[NTLK] The Apple Tablet (aka iNewt) saga, part 4,037,862

[Ryan Vetter]

Hi:

With all of the heat on the Blogs, and now with some industry pundits coming out, saying that an Apple Tablet is imminent... this might be happening.

Now, just today, the Wall Street Journal came out with a story that Apple will ship a Tablet in March.  Looking at some of the rumors out there about Apple hosting a special event on 25/26/27 January at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco for a new product announcement, the release of an Apple tablet this year seems real.

Of course I can't say for sure, but all of us in the Newton community... this could be our month.  We may finally be here.  A Newton II.  How many years has it been?  We've all been waiting for this.  Let's hope it's everything we think it could be and more.

>From my perspective, this is what I think of all of the rumors and mush on the Internet about an Apple Tablet.  Let's start with the facts.  Apple has been working on a modern tablet for several years, and the iPhone... the iPhone OS, is a derivative of that work.  So if they do come out with a tablet, it will likely be multi-touch.

What will it do?  eBooks, eNewspapers, movies, TV shows, web surfing... For more power users like perhaps ourselves, we'll find more uses for it, like graphic design.  But from what I have seen in the media, Apple is going to push eBooks and ePeriodicals using iTunes as the springboard, and that content will be multi-touch optimized.  This is quite exciting per se.

But what will it look like?  I might eat my words here, but I doubt it will be a "Giant iPod Touch".  To me that would seem like an ugly design, and I don't think Apple will do that.  But what about all the rumors out there, even from people who have seen an "Apple Tablet", and said it was a giant iPod Touch?  If indeed it was something from Apple, I'm convinced it was just a prototype, and will be nothing like what they ship to customers.

Also, this has been a ~6 year endeavour, so I doubt that they would just recycle a design they have been using on their iPod/iPhone.  This should have a very unique design, something all to its own.

The final product will be very thin and light, maybe aluminum, but probably polycarbonate.  Aluminum conducts heat too much so not good for holding in ones hands.  If they go with polycarbonate, it will likely be white.  With a rumored 10 or 11 inch screen, it will have accelerometers for portrait/landscape modes.  I think they will go with the bigger 11 inch screen.  Since I don't know the final design, what I am really curious about is whether they will build in a stand or not.  I highlighted in a article past about how important a stand will be on a device of this size.  

The screen... I don't think we are going to get a stylus, as much as some of us want that.  It looks like Apple is really going to push multi-touch and entertainment on this device.  So it won't be optimized for productivity, which means no stylus, after market stuff permitting, of course.  The screen would then be of the same or like material as the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Although, that hybrid screen from Pixel Qi is groundbreaking, and would be pretty cool on Apple's Tablet.  Yet, I don't think it's refined enough for Apple, so they will stick with an LED, capacitive screen.

I also think it will have it's own OS, although, of course, I could be wrong.  I say that on the pre-tense of a former Apple employee recently discussing the Tablet software, and the implication is that it will have its own OS.

And while I want to say it will have a lower power Core 2 Duo processor, comments from a former Apple employee led me to think otherwise.  Also, the fact that Apple has been working on their own mobile processors in house (with their purchase of PA Semi to pluck talent, and the fact that there is strong evidence to suggest that they are ARM licensees), might mean that this Tablet will have a brand new, customized, mobile processor and mobile GPU designed by Apple, based on ARM architecture.  Might even be a dual core ARM chip.

So it will likely have an ARM chip, but something more powerful and custom made for a multi-touch OS X.

Here is my prediction (I'm hungry, so I don't mind eating my words on 27 January ;)

-11 inch screen (glass; LED; capacitive - 1280 x 800)
-Sleek, thin, white, polycarbonate case, with rounded edges and built in handle on back; the screen bezel just wide enough to accommodate a set of hands
-Custom, 1.6 GHz + Dual Core ARM Cortex-A8 Derivative processor with HD capability
-2 GB RAM
-64 GB SSD
-Custom, Multi-touch OS X
-Lithium Polymer Battery built in (solid 6 hours + battery life)
-IO: 3G modem (maybe); Bluetooth; Wireless N; 1 USB port; Mini Display Port; audio line in/out
-~3 lbs.
-35 watt AC Adapter
-Comes with free subscription to Time Magazine for 6 months, as well as a neoprene case
-Software: on custom multi-touch OS X: mobile Mail app; mobile Safari app; mobile iTunes app, etc. all customized for 
multi-touch

Here is a link to the WSJ article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904574638630584151614.html

Ryan


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