Apple Tablet details appear

Apple Table details appear


Apple tablet due in Feb. with PA Semi chip, 3G?




Apple's frequently rumored tablet received more details on Tuesday with an apparent leak of production plans. Taiwan's Economic News claims the touchscreen hardware is now slated for February and that companies will start shipping parts in December. The publication reiterates the presence of a near 10-inch touch display but now insists the tablet will be based on a custom processor (likely ARM-based) from recent acquisition PA Semi and will use HSDPA for its 3G access, likely putting it on AT&T's network.
The unidentified industry sources also give the unit a "long lasting" battery and a price point somewhere between $799 and $999. Clues to Apple's expectations for sales come from the number of parts in demand: the battery manufacturer, DynaPack, is reportedly expected to make about 300,000 batteries a month, translating roughly to a similar amount of tablets.

Existing suppliers like Wintek (which provides iPhone and iPod touchscreens) as well as power equipment supplier Mag. Layers Scientific-Technics are said part of the production effort.

The accuracy of the report is uncertain, although it's consistent with stories of an early 2010 release and a device that uses a variant of OS X iPhone rather than a desktop platform. It does partly conflict with rumors of a Verizon media pad deal and, for both to be true, would require either a separate version with EVDO-based 3G or else one with multi-mode 3G, such as in Qualcomm's Gobi chipset.

Via Electronista

 

So no physical keyboard?

 

Doesnt seem to have one.
Perhaps we are looking at a larger more powerful iPhone type device with same touch kb???

 

Check out this:
http://designplanning.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/macbook_tablet1.jpg
Something like that image? (it is too large to place here...)

 

Exactly! Just more speculation and rumour, nothing more.

 

Indeed. But it would be interesting...wouldnt it?

 

I think the biggest question is will it run full mac os or not!

 

I'd rather focus my attention on getting excited about real product releases.......not every new tablet rumour that someone stirs up because they're bored.

 

Oh....you just killed my fun. I would have enjoyed this product.
And secretly trying to un-bias from all the ATI news I always post...

 

ARM + iphone OSX? If that holds true, I'm not sure if that would warrant $1k for a tablet.

 

It is unlikely it will run the iPhone OSX. It takes considerable effort to scale the UI to a 10" screen. The Mac OSX makes more sense from a programmer's standpoint, but I am unaware of its full touch capabilities. Adding Touch support is less complicated than scaling a UI.

 

If the rumors are to be believed, it is said that Apple and Jobs in particular has spent years turning the concept into a production ready unit. Lets hope for the best.

 

It needs Windows 7.

 

Then there would be no reason to price gouge the people.

 

Na Vista ftw !

These rumors have been going on for years now, the PA one started over a year ago when apple acquired them.
I even remember about 1 month ago when the whole blogosphere was dead set certain that the tablet was coming at the sept 9 event.
I wonder if this new dead set certain date is just another guy trying to increase page hits on his website?
a

 

LOL

I love it.

 

It needs Win 7 about as much as the general public each need a hole in their head.

 

This.
This is what people are missing.

 

Me thinks if Apple were to seriously make a tablet, that it would have a physical keyboard. Or at least a way so that you don't have to hunch over to see the screen while typing. It would be cool to have a two-screen system, in which the keyboard is a touch-enabled screen by itself. Think clam-shell style without the physical keyboard.

 

heh, I like it.

I think if it does materialize, there's always the ability (at least I'm sure it'll be there) to connect Apple's BT keyboard and mouse to it. I think a physical keyboard would take away a lot from the aesthetics potential IMO.

 

a clamshell? I dont see that even possible, having 2 multitouch screen...one being a KB, why not the actual and phisical KB?

 

Yeah having two multitouch screens would be cool but would be too costly, however I do agree having to hunch over all the time to type etc would be tiresome, maybe they will provide a super sleek apple stand for typing with the bluetooth kb

 

I don't see them making a clam shell. THAT would increase the price by a bajillion dollars.

Edit:

Who is this guy?? A dual booting system? With two flavors of OSes? Yeah, TOTALLY sounds like something Apple would do.

It would be much easier to setup OSX on a multitouch tablet than scaling the iPhone OS to the tablet.

 

I dont know. But the thing is that a touch KB is not likely on a separate screen, too expensive. On the other hand, and iphone'ish KB is doable.

 

i think it'll be a very good product because it will be able to run mac os x and windows. i hope that apple does not go with its 9400m in there because this will heat up considerably. an intel graphics will be enough for tablet users.

 

For the ones who said an ARM+OSX cannot work.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/09/16/arm.preps.2ghz.cortex.a9/
ARM at Cortex-A9 Architecture at 2.0GHz Dual Core CPU using, according to them 0.25W per core.

 

or tegra...

 

Isn't this just an amped up ARM processor?

I don't think the big question was whether an ARM processor is up to the task of running OSX. The big question IMO is recompiling the OS. And the device drivers. And the Apps. Granted, they could run it all on an emulator, but that would be especially taxing, wiping out the benefits of the ARM processor.

Now if they use the iPhone OS, this isn't as big of a problem. They just have to scale everything to a 10" screen, which isn't as hard, but still not easy.

But that might explain why they've been working on this thing for years.....

 

THIS is the biggest load of horse $hit I've ever heard!

 

That is interesting, but I still question if even a Dual Core ARM processor would be powerful enough.

 

That Atom and ARM post on those forums does not sound to credible to me...this thing is thin enough, and you want to cramp in 2 CPUs?

 

I think it makes sense. ARM uses so much less power but isn't very powerful... you have the benefits of both in one device. You can have a OS X tablet and and iPhone OS media tablet - in one device.

 

It's not going to happen. Apple will not stick two CPUs into their tablet (whenever they finally push it out the door) because doing so will increase the price, which they know will have to keep down if they want it to succeed.

If anything, the tablet will be able to virtualize the iPhone OS in order to run iPhone apps or even something like Rosetta to get the job done.

 

lol the problem with that is that it won't all fit in one device!

 

and if it is as thin as it is supposed to be, 2 cpus, plus the IGP, RAM, HDD, USB ports...

Unless...ARM CPU, Tegra Android Platform, SD Card instead of HDD, integrated RAM, and those mini-USB ports...???

 

Thing is, making a device with both in one is less expensive than making two separate ones.
An Atom + graphics chip somehow fit into a thin 9.6" netbook. And compared to that, an ARM SOC and accompanying chips take no space at all.

I find it believable... it doesn't need to be wafer thin.

 

Perhaps, but it also makes it more expensive than a single device.

I find it laughable.

 

Where do people come up with these ideas.........

I don't see the benefits of stopping your workflow, rebooting your device, and continuing your workflow on another OS. It is bad enough when your internet cuts out and interrupts your workflow. But when the system design forces your interaction model into this stop and go BS...........

After hearing that idea, I now find it more believable that Apple would actually force iPhone app developers to now scale their apps to a 10" screen.

 

I agree with surfasb. It is pointless to have a device that makes you boot up again in order to swap CPU, if there were two, and changing Os would not work either, it makes you stop everything you were doing, and start over? No thanks.

That is a FAIL in my books.

 

If you'd read that post fully - they talk about both system running alongside each other, and you switch which has control over the display with a button.

 

Wow, even better. Instead of circuitry and software that supports both OSes, you need the circuitry and software to support both OSes SIMULTANEOUSLY.

So which OS would you use, the one which doesn't multitask, or the one that does. Seriously, think it over, cause someone else apparently hasn't.

Which OS should you use? The one that has entire functions dedicated to cellular functions, or the one that wasn't designed to be used on a phone. Do people seriously think this through?

 

Clearly you should already know the answer to this question!