Report: Apple Tablet Coming In Two Flavors: Webcam And Education
2:06 pm, August 13th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Gizmodo’s Brian Lam talked to a high level source who claims to have seen and handled prototypes of Apple’s upcoming tablet.
* The tablet is real (we already knew this though — CoM’s sources have also confirmed it).
* 10-inch screen.
* Looks like a giant iPhone with the same Home button and a shiny black plastic back.
* Two editions: One with a webcam and one for education.
* Will sit between iPod/iPhone and a MacBook, costing $700 to $900.
* Will also function as a secondary screen and/or a touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, like this 7-inch external USB monitor form MiMo.
* It’s been under development in one form or another for six years, but the first prototype was built at end of 2008. Time to market is 6-9 months, pegging the device’s release date this holiday season.
But just as Lam — who is a great reporter and a straight-shooter – was was about to get to the juicy bit — what OS the tablet will run — his iPhone dropped the call. Classic!
Writes Lam: “My call dropped on some windy road off Skyline Drive. Fucking AT&T.”
UPDATE: I contacted Lam, who said his source didn’t know the tablet’s OS. It’s the biggest secret surrounding the device, he says. Entrepreneur and ugly dog-lover Jason Calacanis just tweeted it runs a modified version of the iPhone OS, citing a developer. Maybe. Here at CoM, we like the idea it’ll run Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Hardware, News, Reviews | Comment on this article
Why shouldn’t it run Mac OS X when tethered to Apple’s small keyboard and wireless mouse and the iPhone’s OS X Mobile when being toted around. If Macs can run Windows or Linux, surely this device could run both forms of the Apple OS.
HD Boy, on August 13th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
OS X is totally unfit for any touch oriented device. Icons, buttons, scrollbars and everything else is too small and cramped to be used with fingers and there’s plainly too much going on on the screen to be usable with such a tablet.
The OS is a major reason why PC-tablets never took off. Windows on a tablet was a pain and OS X would be not much better. You need some simple UI with large and clearly structured elements like the iPhone OS. No multiple windows, no desktop, no menu bar, no scrollbars. Anyway, the tablet will not be Intel, so even if it would run Snow Leopard, no third-party apps would be able to run without porting them to the new platform. It will also be much more constrained in terms of hardware, power and screen resolution than iMacs and MacBooks, so current Mac apps just wouldn’t work good enough. Forget it. A tablet with OS X would be a bastard, a hack, unelegant and hardly usable.
My personal take: It will run a modified iPhone OS, with more resolution and more room for toolbars and such. Existing apps will need some adaptions, but this should be quite easy for developers. With basically the same SDK iPhone developers will be up to speed in no time. And it will be a phantastic platform for games, especially since the larger screen should relieve them from many restrictions of the iPhone…
joh, on August 13th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Man, it is REALLY going to suck when this doesn’t get announced this fall.
Darcy McGee, on August 13th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Hell yea i like the idea that this thing would run snow leopard. That would throw so many people for a loop and maybe we’ll start seeing suped up versions of netbooks to compete with the tablet. If snow leopard is the os for this device i will be one happy camper!
Robert, on August 13th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
cool, i want it haha, i would love if the back wasn’t like the iphone’s…?
and i hope they dont put a home button haha, but it looks nice anyway.
and i also hope its like 500 or 600 or 100? =p
edgar, on August 13th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Bill Gates says: Is that an overlarge iPhone in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?
ged, on August 13th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Cant wait for this tablet to be realeased
jazzyl, on August 14th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Any idea what the difference between educational and webcam is? I should think that webcam would be crucial in the world of education. I know that I make a lot of use of the webcam on the (totally lame) HPminis my middle school students use.
Lloyd Aldrin, on August 14th, 2009 at 10:48 am
[...] However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t go on speculating. One recent post details: Report Apple Tablet Coming In Two Flavors: Webcam And Education. While I’m not sure why there would be a version isolating a webcam, the Education concept [...]
The Apple Tablet: When & What if? | JB's Personal Portfolio, on September 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 pm