According to those ever-quotable "people familiar with the matter," Steve Jobs is still "closely involved" in "key aspects" of running Apple, reports the
Wall Street Journal. While
Tina Fey's favorite keynote-giver has remained incognito ever since
he took a medical leave in January, the
WSJ has learned that he's been working hard from home, involved in strategy and key products -- including some nitty gritty of the new interface elements in iPhone 3.0. The article also makes mention of a jumbo-sized iPod touch of sorts (an iTablet, if you will), but it's hard to tell if that word is from these same people familiar with the matter, or if the
WSJ is just picking up that
perennial rumor from less reputable sources. Apple's of course remaining tight-lipped, merely stating that "Steve continues to look forward to returning to Apple at the end of June." All we know is that we're looking forward to putting all this rampant speculation behind us, and an Apple-involved Steve seems like a great step in that direction.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted April 11th 2009 12:58PM
Too close to iPod.
How about Maxi Pad?
iSlate?
Tablet PC? O,wait...
Interesting news but whats with all those stupid commas. Do you not know how to construct sentences at Engadget. It drives me nuts! When there are only two parts to a sentence you use an 'and'. For a website thats been running for ages you really need to work on you English writing skills! lol
wow, You are a loser, your life has amounted to being a critic in a gadget blog!!!
"Do you not know how to contruct sentences at Engadget."
I think you need a question mark at the end of that sentence,
"I think you need a question mark at the end of that sentence,"
I think you need a question mark at the end of that sentence.
I think I needed to put 'full stop' instead of 'question mark' in that sentence.
If anything comes of this patent, my bet is that it will be called the Macbook Touch.
Nah Mac touch. It won't have a physical keyboard.
Steve Jobs, dont worry about comments. I already kept some money separately in my wallet to buy that iTablet or iPad. I say thank you for being a perfectionist and for selling quality products. I also thank Bill Gates for bringing computer, even World to each nook and corner of this planet. I also thank unsung heros, the developers of Linux, for their dedication to the welfare of the community they belong. We should learn 'perfectionism' from Steve Jobs, 'dedicated work' from Bill Gates and 'humanity' from Linux people. Jai Ho!!!!
How dare you be rational and give everyone their due credit on Engadget?
*ERROR*
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Even if he is still involved in some decisions, I seriously wonder if chemotherapy has taken a toll on his mind as it can do to some people. The release of the latest Shuffle is what makes me wonder so.
Dear 'god' , please give us a new iphone with processor of a asus smartphone , build quality of a nokia e71 , screen of a omnia hd , camera of a n86 , flexibility of a windows smartphone , form factor of a nokia n97 , keep your awesome OS And just name it iphone. i'll die happily then .
Now that'll be a jesus phone.
why would i desire this? I have no need for even a laptop! LoLz. I have a good feeling that its gonna be another nettop low power low performance POS. How else would you contain heat dissipation without burning your hand while holding it?
Well, since YOU have no need for "even a laptop" then I suppose Apple shouldn't make one of these.
BTW, I have one of the new MacBooks. I upgraded the drive to a 7200 RPM drive that runs hotter, and even after being in use for 3 hours, is is not even close to being hot enough to burn, or really even be uncomfortable.
The dude in the picture should have a turtleneck.
...its actually a tablet calculator...
...the guy in the picture is adding up how many months he has to give up eating to purchase it...
...
...the answer is 9...
Hmmmm.. I wonder will it be under $2,000 bucks? Not likely I know.
@ P.A.C.-Man
Before you say something like Steve Jobs created Pixar... you might want to get your facts straight first. Pixar has been around for a while, before the acquisition by Apple, working on The Wrath of Khan and another film (I forget at the moment). It was really John Lasseter who made Pixar what it is today. Jobs only purchased them as a form of selling their "machines" aka "pixars", outsourcing them to Lucas still for Howard the Duck and Return of the Jedi.
John Lasseter was the mind behind the CG. By your rational, it would be him to credit, and not Jobs.
Moses, lay off the glue. Huffing that stuff will leave you dumber than you already are.
Oh and BTW, Apple doesn't own Pixar. Disney acquired them a couple of years ago.
Ed T, maybe you should follow your own advice. Jobs bought Pixar and used it as a hardware company. Pixar made Toy Story and only after plans for Toy Story 2 were finalized did Disney buy Pixar from Jobs.
@ Shyam D:
Lay off the crack and the sorry attempts at trying to discredit Steve Jobs for the incredible direction and success he achieved with Pixar. You have ZERO clue about what you're talking about. Here, maybe you could try learning something (I suggest you read all the years in between too):
Steve Jobs CREATED "Pixar" in 1986:
http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/history/1986.html
Toy Story 2 came out in 1999:
http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/history/1999.html
Disney bought Pixar in 2006:
http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/history/2006.html
So what are you going to say now? Try to discredit this info by saying Pixar's on website is spreading false information? Your post must be the stupidest thing I've seen in Engadget today; "used it as a hardware company." Get the F outta here.
@FoxKenji
Taken From their wikipedia page and sourced in the bibliography
"Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. One of the leading buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney Studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious Ink and Paint part of the 2-D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well.[8] In a bid to drive sales of the system, Pixar employee John Lasseter—who had long been creating short demonstration animations, such as Luxo Jr., to show off the device's capabilities—premiered his creations at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry's largest convention, to great fanfare."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar
"If I knew in 1986 how much it was going to cost to keep Pixar going, I doubt if I would have bought the company," admits Jobs. "The problem was, for many years the cost of the computers required to make animation we could sell was tremendously high. Only in the past few years has the price come down to the point that it makes business sense."
Since Jobs didn't buy Pixar intending to subsidize it forever, he insisted that Catmull and crew put off their ultimate goal--to make cartoons and movies--and develop salable technical products. The first was a piece of software called RenderMan, which enables computer-graphics artists to apply textures and colors to surfaces of 3-D objects onscreen. The Silicon Graphics workstations that generated the frighteningly realistic dinosaurs for Jurassic Park relied on RenderMan to create the creatures' scaly skin and ivory teeth. Pixar has sold about 100,000 copies of RenderMan, which was for many years the company's main source of revenue.
Disney was the second source of sales. Pixar created a software system called CAPS (short for computer animation production system) that helped Disney animators streamline the conventional animation process and juice up their special effects. IN TIME, it became clear that RenderMan, CAPS, and other ventures--like manufacturing computer-graphics hardware --were never going to pay Pixar's bills. Jobs decided that the company should concentrate on developing content...
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/09/18/206099/index.htm
@FoxKenji
No doubt did Steve Jobs help produce some amazing software (I've used renderman at work), I was merely stating that it wasn't him that made Pixar the animation giant it is.John Lasseter was the mind behind Luxo Jr. (their trademark now) and Toy Story. Don't get me wrong, Jobs "helped" but even in your source:
"...he insisted that Catmull and crew put off their ultimate goal--to make cartoons and movies--and develop salable technical products."
He bought the company as a hardware company, saw how it wasn't doing so great, then shifted towards software. In all aspects of this discussion, we are both right. I was pointing out how P.A.C. Man was pouring credit for computer generated animated films on Jobs when ultimately, Jobs didn't really have that goal in mind. Hell, Pixar weren't the creators of CG Animated films. 3D has been used in movies for a long time, before Toy Story came out. They did however mange to produce the first CGI "feature-length" animation, something that goes without saying.
Interesting article though. I'm going to thumb it up.
Nice, Fox, way to show these Apple/Steve Jobs haters.
TapBook!!!
...Apple, I'm expecting some royalties.
Where's my iNewton?
Time To Newton (TTN)~2:20
I still have to hand it to the billionaire CEOs; they get into the "grit" of their companies and stay involved. I guess once your done having fun with all that money life gets boring so you return to "normal" life. I don't know if I'd ever stop playing in a billionaires lifestyle, seems too fun!
http://www.sprootz.com
Sitting here with my girlfriend we still both get a horrible laugh out of all these rabid Appleboy comments on here.
If I bought something (Iphone HTC touch Palm Pre) why on earth would I want to TOUCH the screen. Last person who touched my screen is no longer able to fire a gun.
Tablets need to be cheap, due to the extra stress that will no doubt be put on them. That's where things like the Crunch come in. This is clearly going to cost the same as a CAR offering little more then web capabilities and a fruity logo.
"O but graphics design" Ya if you are a true designer (Getting a fkking pay check) you would have a proper TABLET and a 64bit version of Photoshop and even maybe a blu-ray burner reader.
Roommate with 3000 XPS laptop 1st year of university:
"I hate this laptop I keep getting viruses, I just talked to my mom I'm getting a mac"
Me: "Maybe you should stop downloading 'dirty porn' "
Apple: For people to stupid to use windows and to ignorant to use linux.
"If I bought something (Iphone HTC touch Palm Pre) why on earth would I want to TOUCH the screen."
Because that's how you well.. use it?
/Facepalm
"Ya if you are a true designer (Getting a fkking pay check)"
I am. I do not use a tablet or the 64bit Photoshop. I use a Mac, as I have for the last decade & a half, as do all the other Graphic Designers I know.
I also have used Windows for the last 15 years (not for anything productive beyond writing), and have used Ubuntu. Never liked Windows, Ubuntu is cool though.
By your comments, I'm pretty convinced you are the stupid one.
Bet that "girlfriend" is even two timing you.
@Bryant "Microsoft invented the concept and marketed it to various OEMs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook
The whole idea of "invention" is romanticized as a unique creative event. In reality, most of what we call invention really involves the successful synthesis of concepts contributed by multiple people that evolve over time until they reach a point where they can be built. Even then the concepts continue to evolve and cross-pollinate each other. The classic example from the computer world is the interaction between Xerox PARC, Apple, and Microsoft on windowed interfaces and then subsequent expansion into other implementations.
You can call it copying or you can call it building on foundations.
Tagbert you are wright, even Apple contributed to the Tablet thingy with Newton, and Knowledge Navigator;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Navigator
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5144094928842683632
I am a PC fan but I am happy that Steve Jobs is around doing things despite his illness.
Go Steve !
mermermer + rcarm = lame gayness
Shouldn't they be pulling attention away from Steve Jobs for the time being? It's obvious that in the past, and at the moment, Steve Jobs has essentially been Apple. So now that it's looking more and more like he's pretty much done at Apple, wouldn't it be wise for them to show that he isn't necessary for their survival, so when the time comes that he actually leaves, the company doesn't immediately take a nose dive?
I think Jobs himself said something to the effect that he made sure Apple can continue without him. Some say Jonathan Ives might be the next successor.
Has Apple confirmed they are working on a tablet? If so I may just hold off on buying a PMP/MID. But I really need something now.
With the exception of the iPhone, Apple doesn't usually confirm anything till the day of product launch. Sometimes they don't even announce anything, the new product just shows up at Apple's website (like the last iPod Shuffle).
But tablet, Mac or not, I don't see why people want one so bad. What for?
I typically loathe Apple, however I am cautiously excited about the prospect of a tablet based on their touch IP...
It may be the product (providing they don't screw it up like they did their phone) that makes my pull out my wallet.
I think a nice sized screen multi touch based interface and less crippling than their ipod touch or ipod phone would be fantastic.
that drawing ACTUALLY looks like a really accurate depiction of jobs testing that damn thing.
tomo
I am sitting here staring at my aluminum MacBook, wondering why Apple doesn't just cut the notebook in half, and use the screen part as the computer! It would be super thin, would still have the iSight and gorgeous display, then stuff MacBook Air innards into it! Alternatively, it would be cool to be able to dual boot between OSX Leopard and iPhone 3.0. They could make it work with AT&T just like other 3G netbooks, except put a microphone on it and use the iSight for video chat. The 13" screen would be best because you wouldn't have to dumb down the OS and everything in Leopard is basically large enough to be touched. Come on Steve, do it!!
Also they could implement their multi-touch gestures that you make on the new no-button trackpad to the screen (2 finger scrolling, Expose, 3-finger back and forward on Safari, etc.) into Snow Leopard and put it into their MacBook Touch on the screen, and the non-touch notebooks, keep it on the trackpad.
Running iPhone OS 3.0 (because it will most certainly launch at the same time or before this MacBook touch) and including an accelerometer would allow it to launch a whole new kind of gaming, like an iPod touch on steroids, with better sound, and more screen real estate for the developers to make the games with. And with the 1280x800 resolution, it could produce images that almost look as good as the console game systems, ensuring Apple will steal sales from the DS and PSP with the iPhone/iPod touch and the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii with the MacBook Touch. Think of the possibilities!