All Articles Tagged itablet

MacRumors is reporting that, according to sources at InfoTimes, Apple is set to release a a 9.7 inch, (multi?)-touch Wintek screen netbook this October:

Because Apple will adopt touch screen technology on its netbooks, Apple will not target low-end consumers, avoiding direct competition with Acer, Asus, as well as their less-than-500-dollars netbooks. Apple’s netbook (or a “tablet” as many call it,) will probably be sold at around $800 USD each.

Does this mean a new line of MacBooks now that the 13″ has gone Pro? And what does this mean for the long-rumored large iPod/tablet form factor?

There’s been a lot of noise lately about Verizon and the iPhone. Sure, some could be wishful thinking. Some could be to manipulate the ongoing Apple/AT&T negotiations. But could there be anything more to it?

We’ve heard rumors that an iPhone nano/lite/mini could be coming, and coming to Verizon alongside an iPhone-esque iTablet/iPad.

Yesterday on MacBreak Weekly, Scott Bourne claimed a Verizon insider contacted him and told him “Verizon is getting their own iPhone and the announcement will be in June”. Sound like a WWDC 2009 “one more thing” for the ages?

This follows on our friend Duvi letting us know about a rumor posted on the CrackBerry.com forums:

It is confirmed that iphone is coming to vzw…date? Very soon…there is a training for all emp on the internal training intranet website.

Could be smoke and no fire, or it could be Verizon finally warming up the iPhone BBQ, what do you think?

Perennial Apple guestimator, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, is back in the headlines (see above) with his prognostications about an Apple iTablet, which he sees hitting market in 2010 at a price point between $500 and $700 (i.e. between the top level iPod touch and bottom level MacBook).

Apple Insider sums up the specs, which are likewise ranged: screen between 7 and 10 inches, OS between iPhone and Mac. In one interesting aside, Munster wonders if Apple would allow both a higher screen resolution into the App Store to leverage more pixels, but also let several iPhone 320×480 apps run on screen at the same time (like Mac apps do in their windowing environment). Wireless carrier subsidies, like the iPhone enjoys from AT&T are also speculated.

Our favorite line?

“In other words, we expect the end result of the expected product to be launched later but with more dramatic differentiation than the Street is expecting.”

Looks like Apple is throwing some telecommuting muscle behind their phone support, with up to 450 “At Home Experts” joining the team just in time for… Well, that’s the big question.

The time frame seems to be from July through September, which sounds a tad late for new iPhone hardware, though if Apple has something extra to announce, something that might take a couple extra months for developers to work on before release, something that does for the ultra-portable market what the iPod and iPhone did for MP3 and smartphones…

Well, then, we’d be rumormongering too. cough iTablet cough iNetbook cough.

Here’s all we do know:

Changing the world is all in a day’s work at Apple. If you love innovation, here’s your chance to make a career of it. You’ll work hard. But the job comes with more than a few perks. If fulfillment, inspiration, adventure and advancement are your kind of perks, we’d love to hear from you.

Like to be around people who love technology? Like to be around technology that loves people? Apple offers a work environment unike any other.

[...]

There’s the typical job. Punch in, push paper, punch out, repeat. Then there’s a career at Apple. Where you’re encouraged to defy routine. To explore the far reaches of the possible. To travel uncharted paths. And to be a part of something far bigger than yourself. Because around here, changing the world just comes with the job description.

What do you think?

[Cult of Mac via Ars Technica]

Yeah, this story is thin. iPod nano thin. But Wired (via MacRumors) is claiming that Apple recent Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard update gives netbooks running the software (aka Hackintoshs) a significant boost to battery life (up to 33%).

This has led to some speculation that Apple maybe — just maybe — built in better power management and other optimizations for lower end processors like the Intel Atom.

Of course, that type of speculation is but one tiny little step to yet more rumors of Apple preparing to launch a netbook-like laptop of their own (or perhaps a full own OS X iTablet).

Hope springs eternal… especially when spring is right before WWDC. TiPb’s still leaning towards a larger-screened iPod touch as being more likely, but what do you think?

Daring Fireball posted a tremendous article about how Verizon, AT&T, and Apple benefit if the rumors about an iPhone Lite and iPad media tablet on Verizon are true-ish (Gruber also looks at Apple’s iPod strategy mapped to the iPhone — go read it now, I’ll wait).

What struck me, however, was how Verizon, AT&T, and Apple benefit from the rumors themselves rather than the actual devices and/or their eventual carriers, if any.

• Apple is, according to a separate rumor, negotiating with AT&T to increase the length of their iPhone exclusivity agreement. AT&T’s last earning report showed just how important the iPhone was to their revenues, especially their new customer acquisition and premium service charges. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage with Apple, who could theoretically — if inconveniently — re-engineer the iPhone to work on any of the big 4 US carriers (CDMA for Verizon or Sprint, different GSM bands for T-Mobile). Rumors that Verizon is already talking to Apple, then, pushes AT&T over edge of disadvantage cliff. Obviously this is of great benefit to Apple.

• Verizon had what could only be termed a lackluster launch of their so-called iPhone killer, the BlackBerry Storm. With AT&T likely getting yet another mainstream hero phone this year in the form of the 3rd generation iPhone. Sprint, the other CDMA carrier, is getting the less mainstream, but still geek-anticipated Palm Pre as their hot summer hero phone. Where does that leave Verizon? The BlackBerry Tour (”Niagara”) and various HTC Touch series Windows Phones which will — eventually — be upgradable to the profoundly incremental Windows Mobile 6.5. Great gear, perhaps, but not hero phones on the same level as the iPhone or even Palm Pre (or last year’s Android G1 launch on T-Mobile). Rumors that Verizon may (soon) get an iPhone of sorts, or iPad, however, give the perception of a hero phone coming to the network. This is a huge benefit to Verizon, and might even keep some users from switching to AT&T (or Sprint) this summer to get a real device.

• Inversely, AT&T benefits not one bit from these rumors. They hurt AT&T’s negotiations with Apple and they may cost them some users who would have defected from Verizon.

We discussed this briefly last Wednesday on the iPhone Live! podcast, and no doubt others have made the same observation this week after reading the series of rumors (yes, even the one about the iPhone Lite actually being the Microsoft iPhone-Killer Pink). However, looking past the devices, it does seem like the rumors in and of themselves carry a hefty benefit for both Apple and Verizon.

Until the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks roll out in a couple years, that might be the closest we really get to seeing Apple and Verizon together.

Drop one tiny Verizon rumor pebble into the pond, and watch the iRipples spread like crazy. Cases in point:

Business Week (via MacRumors) is reporting that Apple will introduce two (2) new devices on Verizon this year:

1. iPhone “Lite”, which would be thinner and cheaper than the iPhone proper due to the system on a chip technology Apple has been amassing lately (i.e. PA Semi, Arm and PowerVR licenses, etc).
2. “Media Pad”, which would be smaller than an Amazon Kindle but with a larger screen and described as yet another breakthrough device on the scale of iPod or iPhone, with photos, HD movies, music, and Wi-Fi for — presumably browsing and — VoIP calls.

To further the rumor, one of these new toys may come as early as this summer. (WWDC time frame?)

We’re still not sure about any of this. iPhone did begin life as a larger, iTablet-like Safari Pad, and recently developer Craig Hokenberry made an interesting argument for a “Front Row To Go” pad that sounds similar.

Meanwhile, sucking the oxygen out of the lower-cost market is something Apple did with the iPod nano, however Apple has repeatedly said there’d be no iPhone nano (for whatever that’s worth…) but more importantly, unlike the GSM iPhone, a CDMA iPhone Lite or “Media Pad” wouldn’t enjoy the international portability of the iPhone (sure, “world phones” typically do some EDGE, but we’d want ultra-fast HSPA+, right?).

Just 2 years post launch, the GSM iPhone is in over 80 countries. The CDMA Amazon Kindle? Still just 1. Apples to oranges, we know, but it’s something to consider for “Media Pad” class devices.

Also covered on today’s Apple Q2 2009 financial results call were Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook’s description of netbooks, as currently on the market, having:

cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens, and just not a consumer experience… that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly.

So where does that put all the rumors about an Apple netbook being all but imminent? Either once again shoved on the back burner like the iPhone nano, or — really imminent. (Apple has a history of trash talking product spaces and denying interest right up until they launch their own offering, like video on iPods, or, you know, smartphones).

Does this mean we’ll more likely see an Apple tablet? Mac OS X or iPhone OS X based? Opinions vary but Cook gave nothing away. Instead, to costumers who might want mobile web and email, he offered this advice:

They might want to look at an iPhone or iPod touch instead.

Okay, so I’ll admit that I leave my laptop at home now and just use an iPhone far more often than I ever would have guessed I would, but as a full on mobile replacement? Is it really there yet?

And what do you see, if anything, as Apple’s now near-mythical entry into the pseudo-netbook space? One of the above, or something else entirely?

Commercial Times (via Inquirer/MacRumors) is saying Taiwan’s Foxconn — which manufacturers the iPhone — is set to do similar for Apple’s rumored… iSomething..

iTablet and iNetbook chatter has been growing almost faster than any other Apple rumor lately. While we have no reason to believe Apple will join the race-to-the-bottom, razor-thin netbook market proper, strings in iPhone 3.0 firmware revealing an iProduct to make us think something is coming. Eventually.

Meanwhile, Software Advice has posted up a nice summary of why such a device, especially if it’s an iTablet, would be a compelling offering for verticals like healthcare.

Along with the news yesterday that Steve Jobs had been particularly involved in the development of the iPhone 3.0 user interface, according to Engadget

The article also makes mention of a jumbo-sized iPod touch of sorts (an iTablet, if you will), but it’s hard to tell if that word is from these same people familiar with the matter, or if the WSJ is just picking up that perennial rumor from less reputable sources.

We think the answer to that is “both”. Apple no doubt has an iTablet in the vault deep beneath Cupertino. Indeed, the iPhone reportedly began life as the Safari Pad tablet. Steve Jobs simply hasn’t believed there’s a market for it yet. Perhaps he’s now changed his mind and Apple will finally release a modernized version very similar to a large iPod touch.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]