We've always heard that most things come in packs of three, so just as soon as some other dodgy source affirms that Hulk Hogan will actually be replacing Steve Jobs in August, we'll be set. Shortly after seeing a
32GB iPhone placeholder over at T-Mobile Austria, we're now staring at a comically brief report from
Digitimes that pegs Wintek as the "panel module supplier for Apple's upcoming e-book form factor netbook product." If you'll recall, Wintek was
already independently confirmed as said panel supplier for said product back in March, but obviously Apple has remained tight-lipped on the whole
netbook /
tablet /
e-reader thing. That said, we do find it interesting that this report clarifies that whatever's purportedly cooking in some dark, highly guarded lab in Cupertino looks more like a tablet with a netbook-sized display rather than a
conventional netbook. Whatever the case, we
wouldn't expect it at WWDC, but any Tuesday morning after that is fair game.
posted May 22nd 2009 6:23AM
"Hulk Hogan will actually be replacing Steve Jobs"
Those would be some badass keynotes!
You're telling me, brother!!
What??? Hulk Hogan to replace Steve Jobs? I'm afraid this is a really BAD decision.
I'm going to sell all my Apple stock right now. I'm through with Apple once and for all!
Rumor has it that Steve Jobs is the new Hulk Hogan. He's been working out vigorously during his leave of absence and has been eating at least an Apple a day.
wintek? in an apple tablet?
hell is freezing over, this is like having a winmodem in my macpro
Who says the win in wintek means "windows" it can also mean win.
i may even get this without the keyboard but only if it is capable of being a dev box.
im looking for a £500 macbook. just something official with macos x with enough hardware to compile stuff.
Reasons why this thing would be an Epic fail:
- No physical keyboard (How the fuck are you gonna type on this thing)
- Its too fucking big to fit in your pockets.
- Can't be used as an e-reader, because it ain't got e-ink (glowing screens are not suitable for reading)
- Its gonna be too expensive to compete in the Netbook market.
Really apple would be really screwed if the produce this thing, its just plain useless, if it was smaller it would be an ipod touch, if it had a keyboard it would compete with the macbook air (which is in fact a netbook but not competitive). And nobody would fancy holding a 7 - 10 inch slate, how the hell would you do work on this thing. Apple should just give up and release a damn competitive netbook with keyboard and OSX and forget about the stupid macbook air, after all its a complete failure.
ha.
very valid points, but it's apple...
so therefore people will buy it if it looks good.
and re: your point about it being an epic fail w/o a keyboard, there are tablet pc's w/o keyboards that work, but apple would need to implement a serious OS update to put it anywhere near the hot tablet pc action windows 7 offers
yep, if Apple can sell an mp3 player without buttons like hot cakes then this is noo problem!
where have you been, your applying normal business logic!
Being a student, if it came with a kickstand and allows finger (or even stylus) drawing (it is a touchscreen after, and knowing apple multitouch is pretty much standard) it would be a major win. if the price is not extravagant, and the battery life is actually decent (by far the biggest lack of all things techonological - especially since Apple doesnt like user-replaceable batteries) ill buy one in a second.
@james: MP3 player without a keyboard....understandable (barely) but a computer without a keyboard? Productivity would be mighty low on it. Typing even a small email would be a great challenge on a touch screen keyboard. Putting the slate on the desk and typing while looking straight down on the slate sounds awkward too.
@Me4u2
You are so right. Apple has produced nothing but failures since 1998, and as for the folks who invested in their stock, boy are they disappointed!
People like you really need to catch a clue.
"attachable keyboard"....that's all I have to say.....
If this is ever gonna be successful, it would have to carter to a niche market, for instance; as a schedule slate for Pizza delivery guys or Mail delivery guys, it can also be implemented as some kind of digital paint pad. I don't see this going mainstream at all... Attachable keyboard or attachable mouse would destroy the product even more. If you need several or more hardware just to perform a simple task like sending an email, the essence of mobility is killed and it should not be considered as a netbook or tablet, cuz you can as well setup it up at home and use it as a desktop.
So in all, I think this is nothing short of an epic fail, I hope apple proves me wrong though... Lets wait and see what they are cooking up.
"- No physical keyboard (How the fuck are you gonna type on this thing)"
Hi, there's this thing called an iPhone, maybe you've heard of it.
"- Its too fucking big to fit in your pockets."
So... like every other tablet computer then?
"- Can't be used as an e-reader, because it ain't got e-ink (glowing screens are not suitable for reading)"
Really? Because I'm pretty sure people have been reading things on glowing screens since the 70s. You're reading this on a glowing screen right now.
"- Its gonna be too expensive to compete in the Netbook market."
Good thing it's not a netbook then, huh?
Typing on the iPhone is one thing, on a computer is a totally different thing. Typing on a phone involves using your thumbs only, or maybe a finger only. There have already been a few attempts at keyboards on a flat surface, and they have failed hard. The reason being that typing on something with absolutely no give is very hard on your fingers. It actually starts to hurt after a relatively short amount of use. Also, lack of tactile feedback isn't that big of a deal with your thumbs. I actually prefer the iPhone's virtual keyboard for phone typing (mainly because apple's text-prediction software is amazing), but when it comes to real typing, it would be near impossible. Try it. Print out a keyboard on a piece of notebook paper and type up a response on it. Notice how hard it actually is without looking at it, and notice how much less comfortable it is.
As to the eBook reading, backlit screens are not the preferred medium to read on. It causes eye strain and needlessly wastes batteries. You really have to read off an e-ink display to appreciate how much like paper it actually is.
I see cases where this could be useful, but not really mainstream. And that would probably preclude it from being an apple product. I can't really see apple making a product that's only useful in a relatively small group of professional applications, with almost no real consumer market.
Yo dawg, I herd you like rumors, so I put a rumor in your rumor so you can confirm while you confirm.
If Engadget stops posting rumors there'd be like 1 or 2 posts a day, what am I suppose to read at work then? :D
oh saad as a neighbor i say to you to don't look at this as an usual rumor, this time maybe apple will invent touch screen computer
Question, if and when this thing comes out, are all the Apple fanboys going to be saying that Apple invented the tablet PC?
In a word, Yes.
typical Apple hateboys.
yawwn,
you know what? yes, Apple did invent the tablet pc..
Hay you said it, not me..
"Question, if and when this thing comes out, are all the Apple fanboys going to be saying that Apple invented the tablet PC?"
Yes, and they will magically pretend all of the stuff they said about tablets, about how they are awkward and not very useful, was never said.
Look for the same thing when Apple does a touch-screen iMac.
@ emmet
Typical fanboi response.
You don't have to look real hard on these boards to find any number of posts with itards implying, if not stating outright that apple invented everything from the icon based GUI, to the touchscreen smartphone, to the chicklet style KB.
But go ahead, ignore reality in favor of the pithy reply.
@Look_Around_You
It depends on the implementation - any touchscreen device needs a purpose, something that makes it useful compared to what has come before. If Apple just produces its own version of the Axiotron Modbook then you will see very few Apple owners changing their tune because it will be a justification of what has already been said. There is very little point to trying to put a platform designed for a traditional computer into something with a touchscreen - what is necessary is a platform that was designed for a touchscreen and that has applications that make sense given the pros and cons of the hardware. I am quite sure that Apple understands this and it is for this reason that I don't think you are going to see what you are expecting, i.e. a tablet Mac, simply because the idea kinda sucks for the things that you do on a Mac (much like tablet PCs kinda suck unless you either spend your time in Painter or use the keyboard that turns it into a glorified laptop). I don't know what is coming but it sure will be interesting to see it and what you'd use it for.
Chicklet keyboards are for BlackBerry butt-kissers. Apple is the master of touch-screens.
Apple may not have invented all the stuff fanboys said they did, but Apple took all those failures and turned them into something useful. It's like Microsoft invented the octagonal wheel, but Apple rounded the corners smooth and history was made with OSX. Microsoft is still using the octagonal wheel called Vista. Windows 7 is going to be simplified. It's going to be a square wheel.
This would make sense, but I agree -- JUST RUMORS! A quality netbook makes more sense.
Longest running rumour ever ! YAWN
This could be potentially very cool for an artist. Sadly I imagine there will be no penabled screen nor any stylus. I remember jobs saying in the first iPhone keynote "Nobody needs a stylus". Can you imagine a netbook sized tablet/ sketchpad with a stylus and enough processing power to run photoshop and illustrator? Does one exist? Unfortunately all the software I own is mac compatible only and I own a wacom Cintiq with my laptop. Works well enough but not small nor portable for my needs. This could be a great device if they combine multituuch with a stylus- if that is possible.
If this had a stylus, was cheap enough (yeah right) and a very long battery life, I could easily picture myself buying this and replacing the conventional pen & paper to take notes during lectures!
Well, it seems to be a given that this thing is coming. However, what remains unclear is what exactly this thing is going to be for or do. I find it hard to believe that Apple is trying to produce what we would understand to be a tablet PC because they already have Axiotron knocking those things out and I really don't think that there is much of a market for them. Perhaps we are looking at a giant (all things being relative) iPhone - something that uses the same sort of interface concepts but with a bigger screen and more complex applications. Somehow I just don't see them putting OS X as we know it today on a device with no keyboard simply because this thing won't be suitable to large quantities of data entry. The question is, will people want a giant iPhone?
My guess. it isnt a tablet at all, but a wireless monitor/ toucscreen input system.
Apple has stated they have no plans for a tablet so it might by what i guessed
I think of it as a kindle replacement. I'd rather read e-ink but let's face it, many wouldn't care that it isn't e-ink. They would celebrate it as something that can be held like a book, browse the web, read occasionally, play with apps, do email, etc.
Is there a market for it? Well, the ipod touch created its own market (or one could argue its the pda market but just focused as an mp3 player and apps especially gaming apps)...one in which Palm is stupidly not even trying to explore (and another topic). This iPad would create its own market.
Whatever it is, it will be overpriced here in Japan. Apple suck for foreign prices.
But the SCREWS man, who's providing the SCREWS????
You know it is gonna be locked down to the app store, so they can probably sell it at a somewhat reduced price knowing they will get some revenue from the store and itunes.
You know Apple has made only around 40-50 M USD over the iPhone App craze. I am not sure they will be depending on that.
What!!!???
After all that crap that Steve Jobs was spouting about tablets making computing slower and being un-needed.
Only Apple would be a sell out eh?
Yes, after all that stuff Jobs said about tablets being stupid... Apple still isn't releasing one. You understand that this is a rumor, right?
Well hopefully they you don't have to eat your words when it turns out to not be a rumor.
It's not a computer, not a netbook, not a tablet "PC". It's a media device. Think in terms of newspaper replacement, magazine reader, process monitor, etc. It will have a full color display, a camera for stills and video, a new OS with contextual touch inputs, and at least 8 hours of battery life. Will it make the XBox crowd happy? No, but it will define a new category of personal electronics and make Apple shareholders very happy people.
No keyboard? Hasn't anyone heard of bluetooth? A la the old Palm fold out keyboard. Just make a nice thin (apple already does this but in a single contiguous block) *foldable* keyboard for travel and I'd get it. Or, hell, screw portability or trying to type in a lecture...NOT EVERY GAEWLDAAM COMPUTER MUST FUNCTION AS EVERYTHING TO THE EXCLUSION OF I DON'T KNOW HAVING ANOTHER COMPUTER!!!!!
I operate thusly now: Mac Mini with bitchin' camaro keyboard and mouse and 20" monitor for extended periods of typing or whatnot, and a Dell D630 with Kubuntu 9.04 and Linux Mint 7 for sitting on the couch or going to Panera/Starbucks/etc. If I could have a tablet format for also sitting on the couch or in the kitchen (recipes), I'd be quite happy indeed.
If they ever come out with this, I'm going to pay someone to hack into it and put LCARS format on it.
It'll be the first real-life PADD.
That new tablet is going to be called the Apple Maxi-Pad, unless that name is already in use by some other company.
FYI Engadget writers - a tablet without a keyboard is called a *Slate,* which is what that sketch shows. They have been termed that for years now, please get your terminology correct.
/slates are pretty useless outside of the medial world
Slates may be useless to you but at the right price i would want a ISlate.
I can't believe how narrow minded people are here. This is where computers are going. This is something even Bill Gates predicted a decade ago. Eventually we'll all be using tablets (or slate) computers.
Those of you bitching about the lack of keyboard seem to forget that humanity used to do this thing called writing for thousands of years. They would put ink on paper with a stick, quill, pen, whatever. That's basically what we're going to see here. A digital piece of paper. It's not going to replace your desktop or your laptop (at least not yet). But it will be a handy device for reading, drawing, handwriting, browsing the web or whatever. It will be great for service professionals who currently carry around clipboards and for art students who want a little digital pad in their backpack.
Just because Steve Jobs said the stylus wasn't practical for the iPhone doesn't mean it's not practical for a tablet computer. It's very practical in fact. Not to mention Steve has been known to say one thing and eventually do what he said he wasn't going to.
If anybody is going to make these kind of computers practical, it will be Apple. They have the market pull and the right ideas to show people how good of an idea this kind of computer format is. A year of so after they release one every manufacturer will be jumping on board with their own.
I also believe that if Apple does actually do this it will run a smaller version of OSX like the iphone does. But not the iphone version. Apple will tailor it to be useful for it' size with the right applications preinstalled. The OS will be designed for the hardware, just as Apple has always done. They build ready to use out of the box devices.
protip: when apple calls a product lackluster, it usually means they're coming out with their alternative. like when the first portable video jukeboxes came out, apple lambasted them for being obtuse (ask the normal consumer to rip & reencode media... right), then came out with itms+videos. or about how crappy smartphones were, then came out with the iphone.
as much as it pains the hateboys, apple is a consumer electronics company, emphasis on consumer. sure, most apple 'features' can be macguyvered on the cheap/free with a little time and know-how, but it's impractical for the average consumer. making things accessible to technologically illiterate people IS a big deal.
In the end, all the bleating naysayers end up sounding the same-
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame. "
I get a kick out of those that say reading from an LCD screen is hard on the eyes as they sit in front of their computers for hours with one right in front of them. Yes, e-ink may be better for reading novels or the like but..
I've had a Fujitsu Slate for over 4 years and it's an excellent ebook reader. It saved me from hours of boredom while waiting for flights, hotel shuttles, etc during my job as an airline pilot. Once in the hotel, if I wanted to use it as a full fledged computer, I just pulled out a small portable keyboard and mouse, used a leather case as an easel and computed away!
Yup battery life is not near as good as a Kindle, but carrying an extra battery in my roll- on was not a problem.
My only problem with the ebook side of the picture is that Amazon dropped their Microsoft Reader Format and went to a Kindle only format. Now I use Ereader or Ebooks to download the books.
A stylus came in very handy for some applications when using without a keyboard, so Apple would be foolish to not have one.
Ecological niches are not found, they are created.
Would it replace Notebooks? Hardly. However, it would nicely carve out a niche above iPods/iPhones and below full grown Notebooks.
My main computer is powered off quite a bit as I do most of my surfing on my iPod Touch now. I would switch to a slate with the same software in an instance. It can nicely control my media system, Mail and provides a great E-Book Reader as well.
This will cost the NetBooks some sales, because NetBooks can' replace NoteBooks for most people either.
Kabe
Apple needs to combine the Notebook with the E-reader, and thus tear into two markets. It can utilize its current i-phone tech and create a larger product, about the side of a Notebook (i.e. ASUS 1005HA), but, in the case of Apple it could use two screens--one of which would double as a keyboard. Imagine 2 i-phones connected--like a book, that folded in. If the product was a little larger, it would even look like a book. One could use it as a Book or turn the product and use it as a Notebook and type something. If Apple sold it for $800, and then made money through downloading books, they would have a fantastic new product.