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.)"

Comments

Estimated cost?

[Trigun]

$8499 MSRP.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Aadain2001]

And that, lady and gentlemen, is why tablet PC's will NEVER take off! I know that that price is inflated (or is it?!?!), but tablet PC's are just too damn expensive. Why buy a tablet that is kludgy to use, limited in power/graphics, and costs more than a ultra powerful desktop computer? Until tablets are $500 or so, they will only be a niche market.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Kenja]

"Until tablets are $500 or so, they will only be a niche market."

What are you talking about? You can get a tablet PC for under 50$ off of eBay. Granted it'll have a 386-486 CPU in it.

What I love are all these people talking about tablet PCs like the're a new thing. I still have my 486-33 tablet around some place, running Windows 3.1 for Pens off of its 40MB hard disk.

Re:Estimated cost?

[shufler]

Actually, tablets have come down in price. You can get a decent tablet from LG or Toshiba, for around the same price as a laptop. Not to mention that the latest tablets also douple as laptops (ie. The screen flips around).

The price of a tablet will never be less than the cost of a laptop. The cost of a laptop will not be rediculously low like that any time soon.

Re:Estimated cost?

[geoffspear]

Yeah, and I'm sick of people complaining about the price of Macs. You can buy one on eBay for $20. Granted it will have a 68040 in it, but it will run OS 7.5 just fine. Therefore, the Mac market isn't a niche market, either.

And don't even get me started about the deals you can get on wrecked Ferraris.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

And don't even get me started about the deals you can get on wrecked Ferraris.

Bad analogy. A totaled Ferarri is worth a fortune for the spare parts alone.

Re:Estimated cost?

[cristofer8]

If this is in fact a wireless monitor, for the imac or otherwise, it's isn't a new idea. Microsoft came out with a reference platform to do exactly this, see viewsonic's version, but unfortunately they cost a ton. It'll be interesting to see if apple goes down the same route.

I would be pretty cool to have an imac with a detachable wireless monitor, but the imacs are supposed to be 17" and 20" neither of which is particularly portable.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Anonymous Coward]

For that price, I would rather have my 10 linux licenses.

j/k :)

Re:Estimated cost?

[Blue-Footed Boobie]

The Viewsonic models are not Wireless Monitors no matter what they try and tell you. I sell them, they are WinCE based (most of them) PDAs. They let you control a Windows XP machine from a Terminal inside of WinCE. Basically, they are Wireless Dumb-Terminals.

Re:Estimated cost?

[crem_d_genes]

Granted it will have a 68040 in it, but it will run OS 7.5 just fine.

Has there been an update? Anybody got a gopher link that describes it?

Re:Estimated cost?

[bhtooefr]

http://jksalesinc.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPa th=26_51_80&products_id=217

$330, and comes with a crapload of accessories. Heck, many early Slate form-factor tablets were barely more powerful than that thing (400MHz P3). Oh, and the Stylistic and Point lines were some of the first Tablet PCs, coming soon after the Toshiba Dynapad T-100, the FIRST tablet PC, 11 years ago.

Also, someone got Windows XP Tablet PC Edition running on the old Stylistic 2300, a Pentium MMX 233 box (below the minimum requirements for DESKTOP editions, but XP Pro's been run on an underclocked 20MHz Pentium for shits and giggles). Since the 3400 is above the requirements of XP Tablet, it should run it.

Re:Estimated cost?

[ScottSpeaks!]

Bad analogy. A totaled Ferarri is worth a fortune for the spare parts alone.

So is an old Mac.

OK, maybe not "a fortune" (they were never worth that much when new), but a used Mac - even a broken one - can have surprising value on the second-hand market. "Obsolete" Mac hardware retains pretty good value, despite the fact that all the beige units prior to the original iMac have been effectively written off by Apple's OS division. Of course the fact that everything since the original iMac is still well supported by the OS helps keep the price of old G3 systems - and the parts to keep them running - fairly high.

Re:Estimated cost?

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno. Lemme fire up Archie and Veronica and see if I can find any ftp/gopher sites...

Re:Estimated cost?

[dgatwood]

But until a tablet is -far- less than the cost of a laptop (or until computing becomes so ubiquitous that the tablet becomes nothing more than a portable input device for some device built into your home), tablets will not be more than a niche.

Why would anyone buy a tablet when they could buy a laptop? Think about it. You're stuck with a clumsy interface that is barely usable. It's fine in places like hospitals, but that's a specialized market with specialized applications---specifically, the need to take notes in an environment where putting a laptop on a desk is not always possible, and the need to be able to guarantee that those notes can be stored centrally so they never get lost. Those aren't common characteristics of general-purpose computing, nor are they needs that most people would care about.

If they were cheap enough, they could be useful as a replacement for carrying a note pad to class for school students, or for businesspeople to carry to meetings. However, as long as the interface is less efficient for taking notes than typing (and by its very nature, writing is almost an order of magnitude slower than typing), there must be some other significant advantage to outweigh that huge efficiency loss.

I can think of two possible advantages that could outweigh the loss in efficiency: portability and cost. Portability... well, make it as thick as a pad of paper. No hard drives that thin? Well, there's a problem. Besides, if you can make a tablet that's super-thin, you can make a laptop that is equally thin, so there's no advantage. Cost? Well, it can't be cheaper than a laptop, you say? Okay, no advantage there, either.

When I can buy a tablet PC for the same cost relative to the price of a computer that a Palm costs now, it will make sense. Until then, it's just a cute toy that costs way too much to be useful. That said, my ideal tablet PC wouldn't be a PowerMac G5 or a Pentium IV. It would be a Palm or a Newton, with the addition of an iPod-size hard drive (say 20 gigs), only wider and not as thick. Limited OS, designed for one main purpose---to serve as a note pad. Synchronize it with your computer using bluetooth or something. Use it to carry files back and forth to class, too, if needed. Maybe even make it so that you can run normal applications (slowly) so you can show your professor your work instead of printing it out. In other words, something that would cost maybe $150-ish and if it broke, it wouldn't be the end of the world.

That said, as long as tablet computing is a more fragile, more cumbersome, laptop-priced device, it's an eye-roll, IMHO.

Re:Estimated cost?

[shufler]

Gah! Didn't you read what I said? Tablet PCs aren't limited to just being a "tablet." There is an increasing number of tablets being sold that are essentially laptops with a screen that can be operated using a stylus.

The implications of this are tremendous. The problem until now with tablets, was that it was rediculous to input large amounts of text. On-Screen keyboards are a joke, and suffice it to say, programs like Windows Journal are neat, but they aren't indended for writing up memos, letters, or even surfing the web.

The key is a laptop that has a screen that can be manupilated into either the traditional tablet position, or to the traditional laptop position. Tablets and pen-entry do have their moments, and I must admit that I find after getting used to the pen, it is sometimes easier to use than a mouse (an input device that I have been using for over a decade).

Not to mention there are tablets that are made using carbon fibre, so they're light as shit (or a feather), which makes them a joy to use in a mobile environment (imagine holding a regular laptop with one hand for an hour -- something that happens naturally with a tablet).

Anything you can do with a laptop, you can do with a tablet. Plus, you can do more with a tablet, and do certain tasks more effiently (such as editing documents), due to the fact that humans have been using similar writing utensils for centuries.

I definately hope "laptops" start being phased out, and replaced with laptops with a tablet.

how much

[ack154]

Well the big question would obviously be price. Any Mac fan probably knows it would be a very nice piece of hardware... but really, tablets are expensive enough. How much would something like this be from Apple?

Re:how much

[Oculus Habent]

Apple portables are fairly inexpensive these days. Yes, tablets are more expensive than equivalent laptops, but I don't think Apple would be much more - compared to other tablets.

Re:how much

[jfengel]

Actually, I think the big question would be "features". Tablets are pricey because they don't have very wide acceptance; people who buy them really, really want them.

Apple's stock-in-trade has always been innovative, functional, attractive designs that make people feel comfortable. People pay a $50 premium for the iPod because its design just works for them. They like using it.

Apple has always charged a bit more for its products, though some of that has been staying away from the most bottom level. You can pick up a bottom-of-the-line Dell for half the price of a bottom-of-the-line Mac, but a comparable Dell is usually only slightly less than the equivalent Mac. (Much of that, of course, depends on what you consider "comparable", since the systems use resources in very different ways.)

The question for me is, does Apple have enough clever ideas to make a tablet computer really work? Can they make a tablet that pushes some laptops out of the market? Perhaps they can make the bridge between the power of a laptop and the convenience of a PDA that it becomes an indispensible item.

Or they may end up with a cumbersome PDA/underpowered laptop combination that nobody wants. It'll all depend on the features. If they can get them right, they'll probably charge twice as much as a laptop and sell as many as they can make. Either way, I bet it'll be higher than the price you're comfortable paying, like the iPod, which has managed to be a breakout hit despite its high price by being exactly the right combination of features for people.

Re:how much

[Twirlip of the Mists]

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.

Re:how much

[Graff]

Well the big question would obviously be price. Any Mac fan probably knows it would be a very nice piece of hardware... but really, tablets are expensive enough. How much would something like this be from Apple?

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.

Re:how much

[Dan Ost]

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

Funny how they sell so many laptops with G4's in them.

I would expect that processing power is even less of a concern for tablet
computers than it is for laptops.

Re:how much

[dasmegabyte]

I don't really thing that is the big question. When the iPod came out, it came into a widely floundering field of less expensive players and beat the pants off them due to innovative design, excellent software, compact size and beautiful looks.

We have exactly the same situation in the tablet PC field today. We've got a ton of different tablet PCs, but they don't really have a market. For one thing, the resolution usually craps out at 1024x768 on a 14" device, too low density for most non-technophile artists (yes, I know Gabe from Penny has one), and for another their input method leaves something to be desired. The flip down keyboard on some models is kind of neat, but then it isn't much of a tablet if you have to convert it to a laptop all the time.

So anyway. We've got a wide open field, lots of interest but no real reason to switch to a tablet PC paradigm. If Apple can deliver something -- say, a lightweight 10" machine midway between a tablet and an OQO, with good resolution/pixel density, innovative software you can't do on a PocketPC or on a standard laptop and a nice, smooth, highly responsive input method for text -- they can take the market as easily as they took the portable music market.

It's all about the software, man. Give me a reason to draw all over my screen besides "hey cool, drawing on the screen" -- and I'm much more likely to want to do it.

Re:how much

[MyDixieWrecked]

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.

Re:how much

[trentblase]

Apple loves money

Who doesn't? Commie.

Re:how much

[Graff]

Take it from someone who has dealt with Wacom and their pricing for Overlays used in Tablets - It Ain't Cheap! Sure, you can go Non-Wacom...but why?

Well, first of all Wacom is not necessarily the best company to go to for touch screens. Yes they are a decent company but there are many, many more suppliers of this technology. A quick Google search reveals many. I'm not in the field of computer system component integration but I'm certain that a company like Apple could easily find a decent partner at a decent price.

Now, just a quick look around reveals LCD screen overlays costing from around $90 to $110 for a 12.1" screen. I didn't find out what quantity you would need to purchase to get those prices but I'm pretty sure that a major PC manufacturer like Apple could easily get those prices and probably much better because they are dealing in quantity.

So I feel that I can stand on my estimate of a $100 increase, more or less, in price for an Apple laptop with a touch screen over an Apple laptop without a touch screen. All things being equal it is at least a decent ballpark estimate of the costs.

Re:how much

[squiggleslash]

I suspect this is a tablet, a very small one (possibly the size of an iPod), and will probably be called a "pod".

The device patented is too small (if the "iPod connector" shown in the diagrams is to scale, it's about 10" corner to corner) to be one of the forthcoming iMacs, the smallest of which is likely to have a 17" screen. El Reg themselves discount the idea, in the linked to article, that the device is the iPod, it doesn't match.

It also would explain why Apple has bought a crap-load of 60G iPod ready disks and then turned around and said they have no intention of releasing a 60G iPod.

Are they reading my mind?

[cjwl]

I would LOVE to have a wall mounted tablet running iTunes for my home stereo.

Re:Are they reading my mind?

[NETHED]

Dear sir or madam,
According to my records, you seem to have "WAY TOO MUCH MONEY" and this needs to be remedied. Please donate all you can to me, a POOR COLLEGE STUDENT.

Seriously, this would be cool, but I'm sure there are less expensive ways to do this. Hey guys, are there ways?? I wouldnt mind hanging a Flatpanel on my wall, use it as a small TV, or a touchscreen control. Hmmmmm....

Re:Are they reading my mind?

[gricholson75]

I suggest checking out Meedio

Re:Are they reading my mind?

[rokzy]

tablets will never be done. a tablet is essentially just a very portable laptop with a touchscreen. this is a very good idea and the only problem is getting a good price/performance balance. time will solve this problem.

consider the evidence:
electronic organisers evolved to PDAs with touchscreen and handwriting recognition.

mobile phones evolved to smartphones with touchscreen and handwriting recognition.

laptops will evolve to tablets with touchscreen and handwriting recognition. to claim otherwise seems foolish.

Re:Are they reading my mind?

[rampant mac]

"According to my records, you seem to have "WAY TOO MUCH MONEY" and this needs to be remedied. Please donate all you can to me, a POOR COLLEGE STUDENT."

What the hell? You don't have enough MONEY?!? Get off your lazy ass! What's happened to America lately?

When I went off to college I left with no less than 3 ounces of marijuana which I promptly dealt from from my college dorm room! Did I ever have to call my parents up and beg for money? Nope!

College students today expect handouts! You're destroying the very fabric of our society! Jesus, I'd be nothing without my diploma... Where the HELL did I put that thing? Oh shit, that's right. I smoked it.

Damn.

[Anonymous Coward]

First they put apples in tablets...
next we'll be eating all our food from tubes!

Re:Damn.

[Gilmoure]

I still miss the Pillsbury Space sticks. They were smaller than a hotdog and had a slight peanut butter taste. Yummy!

Rumor

[lateralus_1024]

This is the resurrection of the Newton, rumor has it.

P.S. I started the rumor and I want royalties if i'm right.

Re:Rumor

[bhtooefr]

Well, if it's running OS X, it'll definitely have InkWell. InkWell is the name for the handwriting engine in OS X. It is based upon Rosetta, the GOOD handwriting engine from the Newton.

This is why there'll never be a source release of Newton OS.

Re:Rumor

[Lodragandraoidh]

Ah - so while Jobs hates the Newton, due to his misplaced 'not invented here' or more exactly, 'not invented by me' syndrome, he does recognize the power of the technology Scully's team came up with - and intends to leverage the 10 year old technology for profit, rather than sharing it with the world (as could have been done while the rest of us limped along with the PalmPilot, its clones, and other blecherous handwriting interfaces).

I suddenly feel like I need a bath... :|

Apple PDA

[phalse phace]

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

Re:Apple PDA

[MoonBuggy]

OTOH, they have bought a shitload of 60GB microdrives while stating that a 60GB iPod isn't in the works...

Re:Apple PDA

[enjoilax]

Thats very true, and Apple was super pissed that toshiba leaked that... Also they would be the size convient enough for an ipod... why not PDA?

Re:Apple PDA

[jrockway]

Uhh my powerbook has a 4200RPM drive... so do most laptops with higher than 15 minute battery life...

Not the first time Apple's been toying with this..

[wfberg]

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.

Just make me a GOOD eBook reader...

[TrollBridge]

...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".

Re:Just make me a GOOD eBook reader...

[jcenters]

12" iBook.

Download desired book as PDF.

Open it in Preview.

View --> Rotate Left

View --> Fullscreen

Click mouse button to flip pages.

Done.

Re:Just make me a GOOD eBook reader...

[jfengel]

It would be lovely, but I don't think that the tech is right yet. LCD screens are heavy, power-hungry, and not very attractive when compared to a paper book. In addition, no matter how cheap you make them, the up-front price will be high compared to a book, unless you plan to subsidize them (which would drive the price of the books up). They've got computers inside of them, even if small ones, so they can only get so cheap.

Not to mention that e-book readers are more fragile than paper books and more expensive to lose, which means people would be reluctant to invest. They're more likely to buy software for the laptop or PDA they're already carrying around, if the visual were pleasant enough to read. PDA screens are generally considered too small, and even good laptops get only the equivalent of 4" wide (at the 300 dpi you'd consider pleasant to read on paper.)

That's just the tech end. The other side is the business case, by which I mean DRM. It's a touchy issue in music, but digitized music already existed on CDs before people could readily make copies of them. Books don't exist in digital form, so copies are hard to make. Nobody wants to read a photocopy, and it's usually pricier than just buying the book. The publisher has the digital form, but they keep it to themselves, and they'll continue to do so until they believe they have a pricing model that allows them to make their money back. Most of them believe, like the music industry, that that model depends on DRM to ensure that each person buys a separate copy. There are other models, but none is an obvious knock-out-of-the-park win.

They're probably waiting on the music industry to see how they fare with the DRM. The hackers take it as a point of pride to work around it; at least one prominent e-book DRM has already been hacked. So the publishers would be reluctant to e-publish even if there were significant numbers of e-book readers.

Apple would probably love to take your advice, but it's my guess that the tech won't support it just yet.

Possibly a remote tablet interface?

[neuro.slug]

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

Re:Possibly a remote tablet interface?

[Solder Fumes]

Philips has been making these for ages (link. They are expensive as heck (~$1500) and haven't caught on. However, they do require a Windows PC, so maybe they're targeting the wrong market: one that doesn't like their wallet being flogged to hamburger for basic hardware. So perhaps Apple could pull it off.

Re:Possibly a remote tablet interface?

[LoudMusic]

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...

That's basically what I want - a tablet monitor that is essentially a thin client for your workstation. Give it a cradle on a desk and it could be the monitor for the workstation. Something like a ... 8.5" x 11" screen would be pretty nice. Maybe a little larger. And if the display could be rotated to portrait that would be cool too.

Size?

[tomee]

Will they release a version with the 30'' Apple Cinema display? That would be cool for riding the subway.

Re:Size?

[shepmaster]

Only if you replace "riding" with "being unmercifully mugged and beaten. Then all of your other stuff (iPod, Newton) gets stolen too. Finally you are left lying in a seat, bleeding profusely until a bum pushes you out of his spot. All of this happened on"

iPorn

[doggiesnot]

Soon you can have iPorn streamed directly to your bathroom?

What if you drop it?

[mveloso]

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.

Re:What if you drop it?

[g3000]

About two weeks after I bought my G3 iBook, my brother dropped it down a short flight of stairs, and hit a wall and tile floor before coming to rest. I guess that virtually bullet-proof, white plastic enclosure is up to snuff, because not only does the iBook still work well today, it barely has a scratch. In case you're wondering, it faired better than my brother's "enclosure." He received a wrist fracture and a strained ligament when I dropped *him* down the stairs shortly thereafter.

Re:What if you drop it?

[stienman]

I'd think that dropping any tablet would cause catastrophic damage to it.

Don't drop it. Seriously, if you think you're going to drop the thing while it's outside of its case, then you have no business using one.

The same could be said with a laptop, I suppose, but laptops seem to have OK survivability.

The only difference between a laptop and tablet is that in tablet mode the entire computer is in one solid(ish) block - you won't break the screen mounts dropping it as you would if you dropped a laptop with its screen open. Of course you aren't supposed to drop them, but typically most laptops and portable devices are generally able to withstand a 3 foot drop onto concrete as a basic survivability test.

Tablets will be just as safe/vulnerable as current laptops. The only additional vulnerability is that the screen is more exposed to scratches.

-Adam

Re:What if you drop it?

[KingFoo]

I've been using a tablet for the past year (acer travelmate c110). We're a High School, all the students have laptops (some tablets last year, all tablets for incoming students this year). It's a convertable model, and haven't seen any more damage related trouble than a conventional laptop. Unless it's in a weird configuration (screen offset 90 deg and the like), there isn't much difference. The 'slate' stile of tablets are insane, but more because you can't effectivley protect the screen. This is unrelated, but they're not that much more expensive (at least from acer). When we worked the numbers, the tablet ended up costing about as much as a laptop with the same processor/ram, and a gaming GPU. We couldn't see any academic reason to give them killer 3d graphics, however the tabletPC's have been amazingley useful. We've finally got non-geek kids choosing to bring/take notes on their computers.

Its for the new iMac!

[rogerborn]

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
writing.borngraphics.com
Sorry, no refunds.

Re:Its for the new iMac!

[danamania]

Something nifty like that seems a bit more apple than the first impression of the new imac given by the latest Think Secret article.

A quick & dirty apple-ification of the Vaio W series they compare it to in vague terms comes up looking like this little piece. Certainly looks like it could be made by apple, but with the history of the iMac really being something unique, I suspect it'll be Just That Bit More.

Re:Its for the new iMac!

[ericdano]

You might be right about this being the new iMac. However, where is the processor to go? If the new iMac uses a G5, and from what I know of the G5, you need a fairly large cooling system. So.....

This would seem to be a step back from the original iMac design. Unless it is the LCD that connects to the base unit. But you'd think Apple would have put that in the filing.......

I'd imagine it's for some sort of new "iPodish" like device. Perhaps a PDA or maybe something that would link up to a Bluetooth enabled Cell phone?

It's interesting regardless.......

OS X light?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking that this device could use a light version OS X--iTunes plus music store, email, web-surfing and maybe some kind of photo management. How difficult would it be for Apple to incorporate the option of streaming video from your cable box with the aid of Airtunes?. This could also take care of that small issue of the PC market share people are always taking about.

It's probably design specs for the new iMac

[SeattleDave]

The new G5 based iMacs are reportedly designed so that the CPU is attached to the monitor - which looks remarkably like a tablet. We'll know in 2 weeks.

Re:It's probably design specs for the new iMac

[Joey Patterson]

The new G5 based iMacs are reportedly designed so that the CPU is attached to the monitor - which looks remarkably like a tablet. We'll know in 2 weeks.

Speaking of the new G5 iMac, ThinkSecret has a report that confirms this, along with supposed specs for new 17" and 20" iMacs.

Re:It's probably design specs for the new iMac

[ericdano]

Yeah, but look at the existing G5's. They require a LOT of cooling, and that sketch does not look like it could hold a G5 at all. Unless Apple has some extremely advanced liquid cooling they are putting in it.....

I haven't read the patents...

[ProfessionalCookie]

but it seems like patents for a tablet style PC could easily be applied to the next generation iMac. It's likely that it's an all in one design with the components behind the lcd.

See here: http://www.thinksecret.com/ and here http://www.appleinsider.com/.

Not actually happening...

[MacGoldstein]

I can't see Apple ever releasing a Tablet PC... Here's why:

1. Cost is too much. Non-Apple users already see Macs as too expensive, so a Tablet (unless it were uncharacteristically inexpensive), would just fuel the fire.
2. Appeal. Yes, I know it would be sexy as all get out. But really, Macs are a niche market... I use mine to code and write webpages, and love how easy it makes many things, as well as the tinkerability of th OS, but the market for Macs is still (sadly) around 2-3%. Tablet computers would comprise a subset of that, so they wouldn't be economically feasible. Think G4 cube.
3. Finally. Technical issues. From the drawings, this thing is pretty thin. Apple would have to find a very low heat, low energy processor to use (the G4 qualifies), but also a very small size Mobo, GFX card, etc. With all the logic board problems of recent iBooks, I would seriously doubt whether they're considering releasing something as iffy as a Tablet.

Then again, they did (without Steve, btw) originally bring us the Newton, iPod and widespread GUI, so perhaps they will revolutionize Tablet PC's as well?

Just my 0.02$

As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[Seanasy]

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....

Re:As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[ericdano]

Now that is an interesting idea. That is probably the ONLY thing that really gets in people's way. Apple already has a wireless mouse and keyboard. A way to make the display wireless would be awesome....

Re:As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[PantsWearer]

Why not make it a tablet? Let's talk about the specs for a portable display:

• An LCD display. (Duh.)
• WiFi to talk with the basestation (the CPU box in this case) or the Airport Express directly (where's the CPU in this case?)
• A way to decode video. The better the video codec, the thinner the stream (which for wifi is necessary or you'll flood the network) and the faster the decoder necessary. So there's going to be a processor, either general purpose or single prupose (video decoder).
• On board battery. It's a portable display. Portable. It needs a battery.
• A touch screen. This is optional for a purely display function, but I can't see it as very useful without some kind of interaction available. So we've got some kind of input, which means we definitely have to be able to talk back out to the network instead of just blindly receive, which takes some more processing ability to set up the outgoing data and send it.

Okay, so let's review. We need a display, something to decode and encode data, take input and talk to a remote source all powered by a battery. Wow, it sounds pretty much like a laptop to me, except it has no keyboard or hard drive.

Basically, we've already got a battery powered bundle of processing power. It's already going to cost a fair amount to manufacture, why not go all the way and make this a tablet PC, so that you can save the cost of the basestation (traditional CPU). A tablet PC can be used as a portable display and can also be used to write a document. To set it up as a desktop, you can just set it on an easel and sit a bluetooth keyboard and mouse in front of it (Apple already makes them) or just include a USB port.

Re:As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[Seanasy]

You're ruining my fantasy. Stop it or I'm telling The Steve.

Re:As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[EddWo]

VNC just shoves screenshots over the network, RDP works at a higher level. It sends GDI drawing commands over the network much like X. RDP works fine over 802.11b for basic desktop graphics.

The issues with Mira/Smart Displays were.
1. Too expensive.
The prices were $1000 to $1500, for that much you might as well buy a Tablet pc.
2. Not enough bandwidth for watching DVDs, playing games.
3. Difficult to set up. You only get RDP with XP Pro, so some smart displays shipped with an upgrade from Home to Pro, its rather a lot to expect someone to reinstall their operating system just to use an extra bit of hardware. It was tricky to use as a dockable monitor where the RDP connection had to take over automatically when the screen was undocked.
4. Licensing restrictions meant you couldn't have someone using the desktop machine at the same time even though its technically perfectly capable of it.
5. Dockable monitor version was too large/heavy to carry around. Slate version too useless outside of wireless range.

Personally I think there would be a market for a smart display that at least functioned as a Browser/Media Player/Ebook Reader with WiFi and/or Bluetooth when outside the range of the base computer. The version of internet explorer shipped with Windows CE 4.1 (not the pocket pc one) ought to be good enough.

With Avalon the intention seems to be to raise network transparency level even higher and send the display scene graph over the wire to be rendered by an Avalon stack on the client. Videos would be sent in compressed form and rendered by appropriate codecs on the client.
Its a good idea to reduce the bandwidth requirement but an Avalon level smart display would not be possible on a low power arm chip.

Re:As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[homesteader]

So you're proposition of taking it over to a friends house got me thinking . . . What good is this if all my data is at home? Well what about an LCD + Pen + wifi + 60gb HD + GPU with a full cpu in a base station. Could someone design a system like this and keep it efficient despite an 801.11g cpu bus? We already know they are working to offload some instructions to the GPU. Having the HD and GPU in the LCD might nullify the 1280 x 1024 = not enough bandwidth for a wireless monitor. Steve did point out recently that GPU's were scaling much better than CPU's of late.

Re:As Long as We're Talking About Unicorns

[mamahuhu]

Seansy is right.

I reckon that if the base station has the G5 CPU with the screen detachable then it would be very useful. It'd be an iMac most of the time.

Then when you move about with it the video streaming screen function kicks in. It'd have it's own cut down OS like the iPod that is optimised to run the video stream and the simple tablet interface. There could be some data storage using iPod type microdrives.

The video could be streamed using FireWire of UWB as described here.

Then imagine all the features you could add in.

Universal Remote for iTunes / Airport Express etc...
eBook reader with books sold over iTunes
Wacom tablet replacement
Remote watching of DVDs in bed - or as a remote for the Plasma Screen also connected to the iMac base station via FireWireUWB.

The Cost = an iPod plus an iMac - and since it also acts as the screen for the iMac when docked it remains useful when it is not being used as an iTablet.

I'd buy one like a shot as it replicates my current set up in one neat package...

iBook for mobility with Wacom Tablet
iMac G3 with Bluetooth adaptor for media serving
DVD Player ( Only USD49.99 in Hong Kong ) and LCD monitor
SonyEricsson with SallingClicker for remote

If it could be done with that functionality and at that price it'd be a sure fire winner.

They would sell really well...

[Steamhead]

If they kept a well organized copy of the WIKIpedia on it and wrote "DON'T PANIC" in large friendly letters on the back...

if done right

[Bauguss]

Apple proved with the iPod that high price doesn't mean poor sales. They completely proved that if done right, it would be a big hit. How many mp3 players existed before iPod came along?

I've never used a tablet pc but always liked the idea. If apple came along and did it right, who knows what could happen.

Of course it could just be a new display for the iPod, or they just want to protect their research on something that they won't actually use.

Wonderful!

[raider_red]

Now Apple can tap the huge market for Tablet PCs. After all, the Windows based tablets are selling so friggin well.

Personally it'll never sell...

[stienman]

Why would people buy an Apple tablet PC when they could have a P-P-P-Powerbook for practically free, and with all the ability of a tablet?

-Adam

Explain to me slowly...

[Nice2Cats]

...using simple words, why I would want to buy a tablet instead of my current 12" iBook. A tablet doesn't have a keyboard, and I can't shut it to protect the screen; and when it is too old to deal with Mac OS X 14.5 or whatever it will be by then, I can't install Linux on it.

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.

Re:Explain to me slowly...

[Axfish]

I beg to differ...

A tablet doesn't have a keyboard, and I can't shut it to protect the screen

I have an Acer C111 sub-3lb (or sub-1.5kg) TabletPC that does include a reversible screen (you can close it with the screen facing down) and a keyboard. If Acer can do it, I'm sure Apple can make a MacTablet (or whatever) with the same form factor.

As for the "slow explanation" you asked for which, I assume (but correct me if I misunderstood the title of your post) addresses the question of why anyone would want a Tablet-type machine in the first place:

I've been using this machine now for a few months (>6, <12) in both "Laptop" (sub-notebook, since it has a slightly small keyboard and a small-but-1024x768 screen) and "Tablet" (screen reversed over the case, use stylus only) modes, and I can say, in answer to a lot of the posts that claim it turns a PC into nothing but an overgrown Palm-type machine, that it works surprisingly well.

I can sit in a meeting and scribble notes while looking at the speaker - not easy to do when you'r playing hunt-and-peck on a keyboard.

I can sketch things as if on pen and paper, but the software can help me correct diagrams (making rectanguloids into rectangles, ellipsoids into ellipses and circles, etc) as I sketch them, taking my eyes off the speaker no more than with pen and paper.

Plus, by opening the writing bar at the bottom of the screen, I can input handwritten text into any application, be it designed for Tablet or not...

And then the goodness: I can transfer all that stuff into "real" applications with a lot less work than copying it all off paper.

Of course, I'm speaking from someone who uses a (gasp! I'll get modded flamebait, I expect) machine running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition, and Apple or Linux have yet to show a similar offering, but I expect that, if these things catch on, Apple and Linux will come up with equivalent solutions. (Perhaps, in Apple's case, the tables are reversed for once, and this time it's Apple waiting to see if a technology catches on before they implement it...? ;)

Bash me if you like, but personally, I think that the Tablet Edition of Windows is actually one of the better things MS has come up with lately (whether they nicked the fundamental research off someone else or not - it's a product, and it's available). However, I'd like to see that sort of functionality clad in the elegance that companies like Apple (among others) have a reputation for. That, I think, could really make pen-based laptops into a killer tool.

Re:Explain to me slowly...

[LetterJ]

You
can't
draw
diagrams
directly
on
the
scr een
of
an
iBook.

Basically, one of the primary appeals of the tablet form factor is to those who spend a great deal of time entering things other than text into a computer. I'm constantly making workflow diagrams, sketches, interface ideas, etc. on paper because I can do them quickly. So, I either end up trying to enter them into something like Visio (ick) which takes forever compared to the quick sketch, or scanning them into an image. Using a tablet you can just drop the sketch directly into a word processing document or turn it straight into an image without having to go back to my desk and scan.

Re:Explain to me slowly...

[wehe]

There are Tablet PCs running Linux already, as well as Apple Powerbooks and iBooks running Linux. So there seems to be a fair chance that an Apple Tablet PC might run Linux, too.

I just hope...

[jbarr]

I jukt h%pe th2 hand3uit&ng re)oGni7iob is Bet7Er thaN oN tfe N0wtan!

Re:I just hope...

[Roguelazer]

Both can learn. The cursive mode was what is now known as Calligrapher and Transcriber (by ParaGraph and Microsoft). The Print was the Newton Recognizer, now known as Inkwell and present in every copy of OS X.

Re:I just hope...

[rampant mac]

I know the parent is just making a joke, but the Newton OS (after updates) was incredible.

Imagine drawing a square, triangle or circle and seeing your PDA recognize the shape. Or scratching out a word and the OS understands you wanted that part deleted. Or circling text you wanted selected. Or using written carets to mark inserts. Plus you didn't have to learn some obscure "written" commands for the OS to understand your writing. The OS, over time, learned your handwriting. I've heard that future versions would even recognize "1 + 2 =" as a formula you wanted calculated.

Remember that the MessagePad was originally released in 1993. 11 years ago! Over a decade has passed and PalmOS and the Windows Tablet Edition still can't achieve some of the functions the Newton OS provided.

iWallet?

[edwardog]

Notice that an innovation that I doubt will ever come out is the iWallet, simply because it will always be empty. Thanks Apple!

Re:What happened, Apple?

[callipygian-showsyst]

Apple literally invented the PDA market

Not quite! I'm a big fan of PDAs and portable computing. I've owned many PDAs, including Newton Messagepad 110 (which Apple gave me when I was working at Adobe), but before that I had a Tandy 100 and an HP 100 both of which pre-dated the Newton by quite a bit.

It is NOT a tablet.

[rogerborn]

Tablets are dead. Even Micro$oft may be getting out of the tablet business. Laptops outsell tablets a hundred to one.

http://engadget.com/entry/8312965763231519/

I think this new screen is for the new iMac.

It is wireless.

It may detach from the CPU/hard drive.

It is aluminum (in colors?).

It has the full OS X.

It may be small like the old Macinosh Classics.

Here are the links:

http://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=-750

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/13/apple_tabl et_mac/

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/imacg5specs.html

Roger Born
writing.borngraphics.com

Re:Not the first time Apple's been toying with thi

[Have Blue]

That would actually be more like a 350-degree fold, all the way around. The clamshell iBooks had a hinge that could rotate through about 160 degrees; the screen and keyboard were nearly in the same plane at its widest.

(It just occurred to me that I'm misinterpreting you, and you mean the screen could rotate around the vertical axis, so it would point out away from the keyboard without having to be bent over backwards...)

Please Yes

[pyrrho]

Early this year I would have bought a powerbook except that I wanted a tablet. Why? Because I hand draw diagrams to prepare my work and because I don't like typing notes at meetings.

Tablets do for handwritten work what word processors did for typing. Yes it's a niche, not everyone uses hand drawn notes, diagrams, etc... but it's also not a niche that's going away. A tablet computer is much preferable to lots and lots of paper notepads.

As for price... well, I need a notebook too for programming and got a combination tablet/notebook, it cost the same as other good notebooks like IBM T41 and the Powerbook with similar specifications EXCEPT the display, which is more low resolution. That is... the tradeoff was between higher resolution and the ability to write on the display... fair trade. (fwiw, keyboardless tablets seem useless to me... but they might make sense in hospitals, for delivery people, that sort of thing)

Another reason to get a tablet from Apple besides the fact that this tablet is the only reason I have to run WinXP is I suspect Apple will smooth the edges... the interface in XP Tablet is not really as pen freindly as it could be.

I hope they do this. But having said all that... Jobs has vowed not to before... he loathes the Newton experience (so I hear anyway)... so I'm not holding my breath.

Are Apple laptops that expensive?

[Smeagel]

They're slightly more expensive than a Dell, but not by any great amount. When you consider how much faster they run, and their performance, it is hard to recommend a non-apple laptop to anyone who isn't an MS addict. Their desktop hardware is a little insane, but their laptops are well priced IMO.

This coming from a person who has never owned an apple (aside from my ipod) and who spent last year working tech help for my university and repaired hundreds of laptops from all brands (but apple) for people.

Re:Are Apple laptops that expensive?

[mrchaotica]

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).

you can't predict the future by looking at history

[mojoNYC]

seriously,most of the posted comments mostly provide a compelling reason why y'all aren't working in Product R&D...

gee, d'ya really think apple's going to release Newton2004? yes, you're right, MS already HAS a tablet PC, so why would Apple want to reinvent the wheel? didn't smartphones take the place of the PDA? Apple hardware's already so gosh-darn expensive, who'd buy it, when (cough) Dell can sell you the (pretty much) the same thing cheaper?

and lastly, who'd want to buy a mp3 player from Apple? it's already been done, they'd charge too much, etc. (ooops, good thing they didn't listen to /. on this one, eh?)

it's times like these that remind me why i come to slashdot...and it ain't for the futuristic prognostications or the dating advice!

count me as one who's interested, and hopeful that Apple's coming out with something that once again knocks 'conventional wisdom' on its ass! personally, i'd love to be able to control itunes remotely, browse the web and be able to access other nodes on my network and perform basic file operations from a tablet...yes, i'm a proud '3%er' and yes, top-notch product design, quality hardware, seamless integration and ease-of-use is indeed worth a few extra bucks to me;>

What Apple really needs

[eadint]

An entry level Imac at around 500$ (sans montor)
If apple had an entry level Imac at 500.00$ and marketed them at costco staples and walmart. with a poster that says
( no spyware , no adware, no viruses, stable and easy to use)
apple would take off. i know that apple isnt a comodity computer, but this would get the mindshare of the people. once thats done apple will launch into the big time.
hell even if apple did this at a loss it would work out in the long run.
the more people are exposed to apple the bigger the mindshare. and the more willing exceptance by corprate america.

It's iWalk all over again...

[Bones3D_mac]

Steve has already told us no PDAs are being made. The market for tablets is anything but profitable. How about a more realistic rumor, like a powerbook with a touch sensitive display or somrthing?

Wake me up when we have an official word from Apple...

penmac

[gessel]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa fe=off&q=apple+penmac&btnG=Search

I was there. It was cool. There were lots of variations and one that went into production and was sold in Japan, briefly, before it was pulled for fear of competing with Newton.

Sheesh.

[JHromadka]

Jobs takes a month off on medical leave and they try to sneak the Newton back in while he's gone. :)

No hard drive?

[Anonymous Writer]

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...

"When Jobs was demonstrating the new Airport Express, Walt Mossberg said that the biggest problem he saw was that users had to get up and walk to their computers to change play lists. Jobs joked that walking was good, but when pressed, he smiled a wry smile. AppleInsider correspondents took this to mean that Apple is developing in this area, and the Airport Express is just a step along the way."

Re:No hard drive?

[mikeee]

Yeah, there was some speculation back about 3 years ago Apple was going to introduce a thin-client-wireless-tablet and a headless desktop.

Obviously there's also a docking station with, eg, tablet stand and keyboard...

Would be nifty. Not sure it's wouldn't cost a jillion $.

Re:No hard drive?

[squiggleslash]

If this is a tablet computer equipped to do a network boot of OS X through 802.11g,

Probably not. OS X is fairly large, to put it mildly. /System is usually over a gig in size. Even Darwin, OS X without the GUI, Finder, apps, etc, takes up a few hundred megs or so once installed.

And once running, it requires quite a substantial amount of disk space for things like swap. Doing swap over 802.11g would be... interesting...

Re:No hard drive?

[LionMage]

This has been mentioned in another sub-thread, but Toshiba recently announced 60 GB 1.8 inch hard drives, and said that Apple had already placed an order for them. But Apple denied they were releasing a 60 GB iPod. At the time, the only device Apple had that we knew of which used the 1.8 inch hard drives was the iPod...

So, if Apple is ordering a ton of 60 GB drives from Toshiba, and if they're not used in iPods, where are those drives going? With judicious power management, and a stripped down kernel and UI, such a tablet device could run a version of OS X. I wouldn't bet on network boot over 802.11g, though. There's too much stuff to be shipping over the wireless LAN every time the device needs to be reset/rebooted. OTOH, a tiny 60 GB hard drive which doesn't consume much power would be perfect -- it can hold an operating system and a huge cache of files locally.

Wireless Display

[schiefaw]

What is it isn't so much a full fledged tablet, but a detachable screen for the iMac? The processor, drives, and network connections remain in the base, but you can pop the display off and use a pen on it as a tablet. It would require a wireless video/display protocol, but I think that has been in development for a while now.

Have you actually USED a tablet????

[micron]

This is not intended to start a flame war.

My question is, have you actually USED a tablet? Not picked it up in the store, picked it up from a friends desk, but actually carried one around for a couple of weeks as your only computer?

I have been using a Compaq (yeah, it is HP, but this one is labeled a Compaq) T1000 with the transmeta chip in it.

It does have its quirks, and it is slow on the boot. Other then that, you will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. The utility of these things makes them more than worth it. You have to really need the writing functionality though.

With my job, I do a lot of "green pad" work. I have diagrams all over the place. No more with the tablet, they are all stored on the computer and easy to search. It is also great for reading all of those Intel and Motorola PDF manuals. Given, this is not a game machine, but for what I do, it is really handy.

I have run into two types of tablet users out there, and they are at the extremes. Group A are the folks that have them, hate them, and can't wait to get rid of them. This group largely uses the tablet as a laptop, and does not seem to use any of the writing functionality. Group B are the ones that use the heck out of them.

The software is still catching up. There are a couple of applications out there now that make the thing well worth it, if you need those applications.

I would not be so quick to dismiss these things outright.

One possibility

[kalidasa]

Take an iBook.

Remove the keyboard and mouse, and add integrated bluetooth.

Leave in the Airport Extreme card.

Change the screen to a touch screen. Rotate it around and place it flat against the spot where the keyboard was.

Take out the FireWire, one of the two USB ports, the VGA connector, the modem, the ethernet card, and the optical drive, and replace them all with a dock connector.

Shrink the hard drive by replacing it with the new Toshiba 60 GB drive. Shrink the motherboard about the same amount.

Add a little metal stand that has the same freedom of movement that the iMac monitor arm has, but with a base that's just big enough to hold the two USBs, a FireWire port, a modem, ethernet, an integrated Airport Express, the optical drive, the power transformer, and a weight, and has an easy-to-release connector to hold the computer and a Dock connector.

Throw in a stylus, a bluetooth mouse, and a bluetooth keyboard (you can set them up using the stylus on the touchscreen).

What do you have? Maybe a 10-in iBook that's also an iMac?

Apple coined the term "PDA"

[daveschroeder]

Apple (actually then-CEO John Sculley) coined the very term. And while I suppose all this is up for debate, the Tandy 100 and HP 100 aren't exactly what people would consider a "PDA". Even though the Newton was a little too big (or at least that's the prevailing notion), it is generally considered to be the first PDA, not to mention that technically, it really *is* the first PDA, since Apple invented the term "PDA" itself.

Re:Not the first time Apple's been toying with thi

[bhtooefr]

I also read something about one where the logic was in the screen, and much like many of the newer Slates, the keyboard could be completely removed. It was also supposed to use the G4 processor (this is when the iMac had JUST come out).

Common misconception

[AllenChristopher]

Wacom tablets don't use touch overlay technology. It's RFID tweaked to locate the stylus precisely in space. That's why it's pressure/tilt sensitive instead of just on/off.

You could build a non-pressure sensitive tablet PC, heck, maybe someone has. You couldn't sell it as an Apple. Graphic designers will buy Apple tablets with Wacom parts like chocolate bars. Digital sketchbook done right, yay.

I'd love a tablet. I don't care about the high price right now, I don't care about the lower cpu power. All I care about is that the current tablets run Windows and are made by insane PC firms. You just can't rely on the sleep functionality in Windows laptops.... not until someone you know has been using the specific model you're going to buy for three years and has had no problems.

Re:Common misconception

[tb3]

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.

Thin Client Remote Control

[ztirffritz]

I think that this item will be part of the the new iMac, but the screen and the CPU are going to be wirelessly connected. Currently Apple allows you to stream music from your computer to your stereo, but you still must go back to the computer to control it. I think that the Screen is going to be like a wireless thin-client that will allow users to control iTunes from their couch. Visualize this: On your way to the living room of your house/apartment you pluck your iMac's moniter from the cradle and carry it with you to the living room. Your Airport Express is already connected to the stereo and you moniter is now connected to your CPU via the Airport Express. You can now access and control iTunes from you living-room instead of having to walk back to your office to change playlists or select the internet radio station you want to listen too. Want to search the web? Guess what? You portable iMac monitor allows you to do that too from the comfort of your humble living-room. Couchpotato meets Nerd.

Definitive answer on the wireless monitor?

[Alaska Jack]

I've always thought this would be the holy grail of home computing. I just want to sit on the couch and websurf while my wife reads or watches TV.

The killer hardware app would be a relatively inexpensive accessory (under $500) that would let me do that. I don't want to have to buy a whole new computer -- I don't need a laptop, and if I wanted to get any serious work done, I could always just go over to my desk and use my desktop.

Now, my question. I've seen others bring up the possibility of exactly such a wireless, touch-screen monitor. When that happens, replies seem to fall into two categories:

*Either: "It can't be done -- moving pixels requires a huge amount of bandwith, more than can be provided wirelessly,"

* Or "Viewsonic already sells these as "smart monitors."

Well, which is it? Viewsonic does seem to be selling them, although they are very expensive. Is there a technical reason someone can't take a 15-inch LCD screen, slap an inexpensive, non-pressure-sensitive overlay on it, add a standard wi-fi card, and sell a million jillion of them? And if so, how did Viewsonic overcome it?

A dumb non-computer guy wants to know.

- Alaska Jack

I don't see this happening

[curtlewis]

There have been two waves of tablet PCs in the industry: The original with Go, etc back in the early to mid 90s and the recent wave that fell flat on it's face.

This history makes it a rather risky move for anyone to enter that market. I just don't see Apple making this move. I see them sticking with their excellent laptops.

Now I do see them considering more integration between computers and the iPod. Apple may well license iPod technology to other vendors than Motorola (for their upcoming iTunes compatible phone). Before too long 4gb of memory in a cell phone is going to be commonplace and that's what the iPod mini has now. I think Apple's deal with Motorola shows that Apple knows they won't be able to sell the hardware forever, so they've taken steps to move the technology beyond that.

I think an iPodPhone is a great idea. One less gadget to forget to grab on my way out the door in the morning. I don't see Apple making the phone, though, so count out your dreams of an iPhone. An iPod-white SonyEricsson T630 with 8gb of memory sounds great to me, though! Talk about a big selection of MP3 ringtones!