WSJ: Apple tablet to have books, games, music, TV, will make sandwiches
By Ross Miller 
posted January 20th 2010 11:54PM
posted January 20th 2010 11:54PM
The Wall Street Journal just laid out a doozy of an Apple tablet rumor piece, all from anonymous sources, "people familiar with the matter," and the like. There's a lot to go through, so without further ado:
- The tablet will come with a virtual keyboard -- kind of a no-brainer if it's gonna be a keyboard-less tablet and not, say, another laptop.
- Apple's been talking with The New York Times, Conde Nast, and HarperCollins / News Corp. over how they could collaborate. When asked, NYT Chairman Arthur Sulzberger would only say "stay tuned."
- Electronic Arts has been working closely to prep games for the tablet. We know of a number of gaming journalists who've gotten invites to next week's event, and given Apple's heavy games push over the past year or so, this wouldn't surprise us in the least.
- A reaffirmation of earlier murmurings about potentially swapping Google for Bing as the default search engine. Maps, too!
- Those TV subscription rumors? Apparently the gang in Cupertino have been pitching a "best of TV" service that would package the best four to six shows per channel.
- A web-based version of iTunes, tentatively called iTunes.com and potentially launching in June, for buying music outside of the dedicated app. Additionally, there'd be a new initiative "to populate as many webs ites as possible with 'buy' buttons, integrating iTunes transactions into activities like listening to internet radio and surfing review web sites." No mention if music will be downloaded or streamed from the cloud, but we can definitely see how Apple's recent Lala acquisition would play into this in the future -- in fact, we've already seen it start to bear fruit.
- Here's a weird one: Apple has supposedly designed the tablet "so that it is intuitive to share." One such experiment is virtual sticky notes that launch for the intended recipient by facial recognition via built-in camera.
@(Unverified)
Sure, and if Apple props up Bing in the iPhone, it will of course (just like IE in 1997) be optional to use. But the upshot is Apple knows MS will pay a kings ransom to oust Google off the iPhone. ;)
From Dictionary.app
propagate : spread and promote (an idea, theory, knowledge, etc.) widely
irony : an Engadget post discussing rumors, looking forward to a time without rumors.
watch this itablet land on ATT and see a complete network failure....so glad I switched over to Verizon last week
@eddiet29
Sorry, but Verizon wants the tablet, too. The Apple tablet will be taking down all the networks.
I love the virtual keyboard bit... it's like saying the tablet will come with an on/off switch!!!
I'm really failing to see how anyone needs a tablet PC at all, save just for the novelty of it. Can someone who is thinking of buying this say how it will actually be useful to them and explain how a smartphone or laptop is not adequate for their needs?
To me it seems that up until now tablets aren't bad designs, but hardly anyone actually needs a tablet.
The one thing I can see this whole device being is a low spec, low powered device for remotely accessing a computer at home over a 3G or wi fi connection. Would that be useful to anyone?
@JBaker .. I commute for 2 hours a day (as day a lot of people in London, NY, SF, Sydney etc). I sure as hell ain't taking a laptop out on a bus/train etc. So this would be a great device. Also there are often times e.g. in front of the TV where I want to check email but not have my laptop there.
@taligent Once again, you'd rather purchase a $800-$1,000 device to check your email in front of the TV (every phone can do that) or for 2 hour commute on the train (are you seriously going to have a tablet PC out on the crowded train?)
@DBX00
taligent's comment highlights exactly what most tablets are, a novelty.
See my comments below about a 8 inch device that I think would actually have some use. Something at about he size of an A5 sheet of paper would be very useable in a crowded space whilst being functional enough.
I see it being a device that really bridges the gap between smart phone and laptop. I retract my earlier comment that existing tablet design isn't wrong; it is. They try to get all the functionality of a full laptop into a tablet running a very lightly modified OS. All you get there is an inferior product.
What this needs (and I'm sure Apple will pull it off) is a highly modified OS tailored to this single device, which is the trump card Apple always have (iphone OS runnnig on just the iphone vs android on multiples). You just can't get that cohesion from multiple tablets running the same version of Windows.
"Come see our newest creation" . What will follow is a half hour presentation about how they managed to enlarge the iPod Touch so that the camera would fit in.
@bakkermaarten007 Iphones already have cameras and are the same size as the Touch, only a bit fatter for the phone radio circuitry.
Hopefully, they address in adition to the "tablet" "4.0" and "ilife upgrades"..... the solution to the faulty IMAC i7.
@JBaker
Also I'm predicting an 8 inch screen. There is a very fine line between too big to carry around and too small to do anything useful. You could make a very productive device that is 10", but I would find that too bulky to carry around and use on the train or for using in the street. If they use a screen with a very small bezel they can make the top surface 95% screen, keeping the overall size down.
This would be very easy to carry around without a bag, large enough to be more productive than a smartphone, more convenient than a netbook and could be quickly whipped out in places you just couldn't with a full size notebook.
I'm banking on a cut down version of OSX with multitasking up to 5 apps, with boot time under 10 seconds.
Remember the mac book air envelope advert? I think they'll use an A5 this time ;)
@JBaker
Has anyone else noticed the size of the apple logo compared to the lines of the device in the press shot (one with the paint)?
You can scale the apple logo to get the size of the device (roughly) using a macbook. On a macbook pro the logo is 10x smaller in width than the width of the device at 3.8cm. Using this 3.8 and the press image above, I scaled it up and found it to be 20cm wide!
8 screen = 20.32cm. A diagonal dimension yes, so I guess the width of the device will infact be about 21cm.
Seems my prediction could be write. I should be a designer :P
@JBaker
That's probably just coincidence though seeing as they probably won't use a logo that size.
Maybe this here Apple tablet hooks up to the net via that long delayed iPhone tethering. That'd be pretty neat methinks.
I want to see this thing already.
HP Slate - Full OS and less than $500
Apple Table - Iphone OS and over $800
Seems like an easy choice...I could care less if the thing plays games or reads books; as soon as I have to put it in a bag to transport it, my laptop is a better option. Heck, I spent about the same on my laptop.
WOW!
Apple, bring it on!
We waiting.
For my two cents for this tablet to be really cool and worth it:
- It'll need a couple of USBs for external hard drives, flash drives, joysticks, etc.
- A pair of built-in speakers
- Stylus for those who want to play with photoshop. There'll have to be a photoshop version for this thing.
- text-to-speech
- way better cut and paste functionality
And I'm sure I'm missing other stuff.
I assume that the TV networks themselves will be deciding what the 4-6 best shows per channel are.
Sorry. Not interested in that.
I think what a lot of people overlook in these tablet discussions is the fact that we do not need a tablet that runs the same native OS as our home computers. We need a device that is a bit more intuitive than that. Apple did it with the iPhone. That is what Apple does. They go into a market that has no direction, and they analyze it and see how to make sense of what people want to accomplish with a device and make it do those things in the most straight forward and obvious way possible.
Thats why you do not have a filing system to deal with on the iPod, and you are not required to deal with a desktop OS on the iPhone. It is not necessary. It slows you down. It makes a mess of the process. That is what Apple does, they HIDE the process and give you results on your device. The tablet will follow this rule.
Or they are making the next HAL computer and the robot will eventually rise up and kill us all.
@cribbss
Couldn't agree more. Current tablets have no direction but I have no doubt Apple will give it one, and it will be very useful for people.
(Not a fanboy of either camps by the way)
@cribbss
Your right this is a new type of operating system. There will be NO OS-X on the iPad or on the new 22" Touch desktop. There will eventually be a whole line of touch devices running this touch operating system, 5" iPods, 7" iPads and desk mounted larger screen touch devices. iPhone OS4 is evolving into a new touch screen operating system for a whole new class of computers all closed systems with all software coming from the APP store.
What is this "tablet" you speak of?
we shall see darling
what if the colors in that picture actually apply to a current appliance, like bring colors to macbooks, somewhat like the old clamshell models
"to populate as many webs ites as possible with 'buy' buttons..."
No one is talking about this. It seems to mean you could go to the New York Times web site and there would be a iTunes button so you could purchase the daily paper and have access threw your iTunes account. And every other media site even Pandora, Ebay, and Amazon.
Then just access it from your iPhone or iPad right from your iTunes account which would keep available in the Cloud everything you own.
This could be the "next big thing" but if they don't add Flash support I will scream and throw a tantrum.
What I see happening here is that Apple is creating a whole new class of computers, all running on the same Touch Operating System. It is now just the iPhone OS but it will soon evolve to include a whole new class of controlled content computers with touch screens. iPhone, 10″iPad, iPod Touch, 5″iPod, 7″iPad, 22″iTouch Desktop and more all running the same Touch OS. All content will come from iTunes: Music, Newspapers, Magazines, Books, Text Books, Movies, TV Shows, and Apps.
iTunes will keep all the media and apps you own in the cloud for you to access from any of your devices. You will be able to add content to your iTunes account from anywhere on the internet. If you want the latest copy of Sports Illustrated, there will be a iTunes button right on Sports Illustrated’s web site. Just click on the button, enter your iTunes password and you own it. You can then access it from your desktop computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, laptop, or connected TV. They will offer very easy integration with all Apple hardware and they will make it more difficult (but not impossible) to access your iTunes content from non Apple hardware, as we have seen playing out with the Palm Pre.
Awesome, cant wait :)
Heres an idea of how it might work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1naRS9jNlts
For 1000 dollars it dam well better make me sandwiches.
SLATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS!!!
The irony of Bing and Live Maps on a iDevice...
It will definitely make sandwiches! http://twitpic.com/zxfvi
See!