What To Expect From Apple's Rumored MacPad 213
Jeff writes "I decided to review the specifications of recent e-readers and mobile devices as well as the ongoing Apple rumor mill to chart out the most likely features, innovations and configuration we can expect from Apple's long awaited Newton successor/Mac Tablet which I'll call the MacPad. The MacPad will arrive in fall '09 or Jan '10, with a 10" diagonal color display, a $599 price point with a Verizon data plan, a stylus, note taking application and handwriting recognition and an e-bookstore for iTunes. Apple's biggest challenge will be convincing its huge installed base of iPhone owners that they need a MacPad too. Past failed Newtonian predictions by others are available on Slashdot and the likelihood that any of this is right can be gauged by earlier Confucian gems such as Haskin warns that Apple may be setting itself up for a failure with the iPhone."
Hey! Let's Just make Shit up! (Score:5, Insightful)
So, a product that's never been announced and only ever carried by the rumours that "it'd be really cool if Apple did, like, a tablet, you know!" is being discussed.
There is no substance at all, no "there" there. How can anyone seriously discuss what to expect from a product that has no information whatsoever about it? It's just all circle-jerk stuff, the sort of stuff kids fantasise about but has no connection to reality.
(sigh) I love talking tech as much as anyone, but can we at least try to stay grounded in reality?
Hell, it's just as likely to hover 14 cm above a solid surface, have a voxel-based GPU, holographic memory unit all powered by a microtok generator. Why not just make shit up? The UI will be based on the user's thoughts, but will react before the user knows they're thinking about an action because that's how cool it'll probably be, maybe.
Yup. News for nerds. Making shit up. So what does The Onion do for stories these days if Slashdot is going to nick the good ones?
Apparent RAM upgrade :) (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:oooh i wonder if liqbase will run on it (Score:5, Insightful)
Why on earth would you hack it to run linux, this thing (assuming it existed) would most likely run OS X... So you take off a perfectly good unix with drivers for all the bits of the hardware, and lots of application support, and replace it with a one-size-fits all OS that doesn't do the half of it... Why?
Re:oooh i wonder if liqbase will run on it (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:A review of product that is a rumor.. (Score:5, Insightful)
FTFA:
I can believe someone was foolish enough to submit this, but putting it on the front page is freaking absurd.
Ya... I'm thinking not... (Score:3, Insightful)
This "let's make shit up and pretend like it is real," stuff annoys me. There is no basis to any of this.
What's more, I find it rather unlikely Apple is going to try for a PDA type device. Why? As mentioned, the iPhone. If you do some shopping around these days you discover that dedicated PDAs, as in devices that aren't part of a phone, are rather rare. You can get them, of course, but there aren't so many out there. Why's that? Well most people don't want to carry another device with them. They are all about minimal amount of crap to carry around.
Phone PDAs, well those are all the rage. These days it seems that providers have almost as many smart phones as normal phones. People love the idea. You get all your PDA features, in a slightly larger phone. Only one device to carry.
I know it is certianly that way for me. A number of years ago our boss got us PDAs. There was some deal that he was able to get them cheap so he figured "Why not?" Well, they never really got used. Even he wasn't all that keen on carrying an extra device. However we now all have smartphones, and we all love them. Ya they are a little larger than a plain cell, but not much and you get all the PDA features AND all the phone features.
So it would be rather retarded for Apple to try and enter the PDA market, because there really isn't one. They already are doing great in the smartphone market, that is probably where they'll stay. I just don't see PDAs making a resurgence, ever.
Now they might try a tablet PC or something, there is a small market for those. However it won't be a $500 device, that's for sure. Tablet PCs are, as the name implies, PCs you can write on as in full featured laptop hardware. Means from Apple you are talking $1000+.
sounds nice, but (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Apparent RAM upgrade :) (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm not so sure it's a typo. I'd put my money on the author not knowing the difference between ram and storage. they're both measured in the same unit so they must be the same thing!
Re:oooh i wonder if liqbase will run on it (Score:3, Insightful)
So you take off a perfectly good unix with drivers for all the bits of the hardware, and lots of application support, and replace it with a one-size-fits all OS that doesn't do the half of it... Why?
Haha ok let me break this down to you. First of all that "perfectly good" part is solely your opinion and believe it or not not everybody agrees. Secondly there are huge differences between unix like OSs. And last but not least, some people like to own whatever they've bought rather than lease it. That's why.
A Data plan? (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember when computers didn't have monthly data plans? I would rather save $ and just mooch off free wi-fi.
Re:Hey! Let's Just make Shit up! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:oooh i wonder if liqbase will run on it (Score:5, Insightful)
So what you're saying is that you can't find any reason why linux does the job of this device better than OS X, so you're going to default to "it's free software and therefor must be better". Even though I've demonstrated several reasons why running OS X on it, as designed would be beneficial?
Fair enough, if your reason is "because I can", but honestly, you're deluding yourself if you actually think it's somehow better just by being free.
You're putting up a bunch of straw man arguments here like "iTunes and iPod are horrible lock down"... what horrible lock down, it's a pair of music players that play mp3 and aac -- two formats that will play on almost any other player in the world. What's the lock down?
As for iTunes doing well if it were completely separate to the devices... Well, that's kinda the point -- the reason it's doing well is not because it's locking you down, but instead because apple have a solution that works well. People find it nice to not have to do more than plug in their iPod and have everything work transparently.
Note that your iPod selling at a loss story is a lie -- apple barely breaks even on the iTMS, they make all the money selling the devices.
In the end you will end up paying more for songs because Apple sold you your iPod
Even though I can use mp3s and aacs, and CD audio from all sorts of other sources? How is that exactly?
If iTunes store was infact the best store around, how come you can't just release it into the wild and people will love it?
I'm sorry, what? I really don't get what you're trying to say here.
At the end of the day, all you're doing is throwing up a bunch of FUD about apple, most of which is not true in any way, and at the same time not answering the question -- *why* would you run linux on it... What would it do better?
Re:Mac Tablet History (Score:3, Insightful)
As the saying goes, there's no smoke without fire
But it's been smoking for 6 years. Are you going to keep the firetruck stationed there the entire time?
Besides, the Apple tablet in question is rumoured to have taken an unusual time to develop.
Wow! It's almost like the reason for the rumor not coming true is baked into the rumor itself!
As the saying goes, it's a self-fulfilling... rumor(?)...
Re:64-128 GB of RAM?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, and since when have Apple desktops or laptops had "integrated" memory chips that couldn't be removed and replaced by the user? I've been using Macs since about 1988 and even way back then you could upgrade RAM (even though it was ridiculously expensive, across the industry).
Hyperbole is nice and all, but it's called hyperbole for a reason. Making the poor design choice of integrated batteries or leaving off card readers may not be optimal eingineering trade-offs, but it doesn't mean they have ever done the same thing with memory chips.