Apple touch-screen Netbook rumors heat up
Concept art for an Apple touch-screen Netbook.
(Credit: Gizmodo)Updated at 4:09 a.m. PDT March 10 with new information from Dow Jones Newswire. This story was originally posted at 9:44 a.m. PDT March 9.
Take this for what you will, but the Apple rumor mill is churning with word that the company has a touch-screen Netbook in the works that will hit the market in time for back-to-school sales later this year.
Citing an article by the Chinese-language Commercial Times, DigiTimes reported Monday that "Taiwan-based Wintek will supply touch panels for Apple's new Netbook, and shipments will start in the third quarter this year." DigiTimes also claimed that Quanta Computer will manufacture the new device.
Now Dow Jones Newswire has posted an updated story that expands on the DigiTimes report. "The mini laptop computers will likely have monitor screens that are between 9.7-inches and 10-inches," an unnamed source told Dow Jones. Another person added, "Other specifications and functions are still under evaluation." The report also claimed Wintek would make the touch-screen displays and Quanta would assemble the new computers.
Chiming in on the rumor, Engadget posted a mock-up of an Apple Netbook that has a keyboard. Meanwhile, Silicon Alley Reporter stuck with its earlier speculation that Apple will simply do a larger version of the iPod Touch (it's calling the device the iPod Touch HD).
Personally, I'd rather see Apple go with a more straightforward Netbook approach that simply adds some Apple design flair to 10-inch Netbooks already on the market, with three models ranging in price from $599-$799.
Of course, Apple could just bring the price down on the MacBook Air and indeed bulk up the iPod Touch to differentiate its "Netbook" from other Netbooks already flooding the market.
Thoughts?
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
now... a Giant iTouch, or ITouch... that would actually not only be cool, but innovative, it would fit perfectly into their current line-up of iTouch and iPhone, and they could even throw in the option to have a mini-PCIe port in there with sim-card slot so you could use the thing as a replacement iPhone (Wtih the headphones of course...). That, I feel, would be a very interesting idea, an 8" to 10" touch screen Netbook - would cost roughly 499 to 699 but at least it's innovative and useful enough to be worth the cost.
Problem is... it's too good an idea. They'll never do it (Prove me wrong Apple and I'll buy two.)
first, read peoples comments before bashing them. He said a cheaper Macbook air. Second, a larger itouch would not be in the price range you made up. Its a decent idea but going against the philosophy of netbooks which is to make them cheap.
You don't get it, do you? As road warrior, I want to travel light, Macbook Air is a functional computer than can be put inside a folder. I don't have room for spare batteries, If I bring extra batteries, I might as well bring a larger laptop.
Then for the 2010 model.... NVidia CPU at 810mhz with 194kb of cache. 768mb or 1gb of ram and a 1024x600 touchscreen while every other netbook now has a 1920x1080 touchscreen. They will also be running mac os XI and come with nvidia tegra graphics. They will sell for $1449 but even more people will buy them.
The finger-slide is probably the best iPhone tip I have heard ever! Thanks.
a portable touchscreen with Iphone like UI will be perfect
but all the Software and Apps needs to be re-written
I wonder how they'll address these problems
I hope they don't pull a Microcrap by using a mouse based UI and adding a touchscreen to it !
although I agree that a touchscreen only computer
may not be the best option !
but I think Apple definitely has something up their sleeve !
I'm pretty sure that it'll be a hell of a lot better than MS's lame attempt !
I bet there are plenty of people out there that can type on an iPhone faster than you type on your favorite keyboard.
Ever seen Microsoft Surface? That is Microsoft's attempt at multi-touch and it works pretty damn well. In fact it packs a hell of a lot more features than Apple's attempt a multi-touch and it did several years before the iPhone was released or a twinkle in Steve Jobs eyes. When they design a PERSONAL COMPUTER they design it to work with a mouse and keyboard because that is what the vast majority of its users use.
And I can 100% guarantee there is not a single person in the world that can type as fast on their iPhone as I can type on my keyboard. Not one single person. Not only because it is humanly impossible for your thumbs to crank out accurate typing on such a small screen at speeds of 70+ GWAM but because the iPhone lacks the processing power to input characters that quickly and accurately. I encourage you, if you own an iPhone, to type as fast as you can on the device and watch the characters lag in front of your eyes.
I own a damn iPhone. To type a period you have to press.?123 button, hit the period, then hit the ABC button again. Same thing goes for a comma. Where is the tab? Quotations marks? Other symbols? Ah yes they are deep within another menu. How quick and efficient that must be!
I agree keyboards r never going to be replaced by touchscreens !
but microsoft surface ? seriously
now thats wat I meant by lame attempt !
it looks cool but in reality it's just a gimmick and obviously is not efficient way of using a computer !
now lets look at all the tablets , another terrible attempt at touchscreen UI
and now they introduced Windows 7 another failing attempt
wat MS doesn't understand is that just adding multi-touch and a touchscreen
isn't going to help in n e way possible,
they need to re-design the entire UI not just add a few things here and there
much like the Iphone
but they r lazy and not motivated enough to do it,
look at WinMo 6.5 ? it's yet another pathetic attempt !
a honeycomb main menu ? now thats just retarded !
No, actually, to type a "period" on an iPhone, you can hit the spacebar twice. It's a real beating.
Anyway, this is missing the point. The iPhone nested keyboards are limited by screen real eastate. If the device was twice the size (much less 6-8 times the size) like a netbook, this would not be an issue, and you would get your full QWERTY setup replete with punctuation.
Why did you put "quotes" around the "word" period? It's a ******* word.
And it doesn't matter how big a touch keyboard is, it will never beat a physical keyboard. People achieve these high WPM rates by learning where the keys are and don't look and just type. Learning where the keys are would be difficult if not impossible if there is no feel to them.
And I would wish anyone seriously typing on a giant iPod Touch/iPhone the best of health and medical care. You either prop it up and have horrible hand posture or leave it flat down and have horrible back and neck posture.
Have you ever used a tablet? I'll answer it for you, NO. You have no idea what features a tablet packs and why people prefer to use it. You can MARK UP documents, sign real estate forms or any other form ON THE GO, sign emails, annotate a powerpoint, grade term papers, surf the web, write, do mathematical equations, etc. A tablet has A TON of functionality but, again, because there are no tablets from Apple it is a "gimmick." You realize that the iPhone OS is a variant of the Mac OS X???
What YOU don't understand is that there is a very small market for touch screen devices. Why in the world would Microsoft spend time building an entire operating system just for touch screen devices? They won't and shouldn't. Instead they will release an operating system designed to be used with BOTH which is what they did with Windows XP Tablet Edition, Windows Vista, and they have gone even further with Windows 7. If you had an ounce of knowledge about any of this you wouldn't make such ridiculous statements but alas this too will fall on deaf ears. You are absolutely out of your mind if you think Apple is going to release a touchscreen netbook with an entire operating system designed around it, oh wait they will it is called OS X 10.5.
(yeah, actually i'm thinking--no, hoping--that you're just kidding)
real men dont use "green" laptops either, we just hook 'em up to your balls and power our laptops that way.
and thats $299, now, microsoft, are you releasing a version of windows 7 for ARM or not?
No, they won't do copy/paste.
They'll do iCut and iPaste. It's where you personally switch back and forth between the two pages and write the information down yourself.
Perhaps it could work as it should, but must be purchased separately at the app store for $1.99 each :P
And netbooks are crappy? Right...
And now a touchscreen tablet is thinkable. I bet before you heard that Apple might make one, you were thinking that the Windows tablets were useless and unthinkable.
I think he meant Apple's netbook would be crappy. It would come with half the hardware and cost four times as much. And the battery life would suck with the big Apple bat sign, but hey, it's Apple so it will sell.
(We need a html code thing for sarcasm)
[sarcasm]i got it[/sarcasm]
[red]Now all cnet needs to do is implement bbcodes[/red]
Apple's business model has been create a cool product that "borrows" from other technology, mildly enhance it, make it looks snazzy hiding any flaws in it then sell it for $500 to $1000 more than similar items thus creating a false idea that the item is premium therefore the best on the market.
Nice try, Engadget. Just because you can Photoshop something together with a nifty faded reflection as in Apple's GUIs doesn't make it real. Apple may, indeed, be working on something small and nifty, but if anyone approves selling your mocked-up device, they will be changing careers soon.
- by john94857 March 9, 2009 5:06 PM PDT
- It's easy to see why the rumors don't go away. Apple's iTune store gives it the infrastructure and and setup to easily get into the market. In addition, the touchscreen that made iPod/iPhone popular is very suitable for an ebook device. Combining the two makes it fairly ideal for Apple to enter this market.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by Dalkorian March 10, 2009 9:04 AM PDT
- Prostituting for Amazon, spamming your website - are there ANY redeeming qualities to your post?
- Like this
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Showing 1 of 4 pages (131 Comments)I am very interested in Kindle and other ebooks, but am still waiting for these books to be DRM free. It's just so much easier and "thought-free" when I don't have to worry about DRM and how I use something. The higher the resolution, the better it is too. We are nowhere near true 300-dpi but that's a technical limitation at this point.
Speaking of DRM-free, Amazon does have an awesome MP3 store that is DRM-free with a large selection and often good prices. It would be nice if they had the same thing with books. On the note about Amazon, I recently came across an interesting table that details the discounts on Amazon.
Maybe someone will find it useful too. It is at http://www.uberi.com
This ebook space is heating up. It is very exciting!