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Apple Touch-Screen Netbook?
je ne sais quoi writes "The Apple rumor mill is churning today. Reuters and the DOW Jones news wire are reporting that an anonymous source in Taiwan has leaked that Apple has ordered some 10-inch touch-screens from WinTek, the maker of the touch-screen for the iPhone. It looks like an Apple netbook could possibly be in the works for a delivery date in Q3 of this year, in time for back-to-school sales. CNET and Engadget have completely unsubstantiated mock-ups."
I would not bet the "Netbook" has a keyboard. More like small 10" tablet what has virtual keyboard.
But actually I am not believing this "inside news" at all.
Is it for people that ONLY do a little websurfing and email? Even with that...why not pony up just a few more $$ and get a real laptop?
This is a question in general about the netbooks, not just the Apple one.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Now you can have a netbook with smudgy fingerprints all over the screen to match your iPhone.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Or at least do something interesting like having a second display function as a keyboard.
Above all, update InkWell and provide good support for use as an ebook reader which could do .pdf annotations (adding a .pdf preview of all documents to file bundles would be ideal if such annotations could then be synched back into the document when it was opened in the originating app).
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
The Apple Product Cycle:
"An obscure component manufacturer somewhere in the Pacific Rim announces a major order for some bleeding-edge piece of technology that could conceivably become part of an expensive, digital-lifestyle-enhancing nerd toy."
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Yet another example of how this is so true.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
So will it be a computer running a "traditional" OS with the whole Windows, Icons, Mouse Pointer interface or will Apple make it a big iPhone like device that hides a lot of that stuff under a (relatively) minimalist user interface?
Part of me wants the WIMP paradigm because of the additional control I have over files and folders but part of me wants to see how far you can take an interface based from the ground up on a purely touch interface (like the iPhone). [I think the advantage of a iPhone interface is that it is even simpler than a WIMP interface, no need to explain about files or directories etc. Great for the rest of... err.. them, like my mom!]
Speaking of user interfaces, did anyone catch the new "Voice over" feature in the new iPod Shuffle? It seems this might be another (relatively) unexplored user interface design where a visual user interface is not available. Will this be incorporated into other Apple products (like multi-touch was transported from the iPhone to the MacBook touchpads?).
I say "relatively" because obviously voice/audio cue interfaces are not new (every voice mail system uses them) but this is the first time I've seen it in a portable device.
It's going to be a 10 inch touch tablet. Essentially like a 10 inch iPod Touch. For say 800 bucks. It's going to be quarter of an inch thick, it'll be sweet, it won't be a "netbook" (hence the reason for the higher price) and it'll probably be missing something obvious like GPS.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
I would not bet the "Netbook" has a keyboard. More like small 10" tablet what has virtual keyboard.
But actually I am not believing this "inside news" at all.
We are at step 4 already?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I wish people like you would stop existing so Apple would finally go out of business.
Indeed! I've had two Sony ultraportable notebooks (10" screens). Being able to easily take it everywhere is practically life-changing. Allowing that a few functions were limited (i.e.: serious gaming), computing became available to me wherever a regular notebook (and certainly desktops) couldn't. Pricy, yes, but worth it.
Marching technology forward, prices have dropped and general use requirements have plateaued, leading to the sudden discovery by manufacturers that there is, in fact, huge demand for small light (and now cheap) computers that do most things well, and do them everywhere.
Triangulating this, the iPhone / iPod Touch has shown there's a market even for pocket-sized devices with largely the same capacity. Having gotten a Touch, I've nearly abandoned my aformentioned ultraportable notebook due to (of all things) its relatively large size and inconvenience. That the Touch and iPhone are also iPods is almost coincidental, thanks to the web browsing / email / apps capabilities. Expand the Touch platform into a 7"-10" screen, and bump up the computing power & battery using the extra space, and dang that would sell big. The "virtual keyboard" works fine; maybe not quite as fast as clicking switches, but pretty close - add bluetooth and the keyboard/mouse angle is instantly covered.
Being able to take 90% of your computing needs everywhere, all the time, is huge. Clamshells and keyboards are the big hinderance at this point. A thin multi-touch slate, with instant-on & aggressive connectivity, would sell big. Clicky keyboards are so 20th century...
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
AxioTron : Modbook
Its an ipod touch for fat people! Multitouch on a small screen must suck for them.
What will the price point be on this device? If it's in the $499 range, it might be worth a look. However, when I can buy a Dell Mini with a 16 GB SSD and 2 GB of memory for less than $350, and install Leopard on it for $85 + the cost of a couple of USB flash drives, why would I want to pay much more than that?
I checked on the Internet, and can confirm that this is true.
On a side note, can slashdot have a special place for articles with titles that end in a question mark?
Apple has a way of completely rethinking whatever category they go into, and then revolutionizing that category in such a way that all other contenders now play catch up.
Look at the iPod that entered a market already dominated by other MP3 players and became the market leader. Look at the iPhone that entered the smart phone market and created a device that everyone has tried to copy.
If Apple is entering the netbook market. I would assume that their "netbook" won't look like a typical netbook. Nor, will it operate like a typical netbook.
Most netbooks have separate memory from their storage. (512Megs of memory vs. 8Gb of storage). I suspect that the Apple will use the same memory for both storage and memory.
Most netbooks are modeled upon being smaller versions of laptops. Apple's won't follow that model. Most netbooks also run standard desktop OSs like Linux or Windows XP. Again, I doubt Apple would take that approach.
Look at how people use Netbooks. They surf the Tubes, they chat, they use Internet based applications. They don't necessarily use Microsoft Office or connect to a typical business network. They don't even normally store documents on their netbooks. Apple will use this information to create an entirely new netbook format.
I suspect that it will look something like a large iPod Touch with a keyboard. There will be no mouse (touch screen) and no desktop (like the iPod Touch). You can store files, but not use standard Mac OS X applications. Initial release may not even let you install applications although I suspect that some sort of AppStore will let you download special "Netbook" applications that are based upon current iPhone apps.
I would not be surprised if that keyboard is a full sized keyboard stored in a typical netbook format. I suspect that Apple's netbook will weigh around a pound. Maybe less. And that it will include a 4Gb size, an 8Gb size a 16Gb size, and a 32Gb size. Of course, iPod functionality will be built in too. You will also be able to synchronize it to a Mac and maybe a PC.
WTF is sexy about a computer? I am sick of seeing this term used in every stupid tech review. Attractive? Ok, I guess it attracts my attention. Eye-pleasing? Sure, that works. But does anyone really, seriously get sexually aroused by a stupid Macbook or any kind of technology? Enough already!
And you all know I'm not talking about the pr0n we watch on it, I'm talking about the device itself.
the 17inch MacBook Pro has a lot of room beneath the keyboard.
Instead of a keypad, there could be room for a 10inch touchscreen.
It would add some extra value to this relative expensive member of the MacBook family.
Anyone think this might be the debut of the 3-dimensional GUI that Apple patented last year?