What would be inside an Apple tablet
Speculation about a rumored Apple tablet may be an exercise in futility, but it is an interesting exercise nonetheless. In this case, my speculation will extend to what may be inside an Apple tablet.
Will the design philosophy spring from the notion of an upsized iPhone or a downsized MacBook? I believe it will be the former since this is a more natural evolution of the hardware and software. But I will entertain both options.
Because this tablet is rumored to appear in 2010, the Intel silicon possibility--however remote--is, I believe, as follows.
First scenario: Intel's in a tablet with laptop lineage. This will offer higher performance and better power savings than the current Atom processor--which is Intel's most power-stingy chip technology. Pine Trail integrates a graphics processor onto the same piece of silicon as the main processor--a first for Intel. (Intel's future "Arrandale" Core i series mobile processor, in contrast, will put the main processor and graphics into the same chip package, not onto the same chip.)
Intel's next-generation integrated graphics silicon technology is largely unknown. But tablets should deliver graphics performance that doesn't disappoint, as this is a shortcoming often brought up by critics of Netbooks.
A real tablet based on a 600MHz ARM processor: the Archos 7
(Credit: Archos)The more likely non-Intel tablet.
Second scenario: Apple's ARM silicon in an upsized iPod/iPhone. This seems a much more likely scenario than Intel silicon. The that, according to reports, runs at 600MHz. How Apple would tweak this design for a tablet is so highly speculative that I will not hazard much of a guess.
Suffice to say, inside of Apple there is more intellectual capital invested in ARM-based designs than Intel-based ones because of the and the success of the iPhone. And the fact that the iPhone's ARM processor has "Apple" stamped on it should not be overlooked.
Here's the guess that I will hazard: a faster processor analogous to Qualcomm's ARM-based 1GHz Snapdragon processor. that they had co-developed a 1GHz chip similar to the processor that currently powers the iPhone 3GS. And this is the same kind of processor that Qualcomm is targeting for , which could be either a Netbook or tablet.
Freescale's concept "smartbook" tablet
(Credit: Freescale)Graphics is less clear but U.K.-based Imagination Technologies provides the PowerVR graphics core inside the iPhone's ARM silicon. And Apple has expressed a keen interest in Imagination in the chip design firm to 9.5 percent.
And as a final thought, it is interesting to note that speculation about an Apple "iPad" has gone beyond mere individuals to . Do they know something that we don't?
Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones' Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec. 
- Silicon
-Aluminum
- Plastic
- Copper
- Assorted trace elements
- Lots of cool coding and engineering.
End of story.
Each new wonder product that comes out is great if you listen to the sales pitch about how much it will fit into your "lifestyle", until you step back from the slickly choreographed commercial and realize that you're supposed to be lugging around a laptop, a netbook, an e-book reader, a cell phone, a DVD player, a music/movie file player, a PSP/DS gaming device, and a GPS device.
Usually when you try to combine multiple devices you end up with a crappy compromise between them that does none well. A surefire way to make a ton of money would be to integrate many of these devices WELL so that they are easy to use and people can rid themselves of all the gadgets.
Forget the bazillion stupid apps--the iphone also being an ipod is a great example, because instead of a phone and an ipod you have one device. The ipod touch seems like a great device, but I'd never get one because I'd still have a separate piece of hardware as a phone.
When I get a Pre, that'll replace my phone, music player, and GPS. The perfect complement to that would be a netbook device that acts as computer, movie player, and e-book reader. I don't need a tablet that acts like a big wifi ipod touch. Make it a real computer that incorporates the other lower level features, so I can carry exactly ONE pocket-sized device, and ONE notebook sized device, and do it well enough I don't miss the other devices cluttering my life.
The netbook is meant as a replacement for the laptop since the laptop would crush most peoples laps.
The e-reader is meant specifically for reading text and making notes. In other words, a replacement for books. You only carry it those places you'd need a book.
The iPhone already replaces many different devices on your list such as the media player, the phone, the gaming device.
That leaves a DVD player. Please tell me, who carries around a portable DVD player? They exist for a very limited, niche environment which is better served by that laptop nobody can carry around.
Of course, if you simply stick with the disks that happen to include a digital form of the same movie you were planning on watching in the first place, you can skip that completely and just carry around the netbook for the moment.
That means the maximum number of devices you'd need to carry still equals 3, that's only if you don't have the foresight to further condense your devices.
It's possible to only need 1, the iPhone, for the majority of tasks.
Perhaps if you fly dozens of hours a week it might justify it, but yet again you'd be better off with a netbook.
Otherwise it's another several hundred dollar plunge to have something that will sit around useless most of the time, if you're not lugging it alongside your other gear. Tablets, like e-readers and standalone GPS, are a step backwards now that hardware is sufficiently powerful and compact to merge functions.
As I said before, focus on making usable combinations and offer people a way to simplify. Just as every new smartphone should have GPS (and eliminate the idea of a standalone GPS device), "tablets" and e-readers should simply be absorbed into netbooks.
We've already seen "instant-on" DVD capabilities added so you don't have to boot. How about a quick solid state launch for the e-reader, note-taking, and other low-level features? It seems like that would be a far better selling device than another niche product for gear-heavy people to throw in a pile.
There is no doubting the possibilities in education at all levels (although price may be a limiting factor), but as a consumer device it will probably be seen as a larger ipod touch.
With the Zune HD trumpeting 720p playback on HDTVs what about the possibility of something similar on the tablet, except on the device itself rather than just to a tv via a base station. If it is a media device this could be a useful tool, except that instead of a base station being required, it is built in to the tablet due to its larger size. The resolution of the tablet would be interesting, and I am curious, if it would be ideal for it to run iphone apps from the app store, does that mean it would need the same resolution screen as the iphone and ipod touch? Or if it runs higher res, would 2 versions of each app be required. Not really an area I understand.
For the enterprise, I think the iphone has shown what is possible when people see the possibilities in both a device and a development platform. I hope similar imagination could be applied to a tablet. Most people have been dismissive of tablets in the past, so it clearly needs imagination and acceptance to succeed.
As for the name, ipad is interesting, but as laptops have been known as macbooks and macbook pros for a few years, what about bringing the ibook name back? Perhaps a full spec model called ibook, and a cheaper version with the same hardware but less expensive industrial design and packaging called ebook for education. Just a thought.
The chip is just a standard Samsung S5PC100. It's not specific to Apple or iPhone or OS X. In fact Samsung loves to demo this chip -- decoding 720p H.264 -- on an Android dev kit.
Order any chip in large enough quantities and manufacturers will happily put any logo you wish on it. :-)
Add to this the fact that 99.999% of iPhone users will never see the guts of their device. Heck, they could put Homer Simpson's image on the chip, it still would be irrelevant.
I also believe that will run a combination of custom apps and the apps for the iPhone/touch. Even if the apps made for it were for a different resolution and native to it, could current apps not run in some sort of windowed mode. Does it really matter if that app for finding the nearest chinese buffet is in a window and not full screen. Maybe a window that is not resizable and has a 3D look edge to it, so that iPhone apps appear almost like rectangular widgets. Or that you could have them in an interface like a cover-flow window already full size and ready to use. Click the open right corner of the tablet and it slides out. Spin to the app you want and start using it instantly without waiting for it to expand out. Games would be the only thing that might not work in a window.
Could be a lot of interesting things they do with it, but i agree with rwm72 I am more interested in the target markets for the tablet. I think it could be really useful in the medical industry. Some of the first people to jump on the iPhone app train were the medical software companies and I think they would really be hot for the larger screen version for remote medical consulting systems, patient medical chart review. Heck with a larger screen, they could transfer x-rays to digital form send them to a tablet like this and do touch to zoom in on a spot on the x-ray. From anywhere, not needing one of those light boards or holding it up to a light. Doctor making rounds in a hospital could carry a tablet with all the charts in it and review them as they go, make changes and order tests or medication right through the tablet. Being tied into the hospitals system the on call doctor could constantly monitor a critical patients vitals and condition even while working with other patients.
Thats not just for an Apple tablet though, it could be made by anyone, just as long as they drop the conventional computer mindset and make it more like a touch and less like what others have offered up to now. They always seem to want to shoehorn a laptop into a tablet when it doesn't really need to be all that, keep it simple, clean and light, doesn't need to run a full blown windows and office 2007 programs. The simpler, lighter and more connected that better.
As for not needing full blown office programs, I agree. But there is a proliferation of lighter office software that could potentially run very well, like Google docs, Open Office and perhaps light versions of MS Office in 2010. The larger screen could make it ideal as a second office device. The key is versatility. Some will see it is a cool netbook like device, others an ideal media and consumer device. But the imagination and potential point of differentiation could really come in the enterprise... if they are willing to embrace it. I certainly hope medical and educational institutions are among the first to realise this, and it gets their creative juices flowing... if it gets made of course :)
It should be a scaled down macbook with either the new Atom or a C2D ULV. IT will run full snow leopard with perhaps the ability to run iPhone apps built into a smart dock/menu.
iPhones don't run OSX it all a marketing ploy, if iPhones can't run full OSX apps then it is a meaningless designation and Apple themselves call it iPhone OS. Jeeze people swallow any nonsense Microsoft originally based CE from Windows and that eventually became Windows Phone.
I'm hoping Apple will be smart enough to build in one of those new smart screens with full colour LCD or e-ink at the flick of a switch.
They will not release something that cannot use the Appstore
ARM!
And ants sorting very small screws.
http://fredpollack.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/tech-tablets-apple-et-al/
So many complaints about the the Mac. So many complaints about their laptops. So many complaints about the OS. So many complaints about the iPhone/iPod. So many complaints about Apple demanding "complete control" over their products.
Yet people still buy them in droves; their retails stores are prospering better than Tiffany's; and universities are pushing Apple products for the next generation.
All the while, Apple is making a fortune, and the best their nominal competitors can hope for is that they'll be the next (Apple product) "killer."
Get over it.
Before the flame war starts, remember that these companies don't have a very big market share and are very limited on their programing dollars. Personally, I would love to get rid of Motion Tablets in favor of an Apple product. Better yet would be my EMR, PACS and other apps on Firefox!
My Top Reasons why:
http://www.wanderbook.com/blog/iphone/top-7-reasons-why-an-ipad-makes-sense
- by wadesisco August 24, 2009 8:20 AM PDT
- What if the iTouchPad has a built in projector?
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