“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.]
1) The cheapest mobile mac is $999, we want to make a “cheaper” one
2) This is a “regular” mac, u can choose to use whatever interface you would like
This device will not work as a tablet for another mac, I am sure that will change relatively soon with 3rd part software, but its not our intent to compete with wacom in ANY way, high end tablets from wacom are much bigger and better for artists, the pens, tools, they jsut dont compare.
If this is real, it’s really exciting.
But if it is x86 and not Intel, wouldn’t there be licensing issues? Or would Intel be making exceptionally power efficient chips available only to Apple?
tt, how would you rate the overall excitement? Is this seen as a more significant evolution in computing and more gamechanging than the iPhone?
Surely Apple knows how much better it will be for not-youthful eyes to have a bigger screen. And in difficult times, entertainment historically is big, and games are craved by stressed ppl. Apple has within itself the latent seed destiny to remake gaming into something utterly spectacular that the masses will mob.
Not that I think somebody actually in the know would post anything in public. Apple has good reasons to keep the cloak of secrecy over their launches as long as possible.
We would like to think this will be a revolutionary device; even more so than the iPhone.
I am personally excited, This device for me will replace my ipod touch for the most part.
I am most excited about the potential turning of the tides not only for people looking for sub $1000 fully featured machines, but for ease of programming for developers, This will be the first platform that will easily open “standard” OSX to new developers.
We are in a modern age, and we deserve software that can keep up with hardware potential, the potential is there, and so is our passion.
You didn’t hear this from me…
The hardware was the easy part. Any perceived delay and the real hard part was due to how best to present to the user the ability to run the Mac OS X and iPod/iPhone user interfaces. And yes, of course, this is tied into Snow Leopard.
^?
The multitouch interface for OSX is universal and complete, It just works, and 95% of it was already in 10.5, there is no difference, except for the handful of apps that will be proprietary to the device; such as the pop-out keyboard etc, there is also a window control option for frameless full screen of all apps, this option will be controlled by you, by default it will be enabled, but depending on the user and the apps they may want to turn it off, and when docked most users will find it better disabled on both screens, but again, even with these options for even the layest of the laymen it will be easy to navigate, I dont want to say it has a new finder, rather the finder will operate in two modes, but this interface modification did not hold us up, or cause any significant delay as f-man is insinuating.
I call BS!
PA Semi was a RISC shop, Apple is an ARM licensee, and ARM has far superior energy efficiency than any x86 chip. I seriously doubt that Apple put all of that investment into ARM and RISC only to put it on the shelf, and then made a new magical x86 architecture that will put them into competition with Intel directly. Apple has a great group of engineers and designers, but I don’t think that they have re-invented the modern processor wheel in just a few months. If they did somehow do that, they would have to be prepared to dump Intel from the rest of their products very rapidly and convert their whole product line over to their chips. Including the Pro and Server machines. They would also compete directly with AMD, which means that ATI would be even further out of reach. That leaves them heavily dependent upon nVidia for virtually all of their graphics heavy-lifting. At that point, they will have to start thinking about purchasing nVidia to make sure that they can and will keep up with Apple technology.
While all of this is possible, it’s definitely not probable.
Nvidia is pretty much dead to us
it might be an intel chip???? Hmmm
this is a mac, it will run snowleopard, we are not going to come out with another variant
Where will the camera be on the iTablet?
Same as every other mac
front and center
don’t be afraid
it’s just a bad ass mac that looks like an iPhone that’s a little to big to fit in your pocket
shiny and snappy
Please don’t call it an iTablet. Clumsy. And, as always, there is no logic behind the “i”
Tt, you’ve got them all in a lather now
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Shame you’re not real. ‘Snappy’ indeed.
Looking back at previous apple products. Some seem to be test beds for future devices. It would be smarter to run iPhone OS to assist in cellular functions. The money is with the App store. I look to a 10″ iTablet with the air’s processor and iPhone OS. Apple will again change the netbook market somehow. Price, that will be higher than present netbooks.
A opsie, that is a toy I need! Cool to run Iphone aps on it! Is it compatible with nmt mobile broadband?