“We’ve got this from three independent sources close to Apple: expect a large screen iPod touch device to be released in the Fall of ‘09, with a 7 or 9 inch screen. Prototypes have been seen and handled by one of our sources, and Apple is talking to OEMs in Asia now about mass production,” Michael Arrington reports for TechCrunch.
“Apple has been experimenting internally with large form tablet devices for years, one source says, but there was concern that users wouldn’t like the device. The difference now is the iTunes app store, which has thousands of games and other applications that are perfect for a touch screen device with an accelerometer,” Arrington reports.
“I’m not saying Apple is definitely launching a large form iPod Touch. But sources I trust are saying they are currently planning to, and one source has actually held the device,” Arrington reports.
Full article here.
[Attribution: AppleInsider. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: This dovetails pretty nicely with our “MacBook touch” report from July 22, 2008 (even if our source was a year off – or maybe he/she meant “October 2009”):
Think MacBook screen, possibly a bit smaller, in glass with iPhone-like, but fuller-featured Multi-Touch. Gesture library. Full Mac OS X. This is why they bought P.A. Semi. Possibly with Immersion’s haptic tech. Slot-loading SuperDrive. Accelerometer. GPS. Pretty expensive to produce initially, but sold at “low” price that will reduce margins. Apple wants to move these babies. And move they will. This is some sick shit. App Store-compatible, able to run Mac apps, too. By October at the latest.
fifo
this whole “touch” thing is creepy. Que Tommy.
…or cue
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After owning an iPod Touch for 3 weeks, I can understand how cool a Macbook Touch would be. Very sweet and tasty…
@farting macs
I wish I had a touch. But I’m stuck with a 3 year old iPod with no color. At least I got it as a free gift and not a $229 purchase. And click wheels and iPod games are fun.
I have a hard time imagining that this source was informed in Apple’s plans in over a year later, but could happen.
but will it be… nevermind.
i forgot the word is looking for.
I’m happy with the iPod Touch. I was sitting in a place today and I had something that I was obsessing about that I wanted to look up. Lo and behold, they had wifi and I had my Touch. I didn’t have to carry some heavy notebook or even have a special case for a netbook. It was just there in my pocket. Simply perfect. Why fix something when it’s not broken? If you don’t like the touch, then get a netbook. “Cheap” for apple is nothing under $800 for something like that. The real cost of an iPhone is well over $900 a year, not including the initial contract or device cost. I’m not sure I like the idea of a MacTouch anyway. Although there are many uses you can put it to given the right circumstances. One idea is to have a mobile presentation device, but even then you can just carry around a MacBook for that much.
So, if I buy an iPod touch to complement my iPhone, do I have to buy all the apps a second time, or can I sync an app to two devices? With my new Fieldrunners habit, this sure would save my phone’s battery life.
I wonder if iPhone/iPod touch apps & games would scale to an (obviously) higher pixel count display?
Or would they simply be little foating windows containing those apps?
OR, even better, would the OS be able to run Mac OS X apps AND iPhone/iPod touch apps & games?
OR, is this as much hokum as Apple licensing Mac OS X and Steve Jobs dropping dead next week.
I’ll Touch it
I disagree with 1 MDN spec: “Slot-loading SuperDrive.” I think a device like that would NOT be a replacement for a desktop or Laptop. As such, it will be more like an iPod Touch in daily use. Loading content (software/movies/etc.) will be done through via WIFI. The tradeoff in weight an thickness far outweigh any whining from pundits (and there WOULD be whining). This (presumed) device will be like the iMac dropping Floppy support. Seriously – if you own a video capable iPod – how often do you even touch your DVD’s?
‘Nuff said.
The MDN report was written on my birthday. And it looks right. So I think I’ll stick with it.
But it wouldn’t be a MacBook touch.
I should think it would be called an iPod tablet.
Just thinking (differently).
Arrington is NOT too reliable.
Second, a 7 to 9 inch screen is far too large and expensive right now. It’s far more likely to use two of the existing screens to make a 640×480 panel, right? Take the 320×480 screen and add another 320×480 panel, and put it under one sheet of glass. That would make the screen only 5 inches, not your 7 to 9 inches. This screen would scale nicely as it’s VGA sized.
@KenC:
Logical, but Apple doesn’t design stuff that way. they don’t look at the touch and say to themselves “how can we make the screen bigger for cheap?” They think about a tablet device and ask themselves “what would be the perfect screen for such a product?” Then they make that screen and if they can sell it cheap enough they will, if they can’t they put it on a shelf until something changes.
Apple research labs are filled with devices that were prototyped and yet never released. A lot of them would have been floated on the waters by lesser companies like Microsoft or Dell.
My vote for the name of the device has always been “iBook.”
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What on earth is the supposed connection between the iTunes Apps Store and the new-found viability of the tablet format?
It’s obvious that Apple will release such a device at some point. The real question is WHEN.