Apple tablet (Newton); iPhone voice memos; UK launch info

[AppleInsider]

A prominent gadget blog on Tuesday cited manufacturing sources as saying that Apple is indeed working on some kind of tablet handheld. Meanwhile, references to an iPhone voice memo feature are making the rounds (again). And iPhone will be available at over 1,300 retail locations in the UK this Friday, Apple says.

Asustek lending hand with Apple tablet?

Editors for the UK edition of CNet's Crave blog are throwing their weight behind rumors that Apple is working on some kind of Mac OS X-based tablet computer to be introduced in the not too distant future.

Citing sources at a recent dinner party, the publication claims that Taiwanese contract manufacturer Asustek -- which is already responsible a large slice of Apple's notebook production -- is helping the Cupertino-based company build its new handheld.

"We checked back with our source at Asus on a different day and they confirmed that the Apple Tablet will not be based on existing Asus designs such as the R1," the report states. "It will come from a completely new blueprint, possibly based on the patent Apple filed back in May 2005."

The remainder of the Crave report is speculative, though it should be noted that AppleInsider believes the design in question is one and the same with the Netwon reincarnation detailed earlier this year.

iPhone voice memos

When Apple releases a new version of iTunes, most folks tend to install the software and move on. There are, however, those few who instead rifle through the application's resource files for the greater good of the Apple rumor community.

This was again the case with this week's release of iTunes 7.5, in which one MacRumors forum member discovered some curious text strings related to iPhone disk use and iPhone voice memos -- two features not yet available on the handset.

"4320.073" = "Enabling the iPhone for disk use requires manually ejecting the iPhone before each disconnect, even when automatically syncing music.";

"4320.082" = "The iPhone “^1” contains new voice memos. Would you like to move these voice memos to your iTunes library?";

The findings have received considerable attention on some of the more prominent gadget blogs, though it should be noted that AppleInsider forum members had previously discovered the same strings alongside the release of iTunes 7.3. So while such features may still be forthcoming, references to them have been lingering in iTunes for a few months now.

UK iPhone at 1300 locations this Friday

Meanwhile, Apple on Tuesday issued a formal press release hyping this Friday's impending iPhone launch in the UK.

"iPhone will go on sale this Friday, November 9 at 6:02 p.m. at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse retail and online stores," the company said. "iPhones will be available at more than 1,300 Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse retail locations across the UK, giving customers their first chance to get their hands on this revolutionary new product."

As part of the release, O2's sales director Mark Stansfeld also confirmed the retail staff expansion reported Monday night.

"O2 stores are fully geared up for what will be the year’s biggest product launch," he said. "We’ve hired and trained hundreds of new iPhone specialists who will be in all 450 O2 stores giving live demos and showing customers how to get the most out of their iPhone."

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Fishyesque]

I WANT ONE NOW.
Yay for tablet rumors!!

[TheKid2020]

Lets hope it is more than just a rumor!

[melgross]

If Apple does come out with a tablet, hopefully something small, it will be a definite purchase, even though we will be buying three new Macs shortly after MacWorld's announcements.

It would finally make the idea of WiFi at home, something useful.

[crees!]

How about some voice recognition, Apple?

[Ireland]

News-flash, the iPhone is the Newton. This tablet will be a Mac we hope.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Citing sources at a recent dinner party, the publication claims that Taiwanese contract manufacturer Ausustek -- which is already responsible a large slice of Apple's notebook production -- is helping the Cupertino-based company build its new handheld.

"We checked back with our source at Asus on a different day and they confirmed that the Apple Tablet will not be based on existing Asus designs such as the R1," the report states. "It will come from a completely new blueprint, possibly based on the patent Apple filed back in May 2005."

How often does Apple base their product on an existing third (party) product like that? At the very least, they make significant changes such that the lineage is not recognizable.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Ireland

News-flash, the iPhone is the Newton. This tablet will be a Mac we hope.

I hope it will be more of a combination.

I'm not so sure that even Apple can do too well with a full size tablet.

I really believe that the future for tablets will be something fairly small, and easy to carry around, without carrying it by hand, or in a case over one's shoulder.

Something about the size of the original Newton, but with modern (boy, how fast the term changes meaning!) technology, so that it will be thinner, and lighter, seems about the biggest that people will want to take with them.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

How often does Apple base their product on an existing third product like that? At the very least, they make significant changes such that the lineage is not recognizable.

The whole story makes one wonder what those people were thinking when they discussed this in the first place. Whatever happened to NDA's?

[lookingglass]

Well if it's true let's hope Apple doesn't cripple it or block hacking and 3rd party apps.

[Fishyesque]

I too think that it will be a mac.
It better be.

[Timon]

iPhone vioce recording, who cares, I want VOICE DIALING!

[Clive At Five]

Originally Posted by Ireland

News-flash, the iPhone is the Newton. This tablet will be a Mac we hope.

Hey, I full-heartedly agree with Ireland for once.

If anyone here tries to convince me that there's room for an iPhone with a bigger screen, I'll push them down an elevator shaft.

Apple's computing devices from least powerful to most powerful (on a CPU level):

PDA Level: iTouch / iPhone,
Ultra-Portable Mobile Computing Level: Tablet / MacBook Mini
Low to Medium-Low-End Computing Level: MacBook / MacMini
Medium-Low to Medium Computing Level: MacBook Pro / iMac
Medium to Medium-High-End Computing Level: (huge gap [hmm... what goes here...])
Medium-High to High-End Computing Level: MacPro / Xserve

It interesting that for each tier of processing power, there's a slightly more portable model and a less portable model.

-Clive

[grifmx]

Medium to Medium-High-End Computing Level: (huge gap [hmm... what goes here...])

This medium level should be a beefed-up Mac mini combined with Apple TV with one PCI-type slot, eSata out, 4 gigs Ram, faster bus, DVI and HDMI out, huge hard drives, and slightly larger airflow encloser.

2008 is the 'real' year of HD with Blu Ray and HD DVD coming way down in price (as well as big screen TVs.

I want to finally set up a living room media instead of letting my kids scratch up all my movies so they won't play anymore! But I don't want a Apple hobby toy (Apple TV) in my living room, I want the whole computer! surf web, watch HD movies, buy music, play online games on bigscreen with my kids, etc.

If Apple would produce an ultra portable as well as a beefy cute home media center computer, the world would be theirs!!!! And so would the money in my wallet!

[zunx]

A New Newton using current technology and running the FULL Mac OS X will be awesome. Imagine the ultimate wireless presentation remote for our University. No need to carry a bulky laptop for Keynote and PowerPoint presentations. Whare to order thousands?

[Fishyesque]

This year has gone by so fast, I'm so excited for the next one. I'm really excited to see what this tablet is like, along with an ultraportable.

[coolfactor]

With the new standard sidebar in Leopard, Mail should be the application that receives voice memos, not iTunes, when using a Mac.... wouldn't it be great to have a "Devices" section in the Mail sidebar that shows the iPhone when its connected (wirelessly or wired)?

Mail needs voice features, period.

It just makes sense.

[Clive At Five]

Originally Posted by grifmx

Medium to Medium-High-End Computing Level: (huge gap [hmm... what goes here...])

This medium level should be a beefed-up Mac mini combined with Apple TV with one PCI-type slot, eSata out, 4 gigs Ram, faster bus, DVI and HDMI out, huge hard drives, and slightly larger airflow encloser.

I'll meet you at the PCI slot, faster bus, and DVI out... but as soon as we start treading on HDMI, you tread on the AppleTV... which is okay by me, but not okay be Apple. Apple wanted every single one of its products to be uni-taskers.

A reasonable machine that I could see Apple no having a problem with is as follows:

1. Desktop-Class processor (and appropriate bus-speed)
2. 2 PCI slots (one for graphics)
3. 2 optical bays (one loaded w/ Superdrive)
4. 2 3.5" HDD bays (one loaded @ ~500GB)
5. up to 8GB RAM

*sigh* Will Apple ever listen? I don't want an overgrown Laptop (iMac). I want a DESKTOP. Good grief, Charlie Brown.

And I want a tablet to go with it. That's my killer-combo.

-Clive

[kcdstudios]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

With the new standard sidebar in Leopard, Mail should be the application that receives voice memos, not iTunes, when using a Mac.... wouldn't it be great to have a "Devices" section in the Mail sidebar that shows the iPhone when its connected (wirelessly or wired)?

Mail needs voice features, period.

It just makes sense.

Interesting....So what I think I hear you describing is some sort of voice...mail feature.

Sounds revolutionary!

You heard it here first!

kcd

[crentist]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

With the new standard sidebar in Leopard, Mail should be the application that receives voice memos, not iTunes, when using a Mac.... wouldn't it be great to have a "Devices" section in the Mail sidebar that shows the iPhone when its connected (wirelessly or wired)?

Mail needs voice features, period.

It just makes sense.

Only if Mail were offered as a download for our PC friends as well, which it won't be. Apple has to manage all iPod/iPhone functions/content from iTunes because the experience needs to be similar cross platform. Now an interesting idea would be for Mail to automatically have access to voice memos just like notes/todos are system-wide.

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by melgross

It would finally make the idea of WiFi at home, something useful.

I couldn't let that one slip by...

I am certainly interested in seeing what dem at Apple are working on tablet wise, but I think it is a stretch to imply that it will take a new product to make home WiFi useful! 4.5 years with WiFi now, and I would just as soon go with out refrigeration or indoor plumbing as give up my wireless...

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by Ireland

News-flash, the iPhone is the Newton. This tablet will be a Mac we hope.

"The iPhone is the Newton... the Newton is the iPhone! The iPhone is a Mac!"
(with apologies to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective)

[pmjoe]

Originally Posted by crentist

Only if Mail were offered as a download for our PC friends as well, which it won't be. Apple has to manage all iPod/iPhone functions/content from iTunes because the experience needs to be similar cross platform. Now an interesting idea would be for Mail to automatically have access to voice memos just like notes/todos are system-wide.

What happens with contacts, calendar, notes on the iPhone when connected to a Windows PC? I don't see why they couldn't hook voicemail into the Apple Mail program, and just tell Windows users: too bad, so sad, but you have to use OS X for that.

[Frank777]

From the article at http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39...9293967,00.htm

So, can Apple turn the Tablet PC into a success when previous attempts have failed? The short answer is 'yes'. Any company that can make a mobile phone with no buttons, no picture messaging, slow Web access and no video capture into the most desirable phone on the planet can easily make tablets popular.

You really can't argue with logic like that.

[pmjoe]

Ahhhh ... an Apple Tablet. I'll take 3 today please. Unfortunately, if we don't see these in the next week or so, I'll be forced to buy something else ... but I'll save a spot for one for myself.

Come on Apple, get these out before Thanksgiving to capitalize on holiday sales! Unfortunately, this is probably one of those things that won't make sense until the iPhone/iPod touch/iTablet SDK is available.

[Fishyesque]

Sorry, but expect tablets towards the end of 08.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

I couldn't let that one slip by...

I am certainly interested in seeing what dem at Apple are working on tablet wise, but I think it is a stretch to imply that it will take a new product to make home WiFi useful! 4.5 years with WiFi now, and I would just as soon go with out refrigeration or indoor plumbing as give up my wireless...

I find even "n" to be so slow as to be aggravating. I wired my house with 1G Ethernet a few years ago, and going back from that seems to be a crime.

If you got speeds that were even close to what WiFi advertises itself to have, that would be one thing—but it doesn't. not even close.

To give you an idea, look at this recent review of some "n" routers, including Apple's. Pay attention to the numbers, and realize that I get over ten times the speed at the worst of times. remember that I'm not talking just about some laptop in the living room accessing the internet. I'm talking about four computers on a network, with two network printers attached as well.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardw...er-roundup.ars

[Fishyesque]

How much did it cost to do what you did?

[nofear1az]

How many times do we hear this tablet thing? I thought the iPhone would be enough to satisfy the tablet fanatics....guess, it wasn't long enough.

[vinney57]

Hell. I really advise everyone to dig out KORMAC's old posts if they are still around.He was 100% on the nose, just four years early.

Not a tablet but a Newton-sized device; 8in screen I would think. Jan 08.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Fishyesque

How much did it cost to do what you did?

The cost of the cable, connectors, etc. I already have the tools and the network testing equipment, though you really don't need that.

I'd say, other than for the router and 8 port Gigabit switch, about $100.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by vinney57

Hell. I really advise everyone to dig out KORMAC's old posts if they are still around.He was 100% on the nose, just four years early.

Not a tablet but a Newton-sized device; 8in screen I would think. Jan 08.

No one is right until the product is out for all to see.

So far, I don't see any product.

[AtomicPunk]

You know, to be quite honest. As much as I think the idea of an Apple Tablet is good idea, especially with the iPod Touch and iPhone now playing a role in ascending this concept to a new level. I just have to say... right now... I just don't give a F*ck. I've been wanting to purchase a new Mac Pro with Dual Quad Penryn processors, yet not have to pay the top tier price of the current Dual Quad Core... I am getting really annoyed at having to wait this long to make this happen. I am burning up here, in angst.

With this in mind, of course, it would be nice to have it this year, as I would like the write off for taxes.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by grifmx

Medium to Medium-High-End Computing Level: (huge gap [hmm... what goes here...])

Why does this kind of post have to get into so many threads that's unrelated to that?

I think there is room for such a product, but I don't think there's room for being irritating about wanting one.

[Clive At Five]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Why does this kind of post have to get into so many threads that's unrelated to that?

I think there is room for such a product, but I don't think there's room for being irritating about wanting one.

Sorry, I started it. Subtlely, yes, but it was my fault. Don't blame poor grifmx.

shame, shame, double shame; everybody knows my name.

-Clive

[Rolo]

We've had tablet rumors for ages but the latest rumor of a Mac tablet 1.5x larger than an iPhone makes sense. Having a screen size of 720 x 480 would let a palmtop Mac use some Apple and third party apps. It could also have an iSight, mic and speaker for use with iChat for text messages, audio and video chats. It'd also have WiFi and Bluetooth, a virtual keyboard, and Multitouch.

Since computer sales in Japan are declining in favor of devices like this, and the fact that could become a worldwide trend, this Mac tablet would be ideal.

There is an Intel platform, Menlow, that would be ideal for this little beast. Based on the 45nm Silverthorne processor, it's due in H1'08. Even better is the integrated system-on- chip platform due a year later called Moorestown. It, too, uses the 45nm process but the entire platform consists of two chips and would provide the power of a desktop PC in something the size of an iPhone. WiFi, graphics, CPU and memory controller are all integrated.

If Apple is going to have a tablet Mac early next year just 1.5x larger than an iPhone, it'd have to either use Intel's Menlow or a multi-chip ARM-based chipset like the iPhone uses. Moorestown could be the basis for a future iPhone and tablet in 2009. At least that'd Steve Jobs something to talk about at MWSF 2009 which is only 14 months away.

[Ireland]

10 or 11" screen-size is the obvious sweet-spot for this thing. Any smaller and you'd rather carry an iPhone, cause it fits in your pocket, "and" any smaller and the screen would be too small to be Mac productive. If you don't mind carrying around a 7-9" tablet, as you can't fit it in your pocket, you may as well make it 10-11" and make it way more useful. And if it's any bigger you may as well just get a notebook.

My dream portable is an 11" Mac touch, not that I've said this before or anything

Oh, and dream desktop is a 24" 2.8Ghz iMac, oh yeah, I've got one of those

[SpinDrift]

Not that I would buy an iPhone from 02 (I'm an Apple store kind of guy), I popped in today and I was greeted by some camp spectacle that shouted "aright" across the room, not even bothering to get off his back side. When I asked if they had any more information on the iPhone yet he said "have you been like on the 02 website? That's where all the info is, it's all on the internet." "So you don't know anything then?" I replied. His camp jaw dropped and a hand went on his hip. He didn't say anything else.

Is this the kind of hideous service we are to expect from 02?

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by JeffDM

Why does this kind of post have to get into so many threads that's unrelated to that?

I think there is room for such a product, but I don't think there's room for being irritating about wanting one.

I'm not sure I agree with this.
I can certainly see that in the discussion or speculation of the introduction of an entirely different class of Apple product, it would make sense, at some point, to consider the range of offerings by said company, and even percieved holes in said lineup. I thought the mention here was appropriate.

Now, I do get tired of the "Apple had better introduce X,YorZ by MacWorld or am going to buy a Dell, dump my Macs out the window, and sell all my shares" sort of post. But this post I found well considered and informative.

I got your back on this one, Clive--Don't apologize!

Originally Posted by Clive At Five

Sorry, I started it. Subtlely, yes, but it was my fault. Don't blame poor grifmx.

shame, shame, double shame; everybody knows my name.

-Clive

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

I'm not sure I agree with this.
I can certainly see that in the discussion or speculation of the introduction of an entirely different class of Apple product, it would make sense, at some point, to consider the range of offerings by said company, and even percieved holes in said lineup. I thought the mention here was appropriate.

I don't understand how you think that, because the subject of a "mid-range tower Mac" has been beaten to death, buried, exhumed then beaten again, buried, exhumed then beaten again. On every thread that's even slightly tangentially related. News of a new iMac, we get xMac bitching or wishing. The same with a MacBook story. The same with the mini.

Not only that, it's getting away from the intended thread subject which would have been a completely different part of the product line. It's just getting old. I think anyone that's reading this site for any more than a week would know about this gap in the product line.