Apple Tablet

[n_maher]

I've been hearing the Ipod rumors for weeks, makes sense historically and also would be timed well with the Zune HD release date.

[bperboy]

Yeah, another good point about the Zune release. I guess Microsoft lowered the price on that quite a bit, but now Apple's going to destroy it by offering a revamped iPod for the same price. Totally take the focus off the Zune. If I didn't like their products so much, I'd be really pissed at Apple.

[jp11801]

The tablet is perfect for me as on the go with my netbook it's just music, movies and surfing the web. It would need to show major enhancements over the iphone though to get me to dump my asus eee900.

[TheSloth]

I don't understand Apple's seeming hatred of the netbook market. I use a hackintosh Dell Mini 9 and really love it. I type a lot and have no issues with the little keyboard, and love how tiny it is. In fact, I haven't turned on my 'proper' computer for over 2 weeks...

They have an OS that can seemingly run extremely well on rather underpowered hardware. This little machine certainly runs OS X better than the Windows .junk it came with. I hope that they do decide to enter the netbook or similar market, and don't insist on crippling it with a proprietary version of the OS like the iPhone. OS X iPhone makes sense for the iPhone, but don't see how it would work on a bigger, more powerful machine

[grawk]

They don't hate it, it's just not the right market for them. Netbooks are targetted at the low end of the market, and apple doesn't want to compete in races to the bottom.

[Dusty Chalk]

May I just say that you have a knack for stating things in a way that entertains and convinces.

[bperboy]

They don't hate it, it's just not the right market for them. Netbooks are targetted at the low end of the market, and apple doesn't want to compete in races to the bottom.

Well said. I have a feeling that that sentiment is due largely to Steve Jobs' influence. Probably sees it as unbecoming or something.

[grawk]

or a way to lose money

[bperboy]

or a way to lose money

That to. Now that I think about it, they've said on TWiT and other talk shows that the netbook market provides fairly low margins. So it could just be about the money.

[shellylh]

I can guarantee that this product will be coming out soon because of the following....

I have been waiting for an Apple tablet for the last 5 years. Last month, I finally gave up and spent $2500 on a Motion Computing LE1700 tablet (slate) - that I only use for taking notes and drawing some pictures with Adobe Illustrator (my primary laptop is a Macbook Pro). If this is not proof that the Mac tablet is no longer a rumor but a reality, I don't know what is... sigh.

[eugenius]

shellylh, why didn't you get a touch + digitizer tablet? Direct touch adds another dimension to it as a casual ebook reader / webpad. The lenovo x200t ... mmm .
As far as I am concerned the LE1700 has only one great thing: the non-wide high-res ultraview anywhere screen.

As for Apple, Snow Leopard will be even smaller footprint than Leopard. Now that would be the ideal netbook/tablet OS among the desktop ones!

Something like a NVidia Tegra based tablet with a 1366x768 7"-9" OLED widesscreen, full day battery life whatever you do with it, maximum 600g, maybe 800g with the extended battery grip. I would like a non-wide non-glossy outdoor screen, but hey, lately it seems that every manufacturer thinks that it MUST be wide and glossy or it would cause sclerosis to your mivonks!

But more important than hardware would be the software. I don't want to see any fucking desktop OS on it. I want it to have a light multitasking enabled version of the iphone osx.

Also, the rule of law is: No digitizer = Useless toy!

IF it comes it would cost at least as much as the macbook. And it would be worth it!

[shellylh]

Yep, touch would have been nice but was not necessary for me since I mainly use it for taking notes and drawing pictures. The most important thing for me was to get the *thinnest* (so that my arm resting on the desk and tablet was as comfortable as possible) and lightest. I used a convertible tablet once for taking notes and it was horrible because it was too thick. The LE1700 was the thinnest I could find (0.74 inches at the "bottom"). However, it seems that the Apple tablet may even be thinner than .74 inches which would be great! The LE1700 also only weights 3.3lbs which is on the lighter side but the Apple tablet would probably be lighter? I also like having a 12" screen. Unfortunately, the Apple tablet will probably be smaller than 12". The screens on the Motion Computing tablets are really wonderful and are great to write on. I have the indoor/outdoor display which is great if you work in an area with flourescent (sp?) lights.

I hope they have some good note taking capabilities for the Apple tablet. That is one thing that is really missing on the Modbook (which is pretty clunky if you ask me).

shellylh, why didn't you get a touch + digitizer tablet? Direct touch adds another dimension to it as a casual ebook reader / webpad. The lenovo x200t ... mmm .
As far as I am concerned the LE1700 has only one great thing: the non-wide high-res ultraview anywhere screen.

As for Apple, Snow Leopard will be even smaller footprint than Leopard. Now that would be the ideal netbook/tablet OS among the desktop ones!

Something like a NVidia Tegra based tablet with a 1366x768 7"-9" OLED widesscreen, full day battery life whatever you do with it, maximum 600g, maybe 800g with the extended battery grip. I would like a non-wide non-glossy outdoor screen, but hey, lately it seems that every manufacturer thinks that it MUST be wide and glossy or it would cause sclerosis to your mivonks!

But more important than hardware would be the software. I don't want to see any fucking desktop OS on it. I want it to have a light multitasking enabled version of the iphone osx.

Also, the rule of law is: No digitizer = Useless toy!

IF it comes it would cost at least as much as the macbook. And it would be worth it!

[blessingx]

It seems Apple wants redemption for the failure of their Newton...

I believe they'll redeem themselves by introducing a MP3 player that will hold contacts and calenders, then extend it by adding phone, Internet and application functionality. It'll be crazy.

[bperboy]

I believe they'll redeem themselves by introducing a MP3 player that will hold contacts and calenders, then extend it by adding phone, Internet and application functionality. It'll be crazy.

Why have they not produced such a device?! Sheer brilliance!

[Dusty Chalk]

It sounds like they'd be trying to do too much with one device, I can't imagine a jack-of-all-trades type device succeeding in today's market.

[blessingx]

I don't have any new news. Just like the photo.

[Duggeh]

Apple gives you iPod Giga. Starring Tom Cruise as The Fishman. Gary Oldman as the pointy fingered whispering girl and Eddie Murphy as himself in the role of the ugly horse with a knob growing out of its head.

[archosman]

If you really want one you can get one now...


Axiotron : Modbook

[shellylh]

I used my friend's Modbook and they are pretty clunky. They are also missing good software for note taking (I tried installing Xournal "Windows Journal for Linux" on it via Fink but it did not, at least at that time, recognize the pen) and they don't have touch capabilities. I thought about getting one very seriously at some point but decided on an LE1700.

[episiarch]

New reports suggest a January 26th introduction.

I'd be very likely to buy one even if it's just a bigger iPod Touch. I use the Touch more than I ever expected I would - it's the around-the-house media player / ebook reader / web/mail client that we also take on trips when two laptops feels like overkill - and would love to have something with equivalent functionality that's less cramped on screen space.