Found at the Wired Store: Apple Tablet Concept
2:02 am, November 23rd, 2009, Pete Mortensen
Rumors about Apple’s still-unannounced but wildly anticipated tablet are flying like crazy at the moment, in a fashion not unfamiliar to the last few months before we finally got to see the iPhone. And, as Ed told you last week, content providers are making pronouncements about getting their stuff on the device, believed to be optimized for reading newspaper and magazines.
Conde-Nast and our old friends at Wired, in particular, are announcing that they’ll be on the Apple Tablet and have already developed a special multi-touch magazine format just dying to be present at launch. They’re so confident about this, in fact, that the holidays-only Wired Store in Manhattan features a concept mock-up of the tablet and its interface, which you can watch in the above video.
Some things to note:
- The design concept is…a big iPhone, more or less.
- The interface actually looks quite nice, and I could imagine reading it.
- There is no way that anyone at Conde has handled an Apple Tablet. They couldn’t possibly be this publicity-seeking or bold about their pronouncements if they had been brought behind the Steve curtain.
- Also, the fact that Wired worked with Adobe to create the new format is a clear sign that they’ve had no contact with Apple. Anything based on AIR or Flash is unlikely to be compatible with the Tablet, for all the reasons there is no Flash or AIR on the iPhone
Other than that, this is really fun to watch.
Video Demonstrates Wired’s iTablet App [Wired]
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple Tablet, News | Comment on this article
Only Steve knows, and he’s not telling (yet)…
Ictus75, on November 23rd, 2009 at 2:25 am
I think the only way the Apple Tablet could become a critical success (like the iPhone was in the smartphone industry) is to completely revolutionize and to redefine an entire industry…. like how we read newspapers/magazines, or how Elementary/College students read school/classroom textbooks.
Imagine for a second, that college students sit in a classroom, and each student has their tablets pre-loaded with classroom textbooks. 8-pound thick American History books? No more. Replaced by the Apple tablet. A huge college Biology textbook as thick as the Bible? Not needed. All the material is in the Apple tablet. Taking a midterm test using Scantrons and a #2 pencil? Obsolete. Tests are taken using the Apple tablet. Once the answers are filled out, the test ‘form’ is electronically submitted to the Instructor’s Tablet. He then grades it instantly, it takes mere seconds for test results.
Thing is… I’m not sure if Apple has thought about these possibilities yet. If Apple does not, then someone else (Microsoft, Dell, Google, Sony?) certainly will come up with the initiative sometime in the future.
Matilda the Fair, on November 23rd, 2009 at 8:21 am
You should see if you can get them to crank the volume on the background music a little higher next time. That was great at 5:30 in the morning.
Darcy McGee, on November 23rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
I like the idea of animated illustrations & graphs in articles and interactive ads.
And a slightly animated cover image’d be nice, too — you tap on an article title & go right to it.
This is *truly* rethinking the magazine.
This will also happen with books & CDs.
Steve’s a fucking GENIUS.
This will be the “One Device” that will replace game consoles/newspapers/magazines/books/CDs/TVs/Movie Theaters.
I only hope it’s real.
If it gets pushed back to Q410, well — there’s nothing you can do about that.
But at least let it be *announced* during CES10.
Builds the iPhone-like fever pitch all that much more.
CaryMG, on November 23rd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
lol. yeah that was sweet. we had a great time at the wired store till someone stole our iphone. decided to pull a prank on NYC =)
Super Glued an iPhone to the ground and setup hidden cameras to catch the action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VW7uz0pZIs
Harold Smith, on November 23rd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
>>If it gets pushed back to Q410, well — there’s nothing you can do about that.
There’s nothing wrong with pushing back a product until it’s as perfect-as-it-can-be.
The Apple Tablet is under so much pressure (and this is not Apple’s fault, since Apple never officially mentions its existence, the hype is mostly the fault of the rumors/leak media)… under so much pressure that Steve knows he has one chance to “get it right”. He’s not going to release a half-finished product, especially not one like this where expectations are so high.
bjorntech@squee.org, on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:09 pm
The rumors are only going to get worse seeing that the release date has been extended to Q2 2010.
Apple Tablet, on November 23rd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I just discovered that the Mactablet is actually going to have 2 screens with an OLED one on the outside and a TFT one on the inside – it looks like its going to be a normal laptop and a tablet mac. I found this info on a site named http://www.mactablet.co.uk There are pictures of it too!
I hope this is true because it looks fantastic
Steven Bojes, on November 24th, 2009 at 6:54 am