Apple Tablet rumors evolve into Zen koans: 'it's a big iPhone, but it's not a big iPhone'
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 7th 2010 7:04PM
posted January 7th 2010 7:04PM
Can you hear it? It's the sound of wishful thinking, of hopeful optimism, of more Apple Tablet rumors. The competition is certainly not holding back in releasing theirs, so what's up with Apple? According to rumor one, from an "industry source" who has seen the OS, the software is "a big iPhone, but it's not just a big iPhone," and it's "pretty." Moving on, rumor two indicates that the device itself will have the internal hardware to work with multiple wireless providers, with Verizon apparently getting priority but there being no single-carrier tie here. Finally, the device is said to be going on sale in March, which sounds reasonable enough if that unveil on 26th comes to fruition. What does Apple have to say about it? "We are not going to comment on rumors and speculation." You can feel free, though -- that's what comments are for.
@HighestRanked
"Ahh one of the MS fanboy police lieutenants. I don't know who Chapel is but you'd be very employable as a cop breaking people's legs in the Iranian or North Korean dictatorships."
See this is what I mean? I didnt even bother to read that twice for clarity because it's so flipping stupid.
@HighestRanked
Don't mind that bloody idiot.
@LAY
Microsoft's Chief Lieutenant calling somebody out, damn hypocrite.
@LAY So according to you officer Lay, no one exept certain Apple fanboys go around trolling. According to you there is not a single MS fanboy around here that engages in the same activities that you accuse Apple fans of doing.
Now that's comedy right there.
My sources tell me Apple is frantically redoing the demo and all of the press materials to now refer to it as a "supertablet".
@valleybob Is it going to wear a red cape?
@valleybob Your sources are out of date. It's now an ultratablet II turbo.
@valleybob Nah, as of 10pm EST it's the ThrillTablet™!
@Ducman69 There will be a post that at least mentions the rumored tablet from apple every day until the 27th.
Honestly, how many here would actually pay $1000 for a apple tablet? I'm not talking about wanting to but it or dreaming about buying it and this includes asking mom and dad for "special occasion" money to buy it. How many here have $1000 they would gladly throw down on a tablet from apple?
Apple will not start selling their taplet before the end of June, when they will put new iPhone on the market.
The reason is obvious - they do not have applications for it - first they need to say developers, that they have to upgrade their applications to bigger resolution, which will be in new iPhone and in new tablet. And this is what they will do end of January.
1. Will it run multiple apps at the same time?
2. Will it have a forward facing camera ?
3. Will it run flash ?
4. If it has the horsepower to use Dragon well enough with the add'l ability of a few more sensors - temp ? enhanced proximity (guesture), and..
5. Be able to tether to an Iphone or
6. A keyboard with an embedded OS making it a full fledged laptop.. then
it will rock my world.
Apple wont let me down !!
@Uncontrol
You should probably calm down. For the last couple days Engadget has been 99% non-Apple posts, and there have been a LOT of them. Deal with the single Apple post out of 100.
It will be a smart screen peripheral. Slot in your iPhone/iPod Touch and boom you're in business.
The UI changes to handle a big screen. The smarts is in an additional battery and maybe an additional CPU/memory.
The OS will not be the same as the iPhone OS. Rather the iPhone OS is already capable or it will be able to handle the larger screen UI with the next update. The same App Store and the same SDK will be used. Only minor additions to the code are needed. This keeps things simple for users and Apple to maintain, and the production cost down. Price less than $300.
@Valan
Price less than $300?
For what amounts to the Smart Panel of the early 2000s or that thing you used to put on Game Boys to magnify the screen?
Um, how do you supposed you will be able to take calls?
@LAY
Mic and speakers?
Headset?
Is this the Apple Tablet ???
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/3469/tuawtab.jpg
sounds to me like apple has learned its lesson about using AT&T's network
oooooo aaaaaaahhhhhhhh bleeaaccccchhh
The price of Apple's tablet will surprise a lot of people. It uses a home-grown PA-Semi processor so the intel tax is gone from the hardware, and unlike HP, they don't pay $50 to Redmond for the OS on each unit. That's $100-$200 savings on the BOM which translates to some serious $$ at retail. The price of this thing will drop like a stone once they get a nice vig from the early adopters.
I can see it now, Ballmer is going to be so rattled by the sales volume he will repeat his $7 XPH netbook freak out and license W7 to the copy-cat tablet makers for under $10 a pop. But they still have to buy their processors from intel -- LOL.
@Ed T
...Well, you are optimistic, I'll give you that!
I hope they "come back" to the metal case and not cheap plastic like the MacBook.
I could personally confirm the apple tablet... If I had more magic beans. Lacking those I cannot power my magic crystal ball like the analysts do...
I'd like a device somewhere between a smartphone, a netbook and a universal remote control. Like one of the previous posters, I also have a netbook (Samsung) lying around on the couch for occasional internet use. But that's still a laptop. Using the web on an iPhone is too uncomfortable, unless you're on-the-go. So a tablet form-factor would be ideal, with at least a 1024x768 resolution. I'd rather have a tailored OS on it, bogging the device down with a full-blown Win7 seems unnecessary. The iPhone OS in some shape or form would probably work. Early rumors are therefore looking good! Using it as a universal remote would be great as well...
'just' is missing from the quote in the title.
I'm still not 100% convinced Apple is releasing a tablet. There have been tablet rumors for years with no product or admission from Apple. So I'm waiting to see if they even have a production tablet to release.
What happened to all the Blu-ray rumors?
Huh? Whut? Apple are doing a tablet? When did this happen, surely there would be more talk of this on the web?
I'm predicting multitasking in the form of a screen divided into several "iPhone screens," so that it can still run iPhone apps.