Is this the Apple tablet? (update: new images)
By Nilay Patel 
posted January 27th 2010 10:29AM
posted January 27th 2010 10:29AM
On a totally separate note, we also received a tip claiming to have some specs -- we can't verify any of this either, but we're told that the device will have a 10-inch screen and look like a larger iPhone with a MacBook-like aluminum back, and that pricing will run $800 on contract with Verizon and $1000 without when it arrives in March. We're also told that the official name remains a secret and that Apple employees are still calling it by the codename of "K48" -- a name we last heard in May from the same source that pegged the iPhone 3GS exactly. This source also tells us that the iPhone will be coming to Verizon as well and that we'll see iLife '10 tomorrow, but there won't be any MacBook updates. A relatively safe set of predictions -- which is why we sort of believe them.
Just 13 hours to go -- we'll find out if any of this is the real deal soon enough.
Update: Based on some rough measurements, that screen does appear to be between 9- and 10-inches diagonal. Additionally, it looks as though there could be a front-facing camera on the opposite side of the home button (up top in these photos) due to that cutout section, though the images are really too grainy to know for certain.
Update 2: Our source has shared another photograph, this time showing an iPhone resting on the tablet for comparison. Check it out after the break (bigger image for inspection available in the gallery).
Update 3: Gizmodo managed to snag some images of what appears to be the back of the tablet from Chinese forum WeiPhone before they were mysteriously yanked. WeiPhone is the same forum that leaked the K48 name way back when, so who knows -- the image shows what could be RF testing, but one of them feels kind of render-y to us. Check 'em all in the gallery!
@Reality Check "HP and Microsoft are trying to take a desktop OS designed for a keyboard and mouse, and bring it over directly as-is to the tablet. "
saying that, you've never tried out a tablet PC with windows 7, right ?
"Android is trying to take an OS designed for mobile phones and bring it over as-is to a tablet."
no, Google is making Chrome OS, which has nothing to do with Android.
"My guess is it will either be, as others here have suggested, through hand-waving gestures in the air (like the Wii, but no hardware required)"
... no comment. :)
Could that also be a new iPhone? It almost looks like it has a camera on the front.
InIndeed, when Jobs says here's an exciting new product I'm keen to listen. the ipod & iphone were trail-blazers, I anticipate this to be similar. and yes, from the first ipod released to 3GS we've seen the general shape & interface concept being applied, improved & launched in subsequent products. Logically the tablet dimensions, screen, OS & apps are to be an extenuation of the iphone's.
Apple's multi-touch is a crucial durable advantage over competitors, the tablet GUI will be awesome. apparently barnes & noble may have agreed an exclusive e-bookstore collaboration.. their latest traded shares went over the roof. there is no doubt no other e-book will compete with this, apple are pushing at an open road. i doubt a new iphone will be released today however, i reckon that will come around may/june... and even then i'm not certain it will be 4G.
@jjwoo
Your e-book comments are ridiculous.
-It is rumored to cost $750-1000 way to expensive to justify buying as a dedicated e-book reader so it wont revolutionize the e-book market and most college kids can't afford it without there parents paying for it.
-It is OLED which is hard to read for a long time and has horrible glare. I have a N1 I know first hand OLED has horrible glare outside. You can bet not many reviews will not even talk about the glare you know because it is a Apple product and it is perfect in every way.
I think it will be a cool niche product but not many people are going to buy this because it revolutionized the e-book market...There will be plenty of other reasons for people to justify buying the tablet/slate.
http://img129.yfrog.com/img129/8381/xx6c.jpg
Real picture of the tablet
@MindWr4ith Nice, I got the same one. The paper store down the road... $1.99 or sumfin?!
You can tell from the maps app that, unlike rumors out there, Apple won't change to Bing... Thats defiantly google maps! :D
Never mind the cost of the thing-- if it's awesome, then $1000 is not too much to ask. That said, I'm disappointed in the way this looks. I would have a real problem getting excited about a mutant iPhone unless the interface is an absolute game changer. Knowing how Apple keeps a consistent design language throughout a platform, the app in the pic looks disappointingly conventional. Granted, there is not much to go on with the pic...
I'm a little more pessimistic. I guess we'll all see at 1pm if this is nothing but a big screen iPhone.
I do not know how I feel about this being with a carrier...
Omg, it even comes with random white/black boxes!
BEST.DEVICE.EVER...the boxes feature is truly amaz...oh wait...wtf are these boxes trying to censor? huh? maybe apply is trying to tell us something, maybe its subliminally messages to makes us want something that we dont need!...maybe ..ah my head hurts ..and the only cure is the itablet!
Flux Capacitor app?
Have anyone noted that the screen may be actually TRANSPARENT???!!
The pictures strongly suggest this. This device would be amazing.
@leda You suggesting it will have an e-ink display underneath? Not a bad idea!
The white boxes cover the reflection of who ever took the picture... Steve? Woz? The janitor? Who knows... Ones for sure: He must have crazy Ms Paint skillz!
Too expensive.
When it gets to france, apple having signed exclusively with orange (local service provider) it will be $1000 + . I think apple is innovative and like their products, but this is another way of making us all use i-tunes.
For the price, i'd call it "i-rate" cos that'll be me
My thoughts: Josh was on to something in the last podcast. In fact, I think if the iSlate includes something as productive as a gesture version of iLife, I'd go so far as to predict that in the future we'll mark tomorrow as the day the Desktop paradigm ended. No pressure!
But seriously, it's high time we moved on from windows, folders, mice and keyboards for everyday computing. I already find lots of tasks easier on my iPhone than on my Mac. Tomorrow could be the day we all move on.
@Toast Rack
I completely agree with you. I'm tired of laptops completely, and really only like my desktop because I have gobs of screen real estate. Its performance or OS is starting to matter less and less.
I don't get the "it's only a big iPhone" comments. When I sit here and think about it, there is really almost nothing I do on my PC that I can't do on my iPhone. The iPhone's only limitation really is screen size.
Also, while little tasks like writing an email, editing a photo, or browsing the web are almost chore-like on my PC, it's still enjoyable for me (even after 2 years) to use the iPhone's interface. Just something as simple as cropping a photo and adding some contrast is infinitely more intuitive on my iPhone than on my PC running Photoshop Lightroom.
If these devices can ditch the full OS crap, cut the bloat, and give me something that is actually fun to use while surfing around the internet and organizing my photos, I will ditch my laptop in a heartbeat and relegate my desktop to work-only.
@ebgolfin
That's just you, as many of us require Real Applications that are far more capable than anything the iPhone apps store currently offers.
Simply because your computing needs are rudimentary (at best) doesn't mean that others don't require more.
The iPad will serve its base well, but it's hardly a desktop replacement.
@Toast Rack
Well I guess I got my wish - iPad with iWork! So now we wait and see whether this will eventually replace the desktop or just augment it for portable devices.
does anyone have a link to a website which will be broadcasting this afternoon's event ? video ? rss ? anything ?
@phearme
try this
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpposted/archive/2010/01/26/fp-tech-desk-apple-tablet-coverage.aspx
@tongeuele thanx !!
I wonder if there is actually a "Mr Blurrycam" out there, a professional photographer hired by companies to leak images...
Yep, and he only uses stuff with no image stabiliser or autofocus
Well, the pictures are blurry, so this is the real deal...
Not an Apple hater or fanboy. I buy products that I like and do what I need them to do and not because it has a fruit in the logo and is supposed to make you look cool if you have it.
My OS is Windows (XP... Not Vista or 7 because I like XP); my mobile device is an HTC Eris (not Droid, not Nexus One, not Palm, not iPhone, or any of the countless WinMo devices because I like the Eris and I like Android); my media player is an iPod Nano (I love the UI). Each of these devices do exactly what I need them to do in the way I like doing it not because it's a specific brand.
Personally I think the iTablet (or whatever it'll be called) being a $1000 10" iPhone is the dumbest thing ever. Sure maybe it'll sell like hotcakes to all the hipster fanboys who immediate run out and buy the next greatest thing just because their lord and master Steve says it's hot.
I mean maybe if it ran OSX for $1000 I'd interested but unless you're a hipster Apple fanboy no one in their right mind can justify $1000 bucks for a 10" iPhone. If I decide I need an eReader (which probably wont happen cause I still love physical books) I'll probably wait for the next gen Kindle that will most likely have touchscreen. Or if I need a touchscreen tablet sized device I'll wait for one with a full OS on it (be it OSX, Win, Linux or whatever).
@Terrormaster
I agree with you, but since when has usefulness ever guided us for tech-buys?
Do we really need to do all the stuff we do at home/work when we are on the move. If it has an os like 7 or os x then it is a tactile portable computer, NOT a new invention cmon think serious
@Terrormaster is a physical book fanboy.. nuff said :P
@tongeuele true... but the same can be said the other way around as well. Does shoving an iPhone through a penis pump making it 10" constitute a new invention? We'll find out at 1pm EST today. But based on what we know (if we know anything) so far on this thing I fail to see anything innovative about increasing the size of the iPhone, giving it a new name, and tacking on another $500 bucks to it.
@Terrormaster
Well if thats how you feel, lets get really thick and ask if you drive a ford model T? Do you own a wooden fridge? Do you still run a commodore amiga?
The answer to this has got to be no
Does making something work (hopefully) better mean that we must not touch it?
@tongeuele LOL on the Model-T, I ain't THAT old and I DO drive a modern vehicle. But I did own an Amiga back in the day and it WAS innovative. And if not for the original Commodore company screwing up so bad and they'd have kept pace with technology till this day they'd have blown away anything coming out of Cupertino or Redmond. But don't get me started on that one. But the fridge thing hahaha that's just funny.
But I digress, the level of innovation between your examples and their modern counterparts however does NOT equate to the difference between the iPhone and the yet to be named Apple tablet. The difference is more akin to the difference between a Shuffle and an iPod Nano. Just a bigger badder version of the same thing. Thats not innovating, thats feeding it a low dose of steroids.
I can see this being very occupationally/Business relevent...but would a home/personal consumer want this? Get a MacBook with a keyboard, media drives, OS X... ... ...
But this would be great for the military, police, medics, hospitals, etc.
anybody got any info on release dates outside U.S?
(not sure if there are any release dates for anywhere)
Sometimes i think france must be a third world country
if it doesn't have the ability to pair a bluetooth keyboard with it OR at least use a wired usb keyboard with it...
I'm going to walk down the street and punch your mom right in the ear.
Does anyone have the download link yet for the iSlate JailBreaker? :P
i feel like singing the old monkees song ....here it comes etc.etc wow we are simply amazed ,how did we live before this new device...oh i know just like we lived before the mac air,apple tv,and motorola power pc format,and all that other overpriced proprietary crap they peddle....and in case you guys have missed it lately....the invulnerable is now so very vulnerable...security alert,security alert
1000$ is not expensive. think of the 500$ iphone launch price
How can it cost $500? A 32 GB 3gs costs $649 (199 + 450 subsidized) and this has 9 times the screen area and beefed up hardware on top of that. L2appletax
Also, stop saying that this will be used for art. There's a reason digitizers are expensive: multiple (256-1024) sensitivity levels and sub pixel accuracy. Resistive/Capacitive technology, whichever one the Apple tablet will use, only has 1 level of sensitivity (they either register the press or not) and the "accuracy" is a few pixels off.
@Dudeman If you'd read the patents you know it can detect fingers or other objects hovering over the display so it will also be able to detect tilt and velocity towards the screen.
of course it isnt going to be used for art..
its going to be used for pr0n.
Sorry, it has iPhone OS 4. But it also showed us the new interface for Maps :)
For the price, it needs to do a lot more than my ipod does, especially since it doesn't fit in my pocket.
If it has a full-featured browser (tabbed browsing, flash support, etc.) and the ability to play videos with all sorts of codecs so that I don't have to convert everything through iTunes, then maybe I can justify the price. That would allow me to use it as a laptop replacement.
Otherwise, it's a total disappointment, from my perspective.
@PF
Realize that 99% of the public doesn't know what codecs are, nor do they care about needing to play them. Why? This is because it's completely not relevant. I haven't needed anything but basic WMP on my Windows 7 install that is months old. Then again, I don't download videos from the dark recesses of the internet.
@ebgolfin Let me rephrase then. Forget about codecs. Give me the ability to play any video that I download from the dark recesses of the internet on this device. Even better, let me stream it over wifi from my computer or network connected hard drive. Don't make me convert videos in the way I have to now to get them onto my iPod. It's such a hassle to get avi and divx video files to play on an ipod, I don't do it unless I have to.
If they can't do that, then you just end up with a slab of metal and plastic that is double the cost of a netbook and yet doesn't do what a netbook can.
Interesting post Engadget. Its almost time for Apple's event and then well know the real deal :)
OK based of the patent unveiling and these pictures (you can clearly see room for the webcam in the protective casing) I can predict you this: This tablet is going to be really fun to use, you hover your finger over the display and you'll get tool pop-ups, interface pop-ups etc. so the GUI will stay clean and elegant but still very powerful. The screen's colour will be very accurate (see patents) so magazines, illustrations, photos etc. will look true to life. Thanks to the multi touch it will be very easy to use, there will be a vastly different iLife for use of multi touch, you will be able to work with snippets of audio (in GaragaBand) vastly more efficient since the tools pop-up and you have multi touch which is way more precise then a mouse and vaster (zooming, I work with audio so I know what I'm talking about). This will be used by professionals (accurate colour, speedy workflow) and enthusiasts (iPhone-like interface, easy to use). A 1000 is a lot but Apple products and esp. this tablet will be years ahead and this will appeal to a lot of people once they experience it, just like the iPhone before it.
Maybe the iTablet is just a screen extension for the iPhone? Assuming there will be an iPhoneOS update as well.
I guess it may be the camera angle, but it looks more square in the last updated photo than in the others. I really hope it isn't square.
we already have tablets. why is this such a big ass deal?
Look at the location on the map. Charlotte Am An? Charlatan????