[jonKranked]

Ok for us nerds, the rumor mill is in full effect. Apple is supposedly holding an event on January 26th, and supposedly this supposed event is going to launch Apple's Tablet.

Sweet. Finally. A major player is going to introduce a real tablet computing device, and will unleash the hounds of all its competitors.

And all the rumored specs and features sound great and dandy. Almost.

Problem #1: Running iPhone OS. lol wut? For a device rumored to have more (and more powerful) features than their smartphone, this leaves me wondering what the advantage is, other than a physically larger device. Yea, sure, it'll be easier to type on. But from a consumer perspective, this and the iPhone may cannibalize each other. Granted, you can carry the iPhone in your pocket, but with a tablet/laptop/ultraportable web device, what's the need for having a smartphone as well? Clarification: Don't misinterpret this as me questioning the iPhone OS as not being powerful enough to handle better hardware. This is more of a market positioning conundrum.

Problem #2: Price. Rumors are kinda scattered on this, but they all seem to be falling between $700 and a grand. For the kind of functionality this device is rumored to have, this is AB-SURD. Yes, so much so that I hyphenated absurd for dramatic effect. Other rumored competitors have abounded lately as well, but even the priciest (the fabled crunchpad, now JooJoo, pending a legal debacle) is still only $500, and I'm sure this market (tablet devices) is going to line up against the netbook (and may ultimately make netbooks obselete).

 

[4xBoy]

Another ho-hum device that sheeple will go crazy to buy as soon as possible.

 

[stevew]

this was kind of funny....

I can't wait until Steve "Moses" Jobs stands up on stage holding a tablet above his head and throws it into the crowd, scattering the naysayers and non-believers using their crappy $300 netbooks. That will be some sight to see. Then Phil Schiller hands him another gleaming, polished aluminum tablet and Steve smiles at it and cradles it and says something like, "I have just given birth to my baby and the two of us will change the world." The applause and cheers echo throughout Yerba Buena Center for 15 minutes and mankind will have stepped into a new and brighter era equal to when man first stood upright. Yeah, Steve Jobs, CEO of the Millennium, just saved humanity. Salvation at the low cost of $900. A true bargain

eaterofdog's netbook creation is kind of cool.

 

[sanjuro]

Ok for us nerds, the rumor mill is in full effect. Apple is supposedly holding an event on January 26th, and supposedly this supposed event is going to launch Apple's Tablet.

Sweet. Finally. A major player is going to introduce a real tablet computing device, and will unleash the hounds of all its competitors.

And all the rumored specs and features sound great and dandy. Almost.

Problem #1: Running iPhone OS. lol wut? For a device rumored to have more (and more powerful) features than their smartphone, this leaves me wondering what the advantage is, other than a physically larger device. Yea, sure, it'll be easier to type on. But from a consumer perspective, this and the iPhone may cannibalize each other. Granted, you can carry the iPhone in your pocket, but with a tablet/laptop/ultraportable web device, what's the need for having a smartphone as well? Clarification: Don't misinterpret this as me questioning the iPhone OS as not being powerful enough to handle better hardware. This is more of a market positioning conundrum.

Problem #2: Price. Rumors are kinda scattered on this, but they all seem to be falling between $700 and a grand. For the kind of functionality this device is rumored to have, this is AB-SURD. Yes, so much so that I hyphenated absurd for dramatic effect. Other rumored competitors have abounded lately as well, but even the priciest (the fabled crunchpad, now JooJoo, pending a legal debacle) is still only $500, and I'm sure this market (tablet devices) is going to line up against the netbook (and may ultimately make netbooks obselete).

I think it would be a huge fail if you couldn't use it like your iPhone. Almost as much as a fail if you couldn't tether your iPhone into your iTablet.

Tablets is a really funny market. They have never caught on except as a hi-tech clipboard for hospitals, warehouses, etc.

Most on-the-go techies want something smaller, which is why smartphones have taken off.

I got a netbook and I love it, but I'm old fashioned when it comes to portability. When I show it off, most people are impressed with the size except the SF people. They think I'm a luddite going to my typesetting job.

I don't think the netbook is going to disappear because of the tablet. You'd be surprised how many people would struggle with multi-touch gestures, and even then, a keyboard is faster than punching the screen.

 

[eaterofdog]

This is one apple product I'm not very excited about. The dividing line between time waster (like iphone) and work horse has always been a usable keyboard. Don't get me wrong, I love my iphone, I just don't need a giant iphone.

 

[jonKranked]

I think it would be a huge fail if you couldn't use it like your iPhone. Almost as much as a fail if you couldn't tether your iPhone into your iTablet.

Its a tricky position. They can't be too similar, but they can't be too dissimilar.

Something tells me we're gonna see a tethering fail here.

Tablets is a really funny market. They have never caught on except as a hi-tech clipboard for hospitals, warehouses, etc.

I think part of the issue with that was that the technology hadn't caught up with the concept. They needed a physical keyboard to make it practical.

I got a netbook and I love it, but I'm old fashioned when it comes to portability. When I show it off, most people are impressed with the size except the SF people. They think I'm a luddite going to my typesetting job.

I don't think the netbook is going to disappear because of the tablet. You'd be surprised how many people would struggle with multi-touch gestures, and even then, a keyboard is faster than punching the screen.

I absolutely agree, people are gonna be using physical keyboards for a LONG time (even after touch screen tech has gotten up to par). But I don't think this is the niche tablets are going after. It seems its going more for the lower cost web/media/e-reader type of device. Not terribly dissimilar to the netbook - something lower priced and lower powered that does the everyday stuff.

 

[IH8Rice]

Its a tricky position. They can't be too similar, but they can't be too dissimilar.

why cant they be too similar? the Iphone GUI is fantastic and its not like the tablet and Iphone are going to be vying for the same market share

 

[eaterofdog]

But the tablet and the ipod touch seem like they will be very similar, other than size.

 

[jonKranked]

why cant they be too similar? the Iphone GUI is fantastic and its not like the tablet and Iphone are going to be vying for the same market share

Too similar and there's a potential to cannibalize either device. As far as I can tell, the only real difference, functionality wise, is the size of the device. And the fact that one is technically a phone (usb 3g adapter + google voice and it would do the same thing).

Don't get me wrong, I think that the iPhone OS gui is great too. But it just basically seems like a supersized iPhone/iPod touch.

 

[ridiculous]

so to compete with netbooks it will have to have integrated 3G right? Will ATT play nice with this?

Is the plan to basically make a more media friendly large screen device? Perhaps sync with apple tv?

 

[jonKranked]

so to compete with netbooks it will have to have integrated 3G right? Will ATT play nice with this?

Is the plan to basically make a more media friendly large screen device? Perhaps sync with apple tv?

Yea more media friendly, more web-centric. Some netbooks now support playback in full HD.

Take a look at google's Chrome OS. That's the kind of platform that would be ideal for a tablet.

 

[sanjuro]

But the tablet and the ipod touch seem like they will be very similar, other than size.

That's right.

This might suit the urban user, who is taking the train or sitting at a cafe. But what function would a keyboard-less computer have for the home or business user? Besides being an electronic notepad?

The only other appeal is for the E-book readers, but I'm able to read with my Mini without much problem.

 

[jonKranked]

That's right.

This might suit the urban user, who is taking the train or sitting at a cafe. But what function would a keyboard-less computer have for the home or business user? Besides being an electronic notepad?

The only other appeal is for the E-book readers, but I'm able to read with my Mini without much problem.

I think this would make a good coffee table type device. Something to keep around and convenient if you need to look something up on the web, or to travel with for email / web suring and media content.

 

[syadasti]

I think this would make a good coffee table type device. Something to keep around and convenient if you need to look something up on the web, or to travel with for email / web suring and media content.

Like Sanjuro's netbook (also available in tablet form among lots of other iterations) only harder to input text, dirtier screen, and it cost several times more? Seems even less useful than the failed Palm Foleo.

 

[splat]

But the tablet and the ipod touch seem like they will be very similar, other than size.

that was my First thought , just a larger Form factored iTouch

 

[jonKranked]

Like Sanjuro's netbook (also available in tablet form among lots of other iterations) only harder to input text, dirtier screen, and it cost several times more? Seems even less useful than the failed Palm Foleo.

If they hit the price point right, then no, it won't cost several times more. Apple tablet might/probably would.

 

[syadasti]

If they hit the price point right, then no, it won't cost several times more. Apple tablet might/probably would.

Its not a direct competitor in cost or form factor to the average netbook. Somewhere on engadget (probably quoting some other source) they said the average price of netbook sold was around $329. Tablet netbooks cost a bit more than that and aren't popular for many reasons.

 

[syadasti]

Lenovo has a new take on the multitouch tablet, above netbook tablet performance/cost though.

Edit - Wonder if this works any better than schemes from various makers where they have a lightweight OS on another partition and hitting a button on the laptop boots the other OS. SSD, lower power consumption, and a good linux distro could make it a decent improvement compared to things like that for quick access, multimedia, and similar tasks:

LAS VEGAS—All the deficiencies of a slate tablet don't seem so bad when you fuse them with all the functionalities of a laptop; that's exactly what Lenovo did with the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid, which it announced in advance of the CES show here.

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
The U1 Hybrid is a clamshell laptop that splits into two, like the saucer section on the USS Enterprise of "Star Trek": A slate tablet, which runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM CPU and the Skylight Linux interface, when a user is Web surfing and on the move. Dock it back into the clamshell, and it seamlessly switches back to a Windows 7 operating system, running on an Intel Core 2 Duo U4100 processor.

Undocked, the tablet weighs 1.6 pounds. Docked in the notebook form factor, the two weigh a combined 3.8 pounds.

This concept is revolutionary but not the only one of its kind (Freescale has already launched a somewhat similar hybrid prototype, although it lacks the separate processors and operating system). The design allows the U1 Hybrid to have two processors and two operating systems, for maximum flexibility. The 11.6-inch LED-lit display detaches itself from a pod-like vessel that's permanently attached to the bottom half. The slate – docked or undocked – supports two-fingered multi-touch in both Skylight and Windows 7 environments. In the Skylight interface, you have a choice between a 6-panel interface (email, calendar, RSS, social media and bundles services), or a 4-panel one (personal picture, music, video, and document view). It also rotates into landscape or portrait mode.

Both environments also operate under their own hardware specifications. The slate half has an internal 16-Gbyte flash drive, while laptop mode runs on up to a 128-GB SSD. With Windows 7, the laptop uses 4 GB of DDR3 RAM; the Qualcomm ARM processor, on the other hand, is married to 512 Mbytes of DDR1 RAM. And the divisions include separate graphics chips, too: the notebook uses Intel's GMA chipset and the tablet harnesses the Snapdragon integrated graphics.

The two share components, such as the battery, however. The slate can last up to 8 hours on a single charge and 6 hours when docked. And wireless devices such as 3G, WiFi, and Bluetooth are also shared between the two portions. Otherwise, the U1 Hybrid has all of your basic laptop features, including three USB ports (one of which is an eSATA/USB combo port), VGA, HDMI, Ethernet (RJ-45), and a 4-in-1 reader (Multi-Media Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Secure Digital Card).

Before you get too excited, however, know that this innovation doesn't run cheap. The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid starts at $999, which is about the combined cost of a laptop and a smartbook.

 

[eaterofdog]

The tablet will be good for the same thing as the macbook air. IE buy it for half price in 6 months off of some dumbass with too much money and not enough brains.