[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally Posted by dedalus 

I really think we ought to get past the typing obsession. The future is about gestures, moving on towards ocular tracking and, ultimately, telepathy. Seriously, typing? WTF?

How are you going to post on MacNN without typing? Your would have to be a webcam video of you actually rolling your eyes... barbaric

[Spheric Harlot]

Yeah! And what about your e-penis? Huh?

That would have to be a … ugh

[dedalus]

l am not typing this, I’m using Ink (mostly). Besides, if the iSight in front of me did what it was meant to do properly, it could see what l was looking at and adjust to it, the same way Universal Access compensates for other disabilities.

[imitchellg5]

Well I'm relieved to know that you are so far ahead of the rest of us with your input methods

[dedalus]

Nice to be appreciated.

[Uncle Skeleton]

How many words a minute can you input with Ink? Do you need a stylus?

[macfantn]

this sounds pretty official

Apple Tablet or iSlate Unofficial Spec | iPhone Killer

[Uncle Skeleton]

fake

[slugslugslug]

Originally Posted by macfantn 

this sounds pretty official

Apple Tablet or iSlate Unofficial Spec | iPhone Killer

You’re not serious, right?

[turtle777]

Would be nice though

Build-in projector ? Hell yeah!

-t

[freudling]

Having done a lot of research, here is what I think the Apple Tablet will be:

-White, polycarbonate
-11 inch, 1280x800 screen (capacitive LED) - glass
-Custom Multi-Touch OS X, with lots of new gestures to navigate the system and use the apps
-Custom ARM Cortex-A8 1.6 GHZ Dual Core with HD playback
-Under 3 lbs.
-6 hour built-in Lithium Polymer battery
-Custom Multi-Touch Apps (iTunes, Mail, etc.)
-Backend subscription services (i.e. Multi-Touch optimized pubs like Time Magazine)
-IO: Bluetooth, Wireless N, Mini Display Port, 1 USB port, and, audio line in/out
-35 watt AC Adapter
-iSight camera
-Comes with neoprene case

This will not be a giant iPod Touch - those are only prototypes that people have seen, if in fact they are being truthful regarding seeing an actual Apple product. It will have its own unique design, and likely sport a built in handle on the back for propping it up on a flat surface. Probably no 3G connectivity though.

[imitchellg5]

I could see some of that but white polycarbonate? Neoprene case? Nooooo.

[freudling]

What's wrong with a white polycarbonate case? It makes sense. They use it on the MacBook already, and it's all that's left: the rest is aluminum. I see white, not black, and I see polycarbonate, not aluminum, because aluminum conducts too much heat...

[ajprice]

Yep I can see it being a polycarbonate unibody. It wouldn't make sense to have the slate in aluminium like a Macbook Pro, when its cheaper than a Macbook. I imagine it as a small scale version of the iMac screen section or LED Cinema Display , white or black with a glass panel flush over the front. Polished metal like an iPod back would be hell for scratches and fingerprints.

[slugslugslug]

Hm:

Microsoft and H.P. To Reveal Slate PC Ahead of Apple - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by freudling 

What's wrong with a white polycarbonate case? It makes sense. They use it on the MacBook already, and it's all that's left: the rest is aluminum. I see white, not black, and I see polycarbonate, not aluminum, because aluminum conducts too much heat...

If they have two different trim levels, I could see polycarbonate, but I would think they'd go for Al.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by slugslugslug 

Hm:

Microsoft and H.P. To Reveal Slate PC Ahead of Apple - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

The slate will be made by Hewlett-Packard and possibly available by mid-year.



Monkeyboy, that's all you got ? Lame.

-t

[Love Calm Quiet]

Wow. Great idea: use the suave and inspired Ballmer to announce pre-emptive strike with vaporware.
Steve will be so unnerved, he'll float off the stage in his own perspiration with his iTablet later this month.

[freudling]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

If they have two different trim levels, I could see polycarbonate, but I would think they'd go for Al.

No way, they would never use aluminum for the tablet's casing. I'll bet you $100 via PayPal they don't go with aluminum.

My reasoning:

Aluminum, firstly, gets way too hot. It's not a good material for a tablet that will be held with hands/resting on a lap. The opposite is also true: it gets really cold when the ambient temperature around it is cold. In short, it's a poor material choice for a tablet computer.

Second, aluminum is prone to scratching and dents. Polycarbonate is also prone to scratching, but in off white it's harder to tell. Scratch the silver paint on an aluminum case and it shows. With the dents, in order to mitigate that, another material is in order. Since a tablet will be thrown around, put in many different positions, be more mobile than a laptop... polycarbonate is a better choice.

Thus, since polycarbonate is a more durable, robust material than aluminum, it is more fitting for a tablet computer.

I think they are still playing with the materials, but something tells me they might shoot some rubber on it, like the Clamshell iBook had. That makes sense: some grip when holding it or placing it down on flat surfaces. That rubber may wrap around the back and come up around the sides of the tablet. This way, when holding it, or when propping it up on a flat surface, it will have some grip, and not slide all over the place.

With aluminum, the "bottom" - the part of the tablet that rests on the surface when, say, you want to watch a movie, or use it as a screen with a bluetooth keyboard... that part would be scratched and dented in no time...

No, they won't go with aluminum... if I have to eat my words, I will, but I am 99% sure they won't. The only way they might do aluminum is if they really wrap most of it in rubber, like the Sony eReader PRS-600. But I don't think they will do this. We'll get unibody polycarbonate with a rubber wrap.

[imitchellg5]

I understand the reasoning for polycarbonate, I really do. I just think Apple will have found a way to use Al or a similar finish without heat being an issue. Also, they've gotten to the point where, for the MBP at least, the finish is very durable.

[slugslugslug]

I don’t want to sound like one of these people that thinks Apple are infallible miracle workers, but seriously:

• A few years ago, everyone was introducing Tablet PCs. They’re still around, folks buy ’em here and there, but they weren’t the laptop successor like people predicted.
• Few years later, lots of hype about UMPCs. A few models came out, nobody cared. I think maybe Samsung still updates their line (but I don't really care either)
• Apple makes the iPhone. The smartphone market finally gets interesting.

What I’m getting at: after those failures to come up with a clever new mobile computing form factor, why are these people bothering to try something novel again? And partnering with Microsoft? Why not just wait for The Tablet to come out and see if you can build on what Apple brings to the table?

[freudling]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

I understand the reasoning for polycarbonate, I really do. I just think Apple will have found a way to use Al or a similar finish without heat being an issue. Also, they've gotten to the point where, for the MBP at least, the finish is very durable.

Actually, I am looking at my Mac Mini and I think they might grip some of that casing design. It's polycarbonate on the top, with a shot of rubber on the bottom. As I stated, I don't think the case will be aluminum. Rather, unibody polycarbonate in white.

Let's wait and see...

As for the utility of an Apple Tablet, I have no doubt it will be high. I am someone who is committed to the Newton and, more recently, the eInk Readers. I have a Sony PRS-600 eBook Reader and love reading on it. I'm certainly tablet ready. What Apple's tablet will do is bring the Tablet to the masses. It's the design and the multi-touch that will make it take off.

2010 is the year of the Tablet. It's going to be a huge year. The Hearst Skiff, the Apple Tablet and the Plastic Logic Reader (Que Reader). These latter will set the pace for Tablets. Within a few years, eInk Tablets will be flexible (screen + casing), with full color, high resolution/backlight. And all will have touchscreens.

I just wonder if Apple's Tablet will evolve into using the latest high resolution, backlit, color eInk screens when they become perfected. By the way, Pixel Qi is pretty much shipping their backlit, color eInk screens now.

[mattyb]

Originally Posted by dedalus 

I really think we ought to get past the typing obsession. The future is about gestures, moving on towards ocular tracking and, ultimately, telepathy. Seriously, typing? WTF?

I don't know of any other medium that would allow a human being to create the lines in the quote above as quickly. Except for expert shorthand writers, typing is the fastest thing around.

And why would I need an Apple tablet if I could perform telepathy?

[dedalus]

Who actually needs to physically enter 50+ words per minute? Data entry clerks, people who take dictation, and court reporters. All these middle‑man jobs are facing extinction due to advancing OCR and speech recognition technology.

And it’s not you who would be performing TP, it’s the device.

We have Dragon Dictation today. I have no doubt whatsoever that soon we will have microphones that record subvocalised speech. Thoughts after that.

[mattyb]

All your ideas will come to fruition just after we have the paperless office.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by dedalus 

We have Dragon Dictation today. I have no doubt whatsoever that soon we will have microphones that record subvocalised speech. Thoughts after that.

Probably too dangerous in an office setting. What if one's thoughts are not "safe for work"?

[MrsLarry]

If I had to listen to everyone in the cubes around me speak what they otherwise would be typing, I'd start throwing my furniture.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by MrsLarry 

If I had to listen to everyone in the cubes around me speak what they otherwise would be typing, I'd start throwing my furniture.

Not to mention that for those of us whose jobs consist, at least partially, of talking on the phone and simultaneously writing down summaries of the conversations in logs, our log notes would become fairly … well … gibberish.

[turtle777]

Yes, and how do you deal with situations where you tell the person "Excellent idea, we should implement this soon", but in your notes, you mean to write "F**king moron, that idiot should be fired !!1!1one".

Can Dragon Dictation do that ?

-t

[dedalus]

I know this sounds arrogant, and I am genuinely sorry, but it is possible to compartmentalise your thoughts to service these particular needs, as well as others.

I am hoping Apple will continue to assist us in furthering this line of human development. (Actually, I am sure they will.)

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by dedalus 

I know this sounds arrogant, and I am genuinely sorry, but it is possible to compartmentalise your thoughts to service these particular needs, as well as others.

I am hoping Apple will continue to assist us in furthering this line of human development. (Actually, I am sure they will.)

Excellent idea, we should implement this soon

-t

[lpkmckenna]

Lenovo is soon to release a laptop with a removable screen that become a tablet. By itself, the tablet is Linux-powered, plugged into the laptop, it becomes Windows-powered. Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid hands-on and impressions -- Engadget

Maybe Apple's tablet is more like that. The major components are behind the screen, but plug in the base and you now have keyboard and trackpad?

After all, don't you need some kind of cover for the screen? I don't want to carry around a 10" screen without a cover, so why not add a keyboard to the inside cover?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Lenovo is soon to release a laptop with a removable screen that become a tablet. By itself, the tablet is Linux-powered, plugged into the laptop, it becomes Windows-powered. Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid hands-on and impressions -- Engadget

How does that work ?

Two partitions and OSes simultaneously booted up and running parallel ?

-t

[ajprice]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

How does that work ?

Two partitions and OSes simultaneously booted up and running parallel ?

-t

This explains it more - Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid notebook/tablet hands-on - SlashGear

The base of the computer has a Core2Duo CULV chip and a 128GB SSD running Windows 7, the detachable tablet has a Qualcom Snapdragon ARM processor, 16GB of flash memory, and a custom touch screen version of a Linux OS. Files have to be on both the SSD and the flash memory to be accessible in both modes, and because one is Windows and the other is Linux, you won't be running the same apps on both parts to open those files. They must have been smoking the good stuff when they came up with that .

[The Final Dakar]

It's like the Batmobile with a motorbike in it.

[Laminar]

Best. Analogy. Ever.

[EndlessMac]

What I find funny about all this tablet talk is that the tablet was introduced before without much success, but now that Apple has been rumored to have a tablet of their own there is this sudden craze for tablets. It just shows how influential Apple is. This time instead of being late to copy Apple we are seeing others trying to "copy" Apple before Apple even releases theirs.

I'm hoping that Apple releases the better mouse trap instead of a tablet and really shock the world with its announcement. The tablet seems to be such a niche market so I guess we will see how well it will do once we get final production devices out. To me it seems like such a small market for so much competition already announced, but who knows maybe this year will be the year of the tablet. I know I won't buy one if it's too expensive and if it's basically an over sized iPhone with a few extras. The tablets that have been announced so far don't seem to be much more than an over sized iPhone to me and the iPhone is much more portable.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by EndlessMac 

What I find funny about all this tablet talk is that the tablet was introduced before without much success, but now that Apple has been rumored to have a tablet of their own there is this sudden craze for tablets. It just shows how influential Apple is. This time instead of being late to copy Apple we are seeing others trying to "copy" Apple before Apple even releases theirs.

I don't completely agree.

The tradition tablet PC is dead (i.e., was never alive).

However, the recent success of e-reader tablets is NOT something that Apple invented or pushed.

However, Apple realizes that having a tablet in b/w just for reading books, w/o good multimedia functions, is a dead end. So they are going to set a new standard (once again, like with the iPod and iPhone) for non-PC multimedia tablets.

-t

[EndlessMac]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

The tradition tablet PC is dead (i.e., was never alive).

I know. My post was more tongue-in-cheek rather than something that should be taken seriously.

Originally Posted by turtle777 

However, the recent success of e-reader tablets is NOT something that Apple invented or pushed.

Yes, but it is pretty coincidental that just about everyone is announcing theirs now when Apple is also rumored to announced theirs.

[Eug]

So, despite all these posts, I still don't have a frickin' clue as to why I might want an iTablet. Maybe I'm just dense.

Originally Posted by dedalus 

I know this sounds arrogant, and I am genuinely sorry, but it is possible to compartmentalise your thoughts to service these particular needs, as well as others.

I am hoping Apple will continue to assist us in furthering this line of human development. (Actually, I am sure they will.)

We actually use Dragon in our dept. Dragon has very compartmentalized usage, that much is correct. However, if I had to choose between typing only and Dragon only, typing would win every time. Way too many issues with depending upon Dragon alone at this time.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Eug 

So, despite all these posts, I still don't have a frickin' clue as to why I might want an iTablet. Maybe I'm just dense.

I would buy one.

Here's my use: I travel a lot on company business to overseas, and need to bring my company PC with me.
I would never bring along a second laptop (like a MBP).

I would, however, bring along the iSlate, because it wouldn't use up much space, and I could do all kinds of stuff during the flight on it. For travel, it (hopefully) will be perfect.

-t

[olePigeon]

Anyone think the device will have Light Peak? I'm just gonna throw that in there with all the speculation.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Anyone think the device will have Light Peak? I'm just gonna throw that in there with all the speculation.

I doubt it. That's a pro technology that we'll see in Mac Pros first.

The cost of the device is going to be high enough, I don't think Apple can afford new things like that.

-t

[slugslugslug]

I don’t know if it’s so obvious that Light Peak will be in Mac Pros first. If Apple’s really been heavily involved in the development, I bet they’ll push it hard, making it available across the whole Mac lineup within a few months of its debut. And it wouldn’t surprise me if it they put it in something more popular than the MP, like the iMac or 13-inch MBP.

But that’s getting off topic: I totally agree that it’s not gonna be in the first iteration of the The Tablet, if it ever shows up there.

I am really curious if it’ll have any I/O besides a 30-pin iPod connector and a headphone jack. Some kind of video out might be nice, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they relegated that to a 30-pin adapter.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by slugslugslug 

Some kind of video out might be nice...

That's what an Apple TV is for.

[slugslugslug]

I don’t want an Apple TV, though I suppose I might reconsider if it had Netflix, or generally ways to get movies from sources other than Apple, but I don’t imagine that’s coming any time soon.

OTOH, I guess if the Miracle Slate had video out it would probably only be for watching movies in iPod/media player mode, so it wouldn’t give it much of an edge over an tv.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

That's what an Apple TV is for.

Yes, I'll buy an ATV with integrated battery and display.

-t

[downinflames68]

But does the batmobile have a tablet?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by downinflames68 

But does the batmobile have a tablet?

No, only a motorcycle with battery and display.

-t

[Eug]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

I would buy one.

Here's my use: I travel a lot on company business to overseas, and need to bring my company PC with me.
I would never bring along a second laptop (like a MBP).

I would, however, bring along the iSlate, because it wouldn't use up much space, and I could do all kinds of stuff during the flight on it. For travel, it (hopefully) will be perfect.

That sounds an awfully lot like MacBook Air territory... and I have zero use for a MacBook Air personally, albeit more than an iSlate in that role as described.

For my iSlate, I already have my iPhone. Personally, I want a better iPhone... faster speed with Flash support, but I don't want to carry a third piece that happens to be much bigger than the iPhone too.

So, again, despite all the posts so far, I cannot fathom why I'd want to buy an iSlate / iTablet. Apple will have to come up with something nobody has come up with here. Otherwise it will be just another tablet. A good one with OS X to be sure, but ultimately not very exciting.

Here's hoping Apple's creation, should it appear, is nowhere near as boring as the suggestions in this thread.