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Speculation About An Apple Tablet
worm eater writes "The Register reports that Apple has filed for a European design trademark on a tablet computer. El Reg speculates that this could may make Apple Expo Paris more exciting that previously thought. Could this be the tech that finally brings the Mac desktop, iPod, and AirPort Express (and let's not forget the iPhone) together into the media household of The Future? (Of course, we've heard speculation about this before.)"
I would LOVE to have a wall mounted tablet running iTunes for my home stereo.
This is probably the design for the scrapped Apple PDA Jobs talked about. Also, take a look at the pictures the Register has.... on one of them it looks like the so-called tablet has a connector similar to the one found on a iPod, which leads me to believe this was the scrapped PDA
One of the early designs for the iBook was a design in which the screen could fold 180 degrees. In that position, the keyboard would be deactivated, and the screen would act as a touchscreen. Which is actually a pretty neat idea.
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...and price it right. Given a large enough selection of eBooks to buy/download, they could take the lead on a very large untapped market.
Apple has always been good at making high-quality consumer-grade electronics (iMac, iPod, etc.) and I think a quality eBook reader would do more for them than a "tablet".
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
I don't think this patent is for a tablet or handheld device. As the article states, Apple's iPod already is a great information carrier. However, this patent with, along with Apple's work with a 'wireless monitor' company may be a portable monitor, which connects to your home PC.
I think it would be cool to be able to carry around a tablet-esque device and pen that allows you to do things with your computer. Maybe there will be universal remote functionality and other new features. Just speculation...
-- n
Are there any tablet users out there with experience? I'd think that dropping any tablet would cause catastrophic damage to it.
The same could be said with a laptop, I suppose, but laptops seem to have OK survivability.
Its not for a tablet Mac or a Videoplayer Mac.
Its for the new iMac!
Here is a great article speculating that the new iMac to be released in 19 days in Paris, is to be a miniature iMac, sort of like the old color Classic Macintosh.
http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=-750
Its small screen will conect wirelessly to the Internet, the Ethernet, via the new mini Apple wireless hub. It will also likely have a small keyboard and mouse to go with it.
Since its supposed to be with an aluminum body, perhaps it will come in mini iPod colors too.
Roger Born
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No, not a tablet. I'm imagining an LCD screen for your Mac/iMac that detaches from its stand and can be carried around the house. Wireless video voodoo. Not intended to be a standalone computer but just a portable display with touchscreen. Needs Wifi and a Mac nearby. You can use it as a remote for AirportExpress, as a 'non-portable laptop,' i.e. it doesn't leave the house, usually. Maybe you can take the screen over to a friends house or to work and log into a Mac there with it. Hmmm....
Obviously, Steve Jobs is better at this than I am (or I'd be making one dollar a year plus a few benefits), but this would not seem like a clever move.
The question for me is, does Apple have enough clever ideas to make a tablet computer really work?
AirPort Extreme for wireless networking. Rendezvous for zero-configuration connectivity to stuff like AirPort Express. Bluetooth for use with an optional keyboard. Inkwell for real-time handwriting recognition. A voice-driven interface that surprisingly few people take advantage of. And so forth and so on.
Yeah, I think Apple does have enough clever ideas. What they don't have is miniaturization technology. They could certainly build a table about the size of a closed PowerBook, but they couldn't put a G5 processor in it. From a marketing point of view, I think it would be hard to sell any new system with a G4 processor, just from the point of view of customer perception.
That's not to say I wouldn't take one.
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I honestly don't understand why it would be that much more expensive than a regular laptop. The only things different are a hinge that flips around and an overlay which goes on the screen. The flip-around hinge is really just a redesign, that should be a trivial cost, and the overlay is proven technology that has been in use for years. I can't see the overlay costing much more than an extra hundred bucks. That doesn't add too much to the cost when you are talking about a $1000+ machine.
I could easily see Apple taking a 12" iBook, changing the hinge and putting on a touch-sensitive overlay. They already have most of the software to use the tablet in place with Inkwell.
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If this is a tablet computer equipped to do a network boot of OS X through 802.11g, would it be possible to have the unit work as some sort of a thin client without a hard drive? Perhaps rather than a unit working independently of a computer, it would be a thin-client supplement for a desktop or laptop. I've always wondered if this could be done, because I presume that it would lengthen battery life and could be very thin in design. I would love to see a tablet computer that simply looked like a detached screen of a powerbook without all the buttons and extraneous shapes the Tablet PCs have. That may be possible by excluding a hard drive, CD/DVD drive, and keyboard from the unit.
I recall reading something that may have been a hint about this alleged product. Here's a quote from AppleInsider...
yeah, I recently sat on the train next to a guy coming back from VA. He was so into getting a tablet. I was like "wtf do you want one of them for"
he explained to me how he's in law school and is given much of his research paperwork and books in PDF form. He wants to be able to mark them up and take notes on them in class, and since he sometimes gets the PDF on a CD when he walks in door, he doesn't have time to print out the 100 pages or so.
Also, he was bitching about crappy PDF reading software that's a pain to take notes on. Sure the comment feature in acrobat is nice, but it's not really suited for taking notes in real-time.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Bingo! Graphics people are the target market for this gizmo, not suits who want to take notes. This is why Windows-based tablets fail, Windows still doesn't really 'get' creative graphics. The killer app for the tablet Mac is Alias Sketchbook Pro which recently became available for the Mac.
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I agree. I bought a 12" iBook 7 months ago, and chose it because I couldn't find a comparable PC laptop any cheaper (and it was simpler to just get Mac OS than to get Linux working with arbitrary PC laptop hardware).
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