More evidence of Apple's nonexistent tablet surfaces
I don't remember hearing so much talk over a product that nobody has even seen, but the scuttlebutt continues, this time from Australia.
Apple is reportedly shopping its rumored tablet to media companies in Australia to gauge interest in having their products available on the device when its released, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. While specifications of the device were reportedly sent to the companies, nobody would confirm it on the record.
One thing to come out of the Australian talks that we haven't heard before focuses on pricing, and more importantly for the media companies, how much they will get to keep.
The Herald says that it expects Apple to give the media companies a similar price offered to iPhone app developers. Apple keeps 30 percent of the sales and the media companies would pocket 70 percent.
If true, that would be a significant raise for the media companies over what Amazon was offering the companies to have its content available for the Kindle. Amazon's deal was reportedly exactly the opposite--70 percent would go to Amazon, while 30 percent would stay with the publishers.
On Monday, news from an off-the-record meeting with the digital staff of The New York Times revealed that Executive Editor Bill Keller may have knowledge of Apple's tablet as he was preparing the company for platforms of the future, including the "impending Apple slate."
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple. 
That's because you and the other tech journalists wont shut the hell up about it.
Slow day, huh?
http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook
It's a Mac (Macbook) that is a tablet I'm using it right now to write this post. Why is It that Apple needs to compete against supportive 3rd products? Why is it that Mac fanatics don't care if what they're waiting for exists but only it's sold by Apple ?
I too am the lucky owner of a Modbook however its limitations are great and its price is high. It is not a device I would recommend to anyone unless they absolutely have to have the portability because a Wacom Cintiq 21 inch is a far better drawing solution and a bigger screen for less money.
But the Apple Tablet if it is iPhone OS based and runs Layers, Brushes, or Sketchbook, will quickly replace the Modbook for me as an artist. On top of that is is likely to be a great e-reader and have many other functions.
There are many reasons that many of us will be happy to dump the Modbook. For a start Axiotron support is lousy and slow compared to Apple, the software is buggy, the viewing angle is poor, the digitizer does not work well with Windows programs, and it is expensive and heavy.
The reason there is so much expectation and rumor here is that the basic concept of a tablet is brilliant and fits a lot of real life situations but until now nobody (including Axiotron) have been able to get it right. It is like when mp3 players already existed but Apple worked out how to do it so that it became likable and useful for everyone. They did it with the iPod, they did it with the iPhone, and now we all have our fingers crossed that they can do it with the tablet as well.
The primary way to find out Apple's next steps has been by leaks ( few), quotes by people in the know (Walt Mossberg etc.). So, for those of interested in an Apple product, this article makes sense.
The reasons for journalists to talk of things unseen is because Apple changes the game - which, guessing from your and marcJacobs's comments, you have not observed.
The iPhone/iPod touch can be operated with one hand and fits in your pocket. The phantom tablet would not.
I've tried a number of e-reader apps on my iPod touch and I find the whole experience on the puny screen to be lacking, the same way that I wouldn't want to watch a full-length movie on my iPod touch's 3.5" screen.
With the emergence of the Barnes & Noble e-reader, there is evidence that the e-reader market is growing. The biggest issues will probably be battery capacity and legibility under full sunlight. Will it be enough to get me to want to buy one? Probably not, but it doesn't matter. It's about the overall consumer marketplace, not just my individual opinion.
If Apple thinks there is a market for a tablet, I hope they're right because I want them to increase shareholder value (I own AAPL stock).
Get a clue and write about something that actually exists,.. please?
They did the same thing with the iPhone before it existed. So? Would you have preferred not hear about it till it did? (if so, then go to another web site)
I am interested in this, partly because as a software developer, I don't want to be blindsided by a new product that I didn't anticipate. I might have an idea for a tablet application that I might want to get a head start on if I think it is likely there will be a popular tablet soon. Same goes for people in various other parts of the computer industry.
But if you aren't interested, if you don't want to hear speculation on future products, why are you here?
I also expeculate that Jimbo is the infamous travelocity gnome by night!!! :+P
arrivederchi mother%#@$
http://phandroid.com/2009/07/13/black-sony-ericsson-rachaelxperia-pictures/
No, wait... I know what they`re called!....
PHONES
little bit of difference between a tablet and a phone Copernicus
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/10/android_20_chan.html;jsessionid=KWKSJLNCJ1UTVQE1GHPCKH4ATMY32JVN
The HTC Passion is also rumored to be powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, like the HTC HD2. It would then join the ranks of other Android phones like the Sony Ericsson Rachael and Acer Liquid as far as processor type is concerned. There's also a good reason to believe that the HTC Passion will offer Sense UI coupled with a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen with a WVGA resolution, just like the HTC HD2.
If anyone but Apple behaved this way, they would be condemned for misusing the media.
They could let the movie companies and networks take the big chunk of the pie and be satisfied with the high margin profits from the tablet. Maybe they will land some deals where they get exclusive digital sales for the proposed purchase only period that the press has been writing about lately.
I posted way back when the rumors of an Apple tablet first started in this spring that my wife was very interested in a media tablet that was bigger than the iPhone/Touch but was most deffinitely NOT a big tablet that you would run office type applications on.
She wants a media player with WiFi, no need for 3G or a phone, that plays videos and music, surfs the webs, and plays simple games like MSN type casual games ( peggle, luxor, dinner dash etc.) and has the ease of use and store to buy apps or media that Apple has. She actually wants something the size of a DVD case in dimensions, not something with a 10.1" screen, no camera, no ability to run office or standard desktop type applications, no video input or output connections.
She doesn't care if its made by Apple or someone else as long as it is high quality, has long battery life and has access to a lot of content. She just wants something that she can plop down anywhere around the house, on the couch, on the patio, in the kitchen or laundry room and still keep watching it while she does house work, keeps an eye on the youngest kids in the bath or watches the kids play in the back yard. We have no Apple products now so it could be made by anyone.
She does not want a laptop or a tablet with laptop functionality, I tried to buy her a laptop once but she thinks they are way too big and awkward to use, same with netbooks. She wants a single purpose device for streaming media from the web or from our home network.
Winner.
examples are:
1) A tablet of that thinness would (practically) shatter if you dropped it; and giving it a tougher shell would make it heavier and give it less room for decent hardware
2) And likewise with the screen, they have the choice of either a strong, scratch resistant screen, or an easy to use and finger friendly (touch)screen. One or the other.
Don't get me wrong, it looks like a nice idea. But the longer it's out, the more people will think deeper about it.
Could that have been an early Apple tablet?
For people looking for one place to find all the up-to-date info on the Apple tablet, check out http://appletouchtablet.blogspot.com/
- by reloohcs1 October 31, 2009 3:35 PM PDT
- Blog about the Apple tablet at www.islate.org
- Like this Reply to this comment
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