Rumor: Apple netbook-tablet-thingie in October

musicalwoods

#1 – 8:38 AM July 13, 2009

Why hasn't a slate with an Atom processor come out yet? Sure it's a niche market, but when you are the only one occupying the niche, you're still in a pretty good spot.

Well, there's the CrunchPad, Touch Book, and now this rumor. I suppose they will be out eventually...

musicalwoods

#2 – 8:40 AM July 13, 2009

Oh, and I know that the Touch Book is based of a BeagleBoard, and this rumor (if it comes true) would most likely be based off the processor in the 3GS.

bardfinn

#3 – 9:58 AM July 13, 2009

musicalwoods: Designers of cell phones and other "appliance" mobile computers are forgoing the Atom because -- while it is quite good at power consumption as compared to a desktop or server CPU in and of the CPU itself -- the ARM CPU platforms as a package are far and away the winner for power budgets.

The Atom is a power-sipping but fully-fledged x86, and the chipsets that support them are off-the-shelf notebook chipsets, not designed for very low power budgets - ARM CPUs are customised for their power budgets and the chipsets built around them are designed for low power consumption as well.

Clay

#4 – 10:30 AM July 13, 2009

This could be one of two very different products. Will it be:

A) An x86-based device running OS X

B) An ARM-based device running iPhone OS

The former would have to be stylus-based -- OS X is not currently and is way more than just a few tweaks away from being finger-friendly. And somehow, as useful as a stylus can be, I just don't quite see Steve Jobs liking the look of it in 2009.

The latter would require a major rethinking of the iPhone UI. They can't just expand the home screen grid: Would you want to try and find an app in a grid of 64 icons? And does it run iPhone apps? Maybe in little draggable windows? Actually, that could be pretty cool.

michaelportent

#5 – 10:33 AM July 13, 2009

I'm sorta excited about this, but I think I'll wait 'til version 2.0 when it does hit. I was an early adopter with the iPod Touch and my battery life is just plain awful.

Apple tends to really screw up batteries on the laptop and mobile scene the first time around on any product.

To me, a netbook or tablet from Apple is a perfect way for them to strangle AT&T into providing built-in 3G for them and firming up that relationship for the next half-decade beyond what they've already done with the iPhone.

Anonymous Anonymous

#6 – 12:39 PM July 13, 2009

I would assume this would run a third "OS" that combined features from OS X and iPhone OS - but be built for ARM. After all, they just rewrote the OS X Finder in Cocoa and I believe made it resolution-independent; so they may just throw a version of Finder and other OS X libraries on top of the iPhone kernel, and make XCode able to build outside applications for ARM.

Secret_Life_of_Plants

#7 – 11:59 PM July 13, 2009

Kind of sounds like a feminine sanitary napkin. I hope they come up with a better name.