Apple will launch a $700 touchscreen tablet with a new operating system and optimized apps in 2010, new research claims.
Apple’s response to the fast-growing netbook market will a touchscreen tablet like an outsized iPod touch. It will have a touchscreen measuring 7- and 10-inches; will cost between $500 to $700; and may have built-in 3G wireless, claims Wall Street analyst Gene Munster of investment bank Piper Jaffrey.
But thanks to the complexity of the tablet’s hardware and, more importantly, the new version of OS X and the apps it will run — it will not be ready until early 2010, Munster said i.
In a long and detailed research note to clients, Munster cited “mounting evidence” for his claims:
Apple is indeed working on a version of OS X to power a tablet device more robust than an iPod Touch yet still more limited than the operating system that powers the company’s line of notebook and desktop computer systems, according to Gene Munster, the widely followed Piper Jaffray analyst.
“We expect the development of such an OS to be underway currently, but its complexity, along with our conversations with a key company in the mobile space, leads us to believe it will not launch until CY10,” Munster said (meaning 2010) in a note released to clients Thursday.
Many in the Apple universe have long predicted a tablet device to compete in the growing market for netbooks, smaller, less-powerful – and less expensive – mobile devices designed for surfing the Internet, watching movies, reading and composing email and other “computer-lite” activities.
Not a few people will be disappointed if Apple fails to launch such an offering in the current year, but Munster implies that such a market, while growing fast, remains relatively small and believes Apple has plenty of time to get its entry right before joining the fray.
Parents with children aged 8 – 12 and relatively easy access to an Apple Retail Store might consider enrolling in Apple’s free summer camp workshops during July.
Beginning the week of July 13, Apple stores will offer a series of 3 hour workshops where kids will be introduced to Macs and Apple software and learn how to make a movie, create a photo slideshow, write and record a song or craft a presentation.
Space in each workshop is limited and kids are limited to no more than two workshop sessions each for the summer, but it is a free opportunity to kill six hours out of what can be a long, boring summer break for some – and a chance to get hands-on instruction with some of the hardware and software many kids are likely to encounter in school during the coming years.
The workshops break down into two weekly sessions in movie making, music, photography and presentation arts, where Apple instructional staff will teach kids the ins and outs of iMovie, GarageBand, iPhoto and Keynote.
A quick check of some of the session availability shows all sessions in New York City’s Apple stores are already full, though the rest of the country – even in populous California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco – have spots still open.
Apple also offers similar youth programs year-round to help cultivate the next generation of evangelists.
“With the success of the iPhone, the touch panel market has entered a dramatic new growth phase.,” the DisplaySearch report said.
The report predicted big growth in projected capacitive touchscreens — the technology used in the iPhone and iPod touch.
“Projected capacitive touch screens have increased substantially and become the second biggest touch technology following closely behind resistive touch,” the report said. “About 27 touch screen suppliers manufacture it. Not only have more resistive touch screen manufacturers moved to produce projected capacitive, but projected capacitive technology has evolved to single layer or film type, and can serve sizes larger than 100-inches.”
Whoa — a 100-inch iPhone in 2015.
Mobile phones and smartphones will be the most popular application of touchscreens, but they will also be the primary interface for media players, navigation devices, and games. More than 40 percent of mobile phones will have touchscreen interfaces by 2015, the report predicts, up from 16 percent now.
Touchscreens will also become popular in applications like retail, ticketing, information kiosks, and education and training terminals, the report said.
Rumors that the new iPhone will feature a glowing Apple logo on the back of the handset have generally been met with derision. The idea that Apple’s designer’s would waste precious battery life with a glowing logo is so abhorrent, many have used it to dismiss the rumors altogether.
But a group of Russian hackers in August last year hacked an iPhone to make the logo glow. The hack — as seen in the video below — involved a Dremel tool and about $300 in parts, according to reports.
And it had no effect on the battery life whatsoever, the Ruskies said.
But why would Apple add a frivolous glowing logo?
To make the Apple logo more visible, of course. Just like glowing lighthouse on the lid of a MacBook, or the iPod’s white headphones, Apple is not shy of using us to advertise its wares.
CC-licensed mockup by Victor Anselme. Note: this image did not appear on the iPhone Apps blog.
The new iPhone will be available July 17 and will have a bunch of new features, including video recording and editing, a digital compass, turn-by-turn directions, and a better battery, according to an obscure blog called iPhone Apps.
The blog, who no one has ever heard of before, claims to have been contacted by a “reputable source,” who is “closely connected to Apple’s hardware development team.”
Whatever. I’m dubious, but the rumor somewhat gels with previous rumors and the site’s detail and specificity lend the claims are certain credence. Kinda.
Apple published a support article Monday indicating “It’s possible to receive a small and quick electrical (static) shock from your earbuds while listening to iPod or iPhone.”
The article reads like a schoolbook primer on the nature and causes of static electricity and points out that the condition is not limited to Apple hardware, that static can potentially build up on almost any hardware and could be discharged using any brand of earbuds. Support staff also helpfully note that receiving a static shock from a pair of earbuds does not necessarily indicate an issue with the iPod, iPhone, or earbuds.
OK. And the company found it necessary to publish this information because…?
Have iPod and iPod users been experiencing an inordinate build-up of static electricity with their devices?
Let us know in comments below if you find it shocking to use your Apple mobile device in windy, low-humidity conditions.
Palm’s long-awaited rival to the iPhone, the Pre, will go on sale on June 6, Palm said on Tuesday, and will cost $200 and up with a two-year contract, depending on the plan.
The Pre goes just two days before Apple’s WWDC keynote, where he company is expected to announce the third-generation iPhone.
The Pre looks like a genuine rival to the iPhone. The software looks very slick, powerful and easy to use, and the hardware includes a built-in keyboard, an important distinguishing feature.
But Palm already seems to be pulling consumer-unfriendly stunts with pricing. The $200 price tag is dependent on a $100 mail-in rebate, which is never popular. And the data plans appear to cost between $70 and $90 a month (it’s not clear on Sprint’s page which plan the Pre needs). Plus, Palm is charging an extra $70 for the innovative Touchstone charger, and $30 for a car charger.
Apple of course charges extra for an iPhone docking cradle, but Palm seems to be nickle-and-diming consumers already.
Jonathan Ive, Apple Senior VP of Design, has been named the #1 most creative person in business by Fast Company magazine.
Citing Ive’s decade-long influence over Apple’s rise to prominence as a trendsetting company with global reach, Fast Company‘s “100 Most Creative People in Business” list builds on an interview the magazine did with Apple’s young design star not long after he’d produced the groundbreaking Bondi Blue iMac. “We feel that we’re just getting going,” Ive told the magazine then, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Robert Brunner, Apple’s previous design chief, and the man who hired Ive and recommended him as his successor, said, “He likes to make perfect stuff,” describing what sets Ive apart from his peers in the design universe. “Ive has this design ability combined with a craftsmanlike mentality,” Brunner added, pointing to Ive’s understanding of the interplay between design and manufacturing as keys to the success of more recent products such as the iPhone and unibody laptop computers.
In fact, however, it’s a music art project slated for the Volt Festival June 6th in Uppsala, Sweden, where organizers hope hundreds of iPhones will communicate through audio – creating a musical organism. The result, according to Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke, will be a self-organizing system they describe as intelligent neural music.
The idea builds on an installation, called Bacterial Orchestra, the pair took in 2006 to Brazil, Germany, Norway and elsewhere. This year, the new generation, called Public Epidemic No.1 is spreading beyond the microphones and loudspeakers of the original installation.
Cornéer said the current project could be hosted on any mobile phone but they chose the iPhone “because it’s popular and the centralized App Store makes it easy for the epidemic to spread.”
Check out the clip from the first test of the project above and follow after the jump for more detail on how it works.
With less than a month to go before the anticipated launch of iPhone 3.0 firmware and a widely expected upgrade to the hardware, widely reported claims by a poster on a Chinese Apple fan site suggest the next version of Apple’s revolutionary smartphone will sport a faster processor, more disk storage and a much improved camera, among other upgrades.
The next gen device will have a 600MHz processor (up from the current 400MHz unit), 256MB of RAM (up from the current 128MB), up to 32GB of storage, a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, as well as a digital compass and FM radio, all while retaining the same battery, basic shape, and screen size, according to the poster, who claims to have a connection at Foxconn, Apple’s China-based OEM for the iPhone.
Could it be? If you’ve got your ticket to the sold-out WWDC ’09 coming up in San Francisco, you’ll likely be among the first to know.
About a week ago, MacFormat posted a partial image of a mysterious Apple device “without comment”, saying it had been submitted anonymously by email.
It was just a tease, though, as MacFormat Illustrator Adam Benton had submitted via email his case for what you see here, a full-fledged Apple Media Pad, Cupertino’s answer to the world of netbooks.
In Benton’s conception, “Your entire Home folder – all docs, photos, movies and music – would live ‘in the cloud’ on Apple’s servers. Regularly used files would be cached locally, but the system would enable you to keep files in sync between the tablet and your desktop Macs, whilst getting away with a smaller SSD.”
Benton’s idea calls for a that dock would support USB and FireWire, plus Mini DisplayPort, and Bluetooth to be used for peripherals like headsets and keyboards. The OS would be the iPhone and iPod touch OS, scaled up to support the larger display, with integrated 3G connectivity – proper 7.2Mb/sec HSUPA – to keep users connected to Apple’s servers at all times.
When Apple bought chip design firm PA Semiconductor a year ago, it sparked all kinds of speculation about what the acquisition might bring to the Cupertino Kingpins. Was Apple abandoning Intel hardware in Macs to make totally proprietary systems? Did they just need engineering talent. The answer, not-too-surprisingly, had nothing to do with Macs, and everything to do with the iPod and iPhone universe.
As Steve Jobs told the New York Times last June, “”PA Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods.”
Now, Apple is spending a lot more on chip design talent. Bringing in a very senior executive from IBM and two CTOs from AMD. The Wall Street Journal even reports that Apple has new job listings that include duties like “testing the functional correctness of Apple developed silicon.”
Again, this is all almost certainly device, not Mac-related. The more Apple can up the power and reduce the power consumption of the iPhone and iPod touch, the stronger the platform the company can build, and the more we can do with them. The Journal also claims Apple wants to use technology its competitors can’t get access to, which would be a big throwback to the 1980s, if true. I think it’s far more likely that Apple believes it has the talent to make a chip that delivers world-beating performance in an affordable package at minimal power use, which is way more important than specific features built into silicon.
In all likelihood, we’re talking about the iPhone generation due in 2010 at the earliest, though it would be a lovely surprise for the 2009 edition. What do you think? Do you want to get Samsung out of your iPhone’s CPU?
TUAW has the scoop on a very curious entry in the stats for Adium: a single user machine identified as the “MacBook Mini”. Now, this could easily be spoofed — last I checked the “Lenovo reModelFaMacBookAir” was not a computer — but on the other hand, it might be the very first appearance of the long-rumored Mac netbook.
After all, the very first place the name MacBook Air appeared was in the very same Adium stats. Only Apple knows what Apple is working on. But for now — we can dream.
“Dept. of deja vu: MacBookMini found in Adium stats” TUAW
Though we’re still about two months from the WWDC keynote and new iPhone hardware, that hasn’t stopped the most audacious maker of iPhone knock-offs, HiPhone, from creating a rip-off of the still unannounced iPhone nano. Yes, meet the HiPhone nano. On the outside, it looks like an ancient iPod mini, if only Apple had no taste in colors. And then it flips open and has both a touchscreen and a keypad — an ungainly keypad with tiny buttons, at that.
I don’t know what the iPhone nano will look like, when and if it ever arrives. I don know that Apple would never in a million years ship anything like this. Thank goodness.
Collins America, a consumer product design, manufacturing, and sales operation headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee plans a late summer release of the first third-party LCD computer screens based on Apple’s royalty-free Mini DisplayPort spec.
Dubbed the Cinema View line of displays, Collins’ offering will include three models featuring the aluminum, black and glass design of Apple’s LED Cinema Display, as well as a single cable connection to the Mac. The company claims Cinema View is the world’s only display line made just for today’s Macs.
Priced from $299 for a 19 inch model to $499 for the 24 inch, all three sets include 3 USB 2.0 ports and 3.5mm stereo audio jack. Complete specs for all three models are available here.
Collins is taking pre-orders at the company’s website, offering free shipping to North American and EU markets with expected deliveries beginning to ship before September 1, 2009.
Sadly, there’s no mention of a matte screen option anywhere in Collins’ marketing material.
Sony has added what the company calls “USB 1-wire” connectivity to select models of its 2009 car audio line up, enabling direct digital connectivity for USB powered audio devices such as iPods and iPhones, as well as other MP3 players and even USB thumb drives.
If you’ve ever been frustrated by the sketchy signal provided by radio frequency car adapters such as iTrip, or been dissatisfied by the sound quality of AUX in connectivity trying to get your iPod playing in the car, Sony’s Xplod line of head units is well worth a look and listen.
“We’ve needed to do this as an industry for some time,” explained Mike Kahn, Sony director of marketing for mobile electronics at a media meet and greet in San Francisco Wednesday night. Direct digital connection of the external device to the auto sound system is quickly becoming a standard feature for manufacturers such as Sony, Alpine and Pioneer, which is no surprise given the boost in sound quality over cobbled together analog connectivity solutions of the recent past.
Sony’s gear is very price competitive with its major rivals and its USB 1-wire technology doesn’t require any special cabling – you can use your standard iPod USB cable to plug right into the head unit, browse the device’s library and select songs right from the auto unit’s controls.
Here’s another next-gen iPhone concept worth pondering: Can Apple pull off adding features and functionality to the iPhone while making it even slimmer and sexier than it is today?
We’ll know soon enough, as anticipation for a June or July release event continues to build. More concepts ought to be popping up like spring flowers, too and the big design question seems to be whether any changes will be subtle, or will they push the device in an entirely new direction?
Let us know where you think Apple’s headed in comments.
It’s finally happened! Nearly six months after Apple took the wraps off its beautiful unibody MacBooks, a third party has finally shipped an adapter allowing direct hook-up to an HDMI display. I got my e-mail from Monoprice.com announcing the availability of the $14.25 part just a few minutes ago, and as you can see, it’s a box. With a Mini DisplayPort on one end and an HDMI port on the other. OK, so it’s not a super-cool gadget that I’ll flaunt in public. But it is a totally ideal way to get my MacBook hooked up to my HDTV. Now if only Apple had cared that was an obvious issue back when they released the MacBook in the first place…
Apple released a firmware update Wednesday for owners of 2009 unibody 17″ MacBook Pros meant to resolve issues with Nvidia graphics processors that have been causing display anomalies for some users.
Reports on March 6 described complaints related to the Nvidia GeForce 9600 graphics processor in new 17″ MacBook Pros that were causing lines to appear all over some users’ notebook displays, as reported in Apple support threads and in comments to Cult of Mac’s original post.
The firmware update released Wednesday applies only to 2009 model 17″ MacBook Pros. Users wishing to apply the firmware fix should consult Apple documentation for information on how to apply the update.
Let us know in comments whether the firmware solves the problem.
After a decade of being the clear leader driving market trends in computing, Apple’s influence could wane in the post-Steve Jobs era, according to a thoughtful piece posted Tuesday at TG Daily.
Industry analyst Rob Enderle describes Apple’s amazingly diverse impact on wider market trends:
* The iPhone immediately became the gold standard for mobile phone manufacturers, resulting in an explosion of new devices and innovation across every mobile software platform;
* Apple created integration between power and graphics in computer processors that would not have been possible without the company’s commitment to OpenCL, a framework for writing programs that execute across CPUs and GPUs;
* Apple’s focus on design and higher margins resulted in the introduction of products such as the recently released Dell Adamo, a PC notebook designed and marketed to emulate Apple’s attention to every detail from the packaging inward, down to the absence of stickers promoting Microsoft Windows and Intel;
* The elegance of the user experience in Mac OS X virtually doomed OEMs’ embrace of Linux to a competition not with Apple but with Windows, an outcome which will affect the introduction of Google’s Android when it comes to market next year as well.
In short, Enderle writes, “Apple is at the core” of all recent change in the computer industry, that “as a result Apple’s efforts, the products we will see from a variety of vendors will be vastly more amazing than they otherwise would have been.”
None of the above is really subject to debate. Enderle goes on to question whether Apple can keep it up in the post-Jobs era, however, and this writer disagrees. Follow the jump to find out why.
Apple has confirmed the existence of a proprietary chip in the on-cord controller of the company’s headsets that began shipping with the new iPod Shuffle announced last week, but the chip itself serves no “authentication” function and will not prevent third party headset manufacturers from producing headsets that work with Apple’s music player, according to company spokespersons.
The chip will be required for headsets wishing to bear the “Made for iPod” licensing certification for accessories that work with iPods, however. Apple has thus created a new revenue stream and extended “Made for iPod” certification to headphones/remotes, accessories that were not previously required to be certified as “Made for iPod”.
So while there is no DRM in the chips themselves, third-party headset manufacturers who want their products to be sold in Apple Stores and / or to be regarded as competitive, are likely to feel pressure to pay for the chips and obtain the “Made for iPod” certification.
The proprietary chips will cost manufacturers less than $1, bundled with a $2 microphone, according to one report.
A tiny authentication chip in the headset with on-cord control shipped with the just-released iPod shuffle is raising concerns among some that Apple will extort licensing fees from third-party headset manufacturers who wish to make headsets compatible with Apple’s new music playing devices.
First reported Friday in a review of the new shuffle at iLounge, the authentication chip was then derided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as Apple’s attempt to invoke the Digital Millennium Copyright Act not to stop piracy, but to impede competition and innovation.
Saturday night, Boing Boing Gadgets posted pictures of the curious chip, along with a thoughtful piece pondering whether Apple’s engineering really amounts to DRM: “For all we know, it could be something the FCC made them put in so that it doesn’t interfere with whalesong.”
The EFF raises a great point, actually, wondering why more reviewers have not seized on Apple’s proliferating instances of hardware DRM: “If it were Microsoft demanding that computer peripherals all include Microsoft “authentication chips” in order to work with Windows (or Toyota or Ford doing the same for replacement parts), … reviewers would be screaming about it.”
In the final analysis, however, if Apple is in fact, as Boing Boing put it, “attempting to eat the headphone industry whole,” the company will lose. Consumers have the last vote and to the extent it may seem Apple products are stifling competition, raising prices and limiting choice, Apple’s tiny devices will go unsold.
There are already many many alternative music players on the market for consumers to choose from – some of the best even made by Apple itself – making the new shuffle a stillborn product if consumers perceive an inability to use it as they see fit.
Back in December we wrote about a potential land-mine of problems for owners of new MacBook Pro 15″ notebooks, related to possibly defective NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics processor chips that Apple may have knowingly shipped with some units in 2008.
So far, the major storm speculated about by the Inquirer in that report does not appear to have manifested. But new reports Friday regarding some threads in the Apple support forum indicate that some owners of the new MacBook Pro 17″ model are complaining about a persistent graphics issue related to the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 chip included in those machines.
Recently some NVIDIA notebook GPUs began failing that were used in many notebook computers from Dell and Apple among others. The GPU failures ultimately led to a lawsuit being filed against NVIDIA by some affected notebook owners.
The current issue manifests in green lines that appear all over the notebook screen. More than one user is having the same exact issue, even on new notebooks. The error appears to be limited solely to the 9600M GPU. At this point, if a replacement is needed for the GPU or a firmware fix will suffice is unknown.
Is your new MacBook Pro 17″ giving you graphics fits? Let us know in comments below.
