Axiotron finally ships Modbook OS X tablet

Welcome to 2008, readers, and if Axiotron's announcement that its long-awaited Modbook is finally shipping -- several weeks ahead of schedule -- is any indication, it looks to be a good year indeed for consumer electronics fans. First unveiled nearly a year ago at Macworld 2007, the MacBook-based, Wacom-modified Modbook has definitely seen its share of delays, although in the days and months since, the 13.3-inch slate has gained the distinction of being one of the few pieces of non-Cupertino, Apple-approved hardware. The world's first OS X tablet can be yours immediately starting at $2,290.

[Thanks, Chris]

[Datacide @ Jan 1st 2008 10:27AM]

Kool, a Mac Tablet! I don't use Macs, but I'll be getting one of these for my sketching :)

[Yawar Amin @ Jan 1st 2008 12:43PM]

How about getting a pencil and a piece of paper? You can still buy me the Modbook tho :-)

[x @ Jan 2nd 2008 11:19AM]

How about getting Nintendo DS, homebrew card (r4) and a free Colors! software for under 200$ instead. I tell you THAT is ultimate sketchbook. Try http://colors.brombra.net/ranking.php to see some pictures made with it.

[ethana2 @ Jan 3rd 2008 8:27PM]

I'm eying the Raven from emperorlinux, or perhaps I'll see if I can go to the hardware manufacturer and see if I can get the thing with no software installed, you know, so I don't do anything that might get between a convicted monopolist and its just fate.

...and Apple won't get a cent from me 'till they send that TPM based, DMCA abuse intensive business model to hades.

[Bellerophon @ Jan 1st 2008 10:32AM]

Would be funny if Apple then announced their own Tablet product. Boy I'd be pissed. Better not jinx it I suppose.

[Jonathan Keim @ Jan 1st 2008 10:53AM]

Well, Apple is a innovative company and tablet PCs are innovative...

[SteveMB @ Jan 1st 2008 3:57PM]

Innovative? What has Apple done recently that was "innovative"?

[Matt @ Jan 3rd 2008 12:46PM]

"Tablets - innovative?" I type on my 4 year old HP Tablet...

[Grandalf @ Jan 1st 2008 10:43AM]

I approve of this first post of 2008.

[Adam B @ Jan 1st 2008 3:13PM]

Very fitting, as it's an Apple product...

[Phil Perman @ Jan 1st 2008 10:54AM]

A thought. If this thing is Apple approved, does that mean they don't have any plans to make one of their own any time soon? I mean, they wouldn't approve a direct competitor to one of their own forthcoming products, would they?

[James @ Jan 1st 2008 11:03AM]

I played with one of these at Macworld Expo in 2007 and they're shipping now!??!?!? If Apple releases a TabletMac this month, the Modbook will quickly become a footnote in history.

[nxtiak @ Jan 1st 2008 11:10AM]

When are they going to be sued?

[Dave Schroeder @ Jan 1st 2008 12:11PM]

They're not going to be sued, because it uses components from an actual MacBook, and isn't in violation of any legal, licensing, or any other provisions. Nice try.

[ethana2 @ Jan 3rd 2008 8:29PM]

They should be able to spoof the TPM and take Apple's wrongdoings to court.

...or perhaps they don't see the problem here.

[Shawin @ Jan 1st 2008 11:10AM]

I'm impatiently waiting for a hands on review...
And I really thought they were gonna release it with Leopard...

[Shawin @ Jan 1st 2008 11:10AM]

I'm impatiently waiting for a hands on review...
And I really thought they were gonna release it with Leopard...

[thethirdmoose @ Jan 1st 2008 11:49AM]

OMG FIRST POST!!11!1!!

[Ed @ Jan 1st 2008 1:23PM]

Epic failure.

[thethirdmoose @ Jan 1st 2008 1:28PM]

... i meant for engadget... in the new year

[rutsy5 @ Jan 1st 2008 5:28PM]

yeah... no...

[Mobius_1 @ Jan 1st 2008 10:58PM]

Still Epic Failure

*Sigh*

[FThorn @ Jan 1st 2008 12:12PM]

OWC announced modbooks a LOOONG time ago. Larry?

[jd @ Jan 1st 2008 12:22PM]

if it is real. i think it is more usable if it is stand vertically. who would hold it horizontally with one hand?

[engadget.com @ Jan 1st 2008 1:15PM]

Artists might hold it horizontally. Also, you don't have to use it horizontally, OS X display preferences include a rotation option.

[SoloSalsa @ Jan 1st 2008 3:46PM]

But, for now at at least, rotation is only enabled on the external screen. When the Modbook was first announced, Axiotron said they were working on a driver fix to let the built-in display rotate.

[Rk @ Jan 1st 2008 1:20PM]

Yes but does it ble... sorry.

[ethana2 @ Jan 3rd 2008 8:32PM]

Yes. And while apple makes hardware people certify everything with them, at least they haven't pulled a full game-console-worthless-for-homebrew approach.

I'm still sticking to what I can put together myself if I have to, hardware, software, everything. No doubt that I'm in complete control. I'd consider a PS3 I mean, interesting hardware and all, but every other month they pull something with the hypervisor. This month, it's the GPU...

[NG @ Jan 1st 2008 1:35PM]

Aside of being a little too expensive for me, how will the customer service be?
Free phone service? Modbook care?

Guess i start saving and wait for the real thing from Apple...

[redsoxidiot05 @ Jan 1st 2008 1:57PM]

but does it play doom?

[Simon @ Jan 1st 2008 4:52PM]

No, its a Mac, it doesn't play anything!

[redsoxidiot05 @ Jan 1st 2008 9:17PM]

That's what she said

[Taylor @ Jan 1st 2008 8:12PM]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=7E4EB91E&nplm=TB463LL/A

There IS a version of Doom for OS X.
However, the MacBook (and consequently the ModBook) have integrated graphics cards, so you'll be looking at cruddy FPSes.

[Joseph @ Jan 1st 2008 2:53PM]

it would be tragedy for Axiotron if a tablet if Apple were to announce a tablet at Macworld. Hang in there Axiotron!

[Miles @ Jan 1st 2008 3:41PM]

Apple will come out with a multi-touch one that will blow every other tablet out of the water, including this one/.

[crescentdavid @ Jan 1st 2008 4:34PM]

Apple probably wouldn't come out with its own tablet-at least for some period of time (probably negotiated with Axiotron. But I doubt it'll go into the tablet market ... history shows Apple incapable of being competitive with clone makers of it's products.

Miles, your corporate fidelity is so ... touching.

[ethana2 @ Jan 3rd 2008 8:35PM]

On that note, I want to see glxgears of this thing running Ubuntu compared to a non-mac tablet of nearly equal specs.

See if you get what you pay for. ...I do prefer AWN to the apple dock anyway.

[c.Lake @ Jan 1st 2008 5:24PM]

What do you mean... it "finally ships"? You could order this item on-line for the past year. @ OWC.com What's the deal, you can now buy it at a brick and mortar store?

[AlBDamned @ Jan 1st 2008 8:51PM]

"Finally ships" as in it's been delayed since they announced it last year and now it's finally shipping....

[Manu Sharma @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:56AM]

Why anyone would want their Macbook without the keyboard is beyond me. If you want touch-screen capability, simply mod a touch-screen into your existing macbook.

A 12-15" touch-screen kit can be yours for about $150 shipped.

http://ezscreen.com/onlineshop/contents/en-us/d7.html

[rcappo @ Jan 2nd 2008 9:46AM]

I've had my Gateway m275 tablet running Mac OS X for a while now. But it isn't exactly a real tablet PC or something you could sell...

[Paul McDonald @ Jan 2nd 2008 8:00PM]

I have the E295 tablet. Is it possible to OSX on that? Could you provide a link that shows how you did it.
Thanks

[rcappo @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:07AM]

It's been a while, but this should be what you are looking for.
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I would recommend buying a new hard drive (7200rpm) just to test this on. Then download the DVD and install.

(And Apple should realize, that now that I use a copy of OSX of questionable legality, I have convinced 5 of my family members to switch because I can now support them. Two more will be getting new computers this year, and I will be buying a Mac in 2009.)

[Paul McDonald @ Jan 4th 2008 6:28PM]

thanks, I'll give it a try.

[ethana2 @ Jan 3rd 2008 8:37PM]

I'm sorry.
torrent.
burn.
run... install.
ubuntu.

[aboriginal @ Jan 2nd 2008 10:32AM]

Too little too late in light of the potential new releases at MW and the fact that its been a year already since the tease.

[fred @ Jan 2nd 2008 1:52PM]

i waited on this a long time to come out. i finally gave up. i was mainly interested in a mac, because nowdays mac can run either mac or windows, something i found very useful. However, without buying lots of new apple software, i find pc fills most of my needs. I wound up buyig the tabletkiosk i440d slate. it has wacom digitzer, and touch mode both. one can choose between the 2. it also isnt as fast as the modbook , but the battery life im sure is much better, and the i440d only weighs 3 lbs. But it hasnt bogged at anything ive thrown at it with 2g of ram. plus it has an outdoor viewable screen. i am very happy with the way the pen feels and art stuff on it is great. It will suffice me till multitouch maybe takes over.

[Arbert @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:10PM]

graphic designers and illustrators all use macs. we also need to a stylus for fine point detail. hence the modbook

if apple comes up with their own tablet it'd probably just be used with two smelly grubby fangers to resize photos

[fred @ Jan 3rd 2008 12:27AM]

i agree arbert. the tabletkiosk also uses a stylus for the built in wacom digitizer..512 levels of pressure as the modbook supposedly has. Just one can choose the stylus mode or touch. seems to work fine with photoshop, and corel painter. So when using those programs...to me dosnt make much difference if its pc or mac....as its photoshop...and not an apple software. but would make a difference if one has the mac software for photoshop....one would probably want mac.
i just got tired of waiting on apple....this tech has been out so long...even multitouch has been out and is being used...just not yet by mac or pc. so now i can draw and do stuff while i wait and see who does what. the stylus actually looks almost identical to the modbooks. i love the computer . i rate it 9.9....10 if it were a mac. i dont understand why mac didnt come out with somethin like it. if multitouch will be pressure sensitive, seems there will have to be a way to turn it off to use a stylus and be able to rest your hand on screen to avoid vectoring id think....thats whee this is nice to turn on digitizer or off. unfortunatley i believe apples first venture with multitouch will be for iphone like things on a puter......not necessarily for artists to draw with a stylus. Too makes me wonder if multitouch does have great pressure sensitivity, what will be wacoms answer to the tech. just some thoughts. I agree all artists are using macs...but right now they are forced to deal with not drawing directly on the screen. baby cintiq is about as close as they can come....but its not exactly portable as my little puter....but it does have better specs than my puter or the modbook as far as the wacom digitizer.

[Dan @ Jan 6th 2008 4:35AM]

Someone want to donate a cintiq or a tablet PC to me? The only problem with these things are they're not exactly affordable.