“It seems very likely that Apple will be introducing a new OS X machine sometime between now and the end of January. All indications are that it will be a tablet Mac with a 10″ touchscreen,” Dan Knight writes for Low End Mac. “Beyond that, speculation is rampant.”
“I can’t envision an Apple tablet being less powerful than the iPhone and iPod touch. If anything – if Apple hopes to compete with netbooks and small Tablet PCs – it needs to have at least as much processing power as today’s better netbooks,” Knight writes.
“My best guess is that the MacTablet will use the same 1.86 GHz CPU found in the MacBook Air, combined with nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics, just like every portable Mac made today. Only a dual-core CPU is going to provide the power to comfortably run a true multitasking operating system, and I don’t think it’s going to run anything less than Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard,” Knight writes. “Yes, I think it’s going to be a real Mac, not an overgrown iPod touch.”
Knight writes, “There’s no reason it couldn’t run the iPhone OS concurrently with Mac OS X, much as virtualizers allow running Linux or Windows on today’s Macs (or include an iPhone emulator). The power is there.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: One year and eight days ago, we reported a rumor that Apple’s secret product is ‘MacBook touch’. Said our source — the same one who tipped us to wireless iTunes Store sales direct to iPod, iPhone a week before Apple debuted it — in staccato fashion:
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.
Our source subsequently told us that “the SuperDrive will not be part of the finished devices, ‘It was just in some of the prototypes for various reason(s).'”
Perhaps our source was just one October too early?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
They are both the same operating system, one in the same.
Look back to the original iphone keynote from over 2 years ago when Steve Jobs said that the iphone is running OS X, and that is why the iphone can do so much..
Great to see another press guy does his actual leg work…slack ass!
Oh let it be so, please let it be so
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okay
no
I can tell you for one it will NOT have an nvidia chipset.
I can tell you for two it WILL NOT run the iphone os
see now I didn’t tell you anything… so I am okay..
mdn magic word: ask; as in ask me anything
Fold the Macbook Air’s screen over, make sure to dissipate the heat and you’ve got a tablet.
The MacBook air will morph into this tablet device. They introduced the air to hone the tech needed to eventually produce the tablet. The unibody design was step two. Step three is 10.6 which cuts out bloat and uses the gpu.
The touch tech is there already. We might well see this real soon
Back when the rumors of a larger (iPhone) tablet Mac first arose, I thought the true power would come from having it both be powerful enough to function as a standalone tablet and also sync/link vnc with your desktop computer to act as a portable monitor to access your computer from anywhere your home or business.
This would have great practical application in the medical field and many other businesses. As a tablet it would function much like a large iPhone running any iPhone app, with the touch of a virtual button on the screen it vnc’s to your desktop computer and can remotely run any of the installed software there.
This is the only way is see apple entering a tablet market, offering unique integration with your entire computing infrastructure.
If it can run Macintosh apps and iPhone apps than that’s twice as many viruses that can attack it. FRAKING PANIC!!!!!!
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Don’t forget (I’m just guessing here):
• HarryPotter-like books with movable graphics, which the Kindle cannot do. Colour!
• Moveable graphics in comics and video in newspapers subscriptions (Apple gets cut of every newspaper/magazine sold!).
• Always-on-internet links to AT&T;or Verizon with iDisk support (just released) to more on/off line storage
• Music labels booklets and merchandise to be sold with songs as Cocktails
• Multi-tasking iPhones (no need for virtualisation on Intel as it runs this way already) with more RAM and CPU.
• Flash support.
• BlueTooth keyboard for large text entry.
• Massive educational discounts. Student books online.
• Links with iPod/iPhone for camera and tethering (if not through AT&T;).
• Links with AppleTV for games support.
• Unibody construction for strength.
• Made from Unicorn tears mixed with Kool-Aid.
It makes sense that the release of such a device might be coupled with the release of Snow Leopard.
One could envision so many possibilities for a portable device with a mid-size display in between the iPhone/iPod touch and the 13.3″ Macbook Pro/Air. For instance, the recent advancements in micro-projectors…
My request is that Apple seek to pack in as much battery capacity as is feasible. The iPod touch is a slick device, but it is all too easy to run down the battery because there is so much capability with the App Store. I don’t have an iPhone, but I have heard similar comments about battery life, and it is even more important in a device that is also functioning as a cell phone.
Add a little size and weight, Apple, but give me extended battery life!
Lets make a nice tablett computer: Take a little 10 inch touchscreen which fits perfect for advanced videoediting and other real desktop apps, add a powerful processor like a core i7 or something like that, dont forget a real men grafic chip, garnish that with some fans, 2 to 3 Bluray drives and a carbattery and you will have a real elegant device which is 25 x 17 cm in surface and only 40 cm thick.
Whatever it is I already ordered one…the 2.0 version…for October 2010.
My opinion is that Apple wants to use “full” Mac OSX to sell hardware at a premium. The tablet needs to compete with netbooks, so Apple will need to price this at the low end of its (Apple’s) price range. Therefore, I believe Apple will release this on a modified iPhone OS, plus multitasking and bluetooth keyboard. AND maybe they’ll port over some iLife Lite apps, as others have speculated. Also, a built in WINE option would be interesting so you could run select Windows programs in emulation. Now THAT would really fry MSFT and obviate any desire for a netbook.
I don’t know why nobody has considered this but I think I have the perfect ideal for a tablet such as this.
The software would run iPhone OS but have a remote access capabilities that allows someone to access their main computer… a Mac or a Windows PC. The advantage of this is that the tablet doesn’t have to have a fast processor as it wouldn’t be doing any real heavy lifting as the main computer would be doing it instead. You might say that it is really an always-connected network computer. It would be most ideal on a LAN but would work on a 4G network.
I foresee it also tapping into Apple’s yet to be announced cloud computing architecture that has been talked about at recent WWDC events.
And as I mentioned (above) it would also be a running iPhone OS and all the apps that go along with it so ultimately, it would be able to run Windows apps through remote access, Mac apps through remote access, cloud computing apps and iphone OS apps.
Tie it to a cellular carrier to cover some of the costs and you have a tablet that will blow everything else out of the water.
I found a pic of it…
http://www.retrothing.com/2009/05/your-very-own-star-trek-tricorder.html
Steve Jobs said once, “People want Star Trek”.
Remember those mock ups, of a tablet sliding into a 24 ” display, now that would be the ticket..
My plan was for a 13″ Mac Book, with the 24″ mini display connection, as I love a desk top, but do travel a little
I love this. First, we have no firm evidence that there really is a Mac or iPhone-based tablet at all. But that never stopped pundits and the media from pouring white gas on the fire. Now this article appears and heaps on more stupidity. Speculation of what OS it would run, what hardware it would contain and features it would have are completely pointless. What if it turns out that NO tablet exists? While it’s likely that Apple has at least tried out ideas, what if this was just one big disinformation campaign, a massive head-fake?
People want to believe what they want to believe. But basing plans on hope and speculation is a fool’s errand. Please, people, come back to Earth! Yes, I would applaud if Apple introduces such a device. But until they do, enough of the insane speculation already. Please.
Yes there is firm evidence that Apple is working on a 10′ screen device, computer, etc.
And also you have to consider that ARM will have dual cores and quad cores in the near future, and that ARM is planning to compete with a full desktop processor in the future.
The graphics ships inside the iPhones and iPod touch will follow the same dual and quad root
And don’t forget that Apple is now capable to custom design its ARM ships. So I agree Apple needs a powerful device but Intel ships are not the only option for Apple designs. There is evidence also that Intel is worried about not being able to compete in the ultra-portable ecosystem or that it is losing ground at least in the portable sector with the Atom.
Great rumor, sure, but how exactly does it run both Mac and iPhone binaries on the same hardware, when you have two vastly different CPUs involved? More emulation?
This device will NOT be ARM based
This device will NOT use the Intel Atom
keep trying guys, you are letting me down, where is the common sence?
I can tell you the one issue that we are still pin up on and waiting till probably the last minutes to decide on is the method we will use or suggest to prop the device up, it is looking like the prop will be a separate piece; nothing integrated “just works”
For these units to work 100% as we are going to advertise they will have to be preloaded with 10.6
The Air stands on its own, and will not be mutiated into this device, mainly because of pricepoint, but also several other factors.
we are also pin up on the name, “Macbook touch” denotes a “book” which we like, but that would make you think to much of the Macbook and Macbook pro lines, but its just so fitting, we are still flirting with other dopeshit names.. one thing is FOR SURE… IT IS NOT AN IPOD OR AN IPHONE!!
also the Cellular chip WILL be optional, and and internal module.
I am glad I am behind ? proxys right now, and not at my home.. this is getting scary…
I have held ONE of the prototypes, and personally seen 3.
The best thing this device will do is enable video conferencing wherever you are, and imho the best thing this will do is turn the tide, I predect OSX install base will exceed 50% within a few years.
Is it just possible that the Macbook Air had a 2nd function? To act as a test bed?
If it happens, I want good hand-writing recognition, and the later generations of hand-writing on the Newton were good. If you saw the quality of my hand writing, you would be impressed with how well it worked!
So was the hand writing recognition on a Windows mobile PDA that I had. I can’t believe I don’t remember what brand. It was flimsy and I distorted the screen in my pocket, fixed under warranty once, but then I got rid of it. But the point is that the world is ready for handwriting recognition, and I would buy it for that.
@tt, so you say no Intel Atom and no ARM…
Well, that seems to leave two possibilities. Firstly it could run a different Intel/AMD x86 chip, or it could be PowerPC.
Whilst I’m sure that Apple are still maintaining PPC compatibility in Mac OS X in their labs, I don’t see them releasing a machine.
Unfortunately this leaves x86. There are no x86 chip options that don’t massacre batteries. That means that it’ll be a fairly heavy device, and it will likely still only offer similar battery life to Macbooks.
Sad that. I’d like to have a light tablet with battery life when using the machine hitting about 10 hours. Were I in charge I’d have gone for a quad-core ARM device to achieve that. A new version of Rosetta could let it run x86 apps, but XCode can produce apps that include ARM binaries anyway.
Does it run on pixie dust, then? No ARM, and no Intel makes the choices pretty slim. That would mean that Apple has either inked a secret deal with AMD, Sun, etc., or the PA Semi team has magically completed an entirely new architecture and chip design, worked out all of the bugs, and built at least a handful of working prototypes. This would also mean that Apple has compiled a functioning version of OS X for that architecture that will seamlessly integrate with the applications and developer tools for their other architectures. All of this while polishing their new iPhones, iPods and OS variations for existing products.
Yeah Right!
oh it will be x86
but it wont be any chip that you know of, and it wont be any chip that will be available in ANY other device…
PowerPC is indefinitely not in use, never say never tho.
our target battery life is 12 hours of average use, advertised battery time will likely be closer to 10 hours
I can tell you to be prepared for two something extras.. one a front row esc but drastically different, think imovie with iphone esc control interface; but not… get it? and two is something you are already very familiar with if you own an ipod touch or iphone. thats all I can say. Lets just say we are so pleased with the way “something” has worked out for use were are expanding it even further.
Our goal with this device is to be even more independent, this means #1 to NOT use ARM. Also to be a truly standard and easy to develop for and integrate into lineup system we will stick with mostly standard and “open” hardware and software. we hope to move more of this tech to our entire mobile line once we have added some robustness. and efficiency. but for now we are happy with the above average robustness and efficiency of this platforms internals when compared to “similar” devices.
we will be rubbing the industries face in their UMPC and netbook fiascos.
a Free light version of mobile me is also being thrown around.. but management is always scared of making decisions like these; so who knows if it will come to fruition
I still haven’t hear much talk addressing 2 key issues –
1) How does the iTablet complement the current handheld/computer product family instead of eating into their market?
2) What revolutionary human interface beyond what people have guessed can reside on this device that will make productivity higher than using a regular Mac? No, the Big Ass Table/Minority Report type of finger/hand gesturing gets old real quick, and they don’t make the software programs better just because you’re flicking it on a bigger screen.
The one advantage I can think of a tablet is that it’ll eliminate the need for my current USB tablet once I can draw directly on the screen instead of using a stylus on a separate device.
So, yeah, I’ll get one for that reason.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Perhaps it will be a device that will revolutionize digital artform, but sucks if you were an existing tablet manufacturer. Like the mouse and portable camcorder – Apple is doing away with you.