmm reading about this rumor sure tempts me to do a 3d mock up ;)

Im thinking a unibody base of a mack book, sized down to cater for a 10" glass screen slapped on top of it.

Looking at recent rumors of apples touch patents and activity, i tend to lean towards a tablet device rather than a traditional clam.

I sure do hope they include a stylus option as i'm pretty sure most of us mac users are the creative type and would love to use such a device to sketch/paint with precision, rather than using clumsy fingers to do worthless child like smudges.

I hope it's geared towards a creative tool rather than just a gadget for leisure.

Does any one have figures on the axiotron modbook sales to prove a tablet worthy of being made by apple?

Anyway thats my two bits :p
 
I'm the same way with the dumb "sub-notebook" term that some have used. There is no such thing as a sub-notebook.

I am still of the opinion that netbooks aren't a very lucrative market. Yeah, they're growing, but how much money is being made?

I wanted to ask what SUB-NOTEBOOK meant when someone wrote that earlier. Sub-notebook to me is something like an iPod touch or Palm Pilot or so. That term makes no sense. Netbook makes sense, being a limited, low end notebook compared to the laptops currently sold as home computers for transport.

Apple could have been talking down netbooks and smaller devices to fake out competition from trying to pry. Or from pursuing that market, thinking that if Apple says the market is crap, it is crap. Or Apple could have realized from the netbook splurge that there IS a market they can now improve on....that really isn't hard to do, but the price is their Achilles heel.
 
Hey now. I just posted this in the first thread. Cool Stuff, huh?

Anyway, I said that my money is on this:
0512_imac_tablet_inset_450.jpg

macbooktouch1.jpg


Truth be told, if it's good enough for me to do some real mobile work... (2ghz + 1gb ram) ... I'll buy that and a MacPro.

Nobody wants to drop a couple hundred on a device that is a giant display just to hide said display in another more expensive display.
 
hey I predicted the AIR resale problem!

So a lot of MBA's target audience (which included myself as I was one of the first to recieve their's REV1.1 in Ireland) are people using the machine as a secondary laptop or desktop - who are doing little more with their machines other than word processing, basic editing, web browsing and email. People who need a highly portable, light efficient laptop.

I liked the MBA - but after a while it began to grate on me. Battery charge times were always excruciating for me. Battery discharge was a problem and it had to be replaced which meant sending my machine across to the other side of the country and waiting 3 weeks for it to come back. Heat dispensation, and general youtube / flash unfriendliness also dampened the squib. Eventually I decided to sell it on, and for the first time I found it difficult to sell a piece of Apple kit, it was a really hard sell and resale value was poor compared to any other Apple hardware I've ever bought over the last 15 years.
Not to blow my own horn but I predicted the resale issue. That prediction was based entirely on the I/O available and access to it. It is really a shame too as the AIR could have been one of Apples hottest machines sales wise. Especially if the askng priced reflected the intrinsinct value of the device.

In any event it is nice to see this point supported in an unsolicited manner.
Eventually I traded it for a 24" iMac and I have no regrets. I then bought a netbook - which despite not running osX - it did everything the MBA air did for me.
Good trade!
--

An Apple Netbook which may be 'more portable' than a MBA, light, great battery life and a touch screen, full OSX experience and a sub Macbook price (let alone MBA) sounds to me like Nirvana on a stick, but........ that has got to hurt MBA sales.
I'm not sure if Apple can hurt MBA sales anymore than it has.
Even if it not as powerful as the MBA, people generally are not buying the MBA for heavy processor intensive operations anyway.
It was like #3 on my lists of negatives. Speed is important and needs to be reflected in the devices price. That is the lower performance of netbooks is acceptable because people pay a lower price for them. The other trade off is run time which implies ARM.

If thedevice is a notebook it likely would have Atom in it. If purchased out of the iPod family it will very likely have an ARM. I86 is very important for anything called a Mac.
Whilst I would certainly buy an Apple Netbook, I do think it's going to make the MBA look really out of place in the grand scheme of Apple hardware.
I'm not sure why you dwell on AIR considering you traded yours away, but AIR was out of place the day it arrived. Personally I see it as some sort of insider joke at Apple. An attempt to see how far they can go to build an expensive computer with little in the way of I/O. Or maybe it was an attempt to test their marketing muscle by selling what is obviously over priced and castrated hardware. I really don't know what the point of AIR was and we are likely never to get a good explanation from Apple. But really why dwell on something you traded away for problems identified the day it hit the market.
We all wait with baited breath......

and for now I'll have to make do with a HP2140 for my aluminum netbook experience :)

Personally I want to see a tablet device. Preferrably one that breaks Mac compatibility and evolves from Touch. I'm just not impressed with the mini notebook / netbook market.

///////////..//////////

By the way I'm not totally opposed to the idea of MBA but Apple just got to many things wrong with it. The latest revision did much to improve the GPU / processor marriage but left other issues unresolved. Thus this machine can't really be reccomended yet.


Dave
 
My money is on this devise replacing the MacBook Air - with the MacBook Air being the first stepping stone to the new device. Apple needed to test some technologies and the MacBook Air was the result. Now for the next step..

It probably wont replace the MacBook Air if it is going to be considered a netbook. The laptop that really needs to be replaced is the White MacBook.
 
Can someone post a speculative at least comparison between the new arm cortexes (some implementation of them at least, the atoms and the c2 duos, or are they so different implementations that no easy tools exist to test them for the average user?
 
Heres another idea:
Sorry for the bad image in the middle, I don't have photoshop so I cant add a layer.
 

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