All Articles Tagged itablet

AppleInsider has found yet another multi-touch patent application, this one expanding on Apple’s already massive portfolio to include the ability to recognize which finger is touching, distinguish between palms and fingers, and enable all manner of restin

unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device

Check out the full article for more, and let us know if you think this is more fuel for the iTablet hype machine, or if Apple could have something else up their sleeve?

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Yes, the iTablet rumors just keep on coming, with the latest from Gizmodo being that Apple is in talks with traditional print publishers — text books, newspapers, and magazines, to redefine their industry they way they have music (and are trying to do with video).

Two people related to the NYTimes have separately told me that in June, paper was approached by Apple to talk about putting the paper on a “new device.” [...] A person close to a VP in textbook publishing mentioned to me in July that McGraw Hill and Oberlin Press are working with Apple to move textbooks to iTunes.[...] Apple also recently had several executives from one of the largest magazine groups at their Cupertino’s campus, where they were asked to present their ideas on the future of publishing.

Why?

The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video, interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft’s Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static e-ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it’ll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.

Gizmodo is also backing the rumored January announce date. What remains uncertain is, of course, the market for next generation print media. The Kindle was recently, and very publicly, panned by Princeton students as being unusable. Apple will have the benefit of the existing iTunes and iPhone ecosystem to fall back on, and buy them time — people can browse the web, listen to music, watch videos on the iTablet — but they’ll have to present a much more usable solution to get that print dinosaur cyberized for the next millennium.

Apple might be preparing a 10.7″ multi-touch iTablet with 720p resolution, running the iPhone OS, for announcement in January and release in May/June 2010. That’s just one of the rumors dropped by iLounge this morning, from a source they say was accurate about the most recent iPod nano, iPhone, and Chinese iPhone stories.

Like the iPhone and the iPod touch, iLounge’s source claims both a 3G and non-3G version will be available, so users can weigh always-on connectivity vs. another monthly telco bill.

Apple is no stranger to big product announcements in January, but since exiting Macworld, they’re also now free to set their own schedule. Possible delays? Odds of it receiving the official “b’okay” from Steve Jobs in its current form are said to be 80% (after it already being nixed at 7″ for being “too small”). That’s good, but far from certain.

Also far from certain, but certainly interesting is Microsoft’s equal and opposite tablet concept — the Courier, which focuses not on media but on journaling. Gizmodo has another video up. It reminds us of those awesome, future-filled Bill Gates keynotes from CES. Most of what Gates demoed hasn’t made it to market, however. Hopefully the Courier will fare better.

People are used to phones, they’re used to MP3 players, laptops, desktops, even set top boxes. A decade later, there’s no indication of tablets breaking through into the mainstream, so Apple, Microsoft, and everyone else has their work cut out for them.

We’ll see if the iTablet can tell a compelling enough story, and offer a feature set that sells.

Apple has hired Michael Tchao as Vice-President of Product Marketing reporting directly to Senior Vice-President, Phil Schiller. What’s noticeable about this new hire, however, is that Tchao has worked for Apple before — he’s one of the original developers of Apple’s Newton message pad.

Apple, Tchao, and all involved are being mum on what Tchao’s specific roll at Apple will be, but rampant internet speculation has, of course, gone something like “ZOMG! iTablet!”

[New York Times, Photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/]

While everyone is waiting on Apple to unveil their universally rumored iTablet/iPad device next year, Gizmodo has just scored the scoop on what Microsoft just might be planning to counter it — the “Courier” tablet.

Decidedly un-Apple in it’s approach, with dual booklet screens, pen and touch input, and feel that’s all organized chaos, it’s also strikingly different to Microsoft’s previous Tablet PC efforts (which were largely tweaked versions of XP and then Vista). Here’s why:

Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft’s brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J. Allard, who’s spearheading the project. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.

Head on over to Gizmodo to see a video of the concept in action (not iPhone friendly, sorry). Then come back here, tell us what you like and don’t like, and let us know how you think Apple’s take on the tablet will differ.

iTablet rumors, paused for a week to allow some Apple Music Event rumors, are returning full force with a fresh batch straight from Taiwanese suppliers, who say the device will launch in February 2010. According to Taiwan Economic News:

The tablet PC features a 9.6-inch screen, finger-touch function and built-in HSPDA (high speed download packet access) module, and adopts a P.A. SEMI processor chip and long lasting battery pack, selling for between US$799 and US$999.

Given that Apple has a fairly regular product calendar, with iPhone OS Beta in March, WWDC and iPhone release in June, iTunes and iPod in September, and Mac events scattered in-between when new designs are ready, and especially considering Macworld in January is no longer on Apple’s calendar, but we’ve all gotten used to giant product events at the beginning of the year… a February date makes some sense.

Not being locked to Macworld also means no firm date for the rumored release, so Apple can wait until the last minute and, venue availability not withstanding, hold it whenever the product is ready. Meaning, even if the February rumor is solid now, it’s a moving target.

As to the specs, sounds like the rumors we’ve heard to date, though HSPDA does conflict with previous Verizon rumors (which still runs EVDO rev-A). It would be nice to finally see those Apple-spun PA Semi systems on a chip, however…

Enough of our rumor ruminations, what do you think? Sound plausible?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

With Apple consolidating its Apple TV offerings this morning down to a single 160GB SKU at a lower $229 price point, we’re once again split between Apple axing their “hobby” or giving it a much-needed refresh.

If Apple does axe the Apple TV, however, something would need to take its place in the living room. Could that something be the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 and the still-mythic iTablet? Dock them properly to an HD TV, and could you have a solution with one heck of a built in controller?

We know the iPhone (and likely new iPod touch) can support 720p and 1080p out. We even hoped Apple would flip the switch on that feature last week in order to better position themselves competitively against the about-to-ship Zune HD. They could still flip it at some point, however, along with introducing new HDMI-based video output cables.

This would go a long way towards showing iPhone and iPod touch content on the big screen, but right now one of the Apple TV’s strengths is streaming rather than just storing and showing. You can attach an Apple TV to your HD TV and, without any local content, stream all the iTunes media you have on your Mac or Windows PC, and the potentially 2TB drives that can now attach to those (or more with RAID, Drobo, etc.)

Neither iPhone nor iPod have ethernet, and both are stuck on the older, slower 802.11g Wi-Fi standard (though the iPod touch G3 might be updatable to 802.11n).

That’s where an iTablet, presumably with much beefier internals and faster Wi-Fi (though we still doubt ethernet) comes in. Apple could position it as a dock-at-home, take it with you on-the-go solution.

Of course, whether you’d want to lock your iTablet to a TV rather than using it to surf and chat while watching TV is debatable, and could be a deal-breaker for many. Though better that than just trying to up-sell everyone to a Mac Mini…

Looking at it this way, it seems that even in an iPhone, iPod touch, and perhaps iTablet world, there’s still a place for an Apple TV in the lineup. If only for now.

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Rumors of an iTablet continue to gain steam while Apple boasts a metric ton of refinements for their new Mac OS X Snow Leopard release, including better performance and smaller footprint, then goes and adds a new virtual keyboard that just begs to be touched…

…Ah, yeah, here come the Mac OS X Snow Leopard on iTablet stories!

9to5Mac leads this latest charge with the keyboard while Cult of Mac points also to the new Dock Expose, and all new, all-touchable Stacks grid. (See Apple’s feature overview).

So, could Apple be making a Mac OS X iTablet, or is your money still on an iPhone OS X iTablet? Or could they really be making both?